Category: Uncategorized

YouTube finds great method to create the next YouTube

YouTube Finds Step 2 1 In Profit Plan: Will Pay For User Vids – Gizmodo

YouTube rolls out profit sharing plan where they reward uploaders with shares of ad sales based on number of views. The ads will come in the shape of short clips in place of the actual YouTube video, which you presumably have to watch before getting to the meat. The videos may be at most three seconds long, but the details are still being worked out.

The day people have to watch a video ad before they watch the YouTube video is the day that YouTube is no longer relevant.  Unless Google makes it not just illegal but physically impossible to create a free user-content video sharing site, this is doomed to fail.  You can’t just take a service that everyone loves, make it less valuable to the audience by adding commercials, and expect people to stick around.  Sure, it might help get more and better content.  But that wasn’t really the problem, was it?  Have you ever NOT found what you were looking for on YouTube?  This strikes me as catastrophically stupid.

About this blog

Just over twenty-four hours ago, my wife and I had our contract accepted on a shiny new condo on Harvard Street, right in the middle of the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. We should be moved in by the end of next month. We are, obviously, very excited.

So, this blog is a few things. First, it’s a test of Typo, blogging software written in Ruby on Rails. I’ve been meaning to try it, mostly because Ruby is more fun than PHP, which is what WordPress is written in. This is a trial run for switching all of Complaint Hub over to Ruby.

Second, it’s preliminary motivation to get more involved in the community. I’m moving into the city, into a real community, and I don’t want to sit around and watch. I want to be a part of my new community, and this is to start the ball rolling.

So, we’ll see what happens. I plan to update the layout here and play around and do all sorts of geek stuff. With all of the house-related stuff, I don’t know how quickly that will happen, but it will happen.

Anyway, keep watching this space. My next post will be more substantive.

Should DC get a vote?

George F. Will – Voting Rights Chicanery – washingtonpost.com

For Speaker Pelosi, two questions about the possible scope of your majoritarian abuse: Given your disregard of the unambiguous language and clear intent of Article I, Section 2 — which uses the word “state” eight times to designate the only entity from which a member of the House may be chosen — do you acknowledge any impediment to using your majority to give “Committee of the Whole” voting power to a delegate from, say, the AFL-CIO?

My mom pointed me to this article, wondering what my take on it was. As you all know, I’m not a big fan of Nancy Pelosi. But I think here she’s just the easy target. I wonder what George Will’s take on this would be if the five non-states that the Democrats want to give House votes to were likely to vote Republican instead of Democratic? Or, similarly, whether Pelosi and the Democrats would still be on board with letting them have a vote.

This gets back to my point that I’ve made before – too often politicians ask “What can I do for my party?” rather than “What can I do for my country?”. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are always right. Neither is always wrong, either. But dividing the country into two vaguely defined groups and then governing based on what works to the benefit of the leaders of those groups is just stupid. I wish we could stop it. I wish there was a better way of running the country.

How about automatic impeachment after six months if a representative has not made an earnest effort to compromise on at least half of the bills he or she has been asked to vote on? “I’m sorry, you plainly have your own interests in mind ahead of those of the country. Please accept your severance package of a swift kick in the butt and get the heck out of here.”

As for the issue – should DC, Guam, etc., have a House representative who can vote? Well, it’s pretty clear in the Constitution that this right is reserved for states only, so I think it’s going to have to be an amendment if it happens. As a resident-to-be of DC, I’d like a rep with a vote, but I knew I didn’t have one when I decided to move, so I can’t very well complain now that I don’t have one.

We got the house

Our front doorThe wife and I are now proud owners (Pending closing in a few weeks) of a new condo in Columbia Heights.  We have the first floor.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  I’ll have more pictures next time we’re able to get inside.  We’re obviously very excited.  Columbia Heights is a late-transitional neighborhood, new stuff going in all the time.  It’s walking distance (If you really want to) to Dupont Circle and the zoo.  We can walk to the trendy U Street Corridor.  It’s going to be awesome.

Frolicking dolphins

On my way to work today, I was behind a girl about my age driving a little Corolla.  I happened to look down at her license plate.  It said “4 RIZZL”.  It was a Jimmy Buffett “Parrothead” plate.  Yes, Virginia offers a Parrothead license plate.  It was in a license plate frame with dolphins on it.

I think I’ll stop now, because there is nothing I can say to make this any funnier.

Those who forget history . . .

Ford Posts Record Loss of $12.7 Billion – washingtonpost.com

The company’s strategy is built around catering to those new consumer demands and also shifting its assembly lines to use fewer unique engine and transmission combinations and more common “platforms.”

Is it any wonder that Ford sucks?  Henry Ford is nearly synonymous with “assembly line”, and yet Ford Motor Company can’t manage to reuse components and processes?  If there is a heaven, I’ll bet Henry Ford spends all his time up there jumping up and down and screaming at Ford MoCo executives for being so stupid.  They’ve taken the number two automobile company in the country and flushed it down the toilet because they forgot about the stuff that their founder figured out a hundred years ago.  They’re behind Toyota now worldwide, and will likely fall behind them in North America, too.

Can you imagine losing 12.7 billion dollars?  Can you imagine even looking at $12.7 billion?  Seriously, no one above middle management there should be taking a salary until the company breaks even.

Best Indian food ever

Haandi Fine Indian Cuisine

Who knew the best Indian food I’ve ever had would be from a strip mall in Falls Church?  We took my grandmother last night as a Christmas present.  She’s very hard to shop for – she pretty much has everything she’ll ever need.  So we figured food and company would be better than things she doesn’t really have much use for.  And the food was worth the slight wrong turn I took in getting from her house to the restaurant.

Anyway, I highly recommend the place.  They have a location in Bethesda, too, though I’ve never been.

Spammers need to die

I’ve had an Akismet spam filter on the comments here since right after I started the site last August.  It’s caught about 1500 spam comments in that time.  However, 600 of them are from the last three days, all with the same text in the comment.  It’s driving me insane.  A couple of them have even gotten through into my comment moderation queue.  Akismet has been great, but these people are relentless.  And I don’t get it – they have the same misspelling in each of the comments.  I don’t know why they misspell words.  Surely they must know that it tips off spam filters because all spammers seem to do it.  And I know many of them may not be native English speakers, but not using a spell checker seems strange.

Anyway, I hope all spammers get to spend eternity in a special hell where they must constantly read advertisements every time they try to do anything.  The ads can only be for mortgage refinancing, viagra, phone sex, and fake designer handbags.

Check out KZoo

100 ‘best communities’ for youths named – USATODAY.com

Kalamazoo, Michigan, my wife’s home town, was named on the 2007 list of “best communities for youths” by America’s Promise Alliance.  This is probably largely due to the Kalamazoo Promise – some wealthy person donated money to pay for Kalamazoo public school students to go to Michigan state schools free – if you go to public school in Kalamazoo, prorated for the number of years, you get free college if you stay in-state.  It’s pretty cool, and it’s raised property values inside the city limits.

I found that article looking for this one, which I saw on the front page while I was in line for coffee at Caribou.  Just as the wife and I are pretty close to putting a bid in on a condo in a “transitional” neighborhood of D.C., I see that crime rates are threatening the revitalization of many cities.  The article doesn’t mention D.C., focusing more on smaller cities that don’t have the money and the history of D.C. – Louisville, Milwaukee, Trenton.  Still.  Maybe my VA-based realtor (Who’s made because we’re buying in the city where she’s not licensed) is right that we’re going to be beaten and mugged three or four times a day in D.C..

One of the most important parts of the article is that “perception is reality” – when you’re talking about property values, it doesn’t matter what the real crime rate is.  It matters what people think the crime rate is.  Certainly the actual crime rate matters to those who live there, but attracting new people (and new money) requires that you appear to be safe.

I’ve always wondered, though – where do they expect people to go when the value of the neighborhood shoots up around them?  Certainly some will be able to take advantage of the rise in the value of their home.  But what if you rent?  What if you don’t want to go but suddenly your property tax triples?  I’m all for revitalizing cities, and I know that many new developments set aside (maybe they have to?  Not sure) some space for low-income residents.  But I’m not sure that’s enough.

And if some of the revitalization money comes from the government, I think we have a responsibility to make sure that what we’re doing is enough.