YouTube restricts some videos unless you are not signed in and verify you are over 18. I don’t have a YouTube account and don’t want to get one but I do want to watch the video. Also I was in the Middle-East and I couldn’t watch a few music video’s on YouTube as it was censored. So I had to find a way around it. Here is a quick tip which will enable you to play restricted videos where ever censorship is prevalent. I am taking YouTube for this example but you can do the same for other video sharing sites like Google video, Soapbox etc. This info is for educational purposes only and I am not advocating you break any local rules. Please use your common sense for I am not to be blamed for any of your actions that may get you into legal troubles.

• Go to www.youtube.com (or any other video sharing site)
• Search for a video that you want to play

I searched for ‘Call on me’ a song by Eric Prydz on YouTube and I got a few results. I think the top result is fine and I click on it. But I get a message that this song cannot be played as it is restricted due to local rules or company restrictions.

• Right click the link on the song listed in the search and copy the link location. It will be ‘Copy shortcut’ on Internet explorer. I got: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUsJYKdYGmw .
• Modify this link by removing the watch?v= attribute and replacing it with /v/.
• I got: http://www.youtube.com/v/dUsJYKdYGmw . Use this link for later use.
• Then search for a song that you think will be allowed to play and open it. You will be given an embed code. Copy this code.

I got something like…

• Replace the Http:// codes in the code above with the link you saved earlier and use the modified code in a Video gadget or embed it in your blog entry to view your restricted video on your space.

• You can also save a notepad file as a .htm file and save it as all files(see picture below) When you open the html/internet/firefox file and you will see your video and can play it.

For future use the code below and replace the part in bold with a modified youtube video link.

<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/modifiedYoutubeLINK width=425 height=350 type=application/x-shockwave-flash wmode=”opaque”></EMBED>

You can now watch restricted videos without signing in or in China, Middle-east, and in the future probably in the USA with the way things are going

Done!

In an effort to try and find some more information on Windows Live Events and Calendar, I looked through the Spaces help file, to see if that’s been updated with the information soon to hit the press… when I found this.

I personally think it’s a typo, and that Windows Update will not become Windows Live Update. I ran this by one of the guys at LiveSide to see what they thought - they thought pretty much the same as me. Could be something, most likely not. For a start, Windows Update is a computer based service, although runs as an online service. Now that Windows Vista has been released, the website version of Windows Update has now been ported to a Control Panel application, so it’s very doubtful that this is anything in-particular.

But just thought I’d bring it to light anyway

Brandon: Good point! In fact, if I was reading this, I couldn’t have put it better. Thanks for noting this, we’ll adjust accordingly and definately in future. We here at liveandbeyond.com listen and take heed to the blogosphere  

See this? This is the new Windows Live Home (http://home.live.com). For a while now it’s had the basic services, but now it seems to be adding icons for the Windows Live Calendar and Windows Live Events services, which are due to be launched almost imminently. 

With a bit of trickery, you can now access some parts of the new Windows Live services (Events and Calendar) from the main http://home.live.com address. Here’s how:

Make sure you are logged out from Windows Live ID. On the middle-right, you’ll see links to the different services. There’s a jump in the URL format, so obviously replace some numbers in the URL:

It’ll then ask you to sign in, and take you to an Access Denied page on Spaces, thus confirming that Windows Live Events is a Windows Live Spaces application.

Here’s the message you’ll most likely receive:

LiveSide will probably report on this soon - we’ll try and let you know what’s happening as soon as we get it.

I have seen so many crap YouTube video’s reaching the front-page which advertise stupid websites in the video. It doesn’t look like Google is going to fix the problem so lets exploit it and then maybe they will fix it.

First,

Download ClickWhen from Lifehacker

Then, upload your video to YouTube and go to the video page.

For e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbmIYBmYF3o

Now install and run the ClickWhen software.

Although I’d love to take credit for writing about SkyDrive… I’ll let Chris take it. Go check out Windows Live SkyDrive over at LiveSide.

Check out Windows Live SkyDrive
Read SkyDrive blog
LiveSide’s post

Note: Yes we’ve been away - we’ve either been very (extremely) busy and/or been on holiday. Sorry about the gaps, but it’s hard juggling a full working life and maintaining this and every other bloody blog in the Universe.

OK so this week has seen the release to a small group of testers (including myself, HA!) of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 beta. It’s around 550MB in size and seems to be only available for the x86 processor (at the moment…). Indeed, the build string as pointed out on a number of websites is 6001.16549(longhorn_sp1beta1.070628-1825). There are two kinds of testers - random ones selected from the Windows Vista beta of which have filed an extraordinary amount of bugs during the beta, and a number of participants from the Visual Studio 2008 beta so that certain things can be tested, of which Vista SP1 being a prerequisite.

Also around the same time, Windows XP Service Pack 3 being around 330MB in size, of which we don’t have access to I’m saddened to say, fixes around 900 bugs and problems with the existing Service Pack 2. The build string is 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058) - according to Bink, people seem to think that the timing of these two beta’s being released, is that the final versions of the products will be released simultaneously.

From working at Microsoft myself - I can tell you, this is unlikely, as target dates are very rarely met.

Some sources: Bink.nu

Found this in the “Lost” section of the London’s “Evening Standard” newspaper. Congratulations Paul Price from Nottingham (by the way, he’s 19… bless!)

Well, being the good folk that we are… we’re prepared to tell you. However, if you don’t want to know… then just don’t do the following. RSS readers, you might see the text below - sorry in advance.

Just highlight the text from the end of this sentance to the bottom of the post and you’ll see the main pointers!

• Bellatrix Lestrange kills Ron as he tries to kill her, but Ron has weakened her enough that Neville can kill her.
• Snape and Dumbledore were in a plan together to kill Voldermort. The plan involved Dumbledore’s death.
• However, Snape was in it for his own gain, so Snape gets killed by Voldermort.
• In the end, Harry and Hermione live.. and Ron obviously dies.
• 8 years later we find out that Harry and Ginny are sleeping together, and have kids.
• 19 years later their kids are worried about which class they get into (in this case, they want to avoid Slytherin).
• Hermione’s love life in the end is unknown - she’s a useless healer person
• Harry is basically a freelance auror because he doesn’t want to work for the Ministry of Magic.

These came from Bryant at AeroXP via me on Windows Live Messenger- any inaccuracies, blame him, not us! Enjoy!

Channel 8 is the next best thing to come from Microsoft Communities, designed for students, by students, and for students. It’s hosted on the MSDN website so it’s for students developing and getting their hands knee deep in code and suchlike.

It’s been in the works for some time now but it’s almost ready to kick off. Charles who runs Channel 9 says, “The most important aspect of Channel 8 is the Student, not programming languages. We want to provide a place for technical students to call their home on the web; a place to meet and share ideas with fellow thinkers, and this means Channel 8 will be and provide, in time, many things that matter to students”.

See the splash scren - http://channel8.msdn.com.