NorthGeek

How to get your content removed from torrent: respect

Comedian Louis CK is at the heart of this new take on preventing your content from circulating via torrents.

This stand up comedian logged in to Mininova and nicely asked for some of his content to be removed:

HI. I’m Louis CK. Can you please take this down? This show is a work in progress and was not intended to be passed around the internet. I have absolutely no problem, personally, with file sharing, and if you take everythign I have on the market on DVD, CD, and put it up for free downloading, I don’t care. But this is an artistic and personal request. Please take this torrent down. thanks.

The guy who uploaded the torrent responded:

Sorry Mr. CK, I have taken down the direct downloads and asked Mininova and ViPeers to remove the torrent. I thought you would have preferred the reverse, your live concerts in ****ty audio quality would be ok, especially for what you said about NBC taking down your Late Night appearance, and your high quality DVDs and stuff wouldn’t be ok since you need ***** for that stuff. I sincerely apologize for the torrent and the misunderstanding.

Wow.

What this means: people who use torrents aren’t evil. They do it for convenience, not to steal. Some content is just still best accessed through the world of torrents. If you’re the content owner, and you become confrontational with the torrent users, they will push back. If you become one of them and understand their reasons and motives and converse with them, they will listen.

Louis CK then responded to a thread at Techdirt:

So I ASKED him to take it down. I didn’t demand it. I don’t expect him to sympathize or care how I feel about it being out there. I only hope he does. It turns out he did, which I’m grateful for.

Other people very easily jumped to the conclusion that the torrent guy complied “because he’s not being a jerk.”

Lesson for Metallica?

Remember this guy’s recent tirade on Conan. Hilarious stuff (the good stuff start at 2:18):

Something odd about Bruno the movie

The preview for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new gem Bruno is now for the viewing. Of course, this movie is going to be hilarious — Cohen’s gotta be the most creative and abrasive mainstream comedian out there. But what’s so funny, or strange about this? Why does the official movie website look like a hacked together WordPress site built on the free Revolution template originally from Brian Gardner? (By the way, Brian makes great stuff.) Notice the funny gradients, typical ironic t-shirt ads, Google ad banners, obvious keyword usage, dead links, etc. Have a look and see if you can figure out how it fits in with the movie… is it not really the official movie site, or it must just be part of the humour?

Here’s the trailer. Enjoy:

Not like there’s anything wrong with launching an incomplete WordPress project…

Why is Qik so great for Blackberry video streaming? Ontario drivers parking!

Today I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to make fun of Ontario drivers. Granted, Quebec drivers get our fair share of criticism, but does anyone have proof like this? The video below demonstrates a driver from Ontario, along with his (or her) assistant, getting out of a not-so-tight parking spot. They were there for a solid 25-30 minutes – no joke.

Oh, but my point: why is Qik so great? Many reasons – for starters, it’s a fairly light application. It streams video “live” as you are recording it, and it gives you the option to add a title and description right from your device. The Qik website (qik.com) is also a great video sharing site, in my opinion. But maybe the best feature of all, which was recently released in a software update, is the ability to upload previously recorded videos to the Qik website. Great stuff all around – I highly recommend it!

Enjoy the video!

Is it true that you can't fix stupid?

I had this video sent to me in an email recently, and the subject of the email was: “You Can’t Fix Stupid”. Catchy, but false. I know plenty of people that used to be stupid but have brightened up significantly, mainly from reading blogs like NorthGeek… This might be hard to believe, but I was once stupid… Can you find me in the video?

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Cool Link of the Day: NameChk

Enter a username, and see where you can use it! Most of the web’s popular sites are included in this list. Check it out!

http://namechk.com/

How is technology changing our lives?

I’m sure many (or most) of you have already seen this, but still, it gives me goosebumps almost every time I watch it. What an interesting look at the way technology affects us all. Hmm, I wonder what our kids lives (and gadgets) will be like…

Have you tried TweetDeck?

Not that tweeting is that complex of an operation, nor is my Twitterberry application ever that far out of reach, but I am excited for my Adobe Air installation of the TweetDeck beta application (for PC, in this case) to complete. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

Let me know if there are any “better” or lighter apps out there that do the same thing…

Our friend, Phil

This is a great short produced right here in Canadiana, starring my good friend Phil Dubrovsky. The Internet – what a great way to get artists’ names out there… Way to go, Phil!!

Be sure to click on the “HQ” button to view the video in high quality and to best appreciate the production value!

Enjoy!

How "Live" is Qik?

I often us a free app for my BlackBerry 9000 called “Qik” – it allows me to “broadcast” live video from my phone. However, it never seems to be truly live. There is always a slight delay – but still, really cool for a mobile app! Maybe the delay is due to the not-so-fast Rogers 3G network? Has anyone tried this on AT&T in the States, or Sprint? Or even Telus or Bell here in Canada?

[UPDATE] Hey, where’s the audio? Gonna have to try this again…

OK, so there’s no time stamp… This exercise didn’t help me much!

What ever happened to Koolanoo?

With a promo video like this, how could they not be around anymore?

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