Videos Going Viral

We need a truly bounded definition of the word Viral. I read an article today that said

The video went viral; it has been seen by more than 500,000 people.

It did not say when the video was posted, in fact the article did not have a post date from what I could tell but judging by the comments, within the last day or so.

Here is a problem, when I looked up the video it did in fact have more than 500,000 views. Yes I said views, not people. The reason why is that YouTube does not count individual people, check for yourself http://www.youtube.com/t/faq. But that is not the main problem. The main problem is that the video was posted on YouTube Feb 8, 2011. As of this post 338 days have gone by and the video was viewed by 568,410. That's is about 1,681 views per day. How is that viral? Google define says viral is An image, video, advertisement, etc. that is circulated rapidly on the Internet. The current most watched video today (Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus || Spoken Word, of course something religious would be number one but whatever!) has 2,849,184 as of this writing and was uploaded on Jan 10, 2012. The video has been on the internet for 2 days and has almost 3 million views, now that's viral.

I do not know what the cap should be, maybe 100,000 views in one day? Or something similar to how the RIAA does certifications. Whatever it is, it needs to happen because the word Viral is being overused faster than the Jesus video!

Signed,
Just because this post might garner 5 views in one day doesn't mean that 5 people saw it nor that it has became viral!

Speed Limits

I understand not driving at or near the speed limit when road conditions or heavy traffic do not permit it. What I do not understand is driving 10 to 15 miles per hour under the speed limit, in a car that appears by all accounts to be in working order and when there is no cloud in the sky and no one around you except me behind you. Especially when the speed limit is already 35!!!

All I ask is that you do somewhere between 5 miles under to the speed limit. And if you do over, that's fine by me but generally not fine by the police, your call on that one!

Signed,
The guy behind you trying desperately not to tailgate for fear that your insecurities behind the wheel will cause a collision that I would most likely get blamed for. 

Internet Chain Letters, Statuses, and Post

I really wish I could stop and destroy all internet chain letters. Whenever I come across one I must stop and read the entire letter. I do not know why I must do this, I know exactly where I will end up, pissed off. The latest one I read was just atrocious to me, most likely because it had to do with religion which usually add a little gasoline to any mental flame of mine. It took me literally 30 seconds to debunk it. One simple Google Search will lead you to the great www.snopes.com and it can solve all of your problems! Why must someone spread something that is easily debunked? And as I go back to see the post, it has 8 likes and one positive comment! AHHH!!!! You are spreading this virus of a post, that is completely fabricated and people think it's true.

Out of practice, I do not forward chain letter post. I do not even read the "You MUST read this heartfelt American Soldier story" emails that get forwarded to me. But if I did, I would at least make sure the damn thing was true before doing it!

In case you are interested, the post that set me off was this one as reported by Snopes as false http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp

Snopes and Wikiquote should be your friend.

Signed,
I like to complain about things so I followed my wife's advice and started a blog just so you can waste your time reading my complaints and not have the ability to comment.