Watch The Best Short Films From Around The World On Vimeo

When one thinks of online video, YouTube is invariably the first name that springs to mind. It’s easy to see why this is the case. YouTube has become ubiquitous; if one of your friends shares a video with you on your social networking site of choice the chances are it’ll be on YouTube. However, there are alternatives to YouTube, some of which offer a different, possibly better, experience.

Vimeo is one of these YouTube alternatives. It’s a different beast from the Google-owned property, extolling the virtues of quality over quantity. Vimeo is the place where the cool cats — the innovative musicians, interesting documentarians, and offbeat filmmakers — reside. The videos are presented in a beautiful manner, making watching Vimeo a closer experience to watching broadcast television than any other site on the Web.

An Introduction To Vimeo

Vimeo is great for certain kinds of videos, one of which is short films. The following channels are home to some of the finest short films from around the world, curated and presented on Vimeo. Each video can be viewed on its own page by clicking the title. And thanks to the quality of the Vimeo video player the full-screen experience is also great.

These channels may include some of the same content, so don’t be annoyed if you see repeats. To get you started on your cultured voyage of discovery, five of the best short films available on Vimeo have been embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

01SHORTFILM

The Six Dollar Fifty Man from NZ Shorts on Vimeo.

01SHORTFILM is a Vimeo channel dedicated to sharing the best fictional short films from a range of international directors. The channel is curated by Ale Corsini, who is himself a filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany.

At the time of writing there are more 200 videos included on the channel. With each short film being between five and 20 minutes in length (on average), that’s a lot of content for a Vimeo virgin to enjoy.

The short film embedded from this channel is titled The Six Dollar Fifty Man, and is a funny-yet-insightful look at childhood by ‘NZ Shorts’.

Short Of The Week

NOTHING ABOUT NOTHING (Short Film) from Daniel Levi on Vimeo.

Short Of The Week is a Vimeo channel which invites all kinds of short films, from fictional pieces to animated funnies, from serious documentaries to visual feasts. Short Of The Week also has its own dedicated website.

At the time of writing there are in excess of 500 videos on the channel, with more to explore as you head further down the rabbit hole… by this I mean clicking on individual filmmakers’ profiles in order to explore more of their work.

The short film embedded from this channel is titled Nothing About Nothing, and is an intriguing piece by Daniel Levi that evokes memories of Reservoir Dogs.

Independent Filmmakers

VOICE OVER (English subtitles) from Kamel Films on Vimeo.

Independent Filmmakers is a Vimeo channel designed to showcase the best filmmakers using Vimeo as an outlet for their work. It was created by Brian Chambers from Ontario, Canada, who also has his own page on the site.

At the time of writing there are over 700 videos on the channel, and they really are an eclectic mix covering all of the various genres associated with short films.

The short film embedded from this channel is titled Voice Over, an interesting piece that will stay with you long after it ends. Its quality can not be doubted, as it has already won numerous awards.

A Shortfilm Selection

High / Low from Fabien Dubois on Vimeo.

A Shortfilm Selection is a Vimeo channel curated by Emmanuel Tenenbaum, who apologizes up front for not updating as often as he should. Regardless, the quality of films included on this channel make it more than worthy of inclusion.

At the time of writing there are more than 100 videos on the channel, and it’s almost impossible to pigeonhole the content by genre or type. Which is a blessing rather than a curse.

The short film embedded from this channel is titled High/Low, a French film based in Tokyo with an English voiceover. It’s the work of Fabien Dubois, and it’s a thoughtful watch.

The Short Film Channel

the end from Cam McHarg on Vimeo.

The Short Film Channel is a Vimeo channel which exists to pull together the best narrative-led and documentary-style short films on the site. The focus on cinematography means the films featured are feasts for the eyes. It’s curated by Rod Blackhurst, a director and producer from New York.

At the time of writing there are just over 100 videos on the channel, many of which don’t appear on the other channels on this list. Some are visually stunning, others are designed more to get your gray matter working hard.

The short film embedded from this channel is titled the end, a piece by Cameron McHarg that you’ll either love or hate owing to the dark subject matter. Just don’t expect a happy ending.

Conclusions

The Vimeo channels listed here are amazing sources for the best short films the Web has to offer. Some of these films are works of art, acting as a fantastic counterbalance to the dross Hollywood is increasingly pumping out. While some parts of the Web aren’t usually associated with adding culture to the lives of the proletariat, Vimeo is increasingly filling that niche.

What do you think of Vimeo as a whole? Or the content that fills its pages? What do you think about these channels in particular? Or about the way in which content creators are utilizing the Web to find an audience? As always we’re keen to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment in the space provided below.

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Google Translate Mistakes

The Google Translate app for Android has some text files that include translation mistakes (/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.translate/files/ol/v3r1/c_p). Some of them have been reported by users, blogs, news sites, while others are new. It's not clear why the application needs these lists since Google has fixed these translation errors.



Here are some examples:



German to English: Stuttgart -> London, tischen -> Nazi, Sheraton -> Hilton, StepStone -> Monster, Kilo -> pounds



French to English: le président américain -> Bush, toussaint -> Halloween, Homme -> Female

Spanish to English: Madrid -> London, útil -> helpful Google Translation, amor -> truelove.



English to French: boobs massage -> Ségolène Royal, boobs massage -> Kaamelott Saison, it sucks -> elle suce



English to Spanish: quiz trivia -> vínculo con Israel



Catalan to English: Jordi Pujol -> Abraham Lincoln



English to Latin: English -> Latin, New York -> Romae, New York -> Londini, Milan -> Lib



English to Dutch: please -> iPhone, feet -> meter



Hungarian to English: magyar -> English, Kossuth Lajos -> Abraham Lincoln



Icelandic to English: Sigur Rós -> Foo Fighters, Sigur Ros -> Anastacia



Latin to English: Libri -> Random, Libri -> Reviews, Arma Virumque Cano -> Chairman Meow



Serbian to English: Mitar Mirić -> Rihanna, Miric -> Jackson



Swedish to English: Runkar -> Heil Hitler, kronor -> dollars



Google's machine translation algorithms are often fooled by proper nouns used in similar contexts (Madrid in Spanish vs London in English, Sigur Rós in Icelandic vs Foo Fighters in English), by measurement units and currencies (feet in English vs meter in Dutch), but there are also non-obvious mistakes.

Offline Google Translate for Android

Google Translate is useful, but you need an Internet connection to translate some text. Google's servers process your request, so language models are always up-to-date, you can translate long texts instantly and you don't need to download huge databases. Unfortunately, Google Translate is especially useful when you visit foreign countries and you may want to avoid the high data roaming fees.



Now you can use Google Translate offline if you have an Android device. Just install the latest version of the Google Translate for Android and you can download the core translation files for more than 50 languages (if you've already installed the application, you need to manually update it). Each file has about 150MB and it's stored on your SD card if your Android device has one.



"You can select [Offline Languages] in the app menu to see all the offline language packages available for download. To enable offline translation between any two languages, you just need to select them in the offline languages menu. Once the packages are downloaded, you're good to go," informs Google.

The application works well offline, but you may need to wait a few seconds if you want to translate long texts. Offline translations are less accurate since Google lets you download some simplified language models.



Here's a side-by-side comparison of the offline and offline translations of a French text from Le Monde:

Gmail brings support for six Indic languages to feature phones, including Tamil and Bengali

Gmail has announced that they are supporting six Indic languages on feature phones including Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali and Telgu.

According to Google, “Indian culture is diverse, with more than 100 languages and thousands of alphabets used every day. Depending on where you are, you might hear anything from Gujarati to Bengali and Tamil to Urdu. If you’re a speaker of these languages and use a feature phone, communicating is about to get a little easier.”

Choose language in Gmail:-

Now Gmail allow you to communicate in that language which you are best, You can choose your languages from settings in Gmail.

The post Gmail brings support for six Indic languages to feature phones, including Tamil and Bengali appeared first on Hack Illusion.

Related posts:

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2. virtual keyboards, transliteration and IMEs has added to Gmail for better communication


3. Gmail integrated with google drive Send up to 10GB attachments in gmail

What Should Have Been Culled Instead Of Google Reader? [We Ask You]

The biggest technology news to break recently was undoubtedly the shutting down of Google Reader, with the search and advertising giant deciding it was no longer interested in providing an RSS application to the masses. The outcry from RSS enthusiasts was deafening, to the point that some of us wondered whether Google hadn’t actually declared war on a country rather than having culled another one of its myriad of free services.

Thankfully there are plenty of alternatives to Google Reader, so no one needs to go without their RSS feeds come July. Kannon has since tried to prepare us for future Google culls, suggesting which services Google may kill off in the future and providing alternatives for them all well ahead of time.

No one likes to see something they use regularly pulled from availability. However, there must be an online service, Web app, tech company, social network, operating system, or piece of hardware you’d happily see carted off to the mortuary. It’s this subject that forms the basis for this week’s We Ask You.

This Week’s Question…

We want to know, What Should Have Been Culled Instead Of Google Reader? It turns out that a great many of the MakeUseOf readership were loyal users of Google Reader, and its death is therefore a source of frustration. This is your chance to blow off some of that pent-up frustration with a little snark. It’s healthy once in a while.

After last week’s epic and serious discussion on how the Internet should be governed in the future, it’s time for a more lighthearted topic. We don’t normally condone negativity here on MakeUseOf, but just this once we want you to be as negative as you can.

We want you to name one thing related to technology that you’d like to see culled. It could be a hardware manufacturer or one of the products they make, an online service you hate but use begrudgingly, an operating system that has proved to be more trouble than its worth, or even one specific part of a website, such as the Facebook Timeline.

We cannot promise that the thing you choose will blink out of existence once you submit your comment, but stranger things have happened. We may even find a consensus among the readership, in which case that product, service, or company will have to surely concede its time is limited.

As usual we prefer comments that comprise of more than just a word or two, so please also give your reasons for making your choice.

Drawing Conclusions

All comments will be digested to form conclusions in a follow-up post next week where we will detail what You Told Us. One reader will be chosen for the coveted Comment Of The Week, getting their name up in lights, the respect of other readers, and 150 MakeUseOf points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards. What more motivation than that do you need to respond?

We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. The questions asked are usually open-ended and likely to necessitate a discussion. Some are opinion-based, while others see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps to fellow MakeUseOf Readers. This column is nothing without you, as MakeUseOf is nothing without you.

Image Credit: Davidd

The post What Should Have Been Culled Instead Of Google Reader? [We Ask You] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

How To Insert PHP Content Into the Loop of Your Blog Excerpts

Every now and then, I get a message from the good folks at Google to my Adsense account suggesting one ad modification or another that they propose may help to bolster my ad revenue. In many cases, the suggested change is pretty simple – just post a slightly larger ad, or move it just a little bit up further “above the fold”.

However, there are times when you realize that an ad or maybe some other content needs to go into an area of your blog that isn’t so easy to get to. Sidebar content is one thing, and usually fairly easy to modify, but when it comes to other areas of your website that might be dynamically generated by code, inserting single content isn’t so simple.

For example, in the case of a WordPress blog or a WordPress website, the central content of your home page is most likely a stream of excerpts from your blog posts. People can click on “Read More” to open up the post page itself. You can create a sort of a template for your blog posts to carefully insert the required ad in your post exactly where you want it to go, but inserting an ad into your main blog page is a little more difficult.

It’s difficult mostly because that isn’t a single flow of code that develops the page content. It’s actually a loop that goes through your most recent posts, pulls out the excerpts, and outputs the text, footer info about the article, and the “Read More” button.

Inserting PHP Content Into Your Blog Loop

So, what does that mean exactly? Well, let’s take my Adsense example. Google tells me that I’d do well if I added a third graphical ad closer to the fold. Now, the perfect location for such an ad is just slightly down the main section and to the right of the navigation bar. That’s right, dead center of the area where my blog excerpts are listed.

Ideally, the ad would go right after the first blog post excerpt, and right before the line separator between posts.

With WordPress, there are a few places where this sort of post excerpt code takes place, but it really depends on your theme. Usually, you’ll see it in the “page” or “index” PHP files. Again, it depends on your theme, so your best bet is to run a simple, local web server for testing like XAMPP, and load your entire blog or website onto that server. Play around with the PHP file that you think is the right one and see if it changes the page.

Typically, in WordPress, you’ll see the code that runs through your latest posts using a while statement, as shown below.

Now, I use the Ikarus theme, which has several different layouts depending on your blog configuration. These are stored in a “layout” folder, and in my particular case, since I chose the “blog” layout, the code I’m looking for can be found in the “blog.php” file.

There are a dozen and a half ways to force something to display only the first time through a while loop. Everyone is going to have their opinion, and everyone is going to feel their way is the best way. I’m not going to claim that – I’m just going to give you code that works.

Either at the start of your PHP file, or anywhere before the “While” statement, just paste the following code.

<?php 
$a=1;
$b=2;
?>

What this does is sets two variables to different values. That’s it. A is 1 and B is 2. Not equal, right? A is less than B.

So now, as you enter into the While statement, you’re going to check if A is less than B. The first time through the While loop, you know this is going to be true, so you display whatever you want to display, and then set A equal to B so that the next time through, the “A is less than B” check will no longer be true, and the thing you wanted to display only in the first time through will not be displayed again.

Here’s what that code looks like.

<!--START OF MAIN PAGE CONTENT AD CODE-->
<?php if($a < $b): ?>
 
<center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxx";
/* 336x280, created 12/4/09 */
google_ad_slot = "xxxxxxxxxxx";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
 
<?php else: ?>
<?php endif; ?>
 
<?php if($a < $b): ?>
<?php  $b = $a; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
 
<!--END OF MAIN PAGE CONTENT AD CODE-->
 
<span class="article_seperator">&nbsp;</span>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Now, if you think about it, you can use a similar approach to place something after the first 3 or 4 post excerpts, right? Your approach then would be to set A equal to 1, B equal to 4, and then every time through you would add 1 to A. Eventually, after 3 times through, A would equal B and your code snippet wouldn’t be executed for the rest of the times through the While loop.

Running the first example of code on my blog to insert a Google ad after only the first blog excerpt on the main page worked like a charm.

Again, yet another way to do this would be to set A as a flag equal to “true” and then set it equal to “false” the first time through the loop. Like I said, six or a half dozen – one or the other. Whatever you choose to do, so long as the condition is true only the first time through the While loop, your code will work perfectly.

How do you do a php insert into a loop? How do you create such “one-time” conditions in your PHP code? Share some of your own techniques and tricks to doing this sort of thing in the comments section below.

Image Credits: PHP Coding via Shutterstock

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Mobile Gmail Navigation: Replacing Buttons With Gestures

There's a new version of the Gmail app for iOS that brings a very useful feature: swipe left or right to move to the previous or next conversation.



What's old is new again. The first version of the Gmail app for iOS included this feature, but it used arrow buttons instead of gestures, just like the desktop Gmail and the mobile site.

For some reason, the buttons have been removed in Gmail 2.0, released in December.

Gmail 2.1 uses swipes for navigating between messages, but this features is not yet available in the new mobile Gmail site.



While buttons may clutter the interface, gestures could be more intuitive if they're properly implemented. Google made at least two mistakes when it added gestures for navigation: the mobile interface for Blogger blogs and the mobile Chrome. The original version of the mobile Blogger interface was terrible because it was easy to accidentally load the next/previous post when scrolling. Chrome for Android/iOS still has an annoying feature that lets you navigate between tabs using swipes. Try to use Google Image Search and you'll notice how easy is to trigger this feature accidentally.



Fortunately, swiping works better in the Gmail app for iOS, just like in the Gmail Android app.

5 Awesome Meme Generators On The Web

Anyone who spends any serious amount of time on the Web will be aware of Internet memes. At least those who venture into the useless-yet-entertaining side streets the Web has to offer. Those who are unaware what an Internet meme is just need to look at the picture to their right for an example. That’s Grumpy Cat, and those words are what I imagine he’s thinking right now.

An Internet meme is any piece of content that has spread online and been appropriated by others along the way. So, a single image can be manipulated numerous times and lose none of its original charm. This is distinct from most viral videos, which are instead shared in their original form.

It’s extremely difficult to originate a meme which takes off. It requires a perfect storm of timing, luck, and the original concept of possessing an innate shareability. However, it’s extremely easy to take an existing meme and add your own spin to it. The meme generator websites below make both possible, though some do it better than others.

Quickmeme

Quickmeme is wall-to-wall memes. The homepage comprises featured memes made by other people. All of the best known memes are present, including The Most Interesting Man In The World, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and Success Kid (as pictured above).

To create your own you simply click on Make A Meme! and choose between adding your own caption to an existing meme or uploading a new meme from scratch. The method of adding a caption is very simple: you choose the top and bottom wording, the text style and wrapping, and the size and alignment. You can then save and share your creation.

Meme Generator

Meme Generator is a great place to find new memes. The homepage is, as are all of the sites on this list, overflowing with captioned images. As well as the standard stock, including Bad Luck Brian (pictured above) there are new images and trending characters which may become the norm in the coming months.

You can get involved by clicking on either Generate An Image or Create A New Character. The former is the simplest method, seeing you once again adding your own caption to an existing character. The latter sees you either uploading an image or sourcing one from Google in order to become a creator rather than a remixer.

What Do U Meme?

What Do U Meme? asks the titular question in the hopes you’ll respond. And judging by the number of custom memes added to the site people do so in droves. The homepage features popular memes, new memes, trending characters, and new characters. This includes Scumbag Steve (as pictured above).

To create your own you (or perhaps that should be “u“) simply click on Make A Meme to be given the option of creating one from scratch or merely adding your own spin to an existing one. The options are limited, but this means everything is kept simple and straightforward.

WeKnowMemes

WeKnowMemes professes to know memes, and on the strength of the homepage alone I think it’s safe to say they do. Memes are segregated into various different categories, and there are also rage comics, animated GIFs, lists, and funny texts all adding to the entertainment factor.

Then there is the Meme Generator which presents you with a constantly updating gallery of submitted memes. By clicking on Create Meme you can add your own to the gallery. Once again you can upload your own image or instead merely append one already in existence. Which is exactly what I did with the meta Boromir offering pictured above.

Meme Center

Meme Center has several elements to it. The homepage offers an amazing array of the best memes created or shared across the site, and you can also pare them down by Featured, Recent, Top, and Hall Of Fame. Meme Center is also a social network of sorts, with users invited to create an account in order to fully engage.

In terms of meme creation tools, this site has the most to offer. There is the MemeBuilder, described as an “advanced meme making tool,” the Gifmaker, for those who prefer a little animation, and Quickmeme, which pares the process down to the bare essentials. The last option is for those who “ain’t got time” for anything more involved.

Conclusions

By the time you’re reading this paragraph I would hope you’ve headed for at least one of these sites and created your own meme, whether entirely from scratch or by building on an existing concept. In which case it’s now time to share your carefully constructed creation with others.

The best place to do this is Reddit, one of my picks as the wonders of the Web. There’s no guarantee it will be well-received but the more you try the more chance you have of making a breakthrough. If Reddit isn’t your thing then there’s always your social network of choice instead.

What do you think of the Internet meme? Is there any one in particular you love? Or hate? Which of the meme generators above did you find most to your liking? Or do you have another to add to the list? Whatever your thoughts are we’d love to hear them in the comments section below.

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