Infertility Podcast & Blog

I was IM’ing with a friend of mine the other day who had just gotten a MacMini and she wanted to know what some of the apps that I use on my Mac so I figured I would share some of the apps I use on a day in day out basis. I won’t bore you with the Apple apps that I use, I’ll leave it to just to non Apple apps.

• AppZaper - This is a nice little app that will not only delete the app but it will also get rid of all of the other files that get left in your ~/Library directory
• Audio Hijack Pro - This app will allow you to record sound from any app into an MP3 file. This is a real life saver for the podcast since when we record interviews we are doing in interview in Skype and it’s a pain to get it converted into a mp3. Audio Hijack Pro makes it easy
• Fission - A great app for editing mp3 files with out loosing any compression of the file.
• Levelator - When you listen to an phone interview on the radio or podcast, don’t you hate it when the person on the phone sounds so low? Well Levelator takes care of the problem by leveling all of the sound. What’s better is that it’s free.
• Quicksilver - I mentioned and extolled this app a few days ago so ’nuff said.
• SuperDuper - A tremendous back up app that does incremental backups (they call it Smart Backup) and creates a bootable backup drive so you’ll never loose and down time.
• TextWrangler - A freeware text editing tool from the makers of TW’s big brother, BB Edit.
• DragCopy - I spoke about this Mac Gem yesterday
• VirtueDesktop - Until Leopard (MacOS 10.5) is released and with it Apple’s iteration of virtual desktops called spaces, VirtueDesktop is the next best thing.
• Visual Hub - The shareware version of iSquint which will allow you to take any video and convert it to any type of player be it DVD, iPod etc
• VLC - The only way to watch downloaded video since there is no mussing about with finding the correct codecs
• Firefox - The best browser out there and with the googlesync extension, I have the same set of bookmarks at home and at the office.

Tags: Apple by aaron
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After Malky and I complete a podcast or an interview with a guest, she likes to listen to the raw cut. In the old day (when she had a Windows machine) we had been taking my usb key and copying the file the good old fashioned “sneakernet” method. When Malky got her Mac Mini I moved the file to my public folder and she had to try and get it from there. It became quite a hastle.

A few days ago, I was listening to a Macworld podcast featuring Rob Griffths (of MacOSXHints fame) and Dan Frakes (of the MacGems blog) which focused on Mac Gems, little apps that you may not know about but are very, very useful. One app that they were talking about really caught my eye ear. It’s called DropCopy and it’s from 10base-T Interactive. How it works is quite simple. Once the app is installed on your machines, there is a small semi-transparent hole that appears. All that you need to do is drag the file you want to send into the hole. At that point a list shows up of who is on your network and then you drag the file over the name of who you are sending the file. DragCopy will then send the file over to the user and when the file has transferred completely, they get notified. If you are in the habit of transferring files from one mac to another, dropcopy is the way to go.

Tags: Apple, Technology by aaron
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While I am at home using my Mac, I hardly use the dock anymore thanks to the wonderful software called Quicksilver. When I am at work however, I am still stuck using Windows and have been itching for a way to not have my fingers leave the keyboard.

Well last week, while reading John Gruber’s blog, he mentioned some open source software called Launchy. After taking a look at the website I decided to download it and install the software. And now, two days in to using the launcher, I have to say that I am in love. No longer do I have to navigate through menus to find what software I need to run. All I have to do is press a simple keyboard combination (alt+spacebar is the default but I set it to crtl+spacebar to mimic Quicksilver) and the software runs. It’s amazing what a difference it can make. If you aren’t using something along these lines already, I highly suggest that you give Launchy a try.

Tags: General, Technology, Work by aaron
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Last night, Malky noticed a really major problem with the podcast. It’s now fixed so please download again and enjoy listening. I apologize for the problem.

Tags: General, Podcast by aaron
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Malky and I deliver the infertility news from the past two weeks and interview infertility blogger Karen from the “My Perky Ovaries” blog.

Have a thought or comment about the show? We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to send email to podcast@benedictfamily.org or leave a comment on our blog post.

• Egg Rebates
• Article on Blogging
• Israeli Clinic
• First Test Tube Baby becomes a mother
• The Island
• My Perky Ovaries
• Intro and end music by John Benedict

Tags: Podcast by aaron
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I don’t know if you can tell or not, but there was a slight change that happened to the blog on Friday. We upgraded from Word Press 2.0.? to 2.1 and the upgrade went off with out a hitch. Many thanks to my good friend T.J. Fontaine from ATX Consulting for

• hosting the site and the podcasts and
• taking care of the upgrades for me

Additionally, I wanted to thank P3 for helping me get my website stats to make a lot more sense.

Tags: General by aaron
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I, malky have just added a list of infertility blogs that I’ve been following and learning a lot from. Some have primary infertilty, some secondary and some women are expecting after experiencing infertility. Check them out and let us know if you like them!

Tags: Podcast by malky
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Ah 13, such a lucky number, if your last name happens to be Munster. Malky and I are very excited about our upcoming show. We have about 80% of the episode done and we should be finishing up in the next few days and hope to have the episode uploaded on Sunday. In this episode we have an interview with Karen from the blog My Perky Ovaries. Plus we’ll have the news and maybe some surprises, so don’t forget to download!

Tags: Podcast by aaron
1 Comment »

As I mentioned in the previous post, there were conflicting reports about who the new coach for the Steelers was going to be. It’s now confirmed that it is Mike Tomlin. This means that the Tribune Review was way off on their report from yesterday.

What is really interesting is that when you go to the link of the Trib’s article you get nothing but a blank page. It is as if the article had never existed at all. And if you look at the Trib’s sports page, there is no indication about yesterday’s report at all.

This is embarrassing and not the way to handle a situation like this in any way, shape, or form. The Trib really needs to come clean and admit that it blew it big time with that shoddy reporting.

Tags: General, Sports, Steelers by aaron
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It looks like the Steelers have selected their next coach. The major question is who will it actually will be? There seem to be dueling reports about who the new coach is going to be. According to both SI.com and ESPN.com are saying that the Steelers have selected the Viking’ defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin as the new coach. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting that the Steelers have selected Russ Grimm. Everyone is sticking to their story right now ad it will be interesting to see who falls flat on their face and has to retract their report.

It’s no secret that I thought Grimm would be getting the job but it seems that Tomlin really impressed during his interview and is considered by many in the league as a rising star. I have to say that I do have concerns about Tomlin’s defensive scheme (although there would be some symmetry since the “Tampa Two defense” originated in Pittsburgh with Bud Carson and during the 1970’s when Tony Dungey was a Safety on the team) but based on the Rooney’s track record the past 28 years, I have faith that they will pick the correct coach for the team.

Update: From the Post-Gazette:

“At this point and time, the Steelers have not concluded a contract agreement with a new head coach, nor do we expect to do so today. There will be no other announcements from this office today.”

Update 2: According to the P-G it’s Tomlin (hat tip: Honestwagner)

Tags: Sports, Steelers by aaron
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