606 Takes To film Rube Goldberg-like car ad

wagdog writes "Many have no doubt seen the Rube Goldberg-like multistep mechanical chain reaction TV advert for the Honda Accord. Many thought this was yet another example of the pervasive use of computer graphics in TV commercials. Amazingly the entire delicate set up of car parts that constitute the facinating sequence is almost 100% realtime live action requiring an astounding 606 takes to get right . There is one cheat however -- can you spot it?"

Comments

The expected result...

[Xaroth]

From 606 to 404 in under 6 seconds.

Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Anonymous Coward]

It has a 3.0L V6 with 240hp and 212lb torque.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[ackthpt]

It has a 3.0L V6 with 240hp and 212lb torque.

Man, how things have changed. I can still remember when Cadillacs had a 500 cu. in. (over 8L) displacement engine with enough weight and torque to affect the earths spin if you stomped on the gas. Then again, recalling the old ways of the Detroit assemply lines which built these things, Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[milkmandan9]

Hmm. I thought the real Cadillac of autos was the ... err ... what's it called? Cadisomething.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Ponty]

My great aunt has a 1972 black El Dorado convertible. Boy do I love driving that thing down the highway. It stretches as far as the eye can see to the front and the back, and the suspension is so smooth, you can't tell that you're on a road at all. The best part is that it takes up the _entire_ lane. What a car.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[mark2003]

Hang on a minute - Honda make decent cars. Are you suggesting they make low-tech and vast old bangers?

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Alan Partridge]

"the suspension is so smooth, you can't tell that you're on a road at all"

I take it you're an AMERICAN "driver" and the above statement qualifies as a GOOD THING?

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Ponty]

It qualifies as a good thing when I'm in a five ton black car with a white leather interior with my elbow out the window, cruising around like Hunter S. Thompson in Las Vegas.

In my daily driving, the situation would be untenable.

The joy of lolling down the highway in an enormous car seems to be a fairly American indulgence. And it's one which I'm not ashamed to indulge once in a while. :-) The rest of the family doesn't always get it (they're English), but they, too, can enjoy it if the circumstances are right.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

Cadillac does have an engine out now - just a prototype (but fully working under high loads) that produces 1000hp and torque - it is an aluminum block V16 that is less heavy that two of their large V8s together.

Honda's torque band is pathetic on their engines - in order to get anything usable you have to rev entirely too high - even for around town driving.

I suppose it is all a matter of preference.

I don't really want either the honda nor the caddy.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Anonymous Coward]

Not true, it's variable valve timing makes that torque available to the low end.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

ooo - so I get a whopping 190 out of a frickin 3.0L V6? that is pathetic - there are 4cyl engines out there that make that and they weigh less too.
So you get low torque over what they call a flat band, out of a weak engine.
So like I said - in order to get enough torque for a heavy car, you then need to rev it high to get to the top of their flat band.

Then again, the people that seek out the Honda Accord aren't exactly the people that seek out the 100HP and 100+lb-ft torque per L of an engine.

It just amuses me that the price of the Accord is creeping up to that of cars that are much better.

to each their own.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me an example of a 3.0L NA engine that has a better hp/torque ratio than the Accord for the price of an Accord ($ 24k).

Or are you one of those people who cried when GM canceled the Camaro/Firebird ... those cars are pathetic.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[ianjk]

my '88 Accord is more like a sheet metal covered go-cart. Take a ride in a 2003 STS and tell me there is even a slight resemblance between it and a newer Accord... Accord is more like the Taurus of asian autos (imo).

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[ReidMaynard]

My aunt has a yellow 1971, it was great to borrow until the power seat got stuck *all the way forward* :-(

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[malfunct]

Its preferable to having your teeth rattled out on some of the poorly kept highways we have. I'm all for tight sporty suspension and handling but sometimes its nice to feel like you are floating on air. There is just something about heavy cars with silky suspension and high profile inflatable tires that makes driving feel like you are sitting on your couch at home. You can't find that in the smaller, lighter, more sporty cars.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[ianjk]

Give me an example of a 3.0L NA engine that has a better hp/torque ratio than the Accord for the price of an Accord ($ 24k).

Or are you one of those people who cried when GM canceled the Camaro/Firebird ... those cars are pathetic.

I donno, but I can get a old mustang for about $2000 and build a 400+ hp n/a engine for about $1000. I bet it would beat any stock Accord for about $21,000 less. (misses days of wasting Hondas with the 400+ hp '67 mustang)

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[bellings]

Depends a lot on what you mean by "beating" a Honda.

The $2,000 beat-to-shit 20 year old car with $1,000 worth of el-cheap-o engine mods would certainly have better 1/4 mile times than a brand new stock Honda.

Of course, for $800 I could buy an old and tired 1100 cc suzuki motorcycle that would beat your $3,000 old and tired mustang in the 1/4.

What's the point of this? To discover who can buy the fastest shit-heap for the least money?

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[jsin]

Are you retarded? The original post said 240HP, not 190... ...anyway, I don't think most (intellegent) people buy an Accord for bench-racing.

If you want to go fast in a straight line cheaply, buy anything with a Chevy 350 and build it up; if you want to go REALLY fast, stop pussing around with cars and buy a motorcycle. ...what a fun way to burn Karma!

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

whether I'm retarded or not is still up in the air - I personally would vote yes - but there are those that argue against it... mostly my mom.

but that is entirely outside the realm of this discussion. what is inside this discussion is the fact that we were discussing *torque* which is, in this case, a very different thing. the 190 that I pointed out would be the torque that it would have at regular speeds around town and not at annoying RPMs - which was my point, it is an annoying car to drive.
Horespower means nothing unless you compare it to the torque, the size of the wheels, and the weight of the car.

I have no interest in the "bench racing" - I was responding to a post in which someone was saying how great an Accord was and listed its specs as "proof" and I was pointing out that the specs were in fact, crap.

If you REALLY want to argue about who's penis is smaller - I assure you I will win - no contest.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[ianjk]

more like a 35 year old car, fixed up, with A LOT of work building the engine (not el-cheapo, we used to spend all our free time in the garage). yeah... apples & oranges. Just brought back some memories of highschool and racing/wasting tricked out Hondas. I am an accord owner, I drive it because it is cheaper commuting than a big 10 mpg V8 right now. :)

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

lol - I don't think I've ever cried about anything car related. esp not American cars coming and going. While I have no opinion one way or the other about those cars, I would argue that I have seen many drivers of said cars that would be better described as pathetic. but hey, takes all kinds.

you are right - the better engines cost more - which isn't entirely outside of my point that apparently is lost in all of this.
the accord is cheap, and drives that way.

and yes, I have driven one - my 50 year old mother has one and loves it. but she also doesn't go around bragging about its horespower and torque ratings... (I guarentee she has no clue what they even mean).
If someone says that they love Hondas because they get good gas mileage, then fantastic - but if you start throwing around stats on any Honda, then it stands to point out the futility of it to that person.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[chrisbro]

Will be modded offtopic, but it's a worthy sacrifice.

I have a '94 Accord with 203,000 miles on it, and the only damned thing wrong with it is the power antenna got stuck in the "up" position because my brother kept yanking on it. No mechanical problems whatsoever other than regular maintenance-related issues. Wonderful, wonderful car, and please don't compare it to an American automaker that couldn't make something that ran well over 100,000 miles if their industry depended on it (which it doesn't because people think a new car every 5 years is somehow necessary).

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Anonymous Coward]

Vtech...

One thing I have definately noticed about the Honda or small import car racers, they always add something to a converstaion about hp/l or vtech this and variable that. If you are going to brag about these things the ONLY way to back it up is to take it down the track and get your time. It doesnt matter what is under the hood, the winner is the one with the lowest ET. Technolgy and engine advancements normally come with a price. Increased complexity and closer to mimimum design limits. I wish I could find the article now but Google does not turn it up, a while ago on /. a car thread got started and a link was provided to a comparision of American cars to Japanese cars. The point was Japanese have perfected the computer design of vehicles much earlier then the US but downside was their designs are much more precise when figuring in stresses and typical loads. Meaning the bends and all holes in the sheet metal was calculated out, same with the cylinder wall thickness and the crackshaft stresses. They don't add a few mm's to be safe. The days of the slant 6 are gone. They know exactly what the car could handle, added a safety margin and built it. That's fine but when that back seat has 650lb of people into it and not the 600 calculated, the roof will develop stress divits when you go over a speed bump. Same with the engines. Add 10lbs of boost or a 100hp shot of nitrous to a stock 240HP Accord and see how long it lasts. It won't last long because of the closer to desing limits the car already operates at. It was not designed for that.

I guess that could be an advantage also as someone actually knows what will break and when, you have to "wing-it" with older american cars and take your chances.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[b0bby]

Yeah, I used to have a '75 ElDeBoato convertible with one of those engines in it - that was a sweet engine. Of course I only got 7mpg around town in it and I had a huge pang of guilt whenever I'd pass a bicyclist - you didn't want to breathe that exhaust!

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Alan Partridge]

have you checked out the BMW 330D? 204bhp, 296lb/ft.

my Mazda Xedos 6 (2L V6 24v DOHC VRIS) makes just over 170bhp - I'd certainly expect an extra 1000cc to make a bigger difference - in fact, I think the 2L V6 as used in the Jag X-type (an evolution of MY motor) makes around 190bhp.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Alan Partridge]

that's not really fair. Honda designs and builds some of the finest engines money can buy - in fact, if an American car company EVER makes a car (in America) as well-engineered and reliable as a humble Honda Accord, I'll eat my shoes.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[dipipanone]

have you checked out the BMW 330D? 204bhp, 296lb/ft.

Wow, it really *is* Alan Partridge. And all this time, I'd just assumed you were some Slashdot geek who was pretending...

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Marco_polo]

Uhm.. comparing bikes to cars is kinda like apples and oranges, don't you think? I know I race my friends down the Garden STate Parkway, they on their bikes, me in my mustang.. and they smoke me every time. it's a matter of less drag, less weight to actually move from a stop.

think of the physics involved man!

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[jsin]

Well I'm glad we got that all straightened out.

For the record, I owned a '95 Cadillac STS for about four years before the constant repairs and expense of simple maintainence lead me to search for a replacement.

After test-driving almost everything both domestic and from abroad, I ended up buying a 2002 Accord SE. I thought for sure that I would be dissapointed in the performance of the (4-cylinder) engine after having driven the Cadillac for so long, but I have to say honestly it makes no real difference in my daily drive (a thirty minute commute, city and country driving, about a 50/50 mix). Not only that, but the fit and finish, handling and of course milage of the Accord blows the Cadillac away.

There are times I do miss the 140+MPH top-end of the Cadillac, but that is what I have the Ducati for....

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Alan Partridge]

No, the REAL AGP drives a Lexus - the Japanese Mercedes.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

My friend just got a new Ducati - not sure what model - but he loves that thing (rich IB bastard also has a Viper and a new M3). Another friend upon hearing about it said that he'd rather have the high end Honda CBR.
To each their own - I'm not big on motorcycles myself (I appreciate the technology, just have no personal interest in it).

If I could have any car right now, I'd wait until the new M5 - I think due out in '05 - although I'd want to wait a year on that to allow them to work out the kinks.
Then again, I also like the new 7 series, even before the upcoming redesign this year - but not the L varient, even with the 12cyl.

hell, where I'm moving all the cars are tiny and you can't have anything all that amazing. I'll have a damn scooter and some sort of used Suzuki fake Jeep thing.

once I come back to the states, then I'll see what cool cars are around then and take it from there. but I'm doubting I'll go the Accord route ;)

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[jsin]

Same with the engines. Add 10lbs of boost or a 100hp shot of nitrous to a stock 240HP Accord and see how long it lasts. It won't last long because of the closer to desing limits the car already operates at. It was not designed for that.

...probably longer than any American car engine under normal load...

If you doubt me talk to my friend Bill who just had his brand-new Trailblazer lose a head gasket because the factory's manufacturing tolerances were wrong (or maybe it was just assembled poorly, anyone's guess). The important thing is that Honda cars do what they are designed to do; they do it well and they last forever... sloppyness in enginering, while producing the occasional benefit (the one in one hunder thousand mechanic who puts a blower on a Monte Carlo) cannot live up to even one tenth the reliability of the asian imports.

I was a long-time american car fan untill I spent more fixing my Cadillac STS than I did buying it in the first place.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[jsin]

A Gibson fan...(took me a minute to remember the reference).

I gave up on cars after the STS, it was my dream car since I was 18 and when I finally bought one it was such a dissapointment that I decided that I'll find a car that works all the time and keep the bikes for having fun.

Here in the kinda-great-white-north you can't really drive hard other than in the summer, so the motorcycle thing works out nicely...plus you can have a rediculous hp/weight ratio and still get 50MPG+

I think that guys who hot-rod Hondas are just as lame as you probably do, but you have to appriciate them for what they are.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Alan Partridge]

Singapore, eh?

Still, have you SEEN the new 5 series? Damned ugly.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[AssFace]

LOL - well, I'm weird! I *like* the new 7 series and the 5 series is growing on me... like a rash.
I always felt the older ones were boring looking anyways, and I like that designer.

and no, not Singapore, Bermuda.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[Anonymous Coward]

In contrast, American cars start breaking down after the warranty expires.

Re:Honda Accord is the Cadillac of Autos

[dipipanone]

Yes, but he'd know the specs on the latest line of BMW's, if only to find them wanting when measured against his Lexus.

Direct link...

[dschuetz]

...suitable for mirroring: http://www.honda.co.uk/newcars/300k.swf (4.1 meg or so)

('course, it's slashdotted now.)

Re:Direct link...

[Cloud 9]

Shouldn't Slashdot have a rule where they contact a company before talking about something on their website, especially if it's a whopping great download?

How much longer do you want story submissions to take? At any rate, they've already this question in the FAQ. You have read it, right?

Re:Direct link...

[Cloud 9]

I would rather a story wait for a while and a solid mirror be put up instead of us blowing away a website for days.

If they did that, chances are most people would just see it elsewhere. But hey, if it's all for the good of the poor site with the not-quite-big-enough-pipes, why not?

Of course, it DOES stand to reason that a web site puts up content in the hopes that people actually view it. Yes, I understand that things happen that are beyond the control of the people in charge of such things (such as a good /.'ing), but that doesn't mean the readers should have to suffer while the respective sites sort things out.

Re:Direct link...

[sehryan]

I am sure they put it up for people to actually view it. I just doubt they put it up thinking that 1000s of people would view it all at once. Maybe if you were putting up the site in order to get linked from slashdot. Then you wouldn't have an excuse. But I doubt that is the intention of a majority of these sites.

And killing a server certainly doesn't help the discussion of the article, as a majority of the posts that get modded up are jokes about the slashdotting. And then you have folks like us, who are participating in a meaninful discussion about slashdotting rather than the article we are posting under.

Re:Direct link...

[paulcammish]

Ive uploaded a Mirror here for a Quicktime version...

Ah well, never liked my server anyways...

Re:Direct link...

[azav]

Excellent. Flash just shouldn't be used for video. Thanks.

Re:Direct link...

[brejc8]

Distributed mirror
Add some more mirrors if you like.

Re:Direct link...

[TGK]

So the clear and obvious solution is to set up a running process that queries the sight every 5 mins or so. When it gets back a 404 error it changes the href tags to point to an internal /. cashe.

That way the site owner isn't denied any ad revenues (his site was a smoking hole) and interested parties can still read the content. /. continues querying the server once every 5 mins until it gets a responce back other than 404. After 24 hours of consistant responces the mirror is yanked.

Seriously folks, Google seems to get away with this, and many people use the cashe INSTEAD OF the actual page. A system like this would only use the cashed versions in the event that the main site was allready wallowing in GET requests.

Re:Direct link...

[bellings]

You know, I really have no sympathy for victims of the slashdot effect. After Slashdot has repeated this story three or four (or 606) times the site admins should get the idea.

Re:Direct link...

[soren.harward]

mirror

Re:Direct link...

[Cloud 9]

So the clear and obvious solution is to set up a running process that queries the sight every 5 mins or so. When it gets back a 404 error it changes the href tags to point to an internal /. cashe.

That's actually not a bad idea. Feel free to submit a patch when you're finished whipping it up.

Re:Direct link...

[evilviper]

Hey that's great, a Quicktime version! I don't know what he means by "never liked [his] server", I'm getting a good 15K through...

No, make that 12k...

No, make that 10k...

No, make that 8k...

No... DAMN SLASHDOT!!!

Re:Direct link...

[feepness]

Excellent. Flash just shouldn't be used for video. Thanks.

Do you think that because you are biased against Flash or because you dislike platform independent, in browser, video delivery systems?

I certainly would not recommend Flash for text heavy applications, but not for video? It's PERFECT for video. Right tool, right job, all that jazz.

Re:Direct link...

[azav]

I think I am biased against flash since Flash as a video delivery tool is like requiring an extra plugin to view something that should be handled by the video plugin in the first place.

BUT more importantly, Flash does not stream video easily unless it is from the flash server. Video embedded in a flash movie must be completely loaded into memory before it plays - no streaming sections from the hard drive.

Try embedding the Matrix reloaded preview in Flash and serve that up to yourself. You won't like it, especially the loadtime.

Flash is using a version of a Sorenson Codec but that's not enough. It's like using a dump truck to bring home the ice cream when a motor cycle will do it just fine.

All we're doing is watching video right? Use a video plugin.

Re:Direct link...

[JPriest]

I would rather Flash than Quicktime.

Re:Direct link...

[derF024]

I think I am biased against flash since Flash as a video delivery tool is like requiring an extra plugin to view something that should be handled by the video plugin in the first place.

I have nothing but flash 6 for linux installed on my browser here and i was able to play the video. no quicktime, windows media or any other video plugin needed.

BUT more importantly, Flash does not stream video easily unless it is from the flash server.

once again, i believe you are mistaken. I mirrored the flash file, and i was able to stream it off my apache server with no flash server extentions .


All we're doing is watching video right? Use a video plugin.


except name another video plugin that works well under linux. i've heard i can embed mplayer, but i have never gotten that to work.

Re:Direct link...

[feepness]

think I am biased against flash since Flash as a video delivery tool is like requiring an extra plugin to view something that should be handled by the video plugin in the first place. BUT more importantly, Flash does not stream video easily unless it is from the flash server. Video embedded in a flash movie must be completely loaded into memory before it plays - no streaming sections from the hard drive.

Actually streaming video through Flash isn't very hard. If you can do JavaScript you can stream video in Flash. Even more importantly, you are completely incorrect about video being completely loaded before it plays. This is just plain wrong. You can track the download progress and play it as it comes in, and even track how fast it is downloading and automatically buffer the appropriate amount!

Re:Direct link...

[azav]

What I mean is stream from the hard drive. All the video must load into memory before it plays back. This is something that we have to deal with with flash MX video running in Director MX.

Re:Direct link...

[azav]

Maybe this is a limitation of playing back flash MX video content within Director MX. Seems odd that the playback functionality would be different in the fmasl mx browser and the flash mx xtra for director.

If you're using the flash streaming server, then I would expect it to stream.

Impressive Goldberg link...

[Mr. Smoove]

...I just thought he was a big dumb wrestler!

Re:Impressive Goldberg link...

[L. VeGas]

Not so impressive. It's full of holes.

I searched throughout the entire Rube Goldberg site and couldn't find ONE SINGLE MENTION of his more-famous daughter, Whoopi.

Re:online video?

[MentlFlos]

The provided link IS to the online video, which is shoved into a flash application.

I have it loaded and in my browser, but I'm unsure on how to extract the video segment so I can torrent it up :)

For comparison

[ih8apple]

The record number of takes for a single shot in any movie is 125 in The Shining.

Re:For comparison

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

I'm just curious, do you know what shot is was? I've seen that movie probably damn near that many times. I'm just wondering which shot it was because there's no mention of that in the "Making Of" that's on the DVD.

Re:For comparison

[JDevers]

Stanley Kubrick ordered more than 120 takes in the scene where the camera simply slowly zooms in on Scatman Crothers as he "shines" in his bedroom. Kubrick originally wanted approximately 70 takes of the scene where Hollaran gets killed by Jack Torrance, but Jack Nicholson talked Kubrick into going easy on the 70 year-old Crothers and stopping after 40. At one point during the filming, Crothers became so exasperated with Kubrick's notorious, compulsive style of excessive retakes that he broke down and cried, asking "What do you want, Mr. Kubrick?" This is from http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0081505 from another who loves The Shining =)

Re:For comparison

[Afrosheen]

Evidently it was hell working on that film. The weather, the close quarters, and Kubrick's style really contributed to a subtext of madness the characters portrayed. I think Nicholson actually did go a little crazy for real, but it was intentional.

And Olive Oyl nearly quit the film 3 times.

Re:For comparison

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

Thank you for that Agent J! That's really cool you found that for me/us!

New world record?

[Jon Abbott]

I know that as of 2001, the world's record for the most retakes of a particular scene was held by Stanley Kubrick -- 160 retakes of one scene in The Shining. If car commercial film retakes count for this as well, these guys have set a new world record by far!

Re:New world record?

[Anonymous Coward]

His persistence is remarkable: even from the grave, he's done thirty-five more takes than when this fact was posted three posts ago.

Re:New world record?

[Lucidium]

I'm not sure, but isn't the world record for most takes from Jackie Chan's "Dragon Lord"? I can't seem to find a reliable number/website, but most places say at least 1000+ takes.

Re:New world record?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah: Spielberg did them and pretended they were in the same style as the original vision, even though the extra parts somehow involve the Blue Fairy ordering a thousand liquid-metal robots to rescue everyone from Jack Nicholson.

Re:New world record?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, you got me to laugh in a public area...mod up, please...

Re:New world record?

[akadruid]

The guinness records site has the following:

Most Retakes For One Scene
A sequence in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (US 1931) took 342 takes to make. In the scene, a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) sells a tramp a flower in the mistaken belief he is a wealthy tycoon.

WHO: City Lights (1931)
WHEN: 1931
WHERE: USA
WHAT: 342 takes

Jackie Chan's 1982 film is listed as 2900 on HK Flix and as 'hundreds' on TVGuide.com

This information was not available on this thread when I posted, so look at the bloody times before moderating -1 Redundant

Re:New world record?

[glesga_kiss]

Speaking of records, I can't believe the article links to the Daily Record, arguably Scotlands worst news "publication". That just scares me.

Re:New world record?

[MrKipling]

I don't know about you but I was hoping it would crumble under the /. effect!

Re:New world record?

[mog]

umm.. i really hate to be nitpicking like this, but don't you mean "news" publication. I mean, you are doubting that they're news, and not saying that they're secretly not published,... right?

Re:New world record?

[glesga_kiss]

No, publication to me sounds respectable. The local term should be "news rag", but I'm not sure if many folks would understand that. ;-)

I don't doubt they are news. 70% of the front page about what dress a celebritory was wearing at an awards bash could be considered news (todays issue), just not relevant to anyone or anything. Think of them as Fox. On a dumb day.

For instance, a year or so ago they had a campaign where local bars and pubs were giving portions of their booze sales to charities fighting drugs. Alcohol causes way more problems in the UK.

Most people buy it for the sport coverage. So they say. But, said coverage has a perchant for "embolishing" the truth, or completely making things up, much like they do with the regular news. I hold readers of it in very poor regard.

Re:New world record?

[Lust]

Number of takes used to be something you would keep low because of film costs. You'd have a budget for a certain number of feet of film. With digital shooting now, you really worry more about the cost of personnel and post-processing labour...number of takes not as critical a number, so not an apples & oranges comparison.

Re:New world record?

[Paradise Pete]

i really hate to be nitpicking like this, but don't you mean "news" publication.

You're wasting your time. He's about to miss the point...

Re:New world record?

[Jon Abbott]

Bizarre -- the Guinness World Records 2001 book says that The Shining had the most retakes... Apparently they discovered some information recently about City Lights that was long forgotten as of two years ago...

Re:New world record?

[Paradise Pete]

No, publication to me sounds respectable.

There. See?

Re:New world record?

[mog]

"Think of them as Fox. On a dumb day." - this jumped out at me. Anymore, when I see Fox, I see Fox News. Taking Fox News's ultra-conservative stance.. say, Rush Limbaugh. Dumb it down.. say.. George Bush Jr. Hmmmm...

Anyway, I see your point. We just have different associations with the words news and publication.

Cheers!

Re:online video?

[v_1_r_u_5]

(since it's already slashdotted, that is)

Uh oh!

[Anonymous Coward]

facinating

So facinating, that I forget how to spell!

Kinda reminds me of Metal Gear..."Uh oh...The truck have started to move!" Yeah, when those trucks move, I get pretty excited too...

moron eyerock eyeroll eyecon eyecan..

[Anonymous Coward]

in eyeran? & other less concise ?pr? bullunders.

this is what you waNTdead?

this is what you're gonna get.

consult yOUR creator in matters that matter (like staying alive) rather than relying on moron ?pr? MiSinformation supplied buy the Godless greed/fear based felons from upon capitollist hill.

This a blatant ripoff of:

[Anonymous Coward]

"the Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli and David Weiss

here's a link to the most excellent kinetic art video:

http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/vid/thewaythings go .html

of course, if they hired the pair to do the stuff for the Commercial, then.....it's not a ripoff. (hope they made some bucks)

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[Mengoxon]

damn, I was just about to say that this was "inspired" by the Swiss artist team Fischli and Weiss.

Honda still made a good ad and we should thank them for that. But the credit for the original ideas for this belong to the Swiss.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/630455163 0/ qid%3D1050333367/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-3 118912-3971146

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[Anonymous Coward]

well yes, in the same sense that all computer games are a blatant ripoff of pong. or spacewar. whatever.

ass.

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[Mengoxon]

the difference is that everyone knows Pong, etc.

Few people will have heard of Fischli/Weiss and if you would know the original you would know how much the Honda ad was inspired by it.
(The Honda ad for sure was not inspired by Goldberg, but by Fischli/Weiss)

Therefore I think it is important to mention the original.

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[ContemporaryInsanity]

Thank you Mr Anonimous Coward !

I had The Way Things Go on VHS taped off the TV in the late eighties and haven't seen it in years, it is a truly superb piece of film. When I first saw the Honda ad' this is what I thought of. I couldn't even remember what it was called (chain reaction or something...) but now I know, I can get a copy.

Anyone know anywhere in the UK that stocks this ? Amazon.com have it but no mention on Amazon.co.uk. Googling draws a blank.

Once again, thanks.

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[ReverendLoki]

... and as you look at that the cover of the video you link to, notice how the cover describes it as a "Rube Goldberg drawing come to life".

Date of video: 1987. Rube Goldberg: 1883-1970.

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[ehiris]

The way things go is way cool. Flames, explosions, chemical reactions, ... but I like the quality of this commercial.

Re:This a blatant ripoff of:

[Blue Stone]

Ad people have always ripped off... er... taken their inspiration from... er... no, I do mean ripped off artists' work.
That advert for Guinness, featuring the trumpet-heavy, slightly-comedic, music with the guy wandering about in a funny manner, with a pint of Guiness, springs most easily to mind.

That said, it is a good advert. The first time I saw it, I was transfixed, and I can't say that about many (if any) adverts.
It's also worth noting that the advert is almost entirely silent and it comes as a relief, amongst the morass of noisy "Look at me! Look at me!" adverts that make up 99.9% of ads.

Mind you, I have no intention of buying a ... what was it? Toyota? Honda? Nissan?

Whatever.

Re:how'd they do that?

[wiggys]

Err, if you RTFA you'd know the tyres had weights in them.

Re:online video?

[dschuetz]

I have it loaded and in my browser, but I'm unsure on how to extract the video segment so I can torrent it up :)

It's a short (18k) flash file that then loads another flash file (called 300k.swf) that's about 4.1 meg. So, if you can figure out where your 300k.swf file is in the cache, you should be in business.

(I used flasm (http://flasm.sourceforge.net/) to disassemble the original .swf file to figure this out, btw...)

Re:how'd they do that?

[littleghoti]

RTFA- The tyres were weighted " At one point, three tyres roll uphill because inside they have been weighted with bolts and screws"

Flash video format

[silhouette]

The video itself plays within a Flash movie.

Not only will you need Flash to watch it at all, but you'll need the latest version of the Flash player in particular (6, which can include video).
Of course, it's a moot point anyway because Honda.co.uk can't take the Slashdot burden.

Re:Flash video format

[silhouette]

My mistake, after a closer look I don't think the video is embedded at all. It looks like individual still keyframes from the actual video were just copied into the Flash movie in a sequence. Which means that lower version Flash players should be able to play it without a problem.

Re:Flash video format

[Xzzy]

is it just me, or this beyond stupid?

Why would anyone use a vector-based animation format to show full motion video?

obviously it works, because the movie is viewable, but this seems akin to using a vw bug for hauling lumber. Just because it can work doesn't mean it should be done.. :P

Re:Flash video format

[wik]

It makes more sense than ricing up a civic.

Re:Flash video format

[GigsVT]

Flash is more cross platform than any other movie format.

Given a choice between:
Flash
Windows Media
Sorensen Quicktime

I'd take flash any day.

Re:Flash video format

[Anonymous Coward]

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -[Thomas] Jefferson

Were you taught that when citing a source for a quotation it was OK to just give the last name? Please post the name of your 8th grade English teacher so I can smack her soundly about the head.

Re:Flash video format

[UncleFluffy]

Flash is more cross platform than any other movie format.

MPEG ?

Re:Flash video format

[Alan Partridge]

ISO standard video formats have been declared illegal by Microsoft and the MPAA.

Re:Flash video format

[feepness]

Flash is more cross platform than any other movie format.

MPEG ?

Errr, yes.

1. Download Flash Plugin.
2. Watch movie in browser.
3. Profit! (or at least enjoy).

Flash, it's not just for vector anymore.

Re:Flash video format

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that wasn't a citation. That was just a "Yup, that's who said it. Yup."

explanation for the humor-impaired

[Anonymous Coward]

"Got Rice" is a sticker seen on many Rice Rockets. This is a fact, not a racial slur.

Re:explanation for the humor-impaired

[zdislaw]

The definition you linked to (def. #2) actually does seem to suggest racism in the term. It uses a stereotype of Japanese culture to refer to something with a negative bias. Regardless, the commercial is really cool. I don't know anything about the car except that it's ugly.

Rube Goldberg?

[chrisseaton]

I wasn't familiar with Rube Goldberg's work before this, but it looks like a carbon copy of Heath Robinson's style. Anyone agree with me here?

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[91degrees]

Anyone agree with me here?

I think everyone does. Apart from the fact that 90% of Americans have never heard of Heath Robinson, and 90% of Brits have never heard of Rube Goldberg. They certainly fill exactly the same niche in society both for the drawings, and for providing a terms used for an expresion to refer to a bizarre ad-hoc invention.

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[smallpaul]

According to Google, Rube Goldberg was inspired by Heath Robinson. Rube was American and Heath British.

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tsk! Fucking Americans copying everything we oo!

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[bawheid]

Definitely Heath Robinson - his contraptions from the 20's and 30's were a very similar style, and almost equally complex in some cases...

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[Spunk]

Are you from the UK? (scan blog... yes, you seem to be)

Here in the US, Rube Goldberg is a household name, but I've never heard of Heath Robinson. A quick googling of him tells me they are very similar.

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[Alien Being]

If you get the chance, check out some of the bizarre contraptions created by Arthur Ganson.

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[Quikah]

You Brits need to work on your marketing. :P

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[robbo]

I'm canadian, which explains why I'd never heard of either of them. ;-)

Re:Rube Goldberg?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are various creators of fantastical engineering, either in drawings or by physical representation/sculpture. The two most famous (though not on each other's side of the Atlantic) are the aforementioned Robinson and Goldberg, but they are not the only ones.

The sad thing is that the Telegraph article refers to "the wacky engineering of Caractacus Potts's breakfast-making machine in the Sixties film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," without crediting the real creator, Rowland Emett.

More can be found on Emmett at: http://www.mech.mcmaster.ca/~nyet/emett/

Mirror

[Trogdor]

Mirror

Re:Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

Or if you just want the video to download or whatever...here

Re:Mirror

[cetan]

I have had to pull the mirror but I put in a redirect to my at&t webspace. Let me know if that helps.

A very spectacular advert

[whimdot]

But I wonder what aspect of the domino effect appears to turn the steering and apply the brakes of the car that rolls off the ramp at the end?

Re:A very spectacular advert

[glesga_kiss]

The car tailgate goes down, moving the centre of gravity forward. This tips the seesaw, no idea on the steering though.

Re:A very spectacular advert

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at the floor where the vehicle rolls. It looks like some sort of pad that stops the vechicle. I bet that a weight applied to the steering wheel would cause it to turn once the vehicle was set in motion.

Re:A very spectacular advert

[robbo]

Could that be the cheat? I assumed there's someone in the car-- the camera angle just perfectly masks the driver's seat, and any silhouette could be photoshopped out.

Re:A very spectacular advert

[stephenisu]

if the car were at a slight rotation on the ramp, gravity would turn the wheels. Low tire pressure and rolling resistance would stop the car very quickly. That, or having the parking brake on oh so lightly.

Apologies to torrez.org

[Anonymous Coward]

http://torrez.org/media/movie/cog.mov

Re:Apologies to torrez.org

[brejc8]

Do you knaow the original address on the honda site?

Don't look to Germany, either

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife's 2003 Audi wagon is a piece of crap.

Re:Don't look to Germany, either

[evilviper]

I did NOT say that they were ALL good.

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

what's the punchline? does it still work when you put it back together due to the Japanese's superior engineering? I don't get it. I don't see a joke there.

ass.

MOV download

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

Here's a link to those who'd like a non-slashdotted .mov download of the ad.

Thanks be to widepipe.org for the link...

Re:MOV download

[Bohiti]

My company's WebSense filtering blocked this from me for "Adult Content". Whoa Nelly, Honda is apparently attempting to change their image.

Re:MOV download

[oakbox]

God, I LOVE BitTorrent. I got the file in about 10 minutes (11 Mb) and I seem to be only one of a group because my upload is cranking out 12 Kb/s now. You should give a little to get a lot.

Re:MOV download

[BuckaBooBob]

Maybe They are Using a morw Broad Definition of Adult Content.. :) After All.. The ad doesn't apply to tots and toddlers :)

Re:MOV download

[Ian Peon]

Thanks!

I was waiting 15 mins on the Honda site and got the first 2 seconds... took about 30 seconds to load everything over BitTorrent!

I'll leave it open for at least 20 mins.

Re:MOV download

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoa Nelly

Do you really say stuff like that?

Re:MOV download

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the "Wide Pipe" thats offending the filter I am sure :)

Re:MOV download

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you expect, being associated with a website calling themselves "widepipe"?

We might not be able to slashdot AOL/The Matrix..

[mbourgon]

but by God we can slashdot Honda!

WTF is a 'tyre'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tyre - An ancient Phoenician city on the eastern Mediterranean Sea in present-day southern Lebanon. The capital of Phoenicia after the 11th century B.C., it was a flourishing commercial center noted for its purple dyestuffs and rich, silken clothing. Tyre was besieged and captured by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and was finally destroyed by Muslims in A.D. 1291.

Re:WTF is a 'tyre'?

[amcguinn]

a thick rubber ring, often filled with air, which is fitted around the outer edge of the wheel of a vehicle, allowing the vehicle to stick to the road surface and to travel over the ground more easily

Re:WTF is a 'tyre'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't you have some other word for that like caant?

Although I guess when your missing half your teeth words end up getting spelled differently because they sound funny coming out mouths with such poor hygiene.

Re:WTF is a 'tyre'?

[pcmills]

Troll: v.,n. 1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames.

Re:WTF is a 'tyre'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, that's a tire you fucking moron. Learn to spell you cheap Eurotrash faggot.

Re:WTF is a 'tyre'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks, but soon all Americans will know about Tyre. After all, war is god's way of teaching Americans geography.

Mod Parent Up

[tsetem]

Mod The Parent up. Good & Fast mirror to the Flash

Re:Mod Parent Up

[TylerL82]

No, don't!
I'm still trying to download from him!

Re:Mod Parent Up

[Anonymous Coward]

thats hopeless, he deleted it

Re:Mod Parent Up

[cetan]

No, I had to redirect to http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/honda-ad.html

My Chevelle can make 240 HP, too

[Anonymous Coward]

All I have to do is disconnect 4 spark plug wires & I'll make 240 HP, too.

Re:online video?

[MentlFlos]

I have the file all ready, just need a torrent tracker to throw it at... anybody? bueler.... bueler....

give credit where credit is due

[Anonymous Coward]

from one of the articles:
"...The idea for the advert derived partly from the old children's game Mouse Trap, and from the wacky engineering of Caractacus Potts's breakfast-making machine in the Sixties film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

HOGWASH! Nothing else exists like this except "The Way Things Go"
No mention of the Swiss artists, so I guess they didn't work on it. Anyone who has seen "The Way Things Go" will immediately recogize the ripoff. they have Tires going uphill too! And it all takes place in the same narrative format: one long left to right sequence (the original is actually almost 30 minutes long, compared this this thing from Honda...)

The cost of consumer items

[beaverfever]

£750,000 for an ad which will run for 7 1/2 weeks - I'm sure it's not unusual; just don't forget what you're really paying for when you buy a car - a big chunk of the cost of autos is just covering advertising - it's the same with many consumer items.

I wonder what the math is on the idea of lowering advertising costs to bring down end price of the product which might increase sales, balanced against the decreased exposure which might decrease sales. As long as people are willing to pay what they are currently paying, I guess it doesn't matter.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[ArsSineArtificio]

wonder what the math is on the idea of lowering advertising costs to bring down end price of the product which might increase sales, balanced against the decreased exposure which might decrease sales.

They don't advertise for fun, you know. Obviously the increased sales from advertising must offset the necessary increase in price and resulting loss of sales.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[realdpk]

IMO, I think most people seem to want cheap newspapers/magazines and moreso free television, than to pay less for every item they own.

At least, it sure as hell seems that way whenever someone whines about the cost of cable.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article, you might have noted that the nature of this spot allows it to be run in *all* global markets just by changing the voiceover at the end. That's a huge production savings for Honda (who has their fingers in a alot of markets).

I'd say it all evens out...

Re:The cost of consumer items

[arkanes]

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that. For one thing, it's tremendously difficult to draw a direct comparison between funds spent on advertising vrs. increased sales - you can show trends (and the trend is certainly there), but it'd be very difficult, if not impossible, to show a detailed cost-benefit analysis.

Companies sometimes still do things just because they think it's cool.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[Jester99]

750K GBP sounds like a great deal of money (and believe me, it is), but don't forget -- these are cars we're talking about. It's not like they're makin' two bucks a pop here. If they sell only about 2-5,000 automobiles, they've probably recouped all that cash right there. When you consider how huge Honda's market is, that's rediculously manageable.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[beaverfever]

"Obviously the increased sales from advertising must offset the necessary increase in price and resulting loss of sales."

Well, the next question is, 'who determined that?' The advertising industry? They have a vested interest in keeping advertising costs high. Superbowl ads make for a spectacle (I still can't believe that canadian football viewers were upset that they couldn't see the US ads - they're ads ferrchrissake, but anyways) but have you ever switched from coke to pepsi or vice versa because you were impressed by an advertisment? If the cost of coke or pepsi, whichever you drink, were slashed by, say 20%, would you buy more?

My point, in response to your comment, is that just because something is the way it is, doesn't make it right, or the most effective. The ad industry (which is Big Money) has their vested interest, and I'm sure Big Corporations would be too scared to try advertising on a reduced budget - it is all they know, and taking chances and being wrong is like having the business plague.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[beaverfever]

While your point about the scale of the market and its ability to absorb this sort of cost is correct, one must remember that this car ad will be just one part of a campaign, and the 750K GBP was just the cost of production and doesn't include airing the ad and tie-in ads in other mediums.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[91degrees]

but have you ever switched from coke to pepsi or vice versa because you were impressed by an advertisment?

Name 3 other brands of Cola.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[91degrees]

How does that work out?

Surely that means that if they decided not to advertise, they would increase the price to cover the cost of making as much profit as possible. If they managed to save £1 000 000, would they prefer to pass that onto the consumer, or to pass that onto the board of directors?

Re:The cost of consumer items

[ehiris]

Offer after demand instead of demand after offer doesn't work. Go to Rusia and see how well it worked.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[beaverfever]

While the arguement you (i think) suggest by your brief post may have some validity for the Cola Wars (raising brand awareness to the highest level possible, so that any competition is lost in the glare, therefore justifying the huge sums of money spent by Coke and Pepsico), in other fields it is not; name the company that did the "cat herding" ad. Whoever it was (i really can't remember, although I'm sure it was a tech company) certainly had plenty of competition in their industry. I'll bet the cats didn't help them much.

Also, going back to the cola thing, their competition isn't just the other cola, but every other cold drink available. Fortunately for Coke and Pepsico, they own just about every product you could imagine drinking, except milk.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[balloonpup]

Done without looking it up:

Royal Crown (RC) Cola (the best!)
Jolt Cola (what geek could miss this?)
Stewart's Cola (though their root beer is better)

Not to mension the various generic brands such as Top Pop, America's Choice and so on.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[91degrees]

That's pretty much my argument. It's not just a coincidence that you chose the top selling brands of cola. Of course, you also chose the most expensive brands, which I guess does prove the point that advertising causes products to cost more.

You're right about some ads being completely failing to advertise the brand of course. I think a lot of advertising is a lot more insidious than you think though. Sometimes I think it's just there to make you feel comfortable with the product. Ask most people off the street whether they would prefer a Ford Focus or a Bristol Blenheim at the same price, and they will usually choose the Ford because they recognise the brand. They simply feel more comfortable buying a brand they recognise. The other choice would have given them a luxury car worth about 10 times as much. Ford don't have many memorable adverts, but they manage to be recognisable.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[Mr Z]

My dad likes to tell this story: Goebel Beer was the #1 beer (in Michigan at least) at one time. They were so popular they decided "Hey, we're #1, we don't need to advertise any more!"

Have you ever heard of Goebel Beer? If so, do you think it's anywhere near #1 in sales? Basically, the moment they stopped advertising, they coasted a little bit and fell into perpetual obscurity.

And in case your bored: Some more beer commercial history.

--Joe

Re:The cost of consumer items

[RichardX]

Name 3 other brands of Cola.
Virgin, Panda, and any "shop's own" brand you choose (Safeway, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Somerfields, whatever)

Re:The cost of consumer items

[gurps_npc]

OK, Honda makes millions of cars, so that is less than 1 british pound per car. You just saved that much. OOPS. you just lost 50 sales. There goes your profit.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[mosch]

jones vanilla cola
stewart's creamy cola
afri-cola (which, btw, is delicious)

Re:The cost of consumer items

[beaverfever]

Uh, I think most people would realise it's not that simple, but I'll bite anyways...

Last year honda (including acura) sold about 2.7 million cars/trucks globally.

This ad cost 750K GBP just to produce. It is one ad for one model of car, a model of car only available in a few countries/markets, therefore having limited usefulness (this ad has become a novelty, so it's getting extended exposure, but that is unusual). Add to that the production costs of ads for all of Honda's other car and truck models in all the different countries/markets, then the cost of buying airtime on television to broadcast the ads. Then there's radio and print ads (newspaper and magazine), which also have production and media costs, and then promotional programs for dealerships. It starts to add up, don't you think?

$500 000 USD was paid to use the Led Zeppelin song Rock'n'Roll in Cadillac tv and radio ads. That was just for the song - there's a lot more to production costs than just a song. It cost $2 million to air a Cadillac ad on the superbowl. That's one airing, and I'm not even scratching the surface of the total cost of promoting Cadillac over the past year or two. Recently Cadillac sales have been about 175 000 annually.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[Squeak]

Name 3 other brands of Cola

Supermarket chain A own brand
Supermarket chain B own brand
Supermarket chain C own brand

And they are all too sweet and sickly, especially Pepsi.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[91degrees]

You'll probably find that a lot of the own brands are made in the same plant, and just put in different bottles.

Even those are the heavily advertised brands though.

Re:The cost of consumer items

[gurps_npc]

OK, lets say they paid 3 million dollars total for this commercial.

Yes it may be "for" a specific car, but truthfully, it is a concept ad that is helping the Brand "Honda" not that particular car.

That works out to about $1 per car, and if it creates just 300 more sales then it is profitable.

The ad made a LOT of finacial sense to the company.

Re:YHBT. YHL. HAND.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think that I would want the approval of someone who judges "trolls" that come out of his ass.

MOST of us flush those without bothering to "evaluate" them.

Can I Spot It?

[telstar]

"There is one cheat however -- can you spot it?"

• Actually ... Yes, I can ... since the damn slashdotted movie is playing at about 1fps right now.

Re:Can I Spot It?

[0biJon]

I'm pretty sure the cheat is that the tires are weighted... Notice how they accelerate after they get hit. They're setup balanced and when they get bumped slightly they speed up.

+1 Infomative:

[dontod]

The music at the end is the opening few bars of the SugarHill Gang's Rappers Delight.

Don.

-------
You have the right to remain silent yadda yadda yadda.

Re:+1 Infomative:

[dontod]

Better Link.

Don

-------
You have selected regicide. If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.

bittorrent anyone ?

[heymjo]

Can someone who managed to dl'ed the movie maybe share it using bittorrent ?
Would be helpful if in the future editors who post stories that link to sites with lotsa eyecandy make a wget copy (or something similar) of the site *before* they post their story. Then when posting they would just add the bittorrent link at the end and everbody is happy :) ...

Re:bittorrent anyone ?

[bogie]

"Would be helpful if in the future editors who post stories that link to sites with lotsa eyecandy make a wget copy "

Things like this get suggested and ignored daily on /. You might as well ask for people to not make stupid comments along with the links to the articles.

Slashdot as a website does NOT practice good neighbor policies.

Just like much of society today I guess they continue to think if it doesn't happen to them who cares?

Re:bittorrent anyone ?

[heymjo]

I didn't realize this was suggested already, if it has maybe we should just keep doing it until a few editors get the message. It's not so much the ./ of the websites I care about, as websites usually recover quite quicly from that, it's more the fact that half of the stuff we don't even get to see because it was taken out after the ./ effect. If you are delivering a story one would think you'ld make the most effort possible so that ALL people can read it no?

Getting the Swiss Video in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only in NTSC format and UK is PAL format, so that's probably why it's not listed on UK Amazon.

You could still buy it from US Amazon and then have it converted to PAL, or if you have a "World" VCR that plays PAL/NTSC tapes, you have no problem.

Re:Getting the Swiss Video in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

You still need an NTSC capable TV to see it then.

Re:I drive a honda

[IanCarlson]

Of course, I suppose your digicam would suck because you spent all of your money on a S2000.

Screw the digicam, get a supercharger instead.

Also, did anyone else notice that the domain the S2000 pics are being hosted from is called "familycar.com"? I don't think that two seat cock-rocket is much of a grocery getter.

BitTorrent Mirror

[SeanTobin]

Click here all you bittorrent users

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[heymjo]

nice one ! just requested it and already there :)

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW, this is the high quality "wide" 11.6mb MOV.

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[jamie]

Thanks for setting up the torrent... I just grabbed it and I'll vouch that it's the real thing not a troll :)

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[brakk]

Does anybody know how to get bittorrent to work through an http proxy? I don't want to wait until I get home to download it.

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[0x0d0a]

Sigh...BitTorrent needs a standard web-of-trust system...

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[PovRayMan]

YIKES!

I'm on a couple T1 lines shared by 400 people and I just that entire thing in under a minute at 400k/sec.

I hope no one noticed... oh wait I'm the admin. ;-)

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[Feztaa]

Sigh...BitTorrent needs a standard web-of-trust system...

How about we just gpg sign the .torrent files?

Re: BitTorrent Mirror

[Omniscient Ferret]

The .torrent files must be dynamically generated to point towards other downloaders. It wouldn't help you trust the server to automate signing.

The thought of integrating GPG to all the platforms and browsers isn't a pleasant one anyway.

Re: BitTorrent Mirror

[Omniscient Ferret]

Bittorrent is a P2P system, like Kazaa or Gnutella, not like HTTP or FTP. If other downloaders can't contact you they don't send much to you either. So. If you need to use a proxy just download from one of the distributed mirrors or another web server.

Re: BitTorrent Mirror

[Saeger]

You're half right.

.torrent files are static metainfo (though the 'announce' URL can change without effecting the info_hash) - it's the tracker server that does the pointing.

But, you're right that GPG is a headache - I mean, why else haven't webs of trust taken off yet? It's an awesome idea way past due, but not easy to impliment.

--

Re: BitTorrent Mirror

[Omniscient Ferret]

Doh! Of course! The last time I looked at that part of it was before Bram split off the tracker. (Now I'm uncertain I remember correctly anyway.)

GPG/browser integration: For example: You could have trust based on seeing someone sign their web pages consistently for years. That might be cool.

I'm peeved now

[0x00000dcc]

I actually sat through that entire commercial, as cool as it was, thinking there was going to be some killer car at the end. Rather, it was a friggen' station wagon

Re:I'm peeved now

[fobbman]

Was sex a disappointment for you the first time, too? ;)

Re:I'm peeved now

[0x00000dcc]

I actually sat through that entire commercial, as cool as it was, thinking there was going to be some killer car at the end. Rather, it was a friggen' station wagon

1. Was sex a disappointment for you the first time, too? ;)

2. 1. Yes, becuase it was in a friggen' station wagon

Re:I'm peeved now

[BattleTroll]

Was sex a disappointment for you the first time, too? ;)

I'll have to get back to you on this one... :p

PBS special

[gpinzone]

I remember there was this strange show on PBS which involved object after object setting of another. It involved fire, tires, weights, etc. Anyone remember seeing it?

Re:PBS special

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, it was called "The Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

If I recall, they only showed in ONCE,many years ago.

here's the link to Amazon to buy it for under $20:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/630455163 0/ %20qid%3D1050333367/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/10 4-3%20118912-3971146/102-8292699-5788956

Re:PBS special

[tricknology]

I'm not sure if it is the same thing, but I saw a film (I think called "How Things Work") that was along those lines. As I recall, the setup filled an entire warehouse, and took over 4 hours to complete since some of the stages were chemical reactions which took some time to get going.

Re:PBS special

[mekkab]

try this guy's comment

Re:PBS special

[Tingler]

Yes, Is was called "The way things go."

Re:Goldberg and Heath Robinson

[ianscot]

Sort of, but not a carbon copy exactly. Rube Goldberg is seen by some people as a sort of "American version" of Robinson -- news programs here might say "Our tax system is a Rube Golbergian mess" where those in the U.K. would invoke Robinson. They were contemporaries, but Goldberg lived longer.

I'd say Robinson was more about social commentary than Goldberg. His typical drawing would be an overall look at a machine, sure, but there was usually something dilapidated about the workings of it, and there was something sort of comic-tragic about the people in the figure -- they're seriously working to maintain the thing despite its ludicrously overcomplex design, and it's running down despite them.

Goldberg is more of an engineer's taste -- he was an engineer to start with, wasn't he? -- and the idea is really to play with the idea of the machine to make it as ridiculous as possible. His machines aren't attended by a bunch of sadly intent factory workers, they're what my Great Uncle would call "flights of fancy." You hear about contests in the U.S., for fun, to build elaborate "Rube Goldberg contraptions" to perform simple actions.

Heath Robinson would have appreciated Metropolis more when it came out.

grab the movie here

[caino59]

if you havent seen it...
click here

i feel im about to suffer the /. effect.

Re:grab the movie here

[Anonymous Coward]

what, are you kidding ? hosting off your box to slashdot? hope you can get a new ip from your DHCP or maybe you can get online again by thursday

Re:grab the movie here

[caino59]

actually...i've had a couple mirrors up the past week or two

most notably, the floppy enterprise article, which the original host had taken down.

only real downtime i've ad was when my router needed a reboot, and when i lost power to the house.

i have ot lost internet access at all.

and now, im kind of expecting too.

my machine should be able to take the load ok - 2xp3 933's.

Re:grab the movie here

[Anonymous Coward]

well i cant seem to pull up the .mov, but i can ping the box 80ms.

Re:grab the movie here

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like your spellin's takin a slashdottin.

But thanks for the hookup.

Great advert

[t_allardyce]

Can someone explain the speakers that vibrate the windscreen? When i first saw it i just thought it must be CG or mixed, but to be completely real is amazing. The speakers just dont look real though... But this certainly has to be the best car advert ive ever seen. It really makes a change from all those stupid "mix together lots of random shots of a car driving by with music and happy people" adverts.

Re:Great advert

[robi2106]

I was wondering about that. The speakers seem to be on some sort of springs. Would that many speakers be enough to create the vibrations to start a shock spring rolling?

I also can't see what happened to get that funky windshield wiper walking creature to move? The windshield washer pump sprays fluid on to the glass, but what causes it to start the next stage?

robi

Re:Great advert

[clbyjack81]

"The windshield washer pump sprays fluid on to the glass, but what causes it to start the next stage?"

This is an advertisement for more than just the car. The ad demonstrates the premium stereo, remote activated tailgate, and rain sensors in the windshield that start the wipers automatically!

-clbyjack81

Re:Great advert

[Peyna]

There also appeared to be something that made the window roll down by pressing on it on the inside?

Re:Great advert

[GigsVT]

Looked to me that the metal thing made an electrical contact on the thing it was sitting on. I don't think that was one of the car's features.

Re:Great advert

[bonaldi]

The windshield washer pump sprays fluid on to the glass, but what causes it to start the next stage?

The car has a rain-sensor fitted that automatically starts the wipers when the screen gets wet. And auto headlights, that light when it gets dark. Slinky.

Re:Great advert

[Richard_at_work]

If the shock spring was finely balanced, then the slightest vibration would have set it rolling, so the thumping of several speakers, at tremendous bass, would be sure to have an affect

The windshield has rain sensors which automatically trigger the wipers, which walk off. Simple yet amazingly effective.

Re:Mirror - Cannot find server or DNS Error (NT)

[mike3411]

NT = no text

stop reading this textless post!

One Cheat?

[A Swing Dancing Dork]

There is only one cheat. And he lives with strongbad. The Cheat!

Re:One Cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

actually, he lives in the King of Town's BBQ :)

Re:One Cheat?

[Moofie]

You mean there is only one The Cheat. It's a proper name, dude. Show some respect.

I'm going to go drink some soy sauce and fly Bubs' concession stand too.

/.'d too

[burgburgburg]

"Connection refused"

First, the site. Then the mirror.

Tomorrow, ...?

Uhm no

[Anonymous Coward]

Its actually Chic - Good Times
which rappers delight is based on

What about the sound?

[Bazman]

Okay, so maybe the rolling exhaust box is CGI, but what about the sound? I bet most of that was put on in postproduction, samplers and synths. Fake, all of it :)

Baz

Re:What about the sound?

[gwizah]

No, I assure you that the instruments being played on The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" are all authentic. No Samplers.

Re:What about the sound?

[Anonymous Coward]

except that its "Chic - good times" that Sugarhill "sampled", look it up

Re:What about the sound?

[rzbx]

Actually, it didn't look to be CGI. Then again, I watched a slightly lower quality video of the commercial. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary except the tires rolling uphill. That was the obvious "cheat" they were talking about.

Re:What about the sound?

[GigsVT]

The article says the tires were weighted on the topsides and balanced. It says the cheat is the exhaust thing.

Re:What about the sound?

[rzbx]

Nevermind. The exhaust was the cheat. I was wrong about the tires. Next time I should check out a better quality version of the video, and pay attention. I'm kind of out of it right now.

Re:What about the sound?

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Okay, so maybe the rolling exhaust box is CGI, but what about the sound? I bet most of that was put on in postproduction, samplers and synths. Fake, all of it :)"

It's pretty typical to re-engineer the sound track. The reason why is that you get a lot of background noise on a set.

Re:What about the sound?

[t]

The way I read it, the rolling exhaust box wasn't CG, rather it was the point where they spliced two different takes together using computers to splice them. My guess would be so that they could redo the last bit for each different model they're hawking at the moment.

Re:What about the sound?

[gwizah]

How about a nice glass of "STFU"?

Sugar Hill did not "sample" the riff which is spoken of, A session band replayed the riff. Meaning live instruments were used, not a sampler.

from a funkguitar.org blurb about Niles Rogers who played the riff on "Good Times":

Nile Rodgers was prominent in disco/funk, and helped launch hip-hop. Listen to the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", (by the way, that's a session-band replicating that groove, not Chic) now try "Monster Jam" by Spoonie Gee/Sequence. Then check out "Subway Theme" by Fab Five Freddy from Wildstyle. Notice a pattern here? All those songs sample, cover, or take direct inspiration from Nile's brilliant guitar riff from the classic Chic song "Good Times" -- which is inescapable as the most sampled guitar song in rap's early days. Nile is more known as a producer than a funky guitarist, but we love 'em for that sweet, compressed, Fender® Stratocaster® sound.

Thanks for playing!

Oh yeah and BTW in case you were wondering the Fairlight CMI was the first commercially available digital sampler, released in 1978. I doubt that Sugar Hill records would have had the resources to obtain a digital sampler in 1979.

The cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

It must have been the part where the guy driving the Honda gets the pretty girl. That must have been the special effect. In the real world, the guy with the Honda never gets the pretty girl. All he gets is that stupid H.

Did it HAVE to be real?

[ianscot]

There are rules for commercials -- you have to use the real turkey if you're selling Jennie-Oh turkeys, but you can shoe polish the thing as much as you want -- so maybe they did this with real, physical parts because they had to use the pieces of a real Accord?

Otherwise I'm thinking Computer graphics would have been the more efficient way of accomplishing what they wanted. Efficiency is something we like in a car maker, isn't it?

(And did they want me to find out it took them 600-plus takes to get the parts of their car to work right together? Jeez, doesn't a car pretty much need to use all those parts together every time?)

Re:Did it HAVE to be real?

[TMLink]

The bigshots at Honda's world headquarters in Japan, when shown Cog for the first time, replied that yes, it was very clever, and how impressive trick photography was these days. When told that it was all real, they were astonished.

I think this is why they did it for real. Yes, it would have been much easier just to do it with computers, but the entire coolness factor would be gone. The fact that it's one muffler short of being 100% real is what makes this commercial great.

Re:Did it HAVE to be real?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Otherwise I'm thinking Computer graphics would have been the more efficient way of accomplishing what they wanted. Efficiency is something we like in a car maker, isn't it? "

If it wasn't real would it be as interesting?
Would it still evoke the same ideas?
(Note: This had better have been a Fischilli and Weiss production or some one deserves a law suit!)
It is unfortunate that something as interesting and technicaly strong as this has to be backed by an coprporation and turned into an add.

Re:Did it HAVE to be real?

[Greedo]

And did they want me to find out it took them 600-plus takes to get the parts of their car to work right together?

Of course you did. You are talking about it, which is part of what advertising is meant to do.

I'm surprised this article wasn't a paid advertisement by Honda. If I had a cool product to sell, or a cool ad to sell it, I'd try and get it posted on /..

Re:so you're a WHORE as well as an IDIOT

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

the more people who waste mod points on my stupid ass means fewer people to mod down AC's like you.

have a nice day.

Swiss Rube Goldberg video 'Der Lauf Die Dinge'

[MemexMutex]

By far the most elaborate & amazing Rube-Goldberg apparatus ever filmed is "Die Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go) by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss (http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html).

It includes not only complex mechanical agglomerations but all sorts of homemade pyrotechnical concoctions. These guys really new their inorganic chemistry.

Fischli & Weiss filled a warehouse with dozens & dozens these devices linked in series with the output of one element trigger the next one in the pipeline. The camera just keeps walking down the line following the action. You get the feeling the devices are set up in a large circle inside a huge empty building with the camera in the middle slowly turning to follow the train of activity.

The audio is quite intense, as well. Each device has its own very distinctive sound, which helps to make the video quite animated.

Most incredible of all, they appeared to do it with a minimum of subtle takes. There seem to be only 4 or 5 cuts in this 45 minute video, and some of them require repeated viewing to pick out.

Despite the fact the primary actors consist of auto tires, ladders, plywood sheets and soda bottles, DLDD is remarkably fun to watch. I highly recommend it.

You can pick it up on DVD or VHS at many spots on the net. Here's a link to DVDPriceSearch.com's comparative price listing:
http://www.dvdpricesearch.com/cgi-bin/dv dcalc2?cmd =calc&tmpCart=15602

astroturf?

[AssFace]

is the "wagdog" name a reference to wave it in our face even more?

I haven't really looked around other sites to see if this is getting discussed or not, and the site appears to be down now as well - but it looks and smells an awful lot like astroturfing to me.

Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[Anonymous Coward]

If you live in the UK,
Call the Honda Contact Centre on 0845 200 8000 and ask for a free DVD of THAT Honda ad. They also got it on VHS if you prefer.

They got 20,000 copies. So dont rush :)

Re:Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[tplayford]

I don't know why this is modded as funny, I just gave them a ring and I'll have my dvd copy in 2 to 3 days!

Go order one for yourself! (it comes with 'the making of' as well)

Re:Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[Loosewire]

Just phoned up , he asked where i heard about it and i said here. "Ah ive just had someone from slashdot ask for one." "Yes i said, the whole slashdot readership have just reduced your webserver to smouldering wreck :-)"

Re:Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[Anonymous Coward]

It's on DVD? Does it have the outtakes? Then again, will the outtakes fit on a DVD?

Re:Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont know about out-takes. But it apparently has the music video aswell :)

Re:Get the advert + making of FREE (For UK ppl)

[JJC]

It's presumably still limited to the UK, but it looks like this DVD can now be ordered online too.

Thrasher: Skate & Destroy

[Anonymous Coward]

The song towards the end of the clip also features in the PSX game Thrasher: Skate & Destroy.. ah, that was a fun game!

They have to change more than the voiceover.

[aduthie]

They'd also have to change the interior shot to show a left-hand drive car for most markets. Plus they can only use it for markets with Accord Wagons (which excludes the U.S. these days). Plus there are undoubtedly minor differences in exterior trim that would have to be airbrushed in or out digitally on the car itself, at the end of the shot. But you're right for Japan, they could probably just change the voiceover. Then again, you could argue the same for most advertisements. Changing the voiceover is dirt cheap even if it's 60 seconds' worth instead of 5.

Re:They have to change more than the voiceover.

[bconway]

It wouldn't do them much good in the US market anyway, the Euro and JDM Accords are completely different styles from the US models, though they're pretty much the same beasts under the hood. The JDM-spec Accord was recently released as the Acura TSX, I guess they could swap around the commercial for that, but it'd probably be a bit too much work.

Re:They have to change more than the voiceover.

[RowdyReptile]

The JDM-spec Accord was recently released as the Acura TSX, I guess they could swap around the commercial for that, but it'd probably be a bit too much work.

Yep, I saw this ad on a TSX forum a couple weeks ago. Even though it was the JDM Accord Wagon instead of the TSX (sedan), the TSX fans still loved it.

Kazza Mirror

[umthie10]

Search for cog, honda, commercial

Re:DEATH to Honda

[Anonymous Coward]

your ISP is AOL then, right?
Yes, you are right ONLY AOL, MSN are the right way to be American, everything else is CRAP.
There are some small players too, but they are insignificant. It is the big ones like AOL and MSN that makes American powerful
opensource is CRAP
Buy ONLY Microsoft products
They are American and protects hard earned American money thru DRM
Watch Some TV you MORON
We have WON
The enemy has been HUMILIATED
See how the iraqi people PRAISE our GREAT President
DONT watch those biased fucking liberal SCUM channels. It is nothing but LIES
FUCK them unAmerican LOSERS
Hail Bush

Re:Well, it's a stupid answer

[Skiboo]

Something Awful actually redirected hits from /. to goatse.cx once when they were linked to by the front page.

I wonder how the host of goatse felt about all that traffic, since I doubt SA asked for permission....

Inch?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article:

Nothing must be even a sixteenth of an inch off course or the momentum will be lost.

Man, when are the British going to stop being so pompous and join the rest of the world in using the metric system?

Re:Inch?

[Peyna]

I thought they used the metric system in England; and only the US and 1 other country use the English system.

Re:how'd they do that?

[nullard]

In the article it says that there were weights (bolts, etc) attached to the inside of the tires so that when they were bumped, the weight shifted causing them to roll uphill.

Re:Direct link... MOD UP! MOD UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

This one is working!

Re:so you're a WHORE as well as an IDIOT

[NightEyez]

I for one thank you for posting the mov version. Thanks!

Oops

[Greyfox]

I hope their cars have more horsepower than their web server.

Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xm l=/news/2003/04/13/nhonda13.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/ 04/13/ixhome.html Why is this page completely blank. While there has been some progress with problem web pages like theregister.co.uk, cnn.com, reuters.com. As far as I can tell, there are some ads on these web sites that are causing the problem. Other than that I can find no information on the subject. javascript off, cookies disabled.

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.asp?id=8 2ADE97F-FA9C-48EB-ACCC-695CC100852C Found another one.

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[valkraider]

Here's a nice reference.

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

As for the problem I am having viewing some web pages using Konqueror, your link to the w3.org was of little help. As for your absolutely hideous link to YOUR web site beanmag.com, which has a picture of a child that has lost an eye, what is your point? Allowing Saddam to torture his own people for the rest of his pitiful life is condoned by the anti-iraq war protestors? A US soldier intentionally gouged out the eye of this child? Iraq was better off with Saddam, than without? Perpetual Arms inspections would have made Iraq a safer place for Iraqi citizens? Would you care about Saddam torturing Iraqis to same degree that you seem to care about Iraqi civilians accidentally injured by bombs dropped by the US? Take away the oil, replace Bush with your favorite president, wouldn't the attrocities committed by Saddam be enough to do whatever needed to be done to stop Saddam? Read the op-ed by Eason Jordan. CNN . Look it up. The Anti-Iraq War Protestors will be proven to be total fools.

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

http://www.statesman.com/nationworld/content/news/ 041403/0414shuttle.html

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

http://www.idg.net/ic_1306191_9677_1-5044.html Yes I am off-topic. Yes I am obsessed.

Re:Konqueror 3.0.5a

[cashisking]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A260 39-2003Apr14.html javascript off , cookies disabled

"Rube Goldberg" is trademarked -- illegal to say

[michaelmalak]

Illegal to say "Rube Goldberg"

MPEG version, anyone

[wowbagger]

Anyone got a version that works with Xine - like an MPEG or DiVX?

I disagree.

[RatBastard]

Advertising is a fact of life. Everyone does it. It's not the cost of the ad that is ultimately important, it's the impact. This ad has generated more buz than any car ad in years. More people have already activly watched this ad than will bother to look at the average car ad. Will this increase sales? Hard to say. Will it get your attention? Very definitely.

Advertising rarely makes up a significant part of the price of any consumer item anymore. Taxes, especially England's high VAT, makes up a much larger percentage of the cost than advertising ever could.

Slashdot Servers

[t0ny]

I think they ripped off the idea after seeing how the Slashdot Servers run. LOL, it never ceases to amaze me how I can post one time in a day, but get an error stating how Ive exceeded my daily post amount.

So what was the cheat?

[Patik]

I saw a few things that looked a little fishy, but which one was it?

Re:So what was the cheat?

[wfmcwalter]

Although the rolling muffler does look a bit odd (it seems like it does several more turns than it should) the tires rolling upslope and bumping into one another also feels "wrong". It really doesn't seem like there's enough momentum for this to happen, and it's curious that this section, unlike most of the other parts of the ad, occurs right at the left margin of the screen. Perhaps this is the cheat, and perhaps the cheat is as simple as having some dude just offscreen poking the tires to keep 'em moving. That said, I can't see why they'd set up such a (relatively) unimpressive section and then have it need intervention.

It's certainly a nice ad (and one that actually addresses a real value proposition), and a million times better than its predecessor, the horrid meaningless "okay" ad, which also suffered from far more oily voiceover from Garrison Keillor than the "just works" one. THat said, it's rather long, and becomes somewhat tiresome on the n-th showing - I wish they'd make a shorter version, perhaps with just the cool walking wipers.

Re:So what was the cheat?

[furchin]

the tires rolling upslope and bumping into one another also feels "wrong".

The article states that the tires were filled with weights so they would roll uphill at the slightest nudge. I suppose this is the cheat, but I'm not sure.

Although the rolling muffler does look a bit odd (it seems like it does several more turns than it should)

Have you ever rolled an american football end over end? Its shape is similar to the muffler, and it rolls quite a bit further than I would expect.

Re:So what was the cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does nobody read the article anymore? The only cheat was that the thing was filmed in two seperate clips and merged in postproduction during the muffler.

Re:So what was the cheat?

[TheSonicVince]

Watch closely when the left-door window pane goes down: the rolling passese THROUGH it, actually. And btw the "Okay" crap wasn't Honda, it was Mazda ;-)

Re:Swiss Rube Goldberg video 'Der Lauf Die Dinge'

[Politburo]

Mentioned above, this special has aired on PBS, under the title "The Way Things Work". It's truly a must-see.

Distributed Mirror

[brejc8]

There are two good mirrors on the Distributer Mirror. And Im sure a few more will come soon.

Can't Spot it.

[mattyohe]

What this version of the video has in it's favor is it is compressed in the flash format.. So it all is "masked" by the compression that flash uses so it would be pretty hard to actually tell where the 1 frame of computer generated cell is... In fact.. during the compression, that frame may be non-existant anyways.

Very impressive shot.

Re:Can't Spot it.

[Dwedit]

Flash 6 uses Sorenson video, same video codec as quicktime.

Re:Can't Spot it.

[mattyohe]

Are you defending flash 6? Do you work for sorenson? What are you saying?

Thats all fine that it uses the sorenson video codec, and thats fine if its the same as quicktime.. You are missing the point.

It IS being compressed and it isn't displaying 29.97fps. This is what it was most likely shot at and the flash file is not displaying at that speed.

The reason I said it would be hard to tell where the computer generated *break* in reality is, is because im watching it ON a computer, vis a vis a codec that is digital. Thus seeing the compression artifacts, and then making it even harder to spot one frame of generated images.

You are probably the type of person to go into best buy and try to show how much smarter you are than their tech department. Get a life.

Re:Can't Spot it.

[Moofie]

You're a dick.

The person was giving a piece of information that you may or may not have had. I know I was interested to find out that Flash 6 used Sorensen, and it's available for Linux.

There was no reason for you to jump halfway up his ass.

Lighten up. You'll live longer.

Re:so you're a WHORE as well as an IDIOT

[Anonymous Coward]

Did somebody forget their meds this morning?

Here's a mirror

[Gudlyf]

Here's a mirror, I believe.

How about the speakers vibrating the glass?

[yelligsc]

That looks really fake. I have a hard time believing only the exhaust pipe in CGI.

Scott.

Re:How about the speakers vibrating the glass?

[Pirogoeth]

I don't know that the exhaust pipe is all CGI. I think they filmed this in two parts where one ended with the flipping pipe and one started with the flipping pipe. CGI was just used to link the two together.

Re:How about the speakers vibrating the glass?

[Elentar]

Most people here must not ever drive in big cities. Especially in the parts of big cities that are frequently used for 'cruising'. With cars that shock and awe using incredibly loud volumes (especially bass).

Is it so hard to believe that a spring could be kept from rolling off a slightly curved surface by, say, a single grain of sand? And that 16 speakers might serve to shift that grain of sand and start the spring rolling?

For that matter, the spring appears to be in the center of the glass initially, so it could just be balanced really well.

If I could change one thing about the commercial, it would be the end: In mine, the car would roll to a stop, and just as it did so, it would bump against a small cog on a wooden plank...

-Elentar

Re:How about the speakers vibrating the glass?

[Loosewire]

If I could change one thing about the commercial, it would be the end: In mine, the car would roll to a stop, and just as it did so, it would bump against a small cog on a wooden plank...
I wonder how many people took a breath in awe of the idea of what you just said. WOW

For contrast

[Sentry21]

Contrast this with Russian Ark. You really have to watch the trailer for an idea of its scale and majesty, but for those of you without Quicktime:

• 2000 actors
• 300 years of Russian history
• 33 rooms of the Hermitage Museum
• 3 live orchestras
• 1
  single
  continuous
  shot
• (voiceover) "Not only is Russian Ark the longest shot in film history, it is also the first feature film ever created in a single take."

--Dan

Re:For contrast

[1u3hr]

"Not only is Russian Ark the longest shot in film history, it is also the first feature film ever created in a single take."

Warhol made some rather longer ones. Such as EMPIRE, BW/Silent/8 hrs, 5 mins (filmed June 25/26, 1964). A continuous shot, though since each reel was 35 minutes long it was impossible for it to be a continuous take (and I doubt any movie ever made really is).

The film begins with a totally white screen and as the sun sets, the image of the Empire State Building emerges. The floodlights on its exterior come on, the building's lights flicker on and off for the next 6 1/2 hours, then the floodlights go off again in the next to the last reel so that the remainder of the film takes place in nearly total darkness. (warholstars.org)

Re:For contrast

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's basically a filming of a play with a lot of extras? Well, a play with a HUGE set, and a stedicam operator who must be a marathon runner...

Re:For contrast

[Alsee]

(voiceover) "Not only is Russian Ark the longest shot in film history, it is also the first feature film ever created in a single take." *SNEEZE* gezuntite....

AW SHIT!!!!! CUT! SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!
SHIT SHIT SHIT!!
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!!!

-

Re:For contrast

[c13v3rm0nk3y]

It is certainly a difficult job to shoot long, continuous shots. AFAIK, the longest shots in movies have been limited to the length of a reel, or trickery was used to hide the breaks where reels were changed (e.g., Hitchcock's "Rope", where the director would have the camera move behind a wall or set piece to hide the reel change).

If "Russian Ark" is indeed one continuous shot, I wonder how it was done.

Re:For contrast

[Anonymous Coward]

That's gesundheit!

Re:For contrast

[Anonymous Coward]

digital video camera, maybe?

Re:For contrast

[fishbert42]

You don't have to "watch the trailer for an idea of its scale and majesty." You could instead watch the movie itself. =)
And the voice over can be a bit misleading...

• Shot in a single take. The first two attempts were cut short by technical difficulties, but the third was successful.
  
  
• Because the Hermitage museum had to be shut down, the production had only one day to shoot the film.
  

(shamelessly copied from IMDB)

Re:For contrast

[crazyj]

Timecode was filmed 2 years earlier and was done in one take with four cameras simultaneously. The whole movie goes strainght through with each camera taking up a quadrant of your screen. Not the greatest movie, but interesting nonetheless.

Cheat

[poot_rootbeer]

There is one cheat however -- can you spot it?

He's probably hanging out with Strong Mad in the basement, playing the Trogdor arcade game.

Re:Cheat

[Tokerat]

I'm so glad the cheat is not dead.

Re:Cheat

[Moofie]

Did you see the thing in a bag?

Re:Cheat

[Tokerat]

...and the one where that girl wrote in, and I drank a glass of soy sauce and I thought I could fly Bub's Concession Stand?

Clear the launchway, man, we're gonna take this thing to the MOOOONNN!!!!

(D NOT FOR SALE)

Cheats

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

As the car rolls down the ramp, somebody steers it and applies the brakes.
That's all I got

--

Re:I drive a honda

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! A Honda! You are everything I want to be someday. Everytime I see a honda drive by, I wish I was that 34 year old secretary with a gay ass econo box shit mobile. And s2000 are VERY easy to beat in the quarter mile, as you have to launch an s2000 at 6000rpm to get a good time. Most owners won't do that, being the boring honda driving pussys that they are.

Re:online video?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://torrentse.cx

and buy ads while you're there, shit costs money

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

ford owns mazda.

Re:Well, it's a stupid answer

[GigsVT]

caching their page without permission

So I guess you must hate Google then.

I say, if they don't have robots.txt, or no-cache, it's fair game.

No interest

[heroine]

I'm not interested in buying a Honda Accord, a Pentium 4 3Ghz, a copy of EverQuest, or a copy of Firefly on DVD.

Re:No interest

[Anonymous Coward]

Good for you!

Why do I care?

Fischli and Weiss anyone?

[K-Man]

Didn't see the ad, but it sounds a lot like The Way Things Go. Anybody seen both?

This film has one mistake too; somebody has to dash onto the set and tweak something at one point to keep it going.

Object rolling through the open window.

[phasm42]

I can't see it very well, but the part where the cylindrical object rolls down the board, and the window goes down to let it through... is the board split in two? Otherwise, it appears that would be CGI, because the board was through the window.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[aridhol]

I thought that at first, too. Then I noticed that there are two boards, one on each side of the window. If you step through the Quicktime version, you can see the gap for a frame or two.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[einTier]

You can easily see the break in the wood ramp. There's also an electrical contact that the cylinder makes to make the window roll down.

Here's the synopsis:

1. Transmission bearing rolls, hits second bearing.
2. Second bearing rolls, hits third.
3. Third bearing rolls, hits contration to release cam shaft.
4. Cam shaft rolls, hits tailpipe.
5. Tailpipe spins, hits valve stem on hood.
6. Valve stem hits other valve stem.
7. Second valve stem hits third valve stem.
8. Valve stem falls off hood, hits something.
9. That something hits a spring loaded mechanism mounted to engine valve cover.
10. Spring loaded mechanism hits radiator.
11. Radiator falls, hits tire.
12. Tire hits weighted tire on ramp.
13. Tire rolls uphill, hits second weighted tire.
14. Second weighted tire rolls uphill, hits third weighted tire.
15. Third weighted tire rolls uphill, hits disc brake rotor(?).
16. Rotor falls on string, pulls seat back to it's full upright position.
17. Seat triggers release of windshield wiper mechanism.
18. Mecanism trips oil can.
19. Oil can pours onto platform, weighting one end down.
20. Platform tilts, releasing bearings(?) which roll into engine head.
21. Engine head on lever causes battery to rise.
22. Battery makes electrical connection, makes fan run.
23. Fan runs, which causes it to move. It moves forward, disconnects from power source, and runs into metal wire, releasing nut.
24. Nut drops, causes muffler to roll.

***CGI CUT***

25. Muffler rolls into strange contraption.
26. Strange contraption flings nut.
27. Nut hits tire on front end of car.
28. Tire rolls onto wire.
29. Wire sets into motion contraption made mostly of connecting rods.
30. Connecting rod starts metal cylinder rolling.
31. Metal cylinder hits connecting rod contraption and stops.
32. Potential energy stored in contraption causes rod to swing and kick off the metal cylinder.
33. Cylinder hits window, makes electical contact.
34. Electrical contact rolls down window.
35. Cylinder rolls again, past window onto new ramp, then off ramp onto "oh shit" handles.
36. Cylinder rolls off "oh shit" handles, onto battery, makes electrical contact.
37. Contact causes winshield squirters to spray water on windshield.
38. Windshield sensor detects "rain", turns on wipers.
39. Wipers crawl across floor, trip emergency brake.
40. Emergency brake sets window mobile in motion.
41. Window mobile causes wind, pushing over plastic panel.
42. Plastic panel has metal cylinder on top. Cylinder rolls into shock spring.
43. Shock spring has metal rod in it, which spins down.
44. Rod makes electrical contact, starts stereo.
45. Stereo connected to woofers under windshield.
46. Vibration causes spring to roll onto clutch pedal.
47. Depression of clutch pedal activates assembly which presses "hatch close" on door key.
48. Hatch closes, unbalancing platform.
49. Platform tilts, car rolls.
50. Car hits something that causees the Accord banner to unfurl.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[RollingThunder]

Rotor falls on string

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's actually the seatbelt. It's certainly more of a strap than a string.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[j0ehill]

why would they have to use a CGI cut for the muffler roll?

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[einTier]

Yeah, you're right. I totally goofed on that one. After reviewing the ad, it's definately a strap, and probably a seat belt strap.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[ceejayoz]

Read the article (about the "one cheat") - it explains that they had to put in about 1 second of CGI at that point in the ad.

Re:Object rolling through the open window.

[j0ehill]

ah, I missed this part: "The full advert is divided in two - because the studio couldn't fit in all the kit at once." pffffffffft, Honda couldn't spring for a bigger studio?

Cheat

[wantedman]

I thought the one and only cheat is at

Homstarrunner.com

Never mind, see other thread

[K-Man]

As experimental film goes, so goes advertising 20 years later.

Those who ignore film history

[K-Man]

Are doomed to watch it in car ads.

great ad

[NanoGator]

So, how many of you are now driving new Honda Station Wagons?

Re:I drive a honda

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, my Honda may be "white bread" but it beat the shit outta ride a bike. Speaking of which, Mom says you need to starting putting it in the garage at nite.

Mee too!

[Peter Lake]

Towards the end of the production, Olivier Coulhon, the first assistant director, had spent so many hours in the darkened studio that his skin had turned a luminous green and his eyes had sunk deep into his Gallic cheeks

Yea, I know that feeling!

Re:Mee too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Towards the end of the production, Olivier Coulhon, the first assistant director, had spent so many hours in the darkened studio that his skin had turned a luminous green and his eyes had sunk deep into his Gallic cheeks

Yea, I know that feeling!

Sméagol?! Is that you?

Re:Cheats (Tires!)

[recursiv]

the rubber tires was standing on an ramp (about 35 to 40 degrees). its not plain possible.

Yes it is possible. The tires are weighted. RTFA.

Oh dear God.

[GLevangelist]

They'll probably make millions selling the out-takes to obsessive geeks.

Re:haha how appropriate

[evilviper]

Kind funny how moderators decide upon moderation based on context... If I'd had posted this comment seperately, I'd have been modded to +5, but since it's a reply to a -1 comment, it must be a -1 as well.

It's a fact, most American cars are designed to be completely useless after 5 years, (or 10 years depending). I think you can still get some decent trucks that aren't made to self-destruct (you don't rip-off the professionals) but small trucks seem to be gradually going downhill as well.

It's amazing how it works. Every widely popular car manufacturer has expensive crap for cars, but nobody starts a company with consumers in mind, and the few decent companies out there, get no press coverage.

I don't know any Trolls that post at +2, do any of you?

Beowolf Cluster?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many Accord CPU based Linux installs can I run in my single cluster?

Delicious irony

[jez9999]

I find this deliciously ironic, because the voiceover on the final ad goes something like "Don't ya love it when things just ... work?"

Well clearly things didn't "just work" if they needed 606 takes to get it right!! :-)

Re:Delicious irony

[Anonymous Coward]

you're right, but the final take did 'work'
and the crew 'loved it'

Re:Delicious irony

[Daetrin]

But they really damn loved it when it finally did just work :)

Did anyone go to Rube Contest 2003?

[captnkurt]

According to http://www.rube-goldberg.com, there's an annual competition at Purdue University each year to build a Rube Goldberg-ian machine. In fact, the one for 2003 was last Saturday! Did anyone go? Results available at http://www.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/rube/rube.index.html .

Re:Did anyone go to Rube Contest 2003?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am actually a member of the fraternity who runs the collegiate competition here at Purdue University. I am also the chairperson for the regional competition here at Purdue. The national contest was this past Saturday and we had a great turn-out. This happens to be Purdue's largest media event and it continues to get bigger and bigger every year. For more information, keep a close watch at our website:

http://rubemachine.com

Re:Did anyone go to Rube Contest 2003?

[Anonymous Coward]

I competed there...well, sort of...my team (George Washington) went there planning to compete, but once we got there we couldn't make our machine work. I swear it worked before we left. I think we scored points with the crowd for using a giant, robotic claw; for being the only team to have an electrical explosion; and for having the machine most likely to accidently kill someone :)

What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Andy_R]

There is nothing at all in the advert that makes me want to buy a Honda in preference to any other car, and apart from the complete car in the last few seconds, there is nothing that is even a recognisable Honda part there (unless you take apart cars for aliving, I guess?).

All I get from this advert is the message that Honda have a lot of time and money to waste. Now I also know that and they insist on doing things in a very dumb way when they could have saved a lot of time and money by using a computer.

Way to go, advertising agency, you just put me off the Honda brand.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[gurps_npc]

People advertise for 3 reasons.

Achieve Name Recognition.

Inform the Public of something new

Remind the Public that they exist.

Create an image/rep/brand.

Honda does not need any more Name Recognition. People know that Honda makes cars.

Honda has no need to tell anyone anything new. Frankly, they have nothing new to say.

Honda DOES need to remind us that they are still around. I haven't thought about them a lot.

And it CERTAINLY wants to create an image of being cool.

That is what this add is designed to do.

Basically, they are just showing off - but that will make some people think, Honda is a cool company, not like Oldsmobile, or staid like Cadilac.

This is a very effective commercial.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

So let me get this straight. You refuse to buy a car because the commercial didn't feature CGI? Idiot.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[mosch]

If you were put off a brand by an advertisement that was so successful in attracting viewers that it's now available on dozens of mirror sites, that's not a concern to Honda. The fact that they did it without computer graphics is what makes this ad special, interesting and worthwhile.

The fact of the matter is that this ad is sufficiently unique to entice people to voluntarily view it, and that's a rarity in this day and age. After all, I normally skip commercials with my PVR, yet I and tens of thousands of other people just watched a 2 minute car commercial, voluntarily.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[d80god]

The ad has a few moments where it shows off some of the car's features (sound system, auto sensing wipers, power tail gate, etc). Admittedly none of these features are unique to the accord, but it's not as esoteric as you make it out to be.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Andy_R]

No, that's not what I said. I have negative view of the company because they wasted a large amount of time and money on doing something in a very inefficient way. If the company makes bad management decisions like this, why should I trust it's cars?

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

you sir, are a fucking retard.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[JoeRobe]

I think part of the point is to illustrate how much fine tuning and crafting is behind the design and production of a car. Only the parts of an Accord are used. That's not a coincidence. And they are set up extremely precisely. If just one part was out of place, it wouldn't have worked. The fact that the sequence works so elegantly implies that the same sort of precision work went into the Accord itself, and that it, too, works elegantly.

What is the final ending? All of these bits and pieces work together seamlessly (because they were put together perfectly) to make an Accord run.

So the idea is that there is a lot of precision and hard work that goes into the making of the car, down to the little parts, like bearings.

I presume that the commercial is supposed to make you not only say, "hey that's cool," but also think about how much hard work went into the making of something like an Accord.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, so one stubborn, narrow-minded person is put off the Honda brand, while thousands are enticed by the ad.

I bet they really regret what they have done.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[*SECADM]

Exactly. It's also a play on the name of the car, "accord", as things to come together in harmony and unity.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[switcha]

People advertise for 3 reasons. You left off "So the agency can win awards." In the ad biz myself, and an agency will sell a client all the sunshine they can fit up their butts if it gets them the approval to do something like this, which will clean house at award shows and get them in CA, get a gold pencil, etc etc.

Re:What is it meant to say about the cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally some sense - he sure fucking well is

Re:I drive a honda

[Anonymous Coward]

My huffy goes faster than a Honda. I raced two eminem wannabe's in a civic with it.

unbroken fischli/weiss link...

[frostman]

yep, fischli & weiss rock.

here's the parent comment's link, without the space, and...uh...as a link.

I would never...

[Anonymous Coward]

...have bought a Honda anyway. Or a Toyota for that matter. They just ain't pretty. There's nothing striking or distinctive about any of their cars. Reliable? Yes. Good looking? No.

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you think it was excluded? Fucktard.

Sweet!

[Xel]

...Im going to go download the new Animatrix trailer while all of you are slashdotting Honda's servers!

What do you know - flash 6 out for Linux

[wowbagger]

I sit here in shock and amazement - Macromedia actually has a Flash 6 plugin for Mozilla under Linux.

I must go out to my car now and roll up my windows - else those flying pigs will make a mess of my upholstery.

Re:What do you know - flash 6 out for Linux

[MAXOMENOS]

Yeah, and what's more, they have an RPM for it that works pretty much flawlessly for RH8.

Obligitory RTFA

[Tokerat]

The rolling muffler is CG.

Re:Obligitory RTFA

[Daetrin]

From what it says in the article it sounds like the muffler isn't entirely CG. They just didn't have enough room in at location to set the whole thing up at once, so they did some CG to connect then ending of the first half with the begining of the second half, ie when the muffler is rolling. I suspect that the muffler itself is real.

-!- MIRROR of POSTED FILES...Another Option

[holland_g]

Perhaps one has already mentioned this previously, but why not mirror future high bandwidth submitted items or pages on a newly created Yahoo Group?

This submission is a perfect example of why and when to do this.

As far as the how? Simple, create a group with archives open to the public, then attach the files in the files section. After you are done archiving the link, then submit the story.

There is a filesize limit on the group accounts, but anything below that would work. Seven or so days later, delete the group.

Re:online video?

[monkeyfamily]

Snagged a quicktime version from a UK version of adcritic.com. It's announced at the above torrentse.cx.

Re:Rube Goldberg? Storm P.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any comments about the Dane; Robert Storm Pedersen (Storm P.)? Seems very similar to me and he has done works from before 1920, don't know about his first magic machines though. (Yes I'm Scandinavian)

Forgot @ end: Isn't it nice --

[MickLinux]

They say "Isn't it nice when something just works?" as a Linux banner unfurls.

Only 1 CG scene?

[snoochyboochy]

OK, the muffler could be CG, but what about the last second when the car rolls off the ramp? The front tires/tyres/whatever come off the ramp when the rears are still BEHIND the ramp axle- that ramp would have to be terribly heavy to have the front segment weigh more than the back segment+rear of car. If that is the case, how did they balance it to begin with? Hmmm....

Re:Only 1 CG scene?

[zejackal]

I don't know about that. An ideal car has a 50-50 front/rear weight distribution. Most likely the car in the add is a little front heavy (that's where the engine is). But if it were at 50-50 or even biased toward the rear a little, it wouldn't take much weight added to the front to cause it to tip. Technically speaking, in a frictionless world, you would only have to have a miniscule amount of extra weight (ounces... grams) in the front to get it to tip that way. In the real world, all you need is enough weight up front (e.g. enough force) to overcome the static friction of the pivot point. The more front heavy the setup, the faster the front end would accelerate downward, that's all.

Re:Only 1 CG scene?

[snoochyboochy]

Exactly my point- given a 50-50 weight distro, frictionless world, that ends up with the ramp axle being at very near the midpoint of the ramp. So when the front end of the wagon comes off the ramp, and the rear end is still behind the ramp axle, the ramp should pop up, or at least move, rather than staying firmly on the floor. I'm guessing there is more than just one CG scene here...Marketing..sheesh...

Re:Only 1 CG scene?

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a physics class. Pay special attention to the chapter on torque. That platform is lightweight, but it's clearly front-heavy. If you watch the video carefully, you'll see that at the point in time where the front wheels leave the platform, the back wheels are indeed still behind the brake discs that serve as a fulcrum. However, the point where the back tires contact the platform is only slightly behind the fulcrum. Probably less than a foot and maybe as little as six inches. (That's 10 to 20 cm for those who use reasonable units.)

Getting back to torque, there is no net torque around a point (and thus no acceleration) when all of the lever arms around that point are balanced evenly. In simplified terms what this means for this situation is that the force of the rear tires TIMES the miniscule distance from the rear tires to the fulcrum would have to overcome the torque due to front-heaviness that is holding the front of the ramp on the end of the ground. And yes, that station wagon is heavy, but the point is that the torque it contributes is the product of a pretty big number (force) and a pretty small number (distance), and the result is a number that's not really all that big. So that torque is probably not enough to tip the ramp.

However, even if it IS enough to tip the ramp, the force only occurs for maybe 1/4 second. That ramp, being a very long object with plenty of mass at its extremities, has surely got a decently large moment of inertia. So, while it might move, the angular acceleration will be quite small unless there is a big torque. There simply isn't enough time for much movement before the rear wheels are past the fulcrum and creating torque in the opposite direction.

If you'd like an intuitive feel for this, find a door somewhere in your house, and pull it toward you until it's almost closed. Then, place the tip of just one finger (or thumb) about one inch from the edge on the end that has the hinges. Press firmly on the door with that finger and try to open it. You'll find that it moves pretty slowly and requires (literally) over an order of magnitude more force to move it than it would if you pushed on the end with the doorknob. How far open can you push the door in 1/4 second?

Note that all of this is fairly non-obvious. It is obvious, though, that lots of care (and probably precise measurement) went into the making of this advertisement, so I would not be surprised if the "hey, isn't the ramp going to flip up?" feeling is an intentional part of the joke.

does not compute

[captaincucumber]

Your response doesn't make any sense. He's wondering at the math involved in the current balance of how much companies spend on advertising vs the cost that that adds to the product, seeming to feel that it's a bit excessive, you're bitching about the sales/VAT taxes in a semi-socialist country.

RTFC

/.'ed

[Asmodean]

In other news today scientists have discovered the cause of El Nino to be an underwater cable that periodically heats up and boils large amounts of the Pacific Ocean. Telephone officials have traced the cause to stories posted on "Slashdot.org" that link to Asia.

Re:"Rube Goldberg" is trademarked -- illegal to sa

[Anonymous Coward]

Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

while I'm at it...

BackOffice

FrontPage

IntelliMouse

NetMeeting

TM

I never thought it could happen..

[Solitary Angel]

The good old Daily Record appears on /. lol

Well stranger things have happened....
I think...

Ad men rip off artists yet again...

[ftangftang]

I saw the original short film this Honda ad plagiarized, about ten years ago...done by an artist using things to hand in his grubby studio. In all my years watching "great" ads, I have yet to see one that wasn't originated elsewhere by someone who was never paid for it, certainly not the big bucks by Honda. The so-called "creativity" of the ad-men is really just stealing. Shame on the people who made this.

Re:Ad men rip off artists yet again...

[Moofie]

That's just stupid.

The people who laboriously set up this contraption stole NOTHING from "The Way Things Go". None of the mechanisms are the same. Honda's people may have been /INSPIRED/ by those Swiss blokes, who were undoubtedly inspired by others (like the Mousetrap game, or Rube Goldberg himself, or whoever).

Listen carefully. Using an idea is not "stealing". Commit that to memory.

Art is about the chain of inspiration, stretching back over the centuries. Any time an artist says that their ideas should not be incorporated into the next generation of art, they cease to be an artist, and they betray everything they should be holding dear. Disney is a superb example of the type.

Re:Ad men rip off artists yet again...

[Qender]

The "original"? WHAT? Do you have any idea how many times this has been done? Rube Goldberg made the original. Some swiss artists did it, that's probably what you're talking about. Or are you referring to Pee-Wee's big adventure?

Re:Ad men rip off artists yet again...

[Anonymous Coward]

You know...you are absolutely right!

It's just that the film I saw was almost identical, (except in black and white) even down to the real sound/silence audio, lacking only the car at the end (their idea, no doubt).

But in sober light, I see that the generality I inferred from that is meaningless.
I guess I just hate ads,

Re:If this is not the first post...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but will you be wearing said pants at the time?

Re:Obligitory RTFA to myself

[Tokerat]

After reading the second article, this becomes more clear to me. That's still a cheat though, but damn, what a cool commercial.

How would Rube Goldberg solve...

[Joey7F]

the slashdot effect.

I have not seen the commercial, but have enjoyed his ridiculous inventions...

--Joey

"+5 Funny?"

[Overly Critical Guy]

That was incredibly lame. Gee. Whoopi Goldberg. I think the appropriate response would be "har har har," but the Slashbots will of course mod you up for no intelligent reason. It was neither funny nor clever.

Re:"+5 Funny?"

[L. VeGas]

I completeley agree with you. I'm amazed it was modded up.
When I was posting it I kept thinking it was sooo stupid that it was kind of funny. Then when I say it, I thought, "Nah, it's just stupid."
I may be an idiot, but apparently I'm not the only one.

Re:"+5 Funny?"

[Overly Critical Guy]

Well, at least you used your karma bonus modifier to tell me that.

Re:Goldberg and Heath Robinson

[MountainBoiler]

Colleges have Rube Goldberg competitions. I actually have caught one.

http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/9612.Rube .one.html

I believe it is headquartered at Purdue, but other universities also participate.

for those on 56k

[abhisarda]

here is the link... Honda

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

> I don't know any Trolls that post at +2, do any of you?

I dunno. You've marked me as a foe (along with such lovely /.izens as The BOFH Troll, Trolling4Dollars and WeatherTroll), seeming to indicate that you 'foe' trolls - and I have my +2.

So which is it?

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

because you are an idiot? Mazda is well known to make the MOST reliable and durable cars in the world.

Re:Swiss Rube Goldberg video 'Der Lauf Die Dinge'

[Anonymous Coward]

funny, i have a copy of this called "chain reaction", i like "the way things go" much better.

Another Bittorrent link

[Anonymous Coward]

1.3MB .mov file http://torrentse.cx/download.php?file=RubeGoldberg HondaAd.mov.torrent

Don't run for cover just yet...

[Shaddup]

The linux plugin doesn't happen to work. At all. I even d/led the .swf to my hd, and all I get is a blank white page. It's ironic; all of the annoying flash-based advertisements work, but when I actually want to view something worthwhile that uses flash...

Uh, no

[autopr0n]

I don't have a problem with caching, rather the slashdot editors said that they didn't want to cache sites to protect against the slashdot effect because it might piss off webmasters. I said that if you thought caching was bad, you could still notify people, especially since slashdot posts stuff so late anyway. I saw this linked on fark days ago.

Intresting

[autopr0n]

A comment complaning about slashdot's rather careless linking policy gets -1. A comment with a link the FAQ gets a 4. A comment refuting the FAQ gets -1. How nice.

Slashdot editors are a bunch of thin-skinned jackasses.

Re:Intresting

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an idea. *Everyone* running a server set up a rule that checks for referrals coming from "/." and immediately dumps them back to slashdot. The internet death penalty. Think they'll get the message?

Interesting - it worked for me

[wowbagger]

It worked just fine for me when I installed it.

Stupid question - do you perhaps have the new plugin installed in your home directory, and the old plugin installed in /usr/(lib|local)/mozilla/plugins?

Another mirror!

[May Kasahara]

http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/honda-ad.html

Other p2p downloads

[Omniscient Ferret]

Quicktime:
4.8 meg, 320x180: bitzi
11.6 meg, 428x240: bitzi

I'd provide eDonkey or Gnutella links but the links get broken here.

Better than "The Way Things Go"?

[Qender]

I have to confess, I've not seen the honda ad yet. (School computer). But I've seen the video that many people discussing this article are talking about, the swiss film, "The Way Things Go".

"The Way Things Go" is a half hour long, and there are about 10 cheats, not good CG ones either, But slow dissolves that anyone would be able to see, the way things go is also very slow, sometimes you wait about a minute for a liquid to spill across a surface, sometimes the transitions occur during this liquid spreading. Don't get me wrong, I liked the film, but if someone has done a great number of similar effects with only one cheat in under a minute, I would assume it would be a lot more impressive. And who cares if it's been done before. Most things have been done before.

I think you people are just mad bacause it's honda and they make crappy cars.

Re:Obligitory RTFA to myself

[Daetrin]

Still a cheat, but a fairly minor one. It seems like it was the small really finely balanced things that were screwing up most of the time. The muffler is pretty large and stable, so not very likely to go off course, and it seems like the only reason they did the cut was because it was physically impossible to fit everything on the set at once. If they'd decided to have the cut at one of the incredibly failure prone points i'd think it was more of a foul play.

Why didn't I make a backup when I had the chance?!

[Argon Sloth]

Just watching this ad is makes me want to play the Incredible Machine. How many others got that feeling. For those who haven't played it's a puzzle game, originally published by Sierra. (but no longer available in its original form) Where in each puzzle you are given a 2-D side view of a partial Rube Goldberg machine and a bunch of spare parts that are to be used to complete the goal of each machine. You'd get to use parts like mouse motors that can be connected to coveyor belts, an assortment of balls, some flammables like candles and cannons, and a few critters. So immediately after watching the ad, I went and hunted down my copy for some good old DOS fun, when to my surprise the Disc was corrupted and unusable. Just a reminder to those who still have software on floppies, make a back-up copy. So backup your software so you don't have to go TIMless.

just buy it...

[deflood]

i thought of the incredible machine too. and actually i have it (and bought it recently) from amazon. it's call incredible machines contraptions... here's the link BTW it is great.

Re:just buy it...

[Argon Sloth]

I have that and had/have most of the rest of the Incredible Machine Series, even the Incredible Toon Machine. Contraptions is basically a rerelase of TIM 3 which was a WIN 95 rerelase of TIM 2. All three of which I've got kicking around somewhere. I have still got to find the expansion to Contraptions, Even More: Contraptions, but tht can wait for later. The unfourtunate thing is none of TIM levels custom or preset, I've ever seen has ever had a complexity of anywhere near that of this comercial.

Garrison Keillor??

[SilentJ_PDX]

Honda's actually had a lot of really interesting ads over here (in the UK). But the thing that's kept me interested is the spokesman in all of them sounds a lot like Garrison Keillor (from Prairie Home Companion). I haven't been able to find out if that's his voice, though...

Definitely going to get that DVD to see if they mention GK.

Re:Garrison Keillor??

[WebMasterJoe]

It will be able to be shown everywhere from Japan to South America, Finland to the Maldives, without any more alteration than perhaps a change of the closing voiceover, currently delivered by laid-back Garrison Keillor, the American author, who announces: "Isn't it nice when things just work?"

Yes, it is Garrison Keillor.

Have not seen it.

[jotaeleemeese]

The BBC in the UK does not show advertisements, the rest of British TV is mostly crap.

I don't know, it may be only me, but I find something terribly disturbing when advertisements of all things are whorshiped like something worth so much discussion.

No, we just *pretend* to

[RMH101]

Keep it quiet, but we're just pretending to in order to keep Brussels happy. You can order, say, a new backdoor in metric sizes, but when you talk to your joiner you *know* they're going to make you pay "metric tax" if you don't give them the sizes in feet and inches.

Besides, who ever popped out for a swift 548cl down the pub?

Re:No, we just *pretend* to

[Anonymous Coward]

I presume by 548cl you mean a pint, which is actually 568ml.

A US Pint, on the other hand, is 473ml.

548cl is approximately 9.6 (UK) pints, or 11.5 (US) pints.

Re:haha how appropriate

[evilviper]

You don't have to be a troll to end up on my foe's list... I don't arrange it that way.

I add anyone as a foe if I don't think they typically add anything to the conversation. I had an entire exchange with Trolling4Dollars on the subject, and he happened to agree with my criteria.

My foes list is only set at about -1, so if you post something that gets moderated up, I'll still see it. When I see a couple posts from you (whoever you happen to be) that I find to be interesting or show some genuine insight, or are otherwise things I'd like to spend some of my (limited) time reading, then you will get removed from my foes list, and possibly added to my friends list as well.

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

> I add anyone as a foe if I don't think they typically add anything to the conversation.

Interesting use of the list. I tend not to use it at all, fearing a backlash in moderation. (Which is why I think the "Freaks" list should be numerical only - "3 people have marked you a foe" or something. Then again, if it was, we wouldn't be having this dialogue.

> My foes list is only set at about -1, so if you post something that gets moderated up, I'll still see it. When I see a couple posts from you (whoever you happen to be) that I find to be interesting or show some genuine insight, or are otherwise things I'd like to spend some of my (limited) time reading, then you will get removed from my foes list

What do you browse at? And do you ever check people's posting histories?

Re:haha how appropriate

[evilviper]

What do you browse at?

+3 most of the time. Occasionally, I'll set it higher if there is an extra-large number of comments on a story, or I don't have much time.

And do you ever check people's posting histories?

Before I add anyone as a friend or foe, I check about 5 from their history to give some perspective. Not really an exhaustive search, but since it's only -1 or +1, I don't worry about it too much... Get just one extra mod point and I will see the comment again, and remove that person as a foe if I think the comments are worthwhile.

Is my math correct?

[idahogie]

Let's see - 4 days is 5760 minutes. Therefore, 606 takes would equate to about 9.5 minutes/take.

Even if the majority of the takes failed early (mention was made of the twirling wiper blade contraption), I don't think 9.5 minutes is achievable, even if you were just filming a cereal box.

What gives?

really?

[Anonymous Coward]

... and then go back in time a decade or two and note the contrast. Russian Communism clearly had problems, but Russsia went into free-fall as the system collapsed and GNP shrank by 80% from 1991 to 1999 (cf., e.g. here)

All CG!

[martyn s]

This movie is 100% CG, by the way. I know I'm posting realllly late, so probably no one will see this, but this commercial is totally CG. Even the title is a subtle reference to that fact, a sort of stuck out tongue to everyone's back. The title is "Cog". Think about it. I'm surprised slashdotters didn't pick up on this. It's really amazing, actually. This is probably the first totally CG production that fooled everyone, even slashdotters. Amazing.

Re:haha how appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahahaha. Yeah, it was, until it became Ford. Fucking moron.

Last Post!

[alpg]

(German philosopher) Georg Wilhelm Hegel, on his deathbed, complained,
"Only one man ever understood me." He fell silent for a while and then added,
"And he didn't understand me."

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...