Podcasting...

There is a whole world out there, just waiting to be listened to. Everything from news reports, personal messages, music compilations and poetry, to sporting tips, training techniques and technology lectures. Yup, what I'm referring to, are podcasts.

So, what's a podcast then...? Well, I guess you could say that it is a recording (usually audio, but could also be video) that is available for download, usually to a device like an iPod, for instant, or offline listening. The term podcast is derived from the process of "broadcasting" to "iPods". The difference between a podcast, and any other download though, is that podcasts are usually subscribed to, and the latest content is then delivered to you.

Podcasting has been around for about 2 years now, but South Africans have been quite oblivious to the technology, largely because of the lack of a decent broadband offering. With the explosion of ADSL over the past year or so in SA, podcasting is gaining popularity - so much so that I now read that Tony Leon will be adding podcasting to his list of "campaign tactics", and that Derek The Bandit has also resorted to providing one show a month, via podcast. Check it out here, its pretty good actually.

So anyway, I've found quite a couple of decent podcast sites and resources, so here are a couple, if you're interested in listening:

- no iPod required : an introduction to podcasting
- www.podcast.net : the ultimate podcast directory site, literally hundreds of thousands of recordings.
- MTBcast.com : Mountain biking news
- Active.com : Sporting/Training tips and interviews
- SoundRepublic : DTB's site
- The Onion Radio News : List of "The Onion News" podcasts on podcast.net. One that is worth listening to is - "President Bush Escapes From Weekly Bath"

Oh, also found this interesting snippet on the popularity of podcasting in Wikipedia:
The word about podcasting rapidly spread through the already-popular weblogs of Curry, Winer and other early podcasters and podcast-listeners. Fellow blogger and technology columnist Doc Searls began keeping track of how many "hits" Google found for the word "podcasts" on September 28, 2004. On that day, the result was 24 hits. There were 526 hits on September 30, then 2,750 three days later. The number doubled every few days, passing 100,000 by October 18. A year later, Google found more than 100,000,000 hits on the word "podcasts."

S14 at Ellis Park

We're well into the Super14 season now, and had the opportunity to go and watch my first game last night - took Stuart with me, as I was given an extra ticket. The Cats played the Chiefs, and although the Cats won the game, it was not a very interesting game to watch. In fact, the Cats were lucky to win, as they did not score any tries, and missed 4 penalties. A win is a win I guess, but it wasn't pretty. We then stayed on, and watched the next game in the suite - Bulls vs Brumbies. The quality of the game was about 300% better that the Cats game, and quite a battle right up to the last minute. The Brumbies managed a last minute try to take the game - what a quality side though. With players like Gregan, Larkham, Mortlock, Smith and Giteau, you need to play really world class rugga if you want to win your game.