7/31/06: Podcast Listening Update

Firefox 1.5.0.5 Crashed 3 Times (and counting)!! So, I am trying this again. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh....

• David Helvarg and Jim Toomey talked with Dr. Moira Gunn on Tech Nation about thier book 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. You may recognize Jim Toomey as the creator of Sherman's Lagoon. This discussion was informative and entertaining. I bet the book is too. I recommend this one highly. Recycle. Use less plastic. If you use plastic, know where it goes when you are done.
• Dr. Katrina Firlik, Author of Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, talked to Dr. Moira Gunn on Tech Nation. Dr. Firlik is a neurosurgeon. She talked about the texture of the brain and the kind of things she gets involved in as a surgeon. The most interesting story was about a construction working with a nail in his skull. Good listening.
• Jason Matusow, Director of Shared Source at Microsoft Corporation, talked about Sharing the Love (sharing source and open source). Jason's viewpoint was very interesting and he seemed very much on top of his subject. He talked at length at the properties of successful shared source projects both internal and external. Very insightful and a very good presentation.
• Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab, talked about the Participation Revolution. It seemed to me that the majority of this presentation was about the $100 laptop. I have heard several naysayers in some of these podcasts. But, clearly Nicholas believes the effort will go forward and that it will bring value. It would be interesting to find the time to line up these naysaying podcasts and the non-naysaying podcats and listen to them more like a traditional pro-con list.
• Paul Everitt, Zope Europe Association, talked about the Lisbon Agenda and Open Source. This informative presentation made several interesting points. Most noteworthy was the assertion that much open source starts in Europe and is adopted by the US (as in the US takes it over). He also pointed out that one of open source's heroes, Linus Torvald, now lives in the US.
• Robert Beardsley, President and CEO of Kereos, talked with Dr. Moira Gunn on Tech Nation. The subjects focused on biological research including nano-tech and stem cells. Robert noted that many of the big diseases of the day will be treatable or curable in the not so distant future. However, it will be years.
• Spencer Wells, Population Geneticist and a member of The New Explorers, talked about how we can trace human migrations via DNA. Very interesting indeed. He credited a lower sea level and migration from Africa, through India, to Austrailia for the Austrailian's aboringine's appearance in Austrailia. He also noted that the DNA record demonstrates that human males tend to recreate via obtaining alpha male status and then hogging the females. TMI, perhaps.
• Mark Cuban, Michael Powell, Evan Williams, and Reed Hastings participated in a panel discussion about The Future of Entertainment. This was a spirited and informative discussion and predated the video iPod as was obvious by some of the discussion. If you are interested in how entertainment and content will be managed in the future, give this one a listen.