it's good to know that i'm not the only disgruntled person out there

[rone]

> What is "podcast" compared to "MP3 for download on some kind of RSS
> feed" anyway?

That description only captures the facts and completely misses the
self-congratulatory wankfest.  Podcasts are nothing without the "we're
changing the world and are at the forefront of technology" wankfest.

Thank you, allbery.

Comments

[wisn.livejournal.com]

'Podcast' is more concise and easier to say than, 'MP3 for download on some kind of RSS feed.' Why should we be content with the term 'MP3 for download on some kind of RSS feed'? Since we are noting a specific combination of medium, delivery and usage, we can either settle for having to detail these every time we need to be that specific, or we can resort to jargon.

If I was in charge of speech I would try to coin something less timely than an unauthorized tie-in to the hot consumer item of the shopping season. The past dozen years of neophilia has not been easy on the English language. But podcasts are a persistent format, love 'em or hate 'em -- personally, I haven't found one that didn't make me mourn the time wasted.

At least 'Podcast' does not use 'blog' as a root word.

But I do have to tip my hat to the guy who posted his family's vacation photos on Flickr and got Cory Doctorow to link to them only because the guy used the words 'photoblog' and 'Disneyworld'. Not that yanking Cory's chain is all that hard, but I'd have expected him to see through that.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The two podcasts I listen to are both music programs: jwgh's periodic performances and They Might Be Giants' sporadic online show. The talking kind are just amateur talk radio, and I don't go much for talk radio.

But I like my iPod and I like those two podcasts, and I'm not going to stop listening to either because somebody else is a wanker.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I listen to a handful of podcasts which are just archive radio shows, either from the BBC or local public radio. In some cases, they call them podcasts despite the lack of a feed; they're just an MP3 available for download, period. And in most cases this is the same service they've offered for years, but now, as above, the hosts of the shows get to bleat that they're cutting edge with a podcast.

Naturally there's a disclaimer that you don't need to have an iPod to use a podcast.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Personally I don't have a problem with the term "podcast", I mean it's good to have a word for it, it's all the people acting like this is somehow NEW that cheese me.

For more head-explody fun, Google "Library 2.0". Word to my professional colleagues: THIS IS NOT MAKING US LOOK HIP, PEOPLE.