Streaming vs. Podcasts

If you'd asked me a couple of months ago about audio on the Internet, I would've only been able to talk about streaming. That's been going on for more than a dozen years. I can remember trying to get adequate RealPLayer connections from my desktop at Dubai Men's College when the Internet first arrived in the UAE. Now, streaming is pretty old hat although I seldom spent much time listening. I've even offered the following .ra files from my website for at least a decade. [Editor's Note: These have now been converted to mp3 but suffer from poor quality of the original and coversion processes.]

MP3 AUDIO

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1994 Radio Archive: Dubai FM, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours. The HCT BBS
Mike Friganiotis, Mohammed Al-Shamsi, and Dennis Hurd. (30:06 minutes)

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1995 Radio Archive: Dubai FM, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours. The Internet
Mike Friganiotis, Tonia Huculak, and Dennis Hurd (25:39 minutes)



Things have changed though. I've only gotten interested in the concept of podcasting since buying my little 4GB Creative Zen Plus. (Incidentally, my RMA'd original unit really was dead and Creative is in the midst of shipping back a replacement by UPS. Meanwhile, I'm listening to a 2GB Zen Stone Plus.)



Podcasting is so cool. I like being able to walk out of the house with hours of radio which I've chosen to take along. I never use the FM tuner in the Zen. People may not know how easy it can be with aggregator software. Most of my friends probably know nothing about RSS feeds. It's simply a universal method to automate new Internet content so that it can be easily shared.

The image above is software that I use to collect my audio postcast episodes. Rather than getting involved in Apple's iTunes, I simply enter the rss feed into the ZENcast Organizer. It automatically updates all programs I've selected for download. Some programs might be daily while others weekly or monthly. It doesn't matter because as soon as a new show is released, it is waiting for me on my computer. I can listen on the PC or simply press a button to have the files copied to my Creative Zen.

It might take some looking around on the net to FIND the feeds but as soon as they're subscribed to, it becomes effortless. There are things from literally all over the globe. I favour technology over the news, and podcasting allows me to chose exactly what goes into my ears.