buter's BABY blog

FIVE FOUR SLEEPS TO GO ....

Being real busy at work right now because of my upcoming holiday I can't update this as much as I want. So I'll just keep the sleeps count up-to-date. You'll live.


Do you ever complain about not having the proper tools to do your job? Well pity the poor soldiers in Britain who have run out of blank ammo for training exercises. A little undignified for them, running around shouting "Bang!" and making that funny machine-gun sound "bdrdrdrdrdrdrdr...!!" (well , you try to type it!)

Anyway speaking of tools, I've been loathe to download and install iTunes 4.9 simply because my home puter is hardly ever connected to tha IntarWeb so there seemed little point to it - after all the major joy of iTunes 4.9 is the podcatching, right? So anyway tooling around on the internet a while ago I came across this little place called Odeo. They are offering a podcatcher and it's finally available in beta. Why Odeo over iTunes? Partly, the traditional geeky feeling of "you want to make me rely on your software, but I don't want to be forced into anything" and partly because they're new, small, and cute. Don't get me wrong, my puter is still hardly ever connected to the Net, but I like supporting the little guy. Sometimes they get big - look what happened to Google!! Other geeks agree with me, and publish specific ways to not use iTunes.

So today Odeo opened up for beta .. and I went to see what the fuss was about. First off, their front page is a whole lot friendlier ! No, really! I visited iTunes.com just to compare and it just doesn't make me want to explore further. Odeo reminds me of the HHGTTG - with large friendly writing on the cover, that kind of thing.

What's more they seem to (so far) emphasise independent podcasts over corporate ones. So the first place I visited was One Minute Vacations. This strikes me as an excellent project, kinda like PostSecret and Illustration Friday in that it's a community artistic effort. One Minute Vacations offers up to 60 seconds of recording (so each file is <2Mb, which is actually feasible on my dial-up connection) of some environment that is chosen to transport the listener out of their dreary existence for that short time. I like it!! So far I've only listened to the sound of a woman striking a bell and chanting in Japan, but it is sufficient. I'm hooked. I'll download their catcher tonight and hook my PC up to this podcatching net.

And who knows, maybe I'll record my own One Minute Vacation next week in Queenstown. Mmm, the shushing of skis ...

Did I mention yet that it's five four sleeps to go? <grin>