Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - A half-year Podcasts

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A half-year Podcasts

Hanselminuteslogo2 When podcasting first came out I declared it totally lame in October of 2004. Actually I said:

Sorry folks, PodCasting = Verbal Incontinence. I'm just not feeling it. You can't speak as fast as I read. I don't like it when you read your PowerPoints to me, and I REALLY don't like it when you ramble on. My commute isn't nearly long enough to slog through your PodCasts to find a nugget of goodness. If you blog, I can ignore it, or read it in any order. I can skip forward by, gasp, moving my eyes. [Me in 2004]

Other folks had some good comments on Podcasting back in 2004:

Greg Hughes - Podcasting - the good, the bad, the ugly
Carl Franklin - In defense of podcasting as a medium
Bernie Goldbach - Podcasts helps the little guy

Fastmediaplayer Then fifteen months later I started a Podcast. I had started using iTunes' Podcast Directory and re-listened to some episodes of DotNetRocks. Carl Franklin called me and convinced me that if there was a short Podcast that was densely packed with information, it might not suck. After I started the podcast, Martin Plante said podcasting still sucks, but later came around and said it sucked less. :) Others have also had nice things to say. I also found that listening to a Podcast in double speed was helpful.

A half year later, we've hit 25 podcasts and had a blast doing it. I encourage you to check them out if you missed a topic you might be interested in. Also note that they all have PDF Transcripts if you prefer to read your podcasts.

A Half Year of Podcasts

1/11/2005 - BlogJet , XBox 360, Twonky, and Other Magic
1/18/2006 - Emulation, Keyboards, Video Squishing and ASP.NET Oddities
1/25/2006 - Geotagging, Ubuntu, MacTel, XSLT Performance
2/1/2006 - Continuous Integration
2/8/2006 - The State of the Mono Project
2/15/2006 - The LinkSys WRT54GL Router
2/22/2006 - XML Tools and Technologies
3/1/2006 - Free Resources for .NET Developers
3/8/2006 - Debugging ASP.NET
3/15/2006 - Functional Testing Tools Roundup
3/22/2006 - Powershell Part I (MONAD)
4/7/2006 - Top Ten Utilities You Didn't Know You Had
4/12/2006 - CSI: Your Computer
4/19/2006 - Code Generation
4/25/2006 - Replacing Start|Run
5/3/2006 - Hanselminutiae #1
5/10/2006 - Syndication
5/23/2006 - Life Hacks
5/29/2006 - Torrent! Torrent! Torrent!
6/5/2006 - Office 2007 Preview
6/21/2006 - Live from TechEd 2006
6/28/2006 - Hanselminutiae #2
7/7/2006 - The Line of Scrummage
7/12/2006 - Windows PowerShell (MONAD) Part II
7/18/2006 - Scott's Essential Blogroll (for July 2006 at least)

Anyway, thanks again to Carl for the hard work and idea. Thanks to Travis for the name. Thanks to the listeners for listening. As always, send me your topics!

Posted at 2006-07-20 12:12 PM by Scott
Comments [11]
Permalink

Tracked by:
"Podcasting and me again" (slimCODE, aka Martin Plante) [Trackback]
"Interesting Finds: Some leftovers from last week" (Jason Haley) [Trackback]

Thursday, July 20, 2006 11:40:23 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Personally, I think the podcast era will be short lived-- just like radio programs in the 1920's and 1930's.

It's all about the silver screen.

I'm with Scoble: if I have to dedicate this much mental energy to consuming media (reading stuff is so much faster than listening/watching it for infoholics), then I might as well get video *and* audio. Video Blogging is ultimately where things are going, with podcasts as a brief stopgap.

Unfortunately, Scoble hasn't (yet) sprouted a set of boobs, so he may not be able to capture that elusive RocketBoom size audience.. ;)

Jeff Atwood

Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:03:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott:

I've been subscribed to your blog for just a month or two, and haven't listened to your podcasts yet, but that looks like an interesting list of topics; I just might have to start. :-)

I see that you have a archives section with the list of podcasts at http://www.hanselminutes.com/default.aspx#archives -- got it bookmarked. (The date for the very first podcast both on this post and on the archives list is given as 2005, not 2006; is that correct?)

Jeff Atwood:

But we still have talk radio here in 2006 -- I listen when I can't be looking at a screen, like when I'm driving somewhere, or when I'm outside doing yard work. If I'm out mowing the lawn, many times I'd rather be listening to a podcast on a topic I'm interested in than to whatever happens to be on the radio. (Although a baseball game is often being played on any given evening, and as a fair weather baseball fan in the Detroit area, I actually have a reason to listen this year, as the Tigers are doing well for a change...) :-)

Jon Schneider

Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:19:07 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Keep 'em coming Scott they totally don't suck, in fact they're fantastic.

OmegaSupreme

Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:42:23 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Wow, has it been half a year already? Keep up the great work, Scott. Your podcast is still the only one I listen to because the topics are relevant. I've heard all the episodes and learned something from each one -- even the ones that get off topic a little bit.

Best episodes (immediately useful && to-the-point):
3/15/2006 - Functional Testing Tools Roundup
3/22/2006 - Powershell Part I (MONAD)
4/7/2006 - Top Ten Utilities You Didn't Know You Had

Least favorite episodes !(immediately useful && to-the-point):
1/25/2006 - Geotagging, Ubuntu, MacTel, XSLT Performance
2/15/2006 - The LinkSys WRT54GL Router

You briefly mentioned internationalization in the latest podcast (#25). Could you do a whole episode on i18n/L10n and the great support from the BCL that you alluded to? It would be great to get an overview of where to start in building an ASP.NET app with i18n support, and what the differences are between .NET 1.1 and 2.0, etc. at a level of detail similar to the XML and PowerShell episodes.

Joseph Kilada

Thursday, July 20, 2006 1:40:40 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

> listen when I can't be looking at a screen, like when I'm driving somewhere, or when I'm outside doing yard work. If I'm out mowing the lawn, many times I'd rather be listening to a podcast on a topic I'm interested in than to whatever happens to be on the radio.

I'll tell you the same thing I told Scott in person: It is my life's goal to drive my car (and mow the lawn) as little as possible.

For example, I pay a service $80/month to do upkeep on the house and yard. And I intentionally live within 10 minutes of the office.

I'm not against radio formats, but they're clearly a low-value stopgap for when you're stuck doing some menial, repetitive task (driving to work, mowing the lawn) that forces you into that mode of consumption.

Plus: BOOBS. COME ON MAN! BOOBS!!

Jeff Atwood

Thursday, July 20, 2006 8:22:01 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Don't ever stop Scott - I appreciate your enthusiasm to share especially as a person who's always on the lookout for mentors. But even beyond the knowledge it's the energy that you share as a part of the podcast, blog, and other presences (which seem to be everywhere) that is a big part of why your podcast succeeds. You can count on me lurking...

David Seruyange

Friday, July 21, 2006 8:41:43 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Your blogs and podcats are of the highest quality Scott. Thanks for all your hard work.

I disagree with Jeff. Podcasts will live for the simple fact that they are easier to produce and consume than videoblogging.

You can listen to podcasts while driving, jogging or anywhere you want to kill some time and you want your eyes to be free. You can't do that with reading blogs or watching videoblogs.
I even listen to podcasts sometimes while coding.

I won't be surprised when people produce podcasts while driving. Some people commute for very long time and traffic is getting worse over time and you can use that time to listen to or produce podcasts. It's easy to put a headset/mic and start talking and recording while driving.

Some of the videopodcasts out there can be as good as a podcast specially when it's just of the talk show type such as crankygeeks.com.

abdu

Friday, July 21, 2006 12:43:14 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Will you tell us about the theme song? Sometimes I restart the show just to hear it again!

Thanks!

Paul Schaeflein

Monday, July 24, 2006 1:05:52 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Ok,

I give up, how do you listen to a podcast in double speed? I am using the ubiqutious iPod with iTunes. I don't see a speed setting on it!

Help,
BOb

Bob Archer

Monday, July 24, 2006 3:51:52 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Bob - If you have an M4P or M4A file on an iPod and you change it's extension to M4B (b for book) before you transfer it, you'll get a new menu within the iPod circlebutton menu while playing that audio file. Start playing that file then tap the center button.

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 2:18:46 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I find your podcasts so full of good info, Scott, that not only am I unable to listen to them at double-speed, I frequently listen to them *more than once!*

Maybe I should listen to them at half-speed...

Art