For the longest time I was like this big freaky weather nut. I would sit through 40 minutes of local news just to watch the three minute weather report. I don’t know what it was that made weather so interesting to me, but I soaked up pressure maps, precipitation radar scans, and five-day forecasts like frat boys do beer at a three-kegger. And don’t let there be a hurricane anywhere near Florida; I could tell you when, where, and how fast that sucker was moving as well as any weather jockey.

I’m still a huge fan of weather forecasts, only now I get my fill from the Internet and sites like Weather Channel and NOAA.

One of the side effects of watching all of those news shows for the sake of a weather reports is that now I find that I like to watch a bit of the news, too. Oh, I can only take CNN and Fox News in small doses. There’s only so many reports of child neglect and abuse I can stomach before my optimism and my belief in the basic decency of people requires a booster shot from sites where news is dedicated to the nerd in all most of us.

I see technology news as something more than just reports on gadgets, software, and the people who love them. Tech news at its least is a good distraction from all the carnage, suffering, and inhumanity so prevalent in mainstream media today. Wars waged in the tech-world are for the hearts and pocketbooks of consumers, both corporate and private. Few people actually die when a company makes a killer product, and while the livelihood of thousands may hang on whether a product gets a good review, few lives are lost if the review is negative.

Of course, a steady diet of tech news can be just as bad as getting constantly pummeled with mainstream news, but taken in moderation, if tech news can’t restore your faith in your fellow man at least you can marvel at how ingenious he or she is.

Just like I satisfy my weather jones with reports from the Web, you can sate your hunger for tech-news by viewing video podcasts of the same from the gynormous number of tech sites available at the iTunes Store.

Take Fox News Gamer’s Weekly, for instance. You can watch news and reviews of games on every platform from the handheld Nintendo DS system to your baddest gaming PC.

Army of Two reviewed in Gamer’s Weekly

What I like about this podcast is that it gives up the news in concise reports without a lot of chummy banter and not-quite-humorous commentary.�You actually watch as the game being reviewed is played, and the news reports are given with military-like brevity. Very nice.

The only trouble is after watching a few of these shows you’ll have a greater incentive to empty your piggy bank. Such is the coolness of the games and products reviewed.

As the name implies, there’s a new Fox News Gamer’s Weekly episode weekly and there are many episodes already available to catch up on at the iTunes Store.

If gaming news isn’t your thing maybe deep-geek news is, and you can get real deep watching Hak.5, a podcast aimed at modders, hackers, and anyone with more than a passing interest in tinkering with gadgets.

Speak-n-Spell about to get hacked in Hak.5

Hak.5 is hosted by Wess Tobler and Darren Kitchen, and these guys leave no toy untinkered, no hardware unhacked, no technology untouched. In episode 1x07, for instance, they break down a disposable digital camera and show us why using Secure Shell (SSH) is a good idea when running a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client.

If this all sounds like geek to you, then you’re not alone. The subject matter is not intended for your grandma to understand, but Wess and Darren do a good job in translating geek to something most folks can understand, and they do it with wit and style.

If your news need still isn’t satisfied you might take a look at news that focuses on the odd, the strange, and the everyday weirdness that passes for culture here in the U.S., and a podcast called American Cliche TV lets you see it all.

Scott Parent talks it up on American Cliche

American Cliche gets all up into everybody’s business. Host, Scott Parent, takes us anywhere and everywhere there is even a remote possibility of oddness, and reports it all with a healthy dose of sarcastic opinion. Nothing’s scared: politics, religion, the economy, surfing, politics, music, nuns, diaper bags, wildfires, politics, and more.

Did I mention that Scott likes to express his opinion about these topics? He does, and whether you agree or disagree with him, you are bound to enjoy the show.

American Cliche gets updated weekly and at least 50 of the most recent episodes can be found at the iTunes Store.

That’s going to do it for this week.

Before I roll I’d like to do a bit of self-promotion: As you may or may not know, I also write a review column called Just a Peek. The most recent article is a review of EA Mobile’s Scrabble for the iPod. If you’re a Scrabble fan then you’ll want to take a look.

In the near future I’ll be posting a review of Yahtzee for the iPod as well. So stay tuned.�

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.