‘Gangnam Style’ expands YouTube’s view limits

K-pop singer Psy’s megahit “Gangnam Style” has drawn unexpectedly high view counts on YouTube, so much so that Google had to reform the system to expand the maximum limit.

The music video surpassed 2.26 billion views as of Wednesday, which exceeds the online video provider’s view counter.

YouTube-owned Google had upgraded its software in advance of reaching the full counter to utilize 64-bit integer that allows more than 922 quintillion views, up from a 32-bit integer of about 21 billion clicks. Google said that previously no video posted on YouTube ever reached more views than the 32-bit integer can hold.

Psy’s megahit was first released on July 15, 2012 and became YouTube’s most-watched video, with more than 800 million views in just five months. The video surpassed 2 billion view counts as of May 2014, but it continued to be watched with ever-increasing views.

According to Tech Times, the software engineers of YouTube anticipated the problem a few months ago and were able to update to the 64-bit view counter for the entire website before the music video reached the limit.

Yang In-mo wins Paganini violin competition

Korean violinist Yang In-mo, 19, won the 54th Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, according to the Kumho Cultural Foundation Tuesday.

Yang is the first Korean to win the prize named after the violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840). The competition was founded in 1954. Yang will receive a cash prize of 20,000 euro ($21,661) and performance opportunities on European stages.

The final round of the competition was held at the Teatro Carlo Felice, an opera house located in Genoa, Italy on March 7 and 8. Yang was followed by Fumika Mohri from Japan and Albrecht Menzel from Germany.

Born in 1995, Yang is studying for a Bachelor of Music at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He is a student of Romanian-born Israeli violinist Miriam Fried.