Full Length Movies on YouTube

Did you know that YouTube is now playing completely unedited full length movies? If you didn’t make it over the hump into digital TV switchover and you’re looking for entertainment, then never fear, YouTube is here! Now you can watch your favorite movies from the comfort of your home for free.

In the quest to remain as the top video website, YouTube (owned by Google) has decided to add full length movies to their bailiwick. If you are a typical YouTube user, you are only allowed as a maximum length to upload videos ten minutes in length. But as owners of the site, they’ve decided to give you more to watch. How about over two hours at a time? There are a variety of movies from comedy to horror to see. You can choose from Night of the Living Dead, Super Size Me, La Bamba, American Virgin and Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. Yes, there are commercials through out the movie, but they are at a minimum.

Parents: If you are concerned that your child can now be exposed to rated “R” or “PG-13″ movies, YouTube requires registration to view these movies. Thus an email address will be required for viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/movies

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Poll: Why Aren’t You Using Twitter?

Twitter has been around for over two years now and every local news network has an account. It seems everywhere you turn, there seems to be a conversation about “Tweeting”. If you are not on Twitter yet, what are you waiting for? If you did open a Twitter account and it now lays dormant, why aren’t you using it? Twitter is transcending the communication medium. Please answer the following poll, we are going to broach this subject in the upcoming weeks.

Thanks for voting!

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Oh No, Twitter is Falling

A friend told me about a cool new Twitter service that NPR touted called Twitter Fall. What’s so special about this Twitter app? The site processes a live feed of all Twitter entries and delivers them to you in real-time feed. Obviously you can’t watch every entry at once, so the application ques tweets up.

Twitter Fall lets you:

• Perform custom searches real-time
• Control the speed of live feed
• Monitor popular trends
• Refine searches by location
• View your Twitter timeline

So what do you think of Twitter Fall? Is it better than Tweet Grid?

http;//www.twitterfall.com

*Thanks to Mike Kimmel for the tip.

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No More Fakes: Twitter Verified Accounts

Twitter is attempting to make it clear that you are actually talking to an actual celebrity or their representatives by introducing verified accounts. Now if you search a profile on Twitter, look in the upper right corner of the page for the “Verified Account” symbol. What prompted this change? Twitter recently got sued by St. Louis Cardinal’s manager Tony LaRussa because the coach claims that a Twitter user was impersonating him and posting slanderous remarks. The site had to so do something.

My questions to Twitter range from “How to do you verify an account?” to “What percentage of the time is the celebrity really interacting with Twitter?”

Do you think this symbol is enough? Do you still believe it’s really the celebrity blogging?

http://twitter.com/help/verified

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Reset Your Credit Card at Point of Purchase

The other day I was standing in line and the credit card machine wasn’t working. The guy standing in front of me was trying to get his Master Card to slide through the unit twenty different ways. After about ten minutes, the line behind me starting slowly growing and the crowd was getting restless. Like Superman, the store manager swooshed-in, wrapped a plastic shopping bag around the card and ran the it through the machine. Presto! The credit card terminal was reset at the point of purchase.  

The next time you are stuck in a line and your Visa or Discover card isn’t working, try the plastic bag trick. I also have been told that a thin piece of paper, like a receipt, can be held over the credit card’s magnetic stripe to make the transaction go through.

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MOF, Texting Guide for Parents

If you’re a parent, you should talk to your kids about texting. How are they texting? How often do they text? What are they texting? You need to lay down some ground rules before they even own a phone.

Read the complete article

*  Inspiration for photo and entry Jeff Rohrs

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Connect Safely Features Parenting Tips

I recently stumbled upon Connect Safely, it’s another good source of parenting tips to keep your child safe online. The site has great articles like tips to prevent sexting. What is “Sexting”? The site says, “It usually refers to teens sharing nude photos via cellphone, but it’s happening on other devices and the Web too. The practice can have serious legal and psychological consequences.” It further contains social web tips for parents and teens.

Take two minutes and bone-up on the latest tactics from this website to keep your child safe online.

http://www.connectsafely.org/

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Doodle Schedules Meetings By Polling Your Group

Don’t know what date and time works best for your group meet? After your find a day, not sure what time works best for everyone? Instead of a dozen emails and phone calls trying to coordinate a time, use Doodle to poll your group to see what date works best.

If you are like me, trying to get your office team or even a group of friends together in the same place and time is like trying to sell ice to an Eskimo, it isn’t easy. Now with the free web-based application Doodle (I know the name doesn’t seem to fit with the product) you can save time and plan effective meetings.

First with Doodle, you can send out a poll to group and gauge what times work best. Just choose the dates you want the group to choose from, send them the link to the poll and make a decision from your results. Second, if you have a date in mind, you can schedule the date and then send a poll out to the best times to meet on that date.

Do you think you’ll use this product?

http://www.doodle.com

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Happy 4th Anniversary Leading Hands

Today, four years ago I started Leading Hands because of an incident that seemed so innocent, but scary. In the years that the blog has been around, I have never truly shared the story of how Leading Hands came to life. No, I wasn’t down below in some laboratory shouting, “It’s Alive!”. I was actually talking with Todd Bertsch one night about what I should blog about and he bluntly said, “You need to write about your passions!”. One of my passions is technology, especially the Internet and how it impacts society.

Years ago, a friend of mine told me about how his little boy was instant messaged by Santa Clause for credit card information. The instant messenger ID said “Santa Clause” and he wanted mommy and daddies credit card, so his son gave up the information. The family was hit with identity theft. At the time, my friend didn’t know what instant messaging was or what his son was doing online. This blog is dedicated to breaking down the latest online trends so you can make informed decisions.

I totally believe in the saying “If you stop learning, you stop leading.” I live to continually educate myself about online technology and how we can use it to improve our lives. I know that if this blog can inform one person to make a technology decision to improve their lives, we’ve done our job. Internet Safety isn’t the most glamorous topic, but it’s time to face the music and be S.M.A.R.T. about your kids day to day online activities. And the beat goes on…

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Have You Tried Audible?

I have been a member of Audible for over eight years, which is a long time as these things go. I remember hearing Robin Williams talking about it on NPR one day in early 2001, and I investigated and signed up. I had a Handspring visor organizer in those days, and Audible sold a small plug in device that allowed you to listen to download audio books and listen to them. The first iPod hasn’t even been released at that point.

I do like it a lot, as I’ve never let my membership drop over those eight plus years. I used to have a “middle” level of membership, where I get a couple of books a month, but I let that drop to a basic level, with one book “credit” a month, and I usually let it build up over a couple of months. I have two credits right now, for example. Then, before a long trip, I pop in and see what’s new, and download a couple of books. You can also get plays and radio shows - the BBC has a lot of radio shows (comedy, drama, etc) and even the audio tracks from tv shows s4uch as BlackAdder and Doctor Who, so I enjoy those as well.

For less than $16 a month, it’s a good deal. Most audiobooks cost more than that, individually.

Have you tried Audible?

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