Archive for the ‘Online Goodies’ Category
| 6 Mar 2008 |
Coca-Cola happiness factory Commercial |
Back 10 years ago Coca-Cola was a bigger hit than it is today. I remember that i went to a local carnival with my father and sister and how much i enjoyed it especially when dad bought me a bottle of Coca-Cola. It was a uber-powerful brand back then. Being a kid i watched lots of TV and as i recall all Coca-cola commercials were fun and exciting and they got you to watch them to the end. They got that “magical thing” what’s missing from many commercials nowadays.
What i want to talk to you about today is the Happiness factory commercial series made by Coca-Cola.
If i remember correctly the first Happiness Factory commercial was launched in 2006′s winter and it was a 1:31 minute animated commercial showing the road of the coca-cola bottle in an automated drink machine starting from the point when you put in the coin and till you get your bottle of coke. Funny citizens work to get the drink, fill the bottle and deliver it to you.
Here’s the Commercial:
The second commercial is a longer one – it has a lenght 3 minutes and 30 seconds and it was launched in august last year. It is split in parts to reduce the lenght of the commercial(each second of commercial time costs) and at the end of each part is a TO be continued line(good marketing tactics). This will show the worker’s journey to bring the coca-cola making machine back to life. The storyline is great and you can notice that every bit of detail is covered to give the viewer a wider sight and more enjoyment and of course motivation to buy coca-cola and not competing products(pepsi for example)
Check out the Full commercial:
But this is not all! The guys from Coca-Cola also made a fun page for Happiness factory where you can play a game and select the character who’s role you want to play: Worker, Mortar Man, Kissy Puppy, Chinoink or Capper.
Don’t worry if you don’t speak/read english too well, the website is available in many languages to give everyone the possibility to enjoy it.
Before applying for a character’s job you can test them out. Before applying for a job you will need to sign up, but you have to get approved by mrs Karen, the recruiting manager of the happiness factory.
I don’t want to spoil all the fun so i’l let you discover the game’s features and the enjoyment that it provides. 
| 27 Feb 2008 |
Firefox 3 official T-Shirt contest |
The Mozilla Store is having its first-ever t-shirt design contest. Your creation could become the official Firefox 3 shirt.
Contest holder: Mozilla Foundation
Contest webpage: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/tcontest/
Contest Type: Design/Illustration
Deadline: Sunday March 16th 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Prizes: 1st place: Worldwide recognition for designing the official Firefox 3 T-Shirt + a free Firefox 3 T-Shirt + 250$ Amazon.com voucher.
2nd-5th places: A free Firefox 3 T-Shirt + 50$ Amazon.com voucher.
The contest idea is simple: use your creativity and create a firefox 3 T-shirt just like you imagine it. It’s true that those who are Illustrator experts or can draw professionally have higher chances of winning, but who knows?, you might be the winner.
The 1st prize is a huge prize even though it doesn’t involve much money. Just by adding the shirt’s design to your portfolio you can attract lots and lots of customers looking for custom T-shirts. This means that money will roll in by itself. Cool eh?
Before even starting to design the shirt make sure you read the Guidelines. Also check if users from your country are eligible to participate(some countries are restricted)
You have to submit your design for review in the Flickr FF3 design contest group. The top 5 designers will be contacted via flickr to supply the high-resolution SVG file. After that their designs will be posted on the Mozilla Store for voting. The firefox users/fans will choose the winner!
All i can say is good luck and i can’t wait to see the winning design.
| 15 Dec 2007 |
Download youtube videos in mp3/mp4/avi/mov/3gp format |
Vixy.net is a free service that allows you to download youtube videos and download & convert any FLV video.
You are most probably familiar with those websites that allow youtube video downloads, BUT after you downloaded them you need a FLV player or a special program to convert them to the desired video format.
Those sites only convert the youtube URL to the file’s path and give you the download link directly from youtube, meaning you don’t download the file from their server.
Vixy.net is way different, the service pulls the youtube FLV file other desired FLV file and transfers it directly to the server where it is converted to the file format you selected. This isn’t an easy task and eats lots and lots of bandwidth, good thing the service gets donations(if you use the site donate a few bucks for the great service).
About one year ago i accidentally got on the site while i was searching for a program to convert flv files, from that point i started using the service and removed all other “Download youtube videos” type of sites from my bookmarks.
What file formats does it convert the FLV file to?
1) AVI for Windows
Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a standard container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.
The quality and resolution of the file is the same as on youtube.
2) MOV for MAC
The QuickTime (.mov) file format functions as a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text (for subtitles, for example). Each track either contains a digitally-encoded media stream (using a specific codec) or a data reference to the media stream located in another file.
The quality and resolution of the file is the same as on youtube.
3) MP4 for iPOD/PSP
MPEG-4 Part 14, formally ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003, is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital audio and digital video streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images.
Better compression rate, the quality and resolution of the file is the same as on youtube.
4) 3GP for mobile phones
3GP is a simplified version of the MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4) container format, designed to decrease storage and bandwidth requirements in order to accommodate mobile phones.A 3GP file is always big-endian, storing and transferring the most significant bytes first. It also contains descriptions of image sizes and bitrate.
NO comment, i didn’t use this feature.
5) MP3 Format(Audio only)
MP3 is an audio-specific format. It was invented by a team of European engineers at Philips, CCETT, IRT and Fraunhofer Society, who worked in the framework of the EUREKA 147 DAB digital radio research program, and it became an ISO/IEC standard in 1991. The compression works by removing certain parts of sound that are deemed beyond the auditory resolution ability of most people.
Now this is the coolest part of the service, dayly i see numerous comments on youtube videos: “what’s the song’s name? where can i get it?”
If you use Vixy.net then you will never have to ask this question! just select the mp3conversion feature and download the file.
The big disadvantage is that the mp3 is in MONO version, you can use various freeware programs to convert it to stereo.
Conclusion: Vixy.net is the ultimate online resource for FLV file conversion and download, the whole system is automated and one click away from you. Why use 2-3 programs to replay and convert FLV videos when you can enjoy this great service?
