A Call For Female Podcasters

No matter how I write this post there’s always a risk that I am going to offend people and that makes it a difficult thing to write. One word or sentence not best picked could be read incorrectly and in all honesty it may be better for me to actually speak about this rather than write, but never mind. I’m going to do it anyway.

Currently the 70Decibels network is an all-male affair and I didn’t intend it to be this way. I’m sure you have noticed this and a few people have brought it to my attention. The network has grown organically, many of the shows have kind of ‘just happened’ and we are now getting to the stage where we are bringing in in existing shows, or at least shows that we did not originally create. So no conscious decisions have really been made about hosts—it’s kind of just been a right place, right time kind of thing.

I know that there are many female techies out there and I correspond with some on a daily basis. Further more there are also many female podcasters whom I admire (Veronica Belmont, Sarah Lane, Felicia Day—to name a few) and some of the other podcast networks out there do have female hosts.

So as we are starting to grow beyond this thing being a tiny operation, it’s time we saw a little more expansion in this area. Now in the same vein I have never believed in ’Postive Discrimination’—I’m not going to chose a female host for a show just because she is female to balance out the gender. I want to find hosts who are excellent in their own right, irrespective of their gender, race or background.

So women of the world. Come forth, sit behind a mic and bring your ‘A game’. 70Decibels needs you to come and kick some ass at Podcasting.

As always, if you have an existing show or you’re thinking about doing something please get in touch by email or on twitter so we can talk. I’m always open to new ideas and would love to hear from you.

Additionally if you want to discuss this post or idea also get in touch. I felt it was about time to address this deficiency and to show that I am aware of it and consciously want to change it.

First Hour With: A Samsung Chromebook

What follows is an account of my first hour with a Samsung Chromebook. This device was sent to me on loan from Samsung UK and you are about to follow my stream of conscience whilst using the device:



So the first thing I notice is that it is incredibly heavy when compared to the MacBook air. The actual surface area is not much bigger and I would expect it to have fewer internal components (due to the lack of storage space needed), so I struggle to understand why it is so heavy.



It’s actually quite attractive, except for the vents on the side and the janky covering of the USB port—it basically feels like something you’d find on a point and shoot camera, covering the memory card.



The keyboard is that standard chicklet affair that you see these days on many laptops and is ok to use. The trackpad feels very peculiar to me now as I have definitely been spoilt by Apple’s glass implementation. The Chromebook’s trackpad is a standard textured plastic—but is pretty big, which is good and clickable too. There are no buttons.


Something that is instantly noticeable is the lack of a caps lock key. This has been replaced by a search button (denoted by a magnifying glass). Where it’s cool to have a key like this I find it’s placement weird. The left alt key is about double the size of that on a regular keyboard – as there is no windows or cmd key– which would have made a perfect placement for it and would have made sense as a a key that defines this OS as different. Chuck a Google logo on it for all I care.



When you boot up for the first time you are prompted to enter your Google login credentials as this is how you will continue to access the device. After signing in and the OS launches, the first thing I notice is the fan kicking in. Straight away.


The OS has pulled in my bookmarks from Chrome and I’m taken to the App Store. Launching a new tab shows a bunch of Apps, mainly regular Google apps – like Gmail, docs and Calendar – but I also notice apps called File Manager and Scratchpad. These are obviously pre-installed to ensure basic OS functions are taken care of. Additionally any app I have previously downloaded in Chrome is there for me to see.


The screen is really poor. Colours are very washed out. I visited the 70Decibels site and everything looks more blue and less vibrant than usual. The screen actually reminds me of laptops from a bygone era. Poor effort. So I launched Angry Birds (obviously) it took a short time to load – turns out this is because it was installing for offline play – and it plays poorly too. Gameplay is choppy and strained. The Chromebook’s hates those birds more than the pigs—it would seem. YouTube works fine though.


The keyboard has the usual media keys (volume up and down) but it also has some browser specific keys (forward, back and reload) which is nice.


I’ve had this machine switched on for about 20 minutes now and the underside is starting to get warm. I have no idea what this machine thinks its doing, but right now I have two static web pages open.


One cool feature is the instant on. Very much like a MacBook Air. They also have an 8 second boot time. Impressive.


So I thought I’d go and find out a little about the device itself. Apparently I have a 12.1” model with Wifi. So I went to the official Chromebook page and discovered that this thing costs $350! That makes little to no sense to me. I’m not saying go and buy an MacBook Air – obviously this is for a different market – but buy an iPad. The iPad has more apps that are much more sophisticated. It doesn’t get hot (ignore the press) it doesn’t have an ugly ass vent. It has a gorgeous screen (whether you go Retina or not) and even the on-screen keyboard is better than the one this ships with.


Samsung were very kind to ship this to me to play with. So I guess I’m sorry for giving them such a hard time, but I can literally see no point in buying this machine. Just get an iPad.


After 35 minutes I can take no more. Well I say that. The OS has now locked up on me and I can’t log out. I can see the benefit of a device like this – a cheap laptop with online access and web apps – but at this price I cannot see it fitting a home or school user.

It's More Than Just 140

I joined twitter in Febuary 2007 – user #763,549 – and originally I didn’t get a lot out of the service. Everybody that used it at this time was at SxSW – which I wasn’t – or lived in San Francisco—which I don’t. So after the honeymoon period was over, I put it down and went away for a couple of years.



So fast-forward to 2009(ish) and Twitter is starting to see a larger adoption rate and real people are jumping on the service. This is when I start to get more involved and get my friends in the real world interested. This got me back in and opened up doors I never could have imagined.



Twitter has been solely responsible for allowing me to grow the 70Decibels network. It has opened up channels of communication with hosts that live all over the world; people I never could have interacted with—if it wasn’t for this method of broadcasting short bursts to the world. It started with a tweet to Patrick Rhone – covertly suggesting he check out The Bro Show – under the guise of a fan. After this and especially after the launch of Enough, I started to become involved in a circle of people that mainly consist of the Read and Trust group. I have since gone on to create podcasts with a large bunch of these fine gentlemen.



Now twitter is like my social club. I hop on every now and then and read what Josh has just posted to Macgasm, check out Stephen’s latest Instagram and hop in on Dave and Aaron’s latest back-and-forth. It also allows me to keep up with Terry’s goings-on (sometimes it’s nice to just see what a best buddy is up to).



I’m not the first person to compare Twitter to a water cooler in an office, but that’s exactly what it is. I go to Twitter at my leisure, it doesn’t but in on my life. Sure, I may receive a push notification but I still open Tweetbot on my own terms and check in with everyone.



The majority of people that I interact with on a daily basis live on the other side of the planet. A few years ago that would have seemed bat-poop crazy—but I think this is starting to shift. People are becoming more world-social and making friends across the globe, some they may never meet in person. Relationships (friendship and love) are being forged online more and more often these days and the Internet is becoming a tool to help people interact on an emotional level. Twitter may be text at 140 characters at a time, but it is an enabler of conversation that can spill out in to many different forms.



The widespread adoption that Twitter has seen over the last few years, means that I’m now able to use the service to keep up to date with the people in my life, that I don’t always see on a regular basis. Family, friends and loved ones – those that aren’t particluaraly techie – are able to keep me up to date on what they are up to via a short status update. I value this immensely.



Being in the very fortunate position that I am – in having people give a crop about what I have to say – Twitter is also an amazing way of interacting with the fans of the work I do. I try my hardest to respond to every tweet sent my way—as this is something that is very important to me. I value the fact that people take time out of their lives to say something to me, no matter how small and I consider these interactions to be priceless. I love having the ability to get instant feedback on something, an answer to a question or to have people tell me how much they loved/hated something I had to say on one of our shows.



I am in the lucky few that gets to use twitter in this way. I am in the lucky few that gets their questions answered by a bunch of genii and also that I have made such excellent friends who have given me access to some incredible opportunities over the last couple of years.



I guess I should say thanks to Ev, Jack and Biz for giving me a tool that is so invaluable. Let’s hope the guys in charge of it now don’t go blooming mental.