Latest Blog Entries at VideoSift.com

GM Script: Dimmer

campionidelmondo (http://campionidelmondo.videosift.com) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:02:41 -0800

(1 comment - 14 views)

This script darkens the background of the page when a (YouTube) video is being played.

Should work automatically for YouTube videos. You can also control the dim manually by double-clicking on a video page (on) and clicking the dimmed page (off).

Screenshot:

Please note that this script is experimental. I might work on it some more to improve it, but I can't make any promises.

Get it here.

- campionidelmondo

This Blog Makes No Sense - No Srsly and ya rly

NordlichReiter (http://nordlichreiter.videosift.com) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:17:26 -0800

(0 comments - 8 views)

http://abstrusegoose.com/85

I like math.

Go and see demotivators.

"You are unique just like every body else."

I am interesting in the tenth dimension.

For now, coffee cake.

- NordlichReiter

LG Dare

nibiyabi (http://nibiyabi.videosift.com) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:34:20 -0800

(0 comments - 8 views)
Just got it, and I heard the touchscreen takes some getting used to. Not true -- it's incredibly responsive and accurate immediately, and I've never used a touchscreen before. Truly very impressed with this phone initially.

- nibiyabi

The Geek Rapture

dag (http://dag.videosift.com) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:26:44 -0800

(12 comments - 66 views)
I've been reading Accelerando - a SF book by Charles Stross and thinking about the Singularity. (great Wikipedia article)

The basic idea of the singularity is that when we can create an artificial intelligence that is as intelligent as a human, that AI will be able to bootstrap itself up and create other AIs that make us look like nematodes. The world would be populated by vast intelligences that could change the way we exist. Some say that humans would be co-opted and merged into the digital intelligence (as in Stross's novel). Some say we would be made redundant.

The singularity could be just a human archetype asserting itself in techie atheists. If we don't believe in God - we still need to have some kind of judgment day.

^A real possibility.

Compassion, mercy and real altruism are human perversions that don't fit into the natural world. Why should we expect vast machine intelligences to have any interest in keeping us around? We would be like the husk of a discarded cocoon.

We had a couple of bush stone curlews nesting in our front yard. The mom sat on the eggs non-stop for about 5 weeks. We felt humbled by the dedication. Each time we pulled out of the driveway the mom would be sitting there, rain or shine.

Two chicks hatched during the middle of the worst storm Brisbane has seen in 20 years.

The mom ate them both and flew away.

Anyway - sorry to be a downer - but sometimes I feel like all of my perception is filtered by primate instinct. We expect mothers to raise their young, we expect our children - biological or technological - to respect and love us.

Prepare for the geek rapture, and repent!

- dag

All NASA wants to do is put their Sonic BOOM-BOOM in my living room.

blankfist (http://blankfist.videosift.com) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:29:18 -0800

(8 comments - 69 views)

About five minutes ago, I was sitting in my living room and heard a loud double boom. I thought someone had hit our building (has happened before), so I rushed out to see. People from the neighborhood were spilling into the alley with puzzled looks.

After I ran all the way around the block looking for smoke from an explosion, my girlfriend comes running up to me with her iPhone in hand yelling, "It was the space shuttle landing. It was a sonic boom." On her iPhone's screen was this article: ~~http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Boom-Boom-Possible-When-Shuttle-Lands.html~~

New link: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Sonic-Booms-Heard-in-SoCal-Shuttle-Lands-Safely.html

What we heard was a sonic boom as the shuttle broke the sound barrier on reentry. Cool. I didn't know there was a new space shuttle launch. When did we stop caring about space missions?

- blankfist

Free-Market Meat Market

Farhad2000 (http://farhad.videosift.com) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:45:13 -0800

(1 comment - 44 views)

Two weeks ago, Ayn Rand aficionado Alan Greenspan admitted to a House subcommittee that his libertarian economic worldview had been shaken by events on Wall Street; last week, Governor Paterson approvingly cited Rand’s advocacy of stout individualism, which he says citizens of New York State will need during the budget crisis. Meanwhile, on TheAtlasphere.com, a dating site, Rand fans are just looking for love; below, excerpts from user profiles.

The NY Mag complies some highlights from the profiles on the Atlas Sphere.
- Farhad2000

MaatC goes Widescreen

maatc (http://maatc.videosift.com) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:58:02 -0800

(3 comments - 49 views)

- maatc

HD YouTube embeds are go...sorta

youdiejoe (http://youdiejoe.videosift.com) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:59:47 -0800

(1 comment - 41 views)

You can now embed HD YouTube vids, as long as you edit the embed code with this bit added to the end of the URL's &ap=%2526fmt%3D22

Also if you just wish to watch the video in HD you can add &fmt=22 at the end of the URL

I have uploaded a couple of my HD shorts to test and you can see below that it does in fact work. I have included both HD and SD embeds to compare

- youdiejoe

"Sift Newbie" Playlist Open to Public

swampgirl (http://swampgirl.videosift.com) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:30:23 -0800

(1 comment - 41 views)

Eklek suggested I make my Newbies in Need playlist public. http://www.videosift.com/playlists/swampgirl/Sift-Newbies-in-Need

It makes sense.. we can all help newbs. I'm terrible at keeping up w/ the list on my own, so I've just invited a bunch of you out of the blue. Anyone I missed that would like to help some newbs just drop me a line!

- swampgirl

Thanks for everything!

burdturgler (http://future.videosift.com/member/burdturgler) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:12:47 -0800

(1 comment - 49 views)

My charter is due to run out soon, and I'm really not the blogging type, but before it ends I'd like to stick this on here.

VideoSift is an amazing site. There are so many passionate, intelligent and interesting people. I've been coming here since 2006 and I'm grateful for all the insight and laughter this community has given me.

Are the videos here great? Sometimes. If there is any great video on Earth it will surely be sifted here. But there's plenty of places to find videos. The truth is, what keeps me coming back is the VideoSift community and that is so much more than videos, or votes .. or star points .. or rank. We may fight amongst ourselves sometimes, as families will, but in the end I think most of it comes from a place that is deeply caring and protective of this site, whichever side of whatever argument you fall on.

Thank you, mystery person who gifted me charter!! I'm going to miss my turd colored name (and my expanded queue!) but I can't afford to continue it. The sift is worth it, to be sure, it's just a math/cash problem on my end.

- burdturgler