Posted on

YouTube Age-Restricts the News

After yesterday’s Boles.tv live stream I received a curious email from YouTube informing me I had violated some sort of community guideline, and they were “Age-Restricting” my entire VOD upload. That meant no viewers under the age of 18, and my video would not be shown to anyone not logged into YouTube. I wasn’t sure if they were dinging my previous live stream, and video podcast episode, about William Hurt Raping Marlee Matlin or not, but I quickly learned discussing rape is okay for kids, but showing the aftermath of a blood stain on a train platform from the New York City subway shooting yesterday is verboten. I wondered aloud if YouTube ever really checks the strange, and awful, videos that appear on their service that include nudity, and violence, and are not restricted.

Continue reading → YouTube Age-Restricts the News

Posted on

The Lashed Author

We, as authors, are lashed upon the whale we hope to tame; we are lashed by our publishers against the rail, who fail to tame us; we are lashed by our detractors upon the sun, and, they too, cannot tame our darkness — and yet! — we still try to thrive in the memorialization of what we hope to know, and what we know must be shared. In the light of that pitiful delight, the Authors Guild have released a new report concerning the overall mean income for authors, and the results are astounding, resounding, and, unfortunately for too many of us, sublimely familiar.

Continue reading → The Lashed Author

Posted on

How to Lock Down Your Verizon Wireless Account

Identity Theft is big business for the unforsaken. The Equifax hack is a jinx that will never be forgiven, or soon forgotten, for most Americans. Our Social Security numbers have become our public identifiers for accessing private information and our mobile phone numbers, and SMS text messages, have become our rooted record of no return as the bad actors try to become us by stealing, tainting, or compromising, our sacred identifier streams.

We can try our best to harden what belongs to us — or at least make it more difficult for those who actively choose to harm us to create lasting damage. Unfortunately, 15 minutes of lost control of your phone number can be enough to steal many other founts of treasure that should belong only to you. Control the phone number; manipulate the person; win the assets.

In a recent Reddit thread, I shared some of the following information in this article. As I republish, and rethink, my original warnings here with you today, I want to make sure you are aware of the dangers around you beyond someone just stealing your mobile phone number. You don’t have to be famous, or have a lot of money, to be an identity theft target. Some people get a thrill just knowing they’re ruining your day.

Continue reading → How to Lock Down Your Verizon Wireless Account

Posted on

Who Owns Your Face? DMCA and Reflexive Allegory

You may not like your face, but it belongs to you. You have an inherent, living, right to use your face as your face. You don’t need a Copyright or a Trademark on your face. You only need to wear your face and own it — warts, wrinkles, warps, and all!

This is the story of my face being stolen — for use in a ridiculous Star Trek revenge meme — and the right ending of someone on the internet who stepped forward to not just be a help to me, but to become a new friend as well.

Continue reading → Who Owns Your Face? DMCA and Reflexive Allegory

Posted on

On Branding, Own the Generic: Why I Became “David Boles” on the Internet

If you spend any time doing business on the internet — “Branding Yourself” — is an important part of the process even if it seems shameful and unseemly and selfish: Enjoy it! It’s what you’ve become by being here!

Continue reading → On Branding, Own the Generic: Why I Became “David Boles” on the Internet

Posted on

Reconstruing a Culture: A Reckoning for Retro TV

There was a time in the monument of America — during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s — when you could have a life, make a career, and be somebody, just by hosting or appearing on, a broadcast television game show or talk show.

Since we now live in the perpetual machine of “everything old is new again” — we can dive back in time, and watch all the old television shows of our youth, now digitized, and Closed Captioned, and made publicly palatable for our short mindsets by removing most of the modern commercials in favor of the old, embedded soap pitches.

Buzzr is one of my favorite retro channels, and orange seems to be the “color of nostalgia” (and 1970s sexiness!) in the logos of these channels of recondition.

Continue reading → Reconstruing a Culture: A Reckoning for Retro TV

Posted on

Welcome to the David Boles: Human Meme Podcast!

I’m delighted to announce today that my new podcast — David Boles: Human Meme — is now widely available for subscription! The podcast is free, and there’s no advertising, and I’m never going to try to sell you something. You subscribe because you have to make the podcast come to you. The thought behind the method of the podcast is simple: You and me! There’s no production or music or whistles or things that bleep. It’s a quiet conversation. You may listen via iTunes right now!

Continue reading → Welcome to the David Boles: Human Meme Podcast!