Our Storynory podcast continues to grow, with 44,361 downloads over the past 30 days according to Feedburner, which measures users reaching us via services such as iTunes. We find it hard to keep tabs on the additional downloads that come directly off the site, but we think we can safely add another 10% to the figure. On our best day (last Monday) we had 2688 downloads off the feed. This kind of circulation would be impossible with just a traditional website. It’s iTunes that brings us the listeners, and now we are heading the new Kids and Family section in the Uk, that gives us some additional prominence.

iTunes rules the podcasting roost. 61% of our listeners are using iTunes Windows. 30% are on iTunes Mac. Juice has 2%, Yahoo and Bloglines both 1%. We don’t seem to get many at all from the podcast directories, which is our weakest point.

One Web.2.0 add-on that has become indispensible to me is the Sage RSS Reader for Firefox. I’ve stopped writing up enthusiastic reviews of new discoveries because usually, after a week, I find that I’ve stopped using them. Sage, however, has earned its place in my online life.

If you use the Firefox web-browser, then get the Sage Extension. Just press Alt-S and all your RSS feeds are in a left-hand panel. It’s even worth subscribing to those pesky one-line only feeds from the BBC etc, because you can go to the webpage in the main frame, and keep all the headlines in the Sage panel.

I still manage all my subs in Bloglines and every now and then export them into Sage (export is found under “edit” in Bloglines). It takes less than a minute to do, and means that I can still access them from any computer.

There’s life in my old laptop yet. I finally got round to reinstalling Windows XP on my IBM T23. I heartily recommend a good old clear-out to revitalise an aging pc. Suddenly the same Pentium III, that only yesterday was coughing a spluttering along, is flying at breakneck speed.

So much clutter is gone! One of the perils of Web.2.0 is that there are so many free downloads that your computer quickly becomes clogged up. Most of them, frankly, I never use. Then there are all the drivers from peripherals that are now languishing in the attic.

The major obstacle was backing up all my documents - but was made reasonably painless by investing in an external hard drive and dumping everything onto it in one go. From then on, it’s mostly patience. Reinstalling software (finding the keys) remembering old passwords for websites -all this is a bore - but worth it.

Microsoft hopes to take on the iPod with its Zune player. But Zune will not include any podcasting features. Now there’s a blog dedicated to getting this omission put right. Perhaps Microsoft just shies away from anything with the word “pod” in it.

I am relieved that Boeing has dropped its $1 billion project to hook planes up to broadband internet in- flight. An aircraft seat is the last sacred place where no email spammer can reach you. Flight is a time to sit back and think, and get away from the frenzy of online communication. There is so little space these days for reflection. (apparently some Microsoft employees agree with me) My idea of Hell would be to start getting instant messages half-way across the Atlantic. I was amazed, on my last journey, to hear a man use the in-flight phone to ring up all his friends and get into the sort of inane chatter you often hear on buses these days, “yeah, I’m just going past Piccadilly now, etc.” Some people are addicted to constant communication. It’s a disease - and those of us who work online are prone to it.

Here’s a story that’s so good, I just have to repeat it. The Times reports that AOL is going dig up the garden of a notorious spammer and former neo-Nazi. A court has ordered him to pay up $12.8 million, but he’s so far evaded payment. Rumour has it that the spammer has converted his ill-gotten gains into gold bars and buried them.

I have to say that most of the spam I receive these days is in Asian characters of some sort. It’s incredibly depressing to have all this, I think, Japanese porn, pouring into my in box in the morning, in great wads of 20 or 30 at a time. It’s like a slap in the face.

I’m also inundated with fake Paypal emails, which has caused me to miss a genuine order that came in via Paypal for one of our dedicated stories on Storynory.

I suppose I’ve been careless with my various email addresses. There is a price to pay for such carelessness.

Samantha Wolf, the mother of the jailed video-blogger, Josh, has launched a wiki in support of the “Free Josh Wolf” campaign. It includes an excellent video, in which Josh explains how his footage of a demonstration in San Francisco led to him being jailed for contempt by a Grand Jury.

No modern campaign would be complete without a blog and a wiki. They are, I suspect, far more effective at drumming up support than smashing a policeman over the head (evidence of which may on Josh’s video, apparently).

I must admit, although I hate to see the courts bullying a principled blogger and journalist, I’m not quite sure if Josh is protecting a source in this case. Footage taken in public is not quite the same as a piece of information or document given to a journalist on a non-attributable basis.

But it’s surely time to let Josh go home. Come on, this is a talented young man with principles. Everybody’s made their point now.

My faith in US Justice is mighty thin (politically motivated prosecutors, plea bargaining, the prisoner’s dilemma, 99 year sentences, foot-shackles, lethal injections, electric chairs, and other barbaric practices). But it has been restored a little by the sight of Boy George sweeping up for five days in New York. This seemed like a case of a proportionate and possibly quite reforming justice in action. Perhaps judges in New York have a sense of humour and a sense of proportion. And it is a place where they have managed to reduce crime without executing people. I think that is a pretty good pointer for the way to go.

Apple is targeting businesses that use the word “pod” as in iPod. I have to admit that we have parked a domain called “murderpod” which we hope to use one day (not for nefarious deeds, I hasten to add). I wonder if PodShow? or numerous other podcast spin-offs have received letters from Apple’s lawyers.

Years ago, I used to be telephoned by the likes of Biro and Hoover when I let their tradenames slip into print out of context of their business. How foolish! I always thought, and still do. When your name becomes part of the language, you have truly worked your way under the skin of the public. It’s not something to discourage. Apple should be proud that it’s put pod into currency, and Google should be proud that we are busy Googling all day

When we first launched Blog Relations, about a year ago, quite a few people said something like, “Who would want to read a corporate blog? It would just be full of corporate bullshit.”

Well I don’t think anyone is going to accuse our blogging experiment with Exbiblio as being full of bull. The latest post is about an employee whom, I was told in that lovely American way, had been “terminated”. I think it was more a parting by mutual consent, as it turns out. The ideas of the employee and the company clearly weren’t a good fit. I think he comes across well in the interview, and I hope that the piece helps him find an employer whose ideas are more aligned with his own.

I suppose there must be a mass of travel stories around at the moment. Here’s mine.

I spent some long but quite pleasant hours hanging around Seattle Airport before boarding my delayed BA flight to London.

When we landed at Heathrow, the Captain warmly thanked all the passengers except one for our patience. To this one unidentifiable person, he expressed his heartfelt contempt. Apparently somebody had written “BANG!” on the mirror of one of the loos. The flight had very nearly been diverted to Portland, Maine.

I disembarked thinking it hadn’t been too bad after all. But that was when the weary part began. We waited three hours for our luggage to come onto the belt. There’s nowhere to sit in the baggage hall, let along have a drink, and it must have been very tough for the elderly or those with young children. The muffled announcements in thick demotic English, were unintelligible to all. There’s a lot to be said for the Queen’s English. It might annoy some people to hear crisp public school tones, but at least everyone, especially non-native speakers who learn that sort of English, can understand it.

The crowd took it very stoically, except for one feisty American lady who was rightly giving the the blokes in luminous yellow jackets a hard time.

It seems that loads of flights had been cancelled after people flying out had come through security. They had to reclaim their bags. Heathrow’s Baggage system - not the greatest at the best of times - could not cope. Eventually many people on those cancelled flights were told - after hours of waiting - that they wouldn’t be getting their baggage and that it would be checked through onto the rescheduled flights whenever they might happen. They were stuck in London with just their passports and wallets.

You really do need wartime patience these days.

For once, having an old beat-up laptop is quite cool. I can put it in the hold when (if) I fly out of Seattle and not worry too much if a few more bits get chipped off it. All those businessmen with sleek Vaios and Macs are going to be looking a bit concerned.

I do wish that I could take a book on board though..