Web Video Comedy
As it has become virtually costless to become a web video publisher, we’re seeing more and more really funny noncommercial content. To make a funny web video, you don’t really need anything, other than to be funny. Special effects and paid actors are not really essential and perhaps detrimental.
After much urging by Steve, I have finally become a devotee of The Show with Ze Frank. See this wikipedia entry for background. I suspect if The Daily Show had been born a few years later, it might have taken the no-budget format that Ze Frank uses. (The fact that the show is the top result in a Google search for the show (no quotes) must be some proof of its worth.) I was going to recommend a particularly good episode, but they’re all great.
Also via Steve, this excellent piece about OS X and Linux security (slightly not work-safe). Lest you think I’m unduly influenced by Steve’s recommendations, I should point out that Steve has finally gotten around to taking some of my suggestions.
(As a follow-up, I’ve been meaning to assemble my numerous tips in assembling/publishing video from linux, but the list keeps growing. Unfortuantely, it’s not trivial, but once you’ve figured out all the arcane pieces it’s possible to have a pretty efficient video production workflow. I’ll get around to documenting it eventually.)