YouTube Launches Full Length Video Service

October 11th, 2008 1 comment or link to (permalink)

Star Trek Original Series - the enterprise crew catch a virus that removes their inhibitions.

The original Star Trek is hilariously camp to look at these days - there is a world apart from this and the later versions which appeal to techy geeks rather than nostalgia freaks. This episode is a particular favorite of mine.

While we are on the subject of full length videos, YouTube has done what it always promised, full length videos with inline ads, similar to Hulu. For the ones that I could find, embedding was disabled for individual items yet they still promote a playlist embed which then doesn’t work. This seems to destroy the essence of what made YouTube so great and viral. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

More on YouTube full length, here.

1 comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: drama

Generic Ass Video Site

October 9th, 2008 17 comments or link to (permalink)

Jeff writes in the comments: “you’ve really stepped down the quality of your posts recently. you got yourself a srsly generic ass video site now. congrats.”

And you know what, Jeff is right. In defense, I was experimenting, Smashing Telly has no ads, makes no money and is a hobby site It was for me to have some fun doing something I enjoy, it has won a couple of awards and people say nice things about it.

I was thinking about closing the site down, but am going to try and turn it into more of a community site, based upon link suggestions sent in. In the interim I am going to revert to full length media instead of clips.

17 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: Uncategorized

Dick Fuld’s half billion dollar pay

October 7th, 2008 4 comments or link to (permalink)

Dick Fuld’s “televised humiliation was orchestrated by a veteran Democrat, Henry Waxman, whose simple question about Fuld’s alleged $480m of earnings – Is that fair? – hit the banker like a haymaker, rendering him speechless.” Link

The expression the buck stops here was supposed to refer to responsibility rather than reward, the other kind of bucks. Fuld claimed full responsibility for Lehman’s collapse but the responsibility came with reduced reward (share options wiped out) rather than risk. Laws are being rewritten to save banks and voters may wake up to the fact that they can make these laws do whatever they want - like seize Fuld’s assets, put him in jail etc.

This might seem naive, but people really do have that power now, and retribution against a few will save the anger of the mob spilling into the traditional avenues for choosing scapegoats like antisemitism. People like Fuld need to be given the equivalent of a loaded revolver to do the honorable thing. Sure, its unfair, like being paid lots when the times are good, but if he doesn’t other people will suffer more. The buck stops.

4 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: business

Al Munajid Responds to Media About Killing Mickey Mouse

October 5th, 2008 comment or link to (permalink)

Belonging definitively in the ‘you cannot make this shit up’ box, Al Munajid reminds us all of a universal maxim that often applies to people who worship bronze age sky gods:

“If you don’t have a sense of humor, do not try and defend yourself when people take the piss out of something you said that was accidentally hilarious. You will only make things worse.”

As an aside, there is another perfect piece of irony here. Given that the topic is a hand rendered cartoon, I can’t help but feel that Al Munajid looks like a computer rendering from the neck down, and that the room he is in also looks, well, a bit Mickey Mouse.

via Atheist Media Blog

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Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

October 3rd, 2008 comment or link to (permalink)

Paul Krugman dug out this little gem from the past.

Its quite amazing how Reagan is revered these days , when at the time he seemed so ridiculous. Now many ideological Reaganite capitalists look radical rather than conservative and are simultaneously crying out for what counts as socialism by their measure.

Lets hear the Gipper tell you why government run things like our remaining banks, or the army for that matter, are silly; lament the fact that the US will never enjoy the same cheap healthcare you can get anywhere else in the developed world and remind you that Reagan really was an anachronistic throwback - a vacuuous, accidental sage like Chauncey the gardener in Being There .

comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: business