Yep i know i have it listed on my blogroll over there –>

BUT

Whilst watching this this evening, i began to wonder ……. is there really any nessecity to be running this as a videocast(video pod cast, or what ever you call it), rather than just another tech blog ? Think about it, short of a lovely lady(Morgan Webb) presenting it, do we actually gain anything else in having the video format ?

Why do i need to stream a 10-20mb video to my machine, when a complete episode could be on my screen in a 10k html only web page, perhaps adding another mb or so for some pictures, and would supply me with just as much information !

I note on the site they’re also looking for donations, which isn’t really any surprise because of the amount of time that must go into creating an episode, yes it’s very very clean presentation. But i can’t help thinking how much cheaper and maintainable this could be with out the video …….. it just doesn’t make sense to be using that presentation medium.

Is there not also an accessibility issue with video, when an html/image blog would do ? For me it’s fine, i have a 20mb uncapped internet connection, but there are many many internet users out there with far less.

Maybe i’m old fashioned or something but, remember how many times statistics on the amount of spam email is about and how much that percentage of such chokes up the internet, well ever considered how much bandwidth un-nessecary internet videos are now taking up ? The way i think i see it is, if video is required then use it, ie; in the case of hak5.org the videos make sense to be using, since the content is better demonstrated than simply written about …… But when all the video is doing is supplying a pretty face, why use it, what’s the point ? Unless of course you’re looking for a bunch of internet letches to be viewing your site It’s just choking up bandwidth(apologies to WebbAlert for using them as an example, there’s plenty of un-nessecary video about)

Perhaps there is something to be implied though from WebbAlert’s approach ? Perhaps the pretty face is a pretty ploy to attract most of the tech market to their site ………. ie; all techies are letches, well perhaps that’s what WebbAlert feels ?

Of course, i would have posted all of this as a comment on WebbAlert.com, had i have been able to find any place that i could make a comment ! Somehow i think they’re missing the point a little about blogging and the new generation of technology known as Web2.0. I was under the impression that part of this was to do with user interaction, user created comment and collaboration ……. In this case the ability to allow viewers to comment and discuss what’s been in the show, not so at WebbAlert.com

But, i guess there’s nothing wrong with a pretty face presenting the tech news

additional(20th Aug, 2007): apologies to those Morgan Webb fans i appear to have upset over at the iheartmorganwebb.com forum who evidently don’t seem to read to well, and fail to realise that this post isn’t about the use of un-nessecary video on *JUST* WebbAlert.com, but, it’s un-nessecary use any where !    Oh and to those who make the sarcastic comments along the lines of  ‘all the other youtube and google videos about aren’t choking up bandwidth’, i think you’ve some how missed the point, many of those videos serve a purpose, humour & demonstration for starter.    WebbAlert adds nothing to a normal html/image news based blog, other than a pretty face, the point still stands.

These video clips seriously crack me up

yep i know the final one isnt a *video* – still rips me up though ! For more things that tickle my humour check these out :-

Jerry Jackson Cartoons

Devvo The Chav

We Like The Moon (this must be an all time classic)