Dear Internet,
Today I upgraded to iTunes 4.9. It includes support for "podcasting". Now, despite the wankery about this perpeptuated by every computer technology reporter ever, as if this were some sort of messianic second coming of Jesus, I can't think of any practical reason I'd want to hear people talk about crap.
I ask all of you who support this technology, which is apparently some sort of wet orgy between RSS 2.0 and MP3, to convince me why this is such a earth shattering technology that I should bother messing with it. Preferrably point me toward compelling content, stuff that I'd spend time listening to. You know where to find my interests. I'm not trying to start a technical debate here, but this is only the 200th technology I've been told will change the course of human history forever, so I remain sceptical.
Thank you in advance,
Paul
Dear Paul,
Thank you for sharing your boring day with those of us who also lack a life and feel the need share our boring lives with people we don't know. Please prepare for the ridicule of 10 year-old know-it-all armchair analysts who are now going to compare your position on podcasting to the Nazis.
Thank you in advance,
The Internet
One word: wiki.
Podcasting is brought to you by those who have the misguided notion that because they think you actually read the dreck they publish that you'll want to hear their nasal, whiny little voices.
I mean, I'm all for taking professionally produced content on the road. NPR and Garrison Kellior take up space on my iPod's hard drive, but that's because the programs they produce are actually amusing or thought provoking.
The unholy combination with RSS is another thing. I like RSS. RSS is cool. RSS lets me do nifty things like scroll server stats in my browser taskbar. RSS lets me aggregate my real news feeds. In the wrong hands, much like modelling clay, RSS can be used for great evil.
It's the malajusted ranty whackjobs trying to hop on the RSS broadcast bandwagon and shove their paranoid rants down my throat via MP3. It's the 21st century equivalent of the shortwave stations I used to encounter as a kid, broadcasting from mid-Michigan and Colorado about hoarding gold coins, making your own ammo, and watching for black helicopters.
Podcasting is the drunk dial of the Internet, and people are willingly putting themselves in harm's way. It's Sturgeon's Law at work.