Interweave Knits' WebWatch

First I talk about it...
Then I do it!

Following in the footsteps of Interweave Knits' Editor Pam Allen, you can now hear my too-fast-talky voice on Marie Irshad's Knitcast. There's a little Interweave-related announcement at the end, too. :-)

Posted 2:57 PM PST

Podcasting
I rhapsodize about podcasting to anyone who'll listen. Which is exactly one person: my husband.

Podcasting is the coolest thing to happen to communication since the internet got big in the mid 1990s. Podcasting allows any person anywhere the ability to reach the whole world with their own radio program. Podcasts can be found on almost every subject you can imagine, including knitting. Marie Irshad's Knitcast has featured people from Pam Allen [editor of Knits!] to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Lily Chin. Very cool.

If you are reading this blog, you have access to a computer. Which means you can listen to podcasts. [While it's cooler, I think, to take them with you on an MP3 player, not everyone likes or wants mobile sound.] So, to get yourself linked up with podcasts from around the world, start with iTunes. It works on Mac and Windows systems and is free. With the newest release -- version 4.9 -- podcast support is built in. This means you don't have to get a utility to download the podcasts and keep track of them, because iTunes will do it for you. Just click on the music store [no, you won't have to buy them...at least not yet, because they're all free at the moment] and then look for the purple icon and button that says "Podcasts are here". Click that and you're in the podcast browsing environment. Each podcast should come with a little blurb that tells you what it's about.

You may not be able to take it all in on first visit, cause there's a lot, but here's a way to get your head around it:
- Podcasts are little MP3 programs [condensed audio files that sound great] that individuals produce for your enjoyment.
- Podcasts are produced for almost every possible area of interest, including science, health, religion, media, news, technology, entertainment, leisure, and personal blather.
- Some podcasts sound like professionally produced radio shows, cause that's what they are.
- Some podcasts sound like your dorky cousin recorded himself singing in the shower...cause that's what he did.
- A good way to find podcasts you like is just to play around, clicking on areas that interest you and then downloading the ones that sound like your kind of thing. Just click "subscribe", and the iTunes utility will go and get all the files that are available. If you find you hate any podcast, click "unsubscribe" and iTunes will delete all the files and never make you listen to them again.
- If you don't use iTunes, try iPodderX...currently only for Mac, but a Windows version is coming soon. [As a Machead, I love when that happens, cause it's usually the opposite! Mac people usually have to wait for the cool stuff.]
- Podcast Alley was the first big place to find podcasts, but that may all change now that iTunes has podcasts built in. Only time will tell. Still handy for finding out what's popular and discovering new Podcasts. Listeners are allowed to vote for their favorites, and that's how the top 10 list is built. Don't miss out on the heavy-duty selection of NPR and CBC public radio podcasts. They're the coolest. Just type "NPR" or "CBC" in the search window and they'll come up.

My favorite podcasts:
- This Week in Tech [TWiT], brought to you by the former hosts of The Screen Savers tv show, now defunct. The perfect example of why I love podcasts. When a big cable company bought out the cable channel Tech TV, they pretty much gutted the channel, cancelling the interesting shows. So the stars of The Screen Savers -- a great resource for people who wanted to learn more about their computers -- decided to do the show themselves as a podcast. It's probably not for every geek, but I love their honest approach. If they like a product, you'll know and if they don't, ditto. Very rare in this highly commercial world where sponsors often rule.
- Offramp. Weird, weird, weird comedy brought to you by a well-established improv troupe from Florida. I liked the earlier episodes better than the recent ones, but they're all weird and make me giggle.
- Claybourne -- an audio mystery/drama from New Zealand that's just plain spooky. It comes in tiny 5-minute bites or shorter, and at least 1 minute of that is the theme music. Which is very cool. I have no idea if this thing ever ends or if I just get to hear fun twangy accents and spooky theme music forever, but it's fun to listen to.

Oh, and one more caveat: there are no rules governing podcasting, which is the whole point. Free expression. That means there may be profanity or content you might not think suitable for you or your kids. You'll usually be able to tell from the description if what you're subscribing to is your kind of thing. Just be aware that the responsibility is placed on the listener when it comes to deciding if content is appropriate for them or not.

I don't know that podcasts will ever stop being free, but I imagine some of them will. Kind of like pay-per-view? In the meantime, download everything that interests you and enjoy!

Posted 6:29 AM PST