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Sunday, 11 July 2010
NoCon Day 3 - YouTube, What's Next?
It's the final day of NoCon.
My thoughts on the following:
DAY 3: Next On YouTube and Questions:
What's next for YouTube?
If you could change anything about YouTube what would it be?
Besides Other Channel and Auto Start, what other Partner feature would you like to have on your channel?
If youtube made you pay for your channel or for extra features, would you do it?
OUESTIONS:
Can you be a meaningful member of YouTube and not make videos?
Thanks to Bill for putting this altogether:
http://www.youtube.com/user/billtvmacon
Friday, 9 July 2010
Re: NoCon - Day One: Getting Noticed
This is a response to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1lju7...
From the NoCon2010 channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NoCon2010
This was all started by:
http://www.youtube.com/user/billtvmacon2
These are the questions: DAY 1: Getting Noticed
How do you get noticed?
How do you define success on YouTube?
What part does luck play in YouTube success?
Does Sub for Sub work?
Ever seen people in your subscription box that you don't remember subscribing to?
Why do people unsubscribe?
How often should you make videos for your channel?
What is the minimum expectation for a YouTube video?
Why not get involved yourself?
A beach vlog.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Happy Birthday Ringo.
Today is the 70th birthday of Ringo Starr, one time drummer with, probably, the most famous & influential rock band on the planet, The Beatles.
Now, apart from making me feel old, after all, i grew up listening to The Beatles' music. This also makes me think aboutf Ringo's place in rock & roll history.
As you are probably aware, Ringo has often been a bit of a figure of fun. Who hasn't heard that old chestnut, "Ringo is not the best drummer in the world. In fact he's not even the best drummer in The Beatles"?
And, yes, his drumming may not have been as flamboyant, or as well thought of as many other rock drummers of his time. People like Keith Moon, Ginger Baker & John Bonham spring to mind.
But, The Beatles would not have been The Beatles, that we know & love, without him. If Pete Best had remained as The Beatles' drummer, as good as he might have been. I don't think they would have been the same band & would not have made the same impact.
Why?
Because, all bands are a sum of their different parts.
Just because a particular member of the band doesn't write the songs, or doesn't sing on the records, doesn't mean that they are not an integral part of that band.
I can think of many bands where, if you were to take one member out of that band, they just would not be the same. Obviously, the impact that would have would depend on which member was missing. It seems pretty obvious that if you took Jim Morrison out of The Doors, or even John Lennon out of The Beatles, they would be seriously lacking a vital element.
But, a drummer? Surely nobody would notice if they went missing? After all, all they do is sit at the back & make a noise, don't they?
Well, i may be biased having been a drummer years ago. But, i disagree with that.
Some might even say that the drummer is the most important member of a band.
They provide the beat & they provide the rhythm. The rest of the band follow the drummer. You can have the best songs in the world. But, if the beat & the rhythm are wrong, all is lost.
And that is why Ringo was such an important member of one of the most important bands of all time.
He was the man who put the beat in The Beatles
And also, let us not forget that without Ringo, we would not have had such great song titles as, "A Hard Days Night" & "Tomorrow Never Knows"
Happy birthday Ringo. May the beat go on.
Now, apart from making me feel old, after all, i grew up listening to The Beatles' music. This also makes me think aboutf Ringo's place in rock & roll history.
As you are probably aware, Ringo has often been a bit of a figure of fun. Who hasn't heard that old chestnut, "Ringo is not the best drummer in the world. In fact he's not even the best drummer in The Beatles"?
And, yes, his drumming may not have been as flamboyant, or as well thought of as many other rock drummers of his time. People like Keith Moon, Ginger Baker & John Bonham spring to mind.
But, The Beatles would not have been The Beatles, that we know & love, without him. If Pete Best had remained as The Beatles' drummer, as good as he might have been. I don't think they would have been the same band & would not have made the same impact.
Why?
Because, all bands are a sum of their different parts.
Just because a particular member of the band doesn't write the songs, or doesn't sing on the records, doesn't mean that they are not an integral part of that band.
I can think of many bands where, if you were to take one member out of that band, they just would not be the same. Obviously, the impact that would have would depend on which member was missing. It seems pretty obvious that if you took Jim Morrison out of The Doors, or even John Lennon out of The Beatles, they would be seriously lacking a vital element.
But, a drummer? Surely nobody would notice if they went missing? After all, all they do is sit at the back & make a noise, don't they?
Well, i may be biased having been a drummer years ago. But, i disagree with that.
Some might even say that the drummer is the most important member of a band.
They provide the beat & they provide the rhythm. The rest of the band follow the drummer. You can have the best songs in the world. But, if the beat & the rhythm are wrong, all is lost.
And that is why Ringo was such an important member of one of the most important bands of all time.
He was the man who put the beat in The Beatles
And also, let us not forget that without Ringo, we would not have had such great song titles as, "A Hard Days Night" & "Tomorrow Never Knows"
Happy birthday Ringo. May the beat go on.
Life In A Day
Do you want to be in a movie to be shown at the 2011 Sundance Festival?
If so, read this:
YouTube blog: http://youtubeukblog.blogspot.com/201...
The World According To Rich:
http://worldaccordingtorich.blogspot.... &
http://www.youtube.com/worldaccording...
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Back To the Future?
Many of you might have seen stories floating around on the Internet, over the past couple of days, saying about how today was Future Day.
This all stems from the movie Back To The Future. The story being that today, or yesterday, depending on which story you read, was the date programmed into Marty McFly's De Lorean sports car.
Well, it's not true...
Apparently this all started when a UK based movie magazine reported the story. They then realised their mistake. But, they still produced a photo-shopped picture, supposedly showing the read out in the car, with the date as "Jul 05, 2010". I guess they were just having a bit of fun? But, you know how the Internet is these days. Stories like this spread like wildfire. Sites like Twitter & Facebook just help to fan those flames & spread them ever further. Maybe that's because we all want the stories to be true. It's almost as if we're willing them to be real, in some instances anyway.
I saw the story myself yesterday, via Twitter as it happens. I tried, in vain, to find out if this was true, as it seemed like aa amusing little story. Now i know why i couldn't prove it.
This whole episode made me think of two things.
Firstly, this re-inforces the fact that you just can't believe all that you read, or see on the Internet. As if you should do so anyway! So many people want to start a hoax, or just don't check their facts in the first place. In these cases & before you know it, that "fact", or deliberate falsehood, has become the "truth".
My second thought was that the future just isn't what it was made out to be. If i'd bought the future in a store, i'd have taken it back by now & asked for my money back.
In Back To The Future, Marty McFly was zooming around on a hoverboard. Well, i haven't seen anyone doing that in my neighbourhood yet & i don't expect to do so for some time to come. Even the De Lorean car seemed too revolutionary & disappeared into the sunset.
I remember watching "2001 A Space Odyssey", all those years ago & thinking, "Wow this is going to be happening in my lifetime. I'll be able to visit the Moon when i'm older" It sure beats some terrestrial resorts i can think of (Insert joke here about visiting the Moon & not liking it, because it had no atmosphere...)
In July 1969, we landed a man on the Moon. Now, we don't seem to be able to get any futher than orbiting the Earth.
I'm sure we can all think of many more examples of those exciting promises of what the future was going to hold for us.
So, what happened? Were we all lied to?
And, maybe most importantly of all. Who stole my future? I want it back.
This all stems from the movie Back To The Future. The story being that today, or yesterday, depending on which story you read, was the date programmed into Marty McFly's De Lorean sports car.
Well, it's not true...
Apparently this all started when a UK based movie magazine reported the story. They then realised their mistake. But, they still produced a photo-shopped picture, supposedly showing the read out in the car, with the date as "Jul 05, 2010". I guess they were just having a bit of fun? But, you know how the Internet is these days. Stories like this spread like wildfire. Sites like Twitter & Facebook just help to fan those flames & spread them ever further. Maybe that's because we all want the stories to be true. It's almost as if we're willing them to be real, in some instances anyway.
I saw the story myself yesterday, via Twitter as it happens. I tried, in vain, to find out if this was true, as it seemed like aa amusing little story. Now i know why i couldn't prove it.
This whole episode made me think of two things.
Firstly, this re-inforces the fact that you just can't believe all that you read, or see on the Internet. As if you should do so anyway! So many people want to start a hoax, or just don't check their facts in the first place. In these cases & before you know it, that "fact", or deliberate falsehood, has become the "truth".
My second thought was that the future just isn't what it was made out to be. If i'd bought the future in a store, i'd have taken it back by now & asked for my money back.
In Back To The Future, Marty McFly was zooming around on a hoverboard. Well, i haven't seen anyone doing that in my neighbourhood yet & i don't expect to do so for some time to come. Even the De Lorean car seemed too revolutionary & disappeared into the sunset.
I remember watching "2001 A Space Odyssey", all those years ago & thinking, "Wow this is going to be happening in my lifetime. I'll be able to visit the Moon when i'm older" It sure beats some terrestrial resorts i can think of (Insert joke here about visiting the Moon & not liking it, because it had no atmosphere...)
In July 1969, we landed a man on the Moon. Now, we don't seem to be able to get any futher than orbiting the Earth.
I'm sure we can all think of many more examples of those exciting promises of what the future was going to hold for us.
So, what happened? Were we all lied to?
And, maybe most importantly of all. Who stole my future? I want it back.
Monday, 5 July 2010
Ignorance Is Bliss?
Yesterday i attended a quiz afternoon, organised by some good friends of mine & my wifes. It was all in aid of charity & indeed a favourite local charity of mine, St Michael's Hospice.
I've mentioned St Michael's Hospice before & have attended a fund raising quiz in aid of them before. I even wrote a blog post about that occasion. Thankfully, this quiz was nowhere near as dramatic as that night was!
Having said that, my team won & quite convincingly too. Which brings me to the point of this blog.
Without wishing to "big" myself up, i am usually thought of as being pretty good at quizzes. So much so that when my wife & i sat down at our table, our fellow team mates said "Oh, we'll be sure to win now that Andy is on our team" Thankfully, this proved to be the case & i did, indeed, get a lot of the answers correct.
But, why me & why didn't the other team members feel confident in their own general knowledge? And why didn't they know as many answers as myself?
As far as i'm concerned & feel free to correct me if you think i'm wrong, this has nothing to do with intelligence. Believe me, i know plenty of pretty intelligent people who have no real general knowledge at all & not a lot of common sense either, for that matter!
For me, it seems to come down to my general inquisitive nature & my wide range of interests.
But, i can't say that i've always been that way. I certainly don't recall having those interests whilst i was at school. Apart from music that is. In fact, i couldn't wait to get out of school to start work & earning money.
The vast majority of my "education" has come since then & in what i call, the University Of Life. I seemed to suddenly find this wide range of interests after starting work. Maybe it was a case of suddenly having the freedom to learn about & explore the subjects that interested me, rather than those topics which had to be taught before?
It's also possible that i just wasn't interested in learning whilst at school & i'm sure that's the case with many people at that age. And of course, if you leave school with few qualifications, the chance of any further education, especially in those days, was limited. I probably wouldn't have been interested in further education anyway. I never found school particularly inspiring, except for a very few exceptions.
Thankfully, after leaving school i started to read a lot of books, magazines, newspapers etc, especially about those subjects that did interest me & i started to absorb all of that knowledge.
I'm also lucky in that i tend to soak up that information like a sponge. But, i'm convinced that that only happens because i want to digest that information in the first place.
I've also never ever been much of a big watcher of TV. Sure, i watch TV, as most people do. But, i only ever turn the TV on when i want to watch something in particular.. Otherwise, i'd rather the TV was turned off.
So, if i'm inquistive, interested & want to learn & digest all of that knowledge. Why don't other people? Some people even seem to be proud of the fact that they don't know anything. For them, ignorance is bliss. They seem to have no real interest in the world around them. That's a situation that i find very hard to understand.
But, maybe that's just me?
What i do know is that, as part of the winning team, my wife & i came home with a bottle of wine & a box of chocolates. The "losers" went home with nothing.
Who says that knowledge has no benefits?
I've mentioned St Michael's Hospice before & have attended a fund raising quiz in aid of them before. I even wrote a blog post about that occasion. Thankfully, this quiz was nowhere near as dramatic as that night was!
Having said that, my team won & quite convincingly too. Which brings me to the point of this blog.
Without wishing to "big" myself up, i am usually thought of as being pretty good at quizzes. So much so that when my wife & i sat down at our table, our fellow team mates said "Oh, we'll be sure to win now that Andy is on our team" Thankfully, this proved to be the case & i did, indeed, get a lot of the answers correct.
But, why me & why didn't the other team members feel confident in their own general knowledge? And why didn't they know as many answers as myself?
As far as i'm concerned & feel free to correct me if you think i'm wrong, this has nothing to do with intelligence. Believe me, i know plenty of pretty intelligent people who have no real general knowledge at all & not a lot of common sense either, for that matter!
For me, it seems to come down to my general inquisitive nature & my wide range of interests.
But, i can't say that i've always been that way. I certainly don't recall having those interests whilst i was at school. Apart from music that is. In fact, i couldn't wait to get out of school to start work & earning money.
The vast majority of my "education" has come since then & in what i call, the University Of Life. I seemed to suddenly find this wide range of interests after starting work. Maybe it was a case of suddenly having the freedom to learn about & explore the subjects that interested me, rather than those topics which had to be taught before?
It's also possible that i just wasn't interested in learning whilst at school & i'm sure that's the case with many people at that age. And of course, if you leave school with few qualifications, the chance of any further education, especially in those days, was limited. I probably wouldn't have been interested in further education anyway. I never found school particularly inspiring, except for a very few exceptions.
Thankfully, after leaving school i started to read a lot of books, magazines, newspapers etc, especially about those subjects that did interest me & i started to absorb all of that knowledge.
I'm also lucky in that i tend to soak up that information like a sponge. But, i'm convinced that that only happens because i want to digest that information in the first place.
I've also never ever been much of a big watcher of TV. Sure, i watch TV, as most people do. But, i only ever turn the TV on when i want to watch something in particular.. Otherwise, i'd rather the TV was turned off.
So, if i'm inquistive, interested & want to learn & digest all of that knowledge. Why don't other people? Some people even seem to be proud of the fact that they don't know anything. For them, ignorance is bliss. They seem to have no real interest in the world around them. That's a situation that i find very hard to understand.
But, maybe that's just me?
What i do know is that, as part of the winning team, my wife & i came home with a bottle of wine & a box of chocolates. The "losers" went home with nothing.
Who says that knowledge has no benefits?
2010 World Cup - Week 4
The latest of my series of videos about the 2010 World Cup.
We've now reached the semi-final stage.
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