James Cridland

Passionate about audio · Editor of Podnews https://podnews.net · Host of the Podnews Weekly Review https://weekly.podnews.net · Personal/radio blog: https://james.cridland.net · These messages self-destruct

I also have a thing for craft beer, and did so before it was quite as trendy as today.

I live in Meanjin/Brisbane QLD Australia - in Bardon 4065 - on the land of the Turrbul and Jagera people. I'm British and moved here ten years ago.

Public Key

npub1g5h6rwmps922vx6m3rfj23r9wlkkp9dzrwefuyzfkjktqnfwvxasc9t5sr

NIP-05 Address

james@bne-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy2taphdscz49xrddc35e9g3jh0mtqjk3phv57zpymft9sf5hxrwcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dscx6u2g

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1g5h6rwmps922vx6m3rfj23r9wlkkp9dzrwefuyzfkjktqnfwvxasc9t5sr

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-05-19 12:51:31 UTC

Well, that’s all OK then.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/601/329/295/557/547/original/69db6d596e1e82e2.jpeg

2026-05-14 03:55:03 UTC

Walked into a Coles, everyone's favourite officially criminally-run supermarket.
Good news: they've begun importing fancy M&S biscuits and other things. A bit odd to see them not in an M&S store.
Bad news: the idiots aren't importing Percy Pigs. Are they stupid?

2026-05-13 11:58:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…jnjt Hmm?
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/567/145/900/907/723/original/e727112615b50629.png

2026-05-13 11:39:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…jnjt @nprofile…td70 @nprofile…dcmx @nprofile…cyex @nprofile…dffe @nprofile…7epg "simply"
It's very impressive. I should go in and change the colors to "podnews red" :)

2026-05-13 11:31:17 UTC

- reply

...yikes, it's not very good data, mine, is it? I need to work on that.
@nprofile…td70 @nprofile…jnjt @nprofile…dcmx @nprofile…cyex @nprofile…dffe @nprofile…7epg

2026-05-10 10:15:53 UTC

A quick review of my v cheap DAB+ radio receiver, the DAB-PC1.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/review-dabplus-radio/

2026-05-03 12:18:14 UTC

- reply

And from a DIFFERENT city, where's this? It looks very pretty. Is this Perth? There's a nice wiggly bridge and a kind of island thing in the bay.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/510/601/553/756/629/original/8271014d6ce85e46.png

2026-05-03 12:11:41 UTC

- reply

Here's another angle. The tram has distinctive red arrow markings on the side. Where is this?
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/510/575/832/763/794/original/81ef09e417ff8602.png

2026-05-03 12:10:22 UTC

Australia! For a story I'm writing... where is this? Red trams. Looks like a CBD in front of us, but the tram isn't going there, it's turning a 90-degree left. Very few buildings and a large derelict patch to the left. A river to the right-hand side: this seems to be a small-ish road bridge.
It kind of should be in Adelaide, from the context of the video, but I cannot see a tram track following this path next to the river. Is it in Melbourne? Do trams look like this in Melbourne?
#transport #australia #melbourne #transit
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/510/570/599/345/539/original/252d9daf9a7218f7.png

2026-04-30 03:49:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ys5e I don’t have an issue with paying to enter - good awards cost time and money to organise, judge properly, and mean something. I don’t understand why some parts of podcasting expect people running awards to work for free.
That said; $285 is a lot. The Signal Awards, like The Lovie Awards, are run by The Webby Awards - and I’m unclear of the benefit of any of them for podcasting. For a podcast, I’d rather support The Ambies every year, and that’s it. I can’t remember paying to enter an award for a while, excepting The Independent Podcast Awards a few years ago (didn’t win anything).
Winning an award is probably good if you are working for a client on a podcast, and you want to show to your client how brilliant you are. But for your own ego? Not sure that’s worth $285. Maybe it is, I don’t know.
Disclosure: I’ve won two Webbys (for work in 2005) and an Ambies award, in 2025.

2026-04-18 07:33:54 UTC

Regarding the Queensland “from the river to the sea” ban… its section 52DA of the Criminal Code, here:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-1899-009
It starts by saying: “A person who publicly recites, publicly distributes, publishes or publicly displays a prohibited expression in a way that might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed or offended commits an offence” - and then goes on to define the phrase “from the river to the sea”.
Surely, singing John Farnham is not “a way that might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed or offended” - and thus any media reports of people “narrowly escaping arrest” are lazy reporting?
(Even, surely, if you sing the song while holding a Palestinian flag?)
Or am I missing something crucial about this particularly dumb law from Crissafuli?
#auspol #qld #queensland

2026-04-16 00:18:51 UTC

Just watched - and enjoyed - a mini documentary on lighthouses, of all things. Chris Spargo makes really well-produced pieces for YouTube.
https://youtu.be/WA0L5xznsKE

2026-04-15 05:18:09 UTC

One for @nprofile…dcmx @nprofile…af2z @nprofile…f9va if you've merge permissions on web_ui
https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/web-ui/pull/552

2026-04-14 04:07:41 UTC

Bought an iPhone 17 Pro in January. Still haven’t got a case for it. Looked at the proper Apple woven ones today, which are nice enough, but I do like the feel of metal in my hand, rather than plastic. Considering leather but can’t find any that are nice. Should I just go naked? (I ran a Pixel 3a naked for two years and that worked fine.)

2026-04-14 04:05:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…z22s Don’t tell ABC Radio Brisbane’s breakfast show, or they’ll be all over it for weeks.

2026-04-13 12:09:28 UTC

Bloody hell. Real dodgy behaviour.
https://podnews.net/update/cloning-podcasts

2026-04-12 10:32:29 UTC

As I complete another archive project (making the individual stories of the Podcast Business Journal visible to humans again, not just bots), I felt that I should have an index for the archival work I've done around #podcasting - so I made one.
(Interesting to note that Amazon S3/Cloudfront has made the process *much* easier now to sling up a simple static site under a domain. It used to be hellishly complicated to do this, but it's now possible within a minute or so. Very nice.)
https://archive.podnews.net/

2026-04-08 04:59:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ys5e incorrect

2026-04-07 09:27:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vj0t The wife had a Samoa.

2026-04-07 08:17:29 UTC

THIS IS ONLY HALF THE MENU! O M ACTUAL G.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/362/434/808/868/655/original/571ac552515571d3.jpeg

2026-04-07 04:12:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…yx4h The most obvious answer is using your mobile, where international calls come bundled into many plans.
I’ve a SIP number in the UK and one in the US; and just program a hardware phone with them, but this is very much not a non-techie solution.
https://toomanyadapters.com/with-skype-gone-whats-the-best-app-for-calling-overseas-numbers-now/ mentions “Viber Out” as a contender.

2026-04-06 00:43:16 UTC

After 10.5 years living in Australia, have just had a Promite sandwich.
For the last time.

2026-04-05 23:21:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ywuf No bicycle helmet law in France for adults, so adults are treated like adults, especially in slow-moving traffic like a city centre. Helmets are the #1 deterrent for anyone getting on a bike in Brisbane - and, research says, can actually make it *more* unsafe for cyclists, not less. The number of serious head injuries in London’s extensive bike-hire underlines this - it’s next to none (with almost no helmet-wearing in the capital).
I am aware that Australians are conditioned to believe cycling is the unsafest thing in the world, and will now downvote me furiously (checks network) ah, this isn’t /r/brisbane , is it, I should be a little safer here.

2026-04-05 23:09:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…msv4 If the sound quality is bad, people will not listen. 32kbps is absolutely fine in the car though.

2026-04-04 23:00:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…25u0 @nprofile…ryua Nice post. Tyres not an issue for the Brisbane heat, which is good!
Plenty of owners here - I see various hues of MG4 while out and about. Both owners of this server have one. The cheapest electric car available here means it’s been quite a hit.

2026-04-04 08:51:17 UTC

- reply

My electric chariot details, in case you wondered
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/long-term-review-mg4-essence-64-ev/

2026-04-04 05:53:08 UTC

Drove 4.5 hours / 300km in my little electric chariot, from Brisbane to Bundaberg. One charge en route, not really needed, but cost AUD $18 and took “the length of time to walk to a bakery and eat a pie for lunch”. Listened to many podcasts. CarPlay dongle only randomly rebooted twice (seems to reboot after exactly an hour of use).
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/344/880/282/580/625/original/2c08b009090642c5.jpeg

2026-03-31 11:32:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…dcmx @nprofile…7td6 Nice to see that the author for the second one is on Mastodon - @nprofile…hzv3 - though his last post was 2024, by the looks of things. I wonder if he's still around?

2026-03-31 03:32:33 UTC

If you're an #ffmpeg guru, I'd very much appreciate learning how to make an HLS multivariant playlist with a separate audio and iframe feed. Details at the Reddit address below.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/1s8c0vp/is_it_possible_to_make_an_hls_multivariant/

2026-03-29 03:18:18 UTC

I write these silly trip reports mainly to keep me sane on long flights, but Riga is rather a pretty place with some interesting quirks.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/trip-report-riga-latvia/

2026-03-28 01:32:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…75z9 … also covered by US television networks, the Washington Examiner, and plenty of other places.
As ever with a “why is the media hiding this story” story, the answer is “it isn’t”

2026-03-28 01:29:42 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…75z9 Covered by ABC News (US)
https://abcnews.com/International/multiple-waves-unauthorized-drones-spotted-strategic-us-air/story?id=131245527

2026-03-25 18:26:26 UTC

So, now, here's a question for anyone podcasty. Is there a way to get this "thumbnail" in the Apple Podcasts to only say (in this case) "15 employees laid off"? Or, any other tips to make this work nicely? (I have complete control of the RSS feed that Apple sees, so I can fix it). #podcasts #podcast #helloappleemployee
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/291/219/244/429/350/original/d98128439851af5f.jpeg

2026-03-24 13:57:11 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zpdn I’ll take a look. Not sure I understand what’s causing that.

2026-03-21 10:37:35 UTC

Brilliant. When Russia invaded Ukraine, in Latvia they changed the name of the street in Riga where the Russian Embassy is to "Ukrainian Independence Street", and the medical museum over the road put up this unflattering picture of Putin as a grinning skull. #travel #ukraine #latvia #riga
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/266/726/278/738/859/original/cfb26a5d0be3fbe2.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/266/726/302/666/367/original/6ca1c7666a70eed0.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/266/726/367/012/611/original/421f41b27a759f7e.jpeg

2026-03-20 07:22:20 UTC

Ah, this is excellent. Kagi Translate launched “translate into LinkedIn speak”
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/260/296/306/512/757/original/681f17a6f000cece.jpeg

2026-03-19 08:56:30 UTC

Interesting. My own pageview tracker suggests Podnews is doing 10x traffic since Mon 9 Mar. I assumed it was a bug with my pageview tracker. Here's Podnews's Cloudfront showing a similar increase (nice, since my pageview tracker is entirely its own thing, and not based on this Cloudfront data).
(Pageview tracker is JavaScript-only, and fires every time a page is viewed - so nothing to do with images or audio).
I have no idea what's going on.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/255/004/187/158/482/original/b12a754f88f7ea42.png

2026-03-10 02:21:36 UTC

Window (actually, a door) open. Ceiling fan on. But even then, overnight in the bedroom hits 1,000 ppm of CO₂. This doesn’t seem great. Unsure of how to reduce it. Any ideas?
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/202/480/438/400/740/original/7540d5a31f2dc48c.jpeg

2026-03-09 10:23:45 UTC

Who speaks German here? Me neither. But I appear to have written this article anyway. #radio
https://www.radioszene.de/212030/das-ende-von-kyle-und-jackie-o.html

2026-03-08 10:04:32 UTC

Quite the week for Australian radio, and goodness, it's not over yet. But now Kyle & Jackie O's show is (almost inevitably) going away, what questions does it raise for the industry? I've got nine questions here (and I forgot one which is a shame because that would have made ten).
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/kyle-jackie-industry-thoughts/

2026-03-05 03:31:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…977y I don’t hold out much hope. My argument is really “they should not be” rather than “they are not” confidential. In the UK, ARN’s letter would be a public document; but then, in the UK, they would have lost their licence about four times already (and in this case the regulator would have issued their licence condition within a fortnight, at most, of getting ARN’s letter) so I guess it’s a moot argument.
The wider question is really whether the ACMA is fulfilling its legal obligation as a regulator. The Broadcasting Act lays down those obligations, and I think the ACMA isn’t meeting them. Certainly, allowing K&J to continue broadcasting for the whole of survey 1 without a licence condition applied upon them is evidence of the ACMA not acting.
(I do wonder why real journalists aren’t doing this work. Oh, wait - Murdoch, Nine and Seven are all… television broadcasters as well, aren’t they? Huh.)

2026-03-05 01:30:06 UTC

Well, let's see if the Australian Communications and Media Authority fancies communicating with me about one of its media licences.
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/request_for_documents_relating_t_3

2026-03-04 03:16:20 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gea7 Yes - it makes “scrub” and “seek” not work properly in most apps, since the apps simply don’t know what data range to request. Advice for a long time is to always use CBR.
(Also, it doesn’t really give you better audio quality anyway.)

2026-03-03 23:34:55 UTC

I don’t know how many podcast hosts are re-encoding audio, but I’ve just learnt the magic of ffmpeg’s silence detection. Within your ffmpeg command...
`-af silenceremove=1:0:-50dB:stop_periods=1:stop_duration=0:stop_threshold=-50dB`
This removes silence from the beginning and end of files; my daily file always ends with a little jingle which has quite a bit of silence at the end of it. This audio filter automatically removes it. Given three seconds of silence at the end, if I have 2,000 downloads at 128kbit/s that’s 120MB of data saved. Every little helps, as they say.

2026-03-03 12:03:03 UTC

It’s a lunar eclipse in #Brisbane. There it is.
One of these pictures is not the lunar eclipse.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-03-03/march-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-australia/106375618
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/165/140/901/553/621/original/dcc4ade709f3e2a0.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/165/140/910/158/034/original/204ac41760fb9c76.jpeg

2026-03-03 05:06:51 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…jnjt Now partially supported in Podnews directory pages. (This will appear if any episode is made with AI).
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/163/500/358/083/199/original/8b5634104b75e9f6.png

2026-03-03 04:28:48 UTC

Thought I'd better resubscribe to The New York Times with (gestures outside) all this going on. At US $14 for the year (thank you, weird Australian special offer), it's... not the most expensive thing in the world.

2026-02-24 09:46:41 UTC

Now, so, here's a thing. I cover five "new podcasts in video" today in Podnews. Only one of those has actually launched video on Spotify, however - the rest haven't bothered. That doesn't tell a great story, does it, about Spotify's video.
Spotify's video is free. And anyone can do it - you just upload a video file to it. But these big companies haven't.
Apple Podcasts will cost podcasters money to support (through their podcast hosts) and it will be considerably more complicated. It's only available through four hosting companies. So... um.
https://podnews.net/update/ambies-livestream-snow

2026-02-23 09:33:19 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…k8p7 You have mail!

2026-02-23 07:34:32 UTC

A sneak peek at a techy thing: how Apple Podcasts HLS streams work.
Some may/will have better information than I do here; but I’m publishing this later today, and would, of course, welcome any feedback of the things I’ve got wrong. Feel free to quietly do that via email if it helps - editor@podnews.net will find me.
Of note - advertisers *can* require their ads not to be skippable, according to the spec. But we don't know whether Apple Podcasts is going to honour that.
https://podnews.net/article/apple-podcasts-hls-tech

2026-02-22 06:05:03 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…cyex I believe an exception here - with a faux content-type - should be considered. Agree, it isn’t an “enclosure” and is a horrible kludge; but it is an “alternate place to get this media”.

2026-02-21 06:12:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…cyex I think this is fine, with the exception of the content type maybe. Chucking a YouTube link in there should be just fine. But that's not in the specification; and perhaps it should be.

2026-02-20 01:56:51 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ax8n @nprofile…7fxa @nprofile…k8p7 Podcast Guru and Castamatic are both also sending boosts to lnaddresses (specifically, james@podnews.net which is mine). I don't know what they charge, but I don't have too much worry about that.)
Am I doing the RSS bit right? The 'method' bit confuses me.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/100/471/839/949/448/original/f2aa5aa5aa86e367.png

2026-02-19 23:43:50 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ax8n @nprofile…k8p7 I notice @nprofile…hsp0 can’t even be bothered to contribute. Disappointing. Previous experience shows I should have expected it. Let’s ignore him and move on, if he is too precious to work with others. Nobody wins from little tantrums.
A simple “note with payment” pointing to a JSON file - which is all this is - works with literally any currency and any payment system. The only requirement is that there is a note with payment, which there is in virtually any monetary system.
It could be refined to use shorter identifications in the payment note - rss::payment::stream is lengthy, especially when many bank accounts only have short payment note lengths.
What we have - already supported for lightning - is a great step. I don’t see why it couldn’t work for every other platform out there.
Let’s not overcomplicate it with 400 different payment mechanisms and requirements for servers and potential centralisation. How can we build on it without complicating it further?

2026-02-19 03:58:28 UTC

Was fired up to do more Runway work this afternoon, but apparently this method of transmitting payment metadata for #podcast creators (a small URL with a payment) might not work with A Thing In The Future That Nobody Uses so a New Method is required even though the whole streaming sats/boosts thing has fractured into 400 different versions all incompatible with the last, and virtually nobody’s paying this way any more anyway as a result.
We have a way of doing micropayments through Fountain, Castamatic, kind-of Podcast Guru, and TrueFans promises it’ll work soon as well; but apparently this isn’t good enough and it’s back to square one.
All a bit demotivating.
https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace/discussions/676#discussioncomment-15854241

2026-02-18 06:13:46 UTC

Wow. This is quite the piece from Stephen Colbert against his network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQIljje2B_Q

2026-02-10 00:13:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kdmg @nprofile…k8p7 @nprofile…cn7u Your format is very similar to the format of the Boostbox API format, as used by Fountain and Castamatic; just using slightly different terms.
I'm always hesitant to say "it's just a quick change", and I don't know if your format is already being relied-on by others, but in this case, it really should be a quick change; you've all the data, just using slightly different names. It would be really very much appreciated by every developer: otherwise Podcast Guru stands the chance of simply being ignored in these services in future.
Enclosed - the kludge code I'm using to normalise it, if it helps.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/043/440/615/294/701/original/355ec2a7577979c5.png

2026-02-09 01:31:53 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…p4ca Looks interesting. The Amazon S3 Glacier maths doesn't look right (outbound data is bigger than total price); but in any case, the "outbound data" only kicks in if you restore every piece of data on the drive, which isn't too likely.
You got me wondering what I'm paying. My S3 bill is US$10.60 a month; looks like I'm only storing 187GB though. 181GB of that is not Glacier stored, either - live-to-the-web cached image resizes. (Not bad storage after about 18 years using it. I rsync most of my filestores to it every week - non-destructive rsync which never deletes anything. Mind you, it's really very hard to find out exactly how much I have, and where.)
The "gotcha" with Glacier is the wait time for the files to be restored; otherwise, your 28TB is cheaper than $1day.

2026-02-06 06:39:28 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kdmg @nprofile…cn7u
What would be an excellent middle-ground is if you were able to put an indication into the LNPayment whether something is a boost or a stream.
If you would be able to add just `payment::stream` or `payment::boost` into the payment details, then at least we'd know whether it was a stream or a boost, enabling clients to filter on those two actions - without pulling the entire JSON from you for every single payment. (If you put it at the end, after the URL, it'll not be confused with the spec that Fountain/Castamatic are using).
Here's Runway showing what's a filter, what's a boost, and... unknown payments from Podcast Guru.
@nprofile…k8p7
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/116/022/310/762/432/001/original/09e1c2f5cf9471f3.png

2026-02-03 12:07:35 UTC

Off to the ABC tomorrow, where they will point a TV camera at my face while I say things about AM radio, for various stories later this month that will mostly air in WA. This means contact lenses and smartening up my “not needed to shave for a few weeks” beard. The tyranny of pictures.

2026-01-31 10:57:31 UTC

Building a thing after I randomly mentioned it to @nprofile…dffe in the last PWR - for showing streaming sats payments to a Strike account.
"Runway" is a kind of Helipad but for Strike payments. Writing it entirely in JavaScript, client-side, so I can't see into your own Strike account, and so the code is open and readable. I need to build the code to parse the payment details properly (it's currently ugly JSON) but it works.
Will build a configurable "delimiter" (probably set for "this time last week"), as well as automatically get payment details of boosts. For Podcast Guru, who don't yet support the spec, that means I'll have to assume that more than 200 sats is a boost.
https://podnews.net/runway if you want to play along. As you'll see from the API details, it's safe from me emptying your account! But there's not much error handling here yet.
@nprofile…td70 @nprofile…k8p7 @nprofile…7epg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/989/351/586/604/888/original/107066bd9989cbd3.png
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/989/351/630/380/948/original/25200255d2fac45b.png

2026-01-31 01:15:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…c2kf @nprofile…4aat Send me a mailing address (and be prepared to wait many weeks!) james@crid.land

2026-01-23 02:45:15 UTC

It's surprisingly depressing to write stories of "podcast industry does bad thing", and I'm now hoping that I don't have to write another one any time soon. But here's another "podcast industry does bad thing" story, and hopefully my last for a while.
https://podnews.net/article/libsyn-301-redirect

2026-01-21 12:27:24 UTC

A special joke here for British readers, while the Americans will just go “hmm, that’s an odd headline, but OK, it’s about a new ranker that is more complete than others, so…”

2026-01-21 05:21:59 UTC

Was asked to be on a podcast as a guest. That's nice.
Ah, and then the booking form... asked me for money. Right at the end.
Hmm, this isn't how it works.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/931/409/178/081/003/original/586b25323200afc2.png

2026-01-19 23:06:10 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vlhh The “play latest NPR news” one seems to just play. I really should understand these more.

2026-01-19 23:03:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vlhh Impressive. Betcha can’t make it actually *play*… ;)

2026-01-19 23:01:27 UTC

- reply

Pixel 10 Pro - $1449 (albeit only 128GB). Apple iPhone 17 Pro - $1999 (256GB). That’s a big difference. (I *do* want a decent zoom).
Huh. If I didn’t want the zoom, then the raw iPhone 17 is $1399 with 256GB; Pixel 10 Pro $1599 with 256GB. So iPhone is cheaper. Weird.
Oh, and then there’s the Pixel9a at currently just $799 (with 256GB). Which is quite tempting.
But I have AirPods (which would work on Android but not as well). Sigh.

2026-01-19 22:46:55 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vlhh Funnily enough, on the plane home I had downloaded a thing from you with some new iOS26 tips. And one was useful! :)
(“Latest podcasting news” to play the latest episode of Podnews Daily in the podcast app?)

2026-01-19 22:03:08 UTC

I’ve had a loaner Apple phone for the last two years. They want it back. Wondering what to do now - iPhone or Android.
Most of the apps I use are cross platform. Apple Podcasts isn’t. Flighty isn’t.
I’ve an Apple Watch but then I have a Pixel Watch as well. Both are fine. The camera is fine on each.
Hmm.

2026-01-18 21:59:42 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…977y You'd be surprised how many people in the Facebook MG group claim to change those settings every time they get in the car...
I wonder if it's an Australia-specific ruling?

2026-01-18 21:58:52 UTC

New main website photo, who dis?
Humbling and proud experience, being inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame on Friday night. Thank you for your support.
https://james.cridland.net/
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/918/342/109/919/014/original/49186276c245e09c.jpeg

2026-01-18 21:57:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…977y It was super-annoying for a few days, then I just learnt to drive on the default settings anyway... ;)

2026-01-18 20:09:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…w0mx @nprofile…977y @nprofile…w0mx I assume the lack of profiles is the reason. If you thought that lane assist was on and it wasn’t - or the regen was on “high” and it was actually off - then it could be quite unsafe. If my wife and I both drove this car, I guess we’d appreciate that it resets. (I assume more expensive cars have profiles based on the key fob).

2026-01-18 20:06:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…977y @nprofile…w0mx The main settings are the regen driving mode (how much it slows down when you take your foot off the pedal), and safety features like lane assist, emergency braking etc. No profiles in this car, so you have to set them all back again manually with “too many” taps, but probably four per feature.
Also, the radio doesn’t turn on again when you get into the car after listening to it last time. This would decimate radio listening if it happened in every car!

2026-01-12 22:48:04 UTC

- reply

The evacuation area in #brisbane international airport is properly Australian.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/884/558/489/566/056/original/5e0fc11b70bc7e32.jpeg

2026-01-12 22:20:54 UTC

- reply

Odds of boarding in half an hour? About 2% of naff all.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/884/451/430/192/500/original/f9aaae7eee8c4735.jpeg

2026-01-08 11:06:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gea7 @nprofile…j0yw I gather that new software gives you less random phantom braking (I've never experienced that) and slightly less likely to nudge the steering wheel weirdly as you get near the airport and it gets confused by an arrow painted on the road (I have, as you may have guessed, experienced that). Otherwise nothing else.
And for @nprofile…j0yw - https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/long-term-review-mg4-essence-64-ev/

2026-01-08 11:03:38 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gea7 @nprofile…j0yw I didn't think that it supported OTA. Lots of grumpy talk in the MG4 forum on Facebook saying that dealers are not very good at updating it. How did you get to that menu?

2026-01-08 07:45:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gea7 “puppy juice” - sure, sure

2025-12-31 01:56:35 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…9ap7 And also in Helium. Which you should be using! (Unless you think otherwise)
https://helium.computer

2025-12-30 22:44:58 UTC

Six days ago: “Well see you on Wednesday between 10-2”.
Call at 8.40am. “Hi - we’re on our way. See you in fifteen minutes.”
Ah, tradies.

2025-12-29 02:20:58 UTC

Double apostrophe abuse in the new Betty’s Burgers menu. You’d thought with a name like that, they’d know.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/800/464/206/378/187/original/ad8a1bb1fab6d678.jpeg

2025-12-28 06:31:10 UTC

Curious to spot that the BBC’s own “Britbox” streaming service here in Australia doesn’t offer BBC News channel. I mean, you’d have thought… no.
It’s free on the BBC website (in Australia) here. But not on the BBC’s own Britbox.
https://www.bbc.com/watch-live-news

2025-12-22 12:35:06 UTC

Went out to give the dog a little widdle.
There was a “thunk” noise from the roof of the garage. Thankfully dog ignored it, because she would have lost her shit had she noticed this little one staying perfectly still in the roof.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/763/242/892/760/369/original/edff1879df943d6e.jpeg

2025-12-22 01:51:54 UTC

- reply

If you missed me on ABC Radio Brisbane and/or ABC Radio Perth then a) good morning, and b) here's where you can catch-up.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/abc-brisbane-and-perth-am-switchover/

2025-12-21 21:28:19 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wqpy You’ve found it!
I spoke at the Norwegian local radio conference a few years ago. Which is not Sweden, I appreciate. (And at the Guldörat in Stockholm too, for a commercial radio conference).

2025-12-21 21:05:25 UTC

Fans of a British accent and talking about AM transmission in too much detail might like to tune into ABC Radio Brisbane at 7.40am this morning (in half an hour), or ABC Radio Perth and WA at 6.15am this morning (in an hour).
You can listen to both online using the app, as about 20% of Australians use radio; channel 25 on your TV, DAB+ Digital Radio (as more than 20% of Aussies in cap cities do), or - for the moment - AM radio if you can find one

2025-12-20 21:55:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…glz5 The Manila Principles are a wish (from EFF), not the current legal position.
The real world equivalent - as @nprofile…wsp3 should know - is that the publisher of a book is liable for the content of the book they publish (rather than the author). And, in most cases, if a book contains a defamatory comment, then, yes, the bookshop could be held liable for selling it (and have been, especially in the UK). (A man living in Texas wishes to talk about books to underline his idea of freedom of expression. ROFL.)
Here’s Australian law. You’ll note that there isn’t a Section 230-style “you’re not the publisher” lawlessness clause; there is, though, a defence of being a subordinate distributor. There’s similar (“innocent dissemination”) in UK law. Section 230, however, removes all liability - even when an online service provider is told that a comment is illegal.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/754/122/932/458/823/original/525539fa15ed232d.jpeg

2025-12-20 21:28:56 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wsp3 @nprofile…r5z7 @nprofile…glz5
Back to liability - there’s no section 230 (whatever Stripey says) outside the US. Yet companies find it perfectly possible to operate.
1999 set the law in the UK - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/304869.stm - with the ISP being held responsible for a Usenet message it hosted.
In Australia, if someone posts a defamatory comment in Podnews’s Facebook group (if I have one), I would be liable:
https://griffinlegal.com.au/owners-of-social-media-pages-responsible-for-all-comments/
It’s perfectly possible to operate without a Section 230 lawlessness clause. Just ask the other 179 countries in the world.

2025-12-18 01:44:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…aehl
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/738/035/459/842/329/original/3ea630c9186b5c58.png

2025-12-18 01:38:22 UTC

Remembering when an owl came to sit on the tree just outside the kitchen and STARE AT US
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/738/011/286/451/899/original/a7340a74fbb22db2.jpeg

2025-12-14 06:23:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fm0n New to the mesh is VK4FUSE who is in Kingston, which could be another repeater (and person) that you could pick up.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/716/482/241/365/435/original/fcd2ec941368616a.jpeg

2025-12-14 06:19:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fm0n That would be excellent. With Meshcore, the ideal is to run a repeater (somewhere up high) and your own companion (in your house). Your companion won’t pick much up, but communicates via your repeater, so you get good coverage of everything nearby and you also help grow the mesh for others.
Complete Heltec v3 units are about $20 from AliExpress.

2025-12-13 12:16:25 UTC

Fiddling about with #meshcore again tonight, to see if I can understand it all. Probably annoying the good folks on Discord with my damn-fool questions. It’s a very clever mesh network, with lots to like. It needs more users to be useful in #Brisbane - messages aren’t quite reliable, yet, because there aren’t enough repeaters, but it’s getting there. (And at least we can tell that messages don’t get through, thanks to the way the system works).
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/712/208/668/060/525/original/cf5dc9159faf8969.jpeg

2025-12-12 02:55:00 UTC

Hmm. My Meshcore repeater in the garage is down. I wonder why.
*Looks in garage*
OK, little guy, you just stay there. I'll push the plug back in later.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/115/704/338/753/020/328/original/e341bad210169a97.jpeg

2025-12-12 01:34:38 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hdf4 A Boox Poke5 will do all of that.
Not just that, it would let you run Libby, and you can use KOReader or MoonReader as your regular ebook reader if you like. (Or even Kindle!)

2025-12-11 02:03:34 UTC

- reply

This would have looked nicer if the font had worked, in case you’re wondering why it’s so ugly

2025-12-11 01:43:47 UTC

For years now, CBC - the Canadian public broadcaster - has embedded a graphic - served from Podnews's website - in theirs.
I see hundreds of hits a day for this - and, therefore, hundreds of IP address details for visitors to the CBC website, which is a bit icky.
Even though it's been a 404 error for years, I've decided to bring the file back again to see if I can stop them - because I seemingly have the capability of publishing a message on the CBC website.
https://podnews.net/_static/_svg/apple-podcasts-badge.svg

2025-12-10 22:27:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wsp3 @nprofile…r5z7 Section 230 doesn’t exist in the rest of the world. All social media hasn’t failed to exist in the rest of the world. So I don’t buy the argument.
Government IDs are specifically not able to be used for the Australian social media ban, incidentally. That’s written into the law.