That was probably one of the worst sentences I’ve ever written. Watch it, you’ll see what I mean. It’s only a minute long.

Even geeks graffiti

Yes, yes I know I’ve only written one entry at my “fantastic” video encoding site. Sorry, I’ve been busy. I’ll get round to it, promise. It will be exhaustive.

In the meantime…

My friend Rob was looking for somewhere to host his band’s music that wasn’t MySpaz, and signed artists’ music, with widgets he could embed anywhere. So, being the friendly, time-rich loser I am, I had a hunt. Here’s what I found:

Soundcloud – uploads, embed widget, social network, tagging, snails.

Grooveshark – similar, with a nice, CSS-customisable, playlist-supporting player widget.

Podbean – podcast-supporting audio-hosting service. No widgets.

It’s interesting that despite the plethora of online video services, there seem to be very few audio services. I smell a gap in the market.

Oh, Rob also wanted something where his music was protected and people couldn’t download it.

Jeez, kids these days. Don’t they remember cassettes and Minidisc? If you find any audio you want you can’t download, just plug a 3.5mm jack-to-jack from your headphone socket to your mic input and use [free software] Audacity to record it.

My new blog is here: http://videotuts.wordpress.com/

There seems to be a dearth of clear, concise tutorials for encoding videos for YouTube’s new widescreen platform, so I thought I’d throw in some linkbait and write one. This will also generate a high and low quality version.
•    Have a video you wanna upload, in the highest quality you can muster.
•    Get free software MPEG Streamclip (Mac or PC) from www.squared5.com
•    Open the file (you can trim to a selection using the timeline under the video: use I for in and O for out)

mpeg streamclip interface

•    Export with these settings:

VIDEO
mp4 container
h.264 codec
1600kbps bitrate
size 864 x 486
deinterlace video (not always essential but doesn’t hurt)

AUDIO
MP4 AAC AUDIO
160 kbps
stereo

NB – if you’re in the US or Japan, you’ll want 30fps if you’ve shot your own video. Europe and (IIRC) Australia is 25fps. Feel free to comment if you’re having trouble and I’ll get back to you.

Prefer AVI? Fine.

Use DivX codec and mp3 audio with the [other] settings above and you’ll get similar results.

Update

YouTube have now enabled HD over high quality. All this means is that the resolution is higher, so use 1280 x 720 instead of 864 x 486 for your exports.

Expect a call from the Aphex Twin.

Who’s Kevin Rose? C’mon people, keep up.

Just been posted a link to someone blogging about the first site I made about three years ago.

Lovely stuff.

Link to site here

Link to blog post here

It’s kind of funny to look at now – images not optimised, menu system not site wide, no CMS, etc, etc.

Still, looking back I’m quite proud of it. Thanks for the nod.

He’s a Silicon Valley programmer, entrepreneur, blogger and journalist from what I can gather. Aren’t they all?

Anyway, his writing is sharp, funny, and he knows more about technology than I’m ever likely to. Check him out.

Blog at Uncov

Personal Blog

Articles at The Register

*update*

Thanks for commenting Ted: it’s pronounced ‘Jooba’.

Checking my feeds in Google Reader, I read this on Valleywag:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Microsoft a patent, first applied for in 2004, on technology to censor profanity — or any keywords off a list — from an audio stream in real time. This technology could be applied not just to online video like YouTube but also for cell-phone audio and internet chat.

What the fuck, man?

As an English graduate, grammarian and all-round language-botherer, this really doesn’t sit right with me. People have the right to express themselves however they deem fit, be they kids, teenagers or adults.

Wanna say “fuck”? Scream it from the highest building; throw a couple of “cunt”, “bastard” and “arseholes” in there too. Shout it at everyone; even grannies. Fuck you MS.

More’s the point: language is organic, and will always develop and express itself – restrictions will just direct its development: be that through abbreviations, new words, or simply circumnavigating a thought.

Today’s swearwords weren’t always directly offensive, as this Wiki entry on streets in England and Ireland called Gropecunt Lane will testify. Not swearing is originally one of the Ten Commandments – ‘do not take my name in vain’ – wonder if they’ll blacklist that one.

Now that we actually live in the future, witness the introduction in chat and commenting of “tw@”, “lmao”, “f you”, “wtf” – yeah, they’re abbreviated, but the sense is the same, surely what censoring is designed to combat? In time, these may be just as offensive. In fact, aren’t we already seeing a seismic shift in attitudes to swearing? English attitudes to traditional swearwords are definitely more relaxed, yet, call someone a ‘paedo’ and see how they react.

OK, maybe Microsoft are just protecting their ideas with patents, but should they?

Haven’t they seen Jurassic Park? Nature will find a way.

And then we’ll all get eaten by raptors.

*update*

Someone at Wired has blogged about this too, perhaps a little more pragmatically.

So, I’ve become hopelessly addicted to PhotoSwap.

What’s PhotoSwap?

It’s an iPhone application where you trade photos with a complete stranger, and, I shit you not, it’s amazing.

I’ve taken to writing messages for people on OS X TextEdit; some poignant, some stupid, with my favourite being:

borrow your friend’s phone

change their mum’s number to yours

send them a dirty text

Hopefully it’ll wreak some havoc across the world.

I was up til 3am last night swapping photos with total strangers. You can reply to messages, so you even get funny little pictoral conversations going on; as you expect, there’s blokes looking for titty shots, and I found an Aussie forum with Flickr group where NSFW (not safe for work) images are being displayed. There’s some filthy people out there.

Hey, it’s wholesome too. I sent this:

I got this:

Beautiful.

Got an iPhone? Definitely check it out.