The end (?) of Netscape

Netscape has been officially discontinued, or will be by March 1. I like Netscape, especially Netscape Composer that was available up to version 7.2. I've been using Firefox for some time and find that it is very similar (of course), even has the same tendency to refuse to work when I've viewed one too many videos or played one too many interactive games.

Wikipedia has several good articles on Netscape, the company, and Netscape, the browser. Just don't click on the Netscape.com link unless you want to visit AOL.com with it's numerous cookie windows.

Invasion of the Podcasts - New York Times

When this New York Times article was written back in May of 2006, many art museums were placing excerpts from their audio tours on the web, sending them out as podcasts. They continue to do so, likely in greater numbers and with coverage from many more galleries and museums than are mentioned in the article.

I find that the podcasts I subscribe to have varied levels of usefulness and I use them as a reminder to visit the website and see what is there to supplement the audio file - after all, a description is useless without being able to see the art work being described. Of course, some of the podcasts are now of video files as well as audio. It is still worthwhile to visit the websites to see what else is available.

SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) podcasts are available with(M4A), or without (MP3), video . If you subscribe to the podcast, you'll get both. You can also download your preferred file format from the site. The wonderful extra content on this page is provided through the little white-bordered box to the right - here you find interactive features - I couldn't get all of them to work, but the ones that do are very well done.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has done 22 podcasts as of February 2008. One nice feature is that you can read the transcript of the interviews. You can subscribe, download or listen to files, and some episodes have extra content. Locating the art or the exhibit being discussed can take some work though so be ready to use Google and then go on some cyber side trips.

The podcasts from New York's Museum of Modern Art require a bit of work to co-ordinate online viewing and listening. Subscribing to the podcasts means that you get short audio files, and can then find the art or artist discussed on the website. MoMa's search feature is quite good but it's likely best to use the advanced search or you'll end up with much more than you want. On the podcast page there is also a list of special exhibitions with information about the exhibit and other audio programs which may, or may not, include in one audio/video slide show most of the short audio files along with images of the art. Whatever way you decide to explore this website, there is a huge amount of audiovisual material to be found.