Rather than distribute via CD, DVD or download, the Barenaked Ladies are making their newest selection of songs, videos and exclusive material available on a USB flash drive. Nettwerk Music Group is releasing “Barenaked on a Stick” beginning today, says the Hollywood Reporter. It plays on PCs, Macs and any other audio product with a USB port — like some car stereos — and costs $30. This 128 reusable drive contains 29 songs, including the band’s 2004 “Barenaked for the Holidays” album, in MP3 format along with live tracks, in-concert spoken quips, album art, photos, videos and more.
Dance of the Large-Breasted Skank
Looking for that perfect –yet affordable– gift for smays? I can always use some some new production music and the clever kids at Wayne Kozak Audio Productions have the hard-to-find stuff I’ve been searching for. [via AdRants]
Living Healthy (05) – Cholesterol
Living Healthy Podcast: Shows 6 and 7
We now have seven Living Healthy Podcasts online or in the can. We’ve been recording two shows at a time to get a bit ahead. Henry’s idea, and a good one. The most recent shows (Influenza and Smoking) are the best to date (IMO). I’m hearing some things for the first time and it’s all useful stuff you can put into practice (or not). And some of it’s just interesting. For example, people who succeed in quitting smoking attempted it seven times. The new shows go up on December 3 and 10.
How to get through to a real, live person
ABC News did a story last week about a Boston-area blogger named Paul English who has compiled a “cheat sheet” to get past the automated “customer service” systems used by more and more companies. The company brass would insist these systems are cheaper than putting a human in the loop:
“A customer service call handled by a human in the United States costs a company up to a dollar a minute, and calls outsourced to India cost about 40 cents a minute.”
Yeah, yeah. But the dirty truth is, companies hate talking to their customers and would rather avoid them if in-humanly possible. I’m proud that our company still has a real, live person answering the phone (except on weekends) who really wants to help you find the right person. I put my direct number on just about every email I send.
As for the cheat sheet… now that ABC and NPR have done stories on this guy, you can bet the listed companies are scurrying around like rats, changing numbers so we can’t “cheat.”