Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ

Q. How do I listen to a show or interview. I don't want to load any podcast software.

A. When you see the "Listen to this interview/show" link on a page you have 2 options.

1) Left-click on that link and the MP3 audio file will start downloading to your system. This may take a while because some of the files are large.

When the download is complete, your default MP3 music player will launch (maybe MusicMatch or Windows Media Player or...) and start playing it like any other music/sound file.

2) You can right-click on that same link and a window will pop up with several choices including some kind of Save option like "Save Target as".

If you choose to save the file, it will download the file to your system and you can play it at that time, save it for later, burn it to a CD or whatever you like to do with audio files.

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Q. I click on the link to Listen to an Interview and nothing happens.

A. Actually something is happening. The audio files are relatively large compared to other items you may download, so they may take several minutes to download to your system depending on your internet connection speed.

This may be happening behind another open browser window. Sometimes people click on the link more than once, causing several instances to download. There is no need to do that - it just slows it down.

When the file is completely downloaded to your system, your default music (MP3) player will launch and start playing the show.

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Q. When I click on the orange PODCAST link to subscribe, I am taken to a page with a bunch of code. Is that an error?

A. That's how it works. That page has the information that podcast software needs. If you want to subscribe to the podcast feed, you need to have some software that will serve as a podcast reader.

We like iPodder (now called Juice) because it's free and there are versions for the PC, Mac and Linux. But there are many other podcast software applications.

If you just want to listen to the shows, see the other FAQs.

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Q. Does it tie up my computer when I listen to a show?

A. No. One of the benefits of an audio show is that you can do other things while listening. So just like you can listen to a music CD in your system while working on something else, you can do other things while listening to a show or waiting for it to download.

Of course if you have a really old system, it may slow down the other applications a bit but most fairly current systems will have no problem in multitasking.

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Q. How often do you put up a new show?

A. The target is to have one new episode of the Great Lakes Geek show every week. In reality, we may have more than that or, occasionally, less.

In addition, there may be new profile interviews added at any time.

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Q. What's the difference between a show and a profile?

A. The show will usually be on a specific topic or feature people in a specific field. The show will be somewhat time sensitive and may become less relevant as time passes. So the shows will scroll off the podcast source list after a while. They will still be available in an archive of shows.

We are also capturing profiles of some very interesting people that will remain on the site as long as useful. These archived interviews are searchable and more permanent than the podcast show.

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Q. How come I am not listed in the Speaker's Bureau? I sent in my bio and the topics I can speak on

A. The Speaker's Bureau is a living, growing work in progress. We were inundated with bios of people who have a similar area of expertise; loosely defined as "business consultants."

We do not want to have the Speakers Bureau consist of 90% of this one type of speaker so until we get some categories defined they will be kept on hold.

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Q. Why isn't my organization's event listed in the Calendar?

A. Did you submit it? While we actively troll for business, tech and other events of interest we can't be aware of everything unless you tell us. An e-mail is fine. Even a URL with more info. But tell us.

If you did submit something and it's not in the listing, odds are we got it too late. If we receive something today for an event tomorrow, don't expect to see it listed. Ideally we'd like 3 weeks of lead time.

There's also a chance that your event could be turned down, at our discretion, if it doesn't fit the theme of the Great Lakes Geek site or is offensive in any way.

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