Average Joe Podcasting

Post ImageIt seems that big media has decided they want to get into the podcasting game, with everyone from MSNBC to Fox to BusinessWeek announcing podcasts in the last few weeks. I think that’s great! You know what they say, the more the merrier! And let’s be honest, no matter how much you like listening to an American couple talk about their sex life, you probably wouldn’t mind adding some news or commentary to your daily playlist.

Unfortunately, now that big media (or mainstreamedia) is on board, there’s a good crop of pundits and critics who seem to think that podcasting is over, because the average joe won’t be able to make any money podcasting. The big media players get all the coverage, and thus the advertising dollars.

Except that average joe probably doesn’t want to make any money from his (or her) podcast! Not everyone who starts a podcast is going to want to make money from it, just like not everyone who blogs does so with the intention of making a living. I read a lot about podcasting – news articles, blog posts, etc., and I can’t help but feel that far too many individuals and organizations focus on the “making money from podcasting” idea. Sure, there will be some podcasts that generate revenue, but I don’t see any reason that podcasting should be different from blogging: there are a lot of business blogs, but there are far more personal, average joe, I do it for myself/my family/my friends kind of blogs.

As soon as starting and maintaining a podcast is as simple as starting and maintaining a blog, I think we’ll see the same breakdown in podcasting. Lots of average joe podcasts, and far less big media or big business podcasts. Podcasting is not radio! You can decide what you want to listen to, whether that’s corporate marketing podcasts, flashy radio sounding podcasts, or something more real.

And one last clarification: just because I call them “average joe” podcasts, doesn’t mean they have to suck or sound bad! There will probably be some professional sounding average joe podcasts produced. All I mean by the term is podcasts not created for the sole purpose of making a monetary profit, but more as a labor of love. Or maybe even just ’cause it’s the thing to do 😉

Interac Done Right

Back in September of last year, when I was still attending class often enough to need to purchase lunch on campus, I wrote about the Interac Surcharge Insanity at the University of Alberta. To refresh your memory:

Today at CAB I decided I wanted Chinese food so I went over to the cafeteria place to get some. Grabbed my good old Coke, and headed to the counter to pay using my debit card. What happened next I was not prepared for. I was shocked…they wanted to charge me a 35 cent surcharge for using Interac.

I griped about the situation, and even wrote a cleaner version of my post which got published in the Gateway. I haven’t been to campus in a very long time, and even longer to buy food on campus, so I don’t know if things have changed. My guess is no, since lowering fees isn’t exactly natural to a post-secondary institution. What I can tell you though, is that not all companies are taking part in the surcharge madness!

BCOM Computer in Edmonton (and they have a Calgary store too) knows how Interac should be done. On every item they sell, there are two prices. One is the regular price, and the other is listed as a “cash rebate” price. What I didn’t realize until today however, is that you can use either cash or Interac to get the rebate price!

That, my friends, is exactly how Interac should be done. They save money by having me use my debit card, so they pass the savings on to me. Now if only we could get the University to do the same thing!

Read: BCOM Computer

Oil prices will go higher

Post ImageDriving to work earlier today, I noticed that some gas stations have raised prices again, this time to 102.9. I have never seen gas prices so high, and I never thought I would. I remember a few years ago when a litre of gas cost less than half what it does today. And the worst news of all? Oil prices are going to keep rising.

If you think I’m joking, read this Economist.com article. It does an excellent job of explaining things:

So far, however, the effect of higher prices has been surprisingly muted. Gas-guzzling America has seen GDP grow at a brisk clip, far outstripping many of its daintier peers in the rich world. Though high oil prices are contributing to America’s surging (and unsustainable) current-account deficit, they do not seem to be worrying consumers, who have kept on spending.

In part, this is because the oil-price records are an illusion, brought about by inflation. While nominal prices are at record levels, in real (inflation-adjusted) terms they are still well below those seen in the wake of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when the cost of a barrel of oil hovered around $90 in today’s dollars (see chart). Consumers are better-off now—in 1980, the median personal income in America was $16,800 (in 2003 prices), versus $22,700 in 2003—and economies are more fuel-efficient. Both of these things should cushion the shock of higher prices.

There are other factors to consider too. During the hostage crisis, OPEC deliberately kept prices higher than the market could bear – but it backfired. We became more fuel efficient as a result, something OPEC would not want to do again. There’s a theory though, that they have lost the control required to keep prices artificially high anyway:

With the exception of Saudi Arabia, its producers are pumping as much as they can—and Saudi excess capacity is in heavy crude that is harder to refine into the cleaner fuels demanded by rich countries. OPEC made a great show of raising its members’ combined quotas to 28m barrels per day (bpd) in June. But thanks to rampant cheating, they were already pumping at least that much, and possibly as much as 30m bpd, making OPEC’s promises little more than a carefully staged bit of public relations.

There is an excellent Wikipedia article covering the current increase in oil prices, complete with breakdowns of demand and supply, and some excellent charts. It too, says the worst is yet to come:

While oil prices are considerably higher than a year ago, they are still far from exceeding the inflation-adjusted peak set in 1980.

There are lots of people talking about the gas prices, obviously. The number eight search on Technorati right now is gas prices. And over on Flickr, you can check out some of the prices around the world as people take pictures and post them.

Here in Edmonton, you can keep an eye on gas prices at EdmontonGasPrices.com. And if you think it’s time to park the car, the ETS website is http://www.takeets.com.

Read: Economist.com

World War 3.0

Post ImageEven though the Microsoft anti-trust trial finished quite a while ago, I just finished reading Ken Auletta’s book on the famous case, World War 3.0: Microsoft and its Enemies. As someone who followed the case quite closely (I’m a geek, what can I say?) I can honestly say the only new stuff in the book for me was the character sketches created by Auletta of all the major players.

When following the news and opinion articles, you tend to focus on the specifics of the case and the two parties, but not the individual people themselves. World War 3.0 does an excellent job of describing David Boies, or Bill Gates, or Judge Jackson as people, including some discussion on what they do outside of the courtroom. You end up with a better sense of everyone involved.

I did have to chuckle at the fact that no where in the book’s pages is Google mentioned. Auletta spends quite a bit of time talking about Microsoft’s main competitors, and the reader is left with a sense that after the trial is over, the battle will be Microsoft versus AOL Time Warner. As we know now, the company is just Time Warner again, and they aren’t Microsoft’s main concern. Probably not even a secondary concern. Linux is correctly identified as a competitive concern, though not much time is spent talking about how the operating system could affect Microsoft. Also interesting to see how successful Firefox has become – the book doesn’t even come close to predicting that another browser might challenge IE.

While definitely an interesting read, I felt that the book was rushed in the final stages. There was far more time spent on the beginning of the case than on what might happen on appeal and thereafter. I also felt that the commentary on competition and the technology specifically was rather weak. If you’re looking for a good description of the trial, this probably isn’t the right book for you, unless you really want a better idea of the people involved. You can read more about the case at Wikipedia.

Read: Wikipedia

Crazy Frog Radio

Post ImageI was reminded again today why I don’t listen to the radio. I was driving along when I finished my CD, so I decided to change to the radio, just because it had been so long since the last time I tuned in. First, I checked out The Bear, only to find commercials. So I next switched to The Bounce, and to my surprise, I heard that annoying Crazy Frog Axel F song!

You know, the song based on the ringtone that knocked Coldplay out of first place in the British music charts a while back. I couldn’t believe it! Anyway, I switched to Joe FM, and listened to that for a while. Then, around six, I switched to 96X and guess what was number eight on the hot 9 at 6? That damn frog!

So I’m going to have to burn some new CD’s tonight, or transfer more music to my Zen. In case you’re new to the frog, here’s the story from Wikipedia:

Crazy Frog is the marketing title of a ring tone based on The Annoying Thing, a computer animation created by Erik Wernquist. The animation was originally created to accompany a sound effect produced by Daniel Malmedahl whilst attempting to imitate the sound of a two-stroke moped engine. The advertising of the Crazy Frog brand has drawn a great deal of criticism, with advertising authorities being inundated with complaints about the frequency and focus of the adverts, and the display of the frog’s genitalia.

I guess I should just be happy I don’t live in Britain.

Read: Wikipedia

World of Warcraft invading privacy?

Post ImageI know at least a few of you reading this are hardcore World of Warcraft players, so I thought it would be interesting to get your take on this:

A number of “World of Warcraft” players are up in arms over software being used by the game’s publisher to scan users’ computers for hacks prohibited under its terms of service.

“It opens the ability for a company to do a whole list of things under the guise of security,” said a frequent “World of Warcraft” player who asked to be referred to only by his first name, Dennis. “Once you give a company the right to scan your system, you’ve basically opened the door…Now you must fully trust that company with any data on your computer, because it’s at their discretion that they download this data and do whatever they want to with it under the guise of stopping the hackers.”

Do you care about the privacy issues? Do you really think Blizzard would do anything malicious?

Read: CNET News.com

Camping Trip August 2005

Post ImageWhat a great camping trip! We got back this afternoon from Wizard Lake, after an excellent weekend with pretty good weather (except for this morning when it rained a little). Among the campers were myself, Jane, Yi-Li, Andrew, Megan, Warren, Lucky and sometimes Dickson (he came and went). Highlights include midnight frisbee with glowsticks and the most massive coffeemate fire known to man, but here’s a quick recap of everything:

Warren, Yi-Li and Andrew were the first ones to arrive at the campsite on Thursday night, followed by Dickson, and then me. With no women around, we took our time putting up the tent, making drinks, and cooking steak (very delicious) over the fire. Yi-Li brought glowsticks, and so we each wore one on our wrists, and we taped a couple to the frisbee so that we could play midnight frisbee! It’s actually pretty cool, playing in the dark.

The next day we mostly just waited for Jane and Megan to arrive! Warren cooked bacon for breakfast, and we spent the day walking around the campground, playing frisbee and badminton, exploding pop cans, and crashing a basketball game the girls who were staying next to us were playing. Jane arrived as we were playing basketball, so Lucky joined in the game 🙂 When Megan arrived, she brought with her a massive screen house that we built and put a picnic table inside of, and of course, a can of coffeemate. Needless to say, we built a big fire and threw a whole bunch of coffeemate on it! But the best was yet to come, as we all decided we needed more coffeemate for the next night. Megan even said she’d bring a fourth can if I touched the burning logs in the fire – so of course I did!

Dickson went back to Edmonton on Friday night, but came back during the day Saturday, while Megan left in the afternoon to go back. As a result, Saturday was spent waiting for Megan to return with four cans of coffeemate! We bought some more wood and chopped it, after which we built an incredible base for the biggest coffeemate fire ever seen. We played Risk, cooked marshmallows, hotdogs and hamburgers, and once again prepared for midnight frisbee with glowsticks. When Megan returned with coffeemate, all four cans, we almost couldn’t wait to burn it.

The fire took a while to start, as our incredible design didn’t allow any air to get in. Jane ended up taking most of it apart to light it, after which we stuck it back together. Then the festivities began. We tried a bunch of different methods, but found that if we held two handfuls, and threw in one after the other with the second slightly higher than the first, the coffeemate made the biggest fireball. We thought it was amazing when all seven of us were throwing coffeemate at the fire, but after about ten minutes, the neighbours had seen what we were up to and had formed a large group of onlookers. Sensing an opportunity that could not be missed, we invited them to partake in the craziness. And that’s when the largest coffeemate fire known to man burned – when thirteen different people each threw two handfuls of coffeemate into an already oversized fire! The resulting fireball was absolutely incredible, all of it captured on three different video cameras (Dickson has posted the video – download it here [WMV, 20 MB]). Definitely something to remember!

We spent the rest of the night drinking, reflecting on how big fires attract girls, and waiting for the meteor shower that was supposed to happen (we only saw a few). Eventually we went to sleep, only to wake up the next morning with rain! We had planned to leave around lunchtime anyway, so we packed up early and headed back to the city where we stopped at Denny’s. I had to clean my car this afternoon too, as it was completely covered in coffeemate from the big fires. Fortunately, it looks as good as new now!

And that was the camping trip! Dickson has posted some pictures on Flickr, and you can see my pictures on Flickr too (seventy six in total).

Read: Pictures

NowPublic Tags

Post ImageAs you can probably tell, I jumped on the tagging bandwagon very early on. I think tags are an excellent way to self-organize the vast amounts of information available to us. So I am really happy to see that NowPublic, a site I have written about before, has added proper tags!

I say proper tags, because while you could tag news at NowPublic in the past, you couldn’t really link to a tag. Now all you have to do is link to http://www.nowpublic.com/tags/edmonton, for example, to see all of the stories tagged with “edmonton”. Previously this required a search of the website.

Very cool! I’m happy to see the site continuously improving – can’t wait til it’s out of beta.

Read: NowPublic

Podcast enters the dictionary

Post ImageHow can you tell if a technology has made it? Sales figures, media buzz, pop culture references (like mentions in a movie or song or something), lots of different ways. Another way is when a word enters the regular lexicon, and eventually, the dictionary:

The Oxford English Dictionary added new words including “podcast” and “phishing,” saying they are now part of the English language, as it published its second edition today.

The words, which refer to music downloading and Internet fraud respectively, are part of a list of new additions that reflect the growing influence of technology on daily life. Oxford Dictionaries uses databases of words compiled from books, television programs and Internet chat rooms. There are 355,000 words in the new dictionary.

I’m still waiting for all the evidence that podcasting is just a fad. Might sound good in an article or two or three, but it doesn’t add up in real life! Not when the number of new podcasters continues to grow exponentially and the word itself makes it into the dictionary.

Read: Bloomberg