Live From the Formosa Tea House, Session Four

We recorded Live From the Formosa Tea House: Episode 4 this afternoon over lunch. At the Formosa Tea House. Live.

We recorded in the coveted back room of the Formosa, with a very simple technical setup. We all sat around Dan JamesAPEX435 microphone, which ran into Steven Garrity’s Behringer Eurotrack UB802 mixer. We took the output of the mixer and plugged it into my iMic, which was plugged into a USB port on my laptop. I did the recording in Sound Studio, saved as an AIFF file, then imported the file into iTunes and converted to an MP3 (24 kbps mono, VBR medium quality).

This episode runs one and a half hours. It didn’t feel “too long” when we were recording it, so we’ve decided to release it completely unedited to maintain the “three guys having lunch” feel. It may feel too long to listen to. Things we discuss:

  • Our technical setup.
  • Recent travels by Dan to Peru and Peter to France and upcoming travel by Steven to London and Paris (for his honeymoon). [starts 2:42]
  • London bombings, “terrorists are people too.” [starts 28:30]
  • Steven’s Canon PowerShot S330 digital camera motor goes bad [starts 36:00]
  • Queen Street Commons update (and QSC vs. ATC). [starts 37:15]
  • An extended riff on the differences between employees, entrepreneurs and freelancers, the responsibility to be “open” about what we do, charging for “mind share” vs. “billing by the hour,” refusing to write proposals for new projects, “adults don’t really know what’s going on,” how we price our services, how we select our clients. [starts 43:50]
  • Steven is getting married. [starts 1:13:00]
  • Wikis, Wikipedia coverage of London bombings, the Rukapedia, the silverorange wiki. [starts 1:14:48]
  • A brief mention of Plazes. [starts 1:28:45]

You can subscribe to the Live from the Formosa Tea House RSS feed if you want to become a regular listener. We’re also in the iTunes 4.9 podcast directory — just search for Formosa.

Comments

Chris Corrigan's picture
Chris Corrigan on July 13, 2005 - 22:17 Permalink

The great thing about getting these up so fast is that I can listen while I eat MY lunch on the west coast. Your podcast and developer skills move at the speed of the sun.

Thanks!

Daniel Von Fange's picture
Daniel Von Fange on July 13, 2005 - 22:25 Permalink

Best raido show ever. :)

Chris Corrigan's picture
Chris Corrigan on July 13, 2005 - 23:32 Permalink

This is a great conversation…i like the way it starts to roll once you guys let go of the three-way interview and get into a conversation. I’m drifting in and out — more like eavesdropping than intensively listening, and that’s good. Piqued by the definitions of entrepreneurship (I think it’s becasue you guys don’t put a premium on competition, by the way. I haven’t been able to call myself an entrepreneur either for this reason). Also, I liked the stuff on rukapedia, mobile working and the stuff about proposals. It says something about the growth and depth of a company that you ignore RFPs. I gave up on them a couple of years ago after not winning any as well AND having ideas stolen out of the proposals. Ironic as I would have willing ly given them away.

Anyway…thanks for the chat!

Marian's picture
Marian on July 14, 2005 - 15:08 Permalink

Thanks for that. I am also planning a trip that will involve a stopover in London. I have no fear of travelling there though. On the other hand, it’s interesting to hear what others are saying. Londoners have lived through many incidents like this (though this one is particularly bad) over the years what with the IRA etc.. I don’t think the risks are very high, especially for travellers.

Kevin O's picture
Kevin O on July 14, 2005 - 19:43 Permalink

1 vote for unedited.