Technofetishism XX
Whenever Cory visits, I feel a little technologically backward. As parallel as our paths might be -- and as often as they intersect -- Cory is lightyears ahead of me in terms of technology and related culture. Lightyears. So today's downloads are a little bit of catch up. Signing up for VersionTracker, I've found several goodies.

Pod2Go might be my favorite so far. This cheery little app enables you to download news feeds, weather reports, stock quotes, and other text to your iPod for reading while you're on the go. Newsfeeds include BBC News, CNN, Wired News, Slashdot, and TidBITS, and you can pinpoint your weather reports -- include sunrise and sunset times -- by ZIP code. I think this will be a wonderful tool.

PodWorks seems to improve on xPod and PodUtil's functionality and basically helps you download MP3 files from iPods to your laptop or desktop. It's shareware, so I plunked down the $12 to help the cause, but I've had some trouble launching the app so far. It might be because I'm currently charging my iPod, but I might have to contact the makers to get my money's worth.

Lastly, MacStumbler. While I wasn't able to get a wireless network connection on the big blue couch or at the kitchen table previously, Cory's been able to detect and use no fewer than eight networks in the neighborhood. He says it might be because the wireless reception of the iBook is better than that of the TiBook, but I've snagged this wireless network detector to see what's what. If I'm able to gain access to a network in the neighborhood, that will be a good, good thing indeed.