I love podcasts. Lately, I’ve been listening to more podcasts on my iPod than anything, and I find it’s a great way to keep up with new tech stories (not to mention a nice way to drown out the noise at work when I’m trying to concentrate). Some of my favorites are in the TWIT stable: Windows Weekly, Security Now and MacBreak Weekly. None are development centric, but that’s how I like it when I’m writing code. I want to listen to something that doesn’t require too much attention, but is still informative and entertaining. More than that though the primary reason I listen to the TWIT podcasts is Leo Laporte. I’ve been a big Leo fan since the days of ZDTV and The Screen Savers. He always has a great take on tech issues. If you don’t currently listen to any of his podcasts, I strongly suggest checking them out. I don’t even own a Mac (as long as you don’t count that OSX VM I got downloaded off BitTorrent), but I probably enjoy MBW most of all simply because it’s a fun show.
I bring all this up because as a fan of the shows, I think it’s important to give them support whenever possible. That can be done a couple different ways. Either by purchasing the products of their advertisers (and making sure they know that’s how you found them), buying TWIT gear, or by helping them directly. It seems like the big advertiser on the TWIT network is Audible, but I’m not a huge fan of audio books. Instead, I’m going to make a donation to them this month. I’m not loaded, so it won’t anything spectacular. The great thing is that it doesn’t have to be. That’s where the online community comes in. Lots of people doing just a little can make a huge difference.
Some other podcasts that deserve some love are .NET Rocks! and Hanselminutes. Both are excellent and cover developer related topics. I highly recommend both. I’m always looking for the next great podcast to subscribe to, so I would love some suggestions.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I don’t have an Ipod. Can I still listen to pod casts? Is that just a term that used to describe the small nature of the casting system or is it really content that is only available to those more economically fortunate persons that can afford an Ipod?
December 4th, 2007 at 8:46 am
No, you don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts. They are usually available as MP3 files so you can play them in any MP3 player or even on a computer.
I’ve enjoyed a few episodes from se-radio.net. They have a wide variety of software engineering radio. I’ll have to check out Hanselminutes.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I have not been able to download any TWiT podcasts for the past couple months on iTunes. I was subscribed and received the podcasts regularly. I also cannot access the website http://www.twit.tv (and the other ones like Leoville.tv, etc.) – I’ve tried both Firefox and IE with no success.
Is Leo still in business?
December 10th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
My iTunes stopped downloading Leo’s podcasts about a month ago. I’ve tried resubscribing, but nothing is coming through. I cannot access his website. I’ve tried http://www.twit.tv, and the other links, but I continue to receive a “Problem Loading Page” error.
Is Leo still producing his podcasts?
December 11th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I’ve had the same issue with iTunes before. I removed the podcast and re-added it through the iTunes music store.
I just visited http://twit.tv, and he’s still there. In fact, I just listened to the latest Windows Weekly.