It is amazing to experience technology changes as they are occuring. Over the past six months, podcasting has started to take off. According to Pew Research, there are over six million podcast listeners on the Net. And there are a bunch of folks that are jazzed about the kinds of social and commercial changes that this medium will spawn.
And these millions of listeners are using lots of different pieces of software. On the Windows platforms, you have iPodder and Doppler as the principal podcatching clients. On the Mac, there are plenty of other tools including iPodderX. And these tools are very good.
But Adam Curry wasn’t happy with just good podcatching software. So he and his development team have been working on podcasting production software. On yesterday’s Daily Source Code, Adam demoed his new production software which he is dubbing “CastBlaster.” From the sounds (and sights) of the software, it looks really good. I am getting excited to try the software – whenever the beta is released.
Of course, I have no idea whether the “studio” software will be proprietary or open source. I would guess that it would be open source. After all, I am sure that he will be using existing open source software as a basis. But I do think that Adam wants to monetize this – but through the “services” angle. In December, he registered the domains for the PodShow. And recent DSC podcasts have hinted at the launch. There is a functioning web site (with little to no content) and lots of hints. I don’t know where this is going, but I suspect that Adam wants to start a “network” of podcasters. On that network, he can charge “rent” (storage space) and collect his “cut” of advertising revenue. In a way, he is building an “MTV” network all over again. But this time, the talent will be far more decentralized – and geeky.
Rick Turoczy talked about this on his “hypocritical” blog. At the same time, Christopher Carti talked about this on his Social Customer Manifesto blog. Both seem to predict big things for the venture. If buzz could kill, this would be homicidal!
-CyclingRoo-

On March 23, Scoble left a cryptic note about a new Microsoft site known as Crossfader. This site is designed to promote electonic musicians and their products. Since then Silicon Beat and even MacMusic have mentioned the site. But what is it?

Some of you might suspect that it is Microsoft’s answer to the Mac music phenomenon known as GarageBand. But you’d be wrong. Crossfader is more like GarageBand.com. OK. On the surface, it looks like I’m playing with words. I’m not. GarageBand.com (the web site) existed long before Apple announced GarageBand (the software). So Apple worked out a deal to use the name. Details of the difference between the site and the software can be found at News.Com.

At the current time, Crossfader is a community site for electronic musicians to collaborate as well as educate themselves. But it is not (yet) a piece of software. Indeed, the home page for Crossfader actually lists Sony’s Sound Forge 8 on the left navigation bar. For my simple needs, the Sony product rocks! At the same time, prominent references are made to Ableton’s Live 4.0 product. While I can’t speak to Ableton’s product, I can get excited to see Microsoft mention other vendors and their products so prominently. Yet another example of the growing maturity that I am seeing from the hordes of Mordor (er, Redmond).

As of this moment, there is little of interest on the site, but things are being added at a furious pace. And given my predispositions towards sampling and mashups, I can’t wait to see who starts to join this community. Here’s hoping for a great start.

-CyclingRoo-

On March 23, Scoble left a cryptic note about a new Microsoft site known as Crossfader. This site is designed to promote electonic musicians and their products. Since then Silicon Beat and even MacMusic have mentioned the site. But what is it?
Some of you might suspect that it is Microsoft’s answer to the Mac music phenomenon known as GarageBand. But you’d be wrong. Crossfader is more like GarageBand.com. OK. On the surface, it looks like I’m playing with words. I’m not. GarageBand.com (the web site) existed long before Apple announced GarageBand (the software). So Apple worked out a deal to use the name. Details of the difference between the site and the software can be found at News.Com.
At the current time, Crossfader is a community site for electronic musicians to collaborate as well as educate themselves. But it is not (yet) a piece of software. Indeed, the home page for Crossfader actually lists Sony’s Sound Forge 8 on the left navigation bar. For my simple needs, the Sony product rocks! At the same time, prominent references are made to Ableton’s Live 4.0 product. While I can’t speak to Ableton’s product, I can get excited to see Microsoft mention other vendors and their products so prominently. Yet another example of the growing maturity that I am seeing from the hordes of Mordor (er, Redmond).
As of this moment, there is little of interest on the site, but things are being added at a furious pace. And given my predispositions towards sampling and mashups, I can’t wait to see who starts to join this community. Here’s hoping for a great start.
-CyclingRoo-

Has anyone else started seeing more popups in the Firefox browsing experience? Over the past month or so, I have seen an alarming increase in the number of pop-under ads that have appeared while using Firefox. It seems that the marketing nere-do-wells have noted that Firefox does allow plugins to launch popups in an unimpeded fashion. Consequently, a lot of ingenious marketeers have launced their nefarious payloads in seemingly inocuous Flash or Java apps. When a Firefox browser comes along, the popup is launched through an already “approved” extension.
Well, Asa Dotzler and the folks at the Mozilla foundation are working on improvements to the popup blocker. While there is little “new” code in the beta patch, it seems that the Mozilla folks saw this one coming and had a patch already in the offing (and code alredy latent in previous distros). If you are interested in the gory details, go check out Asa’s weblog. But if you are a trusting soul, you can download a signed patch from the Mozilla team.
Happy hunting!
-CyclingRoo-

The entire industry is beginning to realize that Microsoft is truly comitted to standing against those forces (people and companies) that would seek to destroy the usefulness of the Internet. This morning, I woke up and saw a Slashdot article extolling the consistent efforts of Microsoft in the fight against spammers and phishers. And this article comes just a couple of days after a ZDNet article published last week. While I will always check sources when I see an article about Microsoft’s largesse, I will also loudly proclaim goodness when it is obvious. And Microsoft’s efforts have demonstrated “goodness” in this matter. After over a year (and over 200 lawsuits), I am pleased to say that the seeds planted with the Trustworthy Computing initiative are finally starting to bear some fruit.
But I really like David Berlind’s comments. In his “Between the Lines” column, he notes:

“Well, it’s not enough that Microsoft (and others) are suing spammers and phishers and driving them into bankruptcy. The lawsuits won’t have their intended affect unless the word gets out that Microsoft is on the hunt and that Kornblum has a message. What’s that message? Kornblum made it clear saying: “We’re telling phishers and spammers that we will not tolerate their conduct on our systems and that we’ll do everything we can to identify, target, and pursue them.”

David makes it clear that every Internet citizen must warn the spammers and phishers that they are being watched and might be prosecuted.
What is even more interesting is the reaction of the /. community to this article. There is the prdictable rant that Microsoft is using lawsuits rather than improving their software. Of course, such rants are meaningless (and wrong). But the majority of the comments are laudatory of Microsoft’s efforts. When /. can laud Microsoft, there is some kind of a planetary harmonic convergence underway. And all of the planets are aligning against the spammers and phishers. It’s about time!
-CyclingRoo-