Daily Fixes for the Podcast Junkie

Some of you may know that I'm somewhat of a podcast junkie. I listen to podcasts of many a different topic, length and episode frequency. This post will be the first installment in a three part series on my favorite podcasts. Today I'd like to list my favorite daily podcasts. My other posts will include my favorite weekly podcasts and my favorite podcasts that aren't delivered with a defined pattern. All are free, and subscriptions to all of these podcasts are available in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader by following the links below (or searching in iTunes).

In no particular order:

The Onion: A quick dose (1 minute) of the "news" from The Onion.

The Washington Post's Baghdad Briefing: A ~3 minute piece by one of 7 or so Post correspondents in the Baghdad bureau. Most correspondents are Iraqis. Topics range from day to day life in Iraq to politics to terrorism.

NY Times Front Page: A 5 minute overview of the stories on the front page of the NY Times.

Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing: This podcast actually has a morning and evening edition, each about 5 minutes. If you're a geek and interested in the stock market, this is a concise way to stay current.

Buzz Out Loud: CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. ~30 minutes. For true geeks, an entertaining review of the day's top tech stories by Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.

KEXP Song of the Day: Some of it is great, some of it is ok, some of it is skipped before the song finishes. But a lot of it is music I normally wouldn't stumble upon myself, so it's a great outlet for finding new music. And KEXP is based in Seattle, so it must be cool.

60 Second Science: Length as advertised, a "did you know" type tidbit from Scientific American.

Update 02/08/08:

There are a couple others I have found to be great daily resources:

BBC Global News: This podcast comes in twice a day and usually lasts somewhere around 20-25 minutes. Yes, ~45 minutes a day for one podcast is a lot, but they begin each show with a summary of the stories for that podcast, allowing you to skip to what you want to hear or cut it short altogether. I usually find at least the top story interesting though, and sometimes listen to the whole thing. The BBC has excellent reporting in all corners of the world, and I haven't found a better way to stay informed.

The Real Story with Frank Curzio: As of this posting you will actually find this under the title "The Real Story with Aaron Task". The show is a product of TheStreet.com, and Task hosted it until the end of 2007, when he left for a job with Yahoo!. Task was good, but not good enough to make the original list of my daily favorites. Curzio has picked up the job, and does it very well. He delivers sound analysis in a manner that is easy for the amateur investor to grasp. He does great interviews, isn't cocky, and most importantly, isn't boring. And while this has nothing to do with the quality of his content, there's something believable about listening to a guy with a thick NYC accent talk about money.

Life is a Rubik's Cube

and if you can solve Life blindfolded in 2 minutes, you just might make the front page of TLATL, too.

This is a cop-out of a post to be sure. I have nothing to offer intellectually. That's ok; it's Friday. But I promise these videos will impress, and the last video will warm your heart for the weekend, and reinforce your stereotypes that Asians are smart.

Matyas Kuti, a shy 14 year-old Hungarian, solves a 5x5 Cube (officially known as the Rubik's "Professor's Cube") - blindfolded. At first I didn't think this would be overly impressive - it's just a matter of muscle memory. Wrong. Notice that the kid doesn't actually put on his blindfold and start solving the cube until his timer has reached 2:45. He spent the first 2:45 memorizing the position of each of the 150 pieces. He then put on his blindfold and made easily over 1000 moves all the while remembering the exact position of each of the 150 pieces. In 8 minutes.



If you don't think you're dumb yet, watch this 3 year old solve the 3x3 Rubik's Cube. It doesn't look like a memorized routine either, there seem to be parts where she stops and examines it.



Have a good weekend, everyone.

What Can Google Do For You? (Part I)

It goes without saying that Google has become everyone's answer-man. In fact, Google's proficiency in this has earned it "Kleenex" status, where it has actually become a generic word for its product category.

Coovo, did you get the xerox of my butt?
It made you cry? Here's a kleenex.
No, I don't have another. Try using this q-tip.
Woah - that looks like it hurt. Here's a band-aid for that.
If you're still upset, I'll get you a coke.
What do you mean you already saw my butt when you google'd it?

I know. That was stupid. I'm sorry. That's why I make Tim do this thing with me, gotta have some talent on this zeppelin.

Anyway, Google has plenty of other functions besides search, mail and maps.

Simple tools

• Perhaps I want to find all urls with "theloopandthelou" in it (coincidentally, one of the more common searches on Google). Entering "inurl:theloopandthelou" as my search criteria will do that. Notice that in the example there is no space between your colon and theloopandthelou.
  
• Want the definition of antidisestablishmentarianism? Use "define:antidisestablishmentarianism". Of course, you don't have to actually include the quotes in the search criteria. But if you're trying to define a multi-word term, make sure you put quotes around all the search terms, such as define:"al qaeda". Unfortunately, entering the term define:"Google" does not trigger an infinite loop that breaks the space/time continuum like I hoped it would.
  

There are many other search operators available for use for your amusement and/or education. And honestly, I think those operators will work on other search engines, too. But that's simple stuff, on to the bigger and better...

Google as your home page

Besides just being a search engine, Google can act as a portal for your content. "Portal" has many meanings. In the I/T world, a portal is a means to deliver personalized content to a user and allow the user to customize his or her experience. Do you have your own MyYahoo or MSN page? Have you told it that you want to see certain sports scores in the left column or stock symbols in the right column? That's it.

Google has the same capabilities. For the average user, I think iGoogle (the name of Google's portal), MyYahoo, and MSN are equally good. I use iGoogle because I use numerous other Google services and they all integrate nicely.

To try it out: sign into Google and start here. You can add as many Google "gadgets" to a page as you want (using the "Add Stuff" link) and create as many tabs as you want as well. Of course, if you want an easy way to stay updated on the ever-changing blog, The Loop and the Lou, you can add a TLATL gadget to your page. In fact, it's as easy as clicking this link:

That's all for this edition of "roller the geek". Tune in next time when we'll look at some of the other cool tools Google has developed and gives away for free. And please feel free to share your own ideas for improving the web experience!

Closing poll: iGoogle, MyYahoo, or MSN?

Skip, Skip, Skip through the Lou

But be prepared to run when bullies start chasing you.

For those who enjoy exercise outdoors and would like an easy way to measure distances traversed, check out www.walkjogrun.net. It uses the Google Maps API to allow you to measure distances of any route. You can save the routes for future use, share them with others, and view others' shared routes as well.

Pretty slick!