Lots of media coverage surrounding podcasting lately for some reason. The latest is from USA Today:

Big tech suppliers and media companies don’t know yet whether they need to come to grips with podcasting — or can dismiss it as a flash in the pan. But there is no ambivalence on the part of the technologists who’ve embraced it.

It’s not rocket science. Come to grips, or fall behind. In addition to just having a ton of great information, the article points out something that most others ignore:

Apple, in particular, is in a prime position to make podcasting significantly easier — but probably won’t. It has ignored requests from Curry and other technologists to discuss the matter, and declined USA TODAY’s interview requests for this story.

Makes me wonder what the hell Jobs has stuck up his ass. I think the problem is that he’s never had a monopoly before and so doesn’t know what to do! Perhaps he should ask his old buddy Bill for some advice. In the meantime, I look forward to the day that Windows Media devices overtake the iPod in market share, then it won’t matter what Apple does.

Read: USA Today

Can you believe it? It would appear that students won’t have to pay for tuition hikes next year after all:

In his annual televised address Tuesday, Klein said colleges and universities may raise tuition next year – but the province will pick up the increase so that students won’t pay any more than they did this year.

Not that I’d expect anything less, but U of A Students’ Union President Jordan Blatz just had to get in another dig:

“So he froze the fastest-increasing tuition in the country,” Blatz said. “But the premier and the provincial government have listened to the concerns of students and they took a huge step for us. A big gift for the students of Alberta. Definitely an encouraging sign.”

Encouraging indeed. Now let’s see if they take any other action in the next year or so.

Read: CBC Edmonton

It appears as though terrorist group ETA is at it again:

A car bomb exploded today at a convention center in Madrid, the same day Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Mexico’s President Vicente Fox are expected to visit the area to inaugurate an art convention. Basque newspaper Gara phoned authorities at 8:55 a.m. local time to say that it had received a telephone warning from someone speaking in the name of terrorist group ETA to say that a car bomb would explode in Madrid at 9:35 a.m., a Basque Interior Ministry spokesman, who declined to named, said in a telephone interview.

Sometimes I wonder what these terrorists are thinking. Surely there are better ways to accomplish their goals than by blowing up cars. There were around 10 injuries, but the news is also disheartening for another reason. According to the BBC, “the nearby Juan Carlos Exhibition centre is one of the proposed venues for Madrid’s 2012 Olympic bid.” It would seem to me their bid just fell down the list.

Read: Bloomberg

This is an old article, published in Macleans back on September 20th, 2004, but I just came across it tonight. A man died in 2002, but he wasn’t discovered until two years later – very interesting and slightly chilling:

But the primary factor in the delay, it turns out, was technology — or more specifically, automated banking. Sulkers suffered from multiple sclerosis and received a monthly disability pension, which was deposited directly into his bank account. His condo fees, utilities and other expenses were then deducted automatically. As such, his bills were routinely being paid up well beyond his death. Why wouldn’t his creditors assume he was alive?

This man was reclusive and estranged from his family, so I suppose his circumstances were a little different, but still! Makes you wonder.

Read: Macleans.ca

You’ve probably heard by now that CTV won the rights to broadcast the 2010 and 2012 Olympics on TV in Canada. Actually, it was CTV and Rogers Communications together that won. Anyway, did you hear how much they paid?

Tod Maffin over at CBC posted that the number he has been hearing is $153 million dollars. Consider that CBC paid $45 million for the 2004 Athens Olympics, a Canadian-record for TV broadcasting rights. Makes me wonder what CBC bid – certainly a lot less than CTV did. Seems like an awfully large sum to me, ya think CTV overpaid perhaps?

Normally, I’d be excited about a new Google service, but not today. The ever-expanding company announced a new beta (bet you didn’t see that coming) service today called Google Maps. As you might expect, people are excited, and are predicting the end for Mapquest.

I say, who cares? There is nothing particularly spectacular about the new service, nothing at all. Looking for map software? One word:

MapPoint

And check out MapPoint on MSN too.

Tonight Megan and I went to the Winspear to see and hear the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. The audience seemed to be generally older than we were, but it was a great show! Those guys are amazing – the stuff they can do is so hardcore!

The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO), composed of many of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1998. Under the leadership of music director Wynton Marsalis, the LCJO performs a vast repertory spaning the history of jazz, from masterpieces by composers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus, to commissioned works by Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath, Chico O’Farrill, members of the LCJO, among others.

Good times 🙂

I might just be the only person you’ll ever see who will chase a bottle of V8 juice with good old Coke! Then again, maybe not, there could be many such addicts out there. This was taken today in CAB at the University of Alberta, always a party going on in that place! If you’re on campus, come to the basement of CAB.

In other news…it sounds like there is a big Xbox/computer LAN being planned for reading week, tentatively on the 24th and 25th, so block it off on your calendars. I don’t want to hear any lame excuses! Bring your Xbox, games, controllers, computers, pictures, music, porn, you name it, and we’ll either play it, watch it, or share it. I am guessing that Inge will post some more details as the event draws near, so stay tuned!

Via colin, I came across this CNN article from today on podcasting – ‘Podcasting’ takes broadcasting to the Internet. Cited is Craig Patchett of the GodCast podcast, Adam Curry, and the sidebar has links to iPodder and PodCast Alley.

It has the potential to do to the radio business what Web logs have done to print journalism. By bringing the cost of broadcasting to nearly nothing, it’s enabling more voices and messages to be heard than ever before.

The article is pretty well written I’d say, even though it still spends a lot of explaining just what podcasting is. It also makes the bold claim that “Podcasting isn’t likely to threaten traditional broadcasting any time soon”, citing the number of digital music players compared to radios. What about growth rates? Who buys a radio anymore? I don’t think I ever have – the radio comes in my alarm clock, or now, in my MP3 player.

Anyway, worth a read!

Just posted a new episode of Blogosphere News in which I did a special Super Bowl 2005 interview with none other than SportsGuru himself! That’s right, I interviewed Martin, who was fighting a bit of feedback, so some of the interview sounds a little delayed. All in all it went very well, check it out!

Listen now!