Twitter Tracker Twitter Tracker Twitter Tracker!
Newly minted Tonight Show Conan O'Brien did a really funny segment last night about Twitter -- or, more specifically, about the breathless, conspicuous insertion of Twitter into every news and entertainment program everywhere all the time, of late. Twitter Tracker (via @biz, and sadly, Hulu region-blocks folks outside of the USA - this sucks.)
the latest
latest episodes
:( me no watchy, clip doesn't play to non-Americans :(
Can we please not link to Hulu videos?
Their stupid blocking of everyone outside of the US means they shouldn't be fed any traffic.
No more HULU linkouts!!!
Another blocked one here...
from Caracas, Venezuela
Ze
Public proxy quick someone! And if you are that good, can you help me watch BBC stuff ;)
Well, the terrorists would win if we let them watch SNL and Conan.
America's enemies want to use these images to harm our great nation. The images are not particularly sensational, but they may have a chilling effect.
is it far too cynical of me to despise twitter?
Video blocked. Down with Hulu!
Please continue linking to Hulu videos, if they cannot be sourced elsewhere.
I'm sure international streaming TV will ultimately figure itself out once the business model is in place. In the meantime: deal with it, it was a good post for the enjoyment of those of us who are stateside.
And congrats to Conan!
Although I will miss the Masturbating Bear, who is now encased in carbonite...:
http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O'Brien/video/clips/preserving-the-masturbating-bear-21709/1022681/
You're right Ian Mcloud I should just deal with it. The rest of the world are pretty used to that attitude anyway.
Threads like this leave me wondering how small the percentage of BB readers actually in the US is.
(Taj in Tokyo)
There's got to be a youtube link, anyone? I can't watch it either over here in the Caribbean!
To quote our Korean bretheren:
Such as you are, can you claim that the USA is a nation of justice?
Why the hell can't we say what we have to?
Are we slaves of a colonial nation?
Now shout it out: "No to the USA"
(Benny in Osaka)
Threads like this leave me wondering how small the percentage of BB readers actually in the US is.
Based on commenters, probably less than 50%.
#13: what does that even mean?
and, which korea are you referring to here, North or South? because that changes things a lot.
Well its blocked in Australia but luckily I watched it on cable anyway!
After a long nervous break, suffering Conan withdrawl and Leno phoning it in even more obviously than usual, I'm very glad to see Conan make his Westward journey relatively unscathed. They had the brains to keep the formula thats working so well. I even think I'm OK with Andy Richter, although time will tell.
It was great to hear over the top summer blockbuster voiceover guy, who is hopefully attached and will be appearing on the show (he's like bondage Lincoln, right?)
I just wonder if you can have sausage parties in the new time slot. Hope so.
Yet another irritated non-USican here.
You didn't bring enough to share with everyone, so throw it out.
To get back on topic, that was one of the least funny things I've ever seen. I mean, I guess it'd be funny if no one had ever made fun of twitter before, and if that meme hadn't already been exhausted, and if it wasn't done in such a lamely obvious way, with no creativity and nothing humorous about it, and with loudness and repetition substituted for creativity.
For those outside the U.S., be thankful you couldn't see it!
http://mashable.com/2009/06/03/conan-obrien-twitter/
Why do you give an incentive to people that don't get new media, globalization and the Internet?
Linking to them in any way is counter productive, if they want to continue living in the 50s like if the only medium is B&W TV then let them do so on their own.
It sucks that hulu doesn't work outside the US, but they're legally obligated to do so. NBC and whoever has sold the rights to their content to distributors in other countries. If they allow hulu in those countries they're screwing they're customers and breaking contract. Maybe you should find who the distributor is for your country and ask them to suck less at online distribution.
Is okay, Amerikkaners.
Would have pirated the shit out of your stupid imperialist decadent video anyway.
(KL represent, j0)
this works in canada:
http://www.thetonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/an-important-message-from-conan-obrien/1094769/
Still Twittering a year later; it's a fascinating medium. This video was frakking hilarious!!
A dozen complaints: free
One suggested alternative: free
Blaming Xeni for NBC's decisions: priceless
long time lurker, first time poster.
love the site.
i know this has been said but...I HATE HULU!!
no blame, just saying.
thanks for the post xeni!
Not allowing non-US folks to view the video does suck -- but asking/demanding that BB not report on things not available everywhere sucks also. Should BB not report on anything not available in, say, China?
No problem. Next time the entertainment industry is griping about why people need to pirate and download black market video, just direct them to this thread.
A) #19's (jamesdigg) reaction leads me to believe he too had a tweet today about how long the line was to get his latte.
B) HULU is pretty great. I like it. It sucks not being able to get it outside of the US. I spent 2 years outside the US and it drove me crazy too. But seriously, are we at the point where people complain about not getting stuff for free? You realize there are TONS of thins I can't get in the US. That's life.
But apparently there is some list of things all people are entitled to get, for free, no matter where they are in the world, and HULU is at the very top.
I have a long list of companies that don't give me things for free, should I demand BoingBoing ban linking to all them too? What a ridiculous sense of entitlement we all have.
I've never heard anyone say if the virtual desktop g.ho.st gives people abroad access to hulu, daily show, etc. The site is 'g.ho.st', right into your bar, and it's hosted thru Amazon so it should work.
Can you imagine if Xeni linked to a video on a Brazilian website and all the Americans complained about how evil the Brazilian company was for not letting the Americans watch for free and how BoingBoing should NEVER link to said website again?
You'd get a string of comments yelling at the Americans and their undeserved sense of entitlement.
#14 posted by benher
Maybe my whimsy is dead. I dunno, it's late.
No free Conan = imperialism?
My unfunny parts say, "Oh, for fuck's sake, shut up."
But my funny parts say the same thing to me, so I think I'll just play with my NAZI PUPPET THEATER for awhile and then go to bed.
What is this "Hulu" people keep talking about? It can't be all that popular. On the other hand, the service "We're sorry, you're not American please go away" does seem quite the rage.
About a quarter of the videos at BBC online don't let me watch from my filthy American computer. Life goes on.
@ Xeni 7
Very nicely done.
Will Twitter about Hulu blocking non-US IP addresses for food.
Hulu is a lie.
Damn the Hulu. But seriously, as an American living abroad, don't I have a god given right to see Zone 1 content? Can't Hulu check my passport and let me see their oh-so-special video clips? What a farce. Mr. Soros, the bubble of American supremacy has popped.
The Masturbating Bear? WTF? See, if this stuff was available to stream in the UK then I'd watch pretty much anything that's made in 30 Rock. And SNL.
And if some UK halfwit could just pay for the Colbert Report too (preferably to follow the Daily Show, yes you More4).
We're sorry, Currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States
keep this sort of posts of an international site.
Antinous! Someone let a quarter of our goodly shows get to you, in America??
Heads will roll.
My sentiments exactly - the Twitter gag, not the Hulu issue ...
Ahahahahahahahaha*koff*hahaha... hrmmmm!
That was heelarious!
I'm totally gonna tweet that one. And it'll be one SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET TWEEEEEEEEEET! YEAH!
#41
Well ok, I guess the BB editors will all kowtow to your demands now, despite the fact that 4 out of 5 (forgive me if I'm wrong here) editors are American (or at least living in the U.S.).
All hail Bex, emporer(ess?) of the Interwebs.
Ooor, 3 out of 4. I fail at math.
(its early and I havent had caffiene yet, ok! :p)
Please never, ever link to Hulu videos again.
#34 Hulu is a internet video service similar to youtube that was recently thought up by America's entertainment industry as a way to hold on to advertising revenue in the brave new world of free streaming video. It is basically a youtube clone that offers "premium" content (i.e. TV shows) and forces you to watch a short commercial beforehand.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/03/twitter-tracker-twit.html#comment-510207
well know see, it doesn't matter where you're from if you are throwing shadows on cave walls.
Doesn't anyone remember viral videos anymore? Sheesh!
Maybe the DPRK's "Fucking USA" videos are blocked in the US as well. This will make me think twice about ever quoting "Hamster Dance."
(Yeah, Hulu's blocked here in Japan too - no Conan for us)
"But seriously, are we at the point where people complain about not getting stuff for free? You realize there are TONS of thins I can't get in the US. That's life.
But apparently there is some list of things all people are entitled to get, for free, no matter where they are in the world, and HULU is at the very top.
I have a long list of companies that don't give me things for free, should I demand BoingBoing ban linking to all them too? What a ridiculous sense of entitlement we all have."
Talkin' 'bout my geeeeeneration!
if shortsighted greedy companies didn't constantly limit access to things the web would cease to grow and develop. It is SUPPOSED to route around damage.
"It is basically a youtube clone that offers "premium" content (i.e. TV shows) and forces you to watch a short commercial beforehand."
Forces you?
How about, allows you to trade 30 seconds of yours for legal, on-demand video of theirs.
OTOH, fuck geoblocking.
Good god there's a lot of whiny bitches here. Does everything have to equate to ZOMG CAPITALIST ASSHOLE AMERIKANS BLAARGH
"We're sorry, currently our video library can only be streamecd from within the United States."
From any other blog, BoingBoing, from any other blog I wouldn't ask for it, but please, can you boycott Hulu until they come up with a 21st century-worthy copyright for their video streaming?
TEUFELSDROCH @ 30
I just tried g.ho.st and it doesn't work. I got the same blocked message.
Hulu defintely works through AnchorFree's HotSpot Shield, but lately their service is running s-l-o-w, presumably because it's getting more popular.
#55: boingboing "boycotting" hulu wont do a damn bit of good. In my experience its relatively rare they feature hulu content anyway.
so hulu doesn't work outside the US. dry your eyes. boing boing can't do everything for you. you know what the clip is about, you're internet savvy enough to find it if you really need to see conan making mediocre jokes about twitter. say hulu is the only place you can find it... well, then I guess only people in the US can watch it. if hulu gets more traffic maybe they'll lighten up about their legal restrictions. until then, no need to whine about a non-issue.
BB, babes - It's pretty hypocritical to post stories on other country's attacks on freedom of expression while continuing to post videos that a substantial proportion of your visitors can't see.
Deal with the mote in your eye first.
I see Hulu just fine, so feel free to keep posting links to it.
(because I know that Xeni et al is reading this thread and trying to decide their future use of Hulu.)
Hulu doesn't even exist. It's just a funny prank we are playing on the rest of the world. We don't see a video of Conan, it's a bunch of babies dancing the macarena. Same thing for every video linked from what you think is Huhu, dancing babies. We U.S. Americans LOVE dancing babies.
Xeni, thank you for that! I've read all the complaints and I feel for them, but I pretty much blew my morning as I used that portal to watch not only the "Twitter Tracker" segment, I watched Conan's first "Tonight Show" and a lot of the other videos.
I also followed the "Masturbating Bear" link and spent an hour more watching various Conan related videos. Even though this is eating a big chuck of my "weekend" (6:30 am Wednesday eastern to 10:30 pm Friday) it was worth it for I haven't laugh so hard for such a long time.
The IT Crowd at Channel 4 is unavailable to us in the USA and that sucks. I would really like to watch a lot of those shows at Channel 4. How about a little "Quid Pro Quo". Yeah, I know, shouldn't use that latin phase twice in one day but couldn't think of a alternative.
How does the NBC website work for international?
http://www.thetonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/twitter-tracker-060209/1116881/
It's not Hulu's fault you can't watch the content from non-U.S. locations. They do not have the right to distribute it outside of the U.S. Nor does NBC, or the show itself. Those rights are sold to international distributors. I'm sure Hulu would have no problem allowing anyone view their content, but the problem is it's not *really* their content -- they're simply not legally entitled to.
I think we all have come to think of media as 'free' through 50 years of paying for them with our attention. It's why pirating doesn't feel like stealing.
To give us tv payed for with advertising over the internet, they need a way to make sure the advertising is meaningfull to us. An advertisement for Wallmart is not going to have much effect on me since the nearest one is 10000 km away.
Given my ip-adress, they could probably display an advertisement for Albert Heijn instead, but AH would have to be convinced of that first. They would also have to find companies around the world to make advertising contracts with. I don't think this sounds like a very attractive business deal right now.
That is, until all supermarkets worldwide are owned by a singe corporation or my isp logs my every thought and sends it to whatever site I visit for focus advertising.
No one is whining. "Whining"... half of the internet blog comment vocabulary is aimed at people complaining, asking them to shut up, swallow what they are fed and be happy doing just that.
It's one small, stupid clip and one giant, glowing example for how mainstream media is behind the future and refusing to give up their bad "lock-in" business model. You could argue what is more important.
Of course you don't give a damn if you're either living in the US or are scared do be called a "whiner" yourself. It's useless to blame anyone for thinking so. Just as useless to complain about people who find it sucky. Especially on copyright-bashing central Boing Boing...
I know this is largely a U.S. based blog (is Cory still living in London, though?). But again, this isn't some random blog, this is Boing Boing, so it's appropriate to at least call out the stupidity of locking 90% of the world out of what could possibly be the most useful form of video content distribution since television.
I cant see the free content from a US manufacturer. What an outrage!Wait....whats that sound? It sounds like a tiny violin.
A company has a right to restrict anything they produce. Deal with it, simple as that.
Boing Boing keep up the great work :)
Horned_One24,
If there is one thing worse than a whiner.. it's a dick.
when I encounter a video that is blocked, I use the awesome power of The Mighty Tubes! to get around whatever pathetic obstacle tiny minds seek to throw in my path.
If you make up your mind to see something, there is NO WAY they are going to stop you.
The value lies in the knowing it exists, respect the referral. Viewing details are just that.
Anonymous @ 63 wins the thread!
International raders (or the UK at least, check for your own county) can use the NBC website to watch.. link is @ 63 :)
donttrythis (Adam Savage) is my most intwesting twit for the twemendous amount of detwails on the productwion of the mythbusters, and his art. twemendously intwesting.