Sound and lightning

Following my series of Gearhead columns on podcasting, reader Dave Jackson (Philadelphia) wrote to tell me about some useful tools. The first is PodProducer, published for free by Alfredo Romo.

What's cool about this tool is it gives you the ability to mix in audio content on the fly from "decks" (analogous to tape decks) and from "instant play" buttons (reminiscent of the old "carts" or cartridges studios once used). You can mix these audio sources with the standard devices (mic, line and wave) and output to an MP3 file.

PodProducer also supports voice operated recording (which allows recording to begin automatically when the input level reaches a predefined threshold), automatic gain control (which automatically changes the input signal to maintain a uniform sound level), and a compressor (which makes loud and soft sounds closer to the same volume).

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Following my series of Gearhead columns on podcasting, reader Dave Jackson (Philadelphia) wrote to tell me about some useful tools. The first is PodProducer, published for free by Alfredo Romo.

What's cool about this tool is it gives you the ability to mix in audio content on the fly from "decks" (analogous to tape decks) and from "instant play" buttons (reminiscent of the old "carts" or cartridges studios once used). You can mix these audio sources with the standard devices (mic, line and wave) and output to an MP3 file.

PodProducer also supports voice operated recording (which allows recording to begin automatically when the input level reaches a predefined threshold), automatic gain control (which automatically changes the input signal to maintain a uniform sound level), and a compressor (which makes loud and soft sounds closer to the same volume).

I have yet to use PodProducer in earnest but in my fooling around, er, informal testing, it was impressive (rating: 4 out of 5). Definitely worth taking a look at.

Another tool Dave recommended was one I'd heard about but never got around to looking at: PodcastStation. Now it appears I never shall. The company that published the software has decided to call it a day. On its home page it explains the reason (it wasn't making money) and says: "All registered users have been allotted ten additional registration keys, allowing continued installation on a new computer, new hard drive, etc." All of that is great until some poor user runs out of keys or looses them.

If you're a company like the one that produced PodcastStation and you shut your doors, I think the least you can do for your customers is to remove your copy protection scheme and place your software in the public domain. And if you're really smart and ethical you'll place your code in the public domain -- after all, what have you got to loose?

Anyway, one of the other things on my mind of late is lightning. I've written before about early warning systems for bad weather (see my review of Storm Predator), which can be really useful if you live in areas such as the U.S. Tornado Alley. But there's nothing like a close lightning strike to play havoc with your user's PCs.

While Storm Predator is very good it only analyzes and reports on official NextRad radar data. This means that if your locality is blocked from the NextRad system by your local topography or you're in an area of marginal coverage, you might want your own detection and warning system.

A friend just pointed me to some interesting gear that does exactly that: It detects both lightning activity and monitors atmospheric electric fields.

The Boltek EFM-100 Electric Field Monitor ($1,999) "not only detects nearby lightning but can detect the atmospheric conditions which precede lightning. Electric field data is displayed and graphed on your desktop computer using the included software." The EFM can detect lightning up to 24 miles (38 km) away, detect the high electric field conditions that precede lightning, and is "optimized for close lightning to provide the best distance accuracy while ignoring far away lightning."