The CEO Game

Can’t get enough of the Vuvuzela? now you can catch it at YouTube.

As if we haven’t been hearing the buzzing- whining – beehive like sound of the Vuvuzelas enough these last couple of weeks, YouTube has “generously” decided to indulge us with a special Vuvuzela button. Sometime last Wednesday, the world’s largest video portal activated a new button on some videos, that looks like a tiny soccer ball. The football shaped button resides in the lower right corner and does precisely what we all fear: clicking it will activate an endless, incredibly annoying sound that sounds vaguely like a swarm of insects- also known as the sound of the dreadful Vuvuzela.

If you haven’t been following the World Cup (seriously?) and you are not familiar with the Vuvuzela, it’s a plastic horn that is commonly played at football games in South Africa. There, they apparently love it and being the host county for this World Cup, fans following the games have been subjected to the Vuvuzela’s loud monotone for hours on end. The noise is so annoying that some television networks have taken measure to get rid of it by filter it out and guides have been popping out all over the web, showing how to block the Vuvuzelas from their TV sets and computers.

Special Vuvuzela Button

Be that as it may, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has decided not to ban the Vuvuzelas, due to its traditional significance. Well, guess you can’t argue with that. It seems the button doesn’t show up on all videos, but it is definitely appearing on some clips that are not exactly soccer or World Cup related. Here is one video of our very own CEO Game teaser who had the misfortune. Being the prankster that YouTube like to be, this isn’t surprising at all, yet we wish this little prank would be short lived… Finally, maybe next time when FIFA picks a location for the games, they will do some actual background research.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Vuvuzela whine ruining your World Cup? Get rid of it!

There comes a time, once in four years, when the entire world unites- regardless of any disputes or politics- around the game of soccer for one major event of pure entertainment and sportsmanship, which goes by the name of the “World Cup”. However, this time everyone from home viewers to fans who have followed their teams to South Africa and even many of the football players themselves are united around an entirely different thing- their hatred for the beehive like buzzing sound of the Vuvuzelas. A sound so annoying, that long after the game has ended, it continues to echo in our ears, but all hope is not lost for “serenity now!”: here are some tips and ideas how to achieve your desired inner peace and tranquility.

The Vuvuzela

The plastic stadium horn, which is blown constantly by World Cup (over) enthusiastic fans in order to celebrate such glorious moments in a game as- well, every single moment apparently- has achieved unprecedented fame and rancor this games. It is said that the noise is so loud that the players can’t even communicate with each other on the field. Yet, while there has been some talk of banning the evil instruments from the stadiums altogether, that brilliant idea was rejected. So now it’s all up to us to stop it and with a little bit of work and information online we can get rid of the buzz, leaving the games blissfully vuvuzela-free.

A German hacker named Tube details on his blog- Surfpoeten, how he banished the Vuvuzela from his World Cup audio by selectively muting four frequencies on his equalizer. The bad news is the instructions are in German. The good news is someone has already translated it for us and it is very easy to google it up. Basically what he does is not that difficult: he runs the audio from his TV through a Mac (can be done on any computer actually) with logic express (sound software). Then a series of bandpass equalizer filters in the software neatly excise the offensive frequencies: 233, 466, 932 and 1864 Hz.

On the other side, Windows users can use a program named REAPER in order to block out the sound. The installation process is very easy but to save you plenty of time, download the “reaper-anti-vuvuzela.RPP” file from http://martin.bz and run it. Note that you can change the volume in the program if the output is too loud and causes some noise problems of its own, and you might have to mute the “Line In” in volume control if you get echoed output, depending on how you set up your audio.

Actually, you don’t need a PC at all. If you have got a stereo with an equalizer or even a TV set with a built in equalizer, you can adjust your hardware settings to significantly filter out the noise. For example, the Book of Joe blog details the process on a Samsung TV. Lifehacker, another famous site which also deals with the Vuvuzela menace suggests to “duck your EQ at 465Hz and 235Hz, you can in fact filter out the buzz with great results. Ideally you’ll reduce each frequency by at least 40dB (which got rid of the drone completely for us), but if your equipment can’t quite duck that low, just go as low as you can”.
As you can see, it’s not all that difficult to silence the Vuvuzela once and for all. All you need it to hook up your gear with an equalizer- again 233, 466, 932 and 1864 Hz (or as close to those numbers as you can get). Please tell us if you have came across other methods which worked out for you and by the way we suggest you hurry up, the sooner the better, so you can really enjoy your favorite playing starting of this weekend.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan, warned yesterday that his country might be facing debt crisis just like Greece, if Japan won’t urgently manage it’s ever growing debt. Kan, in his first address since entering the prime minister role this last Tuesday, said that Japan can’t afford letting its national debt grow.

Japan - Next To Fall?

Kan, the sixth prime minister in the last 4 years, had promised that the government together with the Japan’s national bank, will work together to prevent such crisis. Kan said that the government is aiming to focus on developing an extensive but stable financial policy . He also added that the government will consider tax raising, a step which according to him, previous governments were afraid of performing.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.