Need For Speed Filming in Downtown Detroit

Earlier in the week, we received a company wide email at work letting us know that Campus Martius and all connecting streets would be shutdown on Thursday, June 28th, for the filming of the new Need For Speed movie.

I thought I would put together a compilation of some of the amateur photos and videos that were posted to Twitter and Youtube to give you a feel for what was going on.

I have to start with my favorite video clip, which puts things in perspective.



Here's another one from ground level, this time with a camera mounted on a lead car to film at street level.



And here's one more that shows a take from higher up.



There's probably at least 5 more videos out there when you search for "Need For Speed Detroit" on YouTube.

Here's a pic shared by @MotorCity that shows one of the filming rigs:

Did anyone get downtown to catch a glimpse of the filming for Need for Speed? #detroit #movie #NeedForSpeedMovie pic.twitter.com/r9Xtx7gzxM
— Motor City Connect (@MotorCity) June 27, 2013

And here's another pic of one of the prop cars:

One of the prop cars from the new Need For Speed movie filming in Detroit today pic.twitter.com/WMKDmKPXqL
— Jerel Bernasek (@JerelBernasek) June 27, 2013

And one more, this one from @SkidmoreStudios. This was actually taken today as they filmed just a block over in the Capitol Park area.

Need for Speed is filming & the Transformers 4 is set being built down the street from the studio! pic.twitter.com/PEVPh8QK2n
— Skidmore Studio (@SkidmoreStudio) June 28, 2013

I'm going to have to check out the movie now, since I'm curious to see how those Detroit scenes turn out. It's being directed by Scott Waugh, who recently directed Act of Valor. To give you a flavor for the movie, here's a behind the scenes teaser trailer:

The Lesser of Two Evils: ISP Caps or ISP Snooping

I recently read an article posted on PCWorld.com titled "Comcast's Cap May Mean Less Snooping on Your Net Browsing". In it, author Erik Larkin comments on the latest news about Comcast and the bandwidth caps they are starting to enforce on their customers. He states since they have caps, there won't be any reason for them to snoop on the use of your internet traffic because it won't matter. As soon as you hit the cap, you'll be done until next month. Why snoop and shape shift the data if everyone has the same bandwidth to use.

I think there's a few reasons to question whether such a "policy" would happen with Comcast or other ISP's for that matter.

1) ISP's make money off of that data
- Would you give up a revenue stream of around $5 per user?

2) ISP's need the data to market their own products
- We already know other companies pay for the data, why wouldn't Comcast keep the data and figure out how to make it work in their favor. They already get it for free.

3) There are other entities that seem to have "legal" interests tied to the data
- Governments, the RIAA, Hollywood

Although the discussion about whether Comcast will stop snooping because of this cap is interesting, I think it's really missing the bigger picture. The real issue is, the cap is really going to stop consumers from realizing and utilizing the innovative products and tools offered on the internet. Web sites like YouTube and Hulu and Netflix will go unwatched while intensive web programs will go unused. Web based companies will have to adapt, maybe causing quicker sites and less intensive programs, but possibly less quality.

If ISP's like Comcast want to keep consumers happy and continue to promote innovation on the internet, caps need to lifted and the full potential of the internet can finally be realized.

Samsung Instinct Fails to Upload YouTube Videos

If you've been following my Twitter feed at all, you've noticed I've been trying to start using my Samsung Instinct for more than just it's phone calling capabilities. Today, I thought I would upload my first video to YouTube. I think it would be cool to share with family, friends, and the public the things I get to witness in my life.

The process seemed to be fairly simple. I registered my phone with YouTube, then shot a quick 25 second video of my sleeping dog. I then uploaded it to YouTube, received a confirmation that it was uploaded and then proceeded to YouTube to view my work.

What I found was a cute video of the dog, but no audio. After searching to see if I did something wrong or if there was a problem with YouTube or the phone, I came across a forum thread that describes in detail what the problem was. Apparently, Samsung and/or Sprint failed to make sure the audio codec they were using would work with YouTube.

The irony in it all? Back when the phone was released, Sprint kicked off a marketing campaign where they would pay you $20 to upload videos of the Instinct to YouTube. Apparently they never consulted with Samsung on whether that was a good idea(you know, since they never tested to see if the phone can upload videos properly to YouTube). It kind of makes me feel like the marketing team at Sprint probably never used the phone themselves.

Too bad for me, I guess. I'll either have to wait for a fix or start looking for another option. Here's the video if you care to watch, without the audio of course.

Viacom Not Playing Nicely on YouTube

So, here's an interesting story. Viacom is claiming copyright infringement from a user on YouTube for posting a show from VH1. You ask yourself, "So? What's new?" Well, what's new was, the user had posted something original to YouTube, and VH1 took the clip from YouTube and put it on their VH1 show. All he was doing in return was posting the show on YouTube to show his original work. I know, that's a lot to take in.

Let's put it in perspective. I video myself and put it on YouTube. VH1 finds my video, then puts it on their show and calls it "Fair Use". I in turn, put the show that shows my YouTube video, back on YouTube, and they tell me I can't do it.

It looks like there is a legal battle over it all. Go check out the story for some more info. All in all, you say potato, I say patato. You know?