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.
Recently in Yahoo Category
Witnesses have quickly posted a video of the plane crash in Buffalo, New York.
Here's one of the video clips posted on YouTube by user SpikeTheCowboy711 who live
s in Buffalo, New York.
Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY--The Vatican will publish a report on Friday detailing the launch
of Pope Benedict XVI's own dedicated channel on YouTube, the Osservatore Romano
newspaper said.
The deal with search engine giant Google, which owns the video sharing website,
aims to "secure the Pope's presence on the web," the Vatican paper said Thursd
ay, adding that Benedict has always had been "fond of new technologies."
The report will be published when the German-born pontiff will officially launc
h his YouTube channel.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican's communications department
, told the paper the pope hopes to reach out to "the digital generation."
By Marjorie Gorospe
âUNHAPPY the land that is in need of heroes.â
This is a notable quotation from German playwright Bertolt Brecht. It is now th
e core message of Mae Paner's (a.k.a. Juana Change) latest video posted on YouT
ube.
Taking the role of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), Paner portrays a domestic
helper who talks about how OFWs are often considered as "bagong bayani" or new
heroes of the country due to sacrifices they make.
These new heroes work abroad, leaving their families behind to find jobs elsewh
ere.
"We do not need praises, we need money," Juana Change says, as she tells a stra
nger on a plane about her feelings working abroad.
While more and more Filipinos work abroad as professionals, some end up doing j
obs that are menial.
In the video, her character mocks government officials who go abroad to hide th
eir ill-gotten wealth.
The video eventually ends with a familiar face: national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.
It was as if Paner was showing the two faces of heroes. Rizal sacrificed his li
fe for the country; while OFWs continue to sacrifice comfort and dignity to sup
port their family and eventually our economy.
But as Bretchâs saying goes, this country still needs more heroes who have the
genuine interest to serve the country minus personal interest, desire for power
and corruption.
Watch her video:
