Java Thinking

Google Reader and Listen I've been using Google Listen for listening to podcasts since I got my Android phone. It worked well, I would just subscribe to podcasts via Google Reader and drop it in the 'Listen Subscriptions' folder. But now with Google announcing the end of Reader , and Listen has long been abandoned , I'm looking for a suitable alternative. I really liked how I simply had to subscribe to a feed online - if I have to subscribe to things via an app, I'm stuck if I ever want to switch apps. Maybe I'll try Pocket Casts . LinkedIn Groups I've noticed that when contributing to LinkedIn groups, its not immediately obvious to others from your profile. Recent comments might show up in your activity stream but they'll soon disappear. If you view your profile, you'll see a Groups section that shows the groups you have joined. Click on one of those and you'll be taken to the Group page and at the top there will an area where you can st...

Since I got my Android phone, I've been using Google Listen to listen to podcasts. I really liked this solution since adding another podcast to my collection was as simple as adding it to my 'Listen subscriptions' folder in Google Reader. All from within my browser, all at the click of a button. Awesome. Listen may not have been the best podcast player - it didn't let you speed the playback up and didn't have a sleep timer. But it was simple and worked. Pity it was discontinued last year. Now Reader is on its way out I've had to find a new solution to consume my podcasts. And I've found it in Pocket Casts . This does allow you to speed up playback and set a sleep timer - something particularly useful since I've found podcasts distract me so much I can fall asleep very quickly. I've imported my Reader OMPL file by doing the following: Read how to export Google Reader feeds here http://lifehacker.com/5990456/google-reader-is-getting-...

I'm getting closer to a podcatching solution with gpodder . Gpodder is a simple and easy to use podcatcher - and importantly, it can be invoked from the command line in a non-interactive mode. This is important because of my internet plan - I get twice as much download quota on off-peak times as I do on on-peak. So, I can shedule a cron job to fire gpodder up at 1am and download the latest podcasts. Great, because I'm not going to consume precious on-peak bandwidth. Now that I've got the latest podcasts handy, I can listen to them on my media center using Amarok . This isn't the only option, but it works for me because the interface lets me 'group by album' - which is conveniently groups most podcasts - and display those added today/1 week/1 month/... Amarok also lets me configure Xine to output to SPDIF - important, because my media center is only connected via SPDIF to my surround sound receiver. Without this option, I wouldn't be able to hear anything. A...

I've just been playing with RhythmBox for the first time, and am very pleasantly surprised. This application so far takes care of my music and podcast requirements, and also supports the iTunes links you see on so many sites. You can either copy the iTunes link and add it manually, or in FireFox, clicking on the link pops up a dialog asking what application should be used - specifying /usr/bin/rhythmbox achieves the desired result, and the podcast is added just like that. Rhythmbox also supports my wifes ipod, which is great for managing that. Although I don't use internet radio, I'd like to and it takes care of that too. I've still got more to play with, but so far I'm happy and will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. (Ubuntu 8.04Beta, Linux Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop, 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux)