Podcast Update

• Nathan Torkington and Tim O'Reilly talked about Trends in the Open Source Marketplace. And, in the process provide lots of good fodder for the rest of us. As a result, I will be checking out GreaseMonkey. They did ask an interesting concept about the impact of software as a service on the open source movement. If you are not actually loading or even seeing the source.... Good presentation.
• David Rumsey, President, Cartography Associates, talked the Past and Future of Mapping. If you are into maps or history, this is an excellent presentation. It would be greatly enhanced by access to the pictures, charts, and maps he referenced during the presentation. I thought the most interesting bits were those about the differences in the maps from different periods of history and from different perspectives. David points out how the biases and such of the chartographer are evident in his charts.
• Asa Dotzler talks about why or should Linux find its way to the desktop. Asa builds the case that if Linux is to take significant desktops from Microsoft the time is nigh (before Vista). However, he notes the importance of ensuring a good experience for the user to enable this to occur. Things like making things simple, not moving buttons or changing fast keys from the settings which most users are acquainted. He further says that we should reduce the choices users have to install and use an operating system. Good and interesting presentation.
• Bob Wyman, PubSub, talks Denise Howell about syndication, RSS and copyright. He builds the case that the law is not a far behind technology as many would have us believe. He goes on to talk about some of the practices (good and bad) that are visible today that are taking advantage of opportunities to respect and use the content of others and those that are violating copyright. A very interesting presentation that I would highly recommend.