A YouTube Proposal on YouTube

Not a whole lot to talk about today, and yet I've wasted far too much time reading articles I don't feel are worth talking about here. Aside from all that, I found out that I made above a 100 on my Probability test but failed the Physics exam making almost exactly the average grade. Oh well, I guess that makes me a slightly more normal college student. Anyway, someone posted a video on YouTube with his suggestions for how YouTube could fix its problems with copyright, and one of them was actually pretty decent. What if copyright holders would mark what videos should and shouldn't be flagged to help expedite the moderation process and yield a more legal YouTube? It's an interesting idea, but are these people really going to go through all that trouble rather than just suing YouTube? YouTube is in quite a pickle now because people are starting to expect them to be more responsible about illegal content, and yet its very bedrock is the illicit content. I have a better idea: why not offer this copyrighted content legally, but for free? For example, people like watching Seinfeld episodes on YouTube, so why not have best of collages from Seinfeld on YouTube as a promotion for the DVDs? Or why not let people use songs from copyrighted artists as long as they plug a new album or something? In other words, I think that YouTube should aim to bring in this illegal content legally rather than get rid of it through agreements with the content providers that serve to benefit them as well. That's just my two cents though, I'll let you ponder it for a while.

Someone put up a hilarious list of how you can shoot yourself in a variety of programming languages in an effort to mock some of their unique attributes and annoyances, and what's even better is that readers have made even better suggestions of their own. This one is really brilliant for .Net: Microsoft gives you a gun and tells you to shoot yourself in the foot. This is totally a must-skim for any programmers out there. Google has started offering widgets similar to what you can get with Google Desktop to website owners, and it's a pretty neat idea except that I don't think it's compatible with all blogs, which is what I feel they'd be most useful for. Maybe they should try integrating the service more smoothly with Blogger? I don't like talking about the Zune much anymore because I've butchered it enough, but Wired had to go and put up an article that frames my opinions about it even better than I can. In a few words: it's not as cool as it's trying to market itself as and it's only innovative features are things that people don't really care about. Searchmash is a cool site I ran into today that's a Google mashup created by Google itself that basically evolved out of a need for a user interface that's more intuitive than what Google currently offers. I think it's a pretty nifty little site, though I'll probably forget to use it in the future since there's a YubNub command for it (sema). Lastly, I have this concept phone from BenQ that reminds me of a phone I saw in Popular Science last year that's a changing touchscreen interface. I think it could be great, but there's still logistical issues like having that touch feedback and not accidentally dialing someone while it's in your pocket and such.



AICN's Massawyrm got to see Apocalypto and seems to have really enjoyed it. He put aside the bad Gibson press though, and I think that's important because the trailers for this movie looked really crazy and definitely different from most of the crap in theaters nowadays. Moviefone put up the trailer for Ghost Rider and it looks better than I expected. However, my main fear now is that they'll end up overpowering the movie with corny dialogue and watering down the romance. One of my favorite things about the Spider-mans was how they handled Mary Jane without pushing aside the meat of the stories. Lastly, IGN dug up some details on Hostel 2, which sounds very similar to the original. What's creepy about it is how much it sounds like it could almost really happen.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

Apple pie or pumpkin pie?
Pumpkin, it's just so much better.
Cars or SUVs?
Cars, because they're easier to park.
Pen or pencil?
Pencil, because I'm far from perfect.
Electric guitar or acoustic guitar?
Acoustic, classical to be more specific.
Shower or bath?
Shower, because how do you get clean from a bath?
Daffy Duck or Yogi Bear?
Daffy, just because.
Butter on a biscuit or jam on a biscuit?
Butter, because it's sinfully delicious.
Bringing sexy back or dropping it like it's hot?
Bringing sexy back, of course.