Eric's Beijing Diary

Power just went out. They announced it yesterday, but I forgot, so I came here this morning anyway. This does happen from time to time, especially in my apartment, but this is the first time I have seen a planned outage here in the coffee bar. I have seen power outages in restaurants, but they are usually inadvertent and don't last long. But this one was announced--8:30 am to 6pm.

Power outages are one reason I don't bother with a personal computer--I use my laptop everywhere, except in my office. And it is also one reason I rely heavily on podcasting for information. Right now, I am listening to the NHK news from Tokyo on Radio Japan. It's a podcast. Podcast news is not instant, of course, but it is recent enough to be current, and since I use iTunes, it is downloaded automatically. Also, podcasts are not dependent on an active Internet connection, since you are not listening to a live audio stream. Once you have it on your computer, you don't have to worry about interruptions. But I'll move on; I'm not telling you anything you don't know, just filling you in on why podcasts are useful in China, even if you don't have an Ipod, and do most of your listening on your computer.