The Pod Sage

Dave Jones, collected

Recommendations & Tips

What Dave recommended or warned about: products, tools, software, food and health, and life tips.

114 entries · 41–80 on this page

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Software

Software, hosts, apps, and services.

Run your own database and sync from the Index

SoftwareRun your own database, sync from the Podcast Index

The responsible way to build a podcast app on Podcast Index data, as Podverse's next-generation version does, is to run your own database and sync things from the Index as needed, rather than hammering the API live.

he's doing it also in the responsible way that you do if you're running a system, is he's, he's using his own database, but just, you know, syncing things out from us as needed

Episode 188: Nothing Doodle 00:37:32

Speaker-labeled

Move Windows to a new PC with Clonezilla

SoftwareClonezilla (booted from a Rufus USB stick)

Dave's recipe for migrating a Windows machine: put Clonezilla on a USB stick with Rufus, boot the old machine, do a device-to-image clone to an external drive, then boot the new machine and do image-to-device. Afterwards, expand the partition in Disk Management. Beforehand, download the new machine's network drivers onto the stick so you can get online and pull the rest. Image the new machine's factory install first, just in case, so you can revert.

Boot it with boot with Clonezilla. Yeah, doing it do a device to image clone. Yeah, pointing it at the at the your external drive that you plugged in, yes. And then save it as an image file, go to the new machine, boot it with with Clonezilla. Choose Image to device,

Episode 187: PR Hijack! 00:07:18

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. The network-driver and back-up-the-factory-install tips come from the turns at 00:08:49 and 00:10:35. The Lenovo-specific driver utility mentioned is garbled in the transcript.

Stay in the index; fetch rows last (MySQL)

SoftwareAvoid MySQL early row lookups

Fixing a Podcast Index API bug where requests returned too few episodes, Dave explains MySQL 'early row lookups'. A poorly thought-out GROUP BY or ORDER BY can make MySQL fetch full rows from disk (say 100,000) before filtering down to the 5,000 you deliver. Keep the work in the in-memory index and fetch the actual row data at the last minute, finagling the query if needed.

a poorly thought out use of something like, group by or order by can trigger this problem where you end up fetching 100,000 rows. And then you actually only deliver 5000 of them.

Episode 178: Tepid Tub 01:30:10

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. This technique is commonly called a 'deferred join' or 'late row lookup'. That name isn't used in the audio.

Have your phone read long articles to you

SoftwareiPhone 'read it to me' (Speak Screen)

Dave dislikes AI-voiced books, but he used the iPhone's read-aloud feature at the gym to get through a 6,000-word article. It mispronounces things, but it gets you through.

I was in the gym. And I was there was this long article, gosh, this this article was like 6000 words long article that I was trying to get through. And I just read I really wanted to get through this thing and I'll and I did the like read it to me function on the iPhone

Episode 176: Angel Number 01:29:07

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Feature name 'Speak Screen' is inferred; Dave said 'read it to me function on the iPhone'.

AntennaPod, the open source podcast app

SoftwareAntennaPod

Dave calls AntennaPod a great free and open source Android podcast app that doesn't get talked about enough. It put out a call for open source contributors to help add Podcasting 2.0 features like cross-app comments.

pod, which is a great FOSS application, podcast app that we don't talk enough about antenna pod had a call for contributors this week for 2.0 features like cross app comments

Episode 175: Everyone's an Actor 00:51:34

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. That AntennaPod is an Android app isn't said in the quote.

Set web players to preload none

Softwarepreload="none" on web audio players

For embedded web players, Dave agrees with James Cridland and John Spurlock that not preloading audio gives creators cleaner download stats. Unless there's a compelling reason otherwise, setting preload to none is the courteous, play-nice thing to do.

In, in the, in the absence of a compelling reason not to sit in preload to none, is a courteous thing to do I get I agree with that. You're, you're you're just gonna kind of play nice, so to speak.

Episode 173: Pugnacious Proclivities 01:01:02

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Context is the Podverse embed-player stats controversy. 'Sit in preload to none' is a transcription of 'setting preload to none' (the HTML audio preload attribute).

Helipad webhooks as a built-in boost bot

SoftwareHelipad webhooks

Helipad, the Podcast Index's boostagram viewer for Lightning nodes, gained webhooks. Dave calls it essentially a built-in boost bot: point a webhook at any receiver and it can post boosts wherever you want, or trigger anything that accepts a webhook.

Yeah, you set up a set up a web hook to go out to some sort of receiver and then it posts wherever you want it.

Episode 170: Ones & Zeros 00:54:43

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. The webhook feature was built by contributor Eric P.P. The description of Helipad comes from wider context.

Castamatic, Dave's daily driver

SoftwareCastamatic

Castamatic is Dave's daily-driver podcast app. One reason is that it shows a big, obvious warning when your Lightning wallet gets disconnected, so you don't silently stop sending value.

That's one thing about cast ematic that, that I like. And one of the reasons I have maintained it as my daily driver is because it's right. When, when you're out, when your wallet gets disconnected, there's a big thing right

Episode 167: Deck Darlings 01:25:16

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. The transcript spells it 'cast ematic'; the app is Castamatic.

1 other mention

Bitfocus Companion to run a Stream Deck on Linux

SoftwareBitfocus Companion

After a listener suggested it, Dave dropped the Windows box he'd built for his Stream Deck and switched to Bitfocus Companion on Linux, which he calls awesome.

So I said, Oh, screw it. I'll try this. As what I'm using right now. I'm using bit focus on you. Right, it's awesome.

Episode 160: Forced Choice 01:40:48

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. "bit focus on you" is a transcription of Bitfocus Companion; the product's full name is inferred from the listener boost.

Uptime Kuma for API monitoring

SoftwareUptime Kuma

After asking for an early-warning system for the Podcast Index API, Dave got one: Podverse's sysadmin added Index API checks to his Uptime Kuma monitoring with email alerts.

Oh, that's cool. Oh, he had an he had some monitoring setup. Using uptime Kuma that?

Episode 156: Model Drift 00:31:05

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Dave describes someone else's setup approvingly rather than giving an explicit recommendation.

Use OP3 for honest download numbers

SoftwareOP3 (Open Podcast Prefix Project)

When estimating plays (e.g. for music licensing reporting), Dave suggests OP3, because the podcast industrial complex's download calculations will overcount.

using op three. Because if you if you go with any of the podcasts industrial complex downloaddownload calculations, you're gonna be you're gonna be way over a

Episode 151: One Big Table 01:23:31

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. OP3 expansion (Open Podcast Prefix Project) is not stated in the audio.

Make your web app an installable PWA

SoftwareInstallable PWAs

Going the extra step to make a web app an installable progressive web app (like LN Beats) makes a huge difference: it feels like a native app.

It's like it's when you when you go that extra step and make it sort of into an installable item. Like music side project. And that can or LM Bates. I'm sorry. It's like it makes a huge difference if it just feels good.

Episode 149: Scrape my JSON 00:47:49

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. "LM Bates" is likely the LN Beats app (transcription garble).

2 other mentions

Which podcast host? Match it to what you're doing

SoftwarePowerPress / Blubrry / RSS.com / Buzzsprout

Dave's standard advice: if you're on WordPress, use PowerPress. If you focus on value-for-value and don't want to self-host, Blubrry or RSS.com have it built in. Otherwise Buzzsprout.

and they don't want to self host I usually go blueberry or rss.com because they have that stuff built in. If it's something that you know, if it's something else up kick them over to Buzzsprout

Episode 137: Wonk Factor 01:58:16

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. 'PowerPress' for WordPress was said by Adam immediately before; Dave continues 'or really simple' (likely Really Simple Syndication / RSS.com garbled). 'blueberry' = Blubrry.

Have a fallback for Apple's podcast lookup API

SoftwarePodcast Index clone of the iTunes lookup API

Apple's lookup API was throwing frequent 503s. Podcast Index runs a clone endpoint: swap the iTunes hostname for api.podcastindex.org and it works, so apps can fall back to it and flip back when Apple recovers.

If your app depends on the Apple API, Apple lookup API, you can just replace the host name of forgot what it's like. I look up that iTunes dot commerce out forgot what just replace the host name with API podcast. index.org. And it just works.

Episode 134: ChapterGPT 02:07:41

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Dave's own service (self-promotion). The Apple hostname (itunes.apple.com) is garbled in the transcript; he couldn't remember it on air.

3 other mentions

Grab audio clips with a YouTube downloader

Softwareyoutube-dlc (YouTube downloader)

When a listener asked how to make audio clips (ISOs), Dave said he downloads from YouTube with youtube-dlc and clips from there.

I use DLC YouTube DLC to download stuff off YouTube and clip it that way.

Episode 125: Wolf Nuts 01:53:53

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Transcribed 'DLC YouTube DLC'; assumed to mean youtube-dlc (yt-dlp family).

Balance of Satoshis: a Swiss Army knife for Lightning node management

SoftwareBalance of Satoshis (bos)

Dave recommends Balance of Satoshis, a JavaScript command-line tool for Lightning node management. Its accounting function pulls your node's transactions for a time period and can resolve them to fiat, producing a CSV for bookkeeping.

balance Satoshi is, it's a it's a it's a, it's written in JavaScript. But it's a command line tool to let you pull all of your transactions. It does a lot of stuff. I mean, it's like a Swiss Army knife of lightning Node Management.

Episode 111: Pod Molly 01:40:59

Voice-matched

Use Breez to discover value-for-value podcasts

SoftwareBreez (podcast player in the Lightning wallet)

Dave's daily driver is Castamatic, but he opens Breez a few times a week to see what's trending in value-for-value. Breez only shows value-enabled podcasts, so it's a focused discovery tool for that world.

the value of breeze to me is that it only shows value enabled podcasts. It does not show anything else.

Episode 102: Down With OP3 01:21:18

Voice-matched

Life tips

Habits and ways of going about things.

Make sure your feed has a way for people to pay you, right now

Life tipsA payment/funding link in your podcast feed

Dave's call to podcasters: ask whether anything in your feed links to a way someone can give you money. If not, fix it now. If your livelihood depends on dynamic ad insertion and agents start stripping ads, a direct payment path (one agents can also latch on to) is the way through.

a podcast, as a podcaster. Is there anything in my podcast feed that links back to a way that somebody can give me money? And if the answer is no. Fix it.

Episode 274: Vibe Cloning 00:50:03

Voice-matched

Not in the audio. The last two cues ('can give me money? And if the answer is no.' / 'Fix it.') are labeled Unknown by voice matching. They finish Dave's first-person sentence from the preceding Dave cues, so they're attributed to him.

When trying a new distro, do it the distro's way

Life tipsUse a new Linux distro the way it's designed

When Dave tries a new Linux distribution (here Omarchy with a tiling window manager), he follows its intended paradigm rather than bending it to old habits, so he really tests it.

whenever I try a new distro, I try to do it the distro's way, the way

Episode 270: YOLO Guy 00:06:06

Voice-matched

Not in the audio. The rest of the exchange ('that they want it... follow the paradigm... get the full experience') is in Unknown-labeled cues and mixes both voices.

Spend $5 on a domain and get a real email address

Life tipsA $5 domain for a real email address

For Podcast Index API sign-ups that look suspicious (throwaway or free addresses), Dave won't make exceptions for people he can't identify. His advice: spend $5 on a domain from Hover and get a real email address. It isn't much to ask.

Yeah, exactly. Go get a different – go spend $5 on a domain from Hover and get a real email address. And, I mean, it's not that much to ask.

Episode 260: Tennessee Trickshot 01:34:28

Voice-matched

Hosts: give trial accounts no web presence, and mark them in the feed

Life tipsNo web presence for free/trial hosting accounts

Dave's one recommendation to podcast hosting companies fighting SEO spam: don't give free-tier or trial accounts any web presence at all, and mark them as such in the feed so everyone can ignore them until they're a verified, paying human. Blocking Google from indexing your own pages isn't enough, because the feeds flow into Apple Podcasts, the Index and elsewhere and get turned into HTML (second-order SEO).

or you're in a trial account. Do not give those accounts any web presence whatsoever. Right. And also and also mark them as such in the feed.

Episode 257: Slop Factory 00:40:00

Voice-matched

Not in the audio. Dave's lead-in 'If I could make one recommendation to the podcast hosting companies' is in Dave cues just before; the words 'If you're on a free tier' are in an Unknown-labeled cue and aren't quoted.

1 other mention

No words while you work: put on background noise instead

Life tipsWordless background video while doing real work

Dave can't have words on while coding or doing IT work; even podcasts are too distracting. He puts on a wordless video off-screen as background noise instead.

like over in a off screen. I can't, I can't have words when I work.

Episode 227: Gimme Root! 00:49:22

Voice-matched

1 other mention

Personal policy: don't jump into heated threads

Life tipsStay out of flame-war threads

As a personal policy, Dave stays out of heated social-media 'hell threads' (like the one on paywalls on podcastindex.social). Adding to them doesn't help, so he reads and lets them play out, then shares his thoughts in a calmer setting such as the show.

I don't buy by personal policy. I don't I just try never to get involved in those threads. I just, I just want to hear them. I just want to see them play themselves out.

Episode 198: Domain Experts 00:35:10

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. The 'adding to it doesn't really help' reasoning is from Dave's next turn at 00:35:31.

Set up a dead man's switch for your critical systems

Life tipsDead man's switch for critical credentials

Dave has a dead man's switch for the Podcast Index: if he doesn't SSH in once a week, his credentials go automatically to a small group of trusted people (Alex, Eric PP, the Podverse folks, Spurlock) who can keep things running.

the dead man switch goes to Alex, and he goes to three people. Goes to Alex, Eric PP and Archie over at pod friend. I mean, pod verse, okay, yeah, those, those guys will handle it,

Episode 193: Helpful Little Wizards 01:23:51

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. Dave describes his own setup rather than explicitly telling listeners to do it. The recommendation framing is editorial.

Never click the unsubscribe link in spam

Life tipsIgnore unsubscribe links in spam

Don't click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of spam email, or the links in spam texts. Spammers use the click to confirm you have a live account.

don't ever click the unsubscribe link on the bottom of a spam mail Exactly, yeah, just because they just use that to determine whether you actually have a live account.

Episode 189: All Carrot and No Stick! 01:56:16

Speaker-labeled

Reheat dense food at lower power

Life tipsUse microwave power levels for dense leftovers

For dense leftovers like lasagna, use the microwave power setting, or you'll end up with cold layers in the middle, even though microwave power UIs are baffling.

when you go to heat it up in the microwave. You got to use the power thing, because you'll end up with its cold in the middle

Episode 188: Nothing Doodle 00:58:13

Speaker-labeled

IT rule: every computer off at night

Life tipsTurn computers off at night

A principle Dave has kept everywhere he's worked (discussed during the CrowdStrike outage): every employee turns their computer off at night, partly to protect against power surges and brownouts.

a principle I've always had is every bit every employee turn their computer off at night. Right. That's always been my because for a lot of different reasons.

Episode 185: Shock Collars 00:24:39

Speaker-labeled

1 other mention

Cross-post proposals so they don't get buried

Life tipsCross-post namespace proposals to GitHub and podcastindex.social

When you post a proposal on the podcast namespace GitHub repo, also cross-post it to podcastindex.social. Otherwise people miss it for a few weeks and come back to a 75-comment thread nobody can follow.

I would I would recommend if you're gonna if you when you post something on the on the Get on the GitHub repo for the namespace also cross posted to podcast

Episode 183: Chain of Fraud 00:24:37

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. The quote is cut off at 'podcast'. The destination (podcastindex.social) and the 75-comment-thread reason come from context and the next turn at 00:25:04.

Keep separate online identities for different uses

Life tipsSeparate online identities per use case

Dave deliberately keeps different identities for different contexts (for example, his Podcast Index social account versus a federated podcast-app identity) because identities online are meant to serve you, and they serve different needs. Universal single-sign-on digital identity schemes creep him out.

I like the compartmentalization of these different things because they serve me in identities online are meant to serve you. And they serve me in different from, they serve my needs in different ways.

Episode 177: KatGPT 01:25:58

Speaker-labeled

Listen to writers' narrated feeds from a dedicated playlist

Life tipsNarrated newsletter feed + dedicated playlist

Matt Taibbi pays a narrator to read his posts and publishes them as an RSS feed. Instead of reading them in his inbox, Dave waits for the audio version, keeps a dedicated playlist for that feed, and plays it top to bottom when he wants his articles read to him. He'd like more writers to do this.

I just wait for the podcast version. And then I have a specific playlist just for that feed. And when I get ready to hear those headlines and read and have those articles written to me read to me. I just hit that play list.

Episode 176: Angel Number 01:38:13

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. 'Tybee' in the transcript is Matt Taibbi (Racket News), identified from context.

Fix up the house yourself instead of borrowing

Life tipsRenovate room by room, debt-free

Dave bought a very old, run-down house cheaply, did the emergency structural work first, and has spent about ten years renovating it himself room by room (gutting and insulating) instead of taking out a $50,000 equity line. From the start he decided he wasn't going into debt for the house.

So now we're going back and just gutting a room doing all the insulation here Yes, I hear it's just all that stuff this like yeah, so I'm just doing all that stuff myself because I'm not about to like drop a you know $50,000 equity line instead.

Episode 176: Angel Number 00:06:46

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. This is Dave's personal approach, not financial advice. The 'not going into debt to this house' line is a separate turn at 00:07:07.

Don't put your company's data into AI chatbots

Life tipsBlanket restriction on putting work data into AI tools

You can't put your organisation's material into AI tools like Copilot or ChatGPT because you don't know where it's going. Dave's workplace has a blanket restriction, as do most companies.

You can't you cannot put your stuff into this because you don't know where it's going. You mean, but basically, we just have a blanket restriction on all that stuff right now. Yeah, most companies have this is pretty much across the board.

Episode 172: Tantalizing Liquid 00:12:01

Speaker-labeled

Buy what you love instead of stacking subscriptions

Life tipsBuy movies/books outright; keep streaming subscriptions low

Dave keeps streaming subscriptions low and buys movies outright. If he has to buy something anyway, he considers the hard copy so he owns it forever.

that's one reason why I want to keep my streaming low, is because we just, I just outright buy movies

Episode 171: Misaligned Expectations 00:25:35

Speaker-labeled

1 other mention

Put a cap on streaming subscriptions

Life tipsHousehold streaming budget

If you don't manage streaming subscriptions, you end up paying more than cable for things you don't watch. Dave's family loosely tries to keep streaming to about $25-30 a month and rotates services.

Because if you don't, you'll end up with it's worse than cable if you if you don't watch it. That's so we you know, we we've kind of just kind of loosely said let's not let's try not to have more than, you know, 2025 bucks or 30 bucks

Episode 171: Misaligned Expectations 00:24:07

Speaker-labeled

Not in the audio. '2025 bucks' is a transcription of '20, 25 bucks'. Rotating services is implied by the surrounding discussion.

Purge the podcast backlog like an overflowing inbox

Life tipsSelect-all and delete your podcast backlog

When your podcast queue is overloaded, treat it like an inbox with hundreds of unread emails: select all and delete. Shows that cover ongoing topics will talk about the same thing next week anyway.

You just gotta like, you know, it's kinda like your inbox, whether you have several 100 unread emails or not, you hit your control a delete,

Episode 171: Misaligned Expectations 00:02:41

Speaker-labeled

Read long-form instead of scrolling

Life tipsLong-form articles over scrolling

Dave likes long-form articles he can live with and digest, not rapid-fire scrolling where you're defending your eyeballs. He says it feels good.

I love just articles, just reading articles, long form text, things that you can just sort of like live with and digest rather than this rapid fire scrolling or scrolling attack that you're just having to defend your eyeballs from all the time. And no, it feels good.

Episode 167: Deck Darlings 00:10:21

Speaker-labeled

Servers down? Get coffee and walk first

Life tipsCoffee and a 10-minute walk before you SSH

When a server goes down and you feel the panic, get a coffee and take a 10-minute walk before opening a terminal. Everyone's servers go down, and it's not a reflection on you.

When somebody tells you, the servers are down, and you feel that that panic in your stomach, go go get a cup of coffee. Take a 10 minute walk before you ever open up an SSH terminal. Just go chill out. It's fine.

Episode 166: Country Clever 01:12:32

Speaker-labeled

Build a five-year cushion

Life tipsFive-year operating reserve

For the Podcast Index, Dave has always wanted at least five years of cushion: enough that if donations dropped to zero, the project could keep running for five years without missing a day, to keep their promise.

what I've always wanted and you concur is to have at least five years of cushion built up to where you have the donations dropped to zero. Yeah, we could keep on truckin and not miss a day for five years.

Episode 164: Let's Get Local 01:48:49

Speaker-labeled