Google Video Upload

If you’re into the whole video podcasting or video-blogging thing, you can now upload your videos to Google. Here’s their mission:

Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Currently, Google Video lets you search a growing archive of televised content — everything from sports events to dinosaur documentaries to news programs. In addition to televised content, we’re now accepting video from anyone who wants to upload content to us. Uploaded content will not be immediately available to users searching Google Video as this is just the submission stage of the program. But (if you’ll pardon the pun) stay tuned.

If all you want to do is index video, does that really require uploading of the video? Seems to me there must be more to it. Check it out anyway, at Google Video.

HOW TO: Get young people to watch network news

How many young people watch the news these days? A lot less than in the past I’d bet. Most probably get their news from the Internet, or from friends. I have come up with a way to get young people, specifically males in the much-coveted 18 to 34 age range watching again. Pass a law that makes all news anchors look like this beautiful anchorwoman. Damn lucky French people.

Vote for the next British PM

Did you know Britain has an election coming up? Well they do. You can get all the background information you’d ever need from The Economist. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to vote unless you live in the U.K. But fear not! The good folks at IncrediBull Ideas have decided to bring us May 5th Election, where you can vote for one of three candidates:

  • Singer/dancer Chef Jamie Oliver and the Labour Party
  • Pop star Kylie Minogue and the Conservative Party
  • Manchester United star Wayne Rooney and the Liberal Democrat Party

Happy voting! (And go Blair go.)

Read: The Media Drop

There can only be one #1, can't there?

In Edmonton, like any other city, we have a number of different radio stations. In the last two years, we’ve had quite a few format changes for both AM and FM stations, and at least two new FM stations have appeared. One of the new stations is The Bounce, at 91.7 on the dial. Their main competition is 96X at 96.3, one of the old stations. It is these two stations I want to take a look at.

As you can see from the Bounce website, the station advertises itself as “Your New #1.” That seems logical I suppose, considering they are new, but are they really #1? Their arch rival, 96X, advertises itself as “Edmonton’s #1 Hit Music Station.” How can they both be #1? Sounds like one of the two stations has to be wrong!

The two radio stations are making a claim about their position in the radio market in Edmonton. According to the Competition Bureau here in Canada, a misleading representation about market position is prohibited:

Representations about the nature, size and market position of a business…fall within section 52(1)(a), which prohibits representations that are false or misleading in a material respect. Words such as “only” or similar claims of the exclusivity or superiority of a supplier should not be used if the result is to deceive or mislead.

I think it is quite intuitive that two stations cannot be #1 at the same time, so one of the stations must be making a misleading representation! Unfortunately, I do not have any data on listeners, but I would assume that 96X has the largest part of the market, especially considering The Bounce is so new. Now I suppose by saying “YOUR New #1” and not “EDMONTON’s New #1”, The Bounce may be on safe footing, despite the fact that by “your” they probably mean “edmonton’s” anyway.

In the grand scheme of things, they could both advertise using the same words and it wouldn’t affect my life in the slightest (especially thanks to my Zen Touch). I’ll still flip between stations when the commercials start. I just think it’s interesting to be aware of how these companies market themselves.

Microsoft to Unveil Xbox 2 on MTV, Promote with Pepsi

You can tell E3 is getting close, the news surrounding Xbox and PS3 is heating up. The latest is an announcement from Microsoft today that they will debut the new Xbox on MTV in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe over a 24 hour period:

According to Microsoft, Elijah Wood, who played Frodo in the Lord Of The Rings Movies, will host the debut, which is called “MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed”. Microsoft’s release indicates the global broadcast will premiere Thursday, May 12, at 9:30 p.m. EDT in North America and on Friday, May 13 in other regions around the globe.

According to the dates and times released for this launch, North Americans will see the new console on May 12th, four days before what was previously thought to be the date of debut. Also speculated today is that Microsoft and Pepsi are teaming up for a huge giveaway:

The contest will use an under-the-cap registration method (much like Pepsi did before with those iTunes giveaways), and supposedly they’ll be giving away one console every ten minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine weeks straight.

Read: WebProNews & Engadget

Cooking for Engineers

Since we all know engineers are special people, who require special classes like their own version of English, it should be no surprise that there is a cooking website devoted to engineers. Cooking for Engineers says “Have an analytical mind? Like to cook? This is the site to read!” And from the comments on the MetaFilter post, be sure to check out Cook’s Illustrated too.

Read: MetaFilter

Happy Birthday Megan!

Hope you enjoy your day today! A bunch of us went out to celebrate on Friday night, you can see some pictures, and check out Andrew and Megan‘s writeups too.

Canadian Politics Interesting Again?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as though Canadian politics have become interesting again – at least as far as the media is concerned. Most of the interest has to do with Adscam, like the American blogger who bypassed a Canadian gag order meant to keep the details of the proceedings out of the public eye:

A Canadian commission that’s investigating charges of high-level wrongdoing in the nation’s Liberal Party has ordered news organizations not to reveal details from the proceedings, which are open to the public. But Ed Morrissey, a conservative Web logger in Minneapolis, has been gleefully violating the ban by posting detailed reports of the verboten “Adscam” testimony. His usual average of 30,000 page views a day skyrocketed during the weekend to more than 400,000…

Another blogger, this one Canadian, has also dedicated a post to the issue. Tim Bray says “the Martin government is toast“, though he doesn’t have too much to say about the opposition either, calling it “weak and divided.” Indeed, searching Technorati for ‘canada liberals‘ returns about 9500 results, but what’s most interesting is how recent they are. Here’s a few highlights:

So what do you think? Are the political parties in Canada making things interesting again, or are there just more Canadian bloggers writing about it giving the perception that it’s more interesting?

May 16th Game Console Showdown

Can’t wait for details on the PS3 and Xbox 360/Next/2? Well on May 16th, both Sony and Microsoft will announce details of their next consoles:

Unless Microsoft decides to move their announcement up, Sony will have the honor of going first—they have their PS3 unveiling scheduled to take place at the Sony Pictures complex in Culver City at 3pm, three hours before Microsoft is set to introduce the Xbox 2/Xbox 360/whatever they’re calling it a few miles away in downtown Los Angeles.

That’s two days before E3, so things should heat up just in time for the gaming orgy that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Read: Engadget

MSN Messenger 7 Released!

Microsoft released the final version of MSN Messenger 7 today – download it from here. Also released today, the final version of MSN Spaces.

UPDATE: Looks like the Customize feature of MSN Spaces has been greatly improved, otherwise, it looks the same to me at first glance. MSN Messenger on the other hand has a number of noticable changes…including display pictures on the contact list (can be turned off, or shown in small or large sizes), and a new “personal message”. You can either type text for this, or display the song you’re currently playing in Windows Media Player or iTunes. They little star displayed for MSN Spaces is different, and there is also a My Space button on the top panel. The other change, which I like, is that they brought back the old contact list icons – no more away symbol BESIDE the MSN guy! Oooh and there’s shared search.

UPDATE2: Far and away, my favorite new feature is the Personal Message, especially if you enable “What I’m Listening To”. Awesome, I love it!