Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...
Dan York
Author's posts
Jul 25
Apple Celebrates 1 Billion Podcast Subscriptions Via iTunes!
By way of a Facebook update from Donna Papacosta, I learned that Apple announced that there have been over 1 billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes. Yes, one billion subscriptions! And indeed opening up iTunes, going to the iTunes Store and clicking on "Podcasts" gets you this banner:
Clicking on the banner gets you to a page in iTunes celebrating this milestone and highlighting some of the popular podcasts:
Now, granted, this doesn't say how many of those subscriptions are actually listened to - I know that I have subscribed to a number of shows that I just don't get a chance to play. Nor does it say whether this is a historical or current number, i.e. are there 1 billion podcast subscriptions right now or is this going back to when it all started in 2005? (In other words, does it count subscriptions which were then later ended?)
Regardless, it's a huge number and definitely something to celebrate for those of us who enjoy the medium of podcasting and listening to (or contributing to) podcasts!
Many thanks to Donna for passing along the word of this milestone!
If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:
Jul 24
TDYR #024 – SoundCloud’s Crashing iOS App Is A Reminder To Have Multiple Tools
Today was frustrating in that the SoundCloud app on iOS kept crashing when I tried to upload a recording. It turns out that this is a known issue and a fix has been submitted to the app store:
http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/articles/1228230-i-m-having-problems-with-my-iphone-ipad-app
But this occurrence reminded me that if you want to be creating content you can't rely on only one tool. Thankfully, I also have the Hindenburg Field Recorder (HFR) app on my iPhone which had no problem uploading to SoundCloud. Now, it's NOT a free app. In fact at $29.99 it's one of the more expensive that I have on my iPhone - but it is excellent for recording and editing audio. More info is at:
http://hindenburgsystems.com/products/hindenburg-field-recorder
I was using the SoundCloud iOS app because it was easy and convenient, but this crashing may inadvertently cause me to switch to using HFR that much more.
Jul 23
INET DC, Weds, July 24: Surveillance, Cybersecurity and the Internet’s Future (Livestream available) (Featured Blog)
Are you concerned about the recent reports about government surveillance programs? Are you concerned about security and privacy online? If so, you may want to attend (in person or remotely) the INET Washington DC event happening on Wednesday, July 24, from 2:00 - 6:00 pm US Eastern time at George Washington University. Sponsored by the Internet Society and GWU's Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute, the event is free and open to the public and will also be streamed live on the Internet for those who cannot attend in person. More...
Jul 23
2 DNSSEC / DANE Sessions Next Week At IETF 87 In Berlin
Next week is the 87th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in Berlin, Germany, and there will be two working groups meeting that are related to DNSSEC on the agenda:
DNSOP
The DNSOP (DNS Operations) Working Group will meet on Thursday, August 1, from 1520-1650 (Berlin time) in the Bellevue room. There are 3 major items on the DNSOP agenda, but the one of strong importance related to DNSSEC is the discussion about how to communicate that there has been a change in the Key Signing Key (KSK) from a child zone up to a parent zone. In other words, when you create a new KSK for your child zone, can we get an automated way to communicate the existence of this new KSK to the parent zone so that a DS record can be created and the global chain of trust can be updated?
Somewhat ironically, I experienced this precise issue myself last week when, during the DNSSEC Workshop at ICANN 47, a KSK on one of my personal zones expired. The company providing DNS hosting for that domain automatically generated a new KSK, but they have no way of alerting the parent zone (.ORG in this case) that a new DS record is ready for upload. I had to login to the web interface for my registrar and copy/paste the DS record from the web interface of my DNS hosting provider. Meanwhile, my domain was failing validation.
There are two different proposals for mechanisms to automate this process. Warren Kumari, Olafur Gudmundsson and George Barwood submitted draft-kumari-ogud-dnsop-cds that proposed the creation of a new “CDS” record type in DNS. Essentially, the parent zone will periodically poll the child zones and if a new CDS record is found the parent zone will update the DS record for the zone. Separately, Wes Hardaker developed draft-hardaker-dnsop-csync providing a similar but broader mechanism for synchronizing child and parent zones. This draft involves the creation of a “CSYNC” record type in DNS which tells the parent zone which records in the child zone need to be updated in the parent zone. Wes originally wrote the draft to look at how to synchronize NS records and their associated A and AAAA records (what we often call “glue” records) between child and parent zones but then added support for DS and DNSKEY records to stimulate further discussion.
At DNSOP there will be a joint presentation about the two drafts with an interest in looking at “where do we go from here”. It should be an interesting discussion and if you are unable to attend in person you can listen to the remote audio stream at the specified time.
DANE
Right after DNSOP, the DANE Working Group will meet on Thursday, August 1, from 1700-1830 (Berlin time) in the Potsdam 1 room. With RFC 6698 now specifying the DANE protocol the WG is focused more on how DANE will be used by various services. The agenda has not yet been posted, but there has been active discussion on the DANE mailing list about drafts relating to using DANE with email (both SMTP and S/MIME) and with voice-over-IP (SIP) as well as with OpenPGP and OTR. As someone who sees DANE as a powerful reason to deploy DNSSEC, I’m very much looking foward to the discussion in this group and to seeing where DANE is going.
If you are unable to attend IETF 87 in person, you will be able to listen remotely to the DANE working group at its specified time.
Jul 22
FIR #713 – 7/22/13 – For Immediate Release
Brian Solis interview up, Youtility book review coming; Quick News: Facebook metrics dustup, a medical Instagram, fear of missing out (FOMO) and headlines for Twitter; Ragan promo; News That Fits: what brands can learn from today's newsrooms, Dan York's report, PR and sponsored content, Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop, listener comments, summer's the season to reassess your social media presence, Michael Netzley's Asia report, a look at social signals; how to comment; music from Mother Redcap; and more.
Jul 18
Over 8% Of Internet Users Now Use DNSSEC Validation, per Geoff Huston
Yesterday Geoff Huston published a long post on CircleID titled “DNS, DNSSEC and Google’s Public DNS Service” where he walks through the ongoing DNSSEC measurement efforts he and his team have been doing using flash-based advertisements. I recommend reading through the entire post, but the key part I was pleased to see was simply this:
Since March 2013 we’ve seen the proportion of end users who use DNSSEC resolvers that perform DNSSEC validation rise from 3.3% to 8.1%, or a rise of some 4.7%.
As Geoff notes, most of this rise was due to DNSSEC validation now being performed by Google’s Public DNS service, but his article has some fascinating statistics about where Google Public DNS seems to be being used.
He also lists the countries with the highest percentage of DNSSEC-validating clients. To no surprise given their long involvement with DNSSEC, Sweden came out on top but a number of the other countries listed may not be the ones you might expect.
It is all very cool to see and I look forward to watching these percentages grow over time!
Jul 18
TDYR #023 – The Energy Of Africa
As I prepare to leave South Africa, I recorded some final thoughts on the energy and enthusiasm I have found here...
Jul 17
TDYR #022 – “Africa Straight Up” – Breaking Down Stereotypes
Many of us outside of Africa tend to think of everything happening in Africa in terms of one monolithic entity... that it is all "Africa"... yet that is so incredibly wrong when you understand the amazing diversity and differences within the people and countries of Africa. A 29-minute video called "Africa Straight Up" aims to break down those stereotypes and help introduce people to the true nature of "Africa". If you have a half-hour to spare, I'd strongly encourage you to check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKUVfcXB14w
Jul 17
DNSSEC Workshop Streaming Live Now Out Of ICANN47
If you are interested in the technical side of DNSSEC, there is a great 6+ hour workshop happening right now at ICANN 47 in Durban, South Africa. You can listen to the audio and watch the slides at:
http://durban47.icann.org/node/39749
I am also live-tweeting some information and links out of our Twitter account at http://twitter.com/deploy360
It is a great agenda bringing together many of the leading researchers and implementers of DNSSEC. Topics today include:
- DNSSEC Deployment Around the World
- DNSSEC for Managers – The Three Spheres
- Panel Discussion: DNSSEC Activities in Africa – ISPs, Registries, and Registrars
- Panel Discussion: DNSSEC Obligations in the Registration Accreditation Agreement
- Presentation: Patrik Fältström, NetNod – Is the World Upside Down?
- Panel Discussion: DNSSEC Planning and Operation
- Panel Discussion – DNSSEC Innovation: DANE and Other DNSSEC Applications
(The full agenda is available online.)
If you can’t watch live right now, the sessions are being recorded so that you will be able to watch them later.
