Some Podcasts I Have Sampled - Eight

Munchcast - one of the newer TWIT podcast devoted to junk food (or as they call it "geek food"). Very interesting, my favourite episodes so far are the ones on ice cream (Ice Cream, You Scream!) and the episode at Powell's Sweet Shoppe. They go into all variations on the foods they discuss and revel in the sugary fattiness of the foods the cover. It's an somewhat ambivalent revelling though, proud to eat junk but with an apologetic air. The Powell's Sweet Shoppe visit was preceded by Cammy Blackstone (the host along with Leo Laporte) telling us that she was eating a beet salad before she went on her sugar trip. The shop sounds like some kind of candy wonderland. I'm liking listening.

New York Times Video: Style | Dining & Wine is a Videocast usually featuring the New York Times columnist Mark Bittman who likes simple food. In one episode he says that he keeps telling people don't cook food, just eat it. But obviously there is cooking involved in these casts, but it's not elaborate, so I likey. Some of the outdoor cooking is done on a kind of terrace in front of a luscious green park/cemetery. Mark has a fairly deadpan humourous delivery which I appreciate. The link to the site I above seems only to work in some of my browsers, I'm not sure why, you can look for the cast on iTunes. The page on the website offers more videos than the RSS feed I'm subscribed to.


Frequencycast is a podcast on things digital media in the UK. They discuss things like Freeview, Sky Plus, BT Home Hub, DAB and things of that sort, though they are starting to diversify into other areas of tech. I'm not keen on the in-podcast banter the hosts do, but it's worth listening as it's a fountain of valuable information. New or changed digital TV channels? Find out here, I only wish the podcast was more frequent as the show is very interesting if you're into UK digital media.

Lumix DMCFZ5

Lumix DMCFZ5
Originally uploaded by KCanard.

Here is a photo, an example of my new camera, from Flickr. Photo is of my old camera, the Lumix.

Added del.icio.us cloud

At the bottom of the blog page there. Oh, I bought that Olympus camera I wrote about before, am very pleased with it. How does a duck use a camera? aaah-haa this is a secret.

I'm Trying out Flock

Flock the social Web, Firefox based browser again, so far so nice. I am posting this from Flock. It has integrated Photo, Video, blog type things. I'm seeing what it can do. I like the media stream that can display photos, videos etc. in a row along the top of the browser.

Olympus E-510

I'm getting quite excited about the Olympus E-510, after reading some reviews I'm considering buying it.




It is fairly small for an SLR, it's got a moderately usefully "Live view" that allows you to use the LCD screen as a viewfider if you want. There's a lens kit with two good lenses (so I've read).
a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 ED Zuiko Digital Lens
and a 40-150mm f3.4-4.5 ED Zuiko Digital Lens
it also has dust removal thing and image stabilisation. The vibes are telling me to go for the Olympus E-510 rather than the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (or whatever name they're giving it in the UK) or the Nikon D40 or 80.

So I'm reading all about it like here and here and here. And deciding.

The 4400 Season 4 Episode 6 and Jesus Christ

Interesting that two series I'm currently watching (see previous post) deal with Christ like figures. Jordan Collier and John from Cincinnati, Both J.C. hmmmmm?

I said I was getting a bit bored by the 4400, but this latest episode has good things again. The reasons why I liked it are returning.

Will the series continue in this lovely uncertain way where you can be sure of nothing, where people can't even be sure who they are?

See, A film maker of hammy B-movie type flicks seems to have the ability to reveal all the worlds conspiracies, except he mysteriously gets snapped up by Hollywood and then recants all his earlier film making as made up fantasy.
A cabal of influential people including the Pope, this series' version of Bill Gates and perhaps one of our protagonists Tom the NTAC agent, are perhaps inhabited by forces from the future. The inhabitors leave behind a mark behind the ear, a result of surgical procedures.

So many questions. Is the head of NTAC one of the cabal set to "destroy" the 4400? How will Jordan bring paradise to Earth? Will Tom (as prophesied) end up taking promicin to counteract his having been interfered with? Who are these forces that took the 4400 in the first place? And who are those who have sent back this cabal to stop them, and what are they so afraid of? Is Jordan and starting to look like the good guy, is there coming a definite black and white in a show where everything was once grey?

It's all feeling very X-Filesian.

Though I still find the pace of the show too fast for its story, I am enjoying it again. Well, this episode at least.

Cog 0.06 and John From Cincinnati

New Cog has a shiny new user interface, Last.fm scrobbling support, gapless playback, a new drawer from which to browse a folder (configurable), configurable shortcuts that work when you don't even have Cog in focus and Front row remote controller support. And there are other things too. It's just fantastic. I have wanted something like this. a lightweight player for a few tracks, as an alternative for times when you don't want to use the behemoth that iTunes has become (it's taking up like 100+ MB of my RAM now).

As an aside, have been watching and enjoying John from Cincinnati. A New HBO series featuring a surfing community and superstar surfer family, an intriguing stranger who seems to be able to give other people abilities (e.g. healing, levitation), humour, a cast a ponderous characters, a very definite sense of place a feeling that something is happening - is building. I am interested.

Review here from LA weekly.