Another funny video from iJustine. This one is another of her spoofs. The object of her spoofing - Ke$ha. In an interview that I heard iJustine give she said that Ke$ha's interviews are always "interesting" and she wondered it would be like if Ke$ha got an iPad. For Ke$ha fans out there... I'm sorry, but this is funny.
YouTube's first video, Me At the Zoo, was uploaded on April 23rd, 2005 at 8:27 pm. I don't think anyone at YouTube knew the revolution they would spark or how much YouTube would change the internet. It's really surprising when you realize that they weren't the first to do video, even Broadcast.com wasn't the first; but none of them up until YouTube would capture the imagination of the world the way YouTube has done and continues to do.
Part of the success is the simplicity of the website (not unlike Google - which bought YouTube in 2006); but the true ingredient to their success is far simpler - it's content created by us, average folks. It also owes it's success to being in the right place at the right time, not an unusual ingredient to success. The wide adoption of digital video cameras, the ease of uploading to computers, the availability of inexpensive editing software (for those that wish to edit) and of course the ever increasing speed of our access to the internet - for watching and uploading videos. All of it came together around 2005 and all YouTube had to do was light a match.
The use of YouTube has shot through the stratosphere too. The best way to illustrate this is to look at the top videos and how many times they have been viewed. The first thing you will notice is that there are 10 videos with more than 100 million views, several of which are either personal videos or new media videos. If you look at total views something interesting becomes apparent. Currently the number one video (Lady Gaga's Bad Romance) has 186 million views, number two (Charlie Bit My Finger) has 183 million and number three (Evolution of Dance) has 142 million. While those numbers are astonishing, what's more astonishing is that Lady Gaga's video was uploaded on November 23, 2009 while Charlie Bit My Finger was uploaded on May 22, 2007 and Evolution of Dance was uploaded on April 6, 2006. Evolution of Dance reigned supreme for years, and was then quickly overtaken by a little kid who was then overtaken by a music video.
Two points come to mind to me. One, more and more people are turning to YouTube for regular entertainment; two, old media is seeing this trend and moving in for the kill. While they fight over what goes on YouTube, they have realized that people like to watch YouTube. The smart ones, like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, are taking advantage of YouTube. The others, well, my grandkids won't know who "they" were; but something tells me they will remember Lady Gaga, and maybe even Evolution of Dance.
Below, are links to the top 10 Videos on YouTube as of April 25th, 2010.
I think I've got a pretty good video of the week for you. With nearly 250,000 views on YouTube since April 21st (4 days) it's currently one of the hottest videos on YouTube; and for good reason. I've not seen her videos (spricket24) before, but I will have to check some of them out. Basically in this one she runs through lots of "funny" words. Not funny because of what they mean, but funny in how they sound. At one point, one of the words cracks her up as she is trying to say it.
Apparently this bit of comedy sprang from saying "gobsmacked" to someone and having that person laugh at her for using the word. Gobsmacked, if you didn't know, means utterly astonished; no I didn't know that until I looked it up!
The sad story of the young child that was found dead in Wylie last week continues. Even with volunteers scouring the city in a hope of finding someone that knew or recognized the child, no one has been found. At six year old special needs child shouldn't be this much of a mystery, but apparently he is just that - a mystery. The 40 member team remains optimistic that they will determine this child's story and find those that knew him. Below is another video segment from this weekend that I found on WFAA's website.
I saw this trailer in the theater today. Man, what major action hero from the 80's, 90's and the the last decade isn't in this film? Here's a game, watch the trailer and see if you can spot all the heroes. COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU!
Okay... TOTALLY COOL! I twitted this earlier, but this is one of those must adds to my website. Basically the video below shows you a way to have a window into many different places right in your living room by seemingly looking through a window. I came upon this on TUAW (Mac's are used to run the software and drive the 2 HD plasma TVs). You can find more information on their website at RationalCraft.com. There you can find more videos, including their HowTo. This isn't a simple or inexpensive project, but it sure is one hell of a cool project.
As you watch the video, the first scene is cool, but when they show the windows looking into the world under the sea, that's incredible. Just check it out. Youtube offers this one up in 1080p, so choose that and go full screen!!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqu9NuINKbc (iPhone Friendly)
Winscape Features:
Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are two of my favorite animated films, actually two of my favorite films period. Technically amazing for their day, still a joy to watch. Soon though the film series gets the "trilogy" treatment - Toy Story 3. While it might not be the most original name, has there been a Pixar movie yet that wasn't simply fantastic. Forgetting for the moment the incredible technology that goes into every new Pixar movie, the stories have an uncommon ability to appeal to children and adults. It's not surprising that the kings of animation, the house that Walt built, bought Pixar. Quite simply, Pixar was doing what Disney had failed to do - make animation not only popular but a box office hit - EVERY SINGLE TIME. While I've not seen Toy Story 3, what I have seen of it looks to be the makings of yet another box office hit; and yet another mandatory movie to add to my collection. Below is a scene from Toy Story 3. I'm guessing it's from early on in the film. It shows you all the characters you knew from the first two films, as well as glimpses into a few new ones - including Ken and Barbie; who apparently haven't met, yet!
Be sure to choose 720p if your computer will handle it, and then go FULL SCREEN!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEt6eq1HM9U (iPhone Friendly)
As many of you are probably aware a milestone birthday awaits me this summer. I won't say my age, but let's just say that Nixon was still in office when I entered this world. Come on, you can do the the math! Anyway, to celebrate this most momentous birthday the wife decided that we should celebrate by taking a cruise. Earlier this year we began to look into different cruising options. While we want to take a cruise, we didn't want to break the bank in the process. Let's face it, if taking a vacation is seldom an inexpensive event; then taking a cruise most definitely isn't. Luckily though since we live in Texas, we are only a few short hours away from Galveston. While not a busy sea port, two cruise lines do operate a total of three ships. We found one that we liked, even found a cabin that would offer us most of what we were looking for and BANG, we have a summer cruise vacation.
So what are the details? We are taking the Carnival Cruise Line's Conquest on a 7 day journey to the Western Caribbean. Our cruise will take us to Montego Bay in Jamaica, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands and Cozumel Mexico. All of the ports look like they offer a good assortment of activities, either sponsored by the ship or planned totally by us. We both love to explore, so even if we don't do the typical excursions we will definitely find a way to keep ourselves occupied.
Best of all, several days at sea. That's what I'm really looking for in a cruise. For me, that's why you go on a cruise. The ship we are taking, Conquest, isn't a new ship but isn't exactly old and recently had a total makeover. She is only about 10 years old, so by ship standards she isn't old. When she was built she was one of the biggest in the world. Because we booked early, we were even able to get one of the coveted cabins with a wrap around balcony.
As we get closer to the trip, I will write more about what we plan to do. Until then, check out this video from CuriseNow.com. It's all about our ship, the vary same one that we will take us on our summer vacation.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa1mYddWqO8 (iPhone Friendly)
“The best camera, is the one you have on you.”
