'Casting: A Wide Net

While I am sometimes an early adopter of technology (witness my possession of a first-generation iPod and the more recent nanopurchase), other times, I'm slow to the draw. I'd heard of RSS feeds, and had played around with a feed reader... but never really got hooked on it all until Apple updated their Safari web browser to read RSS feeds. Now, at a glance, I can see if any of the RSS-enabled blogs I follow has been updated. It even inspired me (yes, some months ago now) to add an Atom feed to my own blog, here. One day I'll remember to add it on the right-hand side over there. But, I digress.

My latest late-to-the-party: Podcasting. If you haven't heard about it yet, podcasts are the rough equivalent of an audible blog. People record whatever, post it to the web, and you (ostensibly) download it to your iPod to listen to, whenever. Some are interesting, some are... well, a waste of time. Just like blogs. And, just like blogs, a few companies are trying to figure out how to capitalize on them. NPR, doing great. Disney even did some interesting ones around Disneyland's 50th birthday. But I've heard a few that are nothing but commercials — and boring ones, at that.

Although podcasting has been around for a while, I'm one of those who didn't "get it" until Apple added podcasts to iTunes this summer. Now, I listen to a few different podcasts at the gym whilst doing all my running-in-place. So (again), until I get around to updating the right-hand side of the page, here are some links to websites hosting podcasts I'm following. Many have iTunes-friendly subscription links somewhere on the page, and generally, they are SO not safe for work.

• v-hold.net podcast — proof that the voice you imagine when you read someone's blog, may have NOTHING in common with their actual, spoken voice. Just sayin'.
• Feast of Fools — and I don't even know how I stumbled on this.
• Eat This Hot Show — I got to it from Feast of Fools, who participateused to participate in the show update: As of Oct. 4, the FoF folks don't particpate anymore, and I don't particuarly enjoy the three that remained.
• Andymatic — was on a FOF show...
• BearPodcast — How I got here is another mystery lost to the sands of time
• NPR Story of the Day — Found it on the iTunes Podcast page, and is one that is ever-so-quite Safe For Work

One of these days, I'll figure out some of the remaining podcast secrets (like, why so many shows think 45 minutes is an ideal length!). Oh, and I may have adopted the RSS thing, but I wouldn't count on seeing me start a podcast any time soon. I'm SO not a fan of hearing my spoken voice, and don't want to subject else anyone to that, either!