Ampers & Dot

In an attempt to continually start every post with a comment on how seldomly I’ve been posting… well you get the point. Excuses: work is especially busy, I’ve been working longer days, I’ve been out of town, I’ve had meetings after work, and been fighting a cold, tired, lazy… etc…

While working with people to help set up blogs, I often say “quality over quantity”. I’d rather see two or three good posts a week than five throw-away posts. I was trying this philosophy out myself and the problem came when I missed a day… or two… or three and it became increasingly difficult to get back in the habbit. So here’s a blogging concept I’m going to try out for a little while (at least until the inevitable failure): quantity with quality, excluding length. I’ll not be focusing on getting as much into each post, but there’s just so much I want to talk about that my goal is to get out shorter posts and more topics.

So let’s try that out. Let me know what you think…

Ok, the Super Bowl is over and here in Boston we’re all pretty bummed. The entire thing just seems surreal and I have three quick arguments about all this: Eli Manning isn’t good. And the Giants defense outplayed the Patriots. Eli Manning isn’t good.

Moving on.

The saving grace of last night’s debacle were, of course, the commercials. It had been two off years in a row, but 2008 turned it around by giving an overall strong performance. In previous years watching a funny commercial during the Super Bowl meant that you would have to keep watching TV to see it again.

Well thanks to the wonders of the web and online video, we can all ignore regular TV and jump right in to watching fun commercials!

Jump on over to NewTeeVee’s site to check out the summary of where to find all the top videos. You can also find them on Hulu, which you all have invites from when I posted them last month… right?

My personal favorites are: the Bridgestone one with the screaming animals, the talking stain, Shaq the jockey, the eTrade baby, and a few others- man it was a pretty good year!

My least favorites: the blatantly racially stereotypical Salesgenie ones, the random one with Carmen Electra, and the horrible Career Builder ones.

And tomorrow… we’re talking Yahoo, Google, MS, and the rest of the ongoing insanity in the tech world this week.

Quick post- then I have to get to work.

Tech Crunch just leaked a few thousand Hulu Beta invites- and let me tell you: this is worth it. It takes three seconds to enter your email, then they send you a login and you’re all set.

Let’s consider this one a holiday gift from me to you… (or from Tech Crunch from me to you)

Click Here to Get Your Invite

**UPDATE** the Tech Crunch invites are running low. Try either the ReadWriteWeb or the Mashable invites

QOTP (Question of the Post):
What is important to you when watching video online? (Example: video quality, stream speed, no ads, etc.)
And don’t forget to read my post from last night- it was a good one.

Ok, so yesterday I wrote about about the WGA strike and what sort of consequences will come from it. Then I linked to some fun video sites… well you know what- I know a lot about this space of the web and I think it’s my responsibility to pass along this knowledge.

File sharing is stupid these days. When working moms are being successfully sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the RIAA, it’s probably time to uninstall Kazaa… and yeah, there are workarounds for mp3s (google is a powerful tool) but for videos, outside of file sharing and torrents (which are being shutdown left and right) there are somewhat limited options. Most people only think of YouTube for online video, well I’m here to let you know there’s a bit more out there for everyone.

So let’s get on to it.

In response to yesterday: Andy Samberg and his comedy group “The Lonely Island” had their first big SNL video a couple years back, which was actually called “Lazy Sunday” - but thanks to NBC’s stranglehold over SNL content, good luck getting to it on their website (without 3+ minutes of ads). If only there were a place that hosted hilarious SNL videos like this… man, I love teh internets.

More viewing fun: in response to the strike the WGA has put together this site which hosts videos about what life would be like without writers (some are really funny). Oh, and if you actually want to watch them, go to YouTube’s Speechless Channel. Sorry Cambridge, MA based Brightcove, but your streaming really needs some work. (Thanks Selene!)

Along with the Hulu leak from yesterday, you should all also be aware of CBS’s innertube (which should only be used to watch How I Met Your Mother) click on “full epsidoes” on the top bar… then wait through annoying ads.

ABC has full shows online too, but use some proprietary player… which is just idiotic in this day and age. There’s not really anything to watch there anyway… but seriously, what is “Move Media Player”? And why does Fox video player also use it?! There’s a chance that Move Player might be more than I originally assumed, but still- if you’re a video hosting site these days and you aren’t using Flash or H.264 (apple’s MP4), then you’re going to be pretty harshly ridiculed.

And lastly, should you want to watch an irreverent 90 minutes of fart jokes and drunken bafoonary, then you’re in luck. Tomorrow kicks off the first ever “Direct to Download” feature length film: Jackass 2.5 (according to an exec: “There’s more vomiting, nudity, and defecation”). It’s pretty funny actually, but this is a historical moment and Jackass will always been known as an innovator in Internet Video. From the 19th through the 25th you can download watch the full movie available at http://blockbuster.jackassworld.com/

So that’s what I’ve got for you. Hopefully you’ll have some great time wasting with those. Anyone know of any good ones I missed, let me know in the comments below.

Oh- and speaking of comments- enjoy the new Comment Preview button - it uses Ajax and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve also fixed the formatting (I think…). So please pass along more feedback on the site- as it’s a constant work in progress and I like the idea of new projects.

Ok, first off- To all my loyal readers (yes, all three of you) sorry for not posting since Friday. I’ll do my best not to let it happen again.

Secondly, today is officially the 10th anniversary of blogs. Happy birthday, Blogs.

Now, on to today’s post: let’s talk TV.

So what people have probably already realized about the writers’ strike is that it’s temporarily detrimental for everyone. No one is happy about this right now. In the long run, hopefully this will work out for the writers. Read the full synopsis here then wait a second, reflect back on what you just read, and where you read it…

Wikipedia, you are the answer to all my questions. Anyone find it ironic that you can read up on why writers aren’t writing through a UGC (user generated content) site? Well that irony is half of what I want to talk about today. The UGC phenomenon is still fresh, growing, and ragingly popular. Think YouTube- there are more than 65,000 videos uploaded everyday. Think about the internet celebrities: the “Leave Britney Alone” kid, the “Don’t Tase Me Bro” dude, or the Star Wars kid… the list goes on and on- and it’s all pretty funny. My favorite story is about Andy Samberg of SNL fame (Dick in a Box/Chronicles of Narnia Rap)- who was discovered for his online videos.

The argument here is that this is the first time in entertainment history that you can become famous, nearly overnight, with a little creativity (or annoyingness…) and a few clicks of the mouse. Andy Samberg and friends were able to write their own material and put it online and now the guy gets to make real movies (unfortunately they’re apparently horrid). For anyone who is trying to get into the business, there is no better time. The writers’ strike is going to revolutionize the way Hollywood works (what they spend money on, how media is distributed… and hey, rumor is that Jay Leno has been fired already, to cut production costs) and although it’s going to be tough out there until it does work out- it will be very cool to see how this works out.

Over the next few months we are going to start seeing some great UGC on YouTube and hopefully it’s going to be hilarious.

This reminds me that I should call Davey, my friend who just moved to LA to become a writer, to keep on his good side before he becomes famous…

The second thing that the WGA strike is going to do to the web is boost online ad sales. I recently read that NBC has started refunding its advertisers in the amount of $500k due to a “Low Ratings” clause in their ad contracts. With the writers’ strike, there are no new shows. With no new shows, no one is watching TV. With no one watching TV, ratings suffer… so what do advertisers do with this big refund check?

Online Ad Sales.

Compared to tv commercials, online ads cost peanuts. Half a million dollars for an online campaign gets you ridiculous bang for your buck. So what does this mean for us?

1) No more new TV for a while. Damnit.
2) More online ads swarming down sites more than ever. Damnit.

And you know what? I don’t really have a silver lining here. So I’ll leave you with two links to help enjoy online TV in the meantime.

NBC’s Hulu (beta exploit) - this is a collection of all NBC shows, free. It’s currently in private beta testing, but someone cracked it… PLUS- this is fully legal within the beta agreement- so you won’t get in trouble, just enjoy (Both of these sites take you to the same info- but I’ve posted both because I’m sure one will be shut down soon)

http://openhulu.com/
http://tvparadise.org/

Find Internet TV - a site that links to all the good streaming sites (some are pay, avoid any with a dollar sign on them).

http://www.findinternettv.com/
That’s all I’ve got today… I’m going to be pretty swamped with work this week- plus holiday parties after work. I’ll do my best to get at least a link or two up each day, but I’m not even going to pretend to talk about Facebook’s overvaluation…

Enjoy