Wes Davis
Finally, a portable Super Nintendo.
The owner of James Channel on YouTube has perfected the art of the home portable console conversion, using hot glue, duct tape, and (feigned) carelessness.
Youtube Archive
Archives for October 2023
Alex Heath
Can TikTok become YouTube before YouTube becomes TikTok?
The race is on to find out: TechCrunch reports that TikTok is testing 15-minute video uploads, an increase of 5 minutes from the current max time. YouTube, meanwhile, is all in with Shorts as its answer to TikTok’s vertical, mobile-first format.
Wes Davis
You know, this wouldn’t happen if y’all didn’t insist on those pop quizzes.
Michigan State is “deeply sorry” for the 40-foot-tall (my quick estimate) picture of a certain WWII-era genocidal dictator on the gigantic digital scoreboard at Spartan Stadium during Saturday night’s football game against Michigan University.
The picture showed up during a pre-game pop quiz the school may have been streaming from a YouTube channel. The channel’s owner commented today that they weren’t aware the school was using their content, calling it “unsolicited and unauthorized use.”
According to The Washington Post, associate athletic director Matt Larson said it was “inappropriate content by a third-party source,” and the school promises to better vet content for the screen going forward.
Update October 22nd, 3:12PM ET: Added comment from TheQuizChannel owner.
Michigan State ‘deeply sorry’ for posting Hitler image on scoreboard
[The Washington Post]
Wes Davis
Windows Phone to the rescue?
YouTube’s been cracking down on ad blocker usage this year. I’m fine coughing up $14 a month for YouTube Premium, but I can’t help but be amused at the user agent workaround Enderman posted yesterday (spotted by Windows Central).
Using a Google-made Chrome extension, you can put a digital name tag on your browser that basically says, “Hello! My Name is Windows Phone,” and YouTube won’t show you ads.
YouTube hasn’t specifically said that turning your browser into three Windows Phones in a trenchcoat is against its terms of service, but all the same: Proceed at your own risk.
Richard Lawler
Supreme Court lifts ban on Biden admin contacts with tech platforms about content moderation.
The DOJ was granted (PDF) a stay of an injunction barring DHS, CISA, FBI, and other federal officials from contact with social media platforms about content moderation. The judge who wrote the injunction this summer claimed their requests about posts containing covid misinformation amounted to a violation of the First Amendment.
An appeals court limited the terms of the ban last month but paused the process to see if the Supreme Court would weigh in. Now it will hear the DOJ’s appeal, over dissent from three justices (Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch).
Jess Weatherbed
