This is where I'm at right now. Getting the user interface looking part way there. Displaying some results, gathering and processing some stats. I've used made up data, obviously, but tried to get it to be kinda accurate of a few months in use.

Next is the way ads are created (mainly by the kids themselves) and uploaded, by the oppo. With initial data for management.

Then, how you (the Head, parent, or governor) present your sales pitch with a dozen 6 year old children, to the manager of the local Tescos. (Gotta get them leaderboard sized ads sold ;-) I'm sure you could get the local superstore to buy £360 of space for 10,000 showings.

Bodnant at worst day 50 hits per day would show it for 6 months.

Craig y Don, at top rate 1,500 hits per day would show it for 6 days!

The data in the thumbnail assumes that more local shops, double glazing, metal bashing, hotels, sports centres, hairdressers, mortgage consultants... Will plump for the £60 and £40 packs — the little ads on the left of the screen shot.


# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 10:16:28 PM to the Ads for schoools dept.
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BannerAd plugin version 0.1

Leeds' Pudsey Grangefield Maths & Computing College: Serving The Community: "Well done to our Year 10 students who acted as official stewards for this week's global event at Leeds Civic Hall. Monday October 2nd was celebrated across the world as 'International Day of the Older Person', with our students helping out at the Leeds event."

Good to see kids pulling their weight.

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 12:35:50 PM to the Community dept.
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Leeds kids help

The inaugural post form this Tameside school: PTA Annual General Meeting: "This meeting is to elect the Officers for the forthcoming year. The PTA raise vital funds to support the school and all its activities."

There'll be loads more coming out of this school soon. And, I love the graphic design... Who did that? Heh! 'Twas I ;-)

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 12:35:41 PM to the Community dept.
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Moorside Primary starts

I've moved things about on Craig y Don's front page (you'll need to click the new CSS 3 column with ads link on the Don of the yellow Craig y Don graphic).

We're not too far off getting real customers and much needed income from the site!

Cash for blogging! Heh.

The children will make the adverts, with crayons, it'll be scanned in, uploaded, reduced, added to the list of revolving ads along with details of how many impressions the advertiser has bought. Easy.

All Craig y Don then have to do, is keep each format/ad position full of advertisers. Each ad will randomly show till they run out of paid page impressions.
# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 12:09:47 PM to the Ads for schoools dept.
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Rearranged graphics for ads

Engadget: Cheap portable podcasting gear? "I'd like to be able to get away with under $200, mic included. Tips on selecting podcasting hardware would be SO welcome."

I've read this thread, and it seems that the Sony Minidisc is the way to go. The Minidisc is cheap on eBay at less than £30. But I don't know about getting it off and converted to MP3. {Later: I find out that there's too, too, too many steps with the Sony format of ATRAC. You need to use SonicStage to convert to WAV, then something else to MP3.]

The iRiver also came out well in the Edgadet thread, but it's interface was hard — apparently. Though the iRiver looking good in this 2005 PodcastPickle thread. The 799 and 890 look good. [I'll have to come back to the eBay search]

Whichever, it's down to the best mic that is affordable.

However, this thread was from 2005. So, there may still be a better, more current answer out there.

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 11:12:33 AM to the Podcasting dept.
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Cheap portable podcasting gear?

About.com: How to Create Your Own Podcast - A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Podcasting: "If, after you have downloaded and tried Audacity you think it is still too complicated for your situation, there is another alternative. Windows has its own recording utility called Sound Recorder which is just about the easiest way I know to record just voice."

I tried Audacity for my very first podcasts, years ago. It was complex, for me, who knew nothing about sound. I want completely easy, zero learning curve for my lovely, non-geek Heads. Otherwise it just won't happen. Even with the above method, they'd need a long, long extension from computer to assembly hall. They'd have to convert from WAV to MP3 too. Too, too, too many steps. (Though there is an app that's better than the default Windows recorder, but not so complex as Audacity, but it's $27.)

But this a cheap way.

And this is a good (USB) microphone at $79. So, with this method, we're looking at about £40 total.

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 10:13:52 AM to the Podcasting dept.
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Or, with a computer and a mic

Another new product: Samson Zoom H4: "The Zoom H4 Handy Digital Recorder fits in your palm and is ideal for recording live musical performances, interviews, podcasts, meetings, classes and seminars. The H4 features two studio-quality electret condenser microphones configured in an X/Y pattern for true stereo recording. It also includes 2 combination XLR-1/4-inch input jacks with phantom power for use with any external microphones of your choice. And the H4 is loaded with onboard studio effects such as compression, limiting and mic modeling. An 1/8-inch headphone jack is also provided for monitoring.

The H4 records on to Secure Digital (SD) media, a 128MB SD card is included with the unit. With a 2GB SD memory card, the H4 provides up to 380 minutes of recording in 16-bit mode (CD Quality), and 34 hours in MP3 stereo mode. And to move your recordings to a PC or Mac, the H4 includes a USB mass-storage interface.

The H4 provides four hours of continuous recording operation from 2 AA batteries."

Another expensive beast, still, it's less than the Sony, at $299 — don't know if this price is available in Blighty, as I see it at £240.

What I like about both of these is, you can create your MP3 then put it straight onto your computer (loaded as a mass storage device) and you're done. No editing, balancing or any other software required. Just uploaded straight from there.

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 9:27:46 AM to the Podcasting dept.
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Samson Zoom H4

I've decided to look into recording devices. Since I know zip about them, since I want Bodnat and Craig y Don to do podcasts of their morning assemblies. So I've started a new news department, called Podcasting. I may start my own podcasting too. We'll see.

Wired: Listening Post: "The HHB FlashMic DRM85 saves up to 1GB of audio as 16-bit WAV files (32 kHz, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz) or in the MP3 format (128, 160, or 192 Kbps). It has an omnidirectional mic with an Automatic Gain Control option, solid sound fidelity specs, a headphone output, an LCD, and large, simple to use buttons. Each recording gets a timestamp in its file name, and the whole shebang mounts as a USB mass storage device on Macs and PCs."

At $1300 or £689 It is very expensive, still, it's just the job to record morning assemblies.

Endgaget thinks that the amount of compression you'd use to make a small MP3 would negate the quality of this mic's recording. (They also have it at $1,200.)

# Posted by Steve Hooker at 4/10/06; 9:05:10 AM to the Podcasting dept.
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Expensive recording device