Unless, of course, there's no such button because you don't you have a recorder. Welcome to my world, circa about five months ago.

It turns out there's a universe of potential choices for recorders out there, depending on how much you want to spend and what kind of computer you own. In fact, if you have the right computer, you might not need to buy a recorder at all.

A buddy of mine uses the built-in microphone in his Mac laptop (a feature on many other computers, too) to record his podcast. He's totally satisfied, because he didn't have to invest in any new equipment to get up and running.

But, my co-worker Kay and I work for a small-town newspaper and wanted to launch an entertainment podcast on our paper's Web site. For those reasons, the built-in mic approach wouldn't work. For starters, the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. Using the built-in mic results in a podcast that sounds echoey, like a speakerphone conference call. If you want to sound really professional, you'll want to invest in a dedicated recorder and microphone.

There's another reason you might want to use a separate recording device: fan and drive noise. Most computers are somewhat noisy, but solid state recorders are silent. If you're recording in a room full of computers, you're bound to hear the hiss or hum of the machinery in the background. Noise reduction software can help, but it's much easier to simply use a standalone recorder. Plus (and a big plus, it is), you take the recorder anywhere and do an on-the-spot interview or recording session.

Olympus DS-40: Windows only
A popular choice seems to be the Olympus line of digital voice recorders. A nice DS-40 will cost only about $100 and lets you record roughly eight hours of audio on its internal flash memory. You can transfer WMA or MP3 files from the recorder to your computer with a USB cable. The DS-40 has an internal stereo microphone, but many folks invest in a separate external mic for better sound quality.

However, our newspaper is a Mac house, which adds some interesting wrinkles. The DS-40 is only Windows-compatible, which is fine for about 90-percent of the human computing race. We Macophiles have to look elsewhere.

iRiver T60: terrible recording quality
First, we tried a teeny, little gadget called the iRiver T60. It's an MP3 player that doubles as a digital voice recorder. It had the advantage of being Mac-compatible, and was even cheaper than the Olympus. We found a four-gigabyte model for $60. An online review of the T60 I read said its recorder had "pretty good sound quality." Not to mention, at 2.5 inches long and weighing less than an ounce, it was cute as a button.