The Aldiss reference was a bit off.

http://classic.escapepod.org/?p=67

I think this sort of mismatch is a rare occasion. So… its a proof of EP’s basic awesomeness.

but the reading seemed really dry in my opinion.

It’s too damned long for my mp3 player’s software. It’s a nice 20GB model from iriver, so I’m not talking about a shitty memory stick knockoff or anything.

So what I do is copy the link to the MP3 file, paste it into Google, and then delete the portion of the URL up to the beginning of the actual URL, and click “search.”

Google then tells me that it doesn’t have an entry for that address, but conveniently converts that address to a link that I can then right-click and download with no difficulty at all.

The whole process takes me all of about ten seconds.

That’s very strange. I just confirmed that it worked for me (and they’ve assured me personally that it’s up and running right now).

If you don’t mind, please try it again, and if it still doesn’t work send me an e-mail at editor@escapepod.org to let me know what software you’re using and what ISP. I’ll pass that on to their support person and tell him to follow up directly with you. If that doesn’t resolve it, then yes, I will work something else out.

I do have a specific reason for beginning to use them again, and yes, it relates to advertising. More details on that later. But that’s no good if people can’t listen, so I take this stuff very seriously. Thanks for letting me know there’s a problem.

Do you mean the URL or the filename?

We’ve been using Podlot to serve almost all of our files since last fall. They’ve been good enough to donate bandwidth to Escape Pod, which sometimes exceeds a couple of terabytes a month. The hosting hasn’t changed. I did just turn on Podtrac tracking again (that’s the http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3? part at the beginning of the URL) — I’d removed it a few weeks ago because they were having technical issues, but before that we’d been using Podtrac on all of our files since December. If you were subscribed prior to June, you’ve processed these sorts of URLs before. (And none of it should ever be saved as part of the filename on your end.)

The filename format, EP060_CreatureForHire.mp3, is based on other listener feedback. Some MP3 players display the filename instead of using the ID3 tags to show what you’re listening to, and some people who owned those players requested that we include title information in the names.

If you’ll let me know what podcatcher you use and your specific requirements, I’ll do my best to help you find a solution that works. None of the stuff we’re doing with this file is new, but I certainly want it to be convenient for everyone to hear us.

Some players, like mine, have a character limit for the file name. I can’t hear this story without screwing around with the filename which then screws around with my aggregator.