I haven't seen them yet, but I bet they're amusing.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090211202057725

Ca: We have our winners!

Wednesday, February 11 2009 @ 08:20 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

We have the winning videos from the 2008 My Privacy & Me National Video Competition for young people! Participants from Encounters with Canada, a national youth forum that brings together teens from across Canada for week-long adventures in learning and discovery, selected the winners from among seven finalists.

Source - Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

[From the website:

http://www.privcom.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2009/nr-c_090210_e.asp

The videos have been posted to youthprivacy.ca, the youth Web site of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. They can also be viewed on the Office’s YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/privacycomm).

If true, this is the clearest admission yet that Microsoft screwed up! (Those Vista CDs might have some value after all...)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/11/238222&from=rss

MS To Offer Free Windows 7 Upgrade To Vista Users

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 11, @06:45PM from the you-get-what-you-pay-for dept. Microsoft Upgrades IT

crazyeyes writes

"With Windows 7 set for release in Dec. 09, Microsoft is getting ready with their free upgrade program, which allows Vista users to switch to Windows 7 when it arrives. The folks at TechARP have consistently scored accurate scoops on Microsoft software releases. They have now revealed Microsoft's upgrade plans, schedules and even screenshots of the upgrade process."

Does this signal that YouTube is dead or merely past its prime?

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/11/2324202&from=rss

Federal Officials and YouTube Nearing a Deal

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 11, @09:25PM from the watching-the-watchers dept. Social Networks Politics

GovTechGuy writes

"The federal government is on the verge of reaching an agreement with YouTube that would allow agencies to make official use of the popular video-sharing service. A coalition of federal agencies led by the General Service Administration's Office of Citizen Services has been negotiating with Google, YouTube's parent company, since summer 2008 on new terms that would allow agencies to establish their own channels on the site. Agencies have not been [allowed] to post videos to YouTube (although many already have) because under the current terms of service, people who post content are subject to their state's libel laws. Federal agencies must adhere to federal law. On Tuesday, government officials said the negotiations were "very close" to being completed."

Related Is Hulu a replacement for YouTube?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10161967-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

New evidence links Hulu with mushed brains

by Chris Matyszczyk February 11, 2009 3:26 PM PST

… The Wall Street Journal suggested Wednesday that when Hulu went public last March, its largest demographic was not snotty-nosed punks actively looking to mush their brains, but those whose gray matter was in a fairly ripened state of mushiness. Yes, those 55 and over.

… Of course, YouTube's traffic is around 10 times that of Hulu's. But apparently 15 out of 20 searches on YouTube are for the kind of TV content for which Hulu has a license and YouTube often does not.

So who do you think will win in the end? The brand with all the videos of weird psychopathic doctors, overeaters, cuddly animals, office workers making a documentary about themselves, and stand-up comics of very varying abilities?

Or, um, YouTube?

...and I thought those social networks were hard to monetize...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10162001-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Facebook friends don't ask friends for money

by Elinor Mills February 11, 2009 3:39 PM PST

… A relatively new Facebook scam has been surfacing in which a user's account is hacked and then used to send messages of alarm to get the user's friends to send money.

More interesting for how they filter the sounds they sell...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10162294-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

iStock launches iStockaudio for royalty-free clips

by Stephen Shankland February 11, 2009 6:34 PM PST

As expected, iStockphoto launched its audio clip licensing service, called iStockaudio, on Wednesday.

… That means there are constraints on audio contributors, though, who may not be members of various professional organizations.

"iStockphoto has used reasonable efforts to ensure that the suppliers of audio content are not members of any performing rights, mechanical rights or any other similar societies (such as SOCAN, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, MCPS, SACEM, SDRM, JASLAC, GEMA, etc.) and that no performing rights or other royalties are required to be paid to any such organizations," according to the iStockaudio license agreement.

In order to compete directly with the Kindle, I need to find a good hardware hacker. Meanwhile...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10161617-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

High school was wrong. It's good to be a Bookworm

by Eric Franklin February 12, 2009 4:00 AM PST

… Bookworm is an open-source ePub reader that allows you to upload, organize, and read your e-books from the Web on your computer, as well as from Web-capable mobile devices including the iPhone.

Sor selfish reasons...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/020559.html

February 11, 2009

New on LLRX.com: Six Questions and a Strategy for Campus-wide Information Competence

Six Questions and a Strategy for Campus-wide Information Competence. At Cornell University Library (CUL) a committee was established in 2005 to address the issue of information literacy at the university. The committee did extensive research on this topic and developed an approach for seeking solutions. Stuart Basefsky presents three exhibits to accomplish this objective.