Geek Hag
I have been trying to figure out how to listen to This American Life at my desk for three weeks.
I listen to the radio online, but I have to get through the corporate firewall to do it. Normally, when I go to an external website, I get a login screen, where I type my user ID and password, and then I’m allowed to view the site.
But This Life is wily.
When I click on the link to their free streaming content, the link spawns Windows Media Player without triggering the firewall login. Without that login, Windows Media Player falls into the black hole of doom.
I had to find a way to trigger the firewall login.
For a while, I solved this by right-clicking on the link and copying the URL from the Properties dialogue box. I pasted that URL into a new browser window, and voila, the login.
Then This Life struck back.
They created their own, proprietary media player, which spawns automatically when you click the link. Now, when I try my right-click trick, all I get is the URL to the lousy .gif.
Damn you This Life!
I realized that it was time to come out to my friend, James.
I had to confess that I don’t know how to Podcast.
It was a humiliating moment, but also a liberating one.
After an informative half hour with James, I found Odeo.
Now I can subscribe to my favorite shows, then log in to Odeo and listen to them at my leisure.
This whole adventure made me realize that I’m not the geek I thought I was.
I guess I have to accept that I’m just a smart girl who likes to hang around with the geek crowd.
I’m a geek hag.
Mark Hicks said,
January 17, 2009 @ 11:42 am
Hello Patti,
Congratulations on your the birth of your son.
It seems as though your life is full of the comforts, frustrations, triumphs and mundaniety (is that a real word?) of life. Good work.
I think about you and the work you did for and with me. I enjoyed the conversations we had about the process and result. I was always interested in the methodology you used, especially the use of personas.
I am looking for employment and I fully intend to use everything I learned from you as possible to aid in that effort. I just wanted to thank you for your openness and to ask if there is one publication you would recommend that might better prepare me to discuss and use the design process more competently.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
I hope your life and accomplishments continue down the happy you are on.
don’t be a stranger.
Yours truly
Mark Hicks