Podcasting

www.podcast.com

I have this mp3 player. That is to say , a small device that hangs around my neck and plays music. Mostly I rip the music from my own collection of cd's. Rip means to convert them from the cd to a special computer file called an mp3 file (thus why the device is called an mp3 player).
Then I wander off to work and listen to the tunes.

It seems they've been putting out mp3's on the web that contain more than just music. The BBC for example does broadcasts , you download the mp3 file to your computer , copy it to your player , and wander off. It took me 2 min to download a 25 min broadcast, so you can get an idea of the savings of time.
I tried out the above site, podcast.com , and you click on the link and it plays the podcast as it is called. But if you look carefully , the link is to an mp3 file , so you can right click and "save target to disk" and save the file to your computer .

Now , it is true that listening to the BBC news may not thrill anyone, but I also spotted french lessons there , among other things. so imagine downloading french lessons and listening to them whilest travelling too and from work. And maybe even all day at work if you have some kind of mindless repetiative job (janitor or some such). Now you're seeing the potential.

This is called "pod casting" after the apple mp3 player which is called an ipod. And the mp3 files they're sporting they're giving away for free. And yes, the podcasts come with commericals included (at elast the BBC news one did )

Well , not a bad deal still. Certainly the french will come in handy for me. I have a cheap no name brand mp3 player that cost me a hundred bucks and takes a triple A battery , by the way , I think it's called Iriver ? Works great. No need to buy an expensive apple ipod and deal with their games.

ANNOYING IPOD GAMES
The only annoying ipod game that comes to mind is the battery game. Thats where your ipod has a built in battery thats only good for a few months , and then the manufacturer (apple is notorious for this) expects you to throw away the device and buy another. Needless to say , picking up an mp3 player or a palmtop computer or what not that uses standard batteries makes you immune to this particular evil stunt, and has always been my preference.

Note to others : My iRiver mp3 player requires windows XP , nothing less , to load / unload mp3 files from it. A deliberate limitation that annoys me since my other computer is win2000 and it wont do spit on that thing. If you are shopping for an mp3 player watch for such stunts and avoid them. I deeply regret having to maintain an xp machine just to listen to my tunes at work, but I'm too cheap to shell out a hundred bucks for an alternate player.