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Have you ever overheard the conversation of two nerdy (er, technologically-aware) people and wondered what in the heck they were talking about? The buzzwords on the internet are some of the strangest you will come across. Some are acronyms, some are abbreviations, some are the combination of two words, and some are even hawaiian! Let the Geeky Jock sort out the internet's latest buzzwords: blog, RSS, podcast, wiki, and phishing. Soon you'll be having your own nerdy conversations!

Blog

What it is: Blog is short for web-log. A blog is basically a website where a person (or organization) writes some content that is stamped with a date and time - much like a journal. In fact, blogs started out as simple journals. Now, everyone seems to have a blog. The reason blogs have become so popular is because there are a whole host of web sites that help you easily create your own blog for free. These sites take care of all the formatting, archiving, linking, etc. All that a wannabe blogger has to do is enter their text into a form and it instantly gets published to the web. Now anyone with anything to say has the power to publish their thoughts, feelings, opinions, desires, or anything to the web for everyone to read. Most blogs also give readers the ability to post comments to blog entries - making blogging very interactive.

The Geeky Jock's take: I think blogs are a great thing. I use Blogger.com to create the two blogs on this site: the Blogatorial and Hot Deals. (Hot Deals is now defunct in case you were wondering. If you're looking for a great deal on anything, just ask.) A lot of people have been tagging bloggers as the "New Media" because of their popularity and apparent influence during the last election. There is no doubt that more and more people are getting their news and information through blogs, but I think blogging is a bit overhyped. There are millions of terrible blogs out there that contain content that I can't imagine more than two people reading. Still others contain provocative content that is often debunked as rumor, or flat-out lying. That's one of the problems with blogging, when just about anyone can do it, it's hard to determine who you can trust. Nevertheless, giving more people the power to publish their content is good for everyone.

RSS

What it is: Depending on who you talk to, RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, or a number of other things. All of these are extremely stupid names for a really great thing. A better name for RSS would be "site feed". It's a way to have the newest content from your favorite web sites fed to one place. That may sound confusing, so allow me to give you an example. You know how when you are bored and surfing the web you go to all of your favorite sites to read what's new? Sure this kills some time, but if you had an RSS reader, or aggregator, you could have an easy-to-read list of all the headlines (with summaries or full text if you prefer) that link to articles at all of your favorite sites.

Almost any site on the web (including blogs) offers an RSS feed. An RSS feed is some special code (written in XML in case you were wondering) that is readable by an RSS reader (or aggregator). You'll know a site has an RSS feed if you see one of these symbols: or . If you click on one of these symbols on a web site, it will take you to page that has a bunch of cryptic code that means nothing to you. The only thing you need is the URL in the address bar. Copy this URL, open your RSS reader, click on a button that says add or subcribe to feed, and then paste the URL in. Now all of the headlines from that site will automatically be fed to your RSS reader every time you open it. You can browse the headlines and click on the ones you want to read.

By now you're probably thinking, "I don't have an RSS reader, or where to find one, so what do I do?" There are plenty of very good, free readers out there. Some of the most popular are Pluck, RSSreader, and Feedreader. You can download these to your computer, start subscribing to feeds and you're good to go. Some readers integrate right into your email program. A lot of RSS readers are moving to a web-based model, so you don't have to download a program at all.

The Geeky Jock's take: RSS is more than just buzz - it's the real deal. I think that someday a large majority of people will be using it. It has been hampered by an incredibly unfriendly and confusing name. Adding to the confusion is the fact that when you click on an RSS icon you are shown some cryptic XML code. Fortunately, working with RSS couldn't be easier. I've been using Newsgator Online to read all of my RSS feeds. It works well and I didn't have to download another program to my computer.

I truly believe that RSS is the wave of the future. In fact, I just added an RSS feed to GeekyJock.com! Now you can get the latest updates fed to you as soon as they are posted. Start using an RSS reader and the copy and paste the following URL to subscribe:
http://www.geekyjock.com/pages/blog/atom.xml

Podcast

What it is: A podcast is a downloadable radio-style broadcast. Podcasts get their name from the combination of the ever-popular iPod and the word broadcast. You can subscribe to podcast feeds (much like RSS) so that the latest podcasts are automatically downloaded to your computer. Since podcasts come in the MP3 format, you can transfer them to your portable MP3 player, or just listen on your computer. Podcasts have become more mainstream recently as the Apple iTunes music player added support for automatic downloading of podcasts. Previous podcast software was clunky and tough to master. Huge media outlets like ESPN, ABC News, and Newsweek produce podcasts. There are thousands of podcasts that cover every topic you can think of.

The Geeky Jock's take: I just started downloading podcasts to my iPod Mini through iTunes. iTunes makes it very easy to subscribe and transfer them to the player. It's still very possible if you don't have an iPod, it's just not quite as easy. I really enjoy listening to them while I work out even though I have thousands of music tracks. I get tired of the same music, so new podcasts are great for me. I find the downloadable versions of weekly radio shows to be the best to listen to because they have the most professionalism.

I can also see a lot of good reasons why podcasts are not going to catch on with the general public. First of all, I enjoy listening to podcasts from ESPN, ABC News, and Newsweek, but none of the news is current since I download the podcasts the night before and listen to them the next afternoon. Second, I've found very few quality podcasts. Let's put it this way: a lot of people that produce podcasts are not exactly gifted broadcasters. Many sound like a nerdy guy recording himself in his parent's basement. Even the Newsweek podcast has had hosts that I can't imagine being assigned to a real radio broadcast.

Wiki

What it is: A wiki (from the hawaiian term wiki wiki meaning "quick" or "informal") is a web site whose content is editable by readers. The most well-known wiki is the site wikipedia.com. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia in which anyone can edit the content of an encyclodedia entry. All edits are recorded and comments can be made on the edits. Any obviously non-factual or offensive content is quickly removed by the site's editorial staff.

The Geeky Jock's take: Wikis are a neat idea. They bring democratization to the learning process. The problem with them, I think, is that they are idealized by their creators and users. If wikis became mainstream, misinformation would abound and we wouldn't know truth from fiction. To be assured of quality, credible information there has to be some limits on who can edit content. A better wiki would be one in which only certified experts on a topic would be able to edit the content. It would be quite a challenge to determine who the editors could be, but I'm sure it could be done. In many ways, this kind of information sharing is already done in journals, online forums, conferences, etc.

Believe it or not, the first wiki was introduced in 1995. In internet time, that is like 100 years ago. If they haven't caught on in 10 years, my guess is that they will continue to stay under the radar. Finding another good example of a wiki for this article was surprisingly difficult. There are sites that list the biggest wikis, but most of the wikis they linked to seemed disorganized, amateurish, and filled with useless information. That's what you're going to get when anyone can edit the information.

Phishing

What it is: Phishing is the term used to describe how criminals send emails that appear to be from a reputable company, such as Citibank or eBay, asking for personal information so that they can use it to steal your identity. They look almost identical to emails you would get from the actual company, but they often contain spelling or grammatical errors and have a very urgent tone.

The Geeky Jock's take: Phishing has become a huge problem, but with the public awareness campaigns launched by just about every financial institution, it should really never happen. Here are the facts:

1. A major company will never email asking you to respond with personal information.
2. A major company will never only email you if they are trying to contact you about something important and urgent. If it was urgently important, they would call you.

If you are unsure about the validity of an email message you receive, follow these rules:

1. Don't ever click on a link inside the email. The link you click on might say that it is going to Citibank, but the actual page it takes you to may actually just be a page that looks like the site to lure you into divulging personal information.
2. Instead of clicking on a link in the email, open your browser and type in the actual URL of the company. Then login as you do normally and make any necessary changes to your account. When you login, you should see a padlock at the bottom right corner of your browser indicating that the site is encrypted.
3. If you are still unsure about the validity of the email, simply call the institution and ask them if they need any information from you. If they don't, inform them that you received a phishing email so that they can alert their other customers about the scam.

If you'd like to learn more, check out my buyer beware on phishing.