This weekend, I finally got into podcasting properly. It all just
clicked into place. I have started using Ipodder to update
subscriptions properly, and started listening to a couple of shows I
hadn’t given time to yet. And I am very glad I did.
So what is podcasting? As far as I see it, it is a combination of a few technologies, namely audio-files and RSS feeds, using some of the same ideas that have helped to advance blogging. Someone can upload an audio file onto their web-space, and then use their RSS feed to let other people know that they have put their latest file online. I use a popular program called Ipodder which goes off and gets me those files. There are a wide away of podcast shows, music shows, talk shows, audio blogs, and much more.
I had actually updated to the latest version of Ipodder on Thursday,
and downloaded some new shows to try. But it was when I was shopping on Saturday morning, catching up on the latest Adam Curry’s Daily
Source Code that I think I became properly hooked. Stuck on a bus in a traffic jam, this is the sort of downtime that you want to be exploiting properly.
Commuting, all the stolen time from your life.
Sure you can read, and yes I do need to that more. For me though, I quite enjoy reading sat at home, with a strong cup of freshly brewed tea to one side. When I am commuting (and in Oxford I am very lucky, my “commute” is 20 minutes bus and walking in the morning, and the same back, or if I am behaving myself, a 30 minutes walk) I am generally not in the mood to read, or am walking.
This is where the ipod has come in. It has also coincided with my
gradual move towards talk radio over the past year. I always liked
Radio 5, but Radio 4 has started to become important to me
as well, always listen to their news on a morning, and then to several
comedy shows on Listen Again over the course of a week.
So it has been quite an easy transition into listening to Adam
Curry’s show. I won’t go into his history, you can let him explain it
to you if you want. I have to say, I am finding it rather enjoyable.