On the length of RSS feeds

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My friend in Prague, Václav Navrátil, wrote to me:

Hi Michael,

that is very difficult to say. RSS was designated as a way for syndication of content (I don’t know if you remember the big disputes few years back if RSS Feed should contain Full article or just the Lead paragraph), but Podcast RSS in fact Atom is the main way of publishing of the podcast and I think it should include all the episodes.

Some podcasts need to be ordered from the oldest to the newest (books), some from the newest to the oldest (Freedom Feeens) and some just need to publish last three episodes (weather forecast).

To support my argument, imagine a user which finds your podcast on some Podcast catalog, iTunes for example… The user has no chance easily (few clicks on their device) get the rest of the podcast to their device and to the podcast playing software. It is an inconvenience so big that it will discourage most of the users from listening to the older episodes.

RSS was designate to bring people on your site to consume the content there. Podcasts are consumed elsewhere. The feeds should reflect that. And it doesn’t bring any significant extra cost.

You are an experienced podcaster and I’m only a theorist which might be missing some important part of the riddle but this is how I see it.

V.

P. S.: I don’t want to start any pod beef over pod feed. 😉

—–

I replied toVáclav:
My choice is based on the opinion of my friend Evo Terra, who wrote the book “Podcasting for Dummies.” He knows more about Podcasting than anyone I know.

One issue is that some podcatchers will not download and process an RSS feed that is over 250 k. The Feens one is currently 237 k, if I included all episodes, it would be about a meg.

I’ll ask Evo if that limit has changed with time, and what his current opinion of it is. My feeling is that if someone wants all the episodes, they can grab them fairly easily from FreedomFeens.cz.

MWD

—–

I wrote Evo and asked him:

Hey Evo,
I know you used to recommend that a pod feed only contain like ten episodes. Has that change with time and advances in throughput and memory capacity?
Also, I know it used to be that some podcatchers would not download and process an RSS feed that was over 250 k, is that still the case, and if so, which podcatchers?
Thank you!
MWD
—–
Evo wrote back:
Technically, there is no length restrictions described in the RSS 2.0 spec document.
512K is the max file that Feedburner can handle, so there’s a practical limit. And some catchers may have an issue with very large files, but iTunes seems to be OK with it.
I haven’t had an active personal podcast for the last couple of years, Michael. But when I did, I kept the feed to 20 episodes and always included full show notes.

E.

 

regarding comments

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I didn’t delete any comments here. I moved my blogs this week over from DreamHost (too many problems) to HostGator (who rock). In doing so, all many of the comments disappeared on all many posts on all my blogs and podcasts. I’m trying to recover them, but this is a thing that happens. I’m working on it, but none of the workarounds I’ve tried so far have worked.

If anyone’s had this problem, and found a solution, I’m all ears.

Also, if you’re previously had a comment approved, you may have to get re-approved to post a comment again. So don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up immediately.
MWD

Downloadable QR code Stickers for Guns & Weed and for Freedom Feens

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Conceived and created by Václav Navrátil.

No copyright, feel free to reuse anywhere any time in any way. (You can get printable sticker sheet layouts for these in the folders here.)

Link to scan bar for FreedomFeens.cz:

Link to download scan bar for Guns and Weed – The Road To Freedom:

Link to scan bar for Freedom Feens:

Link to another scan bar for Freedom Feens:

 

This one links to the RSS feed for Freedom Feens. Users have the option to subscribe directly from their phone:

 

Tradução para Português (PT) do primeiro capítulo do livro deauto-ajuda, User’s Manual for the Human Experience, part 1 &2

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Tradução para Português (PT) do primeiro capítulo do livro deauto-ajuda, User's Manual for the Human Experience Flag of Portuga

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE. This is the foreword and chapter one AND CHAPTER TWO of Michael W. Dean’s self-help book, A USER’S MANUAL FOR THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE, translated into Portuguese. Tradução para Português por Ana “Kneazle” Ferreiro. The rest of the chapters will be coming later.

Topics: evitar o stress, ser feliz, ser uma boa pessoa, bloquear trolls da internet, lidar com idiotas, Limpar a sua vida de pessoas nocivas, como posso ser feliz, como posso fazer vida da arte, odeio música alta, aprender a ser um trabalhador independente, aprender a ser feliz, auto-ajuda libertária , viver uma vida boa, vida amorosa, vizinhos barulhentos, princípio da não-agressão, recuperação, auto-ajuda, parar o vício sem reuniões.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS BOOK:

“Part intellectual memoir, part self-help book. Michael W. Dean’s Practical Emotional Self-Defense (PESD) techniques flow from a wealth of life experiences, both positive and negative. ‘The Only Two Rules in Life’ have some radical, refreshing implications.”
–Jason Sorens, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, SUNY), founder of the Free State Project

“You owe yourself the opportunity to step outside your comfort zone and put yourself in the court with this modern-day Socrates.”
–Pastor Kenneth V. Blanchard, Sr., author of Black Man with a Gun

“I knew Michael Dean back in the day, when he was a 19-year-old punk rocker with an appetite for self-destruction. I honestly didn’t think he’d live to be 30. But guess what? It turns out that Michael isn’t just a survivor; he’s a survivor who’s learned how to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness after recovery. For everyone who wants to know how to stay sane, develop a great work ethic, and make a mark on the world, Michael Dean has a great story to tell.”
–Professor Michael Bérubé, Ph.D. (Penn State), author of What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? and Life as We Know It

. This is Chapter, 1, FOREWORD and Chapter One, Greetings Eager Seeker

FOREWORD by Pastor Kenneth V. Blanchard, Sr, author of BLACK MAN WITH A GUN. This foreword is read by the good pastor. A hip Baptist preacher tells you why you don’t have to be afraid of Michael Dean, even though Michael doesn’t believe in Christ. And you also needn’t be afraid that Michael believes in SOMETHING if you believe in NOTHING. This ain’t about changing your mind, it’s about improving your life. CHAPTER ONE, Greetings Eager Seeker, read by the author, Michael W. Dean. Michael explains what you’re in for (it’s all good!), how he teaches (more like a friend sitting next to you than like a textbook), and what this book is about (cutting deadwood out of your life, getting rid of bad patterns, habits, and people. Then we teach you how to work smarter once you’ve cleaned house).

Creative Commons Attribution – Licença Não Comercial 3.0.

Get the audio book in English, here.

Get the PDF in English, here.

But who would take care of the roads?

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Regarding all the “How would the courts and policing work in LibPar (libertarian paradise)?” in many discussions I have, it comes down to the same arguments as “But who would take care of the roads without the government?” and “But who would feed grandma and starving children without the government?” ……

I’m really fond of something Stefan Molyneux said on this subject, I think it’s dead-on correct, better than anything else I’ve heard or come up with on my own, and it’s my new go-to argument in these situations….I’m paraphrasing, but it’s basically this:

Worrying about “How would it work” isn’t the real argument. The real argument is “Government is immoral, because government is based on aggression.” Dismissing a desire for the absence of government because of “How would it work?” is like someone in 1850 America saying “I’d like to get rid of slavery, but we can’t because the cotton won’t get picked.” No, you get rid of slavery because it’s the moral thing to do. Then the cotton gets picked anyway. People find a way.

I would add this: We don’t really KNOW how any of this would work in the absence of government, because they won’t let us try. They have a monopoly on all this stuff. I hate simplifying it to “the free market would take care of it”, but think about how computers were when only the government had them: they were slow, unreliable, required a team of scientists to run them, they cost millions of dollars and filled a building. Then the free market got a hold of computers, many great minds worked on them, and now the cheap iPhone that fits in your pocket is a far better computer then the giant government computers of 1955. Computers are the one major piece of technology that the government has had the least amount of monopoly involvement in. Cars haven’t advanced nearly that much, because the government so closely controls their production.

There is plenty of good conjecture of how cops and courts would work in LibPar, in fiction written by Heinlein or L. Neil Smith. But I think that worrying about the minutia of “how would it work?” is intellectual masturbation. It’s fun intellectual masturbation, and I’ve done a lot of it. But it’s not the really important thing.

The really important thing is teaching as many people as possible (especially young people) that all government is immoral, and teaching them why government is immoral (all nanny laws and all taxes are enforced with the threat of the gun and the cage, and you can’t opt out). That’s the basic nut of it. Once they get that, you can follow with examples of how things would work better without the government. But the moral argument is the most important part.

We need many more minds on the side of non-aggression before we can draw up the detailed blueprints for LibPar.

I only ever “debate” statists (including minarchists) if I think there’s a chance they may be statists only because of their schooling and that underneath they’re not. (Like I was.) If they cling to their statism, I don’t want to even be in the same room with them, let alone be in business with them. They are advocating theft, fraud and murder. I can’t hang with people like that.

I am not embarrassed that I was a “libertarian Republican” before becoming an anarchist. It allows me to speak to people who still believe in some state. It’s similar to how a recovering alcoholic does not hide his past, because it allows him to speak to the active drunk who’s still suffering and say “I’m not some doctor or priest or judge looking down at you, I AM you.”

Here’s the quote from AA that would also apply to the statists you can’t reach with logic: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way.”

In short, I’m done yammering with people about “how would roads (defense/police/etc.) work without the government?”. If you really need to hear my opinion on it, there’s hours of me talking about it in the older episodes of Freedom Feens. But repeating myself is a waste of energy, especially with people who won’t accept the basic fact that, no matter what, they’re advocating theft, fraud and murder by defending ANY amount of state.

–Michael W. Dean

 


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