Dr. Bill.TV #429 – Video – “The Keeping Alexa Quiet but Slightly Off Edition!”

LibreOffice 6.0 is out! Podcast listeners tracked by Apple; it’s time for a bit of a rant! YouTubeTV starts streaming on Roku, GSotW: UrBackup! StarGate: Origins trailer, Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 in usage, keeping Alexa quiet during the Super Bowl.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

UrBackup


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Dr. Bill.TV #429 – Audio – “The Keeping Alexa Quiet but Slightly Off Edition!”

LibreOffice 6.0 is out! Podcast listeners tracked by Apple; it’s time for a bit of a rant! YouTubeTV starts streaming on Roku, GSotW: UrBackup! StarGate: Origins trailer, Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 in usage, keeping Alexa quiet during the Super Bowl.

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

TechPodcasts Network

International Association of Internet Broadcasters

Blubrry Network

Dr. Bill Bailey.NET

UrBackup


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)








Streaming MP3 Audio

Streaming Ogg Audio

Download M4V Download WebM Download MP3 Download Ogg
(Right-Click on any link above, and select “Save As…” to save the Netcast on your PC.)

You may also watch the Dr. Bill.TV Show on these services!

 

Dr. Bill.TV on YouTube Dr. Bill.TV on Vimeo

 


Keeping Alexa Quiet

Shhhh...Amazon uses undetectable audio cues to keep Alexa quiet during commercials.

Amazon has a neat trick for keeping Alexa quiet during its Super Bowl ad

Android Central – By: Joe Maring– “Previous commercials from other companies have used assistant hot words in intrusive ways, but Amazon’s done something special to ensure that your Alexa doesn’t continually go off when its ad is airing.

All the way back in September of 2014, Amazon published a patent by the name of ‘Audible command filtering.’ The patent describes two different methods for preventing Alexa from waking up when its name is said, and of the two, Amazon went with one that sends out an acoustic tone – not noticeable by humans – to cue Alexa to remain silent.

Amazon started to really push its Echo speakers with short advertisements about a year ago, and shortly after this, Reddit user Aspyhackr decided to investigate why the ads weren’t triggering their Echo even though they clearly say ‘Alexa’ at one point or another. After running a few tests, they were able to conclude (and confirm through tests), that the commercials send out audio signals anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000Hz so that Alexa doesn’t respond with a command.

The same technique will be used during Sunday’s game, and while it’s not technically new, it’s a nice reminder that there’s more to Amazon’s commercials than meets the eyes (or voice).”

Windows 10 Surpasses Windows 7

Windows 7 - Windows 10
Windows 10 has finally surpassed Windows 7 in usage… this is good news for security.

StatCounter: Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 in usage share

VentureBeat – By: Emil Protalinski – “Windows 10 has overtaken Windows 7 in usage share. The milestone was reached some 29 months after the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft first debuted, according to StatCounter.

Specifically, Windows 10 started the year with 42.78 percent usage share (up 1.09 points from 41.69 percent), while Windows 7 fell to 41.86 percent (down 0.03 points from 41.89 percent). Windows 8.1 followed with 8.72 percent (down 0.34 points from 9.16 percent), Windows XP had 3.36 percent (down 0.24 points from 3.60 percent), Windows 8 had 2.44 percent (down 0.42 points from 2.86 percent), and Windows Vista brought up the rear with 0.74 percent (up 0.04 points from 0.70 percent).

Windows 10 adoption started out very strong, but it naturally slowed down as the months progressed. The operating system was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks, passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, 400 million after 14 months, 500 million after 21 months, and 600 million after 27 months.

Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too. Microsoft has released four major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, and Fall Creators Update. Because these updates are free and include new functionality, Windows 10 is more attractive than its predecessors, further helping its adoption.

StatCounter measures usage market share by examining aggregate data of about 10 billion pageviews per month across its network of over 2 million websites. The results thus show which platforms are used the most, as opposed to which ones have the most users (for user market share, you’ll want to look at data from Net Applications). Put another way, StatCounter is saying Windows 10 is used more than Windows 7, when looking at total pages visited, but it may or may not have more users — one person naturally visits more than one page.

Net Applications places Windows 10 and Windows 7 at 28.19 percent and 44.81 percent market share, respectively. Given it passed 25 percent mark almost a year ago, Windows 10 is unlikely to take the market share crown this year.”

Geek Software of the Week: UrBackup!

UrBackup Web Site
Free, Open Source Backup available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It can back up a running machine and create an image backup that you can then use to do a bare metal restore!

https://www.urbackup.org

“UrBackup is an easy to setup Open Source client/server backup system, that through a combination of image and file backups accomplishes both data safety and a fast restoration time.

File and image backups are made while the system is running without interrupting current processes.

UrBackup also continuously watches folders you want backed up in order to quickly find differences to previous backups. Because of that, incremental file backups are really fast.

Your files can be restored through the web interface, via the client or the Windows Explorer while the backups of drive volumes can be restored with a bootable CD or USB-Stick (bare metal restore).

A web interface makes setting up your own backup server really easy.

  • Fast. The custom client makes fast file and image backups possible. The client, for example, continuously watches file changes, so that only few files have to be looked at during incremental file backups.
  • Web interface. The backup server has an integrated web interface that shows the status of the clients, current activities and statistics. Existing file backups can be browsed and files from these backups can be extracted or restored.
  • Easy to setup. The backup server can be configured via web interface. The client via a user interface. The client can be configured from the server, making the client user interface optional.
  • Consistent backups while in use. UrBackup backups your computer while you use it. Open files, like Outlook .pst files, get backed up without problems. The image backups are done while the system is running and in use as well.
  • Space efficient. If multiple clients have the same files the UrBackup server saves them only once, leading to reduced storage requirements.
  • Backups via Internet. UrBackup can easily be configured to also backup clients via Internet. This enables backups of mobile devices wherever they currently are. You can also use UrBackup to only backup via Internet.
  • Free Software. UrBackup is Free Open Source software licensed under the OSI certified AGPLv3+. As long as you adhere to the terms and conditions of the license you are allowed to use and redistribute UrBackup in a personal and commercial setting.
  • Multi-platform. UrBackup server currently runs on Windows, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and several Linux based NAS operating systems. The UrBackup client runs on Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.

Here is my local UrBackup Web Management Screen:

UrBackup Web Management Screen

Google Begins YouTubeTV Feed on Roku

YouTubeTV on RokuIt took a while, but it is finally here! If you are a YouTubeTV subscriber, you can now watch on your Roku.

YouTube’s live TV starts streaming on Roku devices

Engadget – By: Jon Fingas – “Google is living up to its promise of making native YouTube TV apps available for the media hub of your choice. You can now add a YouTube TV channel on ‘select’ Roku devices, giving you the service’s usual range of live broadcasts, a cloud DVR and the other perks of the cord cutter service. There isn’t any mention of Roku-specific features, but the allure is really the freedom to watch in your living room using a device explicitly meant for a laid-back viewing experience.

There’s no mention of how close the Apple TV app might be. However, Google had promised both that and the Roku app in early 2018. The chances are that you won’t have to wait long to watch however you like. That’s crucial for a live TV offering that’s growing quickly, but still has a small-enough base that added support could be a big deal.”

A YouTube Rant!

Grumpy CatOkay folks, it’s time for a bit of a rant! For those of you that are not aware YouTube has, in the past, paid YouTube creators based on ad revenue generated by people watching their videos on YouTube. At least that’s how it’s been up to this point. You have to enroll in their monetization program, and agree to allow ads to be shown during your videos. You can opt out of this, and you might want to if you’re a non-profit organization. However, it has always been beneficial to earn at least a little revenue off of people watching your videos. This was a nice feature for those of us that put videos up on YouTube.

However, YouTube has just changed the rules to make it harder to be eligible for monetization on your YouTube channel. In order to qualify you have to have at least 1000 subscribers, and those subscribers must have watched at least 4000 hours of your videos over the last year. Now, for those of us that have small channels, and less than 1000 subscribers, we are eliminated from any monetization opportunities on YouTube!

Now, to be fair, I have never made much money off of YouTube videos. In fact, months go by before any ad revenues generate enough financial benefit for them to pay out anything. It was kind of nice to occasionally get a check for a small amount of money that can then be used to offset the cost of equipment, items I might be reviewing, and other various costs involved in producing a channel. It never rose to the level of earning enough money to support myself by YouTube. However, to me that’s not the point. If ads are going to be shown on my channel, and people are going to be watching them, then why would I not get a cut of those ad revenues? It only seems fair to me, no matter how few are watching, or how many are subscribed.

But, this is not the way YouTube is looking at it. From my point of view, it seems to me, that this will cause less people to post videos and express themselves via YouTube. Overall, this would seem to be counterproductive to YouTube itself. This is because the content that small providers generate is what gives YouTube the content that people like to watch.

Anyway, I think it’s a shame that this has happened, though I don’t call it the “death of YouTube” as some people have! YouTube will continue and small providers, like me, will probably continue to produce videos, perhaps not as enthusiastically as before, but as an outlet for self-expression. YouTube is out there, and we will keep using it!

Apple’s iTunes Analytics Show Podcast Listeners Are Out There!

PodcastsYou folks ARE out there listening to podcasts!

Podcast Listeners Really Are the Holy Grail Advertisers Hoped They’d Be

Wired – By: Miranda Katz – “Misha Euceph was nervous. The public radio producer had started a podcast as a side project in early 2017, and the exploration of her experience as a Pakistani-American immigrant had taken off faster than she’d ever imagined, making its way to the top 50 in the Society & Culture category on Apple’s Podcasts chart and attracting some big-name advertisers. But the same question that has long plagued many podcasters nagged at the back of Euceph’s head: Were people actually listening all the way through her show? Were the ‘midroll’ ads that played throughout an episode breaking up the narrative? When she finally got detailed data on how people listened to Beginner, would she have to rethink the way she structured her show?

Since the beginning of the current podcast boom, often attributed to 2014’s Serial, data on how people listen to podcasts has remained woefully scarce, even as advertising spending climbed to an estimated $220 million in 2017. When Apple Podcasts announced last year that it would soon be offering podcasters more data on their listenership, some worried it would force a ‘reckoning’—and possibly an ‘ad apocalypse,’ if brands decided that the fledgling new medium wasn’t worth their dollars, after all.

Apple’s Podcast Analytics feature finally became available last month, and Euceph—along with podcasters everywhere—breathed a sigh of relief. Though it’s still early days, the numbers podcasters are seeing are highly encouraging. Forget those worries that the podcast bubble would burst the minute anyone actually got a closer look: It seems like podcast listeners really are the hyper-engaged, super-supportive audiences that everyone hoped.

Forget those worries that the podcast bubble would burst the minute anyone actually got a closer look: It seems like podcast listeners really are the hyper-engaged, super-supportive audiences that everyone hoped.

‘I think some people had an apocalyptic fear that, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to get this data and see no one’s listening,” says Erik Diehn, CEO of Midroll Media. Thanks to surveys and data from Stitcher, Midroll’s distribution platform, the podcast network had long felt confident that a nightmare scenario was unlikely—and now thanks to Podcast Analytics, Diehn says, it’s finally indisputable fact. On average, according to Midroll’s data, podcast listeners are making it through about 90 percent of a given episode, and relatively few are skipping through ads.

Across the podcast ecosystem, the results are similarly uplifting. At Panoply, home to podcasts like Slate’s Political Gabfest and Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, CTO Jason Cox says that listeners are typically getting through 80-90 percent of content; the same is true at Headgum, the podcast network started by Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld. Those numbers tend to be steady regardless of the length of the show—and according to Panoply, the few listeners who do skip ads continue to remain engaged with the episode, rather than dropping off at the first sign of an interruption. ‘I think people are overall very relieved to see that people are actually listening the way that we hoped,’ says Headgum CTO Andrew Pile. ‘There are really audiences out there who listen to every word that comes out of [a host’s] mouth.’

So what does this all mean for podcast listeners? For starters, it means you don’t need to worry that your feed will become populated with shows nearly identical in structure and length as podcasters rush to optimize around the new data—the doomsday podcast equivalent of, say, pivoting to video. ‘What we’re not seeing is any glaring indication that all podcasts should be, say, 15 minutes and 30 secs long, and that’s the optimal length,’ says Cox. Quite the contrary, in fact: podcast enthusiasts may expect to see more experimentation in form over the coming months, as podcasters are now able to evaluate how their audiences respond when they drop an entire season at once or switch to a daily format for a week.

That’s exactly what Nastaran Tavakoli-Far did on her podcast, The Gender Knot. The first season of her show featured 45-minute episodes interspersed with shorter, newsier dispatches, but she suspected that the longer episodes were performing better—and Apple’s data confirmed that hunch. ‘It helped validate the decision to move back toward a 45-minute format,’ she says. Mark Pagán, host and producer of Other Men Need Help, has been similarly emboldened by Apple’s new tool: Though the first season of his show adhered to a three-act, roughly 20-minute structure, he’s now inspired to get a bit more playful and see what sticks. ‘To do something where it’s like, boom, this is a five-minute musical, and we’re just going to do that and see if this is engaging the same sort of listenership—it’ll be nice to be able to chart that a little bit easier,’ says Pagán.

On the business side, it’s likely that these high engagement rates and low levels of ad skipping will see a flood of new advertisers who have until now been reticent to enter the Wild West of podcasting—welcome news to anyone who feels about ready to throw their phone across the room any time they hear another ad for Squarespace or Casper. ‘What this will do now is give us a better story and more data to show to brands who maybe haven’t been in the podcasting space,’ says Panoply’s Cox.

There’s also reason to believe that ads on podcasts will become increasingly entertaining—something so organic to a show itself that you might not want to skip it. ‘When it really does feel like part of a show, there’s less of a skip rate, which just confirms what we’ve been telling advertisers for years and years,’ says Midroll’s Diehn, noting that when Earwolf put Hollywood Handbook on Stitcher Premium and removed the show’s ads, listeners actually complained. ‘Native spots in the style of the show keep people engaged, keep them from skipping, and now we have data that frankly proves it.’

Still, Apple’s new tool comes with caveats. For starters, it currently only counts users listening with devices that have been upgraded to iOS 11, so it’s best viewed as a representative sample of listeners, rather than hard data on how a show’s listenership is growing over time. And tracking ad-skipping is still a squishy business: Thanks to new technology that supports dynamic ad insertion, the length of a given ad break can vary depending on when a listener downloads a new episode, which can make it difficult to get an exact read on how many people might be skipping past the branded bits. But for a digital medium that’s had comically little data available to date, even slightly imprecise numbers will go a long way.

Podcasters and advertisers alike have long suspected that their listeners might just be a holy grail of engagement. The medium is inherently intimate, and easily creates a one-sided feeling of closeness between listener and host—the sense that the person talking into your ear on your commute is someone you know, whose product recommendations you trust, and whose work you want to support. Cox describes it as a ‘lean in’ medium: ‘People are really listening and want to consume all of the content that is there and available. There’s a level of dedication that comes from podcast listeners that you otherwise don’t find.’ And now the numbers prove it. Podcasts aren’t a bubble, they’re a boom—and that boom is only getting louder.”

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