Tag: video

TheFlip: files in the root directory? Come on….

Were you aware that the Flip video camera you have is writing stuff to your root directory?

I’m using a Flip UltraHD on OS X 10.6, and while I’m happy with the device, I’m not so happy with FlipShare, the software that comes with it.

While the device when mounted (/Volumes/FLIPVIDEO) has a DCIM directory that has the standard video subfolder(s) 100VIDEO. Inside there are all the .MP4 files that work as-is with the Mac.

While the FlipShare seems to be over kill for accessing files in this directory, I encourage anyone with this device to go open Terminal and take a peek at your root directory. Yes, your root directory.

$ ls /

You’ll find a file, /logFile.xsl there, which appears to take an XML file for FlipShare and convert it into an HTML file.

My question is this: Why is FlipShare installing user files to the root directory? This is a horrible practice, most certainly a violation of Apple recommendations, and it’s down right tasteless in Unix parlance.

Cisco, you know better than this. Come on…! Fix this.

Ugh, wimp.com has video ads

Here’s a case where mini-ads just killed the experience for me, and as a result became a deterrent from visiting a once popular site for me.

I used to be a pretty big fan of wimp.com, a site that collected links to all kinds of interesting videos. Not having much time on my hands, this was the perfect aggregation of interesting content.

Now, when I go visit a link, an ad usually pops up. I have to close it. Then the video starts. And, again, another ad slides up from the bottom, and I have to that add. Then all the while the video is playing, I have a little “AD” box overlaid hoping I’ll press it.

Advertising Fail
The new face of wimp.com — why I’m done.

While I don’t begrudge wimp.com, or other sites, from having advertisements, I really dislike intrusive ads in the video stream.

As such, wimp.com, you’ve just gone from being one of my favorite sites to one of my least visited sites (which means no ad clicks, no ad views, by the way).

The simple solution would have been placing an ad elsewhere on the page, even under the video.

Want to know where the ads should have gone? To the right of the directory listing of links. That’s the page I’m always coming back to.

Another great part of the internet just died for me.

UPDATE 12-Mar-2009: While showing this horrible predicament to a friend the site acted differently; it played the video with no ugly overlays or pre-ads, but displayed an advertisement when done. That is perfectly acceptable! Fantastic compromise guys!

UPDATE 18-Mar-2009: Ugh, now it’s worse — ads pop up while you’re watching, even after you’ve dismissed them.