Podcasting- Whats up with this?

Podcasting- the next type of media. All it is is a homemade audio file with an rss link, whats so innovative about that? Apples itunes helped that out, by making it mainstream and encouraging many more non-techy people to create their own podcasts. My favorite podcasts are twit, diggnation, and dl.tv. These are all tech, and have the best of the best on them. Ask a Ninja is also pretty good, but there are so many of them, and the easiest way to find them is just to go into the podcasting section of itunes.

These shows are now able to make money, and looks like it'll be profitable for months and maybe years to come. This is all possible because of the Comcast takeover of tech tv. They fired many of the good hosts and changed the format to crappy shows about games, and games only. Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, and many others got pissed/kicked off (or later quit). This led to them wanting to start venturing into podcasting and creating great shows, because what else do they have to do with their free time (besides digg). Podcasting is a great new alternative to TV, and I can't wait to see more improvements in this great use of technology

Youtube- here to stay?

Youtube has enough popularity now to skyrocket it up the ladder seems to be a big phenomena now, but will it be able to sustain itself? They spend over a reported million dollars a month in bandwidth fees, yet have no established money making scheme (yet). I know they have a lot of copyrighted videos on there and that is one thing that would make it hard for someone to want to buy it. Until they get a good ad supported, money making business, that is when they can sell. There are many copycats/competitors out there, but i think youtube is popular enough to beat out even ones with more features. (ex. myspace and its competitors). Flash videos are extremely popular because you can play them on any machine, and its very efficient. I'd like to have a bigger video player, because watching small flash videos of funny clips isn't as good on a big screen.

Google Video offers a bigger space to view it, but half the time it can't load the full video. I like to use their video player, which i downloaded, and watch the videos that way. That enables you to go full screen and not even worry about buffering, since it downloads the video to your hard drive.
What are your thoughts?

Windows/Mac/Linux

I'll mention now that i am a windows user. That might turn away about half of you. I like macs, but i just dont feel like changing operating systems (the money is also an issue). Right now I am trying Ubuntu on vmware.. because its easier and safer than dual booting it. I like it, but i can't see me using it more than windows xp anytime soon. Installing something for the operating system is just darn confusing sometimes, and that annoys me. Having to spend a long time searching google and finding answers to something that is easy to do on windows, is very frustrating. I find Ubuntu to be great in a lot of ways, and i'll post updates to how good/bad it is going in the future. This is only my opinion, and trust me, Linux is much easier to use then it used to be. If your looking for a new OS, i recommend Ubuntu (its simple enough for windows users). I haven't used it enough to be an expert, but there are many sites and forums for great help with linux.

There is great debate on which OS is the best and bla bla bla. Fanboys for operating systems are about the stupidest thing ever. Fanboys for any product is stupid. I like products like Firefox and utorrent (bitorrent application, i'll talk about bittorrent in a future post), but if a better product appears and it is innovate enough, i will use that. Just like Digg and Slashdot, if a better website comes along and is better, i'll go there. Netscape is not the answer at all. All the "new" netscape does is copy right from digg, with less vision and coolness. I'll write an article about this at a later time though, as its off-topic here.

My First Post

I've thought about doing a blog for awhile now, but i figure i have some free time now, so why not start. I'm very interested in tech and I'd like to help people out with problems (if i can). I'll post about many different topics, including maybe sports or politics. You don't have to agree with me, but just hear me out. The point of this is to give you help, a different opinion, or an interesting read. Post comments about the topic at any time(or even critique me), and I'd be happy to read them.