PBS | I, Cringely . NerdTV

I can't tell you how excited I am about Cringely's Nerd TV comming soon to bittorrent near you. I just hope the mac version of FireANT will have Bittorrent integration by Sept 6th. It's the beautiful progression of "getting it", and public broadcasters like like PBS, NPR, CBC, and BBC are a very important step in that process. it was partly the proliferation of podcasting shows like NPR's On the Media and the tremendous amount of BBC material that really bolstered podcasting through the middle ground to make it the success it is today. 2005 will really be looked back on as the year democratized media exploded. And exploded it has. Audio podcasting is now an undeniable force in media, and video blogging is hot on its heals with the announcement last week from PBS about Nerd TV.

Perhaps it's time to hit up everyone's favorite ficticious video blogging rabit. it's about time he start supporting RSS w/ enclosures. The content is certainly there, flash games, mp3's, videos, and the latest weekly builds for FireANT for Mac is now supporting Flash superbly, and in large format 640x480 too! Everything is falling into place. :)

Read more: PBS | I, Cringely . NerdTV

What's changed since 2002 is a dramatic expansion of broadband Internet access and a dramatic lowering of both bandwidth and distribution costs. I make a distinction between bandwidth and distribution expenses because there are technologies like Bit Torrent that can take much of the expense out of video distribution by removing some of the bandwidth demand. I say SOME of the bandwidth demand because Bit Torrent is a fickle lover and if I throw a couple hundred episodes of NerdTV up there, only the most recent are likely to be broadly seeded, meaning the archive distribution costs fall back on me.

Yes, me.

Even with 355 megabits-per-second of Internet bandwidth, PBS can't take a risk of derailing the NewsHour or crippling PBSKids if NerdTV happens to be a surprise hit, so the real heavy lifting for NerdTV will be done through a network of distributed servers I've created as a kind of "poor man's Akamai." My distribution cost using this system, by the way, works out to be approximately ONE PERCENT of Akamai's retail price, which shows how much profit there is in that business, or should be.

Full article: PBS | I, Cringely . July 7, 2005 - Pod Person

Good Commentary: The Long Tail: NerdTV

A couple random quotes...

"[A] new fact has now become painfully clear to me: you don't say you have the Ph.D unless you REALLY have the Ph.D." ... Cringley upon being exposed for having falsely claimed a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."

More Info about Cringley: Robert X. Cringely - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia