Zudeo Rivals YouTube?

I didn't talk about the beta release of Zudeo (from the makers of Azureus) yesterday because I personally didn't feel it was that big of a deal. However, Wired seems to be rather enamored by it so I felt that I just had to speak against them here. Zudeo is little more than a respository for torrents. In other words, you can't watch videos inside your browser, you must download Azureus first and use it as an intermediary. I'll admit that it's cool that you can get HD quality video and that you can start watching a video before it's done, but it relies on the Java Runtime Environment, so it's bound to devour RAM, which is why I never got it and I'm not going to right now. When it comes down to it, how many people are going to download a program to watch a video on Zudeo because it's higher quality than its YouTube counterpart? The mass appeal of YouTube was that it was so easy to publish, share, AND view content. If you're at the office or at a library or something, you can't just install Azureus. If they were to produce a thin, web-based client, then they'd be in business. Until then, my verdict is that this won't dent YouTube anymore than Stage 6, which also toutes high quality video and I think has a much better site. It does require you to install their web player, but at least you can still watch the videos from within your browser. I don't see how Zudeo is much different from browsing around on Mininova, and I don't think it'll spread very easily to the mainstream.

Let's start with the Apple stuff. Reliable sources claim that Apple is readying a 12" MacBook Pro, likely in the $1700-$1800 price range. I know that people would really be interested in that, though I personally think that any smaller than like 14" widescreen is too small. The other thing from Cupertino is that they've apparently acquired a video asset management firm called Proximity that basically allows artists and producers to easily manage their work. Some speculate that this is related to iTV, and I'm sure others think it's to spruce up Final Cut Pro, but it looks like it's targeted at the high-end market (like companies offering videos on iTunes), not regular consumers. Technology Review interviewed C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup about the problems of programming today and Stroustrup actually gets rather defensive when C++ is challenged by the interviewer. It's not a bad read, but I still think that it's a little idealistic to claim that C++'s verbosity and tight syntax rules don't hurt programmer efficiency.


That picture comes from the new Will Ferrell flick, Blades of Ice. Just thought it was kind of quirky. Anyone, not much else in movies. I finally got around to seeing the trailer for Blood and Chocolate, and it looks pretty bad. At least Evanescence finally has a movie its crappy music actually fits. There's a much better horror trailer for The Host, which I believe is a Japanese film, and those Eastern horror flicks are always the best so I'm looking forward to this one. The only other thing is that Don Cheadle has finally gotten the wheels turning on his biopic of jazz legend Miles Davis, which he had been working on getting the rights to for 6 years and now he's commissioned some great writers to work on the screenplay. I know, I know, too many musical biographies, but maybe Miles Davis has a really interesting story.

Before I conclude I just wanted to plug this article about cluttering. It's not a very well-known condition, so I hope to educate people about it who mistake me for a stutterer. I'm still working past it, obviously, and hopefully this will help some of you understand me a little better.

I'm going for the Ten on Tuesday meme this week:

10 Things You Love About the Holidays
10. Holiday spirit
9. Fresh food for four weeks (plus what I take back with me in January)
8. Christmas carols
7. Bowl games
6. Hot New Year's Eve bashes
5. Christmas sweets!
4. Cold weather
3. Exchanging gifts
2. Taking a break from school work
1. Seeing family