I’ve been fairly silent around these parts for the past while, mainly because I’ve been focussing on preparing myself and my boat for an imminent long sailing adventure. For those who are interested, my sailing blog has all the skinny on that.

However, I’ve been doing a lot of work on board to get the computer stuff all up and running. I’m still maybe only halfway there, but it occurred to me that it might be time to lay out the basics so far.

It’s not exactly that I don’t like iTunes - when I first started using it I was blown away by how great it was. And it just kept getting better until it hit that point. The point where it’s trying to do so many things that it doesn’t do anything right for me.

I admit that I’m not a lover of converged devices - I have a pda, a phone and a music player; they are all separate devices to perform separate functions. I like it that way.

I recently discovered that a lot of visitors find this site searching for information about how to watch podcasts. Obviously, that’s because the name of my podcast is Tech Watch.

However, I can provide the answer to that question. Most video podcasts have a website where you can watch the episodes online in your web browser. If you want to subscribe, though, you’ll need both a podcast aggregator and a video player. This is where it can get tricky.

“You” are Time Magazine’s person of the year. But why are they talking about citizen created media now? It’s not about youtube, blogging or getting famous on the internet. It’s about actively sharing ideas, not just passively receiving them.

I give an example of the strong multi-directional nature of citizen media, when I talk about the show with ze frank. Check it out.

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If you’re a power podcast user like me, you’ve probably found that iTunes doesn’t have the feature set you’re looking for in a podcatching client. That’s why I was thrilled to discover that myPodder, the client that goes with the online site Podcast Ready, now supports iPods. I was less than excited, though, when I discovered that “support” means that the application runs, not that you can actually play the stuff you download directly on your iPod.

Cynically Tested, a group of Canadian filmmakers, has this great parody of what one of the major Canadian ISPs is/might be doing. Good stuff. (Found on Michael Geist’s blog)

Tags: podcast, internet, culture, society
The internet is creating a culture and society of its own, which like any culture, is completely mysterious to those outside it. Yes, we are all strangers to each other.

Check out the Neilsen/Netratings report about podcast usage [pdf]. Or, if you’re really bored, spend a minute or several browsing YouTube or Google Videos.

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In last week’s Tech Watch, I talked about net neutrality - particularly the fear that some internet service providers might charge content providers extra to “guarantee” that their content is accessible. I didn’t mention the other boogeyman with respect to net neutrality - throttling.

As the internet becomes more of a utility, can it be treated like a commodity or does it need protection? Which freedom is more important - personal freedom or the free market?

If you’re looking for more information on Sen. Ted Stevens’ take on the internet, check out this Wired post.

Stuff about the show.

The Golden Hammer: Tech Watch is a proud member of Techpodcasts.com - if it’s tech, it’s here.

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