Sometimes bad can be good. YouTube came out with a new video editor and got the brilliant Yeshmin Blechin to explain it. I’ll go so far as to say that that may be one of the best video product demos I’ve ever seen. And that’s pretty far. One thing that the video demonstrates clearly is that YouTube is not Microsoft.

…

Microsoft is better known for atrociously bad commercials and demo videos—and PowerPoint presentations and sales meeting pep talks by Steve Ballmer channeling that gorilla in the suitcase commercial—than for performance art catastrophes, but it’s pretty hard to top Bill Gates releasing a horde of live, hungry mosquitos on the audience at a TED conference. Angelina Jolie was among the victims. Yep, she of the bee-stung lips left TED with a mosquito-bit something. I can’t be more specific because the particular part of her anatomy that got bit was left out of the story. What passes for journalism today.

via The Pragmatic Bookshelf.

Introduced me to some great publicity I missed. Very entertaining to watch the videos.

And don’t miss the successful Old Spice videos, if you haven’t seen them already.

Posted to the PragProg January Magazine (PDF epub mobi) forum

re: Andy Lester’s NY Resolutions
I find that my sense of contentment rests on having a combination of hope for a brighter future, a reasonable plan for getting there, and and reasonable standards in what I consider success at any given stage.

Let’s say I hope and plan on having my dream job by the end of this year. But, by relying on an idea of ‘dream job’, I am setting myself up for disappointment. My standards are too high and not well-enough defined. I would better serve myself by making a goal that is more specific and attainable. For example, I may decide that my goal is to have a new job or be in a more marketable place through developing my Ruby on Rails skills and getting involved in my local community. And so forth.

I may then say, that I would prefer a place that is more challenging, more social, has more room for creativity, and is good for my career, at an acceptable salary increase. But of these wishes, how much can I ‘settle for’ or achieve and still be happy? Setting reasonable goals and standards is key to feeling content about my progress.

Lastly, the well-known axiom “How does a project get behind? One day at a time” has a reverse corollary—that I should try to make regular progress towards my goal before time slips away, one day at a time.

Note: This applies to any kind of goal, not just vocational goals. Having reasonable standards is the key.