What's a Podcast?

Despite its recent popularity, a large majority still do not know what a podcast is. Hence, i thought that i could use a little space here to spread the word around a bit.

The Number One Myth: You need an iPod to be able to listen to a podcast.

That's a natural line of thought, and that was the misconception i had as well, when i first encountered the term.

So, what's a podcast?

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast),

A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

That definition just about nicely sums it all up. If you still have difficulties grasping the concept, just think a radio programme or segment saved as an MP3 (or any other audio format), which you can listen to just as you would any other MP3 file, at any time.

The first advantage of a podcast is that anyone can have his/her own podcast. There is no need to own/hijack a radio station to produce a podcast. Hence, there is large number of podcasts out there, of virtually any genre.

Secondly, as a listener, you can listen to a podcast at any time, as opposed to having to tune in at a specific time to catch your favourite radio programme.

Some of the podcasts that i listen to frequently:

• Geek News Central
• Mike Tech Show
• Slashdot Review
• The Beautiful Game
• The Premiership Podcast
• This Week in Tech

Stand Up Against DRM

Today, 3rd October, is the Day Against DRM. Take a stand today. Fight DRM.

How to Have Flickr Badge Link Open in New Window

If you have a Flickr account, as well as a personal homepage or blog elsewhere, it is possible to add a "Flickr badge" to your homepage or blog. A "Flickr badge" is simply made up of one or more photos from your Flickr collection (either the most recent or just a random selection). To get the script fragment for adding this, sign in to your Flickr account, go to the site map, and follow the link for "add a Flickr badge to your website". After a bit of configuring (number of photos, layout style, etc.), you will be presented with the code that you can copy and paste elsewhere.

http://www.digg.com/design/How_to_Have_Flickr_Badge_Link_Open_in_New_Window

When a visitor to your website clicks on your Flickr badge, he/she will be taken to the displayed photo on the Flickr page itself. However, one downside of this is that the Flickr page will be loaded in the same window, which may not be what you desire. (I am not too sure about this, but if your website contains frames, the link may actually open in its enclosing frame, and that would not be ideal.)

As the code fragment for displaying the Flickr badge is solely Javascript, there is no HTML anchor element for you to add a target attribute to. Hence, to have the link open in a new window, a bit of a Javascript hack is needed.

The following is the code fragment for displaying the Flickr badge. Yours may differ according to the selections you made when generating it (and obviously, your user ID would be different from mine).

<script
    src='http://www.flickr.com/badge_code_v2.gne?count=1
        &display=random&size=t&layout=x
        &source=user&user=97681386%40N00'
    type='text/javascript'>
</script>

Just below that, add the following:

<script type='text/javascript'>
    var flickrBadgeImage1Div
        = document.getElementById('flickr_badge_image1');
    var a = flickrBadgeImage1Div.firstChild;
    a.setAttribute('target', '_new');
</script>

Basically, this additional Javascript code fragment looks for the correct anchor element, and adds the target attribute to it. How do you know that the div element that encloses the anchor element has an id of flickr_badge_image1? Simply open your website in Firefox, use of the DOM Inspector, and work your way down to the DOM element that contains the Flickr badge.