This too shall pass.
I’ve always liked SuSE….even after Novell took them over.
So this morning I was browsing my normal Linux news stops and noticed this tidbit of joy.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10148796-16.html
Take some time and read it over……..pretty cool.
😉
YouTube has implemented a three-phased attack to thoroughly rid me of any reason to ever talk nice about it again. They have succeeded.
Phase I – Google Search Drops My Site
It started in late December. I run a site called TheBestOfYouTube.com which is just a blog I use to feature random videos I find on YouTube. I write a little about them, and link to the video. No harm done, and this is completely acceptable (and encouraged through video embedding) by YouTube.
For two years, a search for “best of you tube” or “you tube best” would show my site either first or second in the search results. There is another site similar to mine (though more succesful) at bestofyoutube.com which would be right there at the top of the search results with me.
One day in late December, that all changed. I was nowhere to be found for those searches, but bestofyoutube.com was still there. If I searched Google for “thebestofyoutube.com” it would still show the site. Using Google’s Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics, it was revealed the site was still being indexed by Google.
There didn’t seem to be any sandboxing of my site, as it’s still findable, just not using those important keywords. Needless to say, my traffic dropped by about 85%, and thus my ad revenue fell with it. Curiously, in December, I had received my largest-ever payment from Adsense, as the site had been steadily gaining traffic the previous couple of months.
In case you were late to the meeting and didn’t hear, Google owns YouTube.
Was this a penalization of some sort by Google? Did the bestofyoutube.com guys do something to get my site unlisted for those keywords? I have no idea, and I have no idea how to figure it out. Either way, the fact that my site is still in Google’s index leads me to believe it was something that targeted me specifically.
Phase II – The Empire Strikes Back
On January 18, I received a letter from YouTube stating that Warner Music Group was claiming infringement on my “Star Wars on a Banjo” video. This was simply a video of me loosely interpreting the Star Wars theme on my banjo. It had been up for over 2 years, had garnered over 1.5 million views, and was featured on the front page of sites such as Fark.com and Metafilter.com. It led to me being interviewed by the local paper.
So they yanked it down, and I inquired about what to do on both Reddit.com and Metafilter.com. I received many varied responses, but the general consensus was that people were supportive of me, and that YouTube was overreacting.
Even though Warner claimed infringement, the video could easily be considered a parody, in which case it falls under fair use. Still, YouTube has to take things like this down if a copyright holder complains, just to protect themselves under the DMCA laws. The procedures state that it is now my turn to file a counter-claim, which might get my video back online if Warner doesn’t respond in 10 days.
I have filed the counter claim with YouTube, and am hoping to see the video return. Stay tuned.
Phase III – Shock and Awe
This morning, I got another email from YouTube. This time, they were letting me know that my Fingernail Collection video had been yanked for violating the YouTube Community Guidelines.
I guess that a video of someone licking fingernail clippings is considered a “shock” video. The funny thing is, in my opinion, it is completely ironic that people get grossed out by it. What is the difference between biting your fingernails while they are on your finger and merely touching your tongue to them when they are off your finger?
I just don’t get it.
The video has been up for nearly two years, and for this to happen just a few days after my Star Wars banjo video takedown got a lot of attention in the Internet press, seems too coincidental to me.
In Summary
I have been disheartened by all of this. I’ve always been a big fan of Google and their ventures (YouTube included), and to get the triple smackdown in three different areas has been quite demoralizing.
I do plan on contesting the Star Wars On A Banjo and fingernail video takedowns.
If the person at the other end of the line has an iota of reasoning abilities, they will hopefully see my point of view and put the videos back online.
I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this matter. Please comment!
As you may have noticed, I ditched my blog here at www.www.willchatham.com back in October in favor of trying out Tumblr. I ended up enjoying the Tumblr service, and I will probably still use it occasionally.
However, WordPress 2.7 came out, and after trying it on some of my other blog sites, I soon realized I really wanted THIS site to have it again.
So, here I am, with a brand new theme to boot!
I have a few things I plan on doing to spruce this place up, including a brand new message board. That’s right–it’s the return of the Gangsta Haiku Repository!
Stay tuned…
Fudzilla reports that Microsoft is about to lay out 17% of its staff. Apparently, most of the cuts will likely be in overseas areas, as well as in the MSN division of the corporate giant.
Will other major vendors follow suit?
As much as I love WordPress, I have found myself using Tumblr a lot more. I like it’s mobile-friendly interface, simplicity, and ease of use.
I will be updating this site some day so that it all makes more sense now that I am relocating the blog portion of it. Look out!
I decided to resurrect my old Geekamongus.com site. Instead of filling this personal site with loads of technical blog posts no one cares about, I thought I’d dedicate a site to computers, the Internet, security, and anything else geeky. It made sense to use Geekamongus.com to do this.
So, look forward to more posts about personal things and whatever I’m thinking about here, and head to Geekamongus.com for the geeky stuff.
I intend to keep the new site on a ‘lay person’ level, providing articles to help people with computers and the Internet. I figure there are a lot of people who could use free advice, and it makes it fulfilling to think I might be helping someone.
So go tell your friends!
We pretty much rocked the house at Flipside in Boone, NC last night. Flipside is a pizza-pub right across the street from the new sports stadium at Appalachian State, and there were tons of summer session college kids crawling all over the place in search of beer and hooking up. Luckily, The Whappers were there to help facilitate. And we rocked their Polo shirts and tube tops off, Asheville style.
The best part of the evening was rocking out on my new set of Tama Superstars. These suckers are LOUD. 24 inch bass drum, the shallow style rack tom, a 16 inch floor tom, and an 18 inch floor tom. WOW is all I can say.
And, by the way, my older set is up for sale.
We will be back at Flipside on June 19. Look for us this coming weekend in Asheville at Stella’s!
Let’s see…Back at the end of February, I got rehired by one of my previous employers, P3I, and am now the Web Developer/Windows Security person supporting the 14th Weather Squadron here in Asheville. Same place of work, slightly different position. I’m still doing mostly Linux system administration (RedHat and SuSE), but with the new Windows part of my title comes the duties of Sharepoint administration. I got to go to Atlanta for a week of Sharepoint training a few weeks ago, and I’m headed to DC for another week soon.
The Whappers continue to rock, and we finished our 3 song demo earlier this month. We have put the finishing touches on our press kit, so look for us starting to play out much more often soon!
Gray turns 5 in May, which is pretty crazy. Dax is 2.5 now. It’s amazing to watch them each develop the individual personalities. They have both reached the age where they play together, which is great during those times that Alicia and I need a little downtime.
Alicia has had several openings at the Merrimon Avenue Galleries, and she continues to sell many paintings and jewelry at the Kress Emporium. It seems her booth is one of the most popular. She has even branched out into finding old furniture, fixing it up, and painting it. Look for an updated web site soon.
I’ve been doing a good bit of side work still too. Nothing to show yet, but several projects are nearing completion.
I think that’s not all, but that’s all I can think of.
The band I’ve been playing with since October finally has a name, and it is The Whappers.
Naturally, we have an official The Whappers web site (set up by yours truly) and the obligatory Myspace page too.
Last, but certainly not least, we will be playing this Saturday in Asheville at the Emerald Lounge on lower Lexington Avenue downtown. Let the face melting begin.
First, I’d like to point out the new Photo Gallery I put up here. I decided to start fresh, but look for more pictures (and video…yay!) soon.
September has been a more relaxed month in that I am no longer under the big deadline I was stressing out about in August. The web server nightmare and subsequent move to a new server has smoothed out rather well. I’ve had visits from family the last two weekends. And I’ve been playing some music here and there, which is always good. Most importantly, I’ve been doing fun things with the boys and Alicia since I haven’t had so much extra work to do.
I have a bunch of cool links to post soon, so check back.
Oh, in case you were wondering, we don’t need no stinking badges.