A computer passed the Turing test.

This is pretty huge. A Computer has passed the Turing test. This test consists of convincing that the computer makes more then 30% of people it interacts with, that the computer is a human and not a computer. The computer made 33% of the people believe that it was indeed a human. This is amazing and scary at the same time. Its amazing that someone has finally be able to make technology so advanced as to convince people its one of them. This is frightening because of the same reason. If computers start being able to do that, its only a matter of time before they start doing more advanced things with it. I am both curious about it but afraid to where it can go and how it could be used. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Google trying to buy Twitch

A mere one billion dollars is the price I have heard being thrown around for google to purchase Twitch.tv. What could this mean? There have been speculations that google is tryingto eliminate streaming competition. Youtube has streaming qualities  but they are not as popular as twitch for live streaming. Be it stream quality or connectivity or lag issues or quite possibly that youtube got in on the live stream craze too late after twitch became popular and nobody wants to swtich. For those reasons I can see why people are thinking that towards google. Plus, a billion dollars is not a bad price to purchase twitch with but it is an interesting concept that twitch didnt jump on that. We will just have to wait and see what comes of this potential deal.

The popularity of the song Gangnam Style and how it had nothing to do with PSY

Now we have all heard the song Gangnam style, we have all seen the dance done millions of times and at 2 billion views on youtube and counting, we are all know what impact the song has had on the past 2 years. But if I were to say that PSY had nothing to do with its rise in popularity, except the obvious fact that he made the song and the dance, how would you take that?

Just like every viral song or video on youtube, its the people that make the things popular. Being found on youtube and linked millions and millions of times through facebook and other social media platforms allowed the song to travel to all audiences. Its the people that watched the video more then 2 billion times and recreated their own videos with the dance. Its the people that request the song to be played at weddings and other gatherings. Its a phenomenon that the song has become this popular. Now imagine being the one who owns that song and try to made something better then that, because its what the people expect. Good Luck PSY. 

Band Success credited to Social Media Presence

The recently formed band BATTLECROSS(BX) has boomed in popularity over the past couple years in the US metal scene and even in some international locations as well. They now have played in a couple different festivals such as The Rockstar energy drink Mayhem Festival in the US, Rock am Ring, New England Metalfest, and the GwarBque. Many people credit their success to their social media presence through facebook and twitter. Frequently posting and interacting with their fans through these medias really gives bands a connection to their fans in ways that were not possible before. It almost allows for direct communication in which BX is a very active commenter on posts on their page. They even managed to crowdfund half the cost of the Mayhem Festival tour, raising over $25,000 in a months time. Keeping this in mind might give you an advantage if you were looking to start a group of your own.

Livestreaming

Livestreaming is a unique market. Now a days, what I mainly see on places such a twitch.tv is mainly for people playing video games, mainly league of legends, hearthstone, world of warcraft, counter strike, and dota. The people playing these games on livestream can make money while doing so as well. They can have users pay a subscription fee and Streamers can offer subscriber specific content and contests. THey as make money off playing ads during their stream. This kind of makes being a popular streamer a lucrative business for those people. On the extreme end of the spectrum, there is a Korean woman who makes over 9,000 dollars a month streaming herself eating massive meals or 3 hours a day. This is mainly because of Korean cultural aspects that make eating alone kind of looked down upon. If I were to get paid money to do things like this, I definitely think I would be a happy person.

Here is a video with an example of the Korean Woman's meals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3oCKC72DMk