Serendipity35

I listen to a lot of podcasts each week. It has become the radio station that I can program myself. There are so many shows (some are truly radio programs - like NPR programs - some are only podcast) that I can't get to hear when they are broadcast because of my work schedule, that my little cheapo iPod shuffle has become my VCR/TiVo for audio. I rarely put music on it, and I refresh it with new podcasts daily.

A few programs I enjoy have video versions or are video only - those I watch on my laptop since my shuffle has no screen. Honestly, about half of those video podcasts work just as well as audio-only.

Don't know how to download podcasts or subscribe? I have pretty simple directions on our Podcasting at NJIT site. And remember, you don't have to have an iPod or any mp3 player to enjoy podcasts - just a computer, internet connection & some free software. The mp3 device (iPod or otherwise) is only if you want to take it with you and listen with those annoying ear buds while you are walking, jogging, working in the garden etc. You can also buy mp3 adapters for your car stereo and listen while you drive.

There are links below to the show sites, the hosts' own websites and the all important xml address that you can paste into iTunes or whatever you use to subscribe. I'm only listing free podcasts here.

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Inside the Net - focuses on one product or service per show, often with the owner/creator, features many "Web 2.0" items

Hosts: Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte

http://leoville.tv/podcasts/itn.xml

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Le Show

Not tech. Humor, satire, news, eclectic music.

Host: The great Harry Shearer, musician, actor, writer, satirist and the voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers, Rev. Lovejoy and others on The Simpsons.

http://www.kcrw.com/podcast/show/ls

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GizWiz - Quick, daily podcasts (around 5 minutes) that look at one new or classic gizmo, gadget or tech thingie. Though it's a tech podcast, it's very informal and aimed at a general audience.

Hosts: Dick DeBartolo (Mad magazine's maddest writer) and Leo Laporte (yeah, he does a lot of podcasting)

http://leo.am/podcasts/dgw

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Bookworm -  If you were a writer, you would want host Michael Silverblatt to be your reader. If you are a serious reader, you'll enjoy these in-depth interviews with writers of poetry & fiction.  Show site

Host: Michael Silverblatt

http://kcrw.com/podcast/show/bw

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This Week in Tech

AKA TWiT. A rambling show on all things tech with a group of highly opininionated experts in video, software, hardware and the Net. Some episodes are also availabale as video podcasts.

http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml

Google Labs is that part of the company that tries out new things and releases beta versions for the public to use.

Google Romance is there now. It has some sophisticated personal search algorithms that are supposed to help you find that mate of your soul. It also sets up your first "Contextual Date" with that person. And it's free. Well, "free" in the look-at-our-highly-relevant-advertising-that-is-on-the-page version of free. The ads are also selected by some fancy algorithms.

Have I beta-tested it? Nope. And I probably won't. I'll poke around to see how it works. If you didn't want to get wet, why did you get into the pool?

However, you give it a try and then leave some comments here.

And then we need to try out Google Finance. This one started out as a "small project led by a few engineers in Bangalore and later joined by more engineers and finance enthusiasts in Mountain View and New York," according to the Google's own blog.

I've been using Yahoo! Finance for a few years and find it very good. I'm not sure what more I would ask for from Google. They mention that you don't need to remember the ticker or mutual fund symbol because you can just search for a company or mutual fund by name. The other features: interactive charts by time periods, headlines mapped into the charts (via Google News), "insightful comments" from bloggers (don't get me started on stock tipsters and "pump & dump" scams), and discussion groups moderated by "enthusiastic community advocates" - these all all available out there already.

It's a Google mashup. Ways to reuse materials they already have in new ways. I'm all for mashups and recycling, but when companies start to do that (Microsoft comes to mind) and try to initiate projects that are already being done pretty well by others, I start to wonder if their creative juices are getting low.

Still, I will try Google Finance out in this beta version and hope it will expand and improve. Let Google know what you think about it.

I've always though Google would be a great, creative place to work. When they purchased Writely, there were rumors about them trying to put together an online MS Office kind of suite of applications. That certainly sounds interesting. Still, that's another "do what someone else is already doing" development direction, but we are a country that loves to see people build the better mousetrap - especially if it's cheaper or free.

My own personal vision of software, formed 20 years ago, (which I'm still wrong about for now) is that we won't have software on our "computer" (I'm also doubtful that the device we are using in 10 years will be called that). The software and applications will be online and probably so will be my data and files. Kind of a dumb terminal/thin client idea. Yes, I know all the security issues that will occur. Yes, I realize that when my Internet connection goes down (or doesn't exist), I am stuck. That needs a lot of work and consideration. And that's what I want Google and others to do.

So, I'm looking at another online service called Textamerica (not really a great name for this service) that lets you send images & videos via your camera phone and upload files from your desktop or digital camera. You post right to the Web.

I first heard about this from Amber MacArthur (AKA Amber Mac) who is a host/producer of some good tech programs on G4TECHTV (Canada) like Torrent, Gadgets & Gizmos and Call for Help.

That last one is a daily one-hour television program that teaches viewers about tech hardware and software.

She's a Web 2.0 advocate and has a lot of experience in web design.

She also does the podcast Inside the Net which focuses on one product/service per show. (More on some of my favorite podcasts in a few days.)

So, she is all over the web. She has some of her cell phone pictures up at ambermac.textamerica.com and, of course, like any upstanding young person, she has some of her photos at Flickr.

Do you feel a little bit like the voyeur by looking at her photos? Is it all okay because, after all, Amber put them out there for you?

We know all the ink and pixels that MySpace, Facebook and the rest have gotten in the past six months. Older folks (I'm in that age group) seem to be freaked out by what kids are putting up about themselves online for everyone to see. Younger Netizens seem to be very unconcerned. I'm a tween on this one. I see nothing wrong with Amber, as an example, putting part of her life out there. After all, she is a public figure and exposure is a part of promotion. And I see nothing sensational about the images she posts. (Though I can't say that about all the images at Textamerica and Flickr - and I should add that you can "flag" photos that you find objectionable at both of those sites and help the services keep the smut out). I'm sure part of her reason for having images up there was to test/research the service. It's her job. I'm guilty of it.

If I was Amber's father, I suspect I'd feel differently about it. I have two college-aged sons and they have things online and I'm unconcerned. Nothing crazy (that I know of anyway) but I'm OK with it. Double standard? Absolutely. I willingly admit to that. And I think that's something that doesn't get much media attention.

Go ahead, look at Amber's pictures. Go ahead, blame me for linking to them and posting one here. I'll claim that it's all in the interest of furthering inquiry by you, dear reader.

Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini unveiled a prototype of a low-cost laptop designed
for use in education at an event in Brazil, according to a report in a Brazilian technology publication.

Called Edu-Wise, it will cost $400 and be available starting in 2007. The laptop has more features than the $100 laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project at MIT.

At 4 times the cost, I wonder if it could serve the same audiences and needs. Not too much info on the features as of yet.

Prior to this, there was quite a buzz about the One Laptop per Child offering. OLPC is a non-profit association dedicated
to research to develop a $100 laptop. It is thought to be a technology that could
revolutionize how we educate the world's children by providing them with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves.. This initiative was
first announced by Nicholas Negroponte at the World Economic Forum at
Davos, Switzerland in January 2005.

The proposed $100 machine will be:

• Linux-based
• dual-mode
  display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display
  option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3×
  the resolution.
• 500MHz processor and 128MB of
  DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory
• no hard disk
• four USB ports
• wireless broadband
  that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each
  laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad
  hoc, local area network
• innovative power
  supplies, including wind-up power