Podcasts coming to a cell phone near you

Many have said that cellphones are a natural mp3 player and I totally agree. Catch this Wired article about what Nokia is doing. Here’s what really struck me:

Nokia would sell 40 million phones with MP3 digital music players this year, compared with 10 million in 2004. By comparison, Apple said it sold 5.3 million iPods in the first three months of 2005.

So if you do the math, you see that Apple will sell 20M iPods this year while Nokia will sell 40M mp3 players (in their phones).

It’s pretty obvious to see that Apple is going to have to create an iPod phone!

Mozilla’s Thunderbird gets a podcatcher

In this CNET article we find out about yet another client that’s including podcasting support. As I’ve mentioned previously about Media Player, and about the Apple iTunes, this is a total natural. Any client that current understands RSS will soon understand the RSS Enclosures, the technology behind podcasting.

I think the podcast curve is going to be a lot bigger than we previously thought.

What are REAL programmers really like?

If you’ve ever had to hire, manage, motivate, or work with Real Programmers, you MUST listen to Paul Graham talk about “Great Hackers”. In his presentation, he uses the term Hackers to mean Programmers instead of what we typically think of Hackers people who break into computers. So just know that going in and you will love this presentation.

I’ve been in the tech industry since I was a young teen and have dealt with Hackers all my life. This presentation is, by far, the best I’ve ever heard. I had the great pleasure and honor to spend a little bit of time with Paul Graham. He’s a cool guy and I would definitely suggest you listen to this. If you’re really intersted, buy the book!

Watch out for administrator emails suspending your accounts

I just caught this article on Infoworld about a variant on the Mytob worm.

This one poses as a system administrator warning you that your account will be cancelled. As with any other emails with attachments and directions to open the attachment, DON’T DO IT.

And of course, NEVER, EVER open ANY attachments (even if they are from your mother who just called you saying she’s sending you an attachment) if they end in .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif or .scr. This little bugger might also come as a .zip file too which is normally OK but in this case it’s not.

Make sure your anti-virus definitions are up to date and be careful.

Microsoft Windows Media Player will have Podcatching functions built-in

I just caught these posts on Scobelizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger and also Corante talking about how Microsoft is also (finally) working on integrating Podcatching functions in their Windows Media Player.

It was inevitable. Podcatching is such a lightweight application that integrating it into iTunes and Windows Media Player is a natural. They both already do the downloading, ripping, and synchronization functions, what’s the big deal in adding some simple XML consumption (junction, what’s your) functions?

This is fantastic news for podcasters everywhere. Within about 6 months, we’re all going to have a listener base in the many, many millions.

Mover and Shaker in Hawaii

I just read this article in SB about Magdy F. Iskander. Now THIS is a mover and shaker for Hawaii’s tech industry, specializing in wireless communications. A few of his accomplishments:

  • He has attracted $3 million of hard-to-get research money, established a unique antenna lab, had nine published research articles and is working with industries, schools, state and national agencies to produce the “next-generation entrepreneurs in telecommunications.”
  • .

  • He has eight patents, including three since coming here for wireless components or software for Motorola, Raytheon and Kyocera Wireless.
  • Iskander also is working with the hospitality industry to bring international conferences here to contribute to the state economy. He was president of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 2002 and organized a conference here in 2003 on wireless communications. He’s planning a similar conference this year and is working up to a major event in 2007.

Now, mind you, this guy had a cushy job in Utah already:

Iskander had lived in Utah for 25 years and had the only endowed professorial chair at the university. He was comfortable and wasn’t thinking of leaving until visiting Hawaii in 2001, he said.

So what brought him here?

“Walking in Waikiki was just like home (Alexandria, Egypt).” he said. “It attracted me.”

(Same thing happened to me 20 yrs ago!)

It was nice to read an article like this and let me say “I’m glad you’re here”.