Today I posted a new video I recorded with my HTC Hero, and then edited with Windows Live Movie Maker, catch it on YouTube!

So recently I upgraded my cell phone to the HTC Hero Android Phone (Sprint).

While this isn’t my first phone, that could play MP3 files, its the first one I wanted to replace my Apple iPod nano 8 GB Blue (4th Generation).

This led me to being rather spoiled by the iPod and iTunes, work together. Of the podcast catchers I have experimented with in the past week, none of the them knew how to tell if I had listened to a podcast. This of course makes sense as that isn’t one of the variables the MSDOS file system (which at least my Android uses) knows of.  And while I know there a few good Android Apps that do podcatching, I would prefer that my computer keep my podcasts, and dishes them out to the Android, ala iPod / iTunes.

So here is what I would like to see in a PodCatcher:

Computer side:

• Be able to download regular podcasts
• Be able to download paid podcasts (ie: with login information)
• Generate a simple table to give to the Android based player.

Android (or other phone) side:

• Be able to play MP3 files
• Update simple table for Computer side to check

The table I think is key, currently I try using gPodder to send my music to, the bad thing is it doesn’t know how to tell if I have listened to the episode, its controls are simplistic at best. This means manually updating the client every time I want automatically update it so that it erases the old MP3s. The client on the Android will play the file, and then edit the table (perhaps in SQLite format) so that the next time the computer based side checks it will be able to know which episodes have been listened to.  As another side idea, instead of having it like iTunes used to have it where it was a Yes No toggle of have you listened to it, make it so it can take:

• 0 — haven’t listened to any of it
• 1– started but not finished
• 2– finished

Do you have any comments? Would this type of Open source catcher work?

So on February 6, 2010 I had some kittens. One of them, which was pure black and I was going to name Shadow didn’t survive 24 hours. However her two brothers are now 16 days old, and their eyes are opening.

The one I wasn’t able to get a good shot of, I have chosen to name him Hunter, but the one I did get sort of a good shot of, I have not yet chose a name for.

Here is my best picture of him (he’s the one sorta facing the camera):

And if your interested, here is a picture of Nina, who is over 7 months and 17 days old:

If you have a suggestion as to what to name him, please let me know on Twitter! You can reach me at @chrismoody

So I do have a new camera now, it may not be as nice as the one stolen from me, however it does the job that I need it to. I now have a FujiFilm FinePix J38. While I can’t say I have done a lot with the camera yet, it does work well in what I have asked it to do.

Fujifilm Finepix J38 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD

I have sometimes missed the higher optical zoom from my previous camera, but this is usable.

I previously had found and tried a FujiFilm S1500 from WalMart, however the item was obviously previously used, and locked up a couple of times during use. I was disappointed having to return it, for my purposes it was close enough to the S2000HD that I had previously lost. The only item they had left was the display unit, which obviously did not want.

So recently I had yet another birthday. I decided to do something quiet, and just have a few friends join me for dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants.

This was the restaurant I chose, if your in the mood for a good Bar-B-Que buffet, this is the place I would select in Houston, TX anyways.  I invited several people but only two came:

On the left is Paul E Cooley on the right is one of my neighbor’s Dave. While I had hoped more would come, hence the long table, it wounded up being fun as it was and a good time was had by all.