When Weblogs Inc founder Jason Calacanis quipped that he and Engadget's Peter Rojas should build an iPod killer, it was meant to be taken in jest. Like all good jokes it contained a kernel of truth and now what was once a healthy post-AOL Calacanis cut-up has progressed to what Jason calls, "a feasibility study."

Stranger still, when Calacanis talks, people listen. Dave Winer, creator of RSS and the father of Podcasting (no matter what that guy says) has contacted Calacanis and according to Jason's blog is meeting up with Rojas soon to discuss the idea. Even Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research has chimed in.

Calacanis writes, "As Dave points out any hint of DRM and the project is over. We don't need any VC money to do this Dave. We just produce the best player and make 1,000 of them--all presold. The money comes to us first and we don't have to put up *ANY* money. After we get 1,000 made we do version 2 six months later and produce 10,000 of them. If that sells out we do 100,000. We are not doing this for the money anyway... if it becomes a 10,000 device a year company and we break even I'm fine with that--I just want a better player!"

A DRM-less player, wi-fi enabled and open-source style hackable could be the Zune everyone wanted and Microsoft failed to deliver. It remains to be seen (and frankly, isn't very likely) whether Calacanis will push forward with his new ideas but, the fact is he's gotten people talking about the future of portable entertainment and that alone is a productive exchange.