What he's talking about is a valid concern. I too, having implemented an RSS reader with background polling process, had to deal with users complaining about "big" number in Task Manager.
However, what I learned later on, was that it isn't the number in task manager that people dislike, it is the assumption that we, engineers, make about how they use their computers. Our applications (my RSS reader or Xobni's analytics) may be useful, but not useful enough to be running at all times. An average user probably does about a hundred things he considers useful with his PC on a typical day, and if each and single one of those things starts its own little "monitor", things may get nasty.
It should not be so hard to keep in mind that our code is not the only thing on a computer, and using our software is not users' full time job.
Ever saw a 3 year old laptop that belongs to a "typical" user? Task manger has a scrollbar four (!) pages tall. That's how many processes he's running. Sure, every single one of them is written by a guy who knows the difference between private working set and shared memory, and every single one is somewhat useful (anti-virus, volume controls, sound enhancers, CD silencers, download managers, RSS daemon, weather bugs, temperature monitors, etc). But in the end, you DO end up with sluggish performance and ridiculous startup times. And Vista only amplifies the pain.
Therefore, unless you are a driver or a shell of some sort, DO NOT run any code in the background. Ever.
This is why I am not a Xobni user anymore. Kudos to them for a great idea and usable implementation.