Monday, October 31, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Features of iTunes

Think of a product, add the letter 'i' to the start of the name and add a zero to the end of the price tag and you've got Apples marketing strategy. Rich from Doncaster is a big fan iTunes, he has compiled his list of the best things that he likes about the software.:-

  • 10 - iMix
  • 9 - Album art
  • 8 - Search / Browse
  • 7 - Burn to CD and DVD
  • 6 - Basic editing
  • 5 - Firefox plug-in
  • 4 - Smart playlists
  • 3 - Podcasts
  • 2 - iPod compatibility
  • 1 - Music store

We would like to give a big thanks to Timothy Allan who has provided us with most of the music for today's show, visit http://timothyallan.com and check out his entire song archive. Timothy is a great musician who is embracing podcasting and supplies all his songs via an RSS feed as he releases them. If you'd like to support and encourage Tim for providing us with his tunes for the show then just drop him a quick hello using the details on his contact page.

Also mentioned in today's show is a campaign to get Microsoft to keep the Orange RSS / XML logo. They are asking the public what they think of some new icon designs for RSS in Internet Explorer 7 - head over to the Microsoft Developers Blog and show your support in keeping the standard RSS.

Last but not least, remember that it's the first of the month tomorrow so please show your support by voting for Top of the Pods at Podcast Alley.



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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Telephone Numbers

Phil from Watford finished using the phone for long enough to compile his list of the Top Ten telephone numbers:-

  • 10 - 9
  • 9 - Childhood phone number
  • 8 - 0800 1111
  • 7 - Your own phone number
  • 6 - 321
  • 5 - 192
  • 4 - Taxi firms
  • 3 - 555-anything
  • 2 - 999, 911 and 112
  • 1 - 018118055

We are so sorry that we have resorted to talking about ten different numbers for show content, if you think you can come up with anything yourself then email topofthepods@gmail.com.


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Tuesday, October 25, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Things If You Are Nearly 40 You Wished For When You Were 8

We know no more about Owen than he is nearly 40 and used to dream for outragous things as a child:-

  • 10 - To be be allowed to wear long trousers to school
  • 9 - A hundred pounds
  • 8 - Long hair not cut short by me Mum
  • 7 - To play striker for Derby County
  • 6 - Knowledge of enough karate to duff up the school bully
  • 5 - Captain Kirk's phaser
  • 4 - A Bond girl (or failing that, one from Benny Hill)
  • 3 - A Ferarri 308
  • 2 - To be able to fly
  • 1 - X-ray specs
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Monday, October 24, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Things To Do In An Elevator

I'm pretty sure that this list has been doing the rounds on the internet in some shape or form, but the fantastic Sean from Chicago sent it to topofthepods@gmail.com and we read it out:-

  • 10 - Stand silent and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.
  • 9 - Say 'Ding!' at each floor.
  • 8 - Smack your forehead and say "Shut up, dammit, all of you just shut UP!"
  • 7 - Bring a chair and desk along and ask if they appointment.
  • 6 - Actually use the elevator normally.
  • 5 - When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.
  • 4 - Announce in a quiet voice: "I must find a more suitable host body."
  • 3 - Break wind and blame it on the person next to you.
  • 2 - Lean against the doors, fall out when the doors open, then moan in pain.
  • 1 - Make explosion noises when anyone presses a button.

Sorry to Daniel from Greece who sent us a similar list in a different order, we'll do one of the other lists you sent us. Rob mentioned a film starring Tony Jaa called 'Ong-Bak' - if you like martial arts movies then this is the business! We'd also like to thank Colin from http://www.podcastlaunchpad.com for writing a great review about us - if you'd like to add your 2 cents worth to the comments board there it would certainly help provide more ideas for first time listeners deciding if they want to subscribe or not.

We asked on today's show for your ideas for the "Top Ten Ways To Spend A Tenner" (a tenner is the average note that you'd expect to find in your wallet) - email the most imaginative thing to topofthepods@gmail.com and we'll do a show out of it soon.


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Thursday, October 20, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten UK Modern Comedians

Tom from Bolton has been thinking long and hard about the current top ten comedians in the UK, something tells us he is going to be bias towards a couple of the guys on this list:-

  • 10 - Dave Spikey
  • 9 - Craig Cash
  • 8 - Paul Merton
  • 7 - Matt Lucas and David Walliams
  • 6 - Ali G
  • 5 - Jonny Vegas
  • 4 - Omid Djalili
  • 3 - Jack Dee
  • 2 - Ricky Gervais
  • 1 - Peter Kay

We have been asked to do The Lance Anderson Podcast Experiment, more details are at www.highblue.co.uk/events.

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TOTP - Top Ten Things People Do The Day They Quit Their Job

New server, new show. Dion from South Africa knows a few people who have lost their jobs and confess what they do on their last day of work:-

  • 10 - Say sorry
  • 9 - Company expense account
  • 8 - Don't arrive for work
  • 7 - Exposing
  • 6 - Doughnuts!
  • 5 - Hot co-workers
  • 4 - Car seat peeing
  • 3 - Cheating workmates
  • 2 - Delete backups
  • 1 - Swear at the boss
We are in the process of moving all our archived shows over to libsyn which will take a few days, if you are missing any old ones then please refer to our website at www.topofthepods.com and use the updated links on there.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Reasons Why I Dont Smoke

Jon feels guilty and Rob feels preachy- all thanks to Emile from Singapore who provides an insight into why he doesn't smoke:-

  • 10 - Menthol light are $11 per pack
  • 9 - Smokers are always begging for a stick
  • 8 - Smokers smell
  • 7 - They look cooler when they get lung cancer
  • 6 - 9 out of 10 smokers wants to quit but only 1 is successful
  • 5 - I ain't weak
  • 4 - Morons contribute to the government
  • 3 - People are trying their best to get in while people who are in it are trying hard to get out
  • 2 - Mommy told me not to smoke
  • 1 - I love myself too much
Anyone having issues with bloggers comments board verification? Can you let us know by emailing topofthepods@gmail.com - we are not sure if things are working or not. By the way this is a repost of the show as a lot of people haven't managed to download it yet due to our server problems.
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Monday, October 17, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Things To Hate About BMWs

SlamIdol Simon from the SlamIdol Podcast found at http://slamidol.tripod.com really doesn't like the BMW, when he isn't scoring exclusive podcasts with Steven Fry he is compiling his top ten hate lists about those pesky automobiles and their upper crust owners:-

  • 10 - Angel Eye Headlamps
  • 9 - M Sticker
  • 8 - Abusing their own numbering system
  • 7 - Ridiculously ugly coupes
  • 6 - 4x4's
  • 5 - Bulbous styling
  • 4 - Hijacking Bond films
  • 3 - Doing the mini better than Austin or Rover did
  • 2 - Holding a mobile driving
  • 1 - Tailgating
Also we mentioned another great Scottish music podcast presented by www.topofthepods.com comments board regular Grant - he does the Three From Leith podcast found at http://www.threefromleith.blogspot.com.
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Monday, October 10, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Software You Cant Live Without

From a web developers perspective these are on the shortlist for peices of handy software that will save you time and wristache, Rob brings you his list of the 10 great bits of software:-

These have all been tried and tested for many hours without any problem, it you get any issues please contact the developers and not us! Email topofthepods@gmail.com with other things though, such as your top ten lists or just to say a nice big hello.

We also mentioned Microsoft Max - http://www.microsoft.com/max - it views your JPEGs in lovely 3D fashion, and a great way to melt your graphics card. The colour picker for web designers is called Pixie and you can download it for free at http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html.

The other thing we talked about was the BBC 'Have Your Say' form - please spend 5 minutes filling this in and you really can drag Auntie into this century.

Follow all the items Jon has for sale on ebay on our comments board, when he's sold his PS2 I'm sure there will be more stuff to follow.


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Wednesday, October 05, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Ways To Become An Absolute Computer Dork

James Gardner sent us this list of the ten ways to spot a computer dork. How well do you score?:-

  • 10 - Have a print out on your wall from Google maps of Cupertino.
  • 9 - Complain to the BBC more than once a week.
  • 8 - Think a duck's quack doesn't echo.
  • 7 - Wear a slashdot T-Shirt on a first date.
  • 6 - Know what yEnc, LAME, BSD, MozDev and OSS are acronyms for.
  • 5 - Tell people about Adam Curry and expect them to be enthusiastic.
  • 4 - Have a gmail account.
  • 3 - Ask the lazy disinterested teenage shop assistant in PC world about Linux just so you can tell them what it is and why you hate Microsoft.
  • 2 - Say "LOL" and "ROFLMAO" in normal conversation.
  • 1 - Never leave the house and have no friends.
Want us to read out your list? Then email it to topofthepods@gmail.com, we'll read it out on http://www.topofthepods.com/. We also talked about http://www.proporta.com/, where you can get 10% off with the magical TOTP10 coupon code. Oh, George Clooney and Micheal Douglas pay a visit too and explain podcasting in their own dignified fashion.

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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Negative Things About The Music Industry

He's Sam, he's 14, he's male, he's from Reading and he's mad. He's mad about the music industry, and who isn't? They charge us English three times the amount that you pay anywhere else in the world for exactly the same load of old tosh:-

  • 10 - Unfair Advertising.
  • 9 - Multiple Greatest Hits Releases.
  • 8 - Reality TV Artists.
  • 7 - Flavour Of The Month Bands.
  • 6 - Great Bands, Rubbish Singer.
  • 5 - Scenesters.
  • 4 - Band Labelling.
  • 3 - The Same Sample/Drum Loop Used On Every Other Song.
  • 2 - High Prices For Downloads.
  • 1 - Image And Controversy.
The two very cheap legal music download web sites mentioned in the show are http://www.mp3search.ru/ and http://www.allofmp3.com/ - you can treat your mp3 player with the money you've saved with these services on some accessories from http://www.proporta.com/ using the coupon code TOTP10 with 10% off. How about a nice pouch, some new retractable headphones or a protective case?

For any Top Ten Google lists please email them to topofthepods@gmail.com and make sure you CC a copy to adsense-adclicks-uk@google.com - they are the google team that strive for control of the web and we are sure they want your feedback on how they can improve things even more. They certainly don't want Top of the Pods included on their internet though. Maybe that should be on your Google list?


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Monday, October 03, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Soldiers You Would Want On Your Side In A Battle

Thanks to Chung from London we have been sent the definitive list of the top ten film soldiers that you want on your side:-

  • 10 - Private Jackson (Saving Private Ryan)
  • 9 - Gunnery Sgt. Tom 'Gunny' Highway (Heartbreak Ridge)
  • 8 - Capt. Virgil "The Cooler King" Hilts (The Great Escape)
  • 7 - Private Hudson (Aliens)
  • 6 - John Patrick Mason (The Rock)
  • 5 - Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Top Gun)
  • 4 - Private Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)
  • 3 - Col. John "Hannibal" Smith (The A-Team)
  • 2 - Major "Dutch" Schaefer (Predator)
  • 1 - John Rambo (Rambo - First Blood Part 2)

As mentioned at the start of this show, today's podcast is recorded in the MP3 Surround Sound Format. To experience the 5.1 surround sound you will need a sound-card with around 6 speakers hanging out of the back and some special software. You can download the mp3 surround player from www.mp3surround-format.com, available for Windows 2000, XP and Mac OS X - you'll also get the WinAmp plug-ins with the Windows version.

The show itself is slightly larger than a regular stereo MP3 of similar quality. Don't worry if you don't own the necessary hardware, you should still be able to listen to the show on your normal mp3 players. This is an experiment and we need your feedback, so please use the comments board on www.topofthepods.com or email us at topofthepods@gmail.com. Remember, you need the hardware, software and original MP3 file - if your podcasting client converts the file into AAC for example then it will loose all the additional surround data, so ensure that the player is using the original file downloaded from our server.

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Saturday, October 01, 2005

TOTP - Top Ten Misconceptions About Australia

This one goes out to Leanne, a workmate of Klaus - the ten things that the rest of the world gets wrong about those lovely Australians:-

  • 10 - The fastest sport in Australia are the koala-bear-races
  • 9 - Kangaroos are used as shopping bags
  • 8 - All men are named Bruce
  • 7 - Every Australian person has its own sheep farm
  • 6 - Instead of formal elections a didgeridoo-contest is held - the winner will be the prime-minister
  • 5 - They have only one category of driving license that includes small planes and road trains
  • 4 - Their army is equipped only with boomerangs
  • 3 - The land is completely flat except Ayers rock
  • 2 - Australia is still a colony of convicts
  • 1 - Australia is a separate continent because they have no real friends
Its October the 1st - we need your support on Podcast Alley - vote for us at http://www.podcastalley.com/one_vote2.php?pod_id=2992. It's free, quick and easy and makes us look good against the big guys in podcasting who get paid for their shows. What do we get? Nout. Not a dickie bird. But you can change all that - please head over to www.proporta.com and claim your 10% discount using TOTP10 - not just if you have a PDA, but they also provide every other accessory for your mp3 player and gaming device. We line up these great offers for you all and we need you to do is buy a christmas present a few weeks early.

Did we mention Mondays show? Its a podcasting first...


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