Fix for WordPress not recognizing RSS enclosures

If you use WordPress and have found out that for some reason it is not automatically recognizing certain file extensions as enclosures (my personal experience was that it did not recognize .wmv files) it’s because your server doesn’t have the proper MIME-TYPE setting for that file extension.

The way WordPress automatically creates enclosures is that is queries the server with the URI of your linked file (e.g. an mp3 file) and then parses the server’s returned MIME-TYPE. If it discovers the MIME-TYPE is of either audio or video, it then creates the appropriate enclosure entry.

So, if you ain’t gettin’ your RSS enclosure automatically created, it’s because the MIME-TYPE is missing from the server. But how do you fix that? Every server is different so the fix below only applies to an Apache server with the .htaccess feature enabled.

Here’s the fix:

Just edit the .htaccess file on the local home directory of the Web server that is hosting the audio/video files and add the proper MIME-TYPE that corresponds to the file you’re trying to access. In my case I was adding a MIME-TYPE for WMV (Windows Media Video) files. I added the following line into my .htaccess file:

AddType video/x-ms-wmv .wmv

Here’s a table of other mimetypes. You can also of course Google around and find more.

CAUTION: you need to be careful/aware if you already have an .htaccess file and if so, make sure you edit that file and ADD the above line instead of OVERWRITING that file. Of course if you’re sure that file doesn’t exist then you should be able to create it.

A different way to launch a hi-tech business

My good buddy and patent attorney Leighton Chong wrote a good article on “An Alternative Business Model for Hawaii Tech Company Success” that I think any entrepreneur should take a serious look at. Leighton’s point is that instead of building out a traditional Silicon Valley (SV) tech company, Hawaii can be just as successful by licensing intellectual property (IP) instead.

The SV model requires many millions in venture capital, which is very difficult to come by in Hawaii. The IP model only needs about $500k in angel funds, which is not too hard in Hawaii if you have a good plan. Instead of building out a huge company with lots of overhead, staff, executives, and headaches, develop what he calls the “Three P’s” :

(i) Protecting their intellectual property rights; (ii) Proving that the technology works (building a functioning prototype, or contracting tests and studies to validate it); and (iii) Productizing their inventions (researching unique niches of demand in the markets and designing optimal products that people will buy).

And once you’ve done that, find a company that is wiling to buy your Intellectual Property via a licensing agreement. A successful IP company provides almost as good a return as a successful SV company except it can do it with far less capital. Throw in our state’s Act 215 tax incentive to develop and R&D company, and it becomes quite attractive.

I’ve been personally following this path myself for the past few years with my email privacy company, Titan Key Software. We just received a patent in March of 2005. I’ll keep you all posted on any major good news that comes our way.

Meanwhile, give Leighton’s article a good read and post some of your comments here. I’m going to see if I can talk Leighton into doing a podcast interview.

Podcast / VideoBlog Roadshow Starts off in Hawaii

Eric Rice, a well-known podcaster and founder of the popular AudioBlog.Com is going on a (global?) Roadshow to demonstrate the use of both podcasting and VideoBlogging (kinda like blogging but with a video camera).

And of course, he was very smart to pick Hawaii as the launching pad for his journey. Check out what he produced and you’ll get a feel for what VideoBlogging is.

Next version of iTunes 4.9 will feature built-in podcasting

If you didn’t catch our previous post that introduces you to podcasting, you better do it soon because it’s gonna be huge-right-now.

I just caught on Podcasting News that at the D3: All things Digital Conference, Steve Jobs announced that the next release of iTunes 4.9 will have podcasting features built-in. This is GIANT news as it will effectively add an audience of about 27 million of users to the podcast community.

It will probably also mean that subscribing and downloading to podcasts will become dramatically easier as well if this follows Apple’s typically intuitive user interfaces.

I’m certain that Microsoft will soon follow with a similar addition to its Windows Media Player.

Folks, this is a tremendous yet natural development in podcasting. We are about to see an explosion of this new media.

Whatever you were going to do about Podcasting, you better do it now.

Don’t get fooled by phishes

Want to see a video demonstration of this tip?
Watch this video using your Windows Media PlayerCheckout the video for a step-by-step demonstration!

Somebody asked me:

“I recently received an email notifying me that my account with Ebay had been suspended and I had to fill out a form to re-activate it. They asked for all kinds of personal information. Is this legit?”

I’m sorry to say that you’ve been the victim of what’s known as “Phishing” which is a new, dangerous breed of spam. This spam doesn’t ask you to buy anything, but rather warns you about having your account canceled unless you fill out a form. The official-looking form asks you the deepest, most personal information such as mother’s maiden name, social security number, bank account number numbers, bank card PIN access codes, and the like.

Of course what really happens is that this information goes to a thief who proceeds to take all the money out of your bank account and uses your credit cards to go on a shopping spree. Disclosing this kind of personal information gives someone else everything they need to completely steal your identity and perhaps cause a lot more damage than “just” stealing your money; for example, a criminal that gets arrested can use give out your identity instead. Suddenly, you have a criminal record!

How can you avoid becoming a victim of a Phish? Here’s a super-easy way: If you get an email that warns you of an account being canceled, don’t click on any of the links in the email under any circumstances, no matter how legitimate they may seem. Instead open up a new browser window and go ahead and log into your account using your known user name and password. If your account is truly in danger of getting canceled, the Web site will repeat the warning and tell you how you can recover from it.

Today’s Internet-connected world brings fantastic productivity but you must always be vigilant about scams like Phishes. It’s sad to say but you just can’t trust email these days, especially emails that “smell like a Phish”. But the good news is if you just don’t click on that link, and instead open a new browser window, you can easily avoid becoming another victim of identity theft.

Use your favorite Podcatcher to automatically download new video and audio tips as they come! Subscribe to the Podcast and automatically download new video and audio tips as they come!

Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith Rocks

I just got back from seeing the movie and I think it’s the best of them all if you don’t compare it to Episode IV: A New Hope. Episode IV doesn’t count because since it was the very first it and will always have a special place in my heart.

SWE3 (Star Wars Episode 3) was awesome, primarily because it told the story that all of us really wanted to know. How did the empire form? How did Anakin get turned? How did everything go so evil? How did Darth Vader get his suit?

The action sequences were intense, the lightsaber fights rocked, and you could see how Anakin’s inability to “let go” became his fatal flaw.

I loved it. At certain times it was so painful to see things going Dark Side that I almost couldn’t bear to watch. That’s how I knew it was good, for me.

Go see it. It’s a good movie. George Lucas redeemed himself with this one.

SCOOP! Local Geek/Journalist Ryan Ozawa Podcast getting airplay in San Francisco

You heard it here first. YourComputerMinute.Com broke the story!

I just love reviewing Hawaii success stories. Ryan Ozawa’s Hawaii Up podcast is being broadcast over San Francisco’s KYOU podcast-only format radio station. Way to go Ryan!

Now if you’re wondering what’s going on over here, KYOU is taking select podcast programming and broadcasting it over their airwaves. They have way more podcast content to deal with than they do airtime, so it’s pretty safe to say that whatever they are broadcasting is what they think is really good stuff.

This is one of those “only with the magic of the Internet” kind of things. Imagine, our local boy Ryan records a podcast in his home, uploads it to a server, and then a radio station in San Francisco downloads it, and broadcasts it across the city. Here’s the link to the specific show audio file if you want to hear it yourself. Amazing!

Way to go Ryan! If the Hawaii Geek Patrol keeps this up I’m going to need more space on the server to keep up with all the posts!

Podcasting: The Next Big thing. How to subscribe and download to FREE audio content

Want to see how to use this feature the cool way?
Watch this video using your Windows Media PlayerCheckout the video for a step-by-step demonstration!
(And let me know if you experienced any difficulties)

What do the Pope and Paris Hilton have in common? They both have a Podcast.

Next Big Things don’t come along too often and those of you that know me may recall that my other company CyberCom created the first commercial Web site in Hawaii and I was very active in getting Hawaii to make the most out of that Big Thing called the Internet.

Well, I’m here to tell you about the Next Big Thing and while this one won’t be quite as earth-shattering as the Internet, it will completely change the way you listen to audio content and I’m not just talking about music.  Drumroll please…

The Next Big Thing is "Podcasting" and it’s a new way to surf the Internet for audio content. A podcast is typically an mp3 recording of a radio-like show that’s available for you to download to your mp3 player.  There are over 5000 different podcasts going on right now on just about any given topic you can think of.  What makes podcasting different from just downloading mp3 files is the use of a free "podcatcher"application which lets you subscribe to your favorite podcasts. The podcatcher then checks those Web sites on a regular basis and automatically downloads any newly published audio content.

When you combine the podcatcher’s automated download feature with your existing mp3 player’s ability to synchronize files on your computer, the end result is that your mp3 player is automatically updated with the latest shows you asked for. You simply get up in the morning, disconnect your player, and off you go with your favorite audio in your ear.  And if you consider yourself an uberGeek you can add on an FM transmitter to your mp3 player so that you can listen to your favorite Podcasts through your car stereo.

I’ve put together an introductory video that will get you started on subscribing and downloading to podcasts. If you have an mp3 player or if you play mp3s on your computer at work, you gotta see why I’m all excited.  This truly really is the Next Big Thing.  When you get everything hooked up, make sure you visit my new sites VoteHawaii.com and a completely redesigned YourComputerMinute.Com and download the podcasts I have waiting for you over there.

Let me know what you think!

Use your favorite Podcatcher to automatically download new video and audio tips as they come! Subscribe to the Podcast and automatically download new video and audio tips as they come!

Show notes (things I mention in the video):

A new way to get news and control the Web

Want to see how to use this feature the cool way?
Watch this video using your Windows Media PlayerCheckout the video for a step-by-step demonstration!
(And let me know if you experienced any difficulties)

How do you get your electronic news today? I’ll bet you do it by subscribing to newsletters and also by visiting news sites, right? I used to do that until I got the hang of a new technology that everyone’s using called “News Feeds” or “RSS Feeds”. RSS feeds change the paradigm because instead of news being sent to you, your “Newsreader” software goes out, plucks the news you asked for, and puts it on your desktop for whenever you’re ready.

It’s important to stay current/ahead of what’s new, especially professionally. Using Newsreaders lets you get news from hundreds of sources, scan them quickly, and just pull out what you’re interested in. You just can’t do that with email newsletters.

This month’s demonstration shows you how this all works using a great piece of free software called “Pluck” (www.pluck.com) which installs as part of your Explorer Browser. Pluck lets you read news from any number of sources. But Pluck also adds some other killer features that I love, especially the one that lets you keep your work and home browser favorites synchronized. If you keep one set of favorites at home, another at work, and would like to have both of them synchronized, Pluck is the answer.

If you like reading news but are tired getting lots of newsletters in your inbox, you definitely want to get into this new way of retrieving your news and you DEFINITELY should check out Pluck.

Use your favorite Podcatcher to automatically download new video and audio tips as they come! Subscribe to the Podcast and automatically download new video and audio tips as they come!

Big BioTech Center getting funded for Kaka’ako

From the Advertiser:

An association of local business interests yesterday received some federal government assistance to help develop a 300,000-square-foot life-sciences research center in Kaka’ako.

Honolulu-based Biotech Research Center LLC was awarded $11 million worth of tax credits to help attract financing for the estimated $150 million project.

It’s very cool to see a continued momentum in Hawaii Biotech and it looks like Kaka’ako is shaping up to be the epicenter. First you had Tissue Genesis locating in the Gold Bond Building (and in fact they moved into the killer office space that my other company CyberCom, Inc, had leased) and then the Medical School and now this.

I would be very interested in knowing more about what unique advantages Hawaii can bring to the Biotech industry. Why does it make business sense for a BioTech company to do business here? The better we can answer this question, the tighter a point we can focus our resources on.