Phil Windley realized that podcasting “is likely the largest application of the occasionally connected computing model.” He and Curt Allen considered the potential impact in developing nations and remote education.

I’ve been thinking more about the hybrid MP3-player and mobile-phone devices I’m sure we’re about to see on the market. Mobile streaming is a real pain in the ass, particularly over current cellular connections. If there’s a glitch in the connection, you may have to start streaming from the beginning. And what happens when a call arrives just as you’re near the end of a one-hour podcast. Ouch!

But if you podcast (download) to a mobile device, you can just pause the playback and pick it up later. As Phil pointed out, streaming isn’t occasionally connected.

Day 2 of the Mill Valley Film Festival: The Beautiful Washing Machine was, I’m told, the first feature-length film from Malaysia, made in 1998. It’s a slow-paced intentionally surreal picture slightly reminiscent of a David Lynch movie. There’s not quite as much going on as in a Lynch film, however. (That’s right; it’s even slower.) There’s a sense of circular or asynchronous time, plot and character relationships. From the four of us who saw it together, it received three thumbs down and one thumb up (mine), but even then only marginally. I was in the mood for something like this. Tim was bored and Carrie fell asleep.

What have you started, Steve Gillmor? Okay, I’ll go back to the old theme music for The Gillmor Gang. To explain, the original music was by an L.A. band named Tanj. My son is the bass player in addition to his other gigs. I switched to One at a Time by Burnshee Thornside, a Magnatune band because the quality of the Tanj track, Kielbossa, wasn’t very good. Lots of hiss and noise.

Steve said people complained to him about the new music at the Web 2.0 conference, and tonight I got email from a listener who agreed. Alright…I’ll switch back. My son will be both flattered that you like his music and pissed at me for switching in the first place. What kind of a father am I anyway?

Phil offers us a preview of his November column for Utah’s Connect Magazine in which he explains podcasting to the masses.

Last night was opening night at the Mill Valley Film Festival. We’ve cut back this year, with tickets for only 15 films over 11 days. Our choice for the opener was Finding Neverland, directed by Marc Forster, the same guy who did Monster’s Ball. The two films couldn’t be more different, both terrific.

Johnny Depp is superb as British playwright J.M. Barrie, the author of the original Peter Pan, and anyone who knows that story will love this film. It’s a mix of drama, comedy and fantasy with the latter sprinkled lightly into the movie in ways that you gasp. The fantasy disappears as quickly as it appears and the film barely skips a beat.

During his talk after the screening, Forster said that Mirimax gave him the film and even control over the cut because of his success with Monster’s Ball, and except for a slightly awkward ending, the cut is very good.

This film should receive high critical acclaim, and hopefully audiences will take to it as well. Two thumbs up.

The Gnomedex Geeks-Gone-Wild crowd loved this rare and brilliant presentation by Steve Wozniak, a true geek’s geek. His playing started with games and pranks, crystal-set radios, reading Popular Electronics. Then he met Captain Crunch and got into telco-busting Blue Boxes.

Woz wanted to be an HP engineer forever and never thought he’d start a company, but his friend, Steve Jobs, said, “Let’s sell it!” at every opportunity. Good thing he did, and good thing HP turned down Woz’s offer for the rights to build what would become Apple’s first computer. You’ll enjoy this — one of the best from Gnomedex 4.0.

I’m looking for more photos of panels and presenters at Gnomedex 4.0 to compliment the audio archives. If you have photos online or know of someone who does, please send me a URL. Thanks. doug@itconversations.com

An open letter to MP3-player and mobile-phone manufacturers:

Your devices are no longer just for music. We’re using them to listen to longer spoken-word content such as audiobooks and talk-radio programs. Because we can’t always listen to these longer recordings all the way through to the end in one sitting, we need the ability to “bookmark” locations in each file. The iPod supports this, but only for files encoded in an Apple-proprietary format, not MP3s. And most other devices don’t support bookmarks at all.

This should be a function of the player device. It should have nothing to do with file formats, etc.

The availability of a bookmark feature will soon become an important buying-decision criterion.

The Podcasting Community

Some photos of the IT Conversations broadcast table at Gnomedex 4.0:

Alex Williams and me

Me, Robert Scoble, Alex Williams and Woz

Will Wheaton, Alex Williams, Chris Pirillo and me

And yes, I rarely got out of that chair.

I’ve had many inquiries about the schedule for publication of the audio from Gnomedex. Here’s the release plan for the next two weeks. Wish it could be faster, but I’ve got a lot of work in the queue. Oh, and the Mill Valley Film Festival begins Thursday and I’ve got tickets to see 18 films in 11 days.

10/05 Transforming Healthcare Through IT (Scott Mace)**
10/06 David Orfao on Memory Lane (Halley Suitt)**
10/07 Steve Wozniak*
10/08 The Gillmor Gang**
10/10 Security Panel
10/11 Blogging Panel
10/12 Wil Wheaton*
10/13 Digital Lifestyle Panel
10/14 Online Content Panel
10/15 The Gillmor Gang**
10/17 Online Advertising Panel

* = my favorites from Gnomedex
** = non-Gnomedex shows