Earlier today, I wandered over to Noonan’s Bar and Grill, about two miles from my home here in Marin County, California. The reason: to join the great Leo Laporte and the other folks who bring you This Week in Tech, without a doubt *the* most popular tech podcast, if not the most popular in all categories. Leo is a true pro in every way, and one of the nicest and most sincere guys you’ll ever meet. Since Leo has decided to do his show every week from Noonan’s, I think I’ll make a point of heading over there on Sundays at 4pm whenever I can, even if it’s just to heckle John C. Dvorak who unfortunately couldn’t make it for today’s show.

Update: The video is now avaialble as a .mov file. ButTorrent download only. Sorry that the audio mix is poor. The levels between the speakers vary greatly.

We’ve changed the content-delivery architecture for IT Conversations, and one unpleasant side effect is that the URLs for our audio files have changed. (Hey — we warned you not to link directly to the MP3s!) Unfortunately, this also means that you may receive duplicate files if you’re subscribing to our RSS feeds. It’s a one-time problem, and you won’t be receiving duplicates on an on-going basis, however. Only the most-recent 20 URLs exist in both the old and new forms in the feeds.

Pop!Tech 2004 was arguably the most-popular event ever published on IT Conversations, and this year’s event looks even better. But if you can’t make it to Camden, Maine, October 19-22 — the event is nearly sold out — have we got a deal for you:

Through the extraordinary cooperation of the folks at Pop!Tech and Limelight Networks, we’ll be broadcasting a free live audio stream of the entire event. That’s right, I’ll be geting up at 5am Pacific time each day and dragging myself into Studio 2 to host the program via the remote ISDN feed from the Camden opera house.

But wait — there’s more!

During the breaks, we’ll bring you the greatest music of all types from the Podsafe Music Network, hosted by the various musical hosts of the PodShow Music Shows inlcuding the host of Accident Hash and the Manager of the Podsafe Music Network, C.C. Chapman.

Mark those dates on your calendar, and check back here (or subscribe) for details.

My most-recent book had nearly all 5-star reviews until two weeks when some Bozo rated it 1-star. How do I know he’s a Bozo and not a legitimate reviewer? Because there are many factual errors in his comments: the references to page numbers, for example.

I’ve spoken to other authors of books about web services, and they believe this is the work of one author of a competing book, and that he’s pusposely sabotaging the ratings of the other books.

Is there any solution to this problem? Is it a common one on Amazon? Should we treat Amazon reviews like those sporting events in which the system throws out the highes and lowest ratings, then averages those that are left? (Should Amazon do so themselves?)

(Hear the MP3 version with additional commentary in beautiful monophonic audio.)

News and Housekeeping

• The Benefits of Registration. If you haven’t already done so, please become a registered member of IT Conversations. Doing so will give you access to personalized features of our web site such as Personal Program Queues, SmartBrowse, and more. Just look for "Register" in the yellow menu bar on any IT Conversations web page.
• iTunes Users. Don’t forget that if you’re subscribing to our feeds using iTunes, you may be missing many of our programs! By default, iTunes only checks for new shows once each day and then downloads only one show. We’re publishing 2-3 great programs every day, so unless you go into the Settings section on the Podcast page (see the button in iTunes’ lower-right corner), you’ll be missing as much as half our programs.

New Programs This Week

Listed in increasing order of listener rating.

• Julie Hanna Farris – Scalix (rated 2.8 by IT Conversations listeners) 20 years ago at Bell South, Julie designed a distributed-computing mail system for 100,000 employees. After helping Lotus with its messaging strategy around cc:mail and Lotus Notes, as well as several startups, she founded Scalix Corp., a leading provider of Linux-based email. Learn about the new Scalix Community Edition, a free, unlimited-use version of its Scalix Enterprise Edition, and about interoperability issues between Scalix and Microsoft Exchange, and why Farris doesn’t lose sleep worrying about Microsoft.
• Jon Bostrom – Mobile Computing on the Edge (3.0) Jon Bostrom tells us how Nokia is moving mobile computing to the edge of the network. How are the different development platforms based on C++, Java and Python changing the mobile user experience? What are the different possibilities which multi-channel phones have opened up? It’s another great session from ETech 2005.
• Policy Panel Workshop at Supernova 2005 (3.1) Who owns the Internet? No one, of course. But without some knowledge of the arrangements under which packets are moved from one network to another, the foundations of the global infrastructure remain hidden and consumers have no way of knowing the commercial factors that frame the accessibility of bandwidth. This is one of many policy questions discussed in the Policy Workshop Panel from Supernova 2005.
• Devin Akin – Wireless Security (3.1) What’s new in wireless security? How mature are wireless intrusion detection systems? What are the three most important factors to consider for companies trying to secure their wireless infrastructure? In this interview with Sondra Schneider, Devin Akin answers these questions and tells us how to secure wireless networks.
• Peter van der Linden – Linux (3.3) Peter van der Linden is an author and software consultant who specializes in Linux and open source. He discusses his new book "Peter van der Linden’s Guide to Linux", written about how to use and set up a Linux based desktop or laptop computer. He also talks about the history of the Linux operating system and its future obstacles and growth opportunities as a competitive desktop and laptop operating system.
• Play by Today’s Rules or Change the Game? (3.4) In this discussion from BlogHer, women bloggers question whether they need to compete with male bloggers on the men’s terms, or if their goals and needs are fundamentally different. Charlene Li and Halley Suitt spark a debate about how women bloggers define and achieve success.
• Craig Newmark – Craig’s List and Hurricane Katrina (3.4) It may have his first name in its title, but the service founded by Craig Newmark is more the result of its community of posters and readers than it is of those who run it. Now in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that community has found ways to utilize this amazing resource to help the victims. Craig’s List is now one of the best ways for people in the Gulf Coast region to find places to stay and ways to get there. The site is also helping displaced and relocated people locate one another.
• Michael Frumin (3.5) From the Where 2.0 conference, Michael Frumin of Eyebeam talks about Fundrace.org, which mapped the amount of contributions made by people to the candidates in the presidential race. He describes how he got the idea and the media frenzy that followed when all this public data was represented in a geospatial way on Fundrace.org.
• Daniel Imhoff (3.5) On Tech Nation, Dr. Moira Gunn spoke with Daniel Imhoff, the Executive Director of Watershed Media and the author of "Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World." You’ll think twice the next time you pick up a blister pack of pills.
• David Sretavan (4.0) On Biotech Nation, Moira spoke with Dr. David Sretavan, Professor, Opthamology and Physiology and Program in Neuroscience at UCSF who returns to tell us about the knife that cuts nerve endings one-fiftieth the width of a human hair.
• Doug Kaye — That’s Me! (4.4) Here’s a twist! This week, Moira interviewed me. We talked about the history of IT Conversations and this new phenomenon of Podcasting.

The O’Reilly Pick of the Week:

This week’s IT Conversations/O’Reilly Pick of the Week is a great program from last year:

• William Gibson on Tech Nation (3.3) This week’s O’Reilly Pick of the Week is a popular interview with William Gibson by Dr. Moira Gunn from last year. Listeners know him best through his novels, including his first, Neuromancer, where Gibson coined the word "cyberspace."

In one post, Bruce Sharpe, Team ITC audio engineer extraordinaire, manages to explain what IT Conversations is all about, why he likes working on our shows, and why podcasting is working for him:

I used to be a big fan of the CBC. Now I walk past their big grey building with my MP3 player, the size of a pack of gum, plugged in and listening not to the radio but to a collection of really interesting podcasts hand-picked by me to suit my tastes and interests. I haven’t tuned in to the CBC for … months?

It works for Charssun, too.

Team ITC member Tom Parish continues his interviews with other volunteers on his Talking Portraits podcast. This time it’s one of our top website producer/editors, Arun Tanksali (MP3) in Bangalore.

Tuesday evening I’ll be sharing the stage with Dan Klass in a discussion entitled Podcasting: Media Evolution or Revolution as part of the BayCHI monthly meeting. Join us at Xerox PARC’s George E. Pake Auditorium, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, Calicornia at 7pm.

Like everyone, I’ve been reeling from the horrors of the disaster in the southeastern U.S. I go back and forth between feeling for the thousands of Americans who continue to suffer and die, and outrage at the lack and lethargy of the federal response. And like everyone I know, I wonder, “What can I do?” My wife and I have made one substantial (by our standards) donation already, and I’m sure we’ll contribute more.

We all do what we can, and partially in reaction to other ideas floating around, I thought that I and others could put together something online — something done in audio. One idea was a podathon: a live audio stream with call-in and feeds from other podcasters. I’ve got the facilities here in Studio 2, so I queried a few friends and associates to get some feedback.

But after 48 hours of consideration, I’ve decided it’s not such a good idea after all. Yes, it might make me feel better for doing something in this situation, but would it really help those in need? I think not. If anything, it might divert attention from activities that are more likely to benefit them. For example, Webcasters.org has a page of links to the audio streams of Gulf Coast broadcasters, many of whom are offering direct informational services to those in the area. I’d like to encourage everyone to support the broadcasters and emergency-response organizations that can really make a difference.

Update: Kevin Devin has posted a Call to Volunteers on his blog:

According to SANS – Internet Storm Center, the Red Cross has put out a call for volunteers for SysAdmins, Network Engineers, and InfoSec Specialists.