This ‘Idol’ Site is Really Up to Speed

By Ronnie Gill, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

May 12–Are you wondering how some people seemed to know that Chris Daughtry was the likely “American Idol” reject this week when most everyone else was sure it was going to be either Katharine McPhee or Elliott Yamin? Presuming they aren’t psychic, they probably checked the Web site DialIdol.com.

The site claims an 85 percent accuracy rate for predicting the results of nationwide voting for the show based on the number of busy signals received by users who download the company’s free software to speed dial “American Idol’s” toll-free numbers through their home computer’s phone modem. The results of their calls are sent back to the DialIdol site, where the data are compiled and updated in real time. Contestant rankings on the Web site continue to shift throughout the show’s voting window Tuesday nights.

Jim Hellriegel, 30, a Cleveland network engineer for a Midwest bank, says he originally developed the program last year to help him speed-dial votes for his favorite “Idol” contestants. When he noticed that he received more busy signals for some contestants than for others, he wondered whether each of those busy signals translated into a vote cast. Keeping records, he found there was a correlation between his bottom-ranked contestants – those for whom he received the least amount of busy signals – and the ones who were being eliminated from the show.

This year, Hellriegel, who was a Daughtry supporter, decided to go public with his software, which can vote evenly for a group of contestants you favor, or only for the one who needs your votes the most based on the busy signal percentages.

To use the site’s speed dialing, download DialIdol v2.4.0.0 at www.dial idol.com.

Requirements include Windows ME/2000/XP/2003, .NET Framework v1.1 (a free download from Microsoft) and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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