Jim Dalrymple.com

If you don’t really get the new Podcasting phenomenon taking over the Web these days, you’re not alone. Macworld Editor Rob Griffiths, who admits to adopting technology rather quickly, doesn’t get Podcasting either.

“I have to admit, though, that this incredible surge of interest in podcasting has caught me completely by surprise. I have no idea why people find it so amazing and interesting. Though Podcasting is technically not a ‘new’ technology, since it’s been around for a few years, Apple’s recent change to iTunes and the Music Store has really brought it to the masses — hence it’s ‘new’ to a large number of people now.”

You can read the rest of Griffiths blog at Macworld.

Comments(9)

Everywhere I look these days, it’s Flickr, Flickr, Flickr. Like the saying goes, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” so I did yesterday afternoon. I’m still not convinvced Flickr is any better for me than .Mac, but I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that can give me some opinions and examples on why it’s better.

I uploaded a couple of albums already to test out the interface. Overall, it’s pretty good — there are quite a few options and there is a whole community of people that you can make as contacts. I quickly found several people that I know to add as contacts.

I’m currently using a Flickr plugin for iPhoto, which seems to be the best upload/management interface I’ve found so far. The plugin doesn’t seem to be able to create an album for me, although it did upload pictures just fine if I didn’t choose to create a new album.

Shortly after signing up, a good friend got me upgraded to a Flickr Pro account (Thanks), which gives you a whole lot of extras — mostly lifting restrictions of the free account.

Like I said, I’m not totally convinced yet, but I’m going to give it a try and see what happens.

Comments(1)

Blog spam has become a real problem for all of those people that just want to post a few personal thoughts on the Web. For some, it has meant taking comments off their sites altogether. Luckily, the Wordpress community is very active and has a lot of good developers tackling this problem — the latest plugin I’m trying is called Bad Behavior.

Unlike a lot of the other plugins, Bad Behavior doesn’t require any interaction from the person making the post. For instance, you don’t need to require a special code be typed in or otherwise jump through hoops to make a post.

I was using a plugin called Bot Check that required a 5-digit code be typed in and it was very good. I had no trouble with it at all and would certainly recommend anyone having trouble with spam give it a try.

I like to test out all kinds of things server related, so I thought I’d give Bad Behavior a try and see how it works. I had this site up for a few days before I started reciving spam, so I know it’s out there — let’s see how this does.

If you find yourself blocked for some reason, please let me know.

Comments(4)

Wow, if you thought there was no money in online gambling, you would be wrong. An ex-porn business owner, her husband and two others will cash in $1.4 billion and have shares worth an additional $6 billion.

According to the Reuters story, Ruth Parasol and her husband Russell de Leon, both lawyers, are each set to cash in around $370 million and still own a combined stake worth about $2.7 billion.

Anurag Dikshit, group operations director, is the biggest shareholder. He will cash in shares worth about $720 million and still own a 30 percent stake worth over $2.6 billion.

Marketing director Vikrant Bhargava’s remaining 9 percent stake and cash from the IPO should be worth almost $1 billion.

The downside — and there always seems to be a downside — the group could face jail time if the U.S. decides to clamp down on online gambling.

Comments(0)

Earlier in the week I pointed to the first article in the “Adobe Talks” series we did on Macworld, but I neglected to point out the others. I figured I might as well do that now.

The series included interviews with the product managers for each application, as well as a detailed review. I was handling the interview and the “newsy” portion of the package.

So here they are if you want to read about Creative Suite 2:

• Macworld News: Adobe talks: Bridge and Version Cue
• Macworld News: Adobe talks: GoLive
• Macworld News: Adobe talks: Illustrator
• Macworld News: Adobe talks: InDesign
• Macworld News: Adobe talks: Photoshop

Comments(0)

This is what kept me busy for the better part of two weeks. Macworld News: Adobe talks: Photoshop. This is only the first part, we have enough to post one everyday for the rest of the week.

I really like doing these longer stories — really interesting to take a look at a suite of products after they’ve been on the market for a little bit.

More tomorrow — I could tell you what’s coming, but I won’t

Comments(2)

The Bank of America has reported losing 1 million customer records while they were being transported to the companies backup center. Records included customers and accounts of the U.S. government’s SmartPay charge card program, which has more than 2.1 million members.

(Read the article)

Comments(0)