Peter Seale's weblog

.NET Rocks! -

excellent sound

This is all about .NET and related technologies, in the perfect blend of infotainment—guest interviews where they shoot the bull and talk about some facet of the .NET stack, and more recently, topics that drift towards software engineering and the industry in general. This is the time to hop on, as they're ramping up to two shows a week, and expanding their (previously technology-centric) horizons.

Hanselminutes -

excellent sound

Scott Hanselman takes the concept of min-maxing and applies it to the arena of technology podcasts, minimizing the waffle and maximizing the content. He mostly talks about .NET, but has been known to dip into gaming, HDTV, and, uh, diabetes technology (yeah) for a show. Recommended!

ARCast Radio with Ron Jacobs -

Ron Jacobs interviews folks, covering software architecture topics (with the occasional dip into specific facets of .NET technologies). What's amazing about this show is the volume: he averages a show every 3 days. Yow. This dude is the podcasting Iron Man. That's right--Ron Jacobs is the Cal Ripken Jr. of podcasting (feel free to quote me).

Doug Kaye's Interviews -

IT Conversations, in its early days, was an excellent place to hear awesome interviews. Then it all stopped. I recommend everyone add the feed and grab all the old shows; I only wish Doug Kaye could have kept up with this interview series.

Programming (GigaVox Media) -

This is another IT Conversations feed, with slightly different content. See my above review for more details.

Polymorphic Podcast -

I think I just realized that this show is not, in fact, a .NET show, but also covers software engineering topics. This should have been pretty hard to miss, what with Craig saying "object-oriented development, software architecture and best practices" in every single show's intro segment, but hey--I listen to a lot of podcasts. It tends to go in one ear, and out the other. It gets missed, often.
If I'm ever able to work my way through my podcast queue (~370 hours or so of audio at present), I would love to give this a re-listen; I could benefit from multiple listens to this and shows like SE-Radio (see below).

Software Engineering Radio -

Software Engineering Radio is solid, deep content. One thing I notice is the Java smell of the show. Not that that's a bad thing! [[insert Java joke here!]] Ha! I kid.

Office Zealot Podcast -

I miss Office Zealot. This is the closest thing you can get to an English-language SharePoint show, including the fact that there is an actual English-language SharePoint show. Unfortunately the Office Zealot guys didn't make it past 8 shows. Open request: please resurrect this.
Meanwhile, the German SharePoint show is taunting me--they're about to break the 70-show mark (that was March, I'm sure they'll have their centennial celebration any day now)!

Channel 9: Podcasts -

This is a trail mix of Microsoft-produced shows, most notably containing lots of ARCast, regular TechNet Radio newscasts, plenty of the MicroISV show, and a smattering of specialized, infrequent shows (IIS Show anyone?). All these different shows add up to a HEAP of content. If you're looking for a new part-time job, this is the RSS feed for you!

FLOSS Weekly -

excellent sound

This is great for perspective (example: check out the Samba episode and listen to their explanation of Microsoft's strategy for the SMB2 platform--33:30 in, punchline at 34:55).
My only criticism is that I think Leo Laporte seems to stretch all topics to maximum length. I would honestly prefer less chatting, and not only that, but also a lot more less chatting! Maybe it's just me; his shows do quite well enough without my unsolicited advice. Anyway, of all Leo Laporte's shows, this is the one I'd recommend.

Perlcast -

This show is only a small portion Perl, and a large portion general software development goodness. Don't be fooled by the title.
Also, the Perl stuff isn't bad; from what I hear on the show, they sound like a bunch of language nuts. In a good way.

RunAs Radio -

I haven't listened any of the IT-focused shows from Richard Campbell (half of '.NET Rocks!') and Greg Hughes (half of 'RunAs Radio'), but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Highly recommended!

Vitamin -

Vitamin, as far as I can tell, takes conference sessions and slings them onto the web. Works for me.
UPDATE: I've listened to some more shows, and they also do interview/topical shows. And yes, conference feeds. Oh, and Vitamin is a web developer site, so presumably all their topics are geared towards web development topics.

Internet Business Mastery: The Art of Internet Marketing & Online Business for Entrepreneurs -

excellent sound

These dudes are, as the saying goes, "gettin' money," Entrepreneur-style. I don't live in this world, but it fascinates me. UPDATE: it looks like they're going to (metaphorically) slang that Web 2.0 dope. I don't know if I'll stick around for the ride.

[Drupal-focused -ed] Lullabot - audiocast -

While they're talking about a CMS I've never worked with (Drupal) on a programming platform I've never used (PHP), I'm still subscribed. They've won my eternal support with their "Drupal Song" intended for…ostensibly marketing Drupal I suppose. You will want to experience that which is the Drupal song. Don't underestimate the Drupal song. You can't honestly say you did a thorough evaluation of open source CMS's if you haven't heard the Drupal song.

SQL Down Under -

SQL Down Under is a show for (SQL Server) DBA-minded folk. I'm subscribed, but I don't pretend to understand everything they're saying.

dnrTV -

excellent sound

dnrTV is really an outlier--I can't really listen to this in my car, and I can't say I've watched all the shows, but when I'm interested in a particular topic, there's literally no better way to learn. I'm serious, I don't think any combination of online* resources can compete with this. If you can point to something, by all means leave me a comment.
*emphasis on "online"

Code Sermon -

Code Sermon is a fun two hours or so of software engineering topics. This is like Code Complete chapters, shrunk into 10-minute segments. And it works, somehow. Check it out--the 'two hours' is a grand total.

Boagworld: Web Design -

I haven't listened to this in a while, so I have no idea what's going on, but anyway: this is a fun show about a professional web design firm. Recommended.

Project Management Podcast -

Cornelius manages his way through each show, and in an uncharacteristic move for a PM, even does some real work! :) I love you guys, seriously. Anyway, I haven't checked in in a while, but the last time I checked, this had solid content. Skip ahead about 15 minutes in to get to the meat of each show. UPDATE: I unsubscribed. At some point you have to drop something, you know?

Web 2.0 Show -

excellent sound

Fun show about "the new web"--they're basically a news show. Note I don't have any other news shows in my subsciption, so that should let you know: it's not necessarily the format I enjoy.

The IT Skeptic -

I subscribed to two ITIL-related podcasts: one to give me the 'company line', and this one. You might imagine that this guy doesn't like ITIL. Actually it's not as simple as that--he wants to fix the ITIL ecosystem, but he's not afraid to stomp on someone's feelings (or head). Which is a good thing.

Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants -

The biggest revelation I've had from listening to this show is that one of the hosts reads Robert Scoble's weblog. Dude, I'm a "Microsoft-centric" guy and I can't keep up with Scoble's volume, so there's no way you should be able to either, what with running everything in an entirely separate Smalltalk VM. Okay, make that two things: now I know that Smalltalk runs on its own virtual machine. Three hours to learn two things--that's a relatively good return for podcasts.

Run Your Own Server -

From the few episodes I've heard, this sounds like professional IT-as-in-system-administrator advice. Interesting tidbit: apparently DNS allows you to register several backup mail servers on a single domain, allowing for redundant mail servers. The idea is that you start out requesting the first mail server, then if that doesn't work, go for the second, and so on down the list. What makes this interesting is that spammers used to get the entire list and start from the last one listed. This little "first-to-last/last-to-first" scenario brought back flashbacks of the movie Antitrust. DUDE. Start from the middle! Or maybe 2/3rds of the way down; you can round up or down, it doesn't really matter. Just don't start from the absolute end! If you're trying to outsmart someone, and you really mean to outsmart them, don't just say "Well, they chose the most obvious option, so I'll slyly and discreetly pick...the second most obvious option. Why, that's genius!" Who thinks that way, anyway? Answer, according to this podcast: spammers. And: the main character from Antitrust.
In case you got a little distracted above, I'll point out that the RYOS podcast has nothing to do with the movie Antitrust. I don't know how it got there either, but wow, what a journey!

Pro PHP Podcast -

I couldn't; sorry guys, I just couldn't. So this 'review' is just a statement that I couldn't summon the mental energy needed to listen to this. Give it a few years.

developerWorks Interviews -

I keep trying to listen to these so I can include them in the roundup, but I never remember the shows. This time is no different--I have no idea what this series may or may not contain.
I vaguely remember forwarding through the series when they started discussing some IBM enterprise system. I assume this is exactly the response anyone else has when a Microsoft person mentions BizTalk...see, you're yawning already, aren't you? Biztalk 2006 Orchestration. I think my eyes just got watery.
Anyway, it's safe to say that this podcast is unmemorable.

SAP Developer Network -

I couldn't listen to this one either. Enterprise technologies seem to be the least exciting, e.g. "let's hear it for DATA ACCESS AUDITING! Woo!" It just doesn't have the same ring to it. Also: listening to this is a good way to gauge others' reactions to your favorite technology. If you're bored listening to this, imagine how bored everyone else is listening to you talk about your technology! There's an eye-opener for you.

SAP INFO -

See above SAP podcast. I assume the same applies here.

Object Database Podcast -

I think someone needs to have a 3000-page book, or a 40-hour training session, either one--something that explains why and how object databases are better. I want to see a massive data to objects to UI example that takes several hours just to explain the architecture. I assume that an example this large would be required to really explain the benefits object databases give you.
What I mean to say is, I was hoping that the Object Database podcast would be able to help me out with this, but so far, I haven't learned. Stay tuned along with me, and maybe we'll get there.

SBS Show -

SBS Show delivers exactly what is advertised: they know Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server, and they know it well. Apparently there's a cottage industry of SBS consultants catering to small businesses--it makes sense, it's just one of those things I didn't know existed.
Well, now we all know.
Oh yeah, as far as the podcast itself is concerned--they stick to the topic, for good or bad. I'm not the biggest SBS enthusiast, so I'm probably not their target demographic--that's a nice way of saying I am not really interested in this show.