Snooze Catching
For those of you who don't know, there's been a lot of talk lately about the democratization of media and how the internet plus cheap production is going to blow apart the conventional media machines that we've all built up by paying $18.99 for CDs and $15.00 for a movie ticket.
One of the technologies they're really pushing is something called Podcasting, which is fancy-speak for a recording that you download from the internet and listen to on your computer, stereo or iPOD at your leisure. I've followed this technology since its early days but really didn't have the time to get deep into it -- until today.
Apple announced podcasting support in their new version of iTunes so I decided to take a closer look. Boy, was I disappointed. One of the things I've learned from my years of playing with and working on gadgets and such is that they have to have a purpose -- you can't just use some tool because someone invented it -- it's gotta fit or else it loses all of it's elegance. That's why we look back on some things in history and say, "what the f*!ck were they thinking? (remember Spray on Hair or the Atomic Bomb)
-- while other things we think of as classics (the Radio Flyer Wagon, or a Good typewriter.)
Such it is with podcasting. During my fifteen minutes trying it out, I made sure to listen to a bunch of different stuff. One was a replay of a morning radio program from WGBH in Boston. That one was pretty good. Next, I casted up a piece from Disney Online. I was pretty impressed that they were jumping in, feet first, to the future. Unfortunately, the show was only the soundtrack to a show available through their pay site. Another advertising gimmick. Finally, I went deep, deep down the tail to the blogs and commentaries. I listened to 5 different guys talk about how the airport was crowded or how they loved such and such movie and so on and so on.
One other thing you got to know about me -- I hate Regis Philbin and that Katie, Kathy, whatever the hell her name is. When I hear them, or any other chatty time-filling morphs of human beings filling up time and a TV screen, I actually start wondering when that whole end-of-days thing everyone talks about is supposed to happen.
Unfortunately, it's not soon enough for you, since you're still reading this article, but, my point is that podcasting has its merits, but it also gives people another reason to fill up space with unecessary chatter. It reminds me of the whole CB Radio craze in the 80s, when everyone had their little handles and code names and they (myself included) would spend hours talking to strange people you didn't know about absolutely nothing -- all just because you could.
Perhaps someone will come along and come up with a good way to filter this stuff; cause in the meantime, I'm going back to my regularly scheduled life.
One of the technologies they're really pushing is something called Podcasting, which is fancy-speak for a recording that you download from the internet and listen to on your computer, stereo or iPOD at your leisure. I've followed this technology since its early days but really didn't have the time to get deep into it -- until today.
Apple announced podcasting support in their new version of iTunes so I decided to take a closer look. Boy, was I disappointed. One of the things I've learned from my years of playing with and working on gadgets and such is that they have to have a purpose -- you can't just use some tool because someone invented it -- it's gotta fit or else it loses all of it's elegance. That's why we look back on some things in history and say, "what the f*!ck were they thinking? (remember Spray on Hair or the Atomic Bomb)
-- while other things we think of as classics (the Radio Flyer Wagon, or a Good typewriter.)
Such it is with podcasting. During my fifteen minutes trying it out, I made sure to listen to a bunch of different stuff. One was a replay of a morning radio program from WGBH in Boston. That one was pretty good. Next, I casted up a piece from Disney Online. I was pretty impressed that they were jumping in, feet first, to the future. Unfortunately, the show was only the soundtrack to a show available through their pay site. Another advertising gimmick. Finally, I went deep, deep down the tail to the blogs and commentaries. I listened to 5 different guys talk about how the airport was crowded or how they loved such and such movie and so on and so on.
One other thing you got to know about me -- I hate Regis Philbin and that Katie, Kathy, whatever the hell her name is. When I hear them, or any other chatty time-filling morphs of human beings filling up time and a TV screen, I actually start wondering when that whole end-of-days thing everyone talks about is supposed to happen.
Unfortunately, it's not soon enough for you, since you're still reading this article, but, my point is that podcasting has its merits, but it also gives people another reason to fill up space with unecessary chatter. It reminds me of the whole CB Radio craze in the 80s, when everyone had their little handles and code names and they (myself included) would spend hours talking to strange people you didn't know about absolutely nothing -- all just because you could.
Perhaps someone will come along and come up with a good way to filter this stuff; cause in the meantime, I'm going back to my regularly scheduled life.
posted by Lou at 8:47 PM
2 Comments:
oh come on lou, on the basis of one visit to podcasting land you're going to cast it on the scrap heap?
admittedly, it's 99% shit, but then again whenever i turn on the radio i find about the same ratio.
you did a really good job with all the pictures, by the way. i wonder how that hair in a can looks on a freshly shaved dome?
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