Waxy.orgAndy Baio lives hereBBC2's The Net, first episode from April 1994- March 31, 2008 "As computer technology becomes part of everyday life, a new program comes to BBC2 now: be you beginner, buff, or somewhere in between." Thanks to Martin Brewer, here's the first episode of The Net, a documentary series that ran for four seasons from 1994 to 1998. Despite the name, this first episode has very little to do with the Internet. Instead, it's an almost perfect video equivalent of the early Wired Magazine, covering a mish-mash of digital culture from video games to virtual...http://waxy.org/2008/03/bbc2s_the_net_f/ Dead Week- March 27, 2008 No entries this week. I've had a miserable flu since Sunday that's made it impossible to think straight. I'll see you Monday, Internet.http://waxy.org/2008/03/dead_week/ Olympia School District's Technology Program from 1995- March 21, 2008 The second in my series of Internet Videos from the VHS Era was contributed by James Burke. Here's what he said about it: "I enjoyed the Internet Power VHS tape and dug up an old VHS tape from my old school district. It's a 20-minute video from June 1995 that discusses the district's technology plan with lots of funny and archaic technology and it's an interesting look at a school district that was on the cutting edge back in the mid nineties." After watching the whole film, it's clear this.http://waxy.org/2008/03/olympia_school/ Abort, Retry, or EPIC FAIL- March 20, 2008 "This is not language. This chart is a fucking lie."Anil Dash, Battledecks 2008 A few years ago, I wrote an entry about knee-jerk contrarians on the Internet: those delightful people who find fault in anything and everything, dismissing months or years of work with a few words. This is nothing new. It's as old as communication itself. I'm sure that the moment man discovered fire, there was some guy nearby saying, "Too smoky. Can burn you. Lame." In the modern age, we've found a much more...http://waxy.org/2008/03/abort_retry_or/ "Hot Hot Sex" Video Removed from YouTube- March 19, 2008 After weeks of criticism from YouTube commenters, the creator of the popular fan-made "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" video finally pulled it offline. (It's still mirrored here.) On March 7, YouTube administrators removed it from its 1 spot on the rankings while they investigated it. Apparently, no foul play was detected and it was reinstated. Stephen Hutcheon from the Sydney Morning Herald has more on the story, including a screenshot from the leaderboard on the day it was removed. It's hard to.http://waxy.org/2008/03/hot_hot_sex_vid/ Internet Power, Volume 1: Flashback to the VHS-Era Web- March 18, 2008 Lately, I've started collecting old VHS tapes about the Internet from the early- to mid-1990s. While most of these are pretty corny -- think Gabe and Max's Internet Thing -- they also inadvertently captured pieces of the web that don't exist anywhere else. The Internet Archive's earliest snapshots were in late 1996, so anything before that is extremely sparse. The videos, silly as they are, still represent valuable documentation of the early web. I spent most of the day yesterday working on.http://waxy.org/2008/03/internet_power/ Worst Website Ever, Redux- March 9, 2008 Yesterday's Worst Website Ever session was standing-room only and judging from the response, it was a hit. Once I can get a copy of the audio from the talk, I'll upload a screencast of the entire session with the original slides. Until then, here are the descriptions of each pitch. Jeffery Bennett, Image Search for the Blind Image search is fundamentally broken, only allowing sighted people to use it for entertainment and research. But what about those who can't see Jeffery shows how...http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e_1/ Interview with the creator of YouTube's new 1 video- March 5, 2008 While researching the meteoric rise of the fan-made Hot Hot Sex video to the top of YouTube's charts, I tried to get in touch with its creator, Italian writer Clarus Bartel. I sent him a message through his Flickr account, but he responded that he didn't speak English, so I asked Philip Rogosky to do the honors. Here's the first published interview with Clarus Bartel about his 1 video. Translated from Italian It all started with the Qoob music channel's video contest. I didn't participate...http://waxy.org/2008/03/interview_with/ New Video Overtakes "Evolution of Dance" for 1 Spot on YouTube- March 5, 2008 Yesterday, YouTube refreshed their leaderboards and a strange new video became the Most Viewed Video of All-Time, topping the world-famous Evolution of Dance video. With 89 million views, the new winner is a fan-made music video. But did it get there legitimately In early 2007, a popular Italian music community called Qoob.tv announced a contest for the Brazilian band CSS, in which fans could remix green-screen footage created by the band to create their own video for their song "Alcohol." .http://waxy.org/2008/03/new_video_overt/ Worst Website Ever at SXSW Interactive- March 4, 2008 If you're going to be in Austin this weekend for SXSW Interactive, you should come to "Worst Website Ever," the session I'm leading on Saturday 5pm. Eight smart people will be proposing their worst possible web startup ideas in short 5-minute presentations, punctuated by questions and heckling by yours truly. When it comes to geek conferences, I'm not a huge fan of panels and I have a very short attention span. So I proposed something unorthodox, and the voters apparently liked it. (With...http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e/ |