Daily Archives: November 8, 2008

Podcasting

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For the longest time, I was one of the people who claimed that I would never need an MP3 player. With the exception of some songs, I get tired of hearing the same old music pretty quickly. I’m rarely on the train or even in the car for a very long time. When I am, I have XM radio and often listen to Opie and Anthony, or a mix of the 80s, rock and dance channels. It’s enough to keep me entertained.

Then one day, http://www.woot.com had a special sale. 30GB Zune for $100! I figured, 30 GB would be more than I would ever need in an MP3 player, and this was a decent price. I ordered my Zune and then the fun began!

I got really into podcasts and despite loading 20 GB of music onto my Zune, I left enough room for some audio and video podcasts. I thought I’d share my play list and if you know of any cool podcasts I might like let me know. If you produce your own podcast, feel free to let me know all about it and take advantage of my blog for some free promotion.

Photography:

Technology:

TWIT.TV with Leo Laporte and Friends – TWiT.tv

  • The Tech Guy (Ask Anything about Technology w/ Leo Laporte)
  • This Week in Tech (Tech News w/ Leo Laporte, John Dvorak, Patrick Norton)
  • Windows Weekly (Microsoft News w/ Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, etc..)
  • Security Now (Security News w/ Leo Laporte, and Steve Gibson of GRC/SpinRite)
  • FLOSS Weekly (Open Source Software/Hardware discussions w/ Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz)

(Yes, There’s a lot at TWIT.TV. lol)

Random Podcasts:

  • This Week in Law (Law and Technology w/ Leo Laporte and Denise Howell) – TWiT.tv
  • MunchCast (Geeky Food show w/ Leo Laporte and Cammy Blackstone) – TWiT.tv
  • Scam School (Bar Scams/Tricks taught by Magician Brian Brushwood) – Revision 3
  • Ask a Ninja (Comical QA show with a (?) real Ninja!) – AskANinja.com

While most people complain their commute to work is too long, I often find myself complaining that it’s too short 🙂

Windows Mojave Rocks

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So I’ve had some time to evaluate windows Vista. Since it’s release I’ve heard nothing but bad things about it. It’s slow, It crashes, Nothing is compatible with it, The UAC is annoying, It’s just crap! I adopted this opinion for a long time. I listen to a lot of tech pod-casts, especially those hosted by Leo Laporte (from Tech TV’s, The Screen Savers), and he’s been commenting a lot about how after a year and a half, the problems with vista have mostly been addressed. With the investment of the new PC, I decided to add Vista Home Premium to my cart and come up with my own opinion.

Installation of Vista was a breeze. I got it up and running in no time. I stepped through all my hardware and installed the specific drivers and everything just worked the way it was supposed to. The system flys, I can multitask like it’s nobody’s business! I can see how there would be a lot of issues when Vista first came out. Like XP, it takes time for manufacturers to adopt the new platform and develop the necessary drivers and software.

As I stated above, I also heard a lot of complaints about the User Access Control (UAC) that Microsoft implemented in Vista. Basically, any time I go to do something that will affect the system (i.e. requires administrator access) I am prompted. I don’t get why this is a big deal. It’s a single click that only occurs when I’m performing an “administrative” task such as installing software, changing settings, etc.. It’s perfectly acceptable and for me to know there’s that extra level of security, I have tossed my plans to turn the UAC off. It’s benefits far outweigh it’s cons.

So, here’s what I’ve been told (and believe) – When it comes to Vista, if you’re planning on upgrading a Windows XP machine, don’t. XP is a great OS. I use it on my Laptop and it has given me almost 7 years of reliability! If you get a new PC, leave Vista on it. There’s no reason to shy away from it.

And either way, if you do or don’t agree with me about Vista, Wait a year or so and you’ll be able to play with Windows 7 which I’m hearing great things about. I’m looking forward to checking it out!