Radio Userland is the software I use for this blog. I like it because it gives me a built-in RSS aggregator, space on a server I don't have to worry about, and a full backup copy of everything I post there. I haven't found time to podcast, much as I'd like to, but Radio was able to do that before the iPod was a glimmmer in Steve Jobs' eye. It also has a second kind of page for "stories" outside the dated-blog structure. ("Stories" include the longer articles like "What is podcasting?" listed in the bottom half of the left column.) For newcomers, the downside to Radio is that it's an older, more idiosyncratic program than some of the newer blogging systems. It also has a less-than-elegant method of adding pictures to blog entries. As an old Yankee storyteller put it (talking about a big black wood-burning Clarion stove), "It takes more than a teaspoonful of brains to operate." There's also some worry that its days are numbered.
But I've been using it for five years and know my way around its basics, so I'll stick with it for now. For me, its biggest downside is that I can only post to the blog from one computer -- and I might use as many as eight computers in a week, counting home, office, lab and classroom machines. So... I'm playing with this work-around: Years ago I set up a Blogger blog at http://boblog.blogspot.com -- mostly to demonstrate Blogger in my Online Journalism and Digital Culture classes. For the past few months I've dusted it off and have been using it as a glorified bookmarking system from the other computers in my life, including a couple with a "Blog This!" icon on the toolbar.
One click and a small window appears with the headline of the page I'm looking at, with a link to that page. Another click and it's posted to the Boblog. Nice.
Today, just as an experiment, I've tried archiving the last batch of Boblog items to one of those Radio "Story" pages here: Items from Boblog.
11:29:39 AM 
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