spencer on Sunday May 25, 2008
Yep. In addition to reading books (Who Reads Harry Potter?) I've also started educating myself about all kinds of things by listening to "podcasts", named after the iPod (although I actually don't own iPod).
So I listen to podcasts on general technology, security, tech news, Internet news, general conference addresses, scriptures, economics, and some general news. I listen to these on the way to/from work, at night while working on my own things, and occasionally at work when doing mundane tasks.
Here's a list of some podcasts that I listen to with a link to their "feed":
Before getting into a little more technical explanation of what this all is, and how to do it
What I listen to:
This Week in Tech (Leo Laporte and a bunch of tech guys, weekly):
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml
The Tech Guy (Leo Laporte's Radio Show w/out the commercials, twice a week):
http://leo.am/podcasts/kfi
Windows Weekly (Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott, weekly):
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/ww.xml
Security Now! (Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson, weekly)
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml
Business Daily (daily)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/bizdaily/rss.xml
LDS General Conference Addresses (every 6 months):
http://feeds.lds.org/LDSGCComplete_eng
Book of Mormon in MP3s (once - never changes):
http://www.lds.org/mp3/display/0,18692,5297-41,00.html
What do you listen to?
Podcasts are available on any subject. You can listen to cooking, sports, political, knitting, animals, etc. podcasts. Do you listen to any podcasts? I'd like to know what they are if you do.
What is Podcasting?
Here's a quick introduction to what podcasting is. Basically, it's listening to audio files that aren't music. These audio files are available from Internet sites that produce them. Podcasts are normally on a set subject and produced on a regular basis (e.g. a tech website may do a tech podcast on a weekly basis). You download the audio file from the Internet site, put it on your portable device (I use my blackberry phone) and listen to it.
To make it easier to listen to certain podcasts, you usually subscribe to a podcast listing. You can do this in iTunes, or just in your Internet browser (Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox). To subscribe, you usually subscribe to an RSS feed - which basically just provides a listing of the podcasts, for example, the last five podcasts produced by that website.
Feeds:
Most of the links above are direct links to the feeds. This gives you a listening of recent podcasts. Although feeds can be used to show any list type content. To view the feeds you need to be using a feed aggregator (such as www.google.com/ig or www.live.com or www.netvibes.com), or a browser that supports them (Internet Explorer 6 doesn't but Internet Explorer 7 does).
Personally I use google and also a program called Amarok - but it's for Linux (not Windows, not Mac).
Internet Explorer' 7s Feed watching capabilities are pretty cool. You can set the feeds to automatically download the attached content (podcasts).
Huh?
If you are interested in setting something like this up for yourself, to listen to feeds on anything, let me know and I'll see if I can help.
So I listen to podcasts on general technology, security, tech news, Internet news, general conference addresses, scriptures, economics, and some general news. I listen to these on the way to/from work, at night while working on my own things, and occasionally at work when doing mundane tasks.
Here's a list of some podcasts that I listen to with a link to their "feed":
Before getting into a little more technical explanation of what this all is, and how to do it
What I listen to:
This Week in Tech (Leo Laporte and a bunch of tech guys, weekly):
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml
The Tech Guy (Leo Laporte's Radio Show w/out the commercials, twice a week):
http://leo.am/podcasts/kfi
Windows Weekly (Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott, weekly):
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/ww.xml
Security Now! (Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson, weekly)
http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml
Business Daily (daily)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/bizdaily/rss.xml
LDS General Conference Addresses (every 6 months):
http://feeds.lds.org/LDSGCComplete_eng
Book of Mormon in MP3s (once - never changes):
http://www.lds.org/mp3/display/0,18692,5297-41,00.html
What do you listen to?
Podcasts are available on any subject. You can listen to cooking, sports, political, knitting, animals, etc. podcasts. Do you listen to any podcasts? I'd like to know what they are if you do.
What is Podcasting?
Here's a quick introduction to what podcasting is. Basically, it's listening to audio files that aren't music. These audio files are available from Internet sites that produce them. Podcasts are normally on a set subject and produced on a regular basis (e.g. a tech website may do a tech podcast on a weekly basis). You download the audio file from the Internet site, put it on your portable device (I use my blackberry phone) and listen to it.
To make it easier to listen to certain podcasts, you usually subscribe to a podcast listing. You can do this in iTunes, or just in your Internet browser (Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox). To subscribe, you usually subscribe to an RSS feed - which basically just provides a listing of the podcasts, for example, the last five podcasts produced by that website.
Feeds:
Most of the links above are direct links to the feeds. This gives you a listening of recent podcasts. Although feeds can be used to show any list type content. To view the feeds you need to be using a feed aggregator (such as www.google.com/ig or www.live.com or www.netvibes.com), or a browser that supports them (Internet Explorer 6 doesn't but Internet Explorer 7 does).
Personally I use google and also a program called Amarok - but it's for Linux (not Windows, not Mac).
Internet Explorer' 7s Feed watching capabilities are pretty cool. You can set the feeds to automatically download the attached content (podcasts).
Huh?
If you are interested in setting something like this up for yourself, to listen to feeds on anything, let me know and I'll see if I can help.
4 comments - view comments or leave one 
Blog submitted by spencer on Sun, May 25th 2008, 01:13 |
direct link
This blog is public for all to see.
This blog is public for all to see.
http://www.tmbg.com/_media/_pod/podcast.xml
One is the TMBG podcast as already mentioned. I love their videos with the puppets.
Another is the Writing Excuses podcast at www.writingexcuses.com where some local (but fairly famous) authors talk about how to write good sci-fi/fantasy books.
I listen the 4th Age Podcast, which is a Wheel of TIme fan based podcast. It's found at www.dragonmount.com
And that's it right now.