One hundred thousand seconds

Since I started counting file downloads about 2 weeks ago, there have been over two hundred chapters downloaded, and almost one hundred thousand seconds of audio downloaded. This is over 27 hours of audio, or more than the whole length of the Book of Mormon.

This fantastically makes me happy to see that something I designed might actually be helping people with their scripture study.

Fixed some 3 Nephi summary encodings

Some of the character encodings for the summaries in some of the chapters in 3 Nephi were bad, and thus, iTunes choked on the podcast feed. I found this myself as my progression through the scriptures hit 3 Nephi 12.

The problem is fixed now, and iTunes seems to be downloading 3 Nephi chapters as usual.

Also, while I was at it, I removed some bad links from the chapter summaries. (There were some relative links pointing to Matthew).

Audio file tracking

If you look closely at the source code for the RSS podcast feeds that we create, you will notice that the addresses for the enclosed audio files have changed. They now look something like http://feed.scripturecast.net/a/?id=###. These URLs will redirect to the actual audio file from the source site. They also allow us to keep usage statistics on the audio files.

There is a rate chance that some pod-catchers will re-download the audio files.

General Conference now added!

You can now get a custom podcast of general conference. Just go to scripturecast.net and create a podcast feed of conference at just the rate you want.

I suggest setting your rate by a completion date which you can set to be just before the next April conference. That way, you can be reviewing conference talks at a slow pace all year round!

Slower Reading Rates

If you decide to subscribe to a scripture podcast using the "Set Rate Manually" mode, you can now be fed feed items more slowly than before; as slow as one item per month.

I think this will be helpful if I ever put general conference into the database, so you can listed to just a few talks a month if you would like.

Better feed titles

I thought I would just add a small little enhancement to the RSS feeds that are generated. I haven't forgotten about this project at all. I actually am using it more and more consistently to help me with my scripture reading. But one thing I found is that after I create the feed, I forget how fast it is feeding me new chapters, so I added the rate to the feed titles.

Now that I have added the rate, I see that the feed I'm subscribed to feeds me an average of 9.5 minutes per day.

Change of algorithm

Today I changed the algorithm that determines what chapters to push out when on the "Set rate by end date" feeds.

Unfortunately, the change means that current feed subscribes will jump forward by about one chapter in their progression. I apologize about any problems that may result from this change. ScriptureCast.net is still in beta, so changes like these aren't totally unexpected.

In feeds created with "Set rate by end date," new chapters are pushed out at variable rates determined by the length of the chapter. This new algorithm waits a short time after short chapters and a long time after long chapters before pushing out the next chapter.

End of feed bug

I'm aware of a bug where there is an error given when the feed has run out of chapters to push. The problem is that the system is looking for chapters beyond the end of the book and they just don't exists.

Update 8/28/07: I fixed this bug that was showing itself with long expired "Set rate manually" feeds.

Character encoding

One of the last remaining bugs that I will have to conquer before launching is getting all the character encoding set to be the same. When I inserted the summaries for the Doctrine and Covenants, somehow the encoding for such was different than the encoding for the summaries of The Book of Mormon. This will have to be straightened out so that users don't see weird characters coming up.

Doctrine and Covenants added

Today I added the full Doctrine and Covenants. This is in addition to the Book of Mormon which has been available. You can create your custom D&C podcast the same way you create your custom Book of Mormon podcast.

I haven't fully tested the D&C (or for that matter, the Book of Mormon) so if you find a chapter or feature that doesn't work, your feedback would be appreciated.