Rule the Web show: Merlin Mann, Wednesday, July 18, 5pm Pacific

Forgot to mention that my pal, Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder, recently was kind enough to have me on his Rule The Web podcast (which is a companion to his swell new book).

We talked about jobs, procrastination, clutter, and a bunch of other stuff. We also took calls from a couple people, dishing out advice on topics like where to park ideas and how to fight distraction.

You can listen on Mark's site, download an MP3, or listen using the player below.

Mentioned in passing: del.icio.us, DEVONthink, Yojimbo, Mental Case (app whose name I forgot), In Our Time, and The Sound of Young America.

MacBreak Weekly 48: The Next Big Thing

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, The Macalope

Variable pricing comes to iTunes, iPhone hacks, and where's the Mac?

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 48.

My pick for this week's MacBreak Weekly is Fly Gesture, which is a nifty little freeware app from Flying Meat's boy genius, Gus Mueller. Like it says on FG's home page:

MacBreak Weekly 47: That's Our Shooby!

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay

Universal challenges iTunes, iPhone hacks, and our software picks of the week...

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 47.

This time we did our usual weekly software picks, but I also got to choose our Audible.com audiobook of the week. Can you guess what it is?

MacBreak Weekly 46: iDay

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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay >

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iPhones in hand our MacBreak quartet gives you their first impressions of the latest from Apple...

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 46.

Believe it or not, this week's episode was about Apple's iPhone. Yes, the iPhone. I know: I was surprised, too.

Also, we shot a quick MacBreak (video) on Thursday night where we visited with people queued up outside the Stockton St. store here in SF. I chatted with a bohemian clown, an expensive-looking video camera, and a man from Gizmodo who had a webcam attached to his head. Just another Thursday in Union Square.

Anyhow, the iPhone is out, it's pretty, and lots of people are buying them. For further coverage of the iPhone and the experiences of its excited new users, kindly visit the entire internet.

TWiT 101: Moon over Google

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Wil Harris, Steve Gibson, and Denise Howell

Google Street View and privacy, Michael Moore and piracy, hackers and Safari...

• Leo has begun to use Facebook for only people he knows personally.
• Facebook has recently allowed for applications which enticed Leo.
• The People Aggregator will allow you to create a social network using your login from another social network.
• Create your own social network with Ning.
• Steve Jobs keynoted the WWDC conference announcing Safari for Windows, but no API.
• Apple has plugged several security flaws that were discovered in the Windows version of Safari.
• At WWDC, numerous new OSX Leopard features were unveiled.
• Steve Gillmor had a post called iPhonomics regarding the possibility of Google Gears coming to the iPhone.
• Linspire has made a deal with Microsoft to share numerous technologies.
• Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, somewhat chastised Microsoft regarding software patents.
• Microsoft has also partnered will LG for their Linux-based devices.
• Owen Thomas, the Business 2.0 editor, has been to Valleywag.
• Sicko, Michael Moore's new controversial documentary, has been leaked onto Bittorrent.
• The Manchester Cathedral is complaining to Sony about their appearance in the game "Resistance: Fall of Man."
• Google has launched a "Street View" service that are fairly recent. Leo's buddy Patrick Norton was actually caught on it crossing the street. Check out the top 15 sightings on Google Street View.
• Keep track of Google Street View sightings at StreetViewr.
• Audio is a Facebook application that allows people to upload audio - giving way for piracy to happen on the site.
• eBay threated to take their ads off of Google.
• It is the 50th anniversary of the Frisbee.

Download MP3 file

The Merlin Show

Over on my video podcast, The Merlin Show, we recently wrapped up our epic 4-part interview with John Roderick from The Long Winters (n.b.: part 3 is my favorite episode of the show so far). And, just yesterday, we posted the first in a six (6) part visit with America's Radio Sweetheart, Jesse Thorn, who's the host of the nationally syndicated public radio program (and, arguably, the best podcast [iTunes] in America), The Sound of Young America. (And now I can't stop saying "webmobisode" -- damn you, Jesse Thorn).

I hope you'll stop by if you haven't visited with us in a while. Plus -- thanks to the generous nerd skillz of our friends over at Blip.tv -- you can now watch each and every episode of The Merlin Show from the comfort of this handy dandy Flash viewer. (Note that you can jump to any episode by clicking on "GUIDE"). And, yes, please do feel free to "SHARE" this far and wide.

And, finally, please consider subscribing to The Merlin Show in iTunes or via the podcatcher of your choice. As of our latest episode, the Apple TV version of the feed goes out at full-on HD 720p (thanks, HV-20s!).

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The last week or so of The Merlin Show has featured three fun interviews with independent musicians -- talking about Macs, handling email, and figuring out how to get paid. Stop by for visits with John Roderick, Chris Wetherell, and John Vanderslice (or view the videos right here, after the jump...)

009: Interview: Jeffrey Veen, Part 2 | The Merlin Show

007: Interview: Jonathan Coulton, Part 2 | The Merlin Show

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I first heard about The War of Art from David Allen during our GTD podcast series last year. I finally picked up a copy a couple months back and read it in an evening. Like a lot of self-help books, it's longer than it needs to be (and it's not actually very long to begin with), but it does make some great points about what its author calls "resistance."

Resistance can be thought of as anything that pulls us away from doing the work we know is most important to us. It takes many forms (including procrastination, fear, distraction, and negative self-talk), but the effect is often similar: we find or permit all kinds of barriers to keep us from becoming the person we want to be, or from completing the thing we really want to make. Whether that's being a published author, a composer, a playwright, or a painter, our impulse to create constantly battles an impulse to do something else, or to do nothing -- to not upset our weirdly comfy stasis.

This book came up twice in my recent interview with Jonathan Coulton; both in part one and today's recently released part two. Jonathan strikes me as someone who has, so far, succeeded at talking down the resistance he'd faced, and now he's doing what he's great at, and, in his words, he's working hard to become the kind of "true person" that he wants to be for his daughter.