Technology cuts down on Web registrations - USATODAY.com

So I'm a suit, I guess, and I write form letters. That's what people expect when they write to me and complain that we're doing something different. They might try to find a friendly ear (like one of our radio personalities) to touch first, but plenty of the nasty-grams make it past my desk, so I have to either ignore them or try to compose coherent answers. This one deals with the username/password issue lots of sites are requiring.

Is everybody as jaded as this?

[Dear Radio Personality],
I didn't want to receive a form letter from some [company] suit concerning the registration process required to listen to the online broadcast on [radio station], so I chose you to receive this message. Lucky you! I don't have to register to listen to [station] on my radio in my car or my home, so why do I have to do so [to] listen to it online? The service may still be financially free but it is no longer nuisance free. Don't we have enough nuisances in our daily lives already?

So I write:

Thanks for writing to tell us how you feel. I promise that I'm not wearing a suit and this isn't a form letter, so I hope it's OK that I reply to your note.

As a fellow listener, I understand your perspective about nuisances. Interesting how perspectives change on the other side of the glass.

While you say streaming online is free, somebody's paying for the hardware & software, staffing, creative licensing and bandwidth we all use when we listen online -- which is quite different than on-air listening; the more who listen, the higher the cost. To earn its keep, our streaming operations have to demonstrate to advertisers how many people listen and from where. So the sign-in process essentially helps us pay the costs. The alternative is doing what many other broadcasters are doing, which is charging listeners a subscription fee.

We're fortunate because the vast majority of our loyal listeners are pleased to spend the four extra seconds it takes to sign in and be counted because they like our programming and they value this new
convenience. I hope to count you as one of those listeners!

Thanks again for writing to us.

Now, perhaps something like the following story can help all of us!

Technology cuts down on Web registrations - USATODAY.com

Lost

Hello again!

I'd fallen off the face of the blog-o-sphere (do they still call it that?) until now this moment. Seems like, after the initial blogging blitz, things died off. Now, even your brother-in-law is blogging (and could barely use his laptop at Christmas).

I've been ambiguously refering to myself as the web guy for over a decade now, since the little stint at the copier place (which amounts to driving around town, flirting with the girls at offices). And now, for the second time, I'm leading the web initiative at a Clear Channel Radio plant in the midwest. Fun toys!

Web 2007: Who knew they'd start sticking pictures with voices?

I guess what comes around... I'd like to talk more about video on the web. Just a few years ago, I felt so strongly against plugging up the tubes with broadband content, especially video. But the quality of compressed media -- and the bandwidth that carries it -- is now only limited by where in the $50 to $100 range you want your connection to be.

Next time, let's chat about making you famous!

Regards,

Danny

Corporations go off a-podcasting - baltimoresun.com

Bridge Ratings, a California company that conducts radio-audience research, estimated last month that 4.8 million people have downloaded at least one podcast this year compared with 820,000 last year. About a fifth listen regularly.

Though many are using computers to do it, the rapidly growing portable market also expands the potential podcast reach. About 35 million households have portable music devices such as the iPod, according to JupiterResearch, which analyzes Internet and new-technology trends. That's double the number last year, and it will double again by 2010, the company predicts.">Corporations go off a-podcasting - baltimoresun.com: "Bridge Ratings, a California company that conducts radio-audience research, estimated last month that 4.8 million people have downloaded at least one podcast this year compared with 820,000 last year. About a fifth listen regularly.

Though many are using computers to do it, the rapidly growing portable market also expands the potential podcast reach. About 35 million households have portable music devices such as the iPod, according to JupiterResearch, which analyzes Internet and new-technology trends. That's double the number last year, and it will double again by 2010, the company predicts.

WiFi Takes Center Stage in Crime

In tonight's top story: Could you be arrested for having wireless networking in your home? Our crime beat team will cover this important development.

Wireless networking, like knives, guns and explosives, can be used in the commission of a crime. Therefore, wi-fi...bad.

Tech Dirt points out, "...there [are] a number of terrible things being done, and the use of open WiFi -- the least of the issues -- [gets] all the attention."

"In this first case, we had someone arrested for: (1) driving the wrong way down a one way street (2) driving without any pants on (3) using a laptop while driving (4) using that laptop to download child porn (5) which he accessed via a free WiFi connection.

"In another case, a scam was committed in Finland involving the financial firm GE Money: (1) the company's own head of data security (2) stole banking software from the company after which he (3) took confidential users passwords for its bank accounts. He then (4) stole money from GE Money's accounts by transferring it to a (5) secret account he had set up months earlier. Oh yeah, he did this last bit (6) via an open WiFi connection. In that second case, the case went to trial and the guy and three of his partners were convicted. What does the press cover? Four convicted in rare wireless fraud in Finland."

"The wireless part has almost nothing to do with the story. Even the account of the crime in the article focuses on the fact that they transferred money using WiFi and barely mentions the actual fraud."

News is a hard business, and with budget cuts, you can invision unwitting and underpaid news directors & producers now telling their equally unwitting and underpaid reporters to go get stories about how wi-fi is causing a crimewave in our cities and should be stopped -- and they do this because it seems like cutting edge reporting; consumers need to know.

That may seem goofy, but let's take it a step further anyway, because this will sound frighteningly familiar, if not bizarre.

Meanwhile, at the statehouse, a few prick politicians, who probably studied law, are being told by their advisors they "must speak out and legislate against open wi-fi hotspots, otherwise you'll be seen as soft on crime and be defeated in the upcoming elections". The new legislation will give criminal investigators new tools to snoop for -- and arrest -- hotspot owners in dramatic sting operations, which is naturally leaked to and reported by those same not-wit reporters. Those who are otherwise law abiding citizens are turned into a new class of criminal, further seperating people from their money and re-over-populating jails & prisons.

Missing Keith and the Girl

It's almost 1 AM CST, making it almost 2 in New York. So, where's my new episode of Keith and the Girl?

How disappointed was I?

I had to listen to Dawn & Drew.

Keith and the Girl

Sometimes you just have a really bad day.. - Yahoo! News

Doesn't it happen to us all once in a while?

West Wing Goes South

Two renditions of CSI and no West Wing? Two and a Half Men comes in at number 16, but Sorkin's baby not among the hot 16 TV shows in the November sweeps? Desperate Friggin Housewives, for chrissake!!?? NBC doesn't even show up in the top 12 shows!

Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings - Yahoo! News

Oprah: The Anti-hump

It made for good follies, but looks like the fun may be over. Although I'll believe it when I see it, Oprah finally finds her sense of humor and agrees to appear on Letterman.

Letterman finally gets Oprah to return - Yahoo! News

Accidental X Nearly Incites Internet Riots

Adolescence abounds Monday following the accidental airing of a cue marker during CNN's airing of VP Cheney's live speech.

Can we get more childish?

CNN explains 'X' glitch over Dick Cheney's face - Yahoo! News

Internet Ad Revenue Reaches $3.1B

Internet-related ad revenues reached an all-time high of $3.1 billion in September, 2005.
--Interactive Advertising Bureau

According to Nielsen NetRatings, in September AOL had 51.5 million users, MSN Messenger 27.3 million and Yahoo Messenger 21.9 million.

AOL Delivers Next-Generation AIM - Yahoo! News

Smells Like Lindows

Okay, here's your chance: get a $300 PC with Linspire, a Linus OS, and kiss Bill goodbye.

Makes you nervous, doesn't it? The fact that Linux now has 2.5% of the OS marketshare makes Microsoft nervous too. Judging from Apple's relative success and Windows' more than 20-year-lead time, I think Linux is doing quite well. It's almost ready-for-prime-time!
Linux Gets Some Retail Respect - Yahoo! News