Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast

You can now subscribe via e-mail

In response to a recent request, I have added the ability to subscribe to updates to this web site via e-mail through a free service called Feedblitz.  If you enter your e-mail address in the box in the "Contact Information" area on the right side of this page, you will be sent a confirmation e-mail, which, after you follow the link, will set you up to receive an e-mail message once a day with links to any new articles posted on this web site.  This provides an alternative for listeners who don't use RSS/news readers or who would prefer an e-mail notification of new shows.

As this is the first time I've enabled this Feedblitz service, any comments (positive or negative) are welcome (sent to the usual podcast e-mail address would be preferable).

New shows *are* on the way...

My apologies for the delay, folks, we actually have three shows recorded and in the post-production queue... #16 (recorded last week), #17 (recorded on Monday) and a lingering ETel interview.  Unfortunately, some severe deadlines on several fronts have cut into my time when I can produce the show, and so I've wound up a bit backlogged... thanks for your patience and more shows will be flowing soon.

iTunes/Feedburner problem with show #13

Unfortunately, when I initally posted show #13, Feedburner grabbed Shawn's PDF file and used that as the podcast enclosure.  I have now fixed this quickly, but for some people (including myself) your copy of iTunes has already grabbed the show and therefore does not seem to have any way to force it to reload if the podcast feed has changed.

I could post a new entry with the podcast MP3 file, but that will cause the vast majority of people to download the file a second time (since their copy of iTunes has not yet pulled down the show the first time, and now will get the corrected RSS feed).  To avoid this massive duplication, I am not going to repost it, which means that some folks whose iTunes grabbed it right away will unfortunately have to manually download it from the website.  My apologies.

The good news is that I have found out what I have to do to avoid this in the future.  (Essentially, I need to add rel="enclosure" to my first <a> tag where I reference the MP3 file.)  I've changed my template so that this should not happen again!  (He says hopefully...)

Many thanks to the listener who clued me in to this shortly after I posted it!  (Thank you!  While you will have to manually download the file, your prompt response has saved the vast majority from having to do so.  Thank you.)

Sigh... there are nights you just can't win...

As many of you may have noticed, iTunes or iPodder seems to be downloading something called "Problem with iTunes download of podcast #10".  This is, in fact, podcast #10.  That was also the original name for the article that is now "Blue Box Podcast #10 - Second Posting"... because I saw that iPodder and iTunes were downloading it with that name, I tried renaming the article, but that seems not to have worked.

Probably if I had deleted the "Problem with..." article and posted a new article it might have worked, but given that some small segment of you might then have wound up downloading show #10 a third time, I decided to not cause that hassle.  Fun, fun, fun...

(P.S. You won't here mention of this problem in show #11 as that show is in the bag... I was sitting down to do post-production tonight when I got Craig's e-mail that pointed me to these problems.)

Blue Box Podcast #10 - Second Posting

I wondered why the downloads for show #10 were so slow in coming...

Many of you have probably noticed by now that your podcast receiving software (iTunes, iPodder, etc.) downloaded a PDF file instead of the MP3 file for podcast #10.  This turns out to be a problem with how I had the content in the show notes.  It appears that Feedburner (the service we use for our RSS feed) must simply take the last link  that points to a non-text object and packages that up as the enclosure for download.  In this case, I had a link to a PDF file somewhere later in the text and that was apparently taken.  It seems rather strange, as I'm sure we had PDF files in links before, but this is the only explanation I can think of.

In any event, I repeated the reference to the MP3 file at the bottom of the post and that seems to have fixed the feed.  Now, unfortunately, it seems the only way I can force podcast receivers to download the new episode is to re-post the MP3 file for podcast #10 as part of a new post (i.e. this one). So I have done that in this message - but it may mean that some of you will wind up downloading the episode twice. (It is all a matter of timing - if you already downloaded the PDF file, odds are you will only get one copy of #10. If you haven't yet downloaded any, you will probably wind up with two copies.) 

My apologies to you all for the mixup (and potential duplication).  I will now know better.

Right here you can download the latest episode (podcast #10) from this website.

Thanks to listener Craig Bowser for pointing this out.

Unfortunately, comments and trackbacks will now be moderated due to spam

Unfortunately, because there are some people out there who incredibly rude and with little or no ethical values, I have had to enable moderation on comments and trackback pings.  Shortly after podcast #9 was posted, it received a significant number of spam trackback pings related to porn sites and with language that definitely falls into the "not safe for work" category.

Please do feel free to leave either comments or trackback pings and they will be approved once I take a look at them to ensure they are legitimate.  As a believer in open communication, it truly pains me to impose this step but I do hope you all understand.

And to all the unethical <insert expletives here> who do these things, I dearly hope you get a lump of coal in your stocking tomorrow.

Joining the Frappr meme - Add yourself to the show's Frappr map...

Since I've seen that it's quite fun to see where listeners to other podcasts are located, I figured that I might as well create one for our show... so... if you would like to join the fun, simply go to http://www.frappr.com/bluebox and you can see where show listeners are.  To add yourself, just enter your name and location.  You do NOT have to create a Frappr account, but if you do, you have the ability to later change your settings (and remove yourself later should you wish to do so).   (Unfortunately, they don't have the linkage to GPS yet to show where Jonathan really is on any given day!)

MP3 files now available in easy list

If you are new to the show and are not subscribing but downloading the files from the website, it could be a bit of a process to sort through all the listings and download the shows.  So, taking a cue from Shel & Neville, I have added a list called "Blue Box MP3 Files" that is down toward the bottom of the various menus on the right side of the blog.  I'll keep adding shows there as we have them so that there is a nice concise list.  Enjoy...

Two logo suggestions - what do folks think?

As mentioned on the latest show, we now have two logo suggestions from listeners for our iTunes image. Martyn Davies contributed the one on the left with his artsy view of a phone keypad. Scott Berkman contributed the one on the right with his homage to the original "blue box". What do you think? Comments? Opinions? We'd love to hear from you either as posts to this message here on the blog or via email to [email protected].

New musical intro/outro - what do you think?

As most of you should know by now, Martyn Davies in the UK sent us in a new musical intro that I used as the intro and outro for the last show (#6), replacing all the ringing phones used as an intro in earlier shows.  What do you think?  Do you like this one better?  Do you think we should bring back the phones?  Merge them?  Or do you have another idea?  We would love to hear comments... either as replies to this post here on the blog or as direct e-mail to [email protected].  Please do send them in - and thanks to Martyn for giving us something new to consider!