CCLS 23 Things #21: Podcasts

I can't imagine I'll ever be a fan of podcasts, because I'm not a good listener. I hate being read to, and given the choice of listening to an audio file or reading a transcript, I'll take the transcript any day.

I think what bothers me the most is that I have no control over the timing. I can't "skim" an audio file or skip over parts of it.

I tried subscribing to one site that I found, using the URL given in PodcastAlley, but got an error message "No feeds were found. Please verify that the website publishes an RSS feed." This may be because the site isn't adding new content at this point.

I did find two sites that I thought would interest my son, Basscast
and Prog'opolis

CCLS 23 Things Project #8: RSS feeds

I'm not sure whether RSS feeds really simplify my life or whether they make me try to keep up with news sources that I otherwise wouldn't even worry about. I look at a page full of feeds and see either a whole slew of distractions from the work I really should be doing, or a whole slew of guilt-inducing "must reads" to add to my to-do list.

On a more practical level, I doubt I will make use of Bloglines because I have already taken advantage of the super simple RSS additions to my Google homepage. Having feeds on this page—for BBC News, Literary Quote of the Day, local weather, Arts and Letters Daily, Tredyffrin's Staff Blog, and XKCD web comic—gives me access to these resources, along with my email, blogs, photos, and online documents, with just one login.

Something new that I learned from this exercise was that I can subscribe to online photo accounts. I have added my daughter's Photobucket account, in case she forgets to tell me when she adds new photos of the grandkids!