I had the chance to take the Samson Zoom H4 portable digital recorder for a test drive in December (thank you to Steve’s Music in Ottawa). At first glance it looks to be a distant cousin of the Sony PCM-D1 — at a fraction of the cost.

The Zoom H4 has many of the same features as its direct competitors — the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 and Edirol R-1 (I can’t bring myself to consider the R-09 to be in the same league) which include internal mics that capture a great sonic spectrum and have nice stereo definition, and an interface that’s easy to understand.

There are significant bonuses with the H4. This device comes with two combination XLR-1/4″ inputs with phantom power (a huge feature), a built in limiter and other digital processing effects, and four-track recording with amp modelling (for all you musicians out there). All that and it fits in the palm of your hand.

The downside to the H4 is that the switches at the side of the unit are stiff, and I found the “joystick” control to feel delicate — I was concerned about breaking it.

The Zoom H4 is a great addition to the market and offers yet another great option for anyone looking to buy a portable recorder. Be sure to consider all features carefully and pick the unit that best suits your needs.

It’s like a wild case of deja vu.  Last year around this time I was getting ready for a possible work-related trip to Vancouver.  That trip was delayed and delayed until it finally fell through.  This time, I actually have tickets booked.  I’ll be leaving PodCamp Toronto early on the February 25th to catch my flight and I’ll be in Vancouver at 4:30pmPT.

Anyone interested in a meetup in the evening of February 25th?

If you are running the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin (version 3.1415926) on your WordPress site, you should know that there is a bug when you upgrade to WordPress 2.1 that results in the disappearance of UTW tags from a post when a comment is submitted.

The good news is, there is a fix published on moeffju.net.

I met Vivian Vasquez at Podcasters Across Borders. At the time, I thought that Vivian was there in loving support of her husband, Andy Bilodeau (AndyCast). Who knew that she was soon to be Podcasting?

Vivian started the CLIP (Critical Literacy in Practice) Podcast in July 2006. It’s a natural way to share her incredible knowledge about literacy as it is practiced in different spaces and places, and to strengthen an established community (I’m guessing that makes her a pioneer). What makes Vivian extraordinary among Podcasters is that she isn’t just Podcasting; Podcasting is becoming a central way for Vivian to both communicate and educate. That is, Vivian is using Podcasts — both her own and others — as part of the syllabus for a course she teaches at American University.

Podcasting offers amazing opportunities to make a difference and Vivian is definitely finding creative ways to make it work for her and the community to which she belongs.

Several people have asked why I haven’t yet blogged about the upcoming Grammy performance of The Police, my favourite band. The fact is, I don’t know what to say. Actually, that’s not entirely true; I’ll be pissed if they don’t tour.

I have had the unique privilege of interviewing the brothers Copeland — Ian, Stewart and Miles — for my Electric Sky Podcast. Perhaps it’s time for me to dig through the recordings and publish the outtakes.

Anyone have connections so that I can interview Andy and Sting?

Tomorrow night, Bob Goyetche and I will be recording episode 50 of the Canadian Podcast Buffet. If you want to be part of the show, be sure to get your audio comment to canadianpodcastbuffet@gmail.com tomorrow before 7pmET.

Thanks to Charles Hodgson (Podictionary) for alerting me to the fact that my email subscription block was broken, and thanks to Matt of Feedburner for helping troubleshoot and fix the problem.

Email subscriptions to this site are back in service.

It’s hard to believe that PodCamp Toronto is in less than a month. It looks like it will be a great event with great people.

I’m on the board for three presentations:

• Building a community - Mark Blevis and Bob Goyetche - Branding is an important part of establishing your identity. Podcasting affords opportunities to leverage your brand to build a community of interest with active members and regular correspondence and dialog. This presentation shares ideas and real-life accounts of how a Podcast can be used to build a community.

• Editing Techniques and Decisions - Mark Blevis - Demonstrations and tangible examples to make sense of what Bruce Murray once dubbed “Blevis-ian editing”.

• Making a difference: What Return on Influence (ROI) really means - Whitney Hoffman, Chris Brogan and Mark Blevis discuss how you can use your influence and think beyond revenue models.

If there is anything in particular that you would like to hear about during any one of these sessions, send an email or drop a comment on this post and I will see what I can do. I am planning on Podcasting the audio of my sessions.

Julien Smith has launched his long awaited Listen to your Kids Podcast. This initiative has only one thing going for it, and that’s all it needs; Listen to your Kids connects the dots — that’s far more powerful than it sounds.

Connected… Listen to your Kids gives children of all ages the platform to, anonymously, say what they would like to say to their own parents and feel that they have been heard; this at a time when many people feel that even their screams go unnoticed by their parents.

Connected… Listen to your Kids is a vehicle for parents who want to make a difference to actually do something about it. I expect, though, that only those who are honest with themselves, and confident and strong, will actually be able to hear what is being said.

Connected… Listen to your Kids allows anyone to understand what children of all ages are struggling with in life.

Connected… Listen to your Kids takes existing technology and makes it easy to use. Call and talk; subscribe and listen.

And to prove its value, Listen to your Kids is absolutely free.

You’d think I’d know better.  You’re wrong. For some reason I decided to upgrade this site to WordPress 2.1 before my band practice. Of course, the Listens and Reads blocks aren’t displaying the links they should be, the header is displaying links it shouldn’t be, and now I have to run out.

Things will be back to normal as soon as possible.