It’s the all-new kevinnalts.com. Thanks to Charlie and Jan.
Here’s hoping it’s easier to use than ABC.com’s video player.
It’s the all-new kevinnalts.com. Thanks to Charlie and Jan.
Here’s hoping it’s easier to use than ABC.com’s video player.
And in round 256 of WillVideoForFood’s “Amateur Versus Professional Content,” Ashton Kutcher’s BlahGirls goes to battle with YouTube’s Clip Critics.
The boxers take their positions for what’s sure to be the battle of the… oh, dang.
BlahGirls is down for the count. And the trophy goes to Clip Critics!
Verizon, the company with the worse logo since the human race started cave painting, just sent me the creepiest letter. It caught my attention because it was in an envelope that looks like it was printed on a discarded 1985 dot matrix. Inside was no letter- just a 3×5 brochure that began with “your privacy is important to us.” Later on the first page it begins a paragraph with “Verizon Wireless provides service to you.”
As much noise as we make about privacy, the reality is that we sell it short quite easily. In theory, your employer and insurance provider could know what you bought at the grocery last night. Some of us bitch loudly, but few of us take any measures about it — perhaps resigned to the fact that everything we do (even when we cry while commuting) could be available to the world.
I’m terrible about taking measures to protect myself, unlike you vocal minority that go to OCD lengths to protect your privacy (which always has me wondering what you’re hiding, by the way).
But this letter set off my Spidey Senses. And this from a guy whose “gaydar” is so bad I thought WhatTheBuck was just friendly. Why?
So I called an opted out to CPNI (Customer proprietary network information) because it just oozed of creepiness. I actually thought about doing a parody video of it, but it was so easy to opt-out that I’m sparing them the humiliation.
It’s a wonder I use Verizon despite its marketing incompetency, which ranges from a crappy logo all the way through bad viral-video campaigns and crappy privacy mailers that look like a porn leaflet but without the glossy color photos.
How about you? What’s your favorite and least favorite company? If that company was humanized, what would he/she look like? For me, Verizon would not be the “Test Guy” we call “Can You Hear Me Now” guy. He’d be a bad-breathed arrogant French guy with a cheap suit and black onyx cufflinks he bought on QVC after a night of binge drinking.
Did I just spend 15 minutes putting the Verizon guy’s face on Frank the Flasher’s body? Well there’s 15 minutes I’ll never get back.
Thanks, Jan, for the Nalts appreciation blog. Good timing since Kevin Nalty has been a little down lately with a bad back and day-job stress (and Nalts has only been able to cheer him up occasionally).
On a related note, when I talk to my family, I often field the question, “why do they hate you so much on YouTube?” At first I thought maybe my family happened to graze some of the 5% toxic hate messages.
Then I realized what’s happening. They’re searching NALTS on YouTube, and the image here is what they see. Oh. Never mind. WordPress doesn’t want to accept the image. Well here’s the list.
Search has mystical powers doesn’t it? The only part of online video many know is what shows up after they type a search query.
Viacom Knows What You Did Last Summer.
Holy shit. According to this Wired article, a judge ruled yesterday (Wednesday, July 2, 2008) that Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users’ names and IP addresses, to Viacom. The order also requires Google to turn over copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason.
Viacom is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, and wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google’s liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement.
Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users’ privacy, but the judge’s ruling (see pdf of ruling) described that argument as “speculative” and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already reacted, calling the order a violation of the Video Privacy Protection act that “threatens to expose deeply private information.”
The judge, in fairness, denied Viacom’s request for:
HappySlip is selling “best of” DVDs, so I had to do it too. I may not be as hot, but at least I’m not as funny.
I’m using CreateSpace because it looks easy, and a couple others have used it. Anyone use ’em? I didn’t realize, until I’d started my account this morning, that it’s an Amazon company. Of course, you give away about 40% of your profits (after the fixed cost per DVD) when it’s sold through Amazon, so I’m kinda hoping people buy it at CreateSpace.com. I get proceeds beyond the fixed cost of production and their cut of the sale.
It’s not live yet because I’m mailing the master to CreateSpace, and then they send me a proof. I’ve listed the videos below. I’m sure I unintentionally missed some good ones, but it took most of yesterday just to locate the best versions of these (and some were destroyed by a dead Seagate external hard drive).
Will I sell a lot? Nope. There’s not a huge market to purchase amateur video content — especially when you can see it free online. Maybe some people will be compelled by the notion of seeing the videos in high resolution and without ads.
I was impressed with how good some of them look on an HDTV (after I’ve been used to seeing them on YouTube all grainy and compressed). You notice little things- like the name of a book on a bookshelf that was otherwise obscure. And you can why my face was made for low-resolution video.
Price point is $19.99, but most of the revenue goes to CreateSpace and Amazon. Well- if I make $100 on total sales, it’s worth being called a sellout.
The videos:
Farting in Public
Airport Crawling
Computer Falls
Cash to Buzz
Drunk Interviews
Garbageman
America’s Bloopers
Fast Food Outsourcing
Candy Swiper
Google Head
Crackberry
Google Earth
GPS with PMS
Mall Pranks
Killer Weed
Gum Tree
Coffee Baby
Banana Man
Garage Sale
Pencils
Kids Steal Van
Lay Me Off
CubeBreak
Mad Turkey
Viral Video Genius
iPhone
Chicken Prank
Stupid Computer
HappySlip’s Pad