Some listeners are reporting download issues for the Elegant Code Cast episodes. Specifically, there are reported incidents of an apparently good download that stops playing midway through the episode.
First of all, we apologize profusely for the technical difficulties. Anytime something provides friction like this you are undoubtedly going to vote with your feet and find other sources. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen, so we are working on it.
FireFox
Our initial investigation (OK, Jan’s investigation) indicates the problem may be related to downloading the MP3 directly in FireFox. We have no idea why this would happen, but it seems to be the trend. Don’t shoot the messenger here.
RSS
We have had no reports of problems from users pulling the MP3s through an RSS client. If you are using a podcatcher like iTunes or Zune and are experiencing these issues, please let us know.
Hosting Services
We are looking for hosting services to ensure uninterrupted service. We aren’t exactly flush with bank here at ElegantCode, but we do want to ensure listeners don’t experience this kind of friction in the future.
If anyone has any thoughts for sponsored MP3 file hosting, we are all ears 🙂
In the Mean Time
If you are downloading directly from the web page of an episode, we think you will be safer using something other than FireFox. No, this doesn’t make logical sense, but none-the-less, that seems to be the case.
And thank you for your patience. We hope to have a reliable long term solution soon.
Please report your friction here on this post as a comment, or email me at david @t elegantcode dotcom.
Thank you!
I have had the same problem multiple times using Chrome after I right click save-as from Google Reader.
No fancy pod catchers for me thanks. I use monkey automation.
David, I had this problem on the Zune on Mass Transit episode (stopped at 17:21). To resolve, I overwrote the mp3 with the Elegant Code site version (downloaded with Chrome). Thanks for looking into this.
I have the same problem using Lime.
Thanks for the reports, guys.
It is sounding more and more like a server hosting issue, not FF specific.
We’ll see what we can find as an alternative.
I’ve been pleased with hosting podcasts at Libsyn. Unlimited downloads at a very low price.
http://www.libsyn.com/