The podcast with no name, part 1

by Suw on January 23, 2007

Stephanie Booth and I decided ages ago to do a podcast, just to talk about this, that and the other. It's taken us a while to get our act together, but eventually, last week, we turned on Skype and Call Recorder and we just, well, had a chat.
This is roughly what we talked about:

  • San Francisco, web geek paradise
  • City sizes (see this London-SF superimposition map)
  • Segways
  • The cat/geek Venn diagram (Twitter error message)
  • I really want a Wii
  • IRC screen names
  • The difficulties of pronouncing S-u-w
  • When geeks name children: A unique identifier or anonymity?
  • Stalkers and geoinformation
  • Perceptions of security
  • Giving out your phone number and address, and personal boundaries
  • Airport security (background)
  • Risk and expectations of risk
  • Naming our podcast… something about blondes, apparently
  • Clueless marketeering from the Fabric nightclub in London
  • The repercussions of having a blog that people think is influential (even if you don't think it is)

Download the 16mb MP3. Read Steph's blog post about it.
So there we are. Not the slickest podcast around, but then, I don't like slick. What's the point of making a podcast sound like a radio show? We might look for some sort of intro/outro music but I've no interest in trying to be too polished.
We'll probably do a podcast every fortnight or so. What we'll talk about I don't know – I rather like keeping it flexible, so we can talk about whatever comes to mind without thinking 'Oh, that's not on-topic!'. Whether I'll continue to post them here, or on Strange Attractor also remains to be seen. I currently can't post anything to Corante anyway, because they are having significant problems with their installation of Movable Type (which should be renamed Immovable Shite, frankly. Six Apart should be ashamed of themselves.).
Anyway, enjoy! And let us know what you think.

Anonymous January 24, 2007 at 7:23 pm

Nice podcast actually – so many I have been listening to lately see to have become been boring and I think the freshness here is the way the two of you bounce off each other, that it's a conversation, (“chatty”) and that you cover a range of issues.
I don't agree with everything you say – especially about risk. I think in places you are talking about people's perception of risk rather than the way in which risk is identified and managed.

Anonymous January 25, 2007 at 7:51 pm

How about “quadralingual intercourse”
I once went to a talk about risk prior to my youngest going to a school trip to Dartmouth at an outward bound sort of place.(She loved it) The speaker described walking along a narrow plank a few inches off the ground, easy to slip and sprain your ankle. He compared that to a rope walk between trees with safety harnesses etc. Which is safer/?Which is perceived as more dangerous.?I haven't explained it well but I expect you'll get the jist.
As for medical stuff, I could go on for hours. Nowadays people do not expect to have any symptoms or minor inconveniences, they must have immediate access to medical advice (which they'll probably argue with anyway). Never wait and see, let nature do her stuff.
My friend had a rule of thumb with her four kids, something along the lines of asking herself this question:-
If one of my children was ill and it was pouring with rain and the nearest 'phone box(oops giving our age away here- phonebox??) was a mile away ,would I walk there to call a Dr out?
It's all too easy now, it's “my right” bla bla bla you must DEMAND that your Doctor sees you etc etc. The number of times people say “if I can't have a appointment this morning I'll go to A & E (ok, please do , enjoy the 4 hour wait) even if they are offered an appointment that afternoon.
“I ,want an emergency appointment for little Johnny”
“Ok , please bring him along at 11.30”
“I can't , he's at school”
or “I can't I've got a hair appointment” mmm define emergency….
oh dear i seem to have waffled on as usual! Maybe I'll try a podcast and bore the pants off anyone who happens to listen!

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