Daily Bits

If Only All Beer Commercials Were This Good

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Remember the TV commercial I shared late last year? It was Bahrain Telecommunications Company’s ad, which I think is one of the best commercials I have ever seen. Well, here is another commercial that caught my fancy. It is not a new one – it was created sometime last year – but the graphics and the blending of the images and sound just come together perfectly. Of course, the two dragons breathing fire kind of made everything perfect for me!

This commercial is for Sapporo beer, arguably the most popular beer in Japan. I think this ad was made to promote the beer in Canada, which is also now being brewed in Ontario. I think the ad makes excellent use of real people and CG to create a great a collage of the process of brewing Sapporo beer whilst sharing distinctive elements of the Japanese culture. I’ll speak no more about it – watch in amazement yourself!

Are You a File Sharer? Hand Over $1000!

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file-sharing
Some people just do not think – or they are too easily intimidated. Now, don’t get me wrong – I am not advocating illegal downloading or file sharing, but this piece of news that I just read boggles the mind!

So what happened? Movie studio Liberty Media decided to issue a statement that they are going to sue people who have illegally download files that belong to them. Take note – they have not taken any action towards filing a lawsuit. They only announced their intention of doing so. They went one step further, though, and boldly stated that if people who have been involved in downloading content that belong to the movie studio want to avoid being sued, they should just turn themselves in and pay $1000.

Say what? Yes, you read that right. But it does not end there! In response to the announcement, people actually turned themselves in!!! Ten people have come clean and coughed up $1000 to avoid the potential lawsuit.

If you are shaking your head in disbelief, there is more that might just make your eyeballs pop out of their sockets. Liberty Media, apparently encouraged by the $10,000 that easily came in, courtesy of the announcement, has issued another statement. This time, they say that they are already preparing lawsuits against 36,000 BitTorrent users. Of course, it cannot be said that the movie studio is a heartless b#st#rd – there will be another amnesty program that will prevent users from being sued – to the tune of $1,900.

Is it just me or is there an emerging pattern here?

Source: Torrent Freak
Photo via Sure Articles

Wi-Fi Speeds to Possibly Double

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free_wifi_spot
Can you imagine life without Wi-Fi? I am pretty sure that for many of us, life was just fine without wireless connection as recent as five years ago. With the sudden deluge of Wi-Fi compatible devices, though, life without Wi-Fi (the Internet) could very well be unimaginable for a lot of people today.

Think about it – when you go to a restaurant or a coffee shop, what is one of the first things you consider? When you book a hotel for a vacation, what is on the top of your list? I am willing to bet that Wi-Fi somewhere in there.

So technology has given us so much convenience, but we could all use faster Wi-Fi, right? If the guys at Stanford are successful, we just might enjoy Wi-Fi at double the speed. They have developed a technology that will allow the use of a single Wi-Fi channel to receive and transmit signals simultaneously. The technology is called antenna cancellation, and basically, it deals with the self-interference that occurs when transmitting and receiving on a single channel. The result? Possibly full duplex communication.

The implications of this technology are huge, especially for wireless providers. Even better, the technology is not limited to Wi-Fi – all radio communications can benefit from it.

At the moment, the technology still needs some work, especially with regard to making it commercially viable. The researchers mention the need for antenna separation, but also say that there is no theoretical limit as to the applications of the technology.

As for us consumers, we just need to wait till they get it out in the market, and we just might enjoy much faster wireless connections in the near future.

Via NewsFactor

OAT Shoes: Biodegradable Sneakers

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What do you do with your old sneakers? I honestly do not know what happens to mine after I either throw them away or give them way. If we are serious about wanting to make our own contributions to helping the environment, here is a great – although a bit silly – idea that we may want to consider.

At the Amsterdam International Fashion Week’s Green Fashion Competition, a new line of shoes won second place this year. Dubbed OAT shoes, the sneakers can actually be planted when you’re tired of them – or when they give out, for that matter. It can be argued that ANY pair of sneakers can be planted in the ground, but the OAT shoes are the first kind that “sprout”. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I read “sprout”, I think leaves and stems coming out of the ground. How exactly the shoes do that – I have no idea. The concept is pretty cool, though.

Here’s the whole idea in a nutshell. I don’t know about you, but I doubt that any sneakers that I have used will look this fresh, though.
OAT shoes sprout
Here are two variations of the OAT shoes.
OAT shoes green
OAT shoes yellow
Now I know I said that the shoes are cool, but there is no denying that the choice of model is anything but, is there? This is how they demoed the shoes.
OAT shoes hot
These shoes will be available this spring in stores in The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as online for those who are located elsewhere.

The Human Body as a Machine

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It’s that time of the year when people make the extra effort to look good, feel good, and do something good for the special person in their lives. More likely than not, people also give extra attention to that thing we call the human body. Take that however way you wish, but here is something that got my attention just a few minutes ago.

It’s a video that has been around for some time now, but I certainly had not seen it before today. Created by Dr. Fritz Kahn, the video depicts the human body in a totally mechanical sort of way. Think about it this way – if the body were made of machines and functioned the way it does in reality, then this is how our insides would look like.

I think that the illustration and the movements of the elements are totally ace, although I would have loved to see the details more clearly. Now this would probably be much much better if displayed in high resolution on a giant screen! I also think it’s cool how the food looks like in the stomach – quite an accurate depiction, don’t you think?

The video may not be the most romantic thing that you can watch on Valentine’s Day, but it sure will present you and your partner a pretty good (short) bonding (educational) activity. (And, yes, I know. It is kinda weird.)

Phantom of the Floppera: Awesome Video to Kick Off the Weekend

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Do the measurements 3.5 inches and 5 1/4 inches mean anything to you? If you are around my age, surely you will have no problems associating those figures with what used to be the standard way of storing data for portability. The good old floppy disks.

Kids of today will probably only scoff at the form and size – both physically and storage capacity – of floppy disks but it used to be that the more floppy disks you had on you, the cooler it was. Now, floppy disks don’t have much use except for decorative purposes – and only if you’re geeky enough.

Either that or you can make a video like this guy did, and post it on YouTube. For sure, you will get some attention – at least from the people who can relate to using these used to be nifty devices. I don’t know about you, but if I had the equipment and the time, I would not mind playing around like this guy did and creating my own masterpiece…err, I am sure you will agree with my use of that term after watching the video.

Now don’t tell me that didn’t make you grin – at the very least – and that the video didn’t take you down memory lane, when you might have looked like this.
young bill gates
Or like this.

Photos via Online Business Schools and Nav Tones