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Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute?
confusus writes "Trapped in the daily routine of commuting for 1-2 hours every day, I started to ponder different ways of recycling commute-time waste. I tried listening to the radio, but 9.9/10, it ends up being just 'duh-whatever.' Then, I tried listening to audio books: it is really hard to find audio books that are tailored toward nerds. Thus I decided to find audio of interesting/geeky/nerdy/sciency interviews, talks, lectures. What would be the websites which provide such content?" I'd really like to find more informative downloadable audio content, too. Perhaps informed commentary and self-guided tours of historical and other sites, like national parks and significant buildings in the U.S. and elsewhere, basically self-guided audio walking (or driving) tours. Can anyone recommend a source?
Here's a good source of podcasts
If you look around, you'll find plenty of what interests you available as a podcast. Should you not find what you're looking for, with any luck we'll see YOUR podcast up there soon too.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
Then relive the glory on your way to work
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
http://www.lineinterference.com/
Don't save Windows XP! http://www.petitiononline.com/jjw1xp/petition.html
There are lots of informative and geeky lectures available at:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html
http://tf2.digitaljedi.com
Perhaps Web Talk Radio might be a good answer? I'm biased 'cause I did a segment with them, tho.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
I found that getting the audio files of the Wall Street Journal and listening to them on the way to work was a very good way to keep abreast of the latest developments in the world. Sure it is dry and not nerdy, but if you work in corporate America it pays to be informed.
Check out the offerings distributed by Public Radio International. The archives of many of their shows are available to listen to for free. Specifically, check out This American Life , To the Best of Our Knowledge , and Sound & Spirit . If you're able to record these shows from the archives (using some sort of scheduled stream-ripper like iRecordMusic or WireTap Pro), or purchase them (through Audible or ITMS), they can make an hour-long commute feel like mere minutes.
And for your Monday morning commute, make sure you've got the latest installment of Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! , the NPR news quiz.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
http://www.itconversations.com/
LUG Radio
You may want to start with the Internet Public Library or your public library. (In this case, that's my local public library.)
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
Here are links to streaming radio shows, many of which you can download
A couple Christmases ago, I gave my brother the audio version of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I think it's around six hours long. At the time, he had a four hour daily commute, so he breezed through it pretty quickly, but he seemed to enjoy it. Amazon has it for under twenty bucks. Might be worth a shot.
http://mobile.wsj.com/mp3/
Seriously... I see way too many people that are doing who-knows-what behind the wheel, with visible evidence of the impact it has on the amount of attention they're paying to traffic. Weaving all over a lane, tailgating, running traffic lights, etcetera.
I want my in-car entertainment to be duh-whatever. If it's something that makes you think, then it's reducing the bandwidth you have to be putting towards the road.
Less is more.
BBC Radio 4 is pretty much my staple diet of commute audio. Most days it's the Today Programme, intelligent, topical, and responsible for breaking a lot of big stories, such as the David Kelly Iraq WMD story.
The last edition is always posted online at the above address as a 'Listen Again' stream - worth checking out.
CBC has a number of interesting shows. I particularly like "Ideas", which you can get on cassette or just record live from the internet. http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/
CBC also has "Quirks and Quarks" which covers interesting topics and has interesting guests, but the commentary is a bit juvenile.
I really like "As it happens" but I'm not sure how good that would be recorded - they phone people who are in the day's news.
Please stay away from audiobooks and other similar distractive stuff. All those people not killed in traffic accidents will be thankful.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
I'm sure other slashdotters can recommend a few good casts
Check out the content available from IT Conversations. Lots of geeky stuff from lots of geeky people (People like Cory Doctorow, Steve Wozniak, Bruce Schneier, etc.).
You may also want to try listening to podcasts. Check out ipodder.org to see a directory of them. There is more than enough content there to keep you occupied on a daily basis. Oh, I guess I'm also assuming you can listen to MP3 in your car...
If you commute 2 hours per day, 5 days
a week, 50 weeks a year (for a total of
two weeks "time off" for good behavior
each year), you pull in 500 hours/year
in a metal cage. If you do a decade of
work like this, that's about 208 days
in a car. Or, about the length of time
for a first-time non-violent felony
prison sentence, like robbery without a
real gun, grand theft auto (the real
thing, not the game), embezzlement,
and similar crimes. The difference
is that if you committed a real crime,
you'd at least have a chance of getting
away with it. But since you took this
crappy job, you're being sentenced to
a metal cage, without the benefit of
having potentially profitted from a crime.
Pray tell, what crime did you commit to
be sentenced to this metal cage that you
call "your commute"? Or do you not value
your freedom enough to demand or expect
something better out of life? (Don't be
ashamed if this is what you want for
yourself; the world does need cogs after all.)
What's in your local library?
As far as nerdish fare, 'Hell's Faire' works. Audiobooksforfree is a good source. Old time radio shows can be pretty good listening as well.
Put a laptop with wireless Internet access in your car, hook it to your stereo, and install some software that speaks the text of websites. Then point your browser to Slashdot commentary.
You'll be laughing so hard that you'll drive into a telephone pole, and you won't have to worry about commuting for a while.
The coolest voice ever.
IT Conversations, produced by Doug Kaye, has tons of worthwhile interviews on IT, blogging and geek-centric issues. Lots of the audio is from industry conferences.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
I downloaded MIT's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) lectures from here, and converted the audio portion to MP3 so I could play it on my iPod. Outside of that suggestion, I have the same question as you. I recently cancelled an Audible subscription because I had run out of books I was interested in hearing. The local library seems to have mostly fiction in audiobook.
The german Chaos Computer Club has an archive of lectures/talks/workshops from their anually congress .
So, you want more nerds oriented radio, hmmm...
have you tried free radio linux
you get bored after a while but you sure look geek by listening to the linux kernel source!
As a bonus, you can even get it in Ogg.
yo.
CBC does a science show called Quirks & Quarks and they have excellent archives:
m
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/archives.ht
A number of College and University websites have audio of lectures that take place on their campus.
For example, I run the Amherst Recording Council, which provides online audio of lectures and events from the Amherst College campus. We've recently had talks on biology, slavery, politics, economics, architecture, intellectual property, and history.
http://www.amherst.edu/arc/
Tales from the Afternow
Have you tried listening to older Art Bell shows? Even some of the newer ones are pretty interesting (nerd wise, or other)..
Their streamlink plan lets you download shows from past 90 days, they just started an awesome "classic show" category that has some real gems... Look out for shows from Dr. Michio Kaku (Awesome guy, genius, check out his book Hyperspace) as I find those really entertaining to the geek part of me.
The website for the show can be found Here and the streamlink info Here
Oh, and lots of stuff about UFOs, ghosts.. just time killing stuff to listen to
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
RantRadio, has many interesting "radio" shows on their talk stream, the majority of them being intelligent. Also, most of the shows keep archives of their previous shows, so you can download them and listen to them whenever.
My favourite show is Nuts and Bolts, a show dedicated to computers and technology.
Also, there is Tales from the Afternow, a cyberpunkesque audio narrative.
NPR has lots of great shows online. You can grab them with a stream ripper or similar (if you use a Mac, Audio Hijack works). In particular, I'd recommend Talk of the Nation: Science Friday and This American Life.
Back when I had a long commute (1hr +), I listened to NPR/PBS. Great program. I did use Audible.com quite a bit back then as well. Too bad they don't support Linux :-/. Had to drop them as I got rid of Windows.
---- join dshield.org Distributed Intrusion Detec
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/
This Canadian radio show has been running weekly since at least 1988, and covers a broad range of science news. I find they rarely dumb down their news, and often they will cover obscure and very interesting areas of research that you just won't hear about anywhere else in the news.
The website supports podcasting, realaudio, and you can download every weekly episode since 1988 right from their website. Pretty cool when you think about it.
This is definately superior news for the science nerd.
how about a lateral approach: is it possible for you to take public transport and read a book / work on your laptop instead? or car share and then some of the time you could read/use your laptop and some of it knock interesting ideas around with your companions?
As probably the largest producer of English language spoken word material in the world, you could try looking at the BBC material.
:-)
On a factual note there is "This Sceptred Isle" series, a 2000 year history of the British Isles that is about 44 hours to start off with. They have plenty of other stuff as well.
On a SciFi note they have HitchHickers Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who, Earth Search and a whole pile more as radio plays. As Fantasy they have the excellant Lord of the Rings dramatization, and a complete canon of Sherlock Holmes among others.
They also do a good range of comedy, though much of this does have a U.K. slant.
Outside the BBC there is a whole series of lectures by Feynman if that takes your fancy, try Amazon. If you are into Terry Pratchett, then try ISIS audio books for unabridged audio books of his Discworld novels.
Fortunately for me I live in the U.K. and I get much of this stuff piped directly into my house via digital radio straight onto my hard disk in MP2 format via the wonders of BBC7
Democracy Now! makes its entire shows available in MP3 and OGG. It's about the most informative show out there. It's liberal-libertarian and is regrettably pro-choice, but mostly deals with issues about oppressed people from around the world. Domestic issues are generally limited to libertarian issues such as privacy, analysis of the mainstream media, etc., and to liberal issues such as race relations.
Amazon.com, BN.com, etc. They have lots of "intelligent" stuff on audio CD that you could listen to. Also check around local community college book stores for stuff like that. Often college courses will have things like that as part of the course material . Good luck.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Moved 5 meters
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Moved 5 meters
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
You just got to have some priorities, know when it is time to stop paying attention and concentrate on the road ahead. There's usually plenty of dead time in the typical commute. (Unless you work odd hours).
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I usually walk home, about 40 minutes. I started off using techno but it got boring after a while. There are many books out there on the net. Download them, convert them to mp3s using one of the text-to-speech engines, and listen away using whatever geek device is suitable. Presently listening to Hemingway's "for whom the bells toll".
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/philosophyradio/lectu res.html
Can't do much better than philosophy for something to engage your mind.
Then, I tried listening to audio books: it is really hard to find audio books that are tailored toward nerds
How hard did you look?
All of Tom Clancy, Tolkien, Douglas Adams are available on tape and CD, as well as more Star Trek and Star Wars shite that you'd ever want to know about in your life.
Maybe start with Spock vs. Q
Are you into physics at all? There is a series of audio CDs of Richard Feynman's lectures. Of course, if you can get an audiobook of his Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! too.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Have you considered mass transit? You don't have to worry about driving anymore, and can read a good book, stare at the scenery, or have fun by creeping out the person sitting next to you. The ride might be longer than if you drove yourself, but I feel it's a lot better than stressing yourself out with 1-2 hours of traffic battles.
http://www.itconversations.com/
Tons of public speeches from variety of interesting tech/sci related topics.
Well, since you didn't mention any constraints, give BitTorrent + BitMe.org a go. The site's a little bogged down, but the torrents aren't.
I've found more lecture, speeches, and misc audio there than I can listen to in a lifetime (even at my usual "mplayer -speed 1.5" chipmunk speed).
Power to the Peaceful
I say check out the Feynman Lectures on cd. I only listened to the first couple, but they seemed to be worthwhile. Maybe someone who has a little better experience with them can give some more information. Defenitly high on the nerd factor though. The other thing I would recommend is language tapes. Pimsleur are the ones I have experience with and they are really good. Kind of expensive, but it's defenitly some good stuff to fill up the noodle with on your way to work.
exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis
I really do have to object to this "blogosphere" coined name for mp3/ogg downloads, people have been downloading sound files for a *very* *very* long time. Just because the blog kids found it and christened it with a corporate derived name doesn't mean it's new or depends on ipods to operate, let alone depends on any portable music player (I can listen on my desktop can't I?). It's like calling cassettes back in the say "walkgrams" because you could be all trendy and play it on a sony walkman....
While I appreciate the parent has to give the questioner the right keyword to suceed in his search (this is not an attack on the parent). I would implore other slashdot users not to use the term "podcasts" because it's just buzzword corporate hype for downloading sound files.
Queue the "oh so you mean we should say GNU/podcast?" jokes that attempt to normalise and supress the idea that politics exists in everything, even the words we use.
I personally consider Lord of the Rings to be plenty nerdish. I bought these audio CDs a while back and am very happy with them. Rob Inglis, whose British accent fits perfectly with them, does an amazing job of narrating the trilogy.
:)
It's unabridged, and contains every single word from the books (with the exception of the appendices). Consists of 46 CDs and 52 hours of audio. Combine it with The Hobbit and you've got about 64 hours of Tolkien's genius.
No, I don't work for Amazon
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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This American Life
http://www.thislife.org/
Hundreds of episodes available for free on real-audio.
But you'll want a way to stream them to a file that you can listen to later, the shows are $13 apiece, which is a bit steep if you're just looking to buy them blindly.
Are you trying to slow traffic down more than it already has to go? While you're off pondering the deep ramifications of how the latest research on String Theory is moving forward you're gonna slow down and bug the crap out of everyone around you--bring on road rage.
Meanwhile, you could be getting a good belly laugh by listening to Tom Leykus about topics that really matter--the voodoo we call dating. Or as Tom would say, ``How to teach men to get more ass for less cash.''
Someone else mentioned a Bill Bryson audiobook - I'd also recommend "In a sunburned country" about his travels in Australia. It's over 10 hours on CD, and is very worthwhile. It's not *funny*, but his writing has a dry wit to it. Additionally, it's read by the author, so he knows best how to present the material.
Also, I've recently gone through "When Genius Fails" - again, a long one at 9.5 hours. Purchased from audible.com for $9.95 (first purchase discount). Great look at the fall of a big hedge fund in the '90s. (Financial nerds would like this one!)
As others have pointed out, podcasting is probably going to be a good source of large amounts of content - for long commutes that's what you'll need. However, I'm not sure there's always enough compelling content out there yet. I take that back - there's probably enough compelling content out there for your commute, but finding it and having it be relatively consistent will be difficult.
BBC and CBC might be worth checking out to see what programs they have you can grab and burn (maybe none, but I seem to remember some BBC radio shows being available some time ago).
Good luck! If you find some good stuff, post it back here!
creation science book
National Public Radio is awesome: Smart, diverse, interesting. They could use your financial help, too.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
The Fifth HOPE conference had some great lectures. Here's a link.
If there are radio shows you like but the time slot is not convenient, record it to mp3 and listen whenever.
This is what I did and I describe how to do it here
Living in the DC area I decided to try the metro way. Three weeks later I figured that the $20/week for a hour commute on bus and train versus $10/week for a 20 minute straight drive just wasn't worth it.
I'm about to move from the 20 minute drive to a hour drive. Perhaps then the train will be a decent alternative.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
IT Conversations ;)
Talking History
These two have kept my train ride going for a while
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
NPR.org makes _tons_ of audio content available online.
From Grand Master Flash to Donald Knuth...
Why stick up for big business?
Yea, you could use mplayer or streamripper to download various BBC shows. I really enjoy their science programming, just go to the http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 and click on science. They often have various specials (right now, they have a special on Freud) and regular programming where scientists discuss their research. Like NPR's Science Friday without the annoying people calling in.
Not really "Audio for nerds" but still damn funny. This website here has good quality downloads of all the latest shows. Loveline Shows
If you don't listen yet, download some random shows, you'll be an instant fan. The show has a great combination of humor and insight into things you wouldn't expect, government, the death penalty, religion. It also has quite the sub-culture built around it, plenty of inside jokes and cliches to enjoy.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
It is a perfect setting - lots of free time, a CD player, and nobody else around. (You feel pretty stupid repeating words over and over again in a foreign language if you are around other people). All of the Pimsleur lessons are 30 minutes each.
Way better than I'd imagined, I'm hooked. Recent excellent geeky interviews include Jeff Waugh (of GNOME and Ubuntu) and Mark Shuttleworth (founder and funder of Ubuntu.)
lugradio.org
urgh.. your public transportation is ridiculously expensive.
Software should be free as in speech, but if we also get some free beer, all the better.
I've seen people read while they drive.
They scare me.
There's no quality control, but audio.weblogs.com is a comprehensive list of the newest podcasts (audio available for download) as they become available. Take a gander and you can find some cool stuff in there.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Have you ever tried car-pooling? Having an actual person to talk and listen to can be much better than any radio station you can even dream up. That is, if you find a compatible person to carpool with. Plus, it's good for then environment.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Well that might be a great idea in Finland, but in a country where it's almost impossible to get a seat on public transport.. uh, no. Public transportation is hideous. I'd rather sit in two hours of traffic than spend an hour standing with my face crushed into someone's armpit. :-D (Used to do it though!)
Perhaps. But then you already know you can read a book while commuting.
okay, maybe it is because I'm a Microsoft shill, but DotNet Rocks is a very entertaining show by a Microsoft Trainer and he has some pretty good guests on there (and some decent music too).
http://www.dotnetrocks.com/
Their spin-off Mondays is more of a non-programmer but still geeky type of off-the-wall content.
http://mondays.pwop.com/
Since they have all their shows archived and they podcast, it is easy to d/l a bunch of content for your morning commute.
Also, Canadian Broadcasting is good if you can get it. You'll recognize a few programs as "oh, *that's* what PBS was ripping off when they did this program...".
Back when I was doing an occasional 1.5-hour-each-way commute from NJ to Long Island, I found it was just about right to listen to a bit of traffic radio plus tapes of the Grateful Dead Hour. These days I usually work from home, with an occasional 1-hour commute into San Francisco by train, but since I don't have to drive I can use my laptop.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Two things:
Random plug http://rantmedia.ca/ has some extremely interesting audio (particularly Tales from the Afternow).
The other thing is something I have heard of, but yet to replicate. If you can find yourself a good piece of text to voice software which can generate the whole file in one run (i.e. faster than real time) and save it to mp3's, you can listen to ebooks (http://projectgutenburg.com/ much?) and such. I am still looking for a piece of software that will do that on linux, but I have heard there are several that will run on windows. Something to look into.
Motorcycle shop. Cut your commute time in half and enjoy yourself at the same time.
Or buy a bunch of language lessons on CD, rip them to MP3 and learn a new language as you drive.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Podcasting is made up of two parts. Part one is the show itself. This show is recorded in MP3 format and then posted on a site. This site then has an RSS feed that points to the MP3 file and has details about the current show. The second part is the client app. Some of the current apps are ipodder, ipodderX, doppler, jpodder, etc.
The client users makes the app subscribe to the RSS feed. The client app then checks the subscribed feeds on a regular basis and then if the RSS changes it will automatically download the new show. The client user can then setup the app to create a playlist and then import it into iTunes or onto your iPod (or any MP3 player).
Because the show is just an MP3 you don't have to get the client, you can just download the MP3 from the podcast site and listen to it or burn it if you want to.
Since this post does seem like a opp to pimp podcasting, I have to pimp mine...
http://www.fakescience.com/labreport.htm
The Lab Report covers the new digital music industry and highlights new underground and unsigned music. This week we have Rick Carr, formely of NPR, and he is talking about his new show TechnoPop and also about Sandy Pearlman's $0.05 song economy. Check it out!
-halon-
If you are into space related science you may wish to listen to MP3s of the SETI Radio Network broadcasts. The topics are generally much broader than just SETI and the interviews with scientists and researchers are actually pretty good. They only produce an hour a week, but it will at least cover one of your commutes to work.
and have found myself buying these: www.teach12.com I am listening to the ancient Egyptian stuff now. Very entertaining and interesting. Also liked the classical mythology & symphony lectures.
It's going to sound lame, but you can get some reasonably good audio from 2600.
2600
Or Sun has their Java evangelists create real audio lectures.
Also, I purchased Verbal Advantage
Verbal Advantage
When going through DC I listen to C-SPAN Radio, or whenever available.
C-SPAN Radio
When available, I listen to NPR.
NPR
If it's the wee hours, I listen to Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM
I also like Neil Boortz.
I also purchased "Word Smart" and "Grammar Smart" on Amazon.com, which are published by the Princeton Review.
The Pimsleur language tapes are great for commutes.. sure you get stared at for talking to yourself... but they are really awsome.
I always thought German was too much for me, but I did make it through 60 lessons before other things came into my life
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
Listen to off the hook, they have archives and hourly long episodes of many years, should keep you entertained for awhile. http://www.2600.com/offthehook/archive_ra.html
- Lord of the Rings (the unabridged Rob Inglis reading, 49.5 hours)
- The Hobbit (unabridged Rob Inglis again, 11 hours)
- The Entire Harry Potter series (read by Jim Dale, works REALLY well in audio format, 8.5 hours up to 26.5 hours)
- Foundation (didn't realize how conversation oriented these books were until I heard them)
- Ender's Game (pretty clear that OSC is a playwright)
The following are worth listening to at least once:- Dumas (The Three Muskateers, Count of Monte Cristo)
- LeGuin (The Earth Sea Trilogy)
I got a one year membership at a "Books on Tape" rental store, currently I'm going through the classics. The old heroic novels (The Three Muskateers) are amazing on tape.One thing that's interesting -- I find books I've already read to be especially good; there's a whole different feel to the story when read by a good character actor.
Westerns, detective stories, science fiction, comedy, you-name-it. Back before TV existed, radio was it, and a huge amount of quality drama was made for radio broadcast.
There are many binary newsgroups where oldtime radio is posted and it won't take you many days to download enough material to keep you listening for several years.
A lot of old time radio is amazingly good.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
One can spend some minutes learning a language. I strongly recommend the Pimsleur CD's. No books, everything you need to learn is audio.
Just because something is useful does not mean it can not be fun too.
all are available on the web:
http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm
http://www.zmag.org/chomskyaudio.htm
zmag has further links to similiar audio files.
enjoy!
--- blackironprison, where ignorance is bliss....
I used to commute to San Francisco by Caltrain. It was about 45 minutes to drive, or 1:15 to take the train, but the train was a *lot* less hassle, and I could work on my laptop on the train, usually for more than half an hour. One reason the train was easier was parking - the train station parking lots had space, while parking near my office in the city was not only expensive, but often time-consuming, because I drive a van, and most San Franciso parking garages either don't allow vans or charge $20-40 extra for them, and open lots tended to become construction sites (for condos during the dot-com boom, and highway construction during the crash.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I've been listening to courses from the Teaching Company. They're college lectures on various subjects (Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition is one of the better ones).
The lecturers are top academics, and they cover a semesters worth of material, more or less.
I listen to them while I work out. Learning about the history of ancient Egypt, for example, makes 30 minutes of cardio bearable.
Here's the url:
http://www.teach12.com/teach12.asp
Try looking at the Teaching company website. My brother got me into this company a few years ago, and I can't get enough of the stuff. Basically, the company finds professors who are renouned for their teaching ability, and pays them to create a 8 - 10 lecture series on their 'bread and butter course'. The subject areas are pretty broad too, from classical literature, sci-fi, philosophy, history (there is a great series on the post 1940 history of U.S. Middle East foriegn policy), all the way to more hard sciency stuff, to business and law lectures. Anyway, the link is:
http://www.teach12.com/
Peter
The Griffin Radio Shark is like a basic Tivo for radio. So, if you can identify some radio shows you think are worth listening to, you can set this to automatically record it, so you can listen to it at your convenience.
I use the MacOS version, but I assume the Windows software is similar. I schedule the programs I want to record, and it captures them, converts them to AAC, and adds them to an iTunes playlist. So, when I next synch my iPod, it pulls all the radio shows over.
I mostly record NPR shows.. my personal favorite is "This American Life" on Saturdays. Car Talk is an amusing show, Science Friday often has interesting topics, and Fresh Air is a daily show that sometimes has excellent guests.
Richard Feynman, prominent physicist, Nobel laureate, and general renaissance man, was also a prolific and entertaining author, and many of his books are available as unabridged audio books. I find it hard to imagine that any geek would not find these interesting, insightful, and humorous (+5 on all scales, of course!)
Audible.com has them.
"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?"
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/nitf/273/
They provide a basis for our legal system, and reflect some pretty important times in our history. Plus, there are inevitably arguments for and against that I had never considered, (Can I mod justices +1 insightful?)
I highly recommend:
http://technetcast.ddj.com/
Although it hasn't been updated for a while now, they've got a large archive of talks, lectures, interviews, etc. on various computer-related topics. Featured speakers include Bill Joy, Rob Pike, Marvin Minsky, Knuth, Larry Wall, Linus, Eric Raymond, and many others.
I really wish they'd update.
Nothing particularly educational about it, but satellite radio gives you a lot of solid content and variety without having to work very hard to get it. Nothing to sync, you just turn it on and it's there.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
I already asked this sort of question, albeit I wanted something to listen to while i'm AT work.. Lots of good replies though, a lot of good conversations to get into and pass the time.
Slartibartfast:"Is that your robot?"
Marvin:"No, I'm mine."
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/programs/worldvi ew/worldview.asp
s ey /odyssey_v2.asp
I'm not certain about portability (separate slashdot posts on ripping RealAudio, and whatnot, I suppose), but if you listen to Worldview for a week or two, you'll find yourself knowing much more about current events (and some historical) than you're likely to encounter from most other broadcast outlets.
Similarly, Charlie Rose.
http://www.charlierose.com/
In some ways a broader scope that includes reaching into entertainment and such, but in depth interviews where you get to learn what these influential people are realing thinking and doing.
I see there's a link to audible.com . No idea about affordability.
I've also started liking Odyssey from WBEZ. The level of discussion can be quite deep, and I'm continually impresseed by the versatility of the host.
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/programs/odys
My drive to work is quite short (10mins) but like you I can't stand mainstream radio. I like CBC Radio2 during the week days. It has nice soothing anouncers and classical music.
On a longer drive I break out the MP3 player. With a few GB of my favorite tunes I like doing the longer (1 hour+ drives).
A couple of other ideas: Stuart Mclean from CBC is very funny and well worth listening to.
If you can find old radio plays: Jack Benny, Phil Harris and Alice Faye, The Shadow, Life of Riley and many more, you'll never be bored again. Ebay has lots of them for sale.
Traffic stationary ahead... Big grin...
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Careful, gap on the right
Filter
Filter
Oh. Indicators ahead.
Filter
Road on the right.
Filter
Traffic turbulence ahead, joining road on the left
Filter up to the lights beside front vehicles.
Lights green, empty road ahead, check for jumpers and give it some welly, front goes light. Blip to second.
Intersection on the left, car waiting to pull out, seen me? Aye, right... Go wide anyway.
Favourite bend coming up, nothing close, pull it over, peg scrapes, a bit more throttle to keep it steady, rear squirms. Mwhahahaha - Halleluyah Shellgrip!
There's *NO* dead time on my commute. The concentration required is actually quite tiring, as well as exhilarating. But then, I don't sit in a cage for several hours a day.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
A couple of summers ago I got a speech synthesizer to read some classic books onto CDs for a long car trip. The source of material was Project Gutenberg and I think the synthesizer was Festival. You get used to the synthesized voice eventually.
I also spent a year trying to learn Mandarin with a language tape. I'm not very good but the ability to speak the language even a little has occasionally been a real ice-breaker.
Audio books and "Learn in your car" are both good for commutes. The language programs are great because they are typically 20 minutes per lesson, so you can do one lesson per leg of your commute.
Capturing the stream and converting to an appropriate format for listening on your portable device is left as an exercise for the reader ;)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
It's interesting how it is with listening and driving. They seem to use totally separate and non-dependant "processing power" in the brain, or at least in my brain. I have noticed that attempting to communicate in any way (speaking to a passenger, a cell phone, whatever) is detrimental to my attention to traffic and the road, but having tunes or talk radio on does not.
I really do not see an issue with the poster's request. Having something to listen to does not, in my own experience, reduce the "bandwidth" that goes to the road.
In fact, I'll even go further: when fatigue starts to set in, having silence in the car is far worse than listening to anything that keeps your brain occupied. Nothing seems to induce sleep better than a quiet, monotonous drive.
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
BBC Radio 4 is the jewel in the crown of British (and world) speech radio.
OK, it isn't perfect, but the Today programme (and PM, its 17:00 counterpart) is excellent.
Stick Men
Live on Saturday's at 10:06 AM
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/
A slashdot poster with any pride would play a reading of their own posts and congratulatory resonses. Each one twice.
What keeps me going is my inertia.
I'm operating under the assumption that you live in the US, but it probably applies even if you don't.
NPR!
Public radio is a great source of *interesting* talk radio. None of that "duh-whatever" radio you're talking about. Not only that, but they have shows that cover just about every possible interest: cars, technology, news, music, science, space, etc. And they're all interesting.
I highly recommend giving it a listen on your local affiliate. Once you realize you can't live without them, you'll probably end up donating some money like I did. I just wish I'd known about them sooner. They excellent!
Website and magazine with searchable archive of reveiws of audiobooks. Other audiobook info as well. www.audiofilemagazine.com
Luminaries in the field of economics, Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, many other current and past professors and writers.
Even if you disagree with their conclusions, their arguments will challenge and inform rather than being merely the spouting platitudes and fallacies.
http://www.mises.org/Media/
I cannot recommend them highly enough. You'll get a better education in economics after a few lectures than you will in any public school and most colleges.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
If you can do something with .rm ... consider Engines of our Ingenuity to fill out the first (or last) minutes of a thoughtful commute.
Listen to something mindless that does not require your concentration.
http://www.theharrowgroup.com/
"Cats like plain crisps"
If you really want to improve yourself, learn something new. I also have about an hour long commute, and I'm learning a foreign language. I wish there were more subjects that worked so well in audio form.
Harry Shearer, of Spinal Tap, Simpsons, and A Mighty Wind fame has a great a hour long radio show that is part sketch comedy, part social commentary, and part eclectic music. Harry does hilarious parodies of the usual suspects, O.J., political figures, journalists, etc. He has also introduced me to a lot of great music I wouldn't have heard otherwise. Some of the show can be an aquired taste, e.g, reading from trade magazines or the L.A. real estate transactions. Do your self a favor and go through the archives and lsiten to anything about O.J. Simpson phone calls. For more info check out;
m /
http://www.kcrw.org
http://www.harryshearer.co
How about the Feynman lectures? I don't think it would be too bad just listening to them, instead of watching them, given Feynman's charisma.
Anyway, you can probably find an audiobook like this one.
Paul
My motorbike travels in Chile.
DI.FM trance channel + XMMS stream recorder plugin or some other way of recording the stream + mp3 player.
When I used to share a ride to work a few years ago, we used to listen to the original "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" radio series (on CD), and the Goon Show (a 1960s vintage BBC radio comedy show - kinda like Monty Python, but on radio). Between them, they kept us entertained for months.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
These are the two places I get most of my audio content. ITConversations provides good free talks on tech subjects, while Audible provides all the premium content I need.
Walking tours? Audible has them, including material from Soundwalk which provides walking tours of NYC.
Audible also has the Feynmann lectures, audiobook versions of the Feynmann books, general science material like "Fabric of the Cosmos," Scientific American subscriptions, etc, etc. There's also a reasonable selection of SF&F and they are growing their content quicker now that they've reached a critical mass of subscribers.
Audible will cost you about $10 per book if you subscribe. If you do subscribe, make sure you get one of their deals (free MP3 player or rebate on an iPod or other AudibleReady device). It's definitely the best way to read while commuting, working out at gym, cleaning the dishes, and other brain-free tasks.
2600 sells a DVD with all of their shows since 1988. I am about halfway through it right now and it is like a walk through time. From the Michelangelo virus to DMCA, it covers everything. At 4+ GB, it will take you a while. Plus, who can get enough of their theme song?
If their prices seem high, go to their "On Sale" section like I do.
BBC Radio 4 has a wealth of excellent radio covering everything from geeky things like history, science, medicine, to less geeky things such as comedy and the arts, and much more.
1. Look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/
2. Figure out how to get the audio saved to your hard drive (it's easier than you might think)
3. Burn CDs or download to ipod/whatever.
NPR. Of course this is predicated that you've got a good NPR station that plays something besides 17th century chamber music.
Check with your local public library. Many of them do carry audiobooks and language classes on CD and cassette. Unless you forget to return them on time, they'll be free.
...produces awesome material. I started with a course on the history of evolution, and then took another one on biological anthropology, and I have to say, it was the first time ever that I found myself desiring a longer commute!!!
http://www.teach12.com/teach12.asp?ai=16281
I highly reccoment the radio series (plural). If you can stand other passengers wondering why you're sniggering, that is.
Here's a link to the documentary archive:
c hi ve/index.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/ar
There is a web archive of about a thousand of his shows, all in mp3.
could someone please explain to me how this is a troll?
Seriously.
For the cost of ONE CD a month you can have Satellite radio. I have (and love) XM, but I'm sure Sirius has similar offerings.
:) And XM works everywhere in the lower 48 and also most of Canada.
News: XM has CNN, Fox, ABC, NPR, BBC plus others, since people like their news skewed in various directions.
Political talk: XM has separate Left-wing and Right-wing stations depending on your taste.
Entertainment: Discovery Channel, E!, MTV, and several other channels.
Its the best purchase I've made in a long time
They're not too bad, certainly better than most evening radio shows out there during rush hour traffic.
Not just IT-related, IT Conversations can be relied upon for intelligent, interesting discussions. (Particularly if you want to know how to deal with polar bears.)
Including full podcasting/RSS facilities on a personalised basis.
Not affliated, just a happy (non-fee-paying) customer.
Candygram for Mongo!
Death Metal All the Way.
but it shouldn't essentially be that way; sure, there should be radio programs that just offer background murmuring, that's a niche that needs to be filled. But by no means should they all be that way. Thankfully, radio stations in my area such as the CBC and the local campus radio (CJSR . . . now you know where I live ;) have offered enough in the way of intelligent programming that I have been able to see what radio is capable of being.
I can see that some people might never think of radio as being more than just background noise, depending on what they've been exposed to. Alot of radio, in a lot of places, especially here in North America, is really just easily-digested consumable noise. But it doesn't have to be. As someone above pointed out, Quirks and Quarks is one such good example of a thinking-person's radio program, and others do exist, even if they're drowning in a sea of meaninglessness.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
I used to commute an hour each way, Eugene/Corvallis. Oregon Public Broadcasting kept me sane. Some was book reading, some was news. I can still remember some of the foreign newspapers they got stories from. Far better than not-suitable-for-compost stuff on the other stations.
If you like to sing, and are driving, you could practice for karaoke night. Truck stops usually have a great selection of audio books on CD and cassette. But their offerings are more in the thriller/western/action genres from what I have seen.
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
I recommend downloading talk shows that feature interesting guests and conversation. Two such shows are on my local community radio station, News from Neptune and Mediageek. Episodes of both are available are available online in a variety of formats including Ogg Vorbis format (no patent restrictions, no DRM, it's just a regular file) and they licensed to share. When I get a domain name, I will add episodes of my show Digital Citizen to that list.
Digital Citizen
Radio4all.net has grass roots radio programming.
Also, try getting some podcasts.
Between the two, you should find anything you want.
www.wavefront-av.com
sometimes it can be pretty pointless, but i used to listen to off-the-hook on long drives. a good way to catch up with some of the more geeky events of the week.
There's no need to be a geek 24 hours a day. If everyone here's as hip to iTunes/BitTorrent as we claim to be, I don't see anything wrong with listening to music on your way to the ball and chain.
My digital rights don't need management.
Hmm... Is it me, or does the article sounds like a thinly disguised test marketing? Slashdot radio, anyone?
:)
(don't worry. I'll definately tune into slashdot radio. Better be free though.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
The BBC has recently been putting its annual Reith lectures online:
r eith_historic.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith/historic_audio/
The series opened in 1948 with Bertrand Rusell on "Authority and the Individual". A recent highlight for me was Onora O'Niell on a "Question of Trust".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2002/
The good news is they're free (Thanks Auntie), the bad news is they're Real.
Namgge.
http://www.eff.org/radioeff/
I remember the panels on this site to be really informative and interesting. They have failed to update it recently which is depressing but what is there is quite nice. I figure who ever was responsible for making the recordings most likely graduated or stopped being allowed to record the discussions. Disappointing.
Enjoy!
I love Science Friday and To The Best of Our Knowledge, both available from Audible for a small fee, and they definitely make the time on the exercise cycle go quickly.
Also, I really enjoy working through language learning tapes.
All-in-all, though it costs you, Audible is the source for material. They have some great subscription plans, including one for a couple of books at a time.
Yours,
Jordan
That's a no brainer. Download your topics of interest and record the dialup audio. Any real nerd knows that. Naturally, that requires learning binary -- at least the printable ascii characters. You shouldn't have any problem removing the parity bits, ACK/NAKs, and other overhead data from the audio stream by hand, or with a custom algorithm of your design. Since you're a beginner, you'll probably just want to start out at the oldschool 75bps. As you improve, you can step up to faster bitrates. Since modem speeds generally double, you might want to set the playback speed variably to give yourself more of a natural progression. Once you get up to 28.8kbps, you can listen to War and Peace in under 20 minutes. I would highly suggest you don't go beyond 33.3kbps though. One fellow tried to make it to 56k, and now he's locked away. Poor guy thinks he's a tangerine. Anytime someone opens their mouth to speak to him, he tries to flee in terror to avoid being eaten. It's even worse when he gets hungry himself. Naturally they have to keep him away from mirrors.
But I digress. Good listening to you!
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
You could do all that manually, but I would recommend getting Sirius instead. You get NPR Talk, NPR Now, PRI, BBC, etc... etc... etc... Really great unbiased intelligent talk.
For all those just returning to the program, Howard Stern was proclaimed King of All Media.
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
Then there are two excellent "audio lectures" companies that basically record college freshman-level lecture courses on CD. (One of them is called the Teaching Company, and the other, I forget.) Most of these are decent, and some are quite excellent. There are lots of titles available, and if you're like me and have an interest for almost everything academic, you won't run out of stuff.
Now, I hate to say this, but it has come to my attention that many of these recordings are available illegaly through newsgroups and some p2p sources like eMule. I leave it to your conscience what to do with this information (keeping in mind just how many immoral acts are legal and illegal acts moral). If you asked me whether I prefered motorists who enrich their minds with bootleg lectures about the Aneid, Roman history, or Feynman's excellent lectures on Relativity to motorists who adhere religiously to federal IP laws, I must say that I'd choose the former. But don't ask me. I teach ethics at a major university.
http://freeaudio.org/
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
There are some recommendations http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/9873 here
and http://www.barbelith.com/topic/13652 here.
If you read the bio of Gates by Manes, it explains that Gates had
the stereo removed from his car so he could think.
Which might be reason why he is a billionaire, and the rest of you aren't.
And I'm not joking.
Good idea. First, develop a mass transport infrastructure. I'm getting a bit tired of people who live where there is an infrastructure telling those of us who live where there aren't any busses that come within miles of our houses that we should take the bus.
I personally ride a bike when I can (about 3000 miles a year commuting). I'd have to go 8.5 miles to get to where I could take a bus the last 2 miles.
If I lived in Boston or New York, or maybe Chicago, sure, I'd take some mass transit. At least, until I could get a job somewhere else.
Bible on CD. There are versions out by James Earl Jones, Charlton Heston, and other good speakers.
The Teaching Company
makes some pretty good audio lectures on music, history, physics, etc. I am currently listening to the How to Listen to and Understand Great Music lecture series, which is more stimulating than the average intellectual might expect.I find it not hard at all to pay attention to the road even while listening to pretty involved stuff on the radio or podcast.
The thing is, that with podcasts you can pause if something is getting pretty tricky. And you never have to really be responsive to a podcast so when traffic suddendly changes it's far more easy to focus full attention on what is happening around you and ignore the audio than with something like a cell phone.
I don't think audiobooks or podcasts hurt driving skills much at all, because they are simply spewing out information and you may process it as you like. Cell-phones are dangerous because you have to focus on communicating something to someone else and that's not good while you are driving.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Could even do this with a couple of lines of perl but how about searching news/blogs/etc same time each day, do a text to speach and convert it to mp3? That would be cool, that way you could catch up on all those sites you wanted to check out but didn't have the time.
Really the only thing that is missing would be a standard or a special way of listening to web pages. The content is all over and maybe using skip to change the page would help. But definately a prospect!
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
You can be trapped in a metal cage two hours a day, or you can be ensconced in a custom listening chamber for two days. He's simply trying to make the shift.
:-)
There is a lot to what you say though, which is why I live only ten minutes away from work.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'd recommend IT Conversations. Interviews and shows with a host of people in the IT industry.
Berkeley Groks can be interesting science program. They've had some top notch guests for interview too. Their xylophone linking music is classic :)
c tion=groks
Can be got either here:
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~clgroks/
or
http://www.archive.org/audio/collection.php?colle
The audio section of the archive.org has great live music sets freely available too. There are also famous speeches available.
I remember stumbling across a free audio book site some time ago. Not sure of the quality. You might want to check it out.
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp
This is a great site, its not a wacky extreme site, but normal people, running a normal business with great topics on their weekly radio talk show.
:)
Give it a whirl, top interviews and ideas too.
Now if you want wacky, try rense.com radio news
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
... call motorcycle drivers?
Organ donnors. Check the statistics, to drive a motorbike is one of the riskiest activities you can undertake.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Air America Radio offers progressive talk radio in regressive streaming/file formats so you would need conversion utilities such as realcap ; specify the show start time via a cron job and the duration as a command line parameter. Use their contact form to ask them to support sensible streaming formats such as shoutcast/icecast/peercast instead of forcing regressive users to use regressive formats and thus support the regressive companies behind them.
How good is text to speech these days? I haven't heard anything about it since the early 90s, and even then you could often reasonably interpret mispronounced words. I'd be interested in having my computer read various books to me, as I have quite the unread collection in pdf and plaintext on my hard drive.
I run HackerMedia.net which is a one stop shop for updates on many hacking/phreaking/geek related radio and video shows. Sounds like what you're looking for.
Hacker Media
Regardless of the question, these "How do I do XYZ" articles always generate a fair amount of "Don't do that!" answers. That said... how can the parent post be insightful? He didn't ask: "Hey, do you think it's a good idea to listen to thought-provoking audio in the car?". As such, your thoughts are off-topic.
Not that they were insightful otherwise -- a lot of people can listen to something other than bubblegum pop while driving and manage to live to tale the tale. In fact, I'd argue that the increased mental alertness would be a good thing that would possibly make your driving better
Here is the NPR On the Media podcast feed.
This one requires a little prep. I do not know what software is required or even capable of doing this.
I believe a viable solution is to use text-to-speech to read back websites. Many websites offer printable versions of their articles which lack ads and a lot of the other fluff. It should then be possible to to take the text-to-speech output and encode it into an mp3.
Websites like Anandtech would be really good for this. The articles there are typically fairly long. Some sort of RSS software to convert the summaries to audio would work well too. A user can first listen to the summaries, and then select the articles that interest him/her the most.
There are plenty of foreign language CD's available. It's a nerdy thing to do. Well ok, it's not something a nerd wouldn't do since learning seems to be one of those things nerds really like to do. Besides, it's productive and it might even get you laid once in a while.
Off the Wall and Off the Hook are two excellent "geeky" audio shows freely downloadable from 2600.com.
Try this: While moderating, select Insightful, Infomative or Interesting from the pulldown for a message. Then, without clicking out of the moderation dropdown box, spin the scrollwheel on your mouse to continue reading down the page. Once you've scrolled through all the moderation selections, inadvertently selecting the highest-ordered one alphabetically, the browser starts scrolling down the page. It seems to you that the imperfect browser or mouse driver just didn't pick up on the first bit of your scroll, but it caught it eventually and you kept reading merrily along, the whole time not realizing that you've just sent a perfectly good post on its way to oblivion.
Or, it could just be someone's poor opinion of the author's comment. It's really hard to tell from my house.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
If you want some free tunes, check out http://www.internetarchive.org Bands on the site all actively support recording during their shows and posting on the web.
Doug
Move closer to where you work, or find work closer to where you live.
Anybody who chooses to spend hundreds of hours every year in their car deserves Clear Channel...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Are the original Hitch Hiker's Guide episodes available from bbc.co.uk? I haven't been able to find them there.
o n=Browse&dir=%2Fpub%2F.arch-download%2Fhhgttg&sort =type anyway, in case anyone wants them.
They're available from http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&butt
You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
you can download audiobooks on iTunes. Maybe you'll find something a little more nerd-friendly on there.
Years ago I had a boss who had an hour commute each way every day. Every evening on the way home, he would turn on the recorder, verbally rehash the day and organize for the next day. Every morning he would listen to that tape on the way in, and when he got to the office, he was very prepared for his day. If I ever had a long commute, that's what I would do. But, I've always made a point to live close enough to my work so that I could ride a bike. Now that's refreshing.
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
Fanboy Radio download the mp3s with bitpass and stick em on your ipod... Highly recommended!!!!
-- i drop mine in braille so you blind cats can read me
try something not 'tailored for nerds'!! geez...
I really like the CDs from The Teaching Company. They offer a wide range of topics that I find intersting and relaxing, which is always good for the long commute.
I've been pretty happy w/XM satellite radio.
I find that the BBC news/programming just crushes anything US-media has to offer; seems much more unbiased and, hmm... like they don't assume that their listeners are retarded.
Now that they have NPR, some of that is interesting.
A handful of more or less interesting talk channels.
Some of it is just garbage, but enough is interesting that I'm very happy with it.
When I want just music, the range is hard to beat.
It makes long distance driving much, much more tollerable.
Allow me to quote Miller from Repo Man:
...as he feeds another air freshener into the oil drum fire.
"The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
thx - sux been labelled a troll when you're just getting useful into out of the article. At least this provides a useful understanding of how it could happen.
They specialize in more high-brow titles. A lot of the best sci-fi, the ancient classics, economics, history, etc.
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/
I can strongly recommend NPR and PRI, infact I'm listening to an NPR station right now (89.3 kpcc) and just five minutes ago there was a guy on singing about brownian motion. If you can't appreciate that you don't belong on slashdot! :)
I listen to old radio shows during my commute. I find them no more dated than an old TV show or movies, though I was suprised to find their dialogue superior. I guess it makes sense since they had to convey thoughts and emotions through spoken word only. You can pick up a CD of 100 episodes compressed in MP3 on EBay, usually for about $5. because this old mono audio compresses very small, most vendors sell entire series on two to three CDs.
My favorites include Lucille Ball's 'My Favorite Husband', which was written by the same writing and production staff as I Love Lucy. The Jack Benny Show, which covers 25 years and, interestingly, serves as a history lesson to current events of the time as parodied by the show. Eve Arden's Our Miss Brooks was quite articulate, even when it goes through cliche' sitcom storylines (though I guess they weren't cliche' at that time). Type "OTR" on eBay and you'll find dozens of old programs.
Maybe I should post this as A.C., but I actually quite enjoyed "The Transformed Man".
-- YLFI
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
I like to take project guttenburg books then feed them through festival. The voice is slow and awkward, but it is still very clear, and you can listen to just about anything for free.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/a bc.net.au/rn/science/ss/
http://www.
One expensive route is going to the local book store and just getting your items on tape. you've probably gone you yor local books store and have been frustrated by either the selection or price.
I've found that my local public library has a great selection of fiction, and it's virtually free. Recently I listened to a Clive Cussler book. It's just a little geeky with some action, adventure and women thrown in. Dune audio books will get you all the way across the country. I just enjoyed Dune House Atreides (which was 6 tapes)! I had much fun with the very large selection of Star Wars audio books (not the real episodes, but all of the in-between stories). If you ever fdo buy an audio book, don't let it sit in a box somewhere. Donate it to your local library so that others can enjoy it!
A good source for digital content may be Audible.com. For example, I just noticed they have all of the books from my favorite Ender Wiggins series by Orson Scott Card. If they have all of those books on MP3, I can imagine what else they'd have. For a tech geek, try a one-year subscription to "Technology Review"! You'd download them to your PC and then transfer them to your MP3 player or iPod or whatever and broadcast to your stereo as long as the batteries last (buy rechargable batteries!).
Some (like me) haven't made the bold leap into the 21st century and still have a stereo/tape player as their primary audio device in their car. I recently found a PC-to-tape device being advertised and reviewed. It looks great, but I don't have such a disposable income that'd warrant such luxury. I'll probably jury-rig some software to connect a cheap wireless Linux PC around my house to my stereo and record that way.
-ez
This guy is a lunatic/genius who produces a weekly radio show - a collage of music and spoken word. Difficult to describe. Mp3 format. Have a listen.
http://newmetaphysics.com:8080/
I don't know what's sadder: That you're not making that up (about Sonic hedgehog), or that I know that you're not making that up (and didn't need to look it up).
Program Intellivision!
Just start listening to Dylan more. You can spend an eternity pondering what the hell he is talking about.
Monday to do list: 1.) Call Leo LaPorte .....
Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you
Step one. Obtain book in plain text format. Method depends on source format.
Step two. Use voice sinthesizer software to turn text into aoudio stream.
Step three. Capture audio stream.
Step four. Convert Audio stream to MP3.
Step five. Profit :)
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
http://www.dharmastudent.com/
-- Tom Rathborne
http://thedavidlawrenceshow.com/
http://onlinetonight.com/
wow, four titles! they really have the ball rolling, eh?
off the hook is really good, and about as geeky as it comes, get it from 2600.com
If you have a legal bent, you can listen to U.S. Supreme Court arguments at oyez.org. The nerd side of you should love hearing Lawrence Lessig argue in Eldred v. Ashcroft. Lots of other great stuff here, going all the way back to the 1950's. I've listened to a lot of this on my iPod during my 3-hour (rountrip) commute. You'd be surprised how much more interesting law can be when you hear it this way.
I imagine if he moved closer to the jobs the housing prices would keep him living in his car. And moving away? Come on, no one wants to live in Pennsylvania.
I have Brainwidth!
Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
Any book/audiobook by Bill Bryson. I particurally recoment "A Short History of Nearly Everything"
I think it would be best, rather than look for ways to occupy your mind on your 1-2 hour commute, to get a job closer to home.
Long commutes are very irrational and do extreme amounts of damage to the enviroment at your own expense.
Wouldn't it be better to consider getting a job closer to home or moving to live closer to the place you visit (and currently waist 1-2 hours getting to) almost everyday of the year?
Local Los Angeles radio station KCRW does podcasting now, and they've got some great in-house shows, like "Left, Right, and Center," and "To the Point with Warren Olney."
That's good... from the sounds of it (no-pun intended) it looks like you would be listening to noise being processed looking for patterns of intelligent life. I guess they would call it being able to search for life while on your commute!
I tend to think that might get a little dull after the first 30 seconds or so.
Libertas in infinitum
Nobody has mentioned Adam Curry yet? Sheesh!
http://live.curry.com/
Daily Source Code -- fun to listen to on the way to work.
http://www.fsckin.com/
WooHoo... GarageBand.com it's a great site for music and has a growing number of spoken word pieces; or check out my podcast at http://www.radioMacGuys.com for a rough but growing better 10 minute or so daily podcast focusing on things Mac.
wherever I go, there I am.
Intelligent man.
Mytmmo.com $89/yr commercial free mp3s of show.
It's what I do.
--------
get jiggy w/ ayn rand!
This and a number of other tips can be found on my blog.
Linux at home
Amazing, but no one has mentioned the library. Most libraries have some audiobooks, and usually better stuff than mainstream fiction. If you live in a big city, the main branch will have TONS of them. Lots of classics, biographies, histories, and other great stuff.
Just rip them to MP3 to read them via iPod. Might take a bit of tag info editing to make sure they play in the proper order, but, hey, you're a geek, right?
I've "read" a couple of Feynmann books, biographies of several great scientists, and tons of other geeky and non-geeky books this way.
There is a lot of good information available @ http://science.nasa.gov/. They have stories on various subjects with mp3 versions available for download. OTOH, as a visually impaired engineer I rely on audio geek information. Find a tutorial or other geek information online (and there is a lot of it) and convert it to audio. For Windoze there is a free text to speech reader available @ http://www.naturalreaders.com/. This software allows a document (.doc, .pdf, .txt, or a web [age) to be read to a file as a .wav file. From there you can convert it for your own needs. On Linux you can use Festival to create similar files. In this way the web is your world.
Every public library I've been to has had a huge book on tape section. They'll have nerdy books, and they'll have non-nerdy books. I might suggest using the time to branch out and listen to non-nerdy books. Variety being the spice of life, and all that.
The links I used:d io.html
http://osl.iu.edu/~tveldhui/radio/
http://gary.burd.info/2003/07/time-shifting-fm-ra
I'll post my script in a reply to this posting.
Here is an example cron entry: /home/sfral/scripts/record_show 60 TalkOfNation >> /home/sfral/work/radio/log
00 14 * * Fri
The script record_show is this:
I'm not sure why, but fundamentially I find it far less distracting to talk to someone physically present. I know that personally I am not as good a driver on the cellphone, and so I slow down accordingly when I have to use it on the move at all.
I think partly this is because other people in the car are, in part, also paying attanetion to things around you and so you react to subtle signals from them that something is going on you might not be aware of. Also, they will stop talking when something tricky is going on whereas a person on the other end of a cellphone might just keep going and you fell compelled to tell them they need to stop which takes time.
It is a tool but also a distraction, and though I am sure that people are are bad drivers on cellphones are also not that great normally as I said I know it impares me, and I am pretty sure it impares everyone to some extent - and I know that something like an audiobook simply has no effect on my driving at all that I can detect.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It isn't really sad, I suppose. :-) I meant it in a self-deprecating-humorous way.
As for why the family of proteins and genes is named "hedgehog," it has nothing to do with the shape of the protein. Rather, according to this page, "The original hedgehog gene was found in Drosophila and was named for the appearance of the mutant phenotype which causes an embryo to be covered with pointy denticles resembling a hedgehog."
--JoeProgram Intellivision!
Like the subject said, use the time to learn a new language. People do it all the time. I think it would be a good waste of time, personally. Get an unlimited cell phone calling plan and a headset and call your wife while she gets ready for work. Can't hurt. Say hello to her boyfriend while you're at it. ;-)
yeah, couldn't find how old they are but seriously, that kind of selection isn't even worth having a domain for. The only good reason for this is if that site is only a day old. And I kind of doubt that.
-Tim Louden
If you are in the U.S., give your local National Public Radio (NPR) station a try. They usually have a good mix of interesting commentary on social issues, the news, technology, etc. They also have some good science and technology shows, although perhaps not at the time of day when you are commuting. I know that you can play past shows via their website (www.npr.org). You may be able to download them as well.
A review of some Teaching Company courses is at http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/001767.html and the other courses you were probably refering too are the Portable Professor Series at Barnes & Noble http://btob.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/ref/ref_cd s2.asp?sourceid=00395996645644787198&btob=Y&pid=60 77
There are quite a number of conferences that happen around the Open Source community, and many of the lectures and tutorials are recorded. The Linux Conference of Australia (and it's coming up again btw) is a good resource, and most of the talks that have been sone over the last few years are available in Speex format. You'd have to convert to some other format if whatever you're listening on can't do Speex. Also remember that some of these talks really do require you to look at the slides, so it's probably better aimed at someone with a laptop.
I'd second this. My father has become somewhat fanatical about The Teaching Company, having gone through an ungodly number of courses, trying to fill in the gaps in his Detroit public school education. He's passed some along to me, and I've generally found them worthwile. Robert Greenberg has a large number of courses covering classical music that are consistently good.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Fair comment. Increased mental alertness directed at the traffic situation would make your driving better. However, getting caught up in a thought experiment, or a perilous situation, as described by the narrator of an audio book, is not good for your driving. While we can all say "well I'd turn it off when I found it to be getting too distracting", the reality is likely that most folks would only turn it off only after realizing they'd just had a close call.
Less is more.
Lots there.
Dog is my co-pilot.
I think there is a link on google...
Insert Signature Here
Quit your job.
The Pimsleur series is good stuff, and they have a lot of different languages available. The approach is purely audio, so it's quite suitable for a commute / exercise / anything where you need your eyes for the primary, physical task at hand.
Just want to point out that Podcasts do not neccesarily have to be MP3s. Other audio formats such as WMA are supported along with at least a couple video formats and even still images.
Podcasting is only the method of delivery for content. What that content IS can be almost anything. I would be surprised if there aren't already some porn podcasts.
Sig for hire.
Did you think of going to http://coasttocoastam.com andbecoming a streamLink member. You could then download the latest program (mp3) anddump them on your iPod. I do as it is good for trips, or your daily commute. They have some excellent scientists. Including my favorite Michio Kaku. Worth a try....
These are packaged as 20 lectures of 6 CC each priced at US$19.99 each. I found my set at a discount bookstore--there doesn't seem to be such a huge demand for the tapes. MP3ing those CC is a real pain...
or, say, jazz. just get some CDs and listen on your way. You can read about the composer/performer/particular piece beforehand. I've been doing it for quite a while. Even if you are familiar with either, there is always something new to learn. Like I've spent a couple of years listening (and learning) jazz of 60-70s, and now I'm focusing on pre-Bach time (early Baroque and Renaissance).
Note that if you get these audio books from audible.com, you will be lumbered with yet another pathetic DRM system. Derrick Story on O'Reilly already found out how restrictive it was
http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/view/wlg/2522
I've always hated every moment spent in the car - I see it as completely wasted time and energy. Recently I started listening to audio books and it completely changed my attitude. Now I actually look forward to getting into the car, much as I look forward to resuming reading whatever paper books I am reading.
There is plenty of great stuff on audio cd, but my two main sources have been Simply Audio Books (a sort of netflix for audio books) and Great Courses.
Simplyaudiobooks has a lot of fiction (including the first volume of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, if you can believe that) as well as semi-pop science books like Hawking's the Universe in a Nutshell. You can also get this stuff on Amazon if you prefer to buy.
The Great Courses are basically a bunch of recorded colledge lectures, but (unlike my actual colledge experience) they are mostly pretty interesting. Topics include science, history, math, economics, biographies, and philosophy.
could someone please explain to me how this is a troll?
Well, a prostitute's customers are called "Johns", so when the grandparent says "I will indeed be your John and go check out the site", to me that sounds very trollish implying that its parent post is simply whoring.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
thats too bad its only on CC. however I did find them in mp3 format a while back on *cough*usenet (a.b.audio-books, I think).
In this world nothing is certain but death, taxes and flawed car analogies.
My commute time is a good 45 minutes, but 30 minutes of them are used in solid and pleasurable work: every morning, I download all my mail, and I use the quiet, uninterrupted time in the subway to prepare my working day in the earnest on my laptop. Somedays, it's the most productive part of my day, being free from all sorts of coworkers sollicitations.
Sure, this recipe might be a bit difficult to apply in the US, which miss adequate mass transit systems and appropriate ways to use its public funds at the advantage of rationale and durable development.
Perhaps pointing out the productivity gains in the use of commute time should help some lobby in favor of the development of better means of transportation...
Well the US used to have more of a mass-transit infrastructure (e.g. in Los Angeles). But then they sold it to General Motors, who shut it down (surprise surprise). Its The American Way!
In Our Time is a show presented by Melvyn Bragg, who discusses a different subject each week, with expert guests. In general they apply a historical context to some scientific, technological, religious, philosophical or political movement.
Interesting recent subjects have been:
Quality of guests is high: for example, Simon Sing was on the crypto program, Roger Penrose and John Gribbin are regulars, etc.
As well as being broadcast on Radio 4 on old fashioned analogue radio, In Our Time has the honour of being chosen as the BBC's experiment in podcasting.
Geeks in Space, but alas the crew hasn't done anything for quite some time.
Faced with frequent flights down from Glasgow to London, I've been listening to BBC radio (In Our Time PodCast) and audio books (so far Dirk Gently). Certainly beats looking out the window and sternly avoiding making eye contact with my adjacent passengers.
ooooooh! What does this button do? - DeeDee, Dexters Lab.
I can't believe more people haven't mentioned Teaching company yet. A lot of the lectures are fantastic!
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
One podcast that I enjoy is Dr Karl on JJJ in Australia. It's a segment where people ring up and ask science questions and Dr Karl tries to answer them. He also takes answers from other listeners on the web. Normally quite interesting.
Find out how to listen at http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/podcast.htm
http://www.letstalkstars.com/l
http://www.planetary.org/audio/planetaryradio.htm
Both are hit and miss. Depends on the guest. But they're worth a look. And then, of course, there's NPR's Science Friday:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/
Devon
I guess this might be an EU / USA divide, lots of places in EU are feasible to commute instead of 2 hour car journeys. (Mind you in the UK we've had decades of cutbacks on our railways so it does depend on which country you're in). Big cities have major problems with parking so public transit systems often win in this regard. Ironically several cities in the UK are developing / considering urban trams/ train systems after a large number of urban transit systems were ripped out middle of the last century as car ownership became the desired goal. As far I understand in the US public transit systems were decimated to a far greater extent than in Europe? (Also of course the different population/geography spread probably plays a great factor).
If you haven't read it yeat, Wil Wheaton's book "Just a Geek" is also available in audio form (narrated by him).
It's not a techie book, but Wil is a geek and a _very_ entertaining story teller.
Tom
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
I just picked up the abridged version of Quicksilver on CD at my local library. And when I say abridged, I mean 20-CD / 24 hours.
Mercifully, they edited out a bunch of the extra stuff, and what is left is actually pretty decent. Usually I am a purist when it comes to abridged texts- I won't read them. But in this case, I really needed a helping hand.
To those about to be parents, I highly recommend getting any reading you want to do out of the way before you have kids!
http://www.theharrowgroup.com/
not daily by a long shot but an interesting listen none the less.
Audio Bible
Scourby's reading just rocks.
Don't know if you are willing to learn new languages (not programming), but I have found that buying the Pimmsleur series of audio CD's for long drives and commutes a great way to burn time and learn something new. I have already learned Chinese and Japanese and now I am learning Russian. Of course it does get dull, but chicks dig it! lol
Check out the product at http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/softw are_open.asp/
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. -Rich
I read a book, usually about something that has no relationship whatsoever to work. Of course, this means I have to take public transit, but it's less stressful and cheaper than the operational cost of my car, let alone parking.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Sirius and XM are both good. Both have NPR and other talk. I like XM, but you should check out both before buying.
There are a number of groups that have both non-copyrighted (and copyrighted) works available for download; every kind of book, from horror to geek to history to lectures to sci-fi to fantasy. Not to mention language CDs - you could learn something while driving!
There are books available at Project Gutenberg as well.
RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
Amateur radio keeps me sane during my DC-metro commute daily .. sometimes I join in on 2M, sometimes I'm talking to Europeans on 20. The quality on 2 varies from region to region .. dumbing down of license requirements has resulted in a dilution of the geek factor (and it's all the fault of personal computers)
I'm starting a podcast for just this purpose called The Daily Commute (http://www.thedailycommute.com). Also check out Mondays at http://mondays.pwop.com. It's a show for geeks.
GREAT! Now I can listen to that debate between Stephen Hawking and a Speak'n'Spell! I've been wanted to sit through that one for YEARS.
Not having mod points at the time, I couldn't remember the specific order. My point holds, though, that the scroll wheel can really screw you up with modding if you're not careful, at least in IE (work computer).
I'd mod up your post as Informative if I could. thx.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
there doesn't seem to be such a huge demand for the tapes
I can't imagine why there wouldn't be a high demand for 120 hours of science lectures on tape for the low-low price of $800.
I could probably attend a live course and get credit for about that much money.
I'm sure if they put it on CD and charged $1 per disc they'd be more likely to get somewhere. At the proposed price just about anybody inclined to listen to it would go to the trouble to download and burn the whole thing...
What? You're a geek and don't have a ham raido in the car? I would guess that with that type of commute you live in a major metro area. Then there would be many ham repeaters connected all around the world via VoIP.
Get your ham ticket, only 35 questions and no morse code needed to start.
W7COM.com
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
This completely inverts the legal meaning of the term "commuted sentence."
Good analysis.
Yeah, there are downloadable shows, but they do want you to pay for them.
That said, if you've a long commute or road trip, the program, which runs for several hours and covers various outlandish topics ranging from aliens to the occult may be well worth it.
The Teaching Company [http://www.teach12.com] offers a wide variety of college lectures on CD. They are expensive but worth every penny... I just got through listening to a 48 CD lecture and was left wanting more.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
curl is an optional component if you install Cygwin on Windows.
The mplayer port for Windows needs work, but there are plenty of resources for converting rm files to mp3 on Windows.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Actually, I didn't know about the Barnes & Noble series. I did find what I meant to mention earlier: The Modern Scholar series. They have a much smaller library than the Teaching Company and I think their courses are shorter, but some of the titles do look good!
Just fresh out of the NASA news: NASA science podcasts: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/21mar_podc ast.htm?list68870
From Wordnet (r) 2.0: hacker n 1: someone who plays golf
See the problem was that the article didn't mention driving at all, it said commute... and that to me instantly meant "Public Transport"... just because that's what I use...
So there you go... badly written article.
The OP didn't mention anything about his (or her) form of commute. Personally, I commute to work by bicycle, but I know most people don't have that option. On the otherhand, I hesitate to listen to recorded audio while biking down the streets, so I guess my ride has its drawbacks as well.
The Speakeasy with Dorian, on freeform station WFMU is a weekly interview show with guests from the sciences, the arts, media, and other areas. Shows are archived going back years- mostly in realaudio, but some in mp3 form, too. The show, along with a number of others, is also available in podcast form.
If you have an MP3 player you can use in the car, you could simply copy the MP3 file(s) over directly...
But then they sold it to General Motors, who shut it down
urban legend.
My uncle used to have waht is essentially a dictionary on tape. It was pretty cool.