How Long...

No, nobody's secrets have been revealed.  Just a song that's been buzzing around my head that I happen to like.

I'm painfully familiar with the subject matter, however. 

More than once...

Thankfully not recently...Well, at least not that I have any right to bitch about.

Just a cool song. 

Leave it at that....

Tarot - Divine or just Divining your own truth

   

Yeah, I misspelled Dynamic....dammit....Oh well, Not much else to say.  The video is self-contained.

Enjoy!

Somebody Save Me!

Sometimes....yeah...

As though I was witnessing the anger of God...

The Monsoon...

Unbridled power in the skies, thrilling, exciting, terrifying.

That's what goes through my mind as I watch these storms explode across the heavens.

A reminder of perspective.   

The Storm Punctuates the day...

Back on Monday a strange thing happened...

I was going to work as usual and....

Then I wasn't.

Let's cut to the chase, I now have 2 dead cars and about 3 weeks left on my job..

Time to help along another miracle.

So as I dealt with the immediacy of my tribulation I'd hoped that maybe I'd be entertained by the return of the monsoon.

My wish was granted.  

...in a most dramatic way.

See for yourself...

Oh, and at 18:18, take a guess what I was looking forward to or should I say...who...

I love the rain

 

There's something about the rain.

I live in a place where its anticipated in the same way others would anticipate the first snowfall.

But unlike those gentle flakes it comes not as a quiet, gentle visitor but with a fury.  As though the parched empty days that preceded it were relinquishing their power to what was to come.

And when it comes; an explosion of wind, rain and light unleashed all at once.

A welcome reprieve.  Exciting and terrifying.  A respite from the sun.

A respite from thoughts that as of late have held too much sway over me.

Vegas at Christmastime

 

I don't get to travel much but my friends do and sometimes I get some decent photos and videos out of it.  So sit back and enjoy a few minutes of Vegas 2017!

Hurricane Matthew

Hurricanes are nothing to take lightly and if you're in an area subject to them please, please listen to your public safety officials and move out when they tell you to.  Far too many think they can "Ride it Out" only to find out nature had other plans.

Property can be replaced, lives can't.

With that in mind witness the power of a Category 4 hurricane as it thrashes the Southeastern coast of the United States.  This is the only safe way to have a front row seat...

Arizona Monsoon 2016 Highlights

So let's take a break from the activism for a bit and explore one of the other reasons for this blog's existence. 

I've said it before.  I'm a frustrated storm chaser.  I'm fascinated by weather and storms and if I could afford it I'd have one of those home weather stations just so I could check barometric pressure and wind speed every 5 minutes.

Alas, I'm just an enthusiast with a smartphone and an old 1 Megapixel camera that eats batteries like a 5 year old eats fruit loops.

Below are some of my favorite examples of this year's Arizona Monsoon season.  I actually got lucky in  a few videos and caught some dramatic shots but truth be told this year's monsoon was more about wind than rain.  In fact the meteorologists are saying we're actually down 2 inches this year having not broken 5 inches in total.  

Some places got much more than that but those were isolated cases.  In one storm event a part of the valley received 3 inches of rain in an hour.  That doesn't sound like much if you're from the Midwest or deep South but here it translates into freeways underwater and cars floating around.

Of course I can't let this post end without mentioning that you can enjoy most of these videos Ad Free thanks to TWIT's abuse of YouTube's copyright system.  The very same one that Leo's brain-dead zombie henchmen led by the #DarkTrollWitch  have used to demonetize the entire channel till November....

Leo's on a boat for this year's vacation.  I hope he doesn't get too seasick but Karma being what it is....

Anyway...

Try to enjoy these snippets of time from this year's Arizona Monsoon storms brought you courtesy of my crappy cameras and poor videography.  

You might see something that surprises you!

Peace..

TWIT moves to the East Side

I don't do much TWIT coverage anymore mostly because I don't believe in beating a dead horse.  On occasion, however, there are noteworthy events that require no context and no explanation.

Honestly, there's rarely much that comes out of the house the Leo built that's worth covering.  I'll save the morbid voyeurism for sites like totaldrama.org.

Which leads me to the video below.  If anything punctuates the sad state of TWIT it's watching the cadre of TWIT regulars ride an open air bus to a sad little office park.  Listen closely and you'll hear unmistakable subtext of unhappiness.

The long last looks at the old studio,  the constant jokes about the seedy neighbors of the new one and the apologetic tone for everything the new studio isn't once they arrive.

It's a capitulation brought about by a reality check even if the public face of TWIT denies the reality.

Still, it's the most lively broadcast to come out of TWIT in a long time.  So whether you're fan, foe or like me indifferent to TWIT the following should provide entertainment nonetheless.

Kind of like the morbid curiosity one finds at staring at the aftermath of a car crash.

UPDATE!  Recent events ( AKA Copyright Strike ) has removed my ability to provide video coverage of the event. Meaning I can only provide a link to TWIT instead of the video that was here before.  This is due to the fact that apparently Lisa Laporte, conservative whip-cracker and all around dynamic personality has decided that nobody was allowed to watch or record an unedited, highly promoted TWIT event for posterity.  Even if it was covered by Creative Commons.

Thanks for the copyright strike!  Karma's a bitch and apparently so are you my dear.  

In the immortal words of Han Solo I say this...."Laugh it up, Fuzzball.."

Sorry, but when faced with Donald Trump type tactics I lose my objectivity....

Here's the link to the "big" event.  TWIT moves...

Drama, Faux activism and YouTube

Ah Drama...

As if just living life didn't offer up enough trials and tribulations it seems there are those bent on manufacturing more.

Some, like the tarnished remnants of TWIT are a bona fide drama factory.  Others just blatant opportunists.  

If drama were gold it'd be as common as sand on the beach.

We all know someone who seems to be terminally "in distress."  Invariably they'll drag everyone around them into their drama like a black hole.

YouTube has become the perfect outlet for all that dramatic energy.  Puffed up egos bolstered by clueless fans who've got nothing better to do than lament their own failings and swell a channel's subscriber numbers.  

Drama feeds drama which is why YouTube comments are the way they are.

Adam the Woo

But this isn't an indictment against YouTube as a whole. 

There are some gems out there like Adam the Woo or Louis Rossmann.  They invite you into their lives and in the process teach us something about ourselves.  They're  not chasing fame or pouring over analytics like some corporate accountant at tax time.   It's about sharing experiences instead of inventing them.

But they're few and far between rendered all but invisible by the incessant droning from the drama queens.  

Those self absorbed attention whores who will do anything to get more views.  Ruining reputations, exposing private information of a rival even criminal acts, all are fair game.  Nothing is off-limits.

Then comes the second string.  The reactionaries who pounce on the chance to expose or should I say exploit tragedy.   Their drug of choice a piece of that nefarious stardom.  A successful leap on the bandwagon is the path to joining their YouTube icons or so they hope.

To that end they become the self-appointed standard bearers of all that's decent and right (at least on YouTube)  Pop culture judge, jury and executioner of the irrelevant.

The beast is fed and the collective bar is lowered.

Damn!

These people take themselves way too seriously.  YouTube just lets it happen because it means more views which translate to more advertiser impressions.  It keeps the pump primed and the money rolling in.

It's the same formula as reality TV actually.  Throw a bunch of mediocre drama queens together and watch the bloodbath.

Isn't there already enough of this kind of crap in the world?  

Apparently not.  Check out the video below...

The Arizona Monsoon has started!

I'm many things...

An IT guy, Gearhead ( Petrolhead to you UK guys), Gamer, Writer....

None of which are doing much for my wallet these days.

But one of the things these downtrodden, lean times has taught me is to appreciate what the world offers up.

To that end, I've become a fan of Arizona's Monsoon season.

For the past few years I've been grabbing video of the yearly monsoon storms that rage across the state from late June till Mid September.

I'm a frustrated storm chaser at heart as weather events fascinate me.

But like everything else I'm stuck doing it a bit half-assed.  I can't afford to chase a storm more than a couple of miles from my house which is why most videos originate from there.

But sometimes I get some great stuff simply because if there's a storm in the valley there's about a 75% chance that my house is going to be in it's path.

Take a gander at the latest videos I have from this year ( 2016 ) of the start of the season.  The first one captures the first storm of the season while the second one is a bit more dramatic with Thunder and lots of lightning.

I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as I did capturing the excitement.  

Just in case ...

So, you think I spend all my time thinking up things to bitch about?

Hardly

I freaking loved this....

Meerkat

Heard about Meerkat? 

No not the small mammal, rather it's the latest thing in social dysfunction...err...media.

However, there is a correlation.  If you get a bunch of Meerkats together they're called a mob...

Who cares...

Blown up by drunk geek fandom at this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) Meerkat is the latest social darling embraced by the technorati. 

In a word it's simply an app (isn't is always..) that allows you to stream video to twitter in real time.  If you're amongst the social set and you have an Iphone there's little doubt that you've at least tried it out.

Look folks, there's nothing new here including the fresh round of 12 million worth of investments from hipster venture capitalists. 

Of course there's never been anything like it which explains the excitement...  Well, unless you've used Twitstreams or Broadcast for Friends.  Remember those? Yeah, me neither...

It's a live streaming app that only allows "live, no reruns" meaning if you want someone's stream later you'd better hope the budding documentarian uploads the video to his/her YouTube channel.   There is no cloud storage option. 

The only real difference here is that there's more bandwidth to waste now.  So everyone with an Iphone is streaming everything from their vacation to their lunch. 

Get ready for those realtime lunch videos!  Now you can watch every sloppy bite!  

Even celebrities have jumped onboard like the Today show's Al Roker streaming his haircut.  If watching Al Roker getting his head shaved isn't the poster child for the app I don't know what is...

I suppose you've "arrived" when Vogue gets excited about you....

So obviously I'm not impressed.  Not because I'm against innovation but rather I'm against useless fads.  Remember Flappy Bird? How about Vine?  Two more examples of million dollar ideas with absolutely no redeeming value.

That's what ticks me off.  I'm sick of apps that do nothing more than make users look more stupid than they already do.  Where's the benefit?  What's new here?  Nothing really, it's just another case of technology enabling a convergence between bad judgment and alcohol.    

In the end the only real winners are the developers and the cell carriers raking in the bucks when clueless users blow past their data limits.

There's nothing new here, move along to the next meme...

How to get more visitors to your blog, e-commerce site, YouTube channel...blah blah blah

I know why you're here...

I got lucky and somehow Google determined I had just the right metadata to put me higher in the list of search results. 

Yup, I'm right up there with all the sites that promise Internet millions and no-down real estate deals.

Well, at least that's my hope but with Google selling AdWords to drive traffic and sponsored links chances are this article wasn't in the mix.

I've been blogging for around 4 years and been running a YouTube channel (now 4) for 3.  In that time I've never managed to get more than 150 subs on Youtube or more than 50K visitors to any of my blogs. 

In other words, I'm just like you. 

The little bit of information you'll get from the "experts" out there will  try to pound it into your head that the key to success is comprised of a few key tenets.  Most of the time they'll bury them in a bunch of vague marketing speak designed to get you to ante up the plastic to get the "secrets."

I'll save you a few bucks and spell them out minus the long-winded sales pitch.

1. Have interesting content!
2. Be consistent and post/upload on a regular basis
3. Collaborate with others
4. Use social media and cross promote

Great, now you know exactly what you need to do right? 

Of course not.  It's all ambiguous and misleading as hell.  

What you need to realize is all those sure-fire strategies are nothing but link-bait.  None of it is any more useful than a late-night infomercial.  They're selling a fantasy and making money with every duped visitor to their page.

So what's wrong with the "Tenets?"

Let's go by the numbers...

   Have interesting content!  -- Ok, define "interesting"  some people think knitting is interesting others think Pewdiepie is a phenom.  What does that make you?  The cold truth is that most of the popular people on the web were already popular somewhere else.  There's very little "organic" fame to be had meaning you might be the next Spielberg or Hemingway but nobody is going to know who you are unless you find popularity somewhere else.

   Be consistent and post/upload on a regular basis -- This one annoys me the most.  How many mindless blog posts or boring cat videos have you seen just because somebody followed this advice?  If you have something to share then by all means share it but don't put crap up just to fill space.  Nothing turns off an audience faster than having to sift through a bunch of half-hearted crap.   

   Collaborate with others -- It's nice to share but to be honest I can't stand 90% of the content creators on the Internet so why the hell would I want to collaborate with them?  Really now, If  I'm just going through the motions then why am i bothering at all?  Hey, if you've got a friend with similar interests great but otherwise leave it alone.  Nobody collaborates out of the goodness of their heart, they're looking for more traffic just like you and if you don't have anything to offer you're not going to get many opportunities.  It's kind of a catch-22 in that you need exposure but nobody is going to help you unless you already have it.

   Use social media and cross promote  -- This one kind of goes with #3.  Everybody thinks they're going to get on Twitter or FaceBook and suddenly have 100's of followers.  Except that most social media is siloed meaning you're going to spend most of your time communicating with people you already know.  Spamming other peoples pages with "Come see my stuff" posts will get you the opposite result.  Social media really isn't that social and unless you're already famous nobody is going to come looking for you.

So is all lost?  Am I just a Debbie Downer to your Internet dreams?

I sure hope so but not because I want you to fail, I just want you to get real. 

Look, it's really simple.  There's no such thing as get rich quick in the real or online world.  If you're just doing it to turn a buck then I hope you do fail.  I mean that.  Not because I'm some vicious troll but rather because I'm tired of content for content's sake. 

It clutters up the Internet with the online equivalent of junk mail and infomercials. 

Put up all the content you want but do it because you want to not because you're following some formula you read about from a Google search.   Blogs are great for creating a body of work.  Take it seriously and it may even spawn a career.  YouTube can be a great outlet for budding filmmakers, educators and new media content. Social Media can be a powerful tool if used wisely.

I've been creating content for awhile now and I can say with conviction that I never have nor would put up anything I didn't believe in.  Even if it never got a single view.  I can stand being unpopular, I can't stand adding to the cruft.

I may not be a "success" story but at least I'm genuine.  Forget the Leo Laporte's and Pewdiepie's of the online world.  Hell, even old Leo is getting a hard dose of reality these days and once Pewdiepie hits 30 he's over with.

So keep this in mind.

Do what you do but make sure it's really coming from you.

...consider the soapbox put away.

Prosecuting Youtube

Let me preface this article with the following statement. 

I firmly believe that content creators have an undeniable right to profit from their work. 

That said, I do have a problem with a copyright system that allows "owners" (which are usually not the content creators) to assert claims on anything they "believe" to be infringing without question by spineless "services" like YouTube. 

I also have a major problem with services that employ a hostile process for redress of the "accused."   

You're guilty with little opportunity to prove your innocence.  It shows up in dire legal verbiage designed to scare away any challenge and immediate penalties that effectively cripple the medium for the accused user.  

In short, on YouTube a copyright strike makes you guilty until proven innocent.  It's a  process that demands all but an admission of "guilt" before allowing you to do anything further on the service while the "infringement" is active.  In the end unless you live with a copyright attorney it's virtually impossible to mount an effective "defense."

So in case you haven't guessed, I just had another run in with YouTube but this one put the proverbial nail in the coffin...

I'd been using the service (notice the tense there) for over 3 years and had hosted almost 300 videos at one point.  I have an active adsense account that allowed me to participate in a revenue sharing agreement with YouTube by allowing them to place ads in my content.  A mutually beneficial arrangement although the benefit was decidedly slanted toward YouTube.

Over the years I'd dealt with a few copyright claims for music and game footage but none were ever elevated to the level of being an outright DMCA copyright violation.  My response was fairly routine.  

I'd either remove the "alleged" offending content if I was feeling generous or if I felt the claim invalid I'd contest it with varying degrees of success.  Over the years I had actually won a few disputes and got the so-called "owners" to back off.  If I lost I usually just deleted the offending video and was done with it.

I never intentionally tried to infringe anyone's copyright but if somebody thought I was trying to take their bone I wasn't going to risk any of my dogs fighting in a rigged game. 

But this was different...

The videos in question were about 2 years old and were simply some footage of a friend of mine testing Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation edition in a VM.  

There was nothing about the videos that was a privileged information even when they were initially posted.  In fact I never saw anything obvious in Microsoft's EULA that mentioned a restriction on recording footage of the OS.

Unfortunately for me, Microsoft decided yesterday that it didn't like seeing footage of someone actually using their operating system and subsequently filed a take down demand with YouTube.  

Of course that's just supposition as YouTube almost never informs you of the exact "infringement" leaving you to guess.  Only recently have they began testing of an editing tool capable of removing alleged copyrighted content identified by their ContentID system.  Making every upload a coin toss...

Which means anyone who chooses to show a Windows desktop in their video could soon find their content ripped off of YouTube without warning, receive a copyright strike and never know why.

To me, this is nothing short of abuse of the copyright system.  It's bad enough that perpetual copyrights have become the norm effectively shutting anything remotely commercial in the past 50 years out of the public domain.  Now anything that even resembles or has elements of a copyrighted work can be suppressed. 

We're not talking about someone posting some unreleased Hollywood Blockbuster or the latest music video featuring Beyonce's... assets. 

It's about corporate bullying facilitated by a broken copyright system with lapdogs like YouTube doing their bidding. 

And I've had enough...

YouTube always sides with the accuser and as I already mentioned you're given feeble mechanisms for rebuttal. 

This latest insult was the final straw and my response was to delete the entire channel.  I'd rather sacrifice 3 years of work than suffer the Scarlet Letter foisted on me.    

Now some may say I'm in the wrong and list the myriad of ways a copyright holder can claim the exclusive right to distribute anything related to their "property."

Perhaps as things are now that's so but again I reiterate, this was not content that denied anyone their payday.

I like analogies so let's try one that is a little less ambiguous than a video of some geek clicking around a  Windows desktop for an hour...

Imagine you've just bought a brand new car.  It's the first one you've ever had and it's exactly what you wanted.  You're bursting with pride and want to show it off to all your friends and family on the Internet. 

So you record a video, spend hours editing it till it's perfect, upload it to YouTube and send everyone a link who cares to have it.

A month goes by and suddenly your video gets a takedown notice and you get a copyright strike against your account.

Why?  Because the manufacturer of your brand new car claims that they have the exclusive right to any  exhibition of it. 

Seem ridiculous?  It is but that's how the copyright system currently works.  All an "owner" has to do is make a claim and YouTube will dutifully begin prosecuting you.

Which is why I've deleted the channel and removed all the content.

It's bad enough that Google's acquisition of YouTube has resulted in the mass suffering of its users by herding everyone into Google Plus whether they wanted it or not.  

Add in constant attacks by prepubescent teens and quasi-sociopaths determined to destroy your self esteem and your dreams of PewdiePie fandom soon evaporate.

All of that I can deal with.  When you put your stuff out there for all to see you learn to develop a thick skin. 

But when I get branded as a criminal with YouTube as proxy Judge, Jury and Executioner to pass "sentence" it's a step too far. 

YouTube's copyright enforcement system is flawed, ambiguous and to my mind designed that way.  

Hiding behind the shield of "Safe Harbor" they fail to define what constitutes an "infringement" in order to profit off the legitimate work of millions of YouTube creators.  At least until such time as someone makes a claim against you be it legitimate or otherwise.  Leaving a bewildered user base potentially branded as criminals without recourse.

This is one content creator that's had enough.

I'm tired of the constant badgering of copyright trolls with YouTube's blessing and no recourse.  I'm tired of finding my videos mysteriously losing monetization without warning or reason.  I'm tired of YouTube's flawed "ContentID" system throwing innocent users into copyright disputes based on false positives. 

But ultimately, I'm just tired of participating in an abusive relationship.  

Or maybe I'm just tired of writing about A-holes...


UPDATE!

Apparently I wasn't the only one getting screwed over by Microsoft and thousands of other YouTubers including some Microsoft employees suffered the same treatment at the hands of a 3rd party marketing agency called "Marketly." They decided to slap a takedown notice on just about anyone with "Windows" in their video's title.  

When I checked my account today, I no longer found a copyright strike although I'm unsure whether that was because I deleted the channel or the takedown was released.  I will risk uploading the same "offending" videos in a new channel focused on IT this week and see what happens.

TWIT: NSFW 218 becomes night of 1000 redactions!

Talk about circling the wagons!

This will be short but it seems I and others may have touched a nerve at TWIT as it appears that all evidence of the final NSFW show #218 has been removed from popular media outlets.  That apparently includes me as the link to the final NSFW broadcast now only offers up "This video is Private" when the embedded video link on my February post is activated...

I know I've had to change the source link 3 times since publishing the article on NSFW's final broadcast on TWIT and now the show is nowhere to be found.

On Sunday October 5th's This Week In Tech there was some discussion concerning the possible "banning" of NSFW hosts Justin Robert young and Brian Brushwood from the network but little more was said.

Now it appears that copies of the final NSFW broadcast have been withdrawn leaving viewers with only Pre and Post show video captures.  

I've recently been informed that this move wasn't an isolated event as archives of past TWIT shows featuring departed TWIT hosts have reportedly been removed from public view.

The move seems retaliatory which is unfortunate.  Considering NSFW 218 was nothing but conciliatory and praising of Laporte it makes no sense to withdraw it from public view.

But then, this is the "new" TWIT.

Stitcher still has an active link to the audio MP3.  

You can find it below, at least until someone yanks it down too....

Still "Not Advertiser Friendly" (update)

Denied yet again in another round of the YouTube monetization follies I gave the response below when challenged on my "commercial use rights" for the video above.  I won't get my 27 cents but at least my response makes me feel better.

"I am me, this is all you see on your little internet TV.  That said the only way you can disagree is if you find my content, "not advertiser friendly"

For an example of "Advertiser Friendly" Check the video out below.

Hmm, now this is interesting.  I just did that video as a test and you know what? It was monetized immediately!  That pretty much proves what it takes to get monetized on YouTube.  Either brown nose or have crap content.  Nice...

New Media is older than you think - Part 2

YouTube is perhaps the most blatant example of the "New Media" hypocrisy. Their motto is "Broadcast Yourself" although it's hard to find on their webpage anymore.  Here's their current claimed reason for being...

Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

The real truth is that only thing YouTube cares about since the Google acquisition is becoming the Internet equivalent of NBC. They've invested a few million in a Los Angeles production studio called the "Creation Space" supposedly to support the YouTube community.  What you find in the small print, however, is that you don't get to use it unless you've been "invited."    

To get that golden ticket you need to  have at least 300,000 average views with the first crop of "invitees" being closer to a half million or more.  Check out the bulk of the channels and  you're going to find a lot of crossover from old media interests, entertainment figures and those with a popular following elsewhere. 

Sorry guys, your chances of getting in on the new digs is pretty slim with videos of your new kittens produced with Windows Movie Maker.

By the way, a common thread among successful YouTube channels is a partnership agreement with an even  larger channel. 

Oh yeah, and being a pop star with a record company backing the production of your new "Internet only" video wouldn't hurt either.

So what exactly is this New Media then?  A shortcut for old media billionaires to make more money by spending less on production?

Seems that way which means supporting your tiny channel is not their focus.  In fact since the Google acquisition, the service has become increasingly hostile to small content creators.  The recommendation is to sign up with bigger partners if you want to increase your views. 

That means revenue sharing or basically paying the bigger partner a percentage of your monetized views on top of YouTube's normal cut.  Kind of like a pyramid scheme.  Paying for views, by the way, is something YouTube actively discourages anywhere but partner agreements.  They can't turn a profit outside that structure so they make sure you don't either.

The only thing YouTube is nurturing is its own fortunes.  Don't expect to get a call to reserve your slot in the "Creation Space" if you're not in the less than 1% of YouTubers able to live off your partner income.  It's not going to happen for smaller channels simply because their take isn't lucrative enough for them.

YouTube will reap millions from its relatively paltry investment in facilities and you're going to pay for it with deeper cuts into your monetization.  Even if you never get to use it.  So much for their philanthropic motives.

Why?  Simple, it's a corporate interest and  you're just a consumer of their product.  Your "partner" status just gives them license to hijack your content for their own ends with minimal benefit for you.  So while you spend hours hoping that all that slaving over the perfect upload will go viral, know that YouTube has your back.  Well at least so long as they can turn a profit on you.  Oh yeah and you don't do anything to threaten the sensibilities of their advertisers or even suggest the possibility of a copyright infringement. 

Do either of those and you'll quickly be branded "Not Advertiser Friendly" which at the minimum denies your videos monetization or at worst gets them pulled down.

Sound familiar?  It's the same dynamic that got your favorite show kicked off of network TV and drove innovative cable networks like TechTV into the ground. 

So dry your tears New Media pundits, it's the same old crap in a new package.  Nothing's really changed as the same "old media" gatekeepers are still collecting the tolls.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from engaging in this "New Media" just don't believe everything you hear about it.  It's definitely fun but it's far from free and not as lucrative as it seems so don't quit your day job.   

You can start a blog, post hundreds of videos on YouTube and spam all your Facebook friends with them  and still not earn a dime.  Without the backing of the gatekeepers you may as well post your blogs on telephone poles.  Just remember the "New Media" isn't all that new so take it with a grain of salt.  Most of the hype you're hearing is the same kind of noise you get from an "Internet Millions" infomercial.