In this amazingly fast-growing (like, really fast) phenomenon called podcasting (yes, I am willing to use the terms phenomenon and podcasting when discussing this, even if I don't particularly like the name), it's hard to always know which way is up. So, it's also hard to know where to go and what to do with all this stuff, both as a content creator and a consumer/end user of podcasts.

Heck, it's difficult enough just to explain to people what podcasting is, let alone how it works. Of course, it's early in this experiment, and we'll certainly have to improve things from the usability standpoint. But still, it's truly amazing what's happened in the past month or so in this portion of the universe.

Enter Doppler [http://www.dopplerradio.net/], a client program that runs on Windows and raises the bar in terms of making it easier for the end user to subscribe to podcasts without too much hassle. In other words, this is just the kind of thought and change that needs to happen to make podcasting a mainstream application. As a community we're not there yet, but with ideas like this and a few people to kick them out the door, we will be before too long.

The best part is, it just works. It makes subscribing to podcasts easier. It makes sense to use. It makes life simpler.

Features

• Doppler is designed for the Windows platform
• Drag and drop a URL onto Doppler
• Scheduled interval to retrieve feeds
• Specify the numer of files to download
• Restrict the allowable size of downloads
• Filter your items by text
• Possibility to run in minimized mode
• Import and export of OPML files

Doppler is an aggregator that downloads podcasts based on RSS feeds, and lets you listen to it the way you want it, whenever you like it, on the device of your choice. Doppler has been developed using the latest Microsoft .NET technology and is available as a small download sizing less than 500 KB.

And Doppler has been alive for something like, oh, three days. And work continues on adding features and shoring it up as we speak type. Or maybe it is speak. Oof...

Go download it and try it out.

Among the many, many new Media Center PC news items to hit the street this past week, I forgot to mention one that has had me all excited ever since it was first mentioned some time ago: The Media Center Extender for Xbox.

I'm in the process building a Media Center Dev Machine so I can work on a few tech ideas I want to explore and try. Since I already have an XBOX, I will probably pick this title up and use it to set up part of my Media Center network at home. I just have to work out the details around tuning the satellite box and whether I am going to be able to get a decent Portland HDTV signal out here (and hence which capture device and tuner I'll use and whether I have to use one or two tuners).

The Xbox title is one of the Extender line (a set-top box is also available) that Microsoft is releasing with this new version of their media-centric operating system.

Information from xbox.com:

With a wired or wireless connection to the Media Center PC (sold separately), the Xbox console now allows you to enjoy the digital entertainment media from your PC when and how you want. The included remote control and IR receiver also support DVD movie playback. Just grab the remote, drop in the Media Center Extender DVD in your Xbox, and get ready for an entertainment revolution! A whole new world for your Xbox awaits …

• Watch and record television shows.
• Enjoy a free integrated TV Program Guide with no fees.
• Access your Media Center PC’s digital media library music, videos, and pictures.
• Stay connected with instant messaging and Xbox Live™.
• Watch DVD movies.
• Listen to FM and Internet radio.

Screen-shots are available at xbox.com:

Transcript Excerpts... (the full transcript is here) BEGALA: Let me get this straight. If the indictment is -- if the indictment is -- and I have seen you say this -- that... STEWART: Yes. BEGALA: And that CROSSFIRE reduces everything, as I said in the intro, to left, right, black, white. STEWART: Yes. BEGALA: Well, it's because, see, we're a debate show. STEWART: No, no, no, no, that would be great. BEGALA: It's like saying The Weather Channel reduces everything to a storm front. STEWART: I would love to see a debate show. BEGALA: We're 30 minutes in a 24-hour day where we have each side on, as best we can get them, and have them fight it out. STEWART: No, no, no, no, that would be great. To do a debate would be great. But that's like saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition. CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think. STEWART: You need to go to one.

I don't exactly match up with Jon Stewart on political viewpoints, but ultimately that doesn't really matter. Regardless of whether I agree with him on all the issues, he became a hero to me the other day.

Because Jon Stewart gets it.

I mean, how pathetic has the world become when a self-proclaimed "fake-news" anchor from Comedy Central can appear on CNN's Crossfire and completely own the show (get the torrent video here), lecturing the anchors and effectively applying labels to them like "partisan hack." And the anchors push back and ask Stewart why he asks "soft" questions on his show?

Time to look in the mirror, uberjournalists.

Host Paul Begala understandably came off (relatively speaking) as the good guy on the CNN crew side, and Tucker Carlson, who really just gives a bad impression of many people with whom I tend to agree politically, came off as the "butt monkey."

It's not about politics, it's about the responsibility of journalists.

For the record, I went to college becasue I wanted to be a journalist, specifically a photojournalist. I worked in the media for seven years before changing careers. I met lots of good people and some real partisan hacks in the process. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people out there with strong political view who are smart enough to figure out early on that if they can get jobs in the media, they can communicate pretty much anything they want to "the people." Unfortunately almost everyone enters the world of journalism (meaning they enter J-school) at an age when beer, beer, more beer and idealism run rampant.

It's not exactly a level-headed, based-in-life-experience time for anyone at that age, socially or politically.

Unfortunately, some people never grow up. They just go on painting wide swaths, never really removing themselves from the situations to take an honest look. It becomes all about political positions, conflict as a selling point and seeing who can be the loudest, meanest or most controversial.

What they don't do is have a good conversation and look at the facts. They don't talk to people, they yell at them.

Unfortunately, apparently some people out there buy it, because they keep doing more of it. Which - well - sucks.

There are some out there in the media that talk about the real issues without trying to create them, and without becoming a part of the issues themselves. They are just fewer and farther between.

One thing's for sure: Setting all partisan views aside, we need more people like Jon Stewart to call the media on the carpet and tell it like it is, regardless of what party or side they support.

Oh, and a good laugh every now and then is fine with me, too.

Robert Scoble over at Microsoft got a look at prototypes for the next version of IE and commented:

Dean Hachamovitch the other day showed me prototypes of the next Internet Explorer. I got to see them before he even showed them to other executives. He told me I could say about that much (I wanted to post screen captures on my blog, but he turned down that request, bummer). I'll add in that if they ship about half of what they showed me that I'll uninstall Firefox. Of course, I'm guessing that...

Read more at Robert's blog

---

.--------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Session Start: Friday, October 15, 2004                            |
| Participants:                                                      |
|    Greg Hughes                                                     |
|    Dave                                                            |
.--------------------------------------------------------------------.
[01:06:01 AM] Dave: man im mean, girlfriend is having trouble
              with her pc, and i tell her its an id10t error and that
              they are quite common and shes like Oh no can you fix
              it?
[01:06:10 AM] Greg Hughes: hahahahah
[01:06:16 AM] Greg Hughes: heh
[01:06:42 AM] Dave: i thought she knew what it ment
[01:10:47 AM] Dave: havent the heart to tell her now
[01:12:54 AM] Greg Hughes: hehehe just dont let her read my blog :)

---

Don't worry, Dave - I'm sure she won't be reading this, so you're safe!

YAPBE (Yet Another Political Bog Entry) (Well, ok - no position here, just something about the political contest)

I have been using two main web sites over and over again to check reality and the status of the current political race (which I am very interested in both from an issues standpoint as well as from the position of being a person who is quite interested in the mechanics of the political process).

Here they are - I recommend both highly:

The Electoral Vote Predictor at http://www.electoral-vote.com/ provides a look at where the electoral college appears to be on a daily basis, based on the latest polling data. The interactive map is cool, and I check this daily. [RSS 2.0 feed available here]

FactCheck.org (yes, we know it's not .com) is one of the greatest resources I have found for cutting through the crap and getting to the simple facts. They analyze the messages out of the campaigns and compare/contrast them to the evidentiary facts. Nice. And while the site don't actually have an RSS feed, I sponsored the creation of one for them, so subscribe to the feed at this link [RSS 2.0].

Peter over at Tabula PC has posted a list of Tablet PC resources - and quite an extensive and useful one at that.

Lots of great how-to stuff in this list. If you have a Tablet PC, be sure to check it out!

Jesper M. Johansson, Ph.D., ISSAP, CISSP is a Security Program Manager at Microsoft. The second part of his three-part article on the use of passwords vs. passphrases was recently published.

The Great Debates: Pass Phrases vs. Passwords

• Part One - coveres the fundamentals of passwords and pass phrases, how they are stored, and so on
• Part Two - discusses the relative strength of each type of password, and use some mathematical approaches for illustration
• Part Three - offers some conclusions and guidance on how to choose passwords and configure a password policy

In this installment, he looks at three arguments for the use of pass-phrases:

• Claim 1: Users Can Remember Pass Phrases
• Claim 2: Longer is Stronger
• Claim 3: Pass Phrases Can Have More Randomness

This is a great read, worth the time for anyone who works in the security field or in IT operations and security. I am looking forward to the third installment, as well. Jesper has a powerful way of cutting to the heart of the arguments and coming out the other end of the conversation with good facts in tow.

Every now and then a company comes along that Just Gets It^TM.

Google is one of those companies. I have been playing with the new Google Desktop Search beta application, which is a locally-installed program that indexes content on your local computer and allows you to search it, in-line with other Google searches.

It might take a minute to realize the utility of this. Bear with me. Then use it and see for yourself. This is (as Scott world say) pure sex.

Once you install Google Desktop, any Google search can then include your local desktop/machine search in-line, as shown above. You can also do a desktop-only search, and you can choose to disable the ability to show Desktop Search results on Google Web Search result pages. Google states that your personal search results and data are kept private from Google.

What can you index on your desktop machine? Google Desktop is able to index the following items so that you can search for them:

• Outlook email
• Outlook Express email
• AOL IM 
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Text and other Web history
• Secure pages (HTTPS) in web history

Find out more on the Google Desktop “About” page, or see more screenshots here. Also available are the Getting Started Guide and a page dedicated to privacy questions and concerns.

I've been using it for a couple of hours, and already I can tell that this is not something I will not be giving up any time soon. I am adding this to my little box of tricks.

Want to try? Jump over to http://desktop.google.com and install the small app, and you'll be on your way. If you have thoughts or comments after trying it, feel free to share them here, and be sure to let Google know.

There's an interactive guide online that will quickly and easily help you determine what needs to be done to upgrade your TiVo. Add a hard drive or two, replace your original drive with a bigger one, whatever.

This is a lot better than what I had when I took my 20-hour Series One TiVo and did my hack, ending up with two 120GB drives in it. It works great and records things for me every day (and will likely never run out of space). I had to piece together software and instructions, and walk my way between the lines in certain areas. Anymore it's much easier, so just go here for help.

Once you choose your TiVo model, hard drive options and a few other items needed to provide accurate instructions, the interactive guide provides you a clean, usable, well-written set of directions and links to required software specific to your needs as well as other resources like picture guides.

The site: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/step1.php

(from hackaday.com)

I'm sitting here now with a pain in my lower back, the result of a discogram procedure performed today on three lower bask discs. No pictures this time, but if you want to know what the procedure is there's info and a picture here.

I was prepped for this one by my doc to be ready for a very painful experience. A discogram is a procedure where he runs needles into the disc that is known/suspected to be the problem, as well as two others above it, one of which looks a little iffy but not as bad as the primary suspect disc, and another that looks normal and healthy. He then fills each up with fluid and a small amount of blocking agent "dye" that can be photographed on a CT scan after the procedure is completed.

Thing is, if you have a herniated disc and you pump fluid into it to blow it up/inflate it, that means the fluid will likely push the herniated portion harder into the problem area. That hurts, a lot much of the time. and that's what they want. That is how they verify the pain, and that if they choose to do surgery, they know exactly where the problem lies.

They can also look at the CT scan images and see where the dye flowed, which gives them an even better idea what they're up against and what kind of surgery - if any - is the best bet for the injury.

So anyhow, today was my day. I live about an hour or a little less northwest of Portland. The doctor who specializes in my back problem that I was referred to by my local doctor is in Salem, which is about an hour south of Portland. So, my friend Broc showed up at my place last night, made my guest bedroom useful, and got up early with me and drove me to Salem. He ate McDonald's and got coffee while I listened to him heckle me with tales of morning caffeine and food. I would not be able to eat or drink anything until after the procedure, and I was starving. And another thing - for me to not have coffee by 8am is unheard of.

The nurse was great this time - a little local anesthetic and the IV was right in (not like the last time at a different place...) and all I had to do was wait.

They got me into the room and on the table, and prepped my back. I heard the doctor come in.

And then the next thing I know, I was in the recovery area.

That's it. I have no freakin' clue what happened in the operating room, except that they did what they needed to do and I was not knocked out. But I swear to God, other than a vague recollection of a short painful stabbing experience with nothing solid to attach it to, I don't remember anything at all - it's like I jumped ahead an hour or so and that time never existed. I've never experienced that. Very strange.

Man - I hope I didn't say anything mean, stupid or embarrassing! :P

At any rate - we'll wait a couple weeks, let my back return to normal (I am a little more than just uncomfortable right now), I'm taking a trip, and when I get back it will be time to meet with the doc, once he has had time to review the results and consult with his partners, and see what if anything he can do to help.

Verdict: Expected severe pain, missed the whole damn thing in my memory, sore now but completely manageable - just a side effect of increasing the pressure and an expected consequence. The people were better than just good - they were thorough and terrific to me during the prep and after, and I have to assume they didn't tattoo me anywhere I can't see or something while I was "out of it." Doctor Olson and crew gets an A+ in my book.

Past related writings:

• Back with a vengeance (stick a needle in my spine remix)
• Stick a needle in my spine, part two
• Stick a needle in my spine

Windows XP Media Center Edition launched this morning, with support for high-def TV, multiple tuners, and lots of other cool stuff.

• Microsoft Windows XP MCE web site
• Michael Creasy's blog entry with details

Some confusion over licensing, and earlier claims that it would be sold at retail. I think OEM's will have better access, but not so sure about being able to purchase a copy all on its own...

Heat scans are now showing greatly increased temperatures at the surface in the volcano crater and earthquakes are occurring at about one every five minutes. Scientists are saying this shows magma is much closer to the surface, and gas measurements also support this.

When I woke up this morning and was getting ready for work, I looked out the front window, from which I can see the mountain, and saw a column of steam lifting out of the crater. This was the first time I have been home at a time when clouds were cleared and something was happening.

I shot a couple of pictures, and will try to get around to transferring them from the camera to the computer and uploading soon.

Click on over to hear what Eric has to say with regard to a sneak peek of KSSX, his Internet radio station call letters. As he describes, RSS is likely going to be the final link in making distribution of multimedia content in an automated fashion a realistic (meaning relatively seamless) experience and possibility.

"The radio station YOU design?"

Woah... Gonna be cool.

I picked up a copy of a documentary film on DVD today from Best Buy called FarenHYPE 9/11, which is a response film that was made to take a critical, factual look at the Michael Moore film, Farenheit 9/11.

If you watched the original Michael Moore movie and cared at all about it (whether you liked it or hated it, doesn't matter), you owe it to yourself and everyone else to watch this documentary. You'll see people from the Moore movie talking about how they were misrepresented in the original film. Much of what Moore presented in Farenheit 9/11 is examined, critically reviewed and corrected in this film.

Seriously - there are two sides to every story, and Moore's story was such an exaggeration and misrepresentation of many facts, the FarenHYPE 9/11 DVD should be mandatory viewing. It is inexpensive - only about $11 at Best Buy, and you can order it from Overstock.com as well.

You don't necessarily have to be a Bush supporter to accept that Michael Moore flat out lied and twisted events to meet the requirements of his agenda. This is in no way an attept on my part to change your mind with regard to a voting decision - that's all yours.

It's the best $11 I've spent in quite some time.

One more time: regardless of your opinion of the Moore film and it's content, be sure to see FarenHYPE 9/11 - Once you see it, I think you'll understand why I'm so adamant.

Anyone who wants to borrow my copy, let me know.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...