nil desperandum

To kick start my reading of blogs I've started listening to podcasts again.

I used to listen to ColdFusion Podcast and Weekly, but unfortunately they are now deceased, so I had a bit of a search and asked around on Twitter. Here's the podcasts I'm now listening to and a few thoughts.

Before I say anything about any of the podcasts, I should say I am enjoying all of the podcasts, but they all suffer from one or more people being a little quiet.  I listen on my HTC Magic using aCast on the metro to work. Often I have the headset and handset volumes up to full volume and my fingers on my ears to be able to hear everything that is being said (noisy bloody metro). I suspect the problem is number of microphones and their position.

Ok.  So lets just list the podcasts and their authors:

• CFConversation - Brian Meloche and guests
• CFhour() - Dave Ferguson and Micheal Sean Becker
• RIAPodcast - Doug Knudson and John Mason
• TWiCF - Brian Carr, Micky Dionisio and Mike Chandler

And now for a few remarks.

CFConversation is the oldest of the podcasts. Brian always has interesting guests, topics and discussions. It can be a bit technical and sometimes prone to wandering off topic, but excellent guests everytime.

CFHour() is the most lighthearted and personal of the podcasts. There's always something that Doug comes out with that makes me chuckle.My favourite remarks to date are his highly inappropriate, but extremely funny about Michael's wife and the 2am decorating. Of course, the guys do also have some great animated discusions on ColdFusion and web development.

RIAPodcast, only up to episode 6, was the new boy on the block.  Until the last couple, as with all new podcasts, it was a little dry.  Adobe's Josh Adams has been involved in the last couple of discussions, while still very technical (not a bad thing),  RIAPodcast seem to be steadily becoming more relaxed.

This Week in ColdFusion - I was just adding Paul Kukiel's blog to my Google Reader and spotted his most recent post on TWiCF.  It's so new I haven't listened to it yet.  I have to say, while I understand why they're talking about their own product (a safe start), it does feel a little nepotistic and icky, especially as CFHour() only just did a show on Quicksilver.  The only other thing to say at the minute is that the other podcasts put out shows in the region of 1 hour in ~24mb.  TWiCF is a 54MB file.  I'm sure practice will get this file size down.

I am listening to another podcast. Its not a ColdFusion, but a general web development podcast, Boag World. Based out of Leeds in Yorkshire the guys put a good show with some interesting topics and interviews, most recently Opera's Molly Holzschlag on Web Standards. Definitely worth a listen.

I big thank you to all involved in all the podcasts above for the broadcasts they create and the great information they provide on ColdFusion and related technologies.

I hope you've found this information useful and the broadcasters aren't  too offended by my comments. ;)