Latest Episodes

Outtakes, Part 1

Authors: Mobeen, Matthew, Brandon, Aedan, Wayne, Andrew and Jamie
Size: 47.69 MB
Published: Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 19:27:50

Come join us as we celebrate our first birthday by reminiscing about our past year and bringing you some outtakes from some of our early episodes.

DNS

Authors: Brandon, Matthew and James
Size: 26.72 MB
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 00:01:00

We discover the many uses of the Domain Name System.

Digital Recorders

Authors: Aedan, Matthew, Orhan and Brandon
Size: 14.1 MB
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 00:00:56

Some hardware digital recorders are described and compared.

Earlier episodes can be found on our Episodes Page and syndicated at
http://www.vitechpodcast.com/feed.xml
. You can also hear the latest episode by telephone in the US and Canada at 1-650-523-6853.

Latest News

Announcing VITech Live!

Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 00:02:55

Although the episode count doesn't show it, we're very quickly approaching our first birthday. This is a remarkable achievement, particularly considering our near state of closure back in August last year, and we thought that we should celebrate it in some way. After considering a couple of ideas we eventually decided to pursue the possibility of holding a live edition of VITech, called VITech Live!, and we're happy to report that it is extremely likely that this will take place.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a date, time or even a location for this show, although we expect to stream at 18:00 UTC (11:00 AM Pacific, 2:00 PM Eastern and 7:00 PM in the UK) on Saturday, May 31. However, to make this show the best it can be and to decide on a final date and time, we require some feedback from you, the listeners:

Do you like the idea of VITech Live!?
What do you think we should do on the show? For example, talk about VITech's history, talk about how we, the panel, met, demonstrate specific technology?
How long do you think the show should last?
What day and time (also specify Timezone or place of residence) is best for you to listen?
EITHER: Will you be listening via a broadband or dial-up connection to the Internet?
OR: Should we stream in stereo or mono, and at what sample rate/bitrate?
How would you like to interact with the show? I.E. via text or via voice, using what media/programs?

Please send any feedback about VITech live to feedback@vitechpodcast.com or use our contact form. All feedback will be carefully considered when preparing for this show.

We look forward to receiving your feedback and will post another news article with final information closer to the date.

The New Website Is Launched!

Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 00:02:51

Welcome to our new website, which we launched today at a little after 20:00 UTC.

When VITech was launched on June 3, 2007, it was suggested that a simple, single-page website would be satisfactory. As the only code available to us at the time was that of Sean Randall's Technicalish podcast, which was only one page, and we wished to launch as soon as possible, we decided to adopt such a website design. As time progressed, however, we noticed several drawbacks:

The site was becoming very busy and difficult to navigate, mainly due to the fact that show notes were being placed on the main page with the episodes.
The removal of show notes, which was adopted as a temporary measure, was deamed unsatisfactory by all of the regular VITech panelists.
The displaying of MP3 files could not be controled, I.E. as soon as an MP3 file was uploaded, it was made available for public downloading. Indeed, upon moving away from RandyLaptop.com, there were several times when files were being made available prematurely, which lead to various podcast receivers downloading incomplete episodes.
The site did not provide any easy means of expantion. Its design was absolute, and expanding it would have made a busy page even busyer.
The website did not provide any means of contacting individual panelists and only provided basic contact information for VITech itself.
News and announcements could not be obviously placed on the website due to its single-page design and busy nature.
Apart from a drafted Estimated Subscriber Count, the site did not contain any statistical capabilities until the move away from RandyLaptop.com, and the statistical capabilities it did have once the move was complete were very limited. The drafted Estimated Subscriber Count was quickly discarded as it was incapable of recognising logged subscribers that were no longer subscribed.
The feed itself, though RSS 2.0 compliant, did not contain some tags that may be of use to certain people, for example, description.

After considerable work, we are very pleased to announce that our website has been completely redesigned in an attempt to rectify the points above:

We are no longer using a single-page design, I.E. each section of the website is presented on a separate page. All main pages are accessible via a menu at the top of each page. To this end, several new sections have been created, most of which are stated below.
As show notes are now also displayed on separate pages, they are currently in the process of being significantly expanded, including the implamentation of appendices where necessary. Due to time constraints this process is still being undertaken, but it is hoped that it will be complete by the end of April.
The episode display has been re-designed for ease of use and navigation. Specifically, it is now displayed in paragraph, as aposed to tabular, form, with brief descriptions and links to view the show notes underneath the header information. The header information itself has been changed slightly: the file size is now rounded to two decimal places rather than to the nearest whole number and the length header has been removed. Furthermore, the title of each episode is a heading.
A news system has been developed so that announcements such as this can be displayed prominently. This also acts as a record of VITech's history since June 3, 2007.
The home page has been re-designed and now only shows the latest three episodes and the latest three news items, along with some generic information about VITech and how to listen.
A contact form has been created which allows visitors to contact panelists individually and also to contact VITech itself if they prefer to contact us in such a way.
An E-Mail list subscribe/unsubscribe form has been created to allow people to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, our E-Mail list more easily.

Along with our new website, we have now changed our contact information. All of the new details can be found on the Contact Page, but a summary of changes is written below:

Our telephone number, 0700-598-1840, is no longer supported. Though it may still work for the foreseeable future, we do not intend to ensure its continuing upkeep and it may therefore fail to work at any time.
Our E-Mail address, VITechPodcast@GMail.com, has been superceeded by three new addresses: Feedback@VITechPodcast.com, Support@VITechPodcast.com and Webmaster@VITechPodcast.com.
Our VITech Podcast Google Group has been superceeded by a new E-Mail list hosted on the VITechPodcast.com domain, more information about which can be found on our E-Mail List Page.

We hope you have found this news article informative and that it has answered all of your immediate questions. If you would like further information, please feel free to Contact Us and we will be happy to assist.

Listen to Us on the Phone

Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 00:02:47

Curtacy of a new service, Pod Linez, you can now listen to us on the telephone! From within the United States and Canada, simply dial 1-650-523-6853. Note: long-distance charges may apply.

Earlier news items can be found on our News Page and syndicated at
http://www.vitechpodcast.com/news.xml
.

Welcome

Welcome to VITech: technology discussion with the blind in mind.

VITech is a podcast, generally published every Sunday at 19:00 UTC (3:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 PM Pacific) about technology for the blind. However, it differs from many similar podcasts and radio shows as it concentrates on discussion, comparison and opinion.

All of our panelists are knowledgeable about technology; indeed, some of them possess highly recognised qualifications in certain areas, such as Hardware Maintanence, Software Development and Technical Support. Most of our panelists are also blind and have used or experienced the topics being discussed, so their shared opinions are rellevent.

We hope you find this website interesting, informative and possibly even entertaining, and thank you for visiting.

This website and all associated data, including the VITech podcasts and show notes, is copyright 2007 - 2008 the VITech Team. It may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means without express permission from the copyright holders.

This website is hosted by SteelTown Web Hosting and this domain name is registered through Dynadot, LLC.

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