Assassin's Creed Fan Video

Assassin's Creed is a great game franchise and it definitely has it's fans among gamers. Microsoft Kinect also has it's fans, so why not make a Kinect version of Assassin's Creed? or at least a fan video parody?

"also available for Wii... definitely not available for Wii!" 

I love it. Well done. 

YouTube in 3D

I hadn't realized this until seeing this YouTube API Blog post this morning, but YouTube has been working on 3D video with support for the LG Optimus 3D and NVIDIA 3D Vision, and now for Samsung 3D TVs. The technology allows you to view the content with support for red/blue glasses as well as the latest 3D televisions.

I've not yet invested in 3D TV myself, not sure I could get used to it, so I've not tried this yet but I do think there is a pair of those red/blue glasses around here somewhere! Here is a sample from YouTube, if you have the glasses let us know what you think! Is the quality worthy of investing in 3D? Is this what tips the market into buying into 3D?

Portal 2 Portrayed In Live Action

Came across this little gem via Google+ this morning. I'm a huge fan of the Portal franchise and this is a very well put together short film depicting the Portal theme. Check it out:

The End of Facebook?

Anonymous has posted an interesting message to the world that they plan to take down Facebook on November 5th, 2011.

Interestingly, November 5th is also Guy Fawkes Day. "Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is burned on a bonfire, often accompanied by a firework display." (wikipedia)

Japanese Rap Duo

I've never been into gangsta rap, I think I was born a little too early to "appreciate" this style of music, but here is a trending YouTube video from Japan that made me sit back and realize just how small this world is becoming. I laughed a bit at the bubble wrap, the bling, the Marge Simpson hair, and Playboy bunny logos. What really bowled me over was the fact that no good gangsta rap video has ever been made with out at least the flash of a piece, er... gun, or whatever the kids are calling them these days, and this video takes the prize in that department. As a geek I did appreciate the iPhone and pimped out Segways :)

Taking Android Fandom To A New Level

If you are an Android fan you've probably come to love the little green robot that is the face of the Google Android OS. If you are an Android fan with some DIY skills and some time and materials on your hands you build yourself an Android shaped beer cooler! I commend dacavy75 for his Android building skills and thank him for sharing the process with the world via YouTube. Are you taking orders?

Job well done, you are my hero!

The Year That Was - YouTube Style

The YouTube team has counted the clicks and tallied the views an as of the end of November 2010 this is what the world was tuned into:

Globally, as of November 2010, the most-watched YouTube videos (excluding major label music videos) were:

1. BED INTRUDER SONG!!! (now on iTunes)
2. TIK TOK KESHA Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13
3. Greyson Chance Singing Paparazzi
4. Annoying Orange Wazzup
5. Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
6. Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10
7. OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version
8. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE - Trailer
9. Jimmy Surprises Bieber Fan
10. Ken Block's Gymkhana THREE, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome

Justin Bieber took 4 of the top ten major music label video views while Eminem, Shakira, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga comprised the rest of the list. I refuse to link to Justiin Beiber, just sayin! 

The most-searched for queries on YouTube during the year:

January - haiti

February - luge

March - eclipse trailer

April - ipad

May - eminem not afraid

June - shakira waka waka

July - double rainbow

August - bed intruder

Can't wait to see the top 10 sporting clips!

September - halo reach

October - whip my hair

November - firework

The War Against Watermelons

I was simply going to tweet this but Twitter seems to be experiencing some difficulties today. I am not quite sure what these folks have against watermelons but it does make for an interesting effect... wish I could say that no fruit was harmed in the making of this video but obviously that would be a lie.

Please don't try this at home Gary!

Life In A Day Project - Google & Ridley Scott Team Up

Sadly I missed this project some how... It seams as though Google (YouTube), Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, LG, the Sundance Film Festival have teamed up in an open project that's aim was to document what life was like on earth on July 24, 2010. The Life In A Day project asked for submissions of video captured on July 24th from anyone interested. The work will be compiled and edited over the next several months and the documentary screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. It's not too late however to submit your video, if you captured any yesterday, as the project is accepting submissions until July 31st.

Double Rainbow...

Isn't it funny how one video will go viral while another just sits waiting to be discovered? The double rainbow phenomena is sweeping the internet thanks to Paul Vasquez, aka "Hungry Bear," who spent an hour marveling at the beauty of a "double rainbow" that he spotted and video taped the experience. All it took was for one simple tweet, from late night host Jimmy Kimmel on July 4th and a new internet meme was born. Hungry Bear found himself the subject of interest by media and a lot of people with a bunch of time on their hands. Vasquez's double rainbow video attracted ~5 million views and a spun off a number of parodies such as the double rainbow song:

My double rainbow is yet to be discovered though, I guess 23 seconds of video sans the oohs and the "what does it mean?" does not a meme make. ;)

Source: CNN

YouTube, Not Just For Hosting Anymore

The Official Google Blog is reporting that the YouTube engineers have been hard at work developing editing capabilities into the service that will enable you to quickly and easily preform some basic editing of your video works of art. The new feature is available through TestTube now, and will give you access to thousands of soundtrack audio clips, provide cropping abilities and also allow stitching of multiple clips into a timeline. Check out this video intro: 


Note: it is safe for work, and maybe it's just me, but it's a little disturbing, educational, and entertaining all at the same time. British humor... :)

Let The Year In Review Countdowns Begin - YouTube

The Official Google Blog is first out of the gate with it's list of top viewed videos in 2009 and much to my surprise there were one or two that I hadn't viewed. Perhaps that is because I'm busy, or that I have a life, or life just got in the way. Regardless, for your viewing pleasure here is the roundup of what you watched in 2009:

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1. Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus - The Climb (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island - I'm On A Boat (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson - Knock You Down (35+ million views)

Turning To YouTube For Help When United Breaks Guitars

A Halifax, Nova Scotia musician has taken his fight with United Airlines, regarding a guitar which he says the company broke during transit, to the airwaves by posting his music video "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube. With 350,000 views to date and a 5 star rating, perhaps he'll find satisfaction?

Dave Carroll's web site explains the saga "In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."



Dear United, is this kind of publicity truly worth the $3,500 dollars that it would have cost you to reimburse Mr. Carroll? I think not. I know I'll remember this catchy tune when I'm booking airfare... and I'm likely to visit a Sons of Maxwell show if I get the opportunity.

A Shopping Cart To Be Envious Of

It's a holiday here and I'm taking a break. Though I did find this youtube video and thought it worthy of a post, enjoy...

"Weird Al" Yankovic Pays Homage To The Doors And Craigslist

Weird Al is still making his parody music into an art form and this Doors / Craigslist tribute is no exception, perhaps my new all time favourites from Weird Al...

Man Delivers Baby With Aid Of YouTube

Marc Stephens and his wife Jo had planned to have their forth child at home with the aid of a midwife but when Jo woke with contractions and the midwife was too busy to attend the Stephens' were told to call an ambulance. While waiting for the paramedics Marc, an engineer, decided to turn to turn to YouTube for assistance just in case. As it turned out the baby arrived before help and Marc used his newly acquired skills to deliver the couples first son, Gabriel.

"The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier." said Mr Stephens. "This is our fourth child now and while for our first I spent most of the time at my wife's head, now I'm not afraid to go down to the business end."

BBC news (video)

The YouTube Symphony Mashup

Back in December of 2008 YouTube put out a call to musicians around the world to submit a video of their work with the hopes of joining the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and playing at Carnegie Hall. This week the Symphony performed and the Official Google Blog debuted a YouTube video mashup of some 3000 submissions to the contest. Enjoy...

New Video Sharing Offering From H.P.

Hewlett-Packard (H.P.) has recently released a public beta of it's new video file sharing service called Gabble. H.P. has made the service so that videos posted are only viewable by people invited to your group, in contrast to YouTube and other sites that default to publicly viewable. According to the NYTimes Bits blog, it is hoped by H.P. that the service "...will appeal to families uncomfortable making their home videos public and to businesses that want to use videos as a collaboration tool."

Gabble is part of the company's plans for trying out a host of in the cloud services as it searches for a hit. “If they go viral and take off quickly, then we will support them,” according to Shane Robison, H.P.’s chief technology officer, during a recent interview. “If they don’t, we’ll take them down pretty quickly.”

Finalists Named In "Best Job In The World" Contest

Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle received nearly 35,000 applications for what was described as the "best job in the world". Using a viral marketing campaign to get the word out and a contest that offered compensation of $150,000 and the use of an oceanfront home for six months, Queensland has narrowed the field to 50 applicants for the job that involves living in exclusive Hamilton Island for six months and blogging about your experiences their.

“The campaign has largely relied on public relations and social networking activity,” Boyle said after announcing the finalists. “It's captured the imagination of the world and to date it's generated more than $70-million in publicity value.

“Apart from brilliant television, radio and newspaper coverage, the campaign has been the catalyst for special online discussion groups, bulletin boards, blogs and websites, with applicants critiquing their competition, having detailed discussions and swapping ideas and tips,”

Applicants relied on Youtube to post their application videos and Facebook and Twitter to rally support making the experience a truly social campaign.

According to the Globe and Mail "Eleven finalists will be flown to Hamilton Island for interviews before a winner is selected this summer. Queensland tourism officials will select 10 finalists and public voting will determine the final candidate. Voting ends March 24. After the first days of voting, a finalist from Russia is in the lead, followed by Canadian Mitch Moffit, a contestant from Guelph, Ont."

Vatican Launches YouTube channel

The Vatican has launched a YouTube channel to bring the catholic churches views to the masses. According to the YouTube blog "for regular updates on the Pope and the Catholic Church's take on the major problems facing the world today, subscribe to the Vatican on YouTube."

I followed YouTube's link to an introduction by Father Federico Lombardi, S.I., Director of Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Centre and the Holy See Press Office, which unfortunately was entirely in Italian so I can't really comment on what was said. However I do have a question. What are those guys at the Vatican watching? Check out the monitor on the left of Father Lombardi at about the 1:14 mark... it's for research... right?