The embedded YouTube video player loads several unnecessary files and increases the overall load time of your web pages. Here's a more efficient and light-weight alternative inspired by Google Plus.
10 April 2013
A More Efficient Embedding Method for YouTube Videos
When you cannot open Google or Gmail in Chrome, try this simple fix
If you get socket errors when trying to open Gmail or Google search in Chrome, you aren't alone. This is a known issue of Chrome but there's a simple fix available.
Do You Love Or Hate April Fools’ Day Online? [You Told Us]
Real-world April Fools’ Day pranks seem to be lessening in popularity these days, but the Internet is awash with them each and every April 1. I’m personally not a fan, but we wanted to know what you, the loyal and (often lovely) MakeUseOf readership think of April Fools’ Day. Hence the discussion we enjoyed for last week’s We Ask You column.
The Results
We asked you, Do You Love Or Hate April Fools’ Day Online? The number of responses was disappointing, but as usual I have to blame myself for the poor choice of question. I obviously didn’t think it was poor when I asked it, but you fine people have shown me the error of my ways.
Those who did answer the question gave their views on April Fools’ Day and explained why they either love it, hate it, or don’t have any strong feelings either way. Shockingly — well, it shocked me at least — the MakeUseOf readership appears to be in favor of April Fools’ Day and the pranks tech companies play on the unsuspecting public across the Web.
The split was about 60/40 in favor of April Fools’ Day, with several people maintaining neutrality by sitting on the fence and not committing to either side. I guess I myself am a fence-sitter on this particular issue. I like some of the pranks, especially the well-planned, well-executed epic pranks from Google, but the number of jokes is spiraling out of control.
Even when it comes to Google there’s a part of me that wonders how much could have been achieved with the time and energy the company and its employees put into its April Fools’ Day pranks. And then there are the lesser-known April Fools’ Day jokes, many of which fail to raise even a slight titter.
Comment Of The Week
We had great input from the likes of Abhishek Rai, Graham Richardson, and Ashwin Ramesh, to name just a few. Comment Of The Week goes to ‘G W’, who, as well as the respect of myself and hopefully everybody reading this, receives 150 points to use for MakeUseOf Rewards.
I think the pranks are passe. What good is a prank when you can countdown to when they are going to be pulled?
What would happen to if a company, like Google, DIDN’T participate next year? I feel it would probably create a backlash.
I’m sure it helps foster some creativity for companies, but they’re now more of an expectation than anything. They’re almost like the quarterly business updates.
For us this comment hits the nail on the head in terms of why April Fools’ Day is losing its luster. When Google started pulling pranks on April 1 people were pleasantly surprised. Now, they expect it. It’s become so ingrained in Web culture that it’s virtually impossible to actually catch anyone out.
We will be asking a new question tomorrow, so please join us then. We Ask You is a weekly column dedicated to finding out the opinions of MakeUseOf readers. We ask you a question and you tell us what you think. The question is open-ended and is usually open to debate. Some questions will be purely opinion-based, while others will see you sharing tips and advice, or advocating tools and apps for your fellow MakeUseOf readers. This column is nothing without your input, all of which is valued.
Image Credit: Sean MacEntee
The post Do You Love Or Hate April Fools’ Day Online? [You Told Us] appeared first on MakeUseOf.
Card-Style Google Translate OneBox
After the instant results for definitions and local time, Google's translation OneBox has a new card-style interface inspired by Google Now.
To trigger this OneBox, search for "translate", followed by the text you want to translate. For example: [translate mein luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller aale]. You could also add the destination language: [translate mein luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller aale into french].
You can also search for [word in language] or [word to language]. For example: [breakfast in Spanish], [estrella to English]. This also works for short phrases and expressions.
{ Thanks, Arpit. }
Wish A Classic Film Could Have Been Better? These Fan Edit Websites Can Help
One such fan was Mike J. Nichols who went to work with his scissors on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and turned it into a more tightly spun tale in The Phantom Edit. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the fan edit even met with the unvoiced approval of George Lucas. Well, that’s what a fan edit is. In simple words, a re-interpretation of an original movie by a fan who may re-order, cut, or add new material to the original movie.
But Are Fan Edits Worth A Watch?
Watch: The Phantom Edit on Vimeo (Jack Marshall’s version)
You bet your last nickel. Serious auteurs may pooh-pooh fan edits, but there’s no denying that some even have their cult following. My own take is that if there can be good and cool full length amateur movies, why not good fan edits that give us the missing morsel to stoke our fantasies. Fan edited films do fall in the grey zone of copyright infringement and fan edits like The Clones Revealed have been on the wrong end of a notice. But we will not go there in this article.
I am revisiting this genre three years after I wrote about five really good fan films and how to keep track of upcoming fan productions. So, in this post, we will celebrate the existence of a thriving fan edit community that is showcased by some really good fan edit websites.
7 Fan Edit Websites Than Can Inspire You To Make A “Classic”
Fan edits are labors of love. Here are seven websites that can help to light the spark…
Fanedit.org
This site leads the pack when it comes to the community. The site features more than 500 fan edited movies from around the world. You would want to head to the Forum first, but be sure to register yourself as some of the sub-forums are locked to non-registered members. Need any technical help and the Forum is there to answer all your questions from tools to use for authoring fan edits to replacement cover art. If you make your first fan film, then this is the place to promote it.
The Resources section gives you some useful things like cover art and promotional banner templates for your first creative work. You can also take a lot of inspiration from The Gallery sub-forum which features some of the best fan edited movies and the art work they used. Finally, the Internet Fanedit Database seems to be a take-off on IMDb. But it works for its intended purpose i.e. as an online encyclopedia of rated releases.
One of the better ways to keep up with new releases is by following them on Twitter.
Original Trilogy
Original Trilogy and Fanedits.com (a similarly named site to the first one) have merged together into one large corpus for fan edited projects. Original Trilogy/Fanedits.com is wiki based. The aim is to be a largest single database of such films. This will also comprise traditional fan edits, film preservation efforts, custom and fan-made DVDs, and fan films and documentaries.
The site in its present form is in Beta, but lots of features are on the drawing board like – image uploads, NFO file uploads, contributor blogs etc. The site has a vibrant community and one of the nicer aspects of the site is its focus on preservation of original cuts. The forum seems to be bit Star Wars heavy. The Fan Project List could do with some multimedia touches as it now seems to be a text-heavy database of fan edits.
Fanfilmfollies
I haven’t spent much time on this site because I discovered it late; but it looks like a bookmark worthy one. The comparatively better design makes it stand apart from many other fan edit websites. The site is into its 11th year. Fanfilmfollies gives you podcasts, news, interviews, and of course all the dope on the fan made movies themselves. The podcasts aren’t on now (the last one was in 2011), but you can catch the archived episodes. That’s the fate of the columns too, but you can resist going back in time and reading some of them.
Fanedit.info
Fanedit.info is a site from where you can download fanedits. Not actually the whole movie but DLC, NZB and torrent files for users to easily download edits from other sources like Rapidshare, BitTorrent, and Usenet among others. The homepage describes the nature of these files and how you can download them. The files themselves may or may not be eventually available because file hosting sites like Rapidshare and Mediafire have become more serious about copyright infringement warnings and regularly take down files in response to any of them. You can submit your own fan edit here via the Fanedit Submission Forum.
Fanfilms
2381 fan films and counting. This site is a straight database of fan films found around the web. Keep yourself updated with their Twitter handle. Embedded videos or links to hosted videos are provided for many of the films. You can submit your own fan edit with the help of an online form on the site.
TheForce
Star Wars started the fan edit craze. So, it’s just as well that we are on this site that is all about Star Wars inspired fan edits. But what’s really valuable here is the section that all about the making of fan films. Here you will find articles on story development, script writing, filming, costume design, special FX, and more. The articles take you to many external resources also; so this could be your one stop class if you are interested in making your first fan edit. As the introduction says – So, take some time and read from those who have gone on before you and applied their skill to this new genre. And remember, do or do not. There is no try!
Digital Fanedits
Digital Fanedits looks like a fledgling effort at creating a new fan edit website with a new page design. But it still unfinished. It is trying to be a comprehensive site with blogs, articles, and interviews capturing the latest in the fan edit genre as well as other happenings in the movie world. The selection for now is small. I counted 50 odd films in the database. Not very impressive, but here’s hoping it grows out of the shadow cast by Fanedit.org.
Here are a few more links to take you to the far corners of this genre:
I will end by sharing a sentiment expressed by Christopher Moshier (who started Fanfilmfollies.com).
And what interests me probably the most is what a creator can do with a limited budget. Hollywood throws millions of dollars on movie making often turning out what I like to call crap. When someone can make a film for $500 and entertain me more than Hollywood it simply amazes me.
I think most of us agree with this. If you do, tell us about your favorite fan film to date and is there a particular place you go to get your entertainment fix.
Image Credit: Serious man with filmstrip via Shutterstock
The post Wish A Classic Film Could Have Been Better? These Fan Edit Websites Can Help appeared first on MakeUseOf.
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