Podcasting

Cherrypicked the best items in our output over the past eight hours. Carefully re-jigged the cues, linking items where possible. Didn't overdo it, of ourse. Just created a nice, gentle flow of audio. Ensured a good spread of genres, pograms, voices, geography. Recorded it, mixed it, listened to it. I have to say it was a good listen ... one might even say it was a masterpiece. Transformed my wav file into a pod, all without a glitch, then hit the "publish" button. Then waited. And waited. Along with Emma, who had been trailing me all day. It will only take ten or fifteen minutes maximum, I assured her.

A good twenty minutes later, I called the helpline. "I published my podcast half an hour ago, and it still hasn't appeared on the Internet." "Don't worry, " came the answer, "it just probably takes a bit longer then usual. Can you hang around for another ... hour?" No way. My shift officially ended half an hour ago. In that case, could I please call the multimedia, across-all-platforms helpdesk, just to log it with them as well?

I call them. Happy voice answers. Oh, don't you worry, sometimes it does take longer... especially on Fridays. I remind happy voice that it's Thursday. You're right, thanks for reminding ... in which case, there's nothing I can do. But can you hang around?

No I can't. But can somebody explain to me what computer support is good for. Nine out of ten times, they have no idea what's causing problems, and even less idea of how to fix them. It's not much of a consolation to know that there may be hundreds of thousands of other unfortunate souls out there at the same moment, in a semi-vile state of computer rage. Having created something really nice and not being able to publish it is really, really frustrating. Are the geeks aware of that?