Fifty-three seconds of the main hall at reboot, just before things get going. I left the headphones at home, so I’ve no idea whether there’s any actual sound here. Let me know.

Here’s the Technorati page for blog posts tagged reboot7.

The word of the day from The Old Farmer’s Almanac: blatherskit.

A heavy early morning: woke up at 4:30 a.m., had an iChat with Catherine, who was just getting in, and slowly, slowly fell back to sleep, only yo awake with a shudder at 7:30. World only slowly coming into focus. Here’s 1:22 of sound recorded on the outdoor plaza at reboot, where I’ve just arrived.

Tonight at the reboot meetup, I met Olle, who proved to be a kindred spirit in innumerable ways.

One of the things we talked about is compatibility as regards workmates. The question we posed: how can you determine whether you will be able to work with someone in a “synergistic way.” In other words, you “get” them and they “get” you, and things flow along effortlessly. Or at least thrillingly.

We were talking open source project development, not moving rocks, so we assumed that some degree of intellectual, philosophical and/or spiritual symbiosis would be required. But how do you gauge whether it exists before you’re in too deep — deep enough that the inevitable “break up” must happen.

Some of the ideas on the table: you’ve read the same books, appreciate the same programming languages, read and appreciate each others weblogs.

We could agree that we’d both been members of both very compatible and hopelessly incompatible teams. We could describe in bitter detail where things went off the rails when they did, and why. But when it came to any sort of predictive measure, I don’t think we reached any conclusions; but we had a lot of fun trying.

Which brings me to my main point. As I mentioned earlier, I’m staying in the same hotel, and thus inhabiting the same subnet, as Cory Doctorow.

Cory has iTunes music sharing turned on.

I’ve got his 7,941 song music collection streaming randomly through the ether into my ears right now.

I should be asleep, but I can’t turned it off: this guy’s got an amazing pile of albums, a collection that hits an uncommon lot of “because you bought this, you might be interested in this” buttons for me. And I’m afraid that he’s going to go to sleep soon, and the stream will go dark.

Would Cory Doctorow and I be able to work together because I dig his taste in music?

Hey, look, I’m staying in the same hotel as Cory Doctorow and Matt Webb. Kind of like staying in the same hotel as Johnny Carson and Mick Jagger in an earlier day. Kind of.

I’ve uploaded some photos of Copenhagen I took this morning, including this one of my trusty borrowed bicycle (one of the City Bikes):

Okay, so I wasn’t actually on a bike when I recorded this, but I can’t break the casting concatenation habit. More rambling from Copenhagen: borrowing a bike, visiting the Danish Architecture Centre, chicken salad sandwich, getting lost.

So I’ve been experimenting with various types of podcasting for the last week or so, some formal, some stream of consciousness. What have I learned?

Unless I do a lot of pre- and post-production, my podcasts end up being “me talking about stuff” in a rambling fashion, in a lot more detail than I would be prone to write if I were writing about the same thing. Which recalls radio production advice from Ann Thurlow (and I paraphrase): “You don’t need to talk about everything, even if everything seems compelling and uncuttable.”

In a sense, my podcasts are what my blog posts look like in my head, before I write them down. If the blog posting production cycle has 10 steps, what squeaks out at the podcasting stage is about step number three.

Podcasting has certainly made me realize how much time I spend crafting blog posts. This post, for example, is probably going to take me 30 minutes to write and edit; if I podcast the same thought it would take 5 minutes, but it would probably be twice as long and half as coherent.

Which is not to say that podcasting can’t play a role. Although I fell into the “minutiae well” more than I would like, I think this podcast from the Dorval Airport parking garage is more interesting and content-full than it would have been as a blog post, if only because there were neato airplane sounds in the background.

And walking around Copenhagen today there were several times I wished I had a portable studio with me so I could capture the sounds of the city; trying to write about the same sounds just wouldn’t translate into words.

Maybe good podcasts require more than one person, too? I think well-crafted conversation between curious people can be a lot more interesting than unedited soliloquy. Although, upon reflection, I think Stephen’s movie review would have been better if I had just shut up and let him roll.

Generally, I think to make a good (interesting, valuable, fulfilling) podcast requires a clear mind, experience at communicating by voice, some storytelling ability, and a healthy amount of editing.

Which is pretty much what making good radio requires.

Time for some more experimenting.

There are four people who have experienced the patented Pete Rukavina “post travel catatonia” phenomenon.

Brother Steve has seen it at its worst, when I stepped off the plane in Seoul after 19 hours of travel from Boston. I have little or no memory of the first 24 hours in South Korea; indeed the next day I “lost” my $500 in travelers cheques. Thankfully, cool-headed Steve was there to guide me.

Catherine and Oliver have seen me after flights to Japan (complete shutdown, aimless wandering), Spain (not too bad, actually) and France (no time for catatonia: had to drive in Paris).

And brother Johnny, in his capacity as my professional colleague, has experienced the state indirectly, through intercontinental rambling over the iChat and cell phone.

Johnny has also been victim to the post-return-home manic elation scene, where, buoyed by the adrenalin of reverse time travel, I will come up with crazy business ideas that involve 5 extra employees, battering rams, and lots of goats. Bless his soul for putting up with me.

Of course all of you in the listenership can listen in yourself to get a taste, although I was maxing out on the mental resources there to try and mask the mindlessness. Listening again this morning myself, I do have a touch of “I’m about to collapse” tone about me.

It’s now morning in Copenhagen, and I’m under the distinct impression that I’ve got my groove back. At least I had 8 hours of sleep and a tasty Danish breakfast under my belt.

I’m going to spend the day aimlessly wandering the streets of Copenhagen, ending up at the big reboot meetup tonight.