Glenn Greedwald previously was a constitutional law attorney in the US, he now spends his time as an author and a full-time blogger on Salon.com. If you’re looking for a sober, concise, and rational approach to today’s issues, such as terrorism and the health care debacle, you need look no further then Glenn’s writings on Salon.com.

I have read Glenn’s writings on Salon.com for about 4 months now and must say he is probably one of the most logical and intelligent thinkers on the internet . He’s currently doing a speaking tour and has been on The Rachel Maddow Show, Democracynow, and Dylan Ratigan’s show. I highly recommend checking out these videos as well as Glenn’s writings on Salon.com.

Glenn Greedwald on The Rachel Maddow Show

Glenn Greedwald on Democracynow

Glenn Greedwald on Dylan Ratigan’s show

Glenn Greedwald on MSNBC’s Morning Joe

Technorati Tags: glenn greenwald, glenn greenwald videos, glenn greenwald interview, democracynow, glenn salon.com, salon.com, health care, glenn greenwald blog, video, news, congress

About

This plugin allows the <video> and <source> elements to be posted in your bbPress forum. This makes it quick and easy for forum members to add videos to their posts.

Here is the list of allowed tags and allowed attributes.

<video>

• src
• type
• autoplay
• poster
• controls
• width
• height

<source>

• -src
• -type
• -media

Installation

1. Add the `allow-html5-video.php` file to bbPress’ `my-plugins/` directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in bbPress.

*Make sure you have set up your webhost to allow the correct MIME types for OGG and OGV files.

MIME Type: video/ogg
Extension(s): ogv ogg ogm

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some example embed codes?

Example #1 (Works in most modern browsers)

<video src="test-video.ogv" controls>
Your browser does not support the <code>video</code> element.
</video>

Example #2 (Should Work in all modern browsers)

<video controls>
<source src="test-video.ogg" type="video/ogg">
<source src="test-video.mp4">
Your browser does not support the <code>video</code> element.
</video>

What codecs are recommended?

Theora for .ogg and .ogv
.h264 for .mp4

Does it work with other video plugins?

Yes, it works with other video plugins (bbvideo and others).

Compatibility

Tested up to: 1.0.2
Requires at least: 0.8.4

Changelog

- 0.9 -
*initial release

Download Allow HTML5 Video

Allow HTML5 Video is based off of mdawaffe’s and qayqay12’s Allow Images plugin.

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At last, there are finally some good recommendations for gaming laptops in 2010. I have attempted to come up with a list of gaming laptops for over two months now, but with the holiday prices bouncing around faster than an electron in a super collider, I just couldn’t recommend any solid deals.

Now that the market has finally calmed down, there are some pretty great laptops in the reasonable price range of $750 to $1000 dollars. I attempted to find a recommendation below $750 dollars, but the gaming performance of the laptops in that price range simply can’t compare to the laptops below, even for a casual gamer. If you are looking for a laptop over the $1000 price range, I would recommend pricing out a custom laptop through a company similar too .

The first two recommendations are great budget laptops that are each powered by a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 1GB card. The third is powered by a very fast NVIDIA GTX 260M 1gb card.

Disclaimer: The State of Affairs received no direct compensation for writing this articles and is in no way directly affiliated with Gateway, HP, ASUS or Newegg.com.

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The new Google Nexus One is all the buzz on the web. As of now the Nexus One is available for $529 unlocked or $179 with T-Mobile USA service plan (NEW customers only). One hitch now on the T-Mobile US plan is the fact that, you can not get your T-Mobile phone upgrade price on the Google Nexus One if you are on a family plan.

Many T-Mobile users are already digging up the scoop on this one though. According to many discussions around the web, the trick to getting the discounted price on the Nexus One is to pull your number from your family plan and move it to an individual plan.

This is where everyone one has said what? “It’s $10 month for the extra line on my family plan, if I move to an individual plan that is $50 a month more!”. Correct, but the trick is apparently after 120 days, you can move your individual line back to your family plan. I say apparently as T-Mobile customer service is giving different customers, different answers on this one.

Basically, you have three choices now:

• One, buy the phone for $529 for your family plan
• Two, move to a individual plan and pay around $380 ($179 for the discounted phone price + $200 extra for 4 months at the individual plan price)
• Three, stick with the phone you got and wait for a better option on the price of the phone and the service plan restrictions.

I do recommend calling T-Mobile directly and confirming the above options before ordering. Try and get them to “leak” the truth about when you can switch your particular line back to your family plan. Also the new line will need to be placed under a different name as the $179 price is for new customers only.

I won’t be buying a Google Nexus One as of now, but I may soon, as I’m a Verizon Wireless customer. According to Matt Cutts, this spring the Nexus One will be coming to Verizon Wireless.

Did you get a Google Nexus One? If you did, leave a review below, if you didn’t, leave a comment about why you aren’t buying one!

**********************

Update I:
After looking at some prices for other unlocked smart phones online, it looks like the $529 regular price is on the upper end, but is still well within the reasonable price range.

Technorati Tags: google nexus one, nexus one, google nexus, nexus one tmobile, nexus one t-mobile, google tmobile, tmobile family nexus one, tmobile family plan nexus, family plan nexus one, family plan google nexus, nexus one price, individual nexus one, nexus one 120 days, google nexus discount, nexus discount

As we near the end of 2009, now is the time to look back and reflect on our culture and how our culture has evolved over the past 350 something days. Current Tv’s InfoMania released this video to showcase all of the best-est and worst-est moments over the last year.

A few highlight of the video:

• Sergio’s Top 5 Music picks of the week, this time though, he covers the top 5 songs on ITunes in 2009 and explains to his father what Lady Gaga really means by her “pa pa pa pa poker face”
• Another great segment is Sarah Haskins review some of the best products of 2009. Plus you’ll learn why butts are stupid.

Enjoy and have a good holiday, see ya on the other side!

Technorati Tags: 2009, music, news, video, website, current tv, current tv retrospectacular, current, infomania, retrospective, sergios top picks

If you noticed the small gray or white print in your newest Verizon smartphone ad you are probably wondering just what is an Email Feature” and why is it required? We all love features for our phones after all.

Voice Plan Email Feature, a.k.a your Data Plan!

The required email feature for your new smartphone is simply a required data plan. Since these new smartphones need much more bandwidth then earlier phones, you will have to pay extra for a data plan. The data plan comes it at $30 dollars for most of us (family and individual plans) and $40 for the suits (business plans).

It would be wise to ask your Verizon representative if the phone you are thinking of purchasing this year requires a data plan addon. If your buying online, be sure to read the full print and call Verizon if you are unsure about the charges.

Phones that Require the “Email Feature”

When redefining a word or subject, it proves helpful to include the old definition to refer too. Renaming something akin to a “data plan” to an email feature” should be addressed with caution, to not cause confusion.

Here is a list of phones that require the email feature. If you know of more phones feel free to leave a comment below with the details.

• Motorola Droid
• HTC Droid Eris
• Blackberry Storm2
• BlackBerry Curve

Update 1: The $30 dollar data plan\email feature is per device. If your on an individual plan, no big deal, but if you are on a family plan with 3 people or more this is a huge difference. If you have a family plan with 3 lines for $120 a month and want to switch to Motorola Droids for all 3 lines, it will be an additional $90 added to you plan. For 3 Motorola Droids with Verizon that is over $200 a month. Wow…

Technorati Tags: email feature, verizon email feature, required email feature, data plan, verizon data plan, droid email feature, droid data plan, verizon, voice plan, blackberry data plan, blackberry email feature

We’re nearing the end of 2009 and just beginning the holiday season. Finding the best deal for a home or office laptop can be a bit more confusing this time of year with all of the sales and deals floating around, but I did the scouring and was able to come up with 4 great holiday laptop deals that would make a great present for anyone this holiday season.

The main concerns when choosing a home or office laptop is the processor speed, the amount of ram, and the amount of hard disk space. All of these laptops satisfy those needs and range in price from under $500 to just under $1500.

These types of deals tend to sell out fast, especially during the holiday season. If they do sell out, I highly recommend you use them as a benchmark comparison in regards to price and performance while making your holiday buying decision.

Update: Attempting to keep up with Holiday prices for Laptops is quite exhaustive. The price’s noted here may change.

Disclaimer: The State of Affairs received no direct compensation for writing this articles and is in no way directly affiliated with HP, Toshiba, Acer, Amazon.com, or Newegg.com.

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If you’re like me and you love perusing online music instrument stores you may have already found your favorite place to shop for musical equipment online. What if you don’t know where to shop online for musical instruments though? Maybe your a parent of a musician and have never played a Gibson or played out of a Mesa Boogie amp.

Well I am a active musician and can say I have probably seen 99% of the music stores online. Many of the sites online are nearly identical, but some do stand out in regards to pricing and brand selection.

Where do you shop online for your music gear?

Disclaimer: The State of Affairs received no compensation for writing this articles and is in no way directly affiliated with Musician’s Friend, American Musical Supply, or Craigslist.

Technorati Tags: musical instrument store, music instrument store, best music store, best musical instrument store, music gear store reviews, instrument retail store, used musical instrument, music, review

The Yes Men Strike again. If you are unfamiliar with the the Yes Men, they are a group of about 300 members who specialize in impersonating large corporations and criminal organizations in hopes of exposing the true nature and crimes committed by these organizations.

This time the Yes Men have impersonated the US Chamber of Commerce. The pretend claim was that the Chamber would be reversing it’s stance against the new climate change bill and would support a carbon tax. Needless to say, the Chamber of Commerce is highly against any regulation of green house gases or any tax associated with pollutants.

The news that the Chamber of Commerce was reversing it’s stance and siding with scientist even made it onto Fox News. This is the video coverage, from DemocracyNow, which shows the Faux News clips and a interview with the impostor.

Multiple members of the US Chamber of Commerce have withdrawn membership based on the fact that the Chamber’s board has decided to not back a climate change bill. This new spoof has put the spotlight on them, but they have yet to back down on their rejection of the bill.

Regardless of your stance on climate change, this at least show how easily major news organizations can be swayed to report false news. Apparently all you need is a suit, tie, and a microphone to make national headlines.

The Yes Men are currently releasing their new movie, The Yes Men Fix the World.

Technorati Tags: yes men, yes men fix the world, democracynow, democracy now, yes men 2009, yes men chamber of commerce, us chamber of commerce, chamber of commerce impersonation, climate change bill

I have been looking at inexpensive camcorders or video cameras for quite some time now. My brothers new baby boy is about to turn one and he needs a decent video camera to capture all of those moments that wont come again. For example, the first walk outside without a stroller or the first hike up a mountain… ok it may be a bit early to conquer a mountain, but a walk outside sounds reasonable.

The problem is up until recently, there has been no real quality camcorders available on the market for under $500 dollars or so. Digital still cameras can be picked up for $100 and will take great 10MP pictures that look stunning and amazing. Digital video cameras are a different story, at least they were, until now.

Introducing the Kodak Zi8 Small HD 1080p Pocket Video Camera

I literally just read every review on the web showcasing the Kodak Zi8 and have found nothing but positive comments and experiences. Here is a short list of what I think makes the Kodak Zi8 stand out against the other under $200 camcorders on the market.

1. True HD 1080p, a lot of cameras are still limited to the acceptable, but not great, 720p resolution.
2. Small pocket hand-held design, while still maintaining a great feature set.
3. Excellent image stabilization (and it actually works!) This eliminates the majority of blur seen in other similar cameras.
4. This one really surprised me, a external microphone input. Everyone knows built in microphones are very sub-par, so if you really want to get serious and capture every detail of the moment, you have the option and power to do so.
5. Uses SD or SDHC cards for storage. Cheap, convenient, and simple.
6. Last, but not least, the video quality is great. I won’t lie and say it’s as good as a $1500 camcorder, but with a price tag of only $180, the quality is far better then similarly priced video cameras.

Recently Cali Lewis, of geekbrief.tv, reviewed the Kodak Zi8 and paired it against two competitor cameras that are in a completely different league. To my surprise though, the Kodak Zi8 was not blasted out of the water and didn’t look like a simple kids toy in comparison. This is a must watch video if you want to see how this camcorder performs in low light as well as under professional studio lights.

What do ya think? Worth $180? I have looked at all of the other cameras in the same price range and can say without a doubt this one takes the cake. The biggest downfall to inexpensive video cameras is the fact that they don’t perform well under low-light conditions. Yeah, I wouldn’t say the Kodak Zi8 is fantastic in low-light conditions, but no camera under $1000 truly is, so unless were willing to shell out the big cash, it’s just something we will have to work around.

Great camera, great features, great price. I’m sold.
Read more about the Kodak Zi8 at Kodak.com

Do you have a Kodak Zi8? How has your experience been in terms of features and quality?

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