Podcasting's Reluctant Evangelist
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Even if he's not excited by the responsibility, Leo LaPorte is the face of podcasting. His fans say he can do no wrong. By Steve Friess.
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Really Simple Syndication technology, which lets news junkies get instant info feeds from multiple sites, is grabbing investors' attention. The latest evidence: a multimillion-dollar funding round for RSS developer Technorati. By Daniel Terdiman.
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This article is from a new book published by No Starch Press: Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks: A Pain-Free, Project-Based, Get-Things-Done Guidebook by Rickford Grant. &nbsp;This excerpt covers using your iPod with Ubuntu and it is full of tips, tricks, and helpful pointers. &nbsp;Reprinted with permission from No Starch Press, all rights reserved. &nbsp;More information about the book and its author is at the end of the article.
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Like it or not, ads are coming to RSS. Sending information only to those who want it might be a way to keep subscribers from rioting. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg.
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By Jeffrey Kelley, Richmond Times-Dispatch  Mar. 3--Since its early days circa 2004, podcasting has touched on such subjects as gardening, video games, cooking and sports.
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Microsoft's new internet streaming service attempts to replicate terrestrial stations, without all the annoying chatter -- and without permission. By Randy Dotinga.
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Continuing the thread from yesterday. I got absolutely nowhere, some people suggested I use a smart playlist, missing the point that I'm a developer working on a podcatcher, not a user trying to use iTunes as a podcatcher. I'm sure it's an excellent way to subscribe to podcasts, but I have my own ideas how podcatchers should work, and I want to integrate them with other stuff I'm working on. Integrating with iTunes is proving to be quite a challenge, or maybe it's an art, we'll see.  As usual Mac users are superior sumbitches.  (Quoting the James Brolin character the first time we meet him in the third season finale of The West Wing.) Anyway, the search continues, I tried another more direct tack, and looked for glue for iTunes for UserLand, and bingo, there's a match, from 2001, a well-known Frontier programmer Sean Elfstrom, apparently converted glue for the Sonic SoundJam app that iTunes used to be, before Apple acquired it.  I installed the glue in the OPML Editor. It's daunting, for sure, but let's see what I can get working.
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Tycho:  We were getting our hands on a four gig CompactFlash for the podcast recorder when the "friendly staff" gave us an idea for a new comic.  Thank you, friendly staff!  May nothing ever happen to your... staff.
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The Frankenstein-style gadget combines audio/video playback, VOIP, Wi-Fi, pseudo-GPS and podcast software. In Listening Post.
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By Robin Roger, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.  Sep. 17--The New Oxford American Dictionary declared "podcast" the word of the year in 2005 but many businesses have yet to embrace the technology.
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Okay I've been writing about OPML reading lists here for years. I'm now on my second implementation, so maybe this time I'll get it right.  But there's something cool that happens when (hypothetically) the entire installed base of podcatchers supports OPML reading lists. All of a sudden the subscription problem goes poof! Ask anyone who's worked on a RSS reader, for that matter, ask anyone who's used one, what a PITA it is to subscribe to a feed. All those little buttons, or copying and pasting, and looking at urls, and trying to figure out whether you want this format or that format. It's a miracle anyone actually subscribes to feeds it's so damned complicated. Before you blame anyone, it's not actually anyone's fault. It's a result of the market not being a monopoly. The only way to solve the problem is if everyone uses the same web app to manage subscriptions. And we know that's not going to happen any time soon. Or, if every reader supports OPML reading lists. Now that might actually happen, even though it's not very likely. But podcasting, that's a whole other story. According to many people there's only one podcatcher, iTunes. So that's simplified the problem. For example, look at this page of NY Times podcasts, and how they handle it.   See the Subscribe button? Nice. Except for one thing. It really should say "Subscribe in iTunes" because that's what it does. And it works, because in many people's minds, iTunes is the only way to subscribe to a podcast. And it could stay that simple if Apple would do one thing, offer the option of publishing the OPML automatically to a publicly accessible web address, so the user could continue to use Apple's server to handle subscriptions, even if they're using a different podcatcher (for example one that runs on a Nokia N800). It would be the mark of a truly great company if they did that. Maybe they are that great. Otheriwse at some point we're going to ask the NY TImes to change their page. And they may not be too happy about that. Wouldn't blame them if they were. Moral of the story: If we can centralize the subscription process, and move it out of one reader or another, and get the readers to all support subscription to reading lists, the awful ugly issue will go away for users. It's one of the oldest tradeoffs in the tech business, to make it simple for users, the vendors have to give up some power.
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The guy who created Winamp, unleashed Gnutella on the world and quit AOL after clashing with his corporate overlords is still chasing the music. Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk.
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If you're using FlickrFan, you should have a copy of podcatcher.root in your Tool folder. If not now, at the top of the next hour (launch the OPML app so it can do the update). I want to get started with a small group of people, develop features, and then figure out how to broaden it, if that turns out to be the right thing to do. For now, I just want a testbed to develop, and a group of interested users. I've put together a brief cheat sheet for FlickrFan users. http://codecasting.org/podcatcher/00001.html  If you have a question please post it there and we'll try to get you the answer. Hope it works, and hope you like it.
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Tycho: Some of you have probably already heard it, since I put it up yesterday - but we're trying new hosting for the podcast, and I wanted to make sure everything made sense before I dropped it on the front page. The podcast is for Wednesday's strip, "The Ungift, Part Two." You can download it here, or subscribe to the feed here. The levels are a little crazy in a couple spots, for which I apologize. I think we've got those ironed out, now. (CW)TB
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Using an iPod to listen to podcasts is so yesterday. Soon, many companies hope, you'll get your fix straight to your cell phone. Or will you? Steve Friess reports from Ontario, California.
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I have three conferences on the schedule this fall, which is an unusually large number of conferences for me these days. It's a pretty wide-ranging and eclectic group, and so far I'm not actually speaking at any of them, which suits me fine these days, I'm enjoying not speaking and just listening, to the extent that I can keep myself from saying anything.  1. I'm going to Jeff Jarvis's Networked Journalism conference on October 10 in New York City, to bring together bloggers and professional news people. I've been to a number of these meetups, and I appreciate Jeff's prime directive for us, no trash talk, we're there to find ways to work together. My main observation is that while we've accomplished so much in virtual space, we have neglected the material space. Putting bloggers in the same physical space with each other and professionals on a routine basis is a sure way to make new ideas and projects materialize. Where to do that? The newsroom, of course. 2. I asked for a press pass to the Web 2.0 Summit, and was graciously provided one. I've never been to one of these. I'll try to keep the expectations to a minimum, and an open mind, and as I said before, I'll try to say nothing at all, just listen and blog. I came pretty close to that at Gnomedex, only speaking once, and look at all the trouble that caused.  3. I'm going to Le Web 3 in Paris, my second European trip this year and I'm totally looking forward to it. I've gotten to know Loic Le Meur, the promoter of the conference, now that he lives in San Francisco, and it's fair to say that we've hit it off. It's so much fun to brainstorm with the guy. Yesterday he was here at the house in Berkeley and we sat in the den, with the FlickrRivr app running on the big screen, and it had its hypnotic effect on him. It really is something, you can't describe it in words, people have to experience it for themselves. As a result it's going to be part of the show in Paris, running constantly behind the speakers. Now that's what I'm talking about! A few days ago, in my wrap-up of TC40, I wrote: "Maybe someday these conferences could host real-time development, where media hackers put together new communication systems and deploy them before the conference is over." There will be over 2000 people at Le Web 3, some of them will be programmers, so maybe this is where we will get a chance to try out real time media hacking.
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At the public demo on the 17th, I will talk about the idea of the Networked Living Room built on RSS. Low-tech, open, all moving parts replaceable. Not just photos, that's step one.  Sign up on Upcoming. Still some space left.