(Sun Feb 24 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) With news of a new YouTube Adpocalypse, it's a good idea to consider what a YouTube creator goes through to build their presence in the world. Today, Scotty at Strange Parts, whose videos have appeared on TechSparx several times, posted a video talking about his plans to develop the Strange Parts channel into a proper information production business. The Strange Parts channel started with what might have been a flash in the pan, showing how to build an iPhone 6 from spare parts, but Scotty has developed a vision of exploring the world of companies building the parts that go into the products we buy in stores. To implement that vision he has transitioned from a solo-enterprise to having employees, and in this video we are told a large part of the story.
(Sun Feb 24 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) With the cries of YouTube Adpocalypse, let's take a look at one YouTube Creator's advertising revenue. This comes from yet another "Make Money Online" video stressing the potential of uploading videos to YouTube. As "proof of income" the guy shows his 2018 revenue, and completely skips over the huge revenue drop starting in mid-2018
(Sat Feb 23 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) We've had previous cries of YouTube Adpocalypse's where YouTube "content creators" are complaining about declining advertising revenue. There was even an event in April 2018 where an upset YouTuber went to YouTube headquarters with a gun and started shooting. The new variant has YouTube taking action on videos, demonitizing, based on the comments made below the videos.
(Sat Feb 16 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) A few days ago it was announced Amazon is leading a round of investment into Rivian, a maker of electric trucks. Since Amazon is not into auto manufacturing, that's a puzzler, until you remember that Amazon is working to own more of the delivery system. According to the attached video, Amazon has a quickly growing fleet of airplanes and is starting to take over long-haul delivery tasks that had previously been performed by FedEx, UPS and the US Postal Service. Further, Amazon has bought a large fleet of delivery trucks, and is experimenting with delivery robots. In light of all that, taking an ownership stake in Rivian means that in a couple years Amazon can reduce fuel costs, and if they are autonomous-drive trucks their employee cost could fall.
(Sat Feb 16 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Many of us, especially from the 90's and earlier, have a pile of cassette tapes taking up space. On the one hand big business wants us to keep buying stuff, but we end up needing a bigger house to store all the stuff and we fritter our lives away. Folks like Marie Kondo teach minimizing possessions, keeping life simple, reducing clutter, etc. That includes all those cassette tapes taking up space. In the 2010's almost 2020's surely it is better to digitize audio cassette tapes and then responsibly dispose of the physical object. But the question is what's the best way to convert audio cassettes to a digital format like MP3 files?
(Fri Feb 01 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Fake news, and fake advertising, is plaguing us. How can we know the truth when we're surrounded by so many fake claims. The President of the USA is making decisions about the USA based on false news, his "gut hunches" that are plainly wrong. Facebook has been under fire for being a big avenue for being a major conduit for distributing fake news. Russia, and others, have set up an infrastructure to create and distribute fake news items, sometimes paying for advertising to help goose their distribution. Facebook claims to be addressing the problem, and has created a way to report postings containing fake information. In this case today Facebook refused to take action on an advertisement that is outright false, posted by a Facebook Page that is likely a Russian Fake News outlet.
(Fri Feb 01 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) In my previous posting I documented an outright fake advertisement found on Facebook, my attempt to report this as a fake advertisement, and Facebook's refusal to take action. The same advertisement was posted by two separate Facebook pages, each containing postings with Cyrillic text, fitting the pattern of Russian interference. Therefore it's necessary to get some attention at Facebook, not just an automated review system. The problem is that Facebook doesn't have a public email address to use.
