Online Video

If you are a football (aka soccer) fan, I am sure that you have already tried to watch live matches online right? Finding the right place that will stream the matches for free and with a minimum of quality is a tough task though. It can get tremendously frustrating too, especially when the match is getting started….

In order to solve this problem the guys from Soccer Lens create a really comprehensive guide explain how you can watch live soccer for free.

They listed the advantages, disadvantages and a bunch of links to the sites that actually stream the matches. Here is a quote from the article:

There are two main ways to watch P2P streams. PC users can download one (or several) of the programs listed below. Typically, it will download as a zipped file or an executable file. Double-click on the downloaded file and take it from there. Unfortunately for Mac users, there are only a few programs that will work for you. If you have Windows XP or Vista, as well as the latest version of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, then you should be able to use any of these programs. Some of them will work with Firefox or with Linux, but you’re better off sticking with the Microsoft family. See? Bill Gates controls our lives when it comes to watching football, too.

Or you can go to a website that hosts live streaming video like www.justin.tv. Each method has its advantages and drawbacks, so you’ll probably want to try out several methods instead of relying on one.

When running P2P programs like Sopcast or TVU (more below), you will typically get an interface that will include a screen and a list of available channels. To take a look at the TVU interface, click here. Sopcast’s interface is similar, but more compact. To take at Sopcast, go here. Click on the channel you want to watch and you should be good to go.

A good idea would be to bookmark one of the pages listed below containing football schedules. That way, you can be sure that you’ll never miss a game!

Worth a look if you plan to watch some matches on your PC!

There is this video on YouTube called “The Most IMPORTANT Video You Will Ever See.” One would think that it reveals some secret about our life right? Well not quite, the video is in fact about arithmetic!

The old professor is basically trying to convince us that “the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” Crazy as it sounds, the guy almost convinced me! Worth watching.

There are many fascinating and educational things you can see on the other end of a streaming video connection. But did you know that some of them aren’t porn? Ever since the original Coffee Cam, webcams have been a popular pastime: by design there’s always new content so it’s an endless way to avoid what you’re meant to be doing, and like that original caffeine-monitor some projects meet with unexpected success after saying “Let’s just put it online and see what happens”

1. Ground Zero Cam

Got goals for the next few years, be they a better job, moving out or looking for love? Keep track of your personal timeline with the ultimate long-term alarm clock. Cameras monitoring the reconstruction efforts at Ground Zero provide constant coverage of a testament to human engineering, dedication and sheer hard work as the Freedom Tower is constructed on the site of the World Trade Center.

Race the workers to their goal – the Tower is scheduled for completion in 2011, so that gives you three years to achieve your objective – with a 24/7 reminder that whatever you’re doing, others are doing something much bigger and harder. And if you’re still where you are by the time they finish a half-kilometer tower, well, maybe that’s where you deserve to be.

2. AquariumCam

The camera equivalent of a lava lamp – simple, stupid but utterly compelling. A real testament to the miracle technology we’ve got running these days, instead of running one of those (hideous) fishtank screensavers you can ‘simply’ connect to an aquarium hundreds or thousands of miles away (or even on the other side of the planet). This submerged surveillance system is an amazing leveler of the species – the fish never get bored of swimming in circles, and once you spend a few minutes tuning in to them you’ll look just the same, blanks eyes with your mouth hanging open until it’s feeding time.

3. Lucky Dogs

The biggest online audience behind those ogling lovely lady flesh online is, well, those ogling lovely male flesh. But after that you have a more-PG (but equally obsessed) horde drooling over pictures of puppies and kittens. In a fiendish combination of audience-grabbing and free advertising, Lucky Dogs of Colorado have set up webcams in the play areas of their dog care facility.

This provides all the computerized canine-addicts with their daily fix of active animals, allows customers to check out how their dog is doing anywhere, and provides extraordinary advertising for the business – “We are so confident we will let the entire world watch us at work.” When somebody says that, you know they’re somebody you can trust with your animal, or at least you know you’ll have video evidence for your lawsuit if something goes wrong.

4. News Studio cam

For those who prefer their internet-viewing more on the meta-side, how about watching the news – as it happens! – as the news reports on the news as it happens, as it happens. Confused yet? A Fox news studio has set up a live webcam allowing any who wants to watch the preparations, the sneezes, and all the other things that seem to stop once the ‘real’ cameras start rolling. Warning: hate to disappoint you, but the anchors actually do wear pants under the table.

5. Wish you were here…

Research shows that exactly “however-many-are-working” percent of the American population wish they were somewhere else. This may explain the popularity of webcams like The Great Pyramids, The Acropolis or such sunny destinations as Hawaiian beaches. You would think such cameras would be unpopular – unless you’re Indiana Jones nothing exciting actually happens around pyramids, and many of these tourist destination webcams can look like nothing but lower-resolution postcards. Every since Athena got out of the business of being worshipped by and punishing willing males around two and a half thousand years ago not much has happened in the Acropolis- and let’s face it, even if she got back into it nowshe’d have stiff competition from the other camgirls.

But that would be to ignore the vital psychology of the webcam – sure, that building may have remained unchanged for thousands of years, but I’m looking at its unchanged facade right now. This sense of immediacy has a powerful effect on the human mind – while we’ve upgraded our rocks and spears to silicon systems, the brain still basically thinks “If I can see it then it’s there”, and the knowledge of real-time viewing allows us to enjoy that sensation more fully. And of course the psychological touchstone of knowing that, no matter what else happens in this crazy world, you can boot up your browser and check “Yep, those thousands of tons of stone are still there.”

The Hawaiicam is also a great example to “user-controlled cams” – webcams which claim to operable by the viewer. The vast majority of these work by community rule, taking the average instruction over tens or hundreds of controllers and doing that. Any of you who’ve ever been in a large crowd of people trying to make a decision will realise that this means precisely nobody is happy, ever, and the camera tends to jam in one corner wiggling back and forth. Still, nice beaches though.

6. …and glad you aren’t here

No matter how bad things get, no matter how low your 9-5 grinds you, there’s always an instant boost of self-stimulating Schadenfreude available from the Anchorage DMV. In a stroke of sadness-sharing genius that we can only hope was rewarded, possibly with a Doctorate in Philosophy, someone has captured the sheer face of human misery for all the world to see – not as an art exhibit, not as a heartbreaking ode, but as a webcam. The quiet desperation of those trapped in the DMV queue is available for all in a display of soul-crushing poverty of joy that would make Nietsche put on a party hat and say “Nihilism isn’t so bad, let’s rock out!”

7. Microsoft World Wide Telescope

All the above were simple streaming browser-based beauties. The World Wide Telescope needs a full twenty-one megabyte download and even an “installation”, but I assure you it’s worth every second of your time. A polished viewer that ties together images from around the world and a number of space-satellites, this looks like it should be on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, not the desktop of a spreadsheet-jockey.

The ability to pan and zoom an little thing called “THE ENTIRE SKY”, locating or identifying specific stars or features. As you zoom in the software updates the images with data from little things like the CHANDRA X-ray observatory. NASA’s multi-million dollar hardware at the beck and call of anyone who’s interested. Which should include you – that’s the whole universe up there, and I assure you it looks better than spinning text, flying toasters or that bloody dumb 3D-pipes screensaver you’ve got running.

If you are a South Park fan you probably know that there are several websites where you can watch episodes online. Most of them, however, tend to have broken links, poor quality videos and very slow servers. Even the official Comedy Central website was below my expectations.

One website that appears to have an edge over the competitors is South Park Zone. They have pretty much all the episodes from all the seasons, and the video streams fast and the quality is reasonable. Once in a while there is an annoying full screen ad, but other than that the user experience is good.

By the way, even if you are not a South Park fan try watching a video or too, I am pretty sure you will like it, so check South Park Zone!

Who needs planes when spectacular places are just a few pixels away?

Daily Bits is pleased to present a video travelogue of essential virtual destinations; a mixture of must-see places spread across consoles from the past, present and future, as well as some that are available to visit in your browser today. Start ticking them off your virtual list, and make sure you bookmark the rest — all due to arrive this year.

1. Ancient Japan, via Okami

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOT95HPv51E

The low-down: The original PS2 game was described by Eurogamer as a “work of art”. Okami’s representation of Japan in fluid brushstrokes and soft watercolors is one virtual place you simply cannot miss.

Get your ticket: Buy it now on PS2. Coming to the Wii later in 2008!

2. The World of Spore

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79hSzyQRKB4

The low-down: Spore is a multiplayer virtual world inhabited by totally unique and bizarre creatures in all phases of evolution, created exclusively by users around the (real) world. With a built-in creature modeller and stunning terrain, it’s probably the most-anticipated game of all-time. Just watch what happens when Robin Williams is let loose with Spore’s creature creator.

Get your ticket: Out on PC on 7 September 2008, followed by Nintendo DS, Mac, and XBOX, Wii and PS3. Sign up for further announcements here: http://www.spore.com/

3. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, via the Discworld MUD

The video: It’s a text-based adventure game! You don’t honestly want to see a video, do you?

The low-down: MUDs, or “Multi-User Dungeons” are where online multiplayer games all began. If you’ve never visited the text-only world of the MUD, you’re missing out! A MUD is an especially good way to visit places that have only ever existed as words on paper. For Discworld fans and lovers of retro gaming experiences, it’s an essential trip.

Get your ticket: Log in as a guest over at http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/

4. Samorost 1 and 2

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pZhT3VWsJM

The low-down: Probably the most beautiful Flash-based virtual place ever created, Samorost is an exploratory point-and-click game that takes place on a piece of driftwood floating through space. If only all online experiences were this good.

Get your ticket: Once you’ve completed Samorost 1 head over to Samorost 2 for more!

5. Hapland 1, 2 and 3

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF8CAtuLFm4

The low-down: A thoroughly infuriating yet devilishly addictive series of mini virtual places. Hapland has the steepest learning curve of all Flash-based virtual places, but will reward you with moments of sheer genius and delight.

Get your ticket: Visit Hapland here: http://foon.co.uk/farcade/hapland/. Then head over to Hapland 2 and 3.

6. The world of Quake — in your web browser!

Quake III video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRMn1tj5-Nc

The low-down: Did someone say Quake? In a browser window? That’s right! ID Software have announced a free, ad-based, browser-accessible Quake gamecalled “Quake Live” and they’re currently registering beta testers. Based on Quake III, it’s sure to be one virtual place you won’t want to miss.

Get your ticket: Sign up to get on the (long) beta list here: http://www.quakelive.com/

7. The Virtual Apple Store, via Second Life

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovL4pZod_gw

The low-down: A digital version of the NYC Fifth Avenue Apple Store, recreated in the virtual world of Second Life. Visiting the real store is an experience worth having, but if New York is a little out of reach for you, this comes a close second!

Get your ticket: Download the latest version of Second Life for free here: http://www.secondlife.com. Then search for “Aapl$tore” once inside the game.

8. PlayStation Home

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZY2vwlh5-g

The low-down: Home is a networked virtual community for PlayStation 3 owners. When it launches, it looks to be one of the most user-friendly virtual spaces ever created. Users are likely to flock to this almost as fast as advertisers will.

Get your ticket: Due to arrive in the second quarter of 2008. Keep an eye of for beta openings here: http://www.homebetatrial.com/. Visit the full site here: http://www.playstationhome.com/

9. Little Big Planet

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEJrfcFuL7s

The low-down: This fun, heavily customisable 2.5 dimensional world from UK developers Media Molecule looks will be worth buying a PlayStation 3 for alone. With perhaps the most expressive interface ever to grace a console game, Little Big Planet looks set to be a colorful truck full of fun.

Get your ticket: Coming to Playstation 3 in September 2008. In the meantime, check out the funky developer’s site here: http://www.mediamolecule.com/

10. The World of Warcraft

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9M6h8mBZ4

The low-down: A discussion of virtual worlds wouldn’t be complete without WoW. As an immersive experience, this is about as good as it gets without plugging yourself into that VR console sent back in time from the year 2193 that you now regret flogging on eBay. Spectacular places and creatures are littered throughout WoW — even if you’re not into the gameplay itself, it’s worth wandering around just to see how far virtual places have come.

Get your ticket: Download WoW (Windows and Mac versions) and sign up for a free trial here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

What have I missed?

Where are your favourite digital spaces to visit in games or online? Don’t forget to give your virtual travel tips to Daily Bits readers in the comments below.