Busted

The other day, I got the following email from the YouTube Content Identification Team.

Dear rShannonSmith,

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video One Step Away. The audio content identified in your video is Black And White by Three Dog Night. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.

Replace Your Audio with AudioSwap

Don't worry, we have plenty of music available for your use. Please visit our AudioSwap library to learn how you can easily replace the audio in your video with any track from our growing library of fully licensed songs.

Other Options

If you think there's been a mistake, or you have other questions, please visit the Copyright Notice page in your account.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

I wonder if it was difficult for the super sleuths at YouTube to determine what song I had used given that I put the song title and artist in the credits?

I used their AudioSwap application and was able to find another song that works. The application was very easy to use and has some decent music.

Have you ever been busted by YouTube, the RIAA, or the law in general?

Coincidental Timing?

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson was found guilty late Friday on all 12 counts stemming from a confrontation in a hotel room last year, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

The verdict, which comes 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend, concluded a four-week trial that many have seen as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome.

I remember a lot of small things about the last OJ trial: the white bronco, the glove, Judge Ito, Johnnie Cochran, Kato Kaelin, etc.. I guess I would have been 15 during the trial, but I can't seem to remember what I was doing in those days.

What were you doing back in 1995? What do you remember about the OJ trial?

HT: RevRock and NY Times

Bailout Costs

Today the House is voting again on the $700bn Wall Street bailout. In the midst of that, here's something else to think about. It comes from a quote from Bono from earlier this week.

It’s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
- Bono

Thoughts?

HT: Justin

Best Performing Cities

Raleigh has recently been named the #2 Best Performing City by the Milken Institute. You can see that Wilmington came in at #6.


On a side note, in the Small Metro category, Burlington, North Carolina came in at #57. Burlington is not too far from where I grew up. I'm sure in the Super Small Metro division, Mebane was #1.

Here's a little more about what the cities were judged on...

The Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary and technology growth.

The Best Performing Cities ranking depicts those U.S. metropolitan areas that are recording the top economic performance.

HT: Marlow

Raleigh Bike Plan

Do you ride a bike? Or, do you know someone that rides a bike?

Do you live in Raleigh? Or, do you know someone that lives in Raleigh?

If you answered 'Yes/Yeah/Uh.../Maybe/Yayer/Si' or anything else closely resembling an affirmative, then you have an opportunity to make life better for bike riders in Raleigh.

The City of Raleigh Bike Plan is in the final planning stages and and your input is desired and would be greatly appreciated. The City of Raleigh has hired Greenways Inc. "to conduct extensive fieldwork, evaluating the current bicycling conditions and creating a Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS) for Raleigh roadways. The goal of the inventory and analysis will be to identify gaps in the bicycle network and opportunities for bicycle facility development."

Part of their process is to allow residents and others to provide input via an online survey. The online survey is available now through October 3, 2008. You can find the survey and more information on the Raleigh Bike Plan here. Click the Comment Form link in the upper right hand corner of the page to take the survey.

Renewed Mind Is The Key

This has been all over the blog world, but maybe you haven't seen it, yet. Even if you hate it, wait for the solo. You won't be sorry.

Jesus Looks Like a Blue Tarp

Some folks from Catalyst were down in the Baton Rouge area shortly after Hurricane Gustav ripped right through. They stopped by Healing Place Church and had a conversation with Pastor Dino Rizzo. You can see a part of that conversation in the video below.


Hurricane Torn Baton Rouge Needs Our Help!!! from Catalyst on Vimeo.

So, when asked what they needed, his answer was tarps.

So, what does Jesus look like to the people in Louisiana that have holes in their roofs? He looks like a blue tarp.

To help, you can go HERE and order a tarp.

You can have it sent to:
ONE (1) BLUE TARP
Healing Place Church
19202 Highland Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70809
225.753.2273

When you have purchased the tarp, please come back here leave a comment (anonymously if you wish).

The tarps aren't cheap. So, if you want to chip in on some tarps, you can go to flowerdust.net and see Anne Jackson's post about this where she explains how you can go in with other readers of her blog via PayPal. She is collecting money and will buy as many tarps as possible on 9/11.

Thanks. Much Love.

HT: Anne Jackson

Twitter Enhancements: Revisited

I just saw where twitter has a secondary application that allows you to search all of twitter for certain words so you can see what the buzz is about that word, e.g. "Palin" or "Hanna" or "Crunch-n-Munch". They even have an advanced search that really lets you narrow down your search. I think this twitter search thing could be used to give me almost every I want from my 'Searching' request.

I thought of another enhancement I'd like to see...

4. TinyURL
   
   I've noticed that sometimes when I enter a URL in a twitter update, twitter automatically uses TinyURL to shorten it. I'm not sure what is the determining factor for when they shorten it and when they don't. It's probably a length threshold.
   
   The first time I saw them do that, I was reminded of TinyURL, which I hadn't used in a really long time. Since, I have been shortening my URLs to give me more characters for the rest of my update. However, when I want to do that, I have to go to TinyURL.com, create my shortened URL and then, copy and paste it into my update.
   
   I would like to see a widget on the twitter site where I could create my shortened URL. I imagine that I would paste the the "long" URL into a field and then click a button. When I click the button, twitter would TinyURL-ify my URL, and the resulting shortened URL would be automatically be placed in my update.
   

I mentioned yesterday that I use Twitterific and in a comment Zack mentioned that he uses Twhirl.

What twitter apps do you use?

Twitter Enhancements

I'm a big fan of twitter. A couple of months ago, they had some problems handling the load imposed on them by their users, but they seem to have gotten those kinks ironed out. Now, I can go on their site and quickly let the world, or at least the 83 people that follow me, know what I am up to. If you want to be number 84, you can follow me here: @rshannonsmith.

I also have my twitter updates go to my Facebook status and when I update using Twitterific, my Google Talk away message is automatically updated. It is quite the convenient service for those people like me that want to keep the world up to date with what's going on in their lives.

There are, however, a few things I wish twitter did that they don't, yet.

Here are the ones I am thinking about today...

1. Grouping
   
   I follow several people, 63 to be exact. These are people that I know personally, people that I know through others, and some people that I don't know at all except through what they post on the internet. I wish twitter had a way for me to create groups in my Recent feed.
   
   For example, Visio Dei has quite a few tweeters. I'd like to be able to see a feed of what my Visio Dei people are saying, separate from all the other updates. The same goes for people at work. I could have a group for them as well.
   
   If you work for Twitter and you are reading this, I would also like the ability to have a followee in multiple groups. I imagine it to be more like the labels in GMail, than a folder. I have co-workers that also happen to be apart of Visio Dei.
   


2. Sorting
   
   As far as I can tell, there is no method to the way followers and followees are listed on their respective pages. It just seems like some random list of tweeters. I'd like the ability to sort them alphabetically, by date added, and by date of last update.
   
   There are times when I am looking at my own followers and followees and I have to search for someone specific. However, I imagine I would also use this when looking at other people's followers and followees when I am looking for new people to follow.
   


3. Searching
   
   My updates are sort of like a timeline for my life. I update several times a day with whatever I have going on. Sometimes it is about what I had for lunch. Other times is can be about something I read. I'd like the ability to search updates.
   
   I'd like to be able to search my updates for a certain phrase, e.g. "Jesus for President". I'd also like to be able to search other people's updates. Maybe I could even search within my Visio Dei "group" for a certain phrase.
   
   I'd also like to search by date. Say I wanted to know what I was doing on July 4, 2008. I'd like to be able to put in that date and have it pull up my updates from that day.
   

Now, I know there are applications out there that are taking twitter data and making some of these functions available. However, I'd like to see some of these things available directly from Twitter; consolidated right there on Twitter page.

Do you have any enhancements you would like to see?

The Moth

One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life, a radio show with "a hard-to-describe sound". They to to sum it up this way on their web site: There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There's lots more to the show, but, like we said, it's sort of hard to describe.

The other week, in their episode Fear of Sleep, they featured Mike Birbiglia telling a story of a time he accidentally, nearly killed himself while he was sleeping. His segment was recorded live at The Moth.

The Moth is a club in New York City, where people tell stories, live, on stage, with no notes. He is what they say about themselves on their web site: Moth is dedicated to promoting the art of storytelling. We celebrate the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection.

The Moth puts out a weekly podcast, which is the point of this post. After hearing Mike's story on This American Life, I went to check out the podcast for The Moth. It's great. I have loved listening to the stories people share. It's a small glimpse into their lives. They come across so authentic... so honest... so real.

Each podcast is around twenty minutes and the stories are great. So, if you are looking for something new to put on your iPod, this is it.

Check out The Moth.