Always impresses me that this is free: DaVinci Resolve is pro-grade video editing software you can download and use for free. There are tons of training videos here if you want to learn new tricks.
The TikTok ban and your videos
If Communist China-owned TikTok is banned on the 19th, that doesn’t mean it’s game over for you.
“Rage-baiting”: It’s what Winta Zesu does when she posts videos of her life as a NY model whose biggest problem is being “too pretty.” Is she a narcissist? Nope. People get angry and post hateful comments. Joke’s on them. More engagement translates to money and sponsorships for her.
🚨 Deepfakes going to a new level: TikTok owner ByteDance built an AI tool that makes realistic videos of people talking and singing from a single photo. OmniHuman can take an image (half-body or full-body) and bring it to life. Check out this example of Albert Einstein. Snazzy but scary in the wrong hands. And let’s not forget this is Chinese-owned. I wouldn’t hand over any personal pics.
📀 Free tool: HandBrake is open-source software that converts videos from one format into nearly any other. It’s an easy way to turn DVDs and Blu-Ray discs into digital video files, like an MP4. Then, you can create a free, private YouTube channel and upload your videos to share your home movies. Sweet.
🎓 Fake it till you make it: On TikTok, people of all ages are pretending they got into Harvard. The viral videos are funny, but it’s no joke that lawsuits have exposed donors and alumni kids getting special treatment. Speaking of … A Texan went to an Ivy League party on the East Coast. He walks up to a group of young women and asks, “Howdy, which school did y’all go to?” One of the women replied, “Yale.” The Texan asked again loudly, “WHICH SCHOOL DID Y’ALL GO TO?” (I saw you smile!)
Stop, thief! If you make YouTube videos, check out Meta’s Video Seal tool. It puts an invisible watermark on your videos. Even if someone edits your video, it’ll still show up so you can prove it’s yours. It’s in demo mode, and you can add a message containing up to six characters.
TikTok is addictive for a reason: It’s the algorithm, but the format helps, too. If you want something a little smarter than mindrot videos, try WikiTok. It’s a visual way to browse random articles. Hey, that’s how I just learned there’s an Amsterdam, New Jersey.
🚨 DeepSeek gets all your deep secrets: I said this when DeepSeek first came out, but maybe you weren’t paying close attention. If you use DeepSeek AI, your login information to various sites, documents, pics, searches, videos and more goes straight to China. They’re not even trying to hide it. PSA: Only use DeepSeek the secure way if you have to at all. Steps here on my site.
36%
More videos posted to LinkedIn than this time last year. Vertical-view videos (think TikTok or Instagram Reels) are so popular, you can now view them on desktop and not just mobile. My advice: Go short and sweet, nothing too scripted. Hiring? Post a job free with my link!
👎 IG snitch: Instagram now shows your friends all the videos you’ve liked. When scrolling through the Reels tab, you’ll notice small bubbles with your friends’ profile pictures and a little heart overlay in the bottom left corner. I’ll keep you posted if they add an option to turn it off.
Show me your digits: Engineer Zara Dar fired up an OnlyFans account while she was pursuing a Ph.D. and made $1 million. Now, she’s teaching folks about complex topics like neural networks, probability and integrals full-time online. One of her AI explainer videos has a million views on YouTube. No joke, she posts the same PG videos to Pornhub and makes almost three times the money.
😡 Throw away the key: This is awful. A woman is in jail for poisoning a one-year-old with old medicine the baby didn’t need and posting social media videos about how much pain the baby was in. She raked in over $37,000 in donations before she was arrested and charged with torture and child exploitation. Police didn’t say if she’s the kid’s mom, but, either way, the little one is safe now.
💔 A woman sent $850,000 to “Brad Pitt”: A scammer posing as the actor hit her up on social media with love poems and selfies. Later, after she spilled about a hefty divorce settlement, the fake Brad said he needed money for cancer treatments and couldn’t access his cash because of his divorce from Angelina Jolie. This jerk even cooked up phony hospital photos and videos with AI. The woman knew it was fake when she saw pics of the real Brad happy and healthy with his new girlfriend.
🤢 This is gross: Creepy AI apps are allowing folks to create videos of real people making out without their consent, like this one, which uses a picture of a young girl and her older male crush. These videos can be generated in seconds. The worst part? Most of these apps are listed as safe for teens in the app stores. YouCam, Fotorama and Mova AI are just a few examples.
Fear of the unknown: On a Mac, preview files instantly with Quick Look. Just select a file and hit your spacebar. This works for docs, images, videos — whatever. Windows pals, there’s a QuickLook app in the Microsoft Store so you can do the same. Nice.
🎮 Doesn’t he have enough to do? My son, Ian, showed me videos of Elon Musk playing video games online, and I found it hard to believe. As it turns out, Musk is one of the world’s top 20 players in Diablo IV … maybe. He bragged about clearing a tough level in under two minutes, a feat that takes days. Musk says he multitasks on business calls, but other players say there’s no way he climbed the leaderboard as fast as he did unless he’s playing day and night.