Scott Hanselman

If I had a nickel for everytime someone called me a Luddite, I'd have 5 cents.

Main Entry: Ludd·ite
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from Ned Ludd, 18th century Leicestershire workman who destroyed machinery
: one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change
- Luddite adjective

Dave Winer thinks me opposed to technological change as I'm currently underwhelmed by Podcasting. Here's a Dave's comment from Carl's blog (my annotations in bold.)

Dave Winer: Carl, every time some new form of communication there are always people to say it's unnecessary or no one wants it. I've even been one of those people from time to time. ;->

Your friend's mistake is that this isn't a replacement for PowerPoint, it's a replacement for drive-time radio, or radio listened to while exercising, or radio not listened to on long airplane flights or drives. (Where reception is non-existent or only idiotic right wing idealogues are available. They can be entertaining, but after a while you yearn for some adult conversation.)

Anyway, PowerPoint, which btw, I had a hand in inventing (Smooth segue. Apparently Dave invented the bulleted list and the slideshow. Here he remind us of one of his many places in history...), is a disaster for communication (...then as a technological bad-boy bashes it), it should be wiped off the face of the earth, a crutch for freaked-out speakers, and the people who have to listen to someone wade through a PP presentation know all too well that as soon as the first slide is up, people start falling asleep, checking their email or reading blogs. Now they'll have a new choice, put on the headphones and listen to one of the verbal incontinents [sic] your Luddite friend is so dismissive of.

When did PowerPoint come into all this? An example of another often low-fidelity content format perhaps.  Thank you Rory, for saying it simply "Podcasting is a means of syndicating binary content - that's all!"

That said:

• I've been an Audible Subscriber since its inception and use it for NPR as well as AudioBooks.
• I did a nationally syndicated Wireless Trip across the country in the Spring of 2000 that distributed via MP3s and produced by a local AM radio station. A few links. I've still got the MP3s, perhaps I should post them.
• I've be a PodCast subscriber since .NET Rocks started using PodCasting.

And I'm saying simply:

• It's ironic as we were all up in arms two weeks ago about RSS's use of bandwidth, now we're using RSS as a pointer to a 40 meg MP3.
• Other than Engadget and .NET Rocks, I'm underwhelmed by the content.
• It's fun to say "verbal incontinence" but now that Dave's chimed in, I'll start using the more descriptive "diarrhea of the mouth."

Thanks Dave for making my point about content quality for me by raising the quality of the discourse.  Too bad you didn't Podcast it.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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