Sky KID`s SKYNET

2008 brings a new way of doing business in Hollywood. Before a casting call is made they look to the tube. You Tube that is. The numbers of people showing their skills is growing and the leaders of the pack are younger than my truck.

Kids are finding their niche in the working world before they ever leave school. Everything from Contortionists to Comedians. Song writers to Song players. And the skills are amazing. We seem to be producing a brighter crop of kids these days. Or maybe it’s because they are more driven by the stimulus of the net, stardom and fame.

In the US, most schools cut art and music from the curriculums as non-essential. No one is judged by them so why focus on them. Those in the know can give them a million reasons but math and decision making top the list.

Our youth are notorious for going the opposite direction of authority. So maybe that’s what draws them to the tube. Perhaps it is the computer and years of games. Perhaps it is just the possibility of fame. Or maybe it is all of the above.

But what ever the reason, it has created the largest casting call in history. It doesn’t matter what you are looking for. Motorcycle stunt drivers, dancers, bird trainers, snake handlers, contortionists or journalists of tomorrow. It’s all there, and the industry has noticed.

And lots of mimic sites have poped up. But none have a foothold like YouTube. Even Myspace has gotten into the act. They just advertised to show your talents on video and maybe win a spot on a “You’ve Got Talent Show.”

I think TV broadcasters are back peddling on the issue of down posted pulling videos, as the lack of exposure is hurting their ratings. YouTube is taking the airtime. They better wise up and see the value of branding and hope for the best. Broadcast TV is on the way out. Fast.

The Euro Jr. has become the reality shows of today. And the world has flocked to them like a hobo on a ham sandwich. It’s like sifting through YouTube and pulling out all the Paul Potts and Troye Sivan Mellets. They do the searching and the sifting for you and then sensationalize it on stage, most every person’s dream.

Todays, carphone salesmen is tomorrows Great tenor. Sandbox today, stage tomorrow. There is no limit to what people will or won’t do. Sometimes dangerous, most times stupid. But almost always creative.

This will be interesting to remember. One day I think it will become a “Chicken or the egg” conundrum. Did YouTube create You’ve got talent or did You’ve Got talent kick off the YouTube craze. Which ever it is, one thing is clear. Casting agents are not looking at the classifieds to find their prospects, they’re watching the tube.

Cheers,
bestpi

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Rapidshare - one of the most popular file hosting services changed its Captcha ( required only for free downloading ). The new one looks like this :

They did that do discourage automated downloads - softwares such as Universal Share Downloader used to be able to bypass the Captcha restrictions ( in combination with ABBYY FineReader ) . Now Rapidshare introduced animals as additional protection - cats - and dogs . All my attempts were unsuccessful until after a search in Internet I saw in the comments in one blog that there were dogs in the Captcha ( at first I saw only kittens ).

Its clear that Rapidshare wants to make more money - and this new approach is guaranteed to get them quite a few new premium memberships - but I dislike this practice . Rest assure it won`t be long until the new Captcha gets bypassed as well.

“It is not hard for bots to identify similar images . Since bot makers know Rapidshare offers 6 (or maybe 7 at times?) characters, they can easily take the image from the “please enter…” message, and search from the 6 characters with it in similar rotation / distortion…”

Andy Huang ( vBulletin)

ps : То comment on this post you will need to enter the captcha below :

Related posts : Rapidshare happy hours ,  Rapidshare Premium Link Generator

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Muxtape playlists became very popular this days and I just could not resist to making my own one. The idea is similar to the tapes on which we all used to record our favorite vibes - only the modern version involves digital files and sharing ( legal too as the music is only streaming plus there is a link to the amazon`s web site from which you can buy the original track ). Muxtape is very easy to use - you can set up an account for 15 seconds then upload up to 12 tracks [max 10MB a piece] and finally organize them. And your own Muxtape will be ready to share. Same goes for the playback experience - all it takes is a Click a track to play a track and another Click again to pause it.

Click on the tape above to listen to my muxtape selection and please leave me a comment about it.

I will be changing the songs there every 2 weeks or so.

Wired.com - make the most of Muxtape (link)

Demonoid - one of the best torrent trackers is back online. The systems are up and running and I hope that now the tracker the site will get more into the private membership as to ensure a higher security. The site has a new administrator - but aside from that fact everything seems just the as it was.

Demonoid.com

Related posts :

Demonoid down

What happened to Demonoid?

If you have visited my blog more than once - you probably know that I am movie collector ( well music and software collector as well ) and like writing reviews for various productions. That is why I felt very excited when I found out about a new start up - the web site of Blippr which you can use to manage our collections and write shorts reviews ( up to 160 characters ) for the items in it. One may call Blippr - Twitter for collectors and won`t be far from the truth. The site is bundled with features and is promising to enable mobile updates as soon as it gets out of its current beta state. The sites has a great potential for community creation as people can vote on each other blips and rate all kinds of products including - books, video games, movies, and music. Few months ago I was just as much excited about Listal and today it is my favorite site for managing mu collection online . Blippr adds a new twist - being social bookmarking tool above all. It is well designed and browsing the various contents in it is a real pleasure . The reviews I am going to do at Blippr will be the perfect add on to the one I include in this blog.

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First let me say that I have purchased premium account at rapidshare and have been using it for 4 months now without a single regret. But then when I share file with friends they often complain that the time limit is extremely frustrating ( know that`s true from my own experience). Then I discovered the Rapidshare premium links. All you have to do is go to one of the sites, type in the rapidshare link, and click download. The only downside is that they are public, so anyone can have access. Each link we will show you has a 25 gb daily limit, so if you happen to download a 5 kb file, then you have to wait for the next day, or use a different one. the 5kb file means that the daily limit has been reached.

There are several web sites out there which may help you. The one which is verified as working by my friends is Rapid cheat (link)

An update : My premium at rapidshare expired and when I returned to this post I have noticed that the Rapid cheat web site is more than often not working. Thankfully I was able to discover another premium link generator- Megadl.info/rs which services rock at the moment I write this - pay it a visit and don`t forget to read the rules there and use the services responsibly.

Related posts :
Rapidshare Happy Hours , New RapidShare Captcha

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1. Disable Thumbs.db - This thumbs.db is a database file containing the small images displayed when you viewed a folder in Thumbnail View. It is a hidden file not viewed by most users and not updated when files are moved from a folder which images have passed through or deleted. For more info on how to do that - check Raymond.cc blog ( here)

2. Use encryption for your sensitive data ( bank accounts, credit card statements …etc) . You will be able to find many programs that can do that for you. The best freeware is TrueCrypt ( link) - it is easy to use and small at size. You can use it to create encrypted volumes on your PC , your USB drive …etc. You can check out the post in gHacks( here) to learn more about TrueCrypt(tutorial). If you decide to spare some cash - I am going to recommend PGP ( link) and Steganos (link) - both companies offer first class software which can be used to encrypt files and secure your privacy. I have been using Steganos Security suite from quite some time and few people did a penetration test - they have failed . PGP has been recommended to me by a friend of mine - and I have it on my pc - but I am still figuring all its features.

3. Don`t just delete - shred the data! Simply deleting files or emptying your recycle bin will delete the data temporary , but it will still be easily recoverable with the variety of tools available nowadays. One does not have to use complicated forensic tools such as Encase and FTK - to get acceess to your data. Some freewares would do …That is why you really need to make sure that your data is overwritten - both Steganos and PGP offer such functionality ( you could even overwrite the free space on your computer - to be sure that it is fresh and completely empty without any references to files that may have been there ). One software - called Evidence eliminator has probably the best marketing when it comes to securing your privacy online ( well not that I agree with their scare tactics ) - anyway various cases have proved that it works - through one hint from me - never -I repeat never put your Trust in a single software - better use some combination of software and tools to ensure your complete privacy.

4. Use Firefox ! Or simply do not use IE because it saves all kind of information about your surfing habits . Not only the cache and web history - but and that nasty index.dat file. (link). Also firefox with its plugin systems provides many options to boost your privacy level - security hacks list 10 of them - here

…if you have more ideas about how to protect your privacy - leave me a comment and I will update the checklist

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