I recently upgraded the back-end plugin used for the podcast on this site - podPress - and in the process it forgot some of its settings. The result was an interesting loop where you attempt to download audio and get redirected to the site as a whole, so you go click on the audio again and … An email from sgtbenc (from the Stargate Worlds Wiki team) helpfully pointed out the fact and it should now be fixed. Sorry for the glitch.

OK, so I had this phonecall in the middle of the afternoon.

“Hello, guess what’s in the middle of the living room floor?” my wife asked, and you could hear her grinning down the phoneline.

“Ummm, I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” I answered.

“Oh, it’s this large box, shipped from Canada. Your mic has arrived.” she said.

“Did you open it? Is everything present and correct?” I asked.

“It’s your mic - your Christmas present - I thought you could open it when you get home.”

Now, that is going to make anyone’s day - it arrived early and I get to open it before Christmas! So I arrived home in record time, with a spring in my step. After I’d opened the box, poured the million or so packing chips into the trash (*note to self* must write a Stargate story where replicators hide out as packing chips) and checked that everything is present and accounted for what happens? She took it away saying, “Nope, got to wait for Christmas!”

Arrrgh! I was so close. Had it in my hand. Now it’s gone! Can she do that? Isn’t there a law against it or something?

Things will be a little late this week - sorry. Have no fear, episode 5 will arrive in your podcatchers soon!

If you’ve visited my MySpace page you’ll see my status says “having fun with pro audio equipment” with a mood of “excited”. How could I not be? I got me a new toy:

Give a geek his toys, and you make his week!

The tagline ought to say it all:

Gate Buzz: your source for news and buzz surrounding the upcoming Stargate Worlds MMO videogame from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME)

The mission of Gate Buzz is to bring updates as they appear, during the development process and beyond. When the game hits the market, this podcast and associated site will change gear to report things as they happen in-game also.

There’s a difference between news and buzz: news trickles down to the community whereas buzz is the voice of the people, the community. Gate Buzz is here to serve the wider community of Stargate Worlds and as such will maintain an open phone line for listener comments. Phone (206)-984-BUZZ (that is, (206)-984-2899), leave a message and the crew will hear it and you stand a very good chance of your comment being incorporated into an episode, unless you tell us not to broadcast it.

There are plenty of ways to get in touch with Gate Buzz, the best thing to do is contact us via email (gatebuzz [at] gmail dot com). Every email will be read and answered. At different times we will be on Skype, XFire, IRC and the various IM systems, so keep an eye open.

When new shows are produced they will be announced through the Gate Buzz MySpace page, so add me as a friend in MySpace and you’ll hear about things as they happen.

Lastly it is you, the listening audience, that will make Gate Buzz a success. Firstly by letting people know that we’re here. You can link to us, using one of the various banner images. You can let us know the news, gossip and buzz as you hear about it and last, but not least, you could send in an audio clip for possible inclusion in an upcoming episode. We are very interested in hearing from people who want to be part of the crew, putting together episodes, either behind the scenes or as voice talent.

There’s a huge difference between perfect and good enough to do the job. I could easily go on tweaking things here or there to make a website that somehow feels “perfect” but at the end of the day, I think this is pretty much good to go. The podcast and the blog are all up look to be up and running and I really should be focusing my efforts on getting content together! What’s the point of a great looking content delivery engine if there’s no actual content?

So far it looks like the combination of Wordpress as a CMS and podPress as the plugin podcast hosting really have hit the “sweet spot” for me. All I could ask these two have delivered. Way to go guys and gals on each project! Oh, and a shout-out goes to the folks who created the Accessible RSS News Ticker Widget too - just what the doctor ordered!