Tony Cosentino Show

Tony Cosentino - WordPress specialist who loves to talk to people about their passions and his own

This is a collection of my obsessions turned into a vocal catalogue of in depth information about WordPress, phototgraphy, coffee roasting, cassettes, hifi gear, quiting sugar, karate, fountain pens so many areas I love and want to talk about coming your way.

Episodes

  1. 24/10/2018

    TCS 009: How to Podcast with WordPress

    10 steps to start podcasting Step 1: A dynamic cardioid microphone Audio-technica ATR-2100 $99 delivered Dynamic because they are more rugged, need no external power and less sensitive to subtle background noises. Cardioid because it will allows you to record in any room without the need for sound treatment due to its pickup pattern being specifically in front and close to the mic It’s USB and XLR so it will grow with you Lots of podcasters use the so there’s a lot of help videos out there for you to learn from Step 2: Show titles and artwork Titles/descriptions Podcast title, Host/talent name, podcast subtitle, podcast summary / description (under 4000 characters) Artwork 3000px by 3000px max ,I prefer 1400 x 1400px to keep the file size down, Under 500k or will be rejected by itunes canva.com is a free option to create these with namecheckr.com to check domain, fb, twitter, instagram, youtube etc for availability Step 3: Editing / recording your audio Recording Audacity – recording and editing – free open source software, powerful, quick once you know a few of the main features can be pimped up to very professional setup with 3rd party plugins Zoom.us – guest recordings via the internet or even phone ins free for 1 guest recordings can split tracks for easier editing later can also capture video of all parties Editing create standard intro and outro mentioning subscribing to get latest episodes Export completed episode as .wav file put .wav file through free Levelator or paid Auphonic software to balance all levels for consistent sound add .wav file to itunes and convert to 128kbps mp3 file with itunes add meta data and artwork via file info  click and drag mp3 file to your podcast folder ( you will upload this mp3 later ) Step 4: Audio hosting Audio hosting is to audio is a bit like what youtube or vimeo are to video. itunes, stitcher and all of those podcast networks just point to where you host your audio files libsyn.com is reliable, cost effective and scalable. Classic 250mb plan $15USD/month gets you about 5 hours per month of new audio. Every month you get another 250MB and all of the previous uploads stay online at no extra cost. Audio upload process Depending on which plugin (next step) you use you these are the options A: upload them directly to you audio host ( libsyn) and get a link to the mp3 file to copy and paste into a special field at the bottom of your blog post B: Upload the mp3 file within the blog post for that episode directly to the audio host (libsyn) don’t worry the next slides cover the plugins for both options Step 5: WordPress Plugins to use PowerPress Podcasting plugin by Blubrry make your website the hub for the podcast directories and you upload the audio file to libsyn or wherever and then paste the link to the mp3 file at the bottom of a blog post Libsyn Publisher Hub plugin connects to libsny account so you can upload the audio file while creating the blog post and libsyn is the hub for the podcast directories Step 6: Blog post use a blog post which has show notes with profile of guest and links to websites mentioned in the episode has a podcast player automatically provided by the previous plugins mentioned depending on which plugin you decided on you now either: upload the mp3 file from the blog post upload the mp3 file to libsyn and then copy and past the link to the file into the bottom of the blog post Step 7: Make 3 Episodes gives new listeners something to get their teeth into a thin intro episode is not enough you get better with each episode so by number 3 its already a lot better Step 8: Submit to podcast directories You will need your podcast rss feed url Apple Podcasts – via itunes select podcasts on top left area, top middle select store, then middle right side find submit a podcast – via browser – Open podcast connect: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/ click + sign at top of browser Stitcher – signup at https://www.stitcher.com/content-providers – then submit here: https://partners.stitcher.com/PartnerAddFeed.php Tunein – https://help.tunein.com/contact/add-podcast-S19TR3Sdf Podbean – create login: https://www.podbean.com/site/user/login – submit podcast: https://www.podbean.com/site/submitPodcast  Blubrry – create account: https://www.blubrry.com/createaccount.php – add your podcast: https://www.blubrry.com/addpodcast.php Step 9: Promote on social media tell people when you latest podcast is out make a little video with a sample of the audio from the show with maybe a photo of the guest. The website headliner.app can do this for you for free (at the time of this podcast/presentation anyway) promote the blog post on instagram, twitter, facebook etc Step 10: Workflow Schedule guest / decide on topic Plan show, storyline, questions for guest etc (send to guest) Record audio Edit audio / create show notes Upload audio Schedule or publish post Promote on social media

    26 min

  2. 03/08/2018

    TCS 008: Using social platforms to connect with your customers – with Tony Hollingsworth

    A fascinating discussion with Tony Hollingsworth who has been using social media since most of them began as a heavy user. His insights will save you literally years of learning. Where to find Tony Mobile: 0410 665 832 Twitter: @hollingsworth LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tonyhollingsworth Instragram: @tonyhollingsworth and @omptymedia Tony’s suggested people to follow Kate Carruthers – Twitter: @kcarruthers Gavin Heaton – Twitter: @servantofchaos Paul Wallbank – Twitter: @paulwallbank Ompty Media www.omptymedia.com are an amazing social media solution for restaurants that Tony helped create. Instagram: @omptymedia Timestamps of some highlights that when you click on the time the podcast starts playing a that exact part. [00:07:08]           Tony talking about Kate Curuthers [00:07:08]           Twitter coffee mornings#coffeemornings you can still go to every Friday morning  at Single Origin Roasters in Surry Hills (Sydney NSW) from  7am-10am [00:10:23]           Instagram and its uses [00:10:48]           Teaching restaurants how to use instagram [00:11:11]          Full service for providing by Omptymedia for example build website, do graphic design, print menus and posters and look after their social marketing. Website: OmptyMedia.com [00:11:52]           Biggest value add is connecting the foodies with the restaurants [00:14:39]           Tony’s love of training. An example was teaching real estate agents to be social sellers [00:15:31]           They teach how to use non paid and organic areas of social media for social selling [00:15:46]           What happens when you google yourself online [00:16:24]           Use social media to teach not to boast [00:17:43]           Another social influencer is Gavin Heaton. @servantofchaos on twitter and Gavin’s blog is at servantofchaos.com [00:18:39]           Hashtags are like the radio station you can tune in to [00:20:40]           Hugo Ortega from Etch Real Estate is really killing it using social media to reach his customers and share the journey. Website: Etch Real Estate Twitter: @etchrealestate Instagram: @etchrealestate [00:23:17]           Instagram stories are so powerful in the way they let you see what’s happening in the now on a 24 hour news cycle. [00:24:54]           Paul Wallbank quote “Don’t build your house on rented land” the land in this case being the social media platforms. You still need a website to own your brand. Twitter: @paulwallbank [00:25:59]           IFTTT – If this then that tool  can be used to cross share to social platforms. For example pot a native photo to twitter from an instagram post. Website: ifttt.com

    36 min

  3. 05/07/2018

    TCS 007: Finding joy at work, who knew – with Matt Featherstone

    We’ve got Matt Featherstone here today on the podcast Matt’s from Braidwood Consulting. He’s a credited workplace coach and has a degree in psych from Macquarie Uni. Matt’s contact information is: Website: https://www.braidwoodconsult.com Phone: +61 408 756 929 Facebook: www.facebook.com/braidwoodconsulting LinkedIn au.linkedin.com/in/mattfeatherstone Some quotes from the show “And often, you know, in our work as coaches, we challenge our coachees to say, stop, you’re a round peg in a square hole. Let’s, let’s just get back to basics here, look at what you want out of satisfaction and enjoyment at work and look at what you’re trying to achieve and how much you’ve got to change. Why are you doing that? Why are you on that journey? To try to change yourself that much…” “…. And now he’s in a job where he said to me the other day I’d do this for nothing. I’m enjoying it so much I’m doing so well at it I’d actually do it for nothing. which is a really good result.”

    59 min

  4. 13/06/2018

    TCS 006: The Rise of Entrepreneurs in the country with Trish Sait

    A fantastic interview with entrepreneur, marketer, web developer and wine lover Trish Sait who left the big smoke in Sydney and move to country Victoria to start a new chapter in her life. Trish has found it very rewarding being part of The Centre in Wangaratta to help the disengaged youth and adults finish their education and find jobs, further study and even setting up their own businesses and finding the success they deserve. Join us for this fascination chat about this area and a lot more tips for everyone out there from cool groups to connect with, to repair cafe’s etc. Trish’s website is ingress.com.au The Centre in Wangaratta where Trish works – www.thecentre.vic.edu.au ##Quick audio links to specific parts of the podcast Just click on the time code on the left to go straight to that part of the podcast audio. [00:00:39] Backgound, coffee mornings etc [00:03:12] Where Trish is now [00:06:58] Inspiring story of a young women using internet tools to start her own business when she was having trouble finding work [00:08:27] The entrepreneurs path [00:11:08] Naked Wines [00:12:25] Like minded bitches drinking wine [00:16:11] Ingredients for success [00:17:20] Generous and Grateful [00:19:00] Killer Pig Productions – a tale of 2 brothers who hated school [00:19:48] Benalla Street Art Festival [00:21:01] The Centre – and Adult Learning Environment [00:22:11] Employable Me [00:24:50] Looking for the hidden gems in people [00:26:23] Where are they now series [00:27:17] Info about The Centre as Wangaratta [00:29:25] How the trainers at The Centre work together [00:31:51] Repair Cafe [00:35:18] Organising weekly meetups on the horizon for Trish [00:36:40] Business Catalyst [[00:43:04] Stock Photos [00:45:38] Tineye image source checking tool [00:46:12] Trish’s Ingress website got over 10,000 visitors per day [00:49:47] Gearing up entrepreneurs in the country Tony: [00:00:39] Okay so today we’ve got Trish Saite on the line Trish and I go back quite a long way, seven or eight years ago we met at a Twitter coffee morning we were both budding entrepreneurs in the Balmain area who basically worked from home and we used the coffee mornings to catch up with other creatives and interesting entrepreneurs to kind of have our own little weekly meetings just to unload and talk about how we were going. Tony: [00:01:13] Yes so since that time I think Trish has been busy and I’ve been busy doing other things well doing different things. So Trish tell us about what have you been up to since I saw you last. Trish: [00:01:28] Well quite a lot. Thank you for inviting me to this Podcast. We met quite some time ago but working from home you know I discovered that I needed to have some sort of outside influence otherwise you wake up in the morning in pjamas you know before you know it its five o’clock and your still in your pyjamas so to get out and actually meet like minded people and also to stay current you can get quite in a little bubble. Everybody knows that working on your business is as important and working in your business. But you can do a lot of that right online now and when I was living in Sydney I had never lived in the country I had always live in a city. So I got married and moved to north east Victoria which is just lovely. But I never lived in the country before so it was quite a shock for me and I’ve always had no trouble finding work. It’s really how much you take for granted living in the city and how easy everything is you have so much choice and so many options. Theres a lot of private enterprise in the city not so much in a country. However I think that’s changing. When I first came down here we were struggling to find work and I wanted to shut down my business because I was going through a faze, this is around 2012. So we’ve gone through the financial crisis but tablets and smart phones were becoming common place and there wasn’t the responsive theme. I used to build websites and Tony used to build websites so that’s how we had a common ground. I had to build the interfaces from scratch. So I wanted to get out of that because it was just becoming too difficult. Where Trish is now Trish: [00:03:12] I’m working now for a private RTO that I have been working for for 6 years for them. What I’m finding are a lot of young people who are not doing well at school they quit school. Can’t find work, they’re getting their owns ABNs and starting their own businesses because they just not given a chance. Even if you’ve got a degree you need 5 years of experience before employers will give you a chance really and they’re really struggling. Trish: [00:03:37] So there is this ground swell of people making their own opportunities and I’m seeing it more and more. With the tools that are available. The community has got a makers market here which is kind of like etsy. So you know you’ve got these mothers who were making these items to sell at these stalls. So you know it’s really being quite entrepreneurial in finding ways to make income and finding your hidden talents as well. Trish: [00:04:11] And just the other day I saw the government is giving grants I think it’s either grants or loans to senior citizens who are over 50 who want to start their own businesses. Really. Yeah. Because people aren’t giving them the chance. You hit 50 and these people are not given chances to get a job. Wow. Everyone is going to have these little tiny businesses their buying trading and selling and trading in the future will be more like that. You have a lot of these sole traders or a lot of these single people who are working for the themselves or maybe in groups Have you heard of co-working spaces We’ve got one (co-working space) just down here, only just. Trish: [00:04:58] I can see that in the future where you know where young people and even older people are going to be going. So it’s no longer you have job for life. And then we used to have three or four careers in a life time. And I think soon if not now you will have three or four small business in a lifetime. Tony: [00:05:42] The job security market, job security areas has totally spun around. Trish: [00:05:48] Like with banks and loans and you know all those things you’ve got much more opportunity to get a mortgage now if youre a sole trader or you’re contracting. Back in the day ff you were an IT contractor you couldn’t get a loan even if you earned five times more that a salary job. Tony: [00:06:08] Tell me about it, it was a nightmare trying to get anykind of loans. It’s amazing actually if you live in a remote area, rural area and a good internet connection, a coworking space and then whatever you’re good at. Trish: [00:06:25] Unfortunately the regional areas still really struggle with internet connections. We just don’t have it, The NBN is still rolling out. We haven’t got the NBN yet. At home we’ve got NBN but not at work. Trish: [00:06:51] In regional areas it’s really tricky because not necessarily the internet connections. With some of these people, there was one of these people. Trish: [00:06:58] There’s one girl who used to be a student of ours and she couldn’t find work and she didn’t know what she wanted to do she was 21 or something. She’s got an ABN and she started a cleaning business she went to VistaPrint and she doesn’t have to say she doesn’t fly and done and she just walked around and motels hotel. She’s a cleaner now and she’s got her own clients now. You know it’s not the job of choice. You know she’s getting money and she’s doing it on her own. Trish: [00:07:32] One of the other things in regional towns, what government does that work for government funded government. I’m also surprised when you travel with private enterprise. Yeah the government has this new plan of throwing money at these job actives, they are job providing so to speak and how safe are the criteria of university outcomes for this person we want to make some changes and we were told him nothing because that’s that things don’t go to the new program. Trish: [00:08:12] So there’s this constant shifting of money from different programs to different programs but young people get picked up, dumped, picked up, dumped, picked up, dumped. It’s really disheartening so they’re not relying on the government anymore because they just don’t trust it. Trish: [00:08:27] Once you go down the entrepreneurial path finding your own business there are so many things you can look at. Some of the programs that we have a jobs program and we take them out to meet employers and we take them out to meet businesses and we show them things like developing a social enterprise about what they are passionate about in their own community. Finding a partner that might have a shared value. You could partner with somebody who has a very different core business them to actually have a shared family we can both benefit from a similar outcome and you’re not you’re not treading on each others toes. So there’s those kind of opportunities to look out for as well.You’ve got the internet connection and you’ve got things like Canva.com , all of your Facebook posts, all of your brochures, all of your flyers and can graphic design it yourself so you don’t have to pay for the high end graphic designer to have a nice brand. Tony: [00:09:23] Yeah canva.com is amazing. It’s amazing what you can do at no cost as well. Trish: [00:09:28] You’ve got etsy.com which is more about creative. So if you’re creative and you want to sell stuff you can sell it on etsy.com. Trish: [00:09:35] If you have no creative skills at all. Though everyone has a certain amount but you can buy things from alibaba.com which is a wholesale website and bring them in and onsell them which is the whole warehousing wholesale warehouse essentially. Tony: [00:09:52] Well essentially it’s one of the biggest online sellers

    51 min

  5. 21/05/2018

    TCS 005: What’s coming up and our co-hosts new drawing service

    This is a very short podcast to cover 2 things. Exciting upcoming shows There are 2 new episodes coming out in the next few weeks which are fantastic interviews with Trish Sait who talks about the rise of entrepreneurs in country areas. Matt Featherstone a workplace coach who will help you look at your current job happiness or lack of in a new way New drawing service offered by the 2 co-hosts Fynn and Sam. My 2 co-hosts Fynn and Sam are offering drawings on request for any project where you need a drawing in child like style from actual children. They are both quite good drawers as you will see from the examples via the link below. You could use the drawings for just about anything from commercial work, ads to party invitations. The drawings are provides as images and vectors if line drawings which can then be scaled up to any size and be still very sharp in details. The link to their service is here: tonycosentino.com/kids

    6 min

  6. 12/04/2018

    TCS 004: A sugar addicts journey – one year with no sugar

    [one_third] I have had a long terrible relationship with sugar. As a baby I was given a flavoured sugar syrup as a pacifier which was common in the late 60’s in Australia. So from the beginning of my life my body has craved sugar. This is my story 1 year after actually giving it up for good. Below is the transcript from the podcast so you can easily go to a point of interest and for the hearing impaired to be able to read it. Tony: [00:00:29] Hi everyone today I want to talk about my journey giving up sugar a year ago. It’s been just over a year now. So I want to share some of the things that I’ve experienced and how it went. Today I’ve got two co-hosts I’m very lucky I’ve got Sam and Fynn say hi Fynn, hi. Tony: [00:00:56] Yep two of the best co-hosts in the business. You know what I’ve been trying to give up sugar for years I’ve tried quitting and it’d last for about two weeks and then I’d start saying I can just have a little bit of something a little bit sugar and within an hour or two of having some sugar I was back into full blown sugar addiction. So let me explain my sugar addiction first I guess. I, as a kid when we got pocket money I would spend pretty much all my pocket money on lollies my brother would save it. So he always had money and I always had no money because I was buying as much sugar as I could get with my pocket money. And that was just the beginning and I guess when you fell which then led to tooth decay. I had had most of my teeth filled I think. So really poor teeth from the get go apparently. Apparently also I had a baby I was given a sugar syrup kind of a drink to calm me down you know pacifiers sort of stuff that people used to use in those days. So my taste buds and body were just used to introduced to some really strong sugar from basically a baby. So it’s been quite a challenge and also my interestingly my Mum’s got quite a high sugar addiction I think. She grew up in a shop. Her parents had a shop that sold milkshakes and lollies and. All kinds of stuff like that. So Like third generation sugar addict I’d say I am because my grandfather was or he was he was. He was a high consumer he got type 2 diabetes in his 50s. So it’s been a generational thing I think to deal with. So anyway when I tried to. Give up sugar it just hasn’t worked. Tony: [00:03:40] So I ended up watching ‘That sugar film (link goes to preview)‘ and reading the book first and then watching the film. I don’t know how to explain it. It made so much sense to me because the author, Damon Gameau, I could relate so much to his story that it actually made a lot of sense to me. What he realised was that the only way to really get off sugar is to stop having it altogether. I decided to really give that a go. So on the 28th of March 20 17 just before Easter I decided to drop sugar. So I basically spent Easter 2017 watching everyone around me gorge themselves with chocolate while I sat back and watched it was it wasn’t too bad actually surprisingly at that early stage and then by the second or third week I was having really strong cravings as you do with sugar and I had things like kombucha to kind of distract myself and trying to reprogram my stomach I guess by having things like that. I let myself type fruit but I got through that cold turkey stage. By the third week the cravings were gone and I really couldn’t care less about sugar. It was quite quite amazing how much the addiction stopped. What do you think boys. You’ve seen me go through this have I stuck to it. Sam and Fynn: [00:05:42] No he hasn’t, stuck to it one little bit. Tony: [00:05:46] No? What have I not done. Sam: [00:05:49] Had sugar. Tony: [00:05:51] What sugar? Fynn: [00:05:52] Processed sugar. Tony: [00:05:55] I think what they’re talking about is what I’m not having is white sugar, is cane sugar. My wife will make desserts sometimes that have got dates and maybe rice syrup and things like that and that doesn’t trigger the addiction again I think what I read was fructos is a big trigger. I used to eat bags and bags of starbursts because it had kind of a fruity background flavour I could eat a couple bags a day of that when I was working. Fynn: [00:06:29] I remember when once when I was little I crawled into Dad’s office and I saw an opened lolly packet on the ground with a lolly sitting next to it and it was completely empty. Tony: [00:06:44] If they’d only seen my rubbish bin where my work area was, it was full to the brim of lolly packets. Yeah it was such a terrible thing.I would hide that sugar consumption but I think what they’re talking about is that I have stuck to not having white sugar, cane sugar for the last year. Is that true? Sam and Fynn: [00:07:11] Yeah. Yeah. It is true, definitely. Tony: [00:07:12] We’re at the second Easter and I haven’t had one easter egg. What I’ve been trying to make sure is that I don’t have a type of sugar that would trigger me wanting it to crave lollies the kinds of sugar that are really bad for me. If there is brown sugar in the cooking I don’t remove it from the cooking, it doesn’t affect me at all. I’ve even had some things that have had honey based honey based things which is kind of borderline it’s got to. It’s got a high glycemic index not quite as bad as normal sugar but it’s up there so I kind be a bit cautious about even using honey but it doesn’t seem to trigger it. It’s funny it something I won’t have honey directly on toast or anything but if there’s honey as an ingredient. In something I’ll use it. Tony: [00:08:10] Now let’s just pause here and see if there’s anything you guys feel like you can add to this conversation. What’s your your relationship with sugar? I haven’t stopped my family. I I don’t impose my no sugar policy on my family. They still have normal sugar. Tony: [00:08:36] Let’s talk about you Fynn. Fynn: [00:08:37] Half, half. Tony: [00:08:38] See you’re half addicted to it are you Fynn to sugar. Explain to me again how that works. Fynn: [00:08:48] I did say this was half. Tony: [00:08:55] So you draw a circle and cut it in half. You think that’s your addiction to sugar. Fynn: [00:09:02] One side non, one say yeah. [00:09:06] You can switch it off. You tend to be able to have some sugar and then keep more for later whereas I can’t if I have something a bag of lollies I couldn’t stop eating it till it was gone and then I’d still not feel satisfied and I’d feel worse probably after having the whole bag then when I started out.So it never used to quench my thirst for sugar. Tony: [00:09:27] Sam, how about you? Once you start eating sugar can you stop? Sam: [00:09:32] Only once I’ve had enough sugar. Sam: [00:09:38] Enough is what? Fynn: [00:09:40] Yeah how much is enough. Sam: [00:09:43] I never know. Tony: [00:09:44] Yeah we do tend to put the brakes on you sometimes because you want to keep going and like most people he finds once he gets that initial spike he finds it very hard to stop, it’s very hard for him to have one sweet thing. He Normally wants to have a few or he gets quite upset upset.Where as Fynn could have one and stop. I’ve observed it. Fynn: [00:10:11] Like I say I got to have a giant easter egg in front of me and I would open it up and I would just like take say four bites and then just pack it back up and go. Tony: [00:10:26] Yeah where where as Sam and I would probably be more inclined to keep going and going on that one and then look for another. So what that’s kind of a led me to though is getting control of that part of my life made me feel like I can be in control. It’s made me feel a lot better about myself and about going for bigger goals. A year later I’m feeling like I’m really starting to get control mind my body my mind and now I’ve introduced a new morning routine or daily routine really but it’s based on a book called The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne. I get up at 5.30am every morning the night before I have written a journal of all the good things that have happened during the day I have mapped out the whole day for what I need to do when from start to finish. The night before I have also not looked at a screen that emits light an hour before I have gone to bed and am getting eight hours sleep when I used to run on about six. I don’t have caffeine within 10 hours of going to bed. That has been quite a big change in my routine. What that’s done is it’s eliminated any procrastination in my day. It also gets me off to a really good start. I of the day at 5.30am and I work on my most important project which could be the podcast it could be and some exercise, could be lots of things but I will I want to talk about that that particular area in a different podcasts this is really about sugar. Tony: [00:12:19] One thing that I forgot to talk about was weight loss. I think I was about 90 kg wanted to do this sugar stuff too. So I didn’t change the calorie intake. I didn’t change the amount of food I was eating. I just took sugar off the table, out of the equation. I think I was losing one kilo every two weeks by the tenth week I’d definitely lost about 10 kilos without changing exercise routines or normal food intake. Purely just taking sugar out of the equation I lost about 10 kilos. Part of that is meant to be the impact on sugar on the absorption of fat is meant to be affected by what you eat. I’ve maintained that that weight. Tony: [00:13:15] That’s other thing I’ve got more energy too. I Tony: [00:13:21] I started adding bike riding to my week. I was doing karate already, I had more energy. Tony: [00:13:33] Losing weight not having sugar in my body which makes my blood sugar go up and down and gives me kind of spiked energy and then having lows having a more consistent energy meant that I was able to stop bike riding as well. So I’d ride to karate do karate training

    15 min

  7. 29/03/2018

    TCS 003: Anyone yes anyone can roast their own coffee, no beard required

    Why do it Home roasting is very easy and about costs maybe $20 in simple equipment to get started. You can have your first batch of coffee roasted in about 5 mins once you get just 2 pieces of gear and some  green beans. Also you can roast in small batches so you have a continuous supply of freshly roasted coffee rather than getting to the bottom of stale bags. Negatives You can only small amounts at a time 100-150grams so don’t expect to be supplying your extended family anytime soon. Also with this method the heat and fan speed are fixed so you get the same roast style each time and its a quick roast so you may want to play around with the roast details later mods or other equipment. Roasting equipment Popcorn Machine normally under $10 from op shops, ebay, gumtree or garage sales. I have found the Breville Crazy Popper to be one of the best as it has a strong motor and plenty of power. One that has the vents in the bottom section is what you need to force the beans to circulate with hot air and roast. 2 metal colanders Green beans My favourite suppliers are: Withams Coffee – www.withams.com.au online and local pickup available (from Hornsby in Sydney NSW) Green Bean Coffee – greenbeancoffee.com.au Based in Sydney North Shore area – online order only Ministry Grounds – ministrygrounds.com.au Based near the Blue Mountains in Sydney Coffee Snobs – beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au Based in Victoria – super fast postage which they are famous for USA option Sweet Marias – www.sweetmarias.com Roasting process Make sure you are outside with nothing overhead for the first roast, A lot of husks go flying out and there is hot air pushing up so I don’t suggest doing this in doors unless you work out a way to catch or divert the husks. Popper must be off, then pour in your beans about 120g is ideal for the first batch. Experiment later with your specific popper if it can take more or if the beans move better with less. Make sure you have the 2 colanders on hand for when its finished. No point hunting around later for them when the beans need to cool off. Turn on the popper and soak up the moment, you are actually roasting coffee now. You will hear noises after 2-5 minutes that sound like match sticks breaking. That is called first crack. If you drink black coffee and like a crisp slightly acidic flavour turn of the popper now and pour the beans into one colander then transfer them between the 2 colanders for a minute or 2 until you can touch the beans and they are just warm. If you drink milk coffee and prefer a more subdued chocolatey darker roast let the first crack finish and then a 2nd round of cracking noises will occur and turn off the popper then. You may want to also check the colour of the beans if they are looking really dark turn off the popper regardless of the sounds and get cooling. Storing roasted beans I was able to get some craft bags from Green Bean Coffee – greenbeancoffee.com.au which hold up to 150g really well. You could use any container that keeps them out of the air and in the dark. Even an old milo tin would work. Because you use the coffee so quickly there is less time to worry about beans going stale. When to use the beans I find that the perfect flavour arrived at about 5 days after you have roasted the beans. They are drinkable from the next day but for me they seems to peak at about 5 days in flavour. So the trick then is to plan in advance how much coffee you drink per day, how much you get from a roast then get into a routine of roasting. For example I use 16g of coffee per cup and I have 2 cups per day. I get 105g per roast  (after starting with 120g and there is the loss from moisture and husks). So 105g / 32g per day = approx 3 days per roast so I need to roast 1 batch every 3 days. Now if I roast every 3 days and don’t start drinking the first roast until day 4 I will be drinking ALL of my coffee between day 4 and 6 because the next batch is maturing while I am drinking the previous batch. Next level – home roasters Modify your own http://coffeesnobs.com.au/home-roasting-tips-tricks-ideas/35002-updated-12-11-2013-popper-roasting-tips-tricks-mods.html Buy one Behmor 1600 Plus http://beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au/ViewProduct.aspx/1153-behmor-1600-plus-coffee-roaster https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/behmor-1600-plus Links to great posts about home roasting https://www.homegrounds.co/best-home-coffee-roasters/

    16 min

  8. 12/03/2018

    TCS 002: Hackers gonna hack

    Here is a story about dealing with a website that has been hacked. I got an email from a digital agency I work with who had one of their websites hacked. This podcast walks through the process I followed to find and remove the hacking in relatively simple terms. This is what the website looked like Cpanel access You will need your cpanel login details for the webhosting you have for you website to follow these steps. Usually you can access it via your website addresss/cpanel eg mywebsite.com/cpanel then use the username and password they sent you when you set up your webhosting account. Replace wp-admin and wp-includes (NOT wp-content) Got to wordpress.org and download the latest version of WordPress. Then replace the wp-admin and wp-includes folders on your website with the new ones you downloaded. This is done by unzipping the wordpress file you downloaded from wordpress.org and then zipping just the wp-admin folder and the wp-includes folder as a new zip file. The upload that via the cpanel file manager to your website and extract them to replace the existing wp-admin and wp-includes folders only. **Warning** DO NOT REPLACE wp-content folder that is where all of your images, theme etc files live and you need to leave it alone. Turn on debugging mode Edit the wp-config.php file and change the debug setting to true. This is done by right clicking on the file via your file manage in the cpanel area and selecting edit. Remember to save the setting or it won’t actually change the setting. Start renaming folded one by one and change them back in between tests Now check the website and if it still has hacked files try changing the name of the wp-content folder to something else eg offline-wp-contents If the hacking message isn’t there anymore you are on the right track. Now rename it back to what it was supposed to be. Rename the next level of folders under wp-content one by one and change them back to the correct name in between. I tried plugins, wp-uploads with no change. Then I renames the themes folder and voila it changed to a white screen. I was getting close now. Gotcha, hacked file found I then saw a debugging message saying that a file called class-mega-menu.php was missing or something like that. When I opened that file to view it there was the actual little daemon figure and the hacking code. I was now able to go and get the original theme files and replace the file in question and it all came back to life. Username and password not working One more issue remained, my login had been compromised via the hacking file. I now had to get my username and password sorted out via the cpanel -> phpmyadmin area. To fix that you then need to go into phpMyAdmin and find the database used for your website. Then click on wp_users which then shows you the users that have access to your website. It was there I could see my username had been changed. How to change the username and password from phpMyAdmin So you click on edit on the username in question and change the username back to yours then you put the new password and you also need to select MD5 s the password format or it won’t work. Once you click save by pressing Go and confirming the change your username and password should work again. So all done. Intro music by : www.bensound.com

    13 min

  9. 11/03/2018

    TCS 001: Welcome to the Tony Cosentino Show

    Welcome to the first episode for the Tony Cosentino Show. Today my co-host Sam and I kick things off with firstly and overview of the things I will be talking about in the podcast in future episodes like film photography, fountain pens, coffee roasting, WordPress, giving up sugar, coloured hair. The main subject of this episode is analogue photography as I think it is worth considering due to many things like ability to archive better for the long term ie 20 years, slowing down and taking less photos with more care and attention. Sam also talks about fart guns and colour changing gum boots. Intro music by : www.bensound.com

    17 min
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About

This is a collection of my obsessions turned into a vocal catalogue of in depth information about WordPress, phototgraphy, coffee roasting, cassettes, hifi gear, quiting sugar, karate, fountain pens so many areas I love and want to talk about coming your way.

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  • Creator
    Tony Cosentino - WordPress specialist who loves to talk to people about their passions and his own
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
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    Tony Cosentino Show