Michael Castellon

I’ve always found the default Google Video categories a bit boring. I had always wondered what it would be like if you could search by other categories (even by circumventing Google’s defaults). The answer to the question, of course, is yes:

Here they are, via JimmyR:

Publishers have the opton to select 38 different genres they’d like to categorize their video in. Google Video’s website only lists 7 types: Comedy, Music videos, Movies, Sports, Animation, TV shows, Google Picks. You can still order by genre using a special search.

1. Educational
2. Instructional
3. Stock Footage
4. Comedy
5. Mature Adult
6. Science and Technology
7. Ads and Promotions
8. News
9. Animation
10. Sports
11. Home Video
12. Documentary
13. Business
14. Dance
15. Drama
16. Foreign
17. Gaming
18. Horror
19. Movie trailer
20. Nature
21. Political
22. Religious
23. Romance
24. Special Interest
25. Thriller
26. Travel
27. TV Show
28. Western
29. Movie Short
30. Movie Feature
31. Faith and Spirituality
32. Gay and Lesbian
33. Science Fiction & Fantasy
34. Action and Adventure
35. Children and Family
36. Art and Expiremental
37. Health And Fitness
38. Independent

Via Engadget:

To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you’ve already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They’ll scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it’ll be worth it to converts

This is a strong move from Microsoft that could mean any number of things. While the idea of importing your DRM-purchased iTunes music sounds atttractive, what will the store selling the MS-compatible music be like? This is not to mention that hardware, either. It’s hard to beat iPod+iTunes.

Also, what’s the draw of swapping out once DRM-protected library for another?

Not content with just sleeping on the couch, now Comcast is lighting homes on fire. A JAcksonville couple has said a Comcast cable box caught fire and destroyed some of their personal belongings. Caught in a PR nightmare following the sleeping tech story, Comcast seems willing to make right:

A Jacksonville couple is happy to be alive after they say their cable box caught fire overnight.

Resident Johnnie Cope says he woke up early Monday morning to find smoke everywhere in his home and his cable box on fire. Cope says it was up to him to get his wife and 5 dogs out of harms way. “47 years I’ve been married to this little girl, and I almost lost her.”

Cope suffers from emphysema and moving around at all is a tough task for him. Since the fire, he says it’s been just too much to handle physically and emotionally.

“I can’t breath. I use this machine […] every hour. My wife is coughing, [and the] dogs are coughing,” he says.

The Copes lost their computer and fax machine in the fire, which may not sound like a lot. But to a couple relying on social security, it’s everything.

Cope says Comcast came out to their home a couple of times and took the cable box. But when it comes to helping them get their belongings replaced, they say the company is dragging its feet.

“They just don’t care. Comcast has brushed us off. They could’ve killed my family,” Cope says.

However, you always hear ‘the customer comes first’ at Comcast, and the company says they’re going to prove it. A Comcast company representative says as soon as they get the insurance report, something they are required to have in their hands, they will make sure the Cope’s gets what’s owed to them.