Blog Archives
Information Blackhole
Despite podcasts being on the interweb for at least 7 years, many of my friends (some are tech savvy, some not) are still not utilizing this really useful medium. Even for those who listen to podcasts, they only have around 1 or 2 in their iTunes podcast subscriptions list. Am I the only person in my social group who listen to more than 2 podcasts?
- ALT.NET
- Autosport
- Battlestar Galactica
- Formula 1 Video
- Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
- GeekBrief.TV
- Hanselminutes
- HDTV and Home Theater
- The Kindle Chronicles
- MacBreak (HD Video)
- MacBreak Weekly
- MacBreak Tech
- Security Now!
- Tennis Pod Pro Video
- This American Life
- ThoughtWorks – IT Matters
- U.S. Senator Barack Obama
- The VFX Show
ThoughtWorks podcast
One of the cool thing about working with ThoughtWorks is that there are always something I can get involve with outside of the day-to-day consulting work. Not only I help out the recruitment department in NY with code review, phone interviews, and office interviews, recently I've also started helping out with ThoughtWorks podcasts (iTunes). So far I've edited one series of podcasts, "Web 2.0", which is divided into three parts. The first two parts have been available for download for a while now and the reason I haven't blogged about it until now is that I want to wait until I got the acknowledgment in part 3 from Michael, the producer. Otherwise, no one is going to believe me! Fast forward to 25:25 towards the end and you can hear the proof 
Sustainable Design
David and I were IMing this afternoon and during our discussion, he mentioned to me that there are supplimentary podcasts for the design: e² on iTunes! One of the thing that caught my eyes as I browse through the design: e² web site is this bit:
More than 23 billion square feet of residential floor space was built in China from 1997 to 2005. That's three times the total amount of office space in the entire United States.
Looked at another way, China will have built the equivalent of 21 Manhattan in eight year.
Is this sustainable?
Practice
We got an unexpected long weekend due to network integration in the office tomorrow. So we are given tomorrow off work while the IT guys do their magic.
For me, that means time for more tennis practice with my friend Dan. The weather should be good tomorrow. A bit cold but hopefully not too windy. I am hoping I can try out some of the techniques I've learnt from watching the Tennis Pod Pro video podcast.
It’s TV, but not as we know it
Plenty have already been written about the Apple TV, on how its features are limited and will be a massive flop to how it will revolutionise TV viewing. I think I agree to both point of views, because how you feel about Apple TV depend heavily on what TV is meant to you and how it fits into your life.
From the traditional TV viewing point of view, Apple TV is a strange beast. It is not a DVD player or a DVR, so it is not about replacing a piece of equipement that we already own. Apple TV 'merely' plays content from your computer on your TV, be it video purchased from iTunes Music Store or video ripped from DVD, etc. Nothing revoluionary there, is there?
But if you look at Apple TV from another angle. One where video content are no longer served by the few TV networks and I think this is where Apple TV will be the watershed device when we look back in 5 years time. DVRs, and to some extend DVD players, have changed TV viewing for many people. We are no longer tied to the TV schedules defined by someone working at a desk in the network. Now we can record shows that we want to watch and then watch them when we want to. If we take this one step further so now we also control what will be shown on the TV, this is what makes Apple TV so special and may take a while for content creators to recognise.
With video podcasts on iTunes, Joost, and other P2P 'sources', we are no longer tied to content any more. We are now empowered to find content that we want to watch when we want to. Of course many people have been doing this for a long time but it is not simply a few clicks of the mouse button and most consumers neither have the skills nor the time to find content this way. Apple TV, I feel, is the device that will bring consumer awareness to the possibility of decentralised TV content. And this raise in awareness will finally force content providers (TV networks, movie studios, MPAA, etc.) to realise the old model can no longer be the only model. The cat is out of the bag and if the content providers want to be rewarded for content they created, they need to help us find content that we want to watch, not actively blocking us and force us into the old revenue streams (TV, movie theatres, DVD).
