Daily Bits

videos

All Along the Watchtower Jazz Cover

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Time for a dose of Battlestar Galactica – well, sort of. We may not watch the entire BSG series every year, but enthusiasts will definitely get their hands on anything related to BSG on a regular basis. This month, what I stumbled upon is a jazzy rendition of Bear McCreary’s All Along the Watchtower.

I do not know a single person who has watched BSG who was not affected by that haunting piece by McCreary, and to be honest, I think that it’s still the best version. The Sac State Jazz Singers did a pretty good job, though, especially given the fact that there were no instruments involved. Oh, and they got a comment from McCreary himself!

Wow, guys… this is seriously awesome. Someone sent this link along, and I’m pretty much stunned listening to this. What a killer arrangement! I think I might like it better than mine. 🙂 Keep up the good work. So say we all…

-Bear
bearmccreary

That’s the best praise these guys can get. Without further ado, here is the video. Enjoy those BSG scenes in your head as you listen!

Back to the Future in Real Life?

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How many people have dreamt about being Marty McFly and traveling across time? If you’re one of them, then you might be interested to know about the GigaPan Time Machine. ((GigaPan Time Machine)) Created by some guys from Carnegie Mellon University, the GigaPan Time Machine might not exactly be like the DeLorean, but it does make time traveling somewhat of a reality for you and me.

It is actually a computer system that allows users to view certain locations via videos or images. These images and videos are rendered in gigapixel-scale (hence the name?). The cool thing is that you can explore the images/videos by moving back (or forward) in time. At the same time, you can also zoom in and out.

To make that clearer, let’s say you are looking at a field of tulips somewhere in The Netherlands. You can choose to zoom in to have a clearer view of the beautiful flowers. More so, you can go back in time and watch the flowers start to form as buds and then slowly come into full bloom.

Interested in knowing how the system was created? Believe it or not, it has been made possible by HTML5! Based on HTML5, the researchers were able to develop “algorithms and software architecture that make it possible to shift seamlessly from one video portion to another as viewers zoom in and out of Time Machine imagery.”

I guess words can’t really explain how much fun this thing can be, so here’s a video to show you.

Not exactly as glamorous as speeding up a clunky old car and not exactly Back to the Future, but it’s still something!

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

What the Heck Happened to Optimus Prime?

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I Am Optimus Prime
I seem to be running across a lot of videos these days. The first week of the month is barely over, and I have spent more time watching all sorts of videos than I have in months. Perhaps the Year of the Rabbit is bringing out the creativity in more people, but whatever the reason, I wish that this particular video portrayed Optimus Prime in a better light.

Everyone’s favorite Autobot – well maybe not everyone – just got downgraded to a dancing guy clothed in tons of padding. Don’t get me wrong. I am pretty sure that a lot of people will disagree with me – the “Likes” and comments on Facebook and YouTube will attest to that – but I just don’t get it! Before I watched the video, I had a totally open mind. A parody of “The Time” by The Black Eyed Peas – how can you go wrong?

See what I mean? Optimus Prime is too dignified a character to be portrayed like that, isn’t he? Or am I being stuck up? Then there is the girl. The girl. She is hot – no one can deny that, but sorry, I still don’t get it. Am I missing something here?

There is something good to be said about the video, though: the lyrics are funny. I think the last stanza is my “favorite”:

Well, I came here on The Ark
Looking for the All Spark
You can’t stop a Transformer
Just by putting it in Park
I’m fighting Megatron
With Megan Fox (not anymore)
Robot in disguise
More than meets the eye

If, unlike me, you found the video cool, you can see more from Angie and Chad – no offense guys, just airing out my thoughts – in their Facebook page.

When Rubik’s Cube and The Joker Collide

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Rubiks JokerRubik’s Cube is always a hit with nerds, geeks, or whatever label you want to use. Admit it, as a kid, you probably spent a considerable amount of time trying to one-up your friend in solving this puzzle. Decades later, Rubik’s Cube still holds irresistible attraction for kids of all ages. Of course, with the changing times, we also see all sorts of new things that people do with Rubik’s Cube.

Here’s a perfect example of what one can do with hundreds of Cubes. Sometime last year, artist David Alvarez decided to come up with a mosaic portrait of The Joker – the Heath Ledger version, of course. He used about 300 Rubik’s Cubes to create a pretty good representation of arguably the best Joker ever. Lest you think that it is a simple matter to put those multi-colored cubes together, I ought to tell you that Alvarez had to give his brain a little work out. Before putting the Cubes together, he first had to twist them into the appropriate color patterns.

Since I have never tried to create artwork with Rubik’s Cubes, I really don’t know difficult that is. I do think, however, that it might be a viable alternative to having to solve one of those darned puzzles. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

Here’s another video of the same artist creating another mosaic. This is an older video, actually, and he uses dice to “draw” Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. How cool is that?