*CONTACT DETAILS*



Know Idea is Brisbane's science radio show on community youth broadcaster 4ZZZfm!

Program page: www.4zzzfm.org.au/program/know-idea

Facebook: www.facebook.com/KnowIdea.4zzzFM


First, click play...

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The short version:

- Who are you?
My name is Reece Jackson, i host a popular science radio program on community broadcaster 4zzzfm. I studied astrophysics at the University of Queensland and bring that to radio. I busk for a living on the streets of my capital city Brisbane.


- What exactly am I funding?
This campaign is to assist me replace my broken PC that i use to produce the show.

- Why is this important?
The computer was used to produce all of the content (that I provide for free) for my science radio propgram 'Know Idea' . I have been producing this show for two years. This includes podcasts, interviews, show segments and programming. Without this production computer the show is effectively crippled.

- Why should I fund this campaign?
By funding this campaign you are helping to enrich the community with free and readily accessible (and entertaining) discussions in the natural sciences. Know Idea is dedicated to spreading awareness of key public health concerns and issues from vaccines and cancer research to fascinating ideas in cosmology (as well as the odd crazy conspiracy theory thrown for good measure).

What happens if you don't reach your funding goal?
All my work is done as a volunteer and i busk for a living so cash is very limited. I would not be able to get production back on track for quite some time.

Do you honestly expect anyone to pledge $10,000? 
haha no that's silly. I'm just trying to make you laugh.

Thank you! Your pledges are greatly appreciated.
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The back story...

A long long time ago in a galaxy not too far from here, this galaxy in fact, a young physics nerd got his first computer. Oh what a joyful day that was! But alas, this was not to last... for more than eight years.

During those eight years the professor transformed his ordinary home computer into a professional production station where he records, mixes and masters his music, science podcasts, interviews and everything to do with his science show. The program is about enriching the community through education of key and interesting topics, making specialist information accessable to the lay person and youth.

After he began presenting his science show his pc became the workhorse of what he calls "the lab", Although it was old and slow his pc got the job done. From producing podcasts to creating funny segments for the show and great sounding interviews, having the capacity to record creative ideas as they happen is an extremely valuable asset. For a writer, a pen and paper is all you need. For radio and music production, a computer is as low tech as it gets.

Over the last few years the lab computer has slowly lost it's ability to do anything useful. eventually his digital mixing software only let him record 4 tracks at a time! that's the same capacity they had in the early 70's... Never one to turn down a challenge the Professor has brought the computer back from the brink of destruction countless times.

From massive malware infections that lock up the entire pc to physically re-soldering electrical components back on the motherboard,  the professor made it work. It has been a long battle that came to an abrupt and unfortunate end on August 25th 2014.

Since the professor's sole income is from busking in the streets of brisbane (with not a single centerlink dollar to be had), his financial resources have become severely limited. So it is with a shaky hand and a mildly amusing tale that the professor asks for pledges to get his lab back up and running, so that he may continue to produce the great content he is becoming known for.

Since i already have a mouse, keyboard and screen that saves on cost a LOT. 

Now some of you may be thinking "you can build a computer for less than $1000!" and you are correct. however, since some of my interviews are over an hr long and the show itself is 3hrs long, i am dealing with large amounts of data and accordingly need to process this amount of data quickly. This means i need a fast processor and a huge work bench (read: RAM, at least 16GB of it).

To accomodate, I need a motherboard with extra ram slots, at least a 3.6GHz processor with 4 true cores (8 virtual cores) and a special graphics card for processing video (my old pc would take 4hrs to render 3 mins of regular video) so i can show you all my hilarious go-pro footage i take of people while i busk (trust me that shit is hilarious and i have tons of never before seen footage). Being able to make other cool video's for the show is on the cards too.

Ideally however, reaching $2,000 with this campaign would allow me to build the perfect lab pc. That would allow me to render HD video's and audio in seconds, not hrs. but that is the best case scenario. $1,000 will see me back up and running at a minimum.

This is the exact parts list for the new work station:

The main obstacle for success with this project is having the tools nessesary to do my work. that goes hand in hand with having the funding to maintain equipment which is where this campaign comes in! This is literally the only thing standing in my way. 

Although there is one thing i will mention for this campaig which is the problem of what the rewards are! i already provide all my work for free! so rewards? well you are helping me with my computer so...