Radio Killed the Newspaper Star

I was on the radio today, at about 9:20 am.

Rusty Humphries’ local show on the large local right-wing station, KVI (in the slot vacated by Rush Limbaugh’ trip to rehab), was focusing on Tuesday, January 27th’s big story.  No, not the New Hampshire primary.  What would they care about that for?  Bush is pretty much a shoe-in to win the Republican side there, don’t you think?

It was today’s other big story: the myDoom virus.  There was no particular political angle to the show today (unless you believe that liberals/progressives are more apt to use Macs than conservatives are, which is probably true).

Nothing too exciting beyond that.  When I was on the air, I told him that I get e-mails with viruses in them all the time, probably a couple dozen with/from myDoom in the last day alone.  But I never worry about them for two reasons: I use a Macintosh, while most viruses are written for Windows, and I don’t use Microsoft Outlook, which most viruses take advantage of.  I noted that while I use a Mac, it isn’t just because of virus issues.

Rusty wanted to know if I thought viruses like this were targeted at Microsoft and Bill Gates, but I affirmed that was unlikely.  When Windows has 95% or so of the computers out there, it is simply the biggest target.  (I didn’t mention that Macs are probably somewhat less vulnerable in general.)

He also expressed that he had had troubles in the past simply using a Mac.  I said that Mac and Windows are really pretty much the same — maybe 90% or so — but whichever one someone learns to use first is the one they will tend to prefer.

This was the first time I had been on a radio talk show.  I called on my cell phone (and once I got through, promptly plugged in the headset I have for it, so I could drive safely, thanks very much!) and they put me on after about 5 minutes.  While I was waiting, I could hear the radio show through the phone.  Once they put me on (I was the second person on after I called), though, all the background radio noise was gone, giving me no feedback to indicate that I was still connected, not even any breathing from the host.  I had to just start talking and go until I got to a point where Rusty would respond.  Very odd sensation.

[Weblog title reference: “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles was the first video to be shown on MTV, back in 1981.]