March 2009 Archives

Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO--A schoolboy and his father have unleashed software that lets peo ple listen to YouTube's vast collection of music videos as if it were a private collection. Muziic software created by 15-year-old David Nelson enables computers to mine Y ouTube's rich database of songs and play customized lists of tunes free of char ge. "The Muziic player is a pretty cool little thing," said analyst Matt Rosoff of technology industry tracking firm Directions On Microsoft. "It looks and works a lot like iTunes in that it is a downloable desktop applic ation; but you get all the content from YouTube. You have an all-in-one-place l ibrary of music for free." Google, which bought YouTube in 2006 in a 1.65 billion-dollar stock deal, says the Muziic service has only recently caught its eye and that it is c hecking whether it conforms to the YouTube terms of service. Google has been trying to develop ways to make money off of YouTube and that go al could be undermined by a Muziic Player that lets users tap into the video-sh aring website's music while avoiding advertisements. "Hopefully, they will work something out," Rosoff said of Muziic and YouTube. " Muziic is analogous to a subscription music service, but it's free." Nelson and his father, Mark, launched the self-funded Internet enterprise this year and bill it as the first "YouTube for music." David Nelson is Muziic's chief technology officer, having switched from public school to taking online high school classes from home in order to devote more t ime to the website and the player software, according to his father. Muziic Player takes advantage of Content ID software that YouTube built into th e video-sharing website to enable owners of music to more easily locate copyrig hted works. Muziic servers crashed for an hour on one day last week due to an overwhelming amount of Internet traffic to the nascent website. "We served thousands of downloads of the Muziic Player and Encoder in just a fe w hours!" a message about the incident on the website's blog said. "Weâve expected and anticipated extreme growth in our website and application . .. However, within less than a week of our 'unofficial' launch, we have been -- over abundantly -- blessed with huge amounts of traffic!" Muziic said it had to add another computer server to handle the load for reques ts for the media player.

By Izah Morales INQUIRER.net During the victory party of their m ovie, âWhen I Met U,â commercial model and actress KC Concepcion disclosed that she would be having her own website soon. "Iâm making my own website now. That would be my official website. I love blogg ing. Lahat ng nasa utak ko, makikita ng tao dun. [People will see whatâs on my mind through that ]," the young actress says. Concepcion says she began blogging when she was still a student. She joined multiply.com in April 12, 2005 and collected 188 contacts cum friend s. In her multiply site, she wrote, "hi... :) i have no myspace. no active face book. no friendster. no blogspot. just this. a little island in cyberspace. hop e you enjoy the ride.â Her first blog entry was about a subservient chicken. Most of her entries containe d pictures and stories of her travels, student life and showbiz engagements. Concepcion says her blog eventually became a venue for her fans and supporters. ââYung nabuong fans ngayon, âyung mga sumasama sa mga events, sa mga guestings, âyung mga supporters, actually, nag-meet sila sa blog ko nung hindi pa ako pum apasok ng showbiz. Kaya sobrang special sa akin âyung blog ko kasi nakilala nil a ako bilang tao, bilang estudyante, hindi lang bilang kung sino ako ngayon. [M y fans and supporters met through my blog and this happened even when I was not in showbiz yet. That's why my blog is special. It is a venue for them to know me as a person, as a student and not just the person that I am now.],â she says .

Izah Morales INQUIRER.net EXPRESSING oneself in this digital age comes in different forms. You have blogs and videos, for instance. Tang Teazperiment i s among those riding on the blogging and user-generated video trend, as it laun ched an online show that features flash mobs. A flash mob describes a large group of people who suddenly assemble in a publ ic place to perform an odd action for a brief period, then they disperse. "With the new media, teens can express themselves internationally,â says Ketchu p Eusebio, host of Teazperiment. âItâs such a relief for students because they donât need connections with any m edia outfit but just their laptops and the Internet,â adds Andi Manzano, co-hos t Teazperiment. The term flash mob was unknown until Harperâs Magazine Senior Editor Bill Wasik published an article on March 2006. Wasik began organizing flash mobs in May 2 003 in Manhattan through social media networks or via email. Cindy Abella, brand manager of Tang Fruit Teaz, said the show is a competition open to anyone who may want to submit video clips apart from the seven particip ating organizations in this project. "Teazperiment is about channeling oneâs boredom into something creative," says Abella. Seven school organizations from the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Ma nila University, Trinity College, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Sa n Sebastian College, La Consolacion College and Far Eastern University-FERN hav e already submitted video clips, which will be judged by viewers. Under the organization category, the video with the highest number of votes fro m the viewers would win P50,000. On the other hand, the top three videos from i ndividual submissions would be rewarded an Xbox game console and a Rockband gam e (first prize), three Asus laptops (second prize), and Nokia cellphones (third prize). The voting period for the organization category ends in March while voting for individual submissions ends in May.