There are tons of songs that are heavily associated with commercials, and it always drives me nuts when the song is virtually impossible to find. I’ve compiled a list of some really good songs from commercials. Some of these songs can be found on iTunes, Amazon Music, and CDBaby. I would think that these companies behind these products would want their song heard as much as possible because of the product association so it’s beyond me that it’s a chore to find out who makes these songs. I know that whenever Alicia Keys - No One comes on, I immediately think of the Target commercial. I’ve linked to what appears to be the official versions for these commercials. Without further adieu, here are some commercials with songs I like.

Just so you know, youtube audio is substantially downgraded so getting a flv audio ripper and ripping the song to mp3 will NOT give you a good copy. You’re better off buying it.

Heineken - Share the Love

Song: Chris Knox - It’s Love
Available on: Amazon

This is the full version of the commercial, but most people are accustomed to the half-spot.

Heineken - Meet You There

Song: Teddybears - Cobrastyle
Available on: Amazon

This song is use for a lot of other current pop culture material, like Chuck.

Chlorox - Pirates

Song: H. Scott Salinas and Francois-Paul Aïche - Pirates
Available on: CDBaby | iTunes

The song is available via the Blue Sky Project, which actually has a back story.

[S]ometime around 2005, Clorox began receiving an unusual number of letters and emails specifically about the music in several of their commercials. People loved the music, wanted to know where it came from and where they could get it. This was the birth of The Blue Sky Project.

Purchases made for the BSP via CDBaby go to a charity called Music In Schools Today that funds school music programs. There are three songs that people commonly know and love in the BSP. Unfortunately, you have to buy the package of all the songs ($5.99) to get them on CDBaby, but they’re in MP3 format at 200 VBR. I know they’re available on iTunes, but I don’t know if they’re available DRM free as I don’t have an iPod and don’t have iTunes installed.

Chlorox - Mermaid

Song: H. Scott Salinas and Francois-Paul Aïche - Mermaid
Available on: CDBaby (BSP) | iTunes

Brita - Water Yourself

Song: The Elements - Smooth Day
Available on: CDBaby (BSP) | iTunes

Volkswagon - Big Day

Song: J. Ralph - One Million Miles Away
Available on: iTunes

The full song is available for test drive on youtube and imeem. There’s also a remix going around called “J. Ralph vs Four Tet via Tocci - Everything is One Million Miles Away” and that’s even better (don’t ask me where to get it though).

Reebok - Migration

Song: Vashti Bunyan - Train Song
Available on: Amazon | iTunes

Nike - Move

Song: Jonathan Elias - Move
Available on: Amazon

Absolut - Moon

Unfortunately, according to one of the uploaders on youtube, the song is an “original score done by a commercial music house specifically for this spot, so [it] is not available for purchase or download.”

Sources

If you know another source where a song is available for download (DRM free, legal sources only) and can link to it I’ll add them to the article. As of the time of the posting, I’ve checked eMusic and Amie Street also (to no avail). Once again, I favor Amazon over iTunes because there’s no issue with file formats or DRM and I don’t have to install iTunes. I’m not a fan of the fact that iTunes tries to take over your computer.

Disclosure

I was not paid to write this article. I just like these songs (and if you do too, go out and buy them). I don’t specifically wear Nike or Reebok apparel (although I happen to have a pair of Nike indoor soccer shoes). I don’t specifically go out and buy Absolut or Heineken, but if there’s a good deal, I’ll get them. I don’t drive a VW (or Audi for that matter). As for cleaning with Chlorox, I’m a guy (that should say enough). I have a Brita water pitcher/filter, but the only reason I got it was because my grandmother passed away and had the pitcher with two Costco sized boxes of filters. I’m not receiving anything from these companies to write this.

I am one of the many coders who subscribe to the idea that web applications are best made through a nice balance of CSS and Tables. Whenever I hear someone touting a tableless CSS design, I cringe. This is the first in a many part series to prove that tableless CSS is simply fanboyish zealotry.

..:: The Challenge

One of the CSS rules says that you’re not supposed to use tables for anything except displaying data (statistics, charts, etc). In this challenge, you’re required to make CSS layout that is synonymous with the following code:

1. <table>
2. 	<tr>
3. 		<td width=70%>Cell 1</td>
4. 		<td>Cell 2</td>
5. 	</tr>
6.	<tr>
7.		<td colspan=2>Cell 3</td>
8. 	</tr>
9. </table>

This is for a series of repeating preference options in a form (lines 2-8 will repeat in a for-loop). Cell 1 has the option name. Cell 2 has the option modifier (select box, radios, checkbox, etc). Cell 3 has a description of what the option does.

..:: Constraints

With any sort of code, there are constraints.

1. The example is written in html tables. If you cannot vizualize this layout in your head, do not reply. This is the first hurdle of competency.
2. You must either completely forgo the float property OR you may use float, if you verify that it works with a scriptaculous slider object in Cell 2. Apparently a lot of AJAX is drawn like scriptaculous sliders, so a lot of AJAXy objects break with the float property.
3. Your code must work perceptually on multiple browsers, particularly IE5-7, safari, opera, and FF1-3. No browser specific code is permitted.
4. Do not include any unnecessary code (margins, padding, fonts, borders) unless it is specifically required for the problem.
5. Your code must be 100% semantic. That is, the markup for Cell 1 must come before the markup for Cell 2, which must come before the markup for Cell 3. You also are not allowed to use [un]ordered lists. Form elements are not lists.
6. The line down the middle of the grid (odd rows only) should be at 70% of the max object width for all objects. Thus, cell 2 should line up all the way down the page, regardless of the actual contents of cell 1.

..:: Bonus Points

You get bonus points if you can meet the following:

1. Making the code work perceptually right is a requirement, but making the code CSS compliant is for bonus points. Pick your level of compliance. I don’t care, but all of the code (CSS and html markup) must validate with W3C in some shape or form.
2. A bunch of CSS nuts argue that bandwidth is a big issue. Since bandwidth really depends on your character set, we’ll just go by characters. The table implementation requires 66N + 15 characters where N is the number of preferences we have (the main table markup is 15 characters, and then the loop outputting the rows is 66 characters). Thus, if you get bonus points if you can beat 66N + 15. Since CSS implementations supposedly use lower bandwidth than tables at higher orders, assume there are 10 (or even 20) preferences. Thus, if you can meet the constraints and do it in less than 675 characters (or 66N + 15), you get bonus points. To give CSS the further benefit of the doubt, id and class names, regardless of length, will be counted only as 1 character.

..:: Final Note

This is not a work or school project. This is my software engineering side wondering how a lot of the CSS zealotry is supposed to make sense. Also, I personally haven’t updated any code on this site since the winter break of 2006/2007, and I know that a lot of the ways that I’ve done stuff on this site is crap code. This is my own home-grown CMS, with home-grown CSS, and I haven’t really been devoting much time to it. In other words, don’t bother with personal attacks. I’ll just delete them. Post your answer in the comments.

..:: Update

Apparently this is too hard. Try it with float allowed. You’ll still have a ridiculous amount of problems doing this simple top-left-top-right-bottom-full (TLTRBF) layout problem.

The Meat Producers Association of American has filed suit against rapper extraordinaire Curtis James Jackson, “50 Cent”, and hip-hop mogul, Kanye West in an Oklahoma federal court on Friday, alleging misappropriation of trademarks, copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, and possibly patent infringement.

..:: It’s All About the Beef

The incident started when Jackson and West started arguing over which would have a bigger album release in September. The two have started an all-out verbal altercation over the release date. The latest in the argument has 50 Cent claiming that he’ll quit the rap game if Kanye outsells him. In a press conference, West was quoted saying,

I don’t know why 50 hates me so much. He just got this beef for me and I can’t stand that guy.

Jackson responded later that evening in his own conference,

West started this beef. He wouldn’t be anything without me, and now he’s trying to put an album out on the same day as me.

West’s publicist responded the next morning,

50 just wants to start some beef to sell some albums. He’s copying 2Pac and Biggie. Kanye wants nothing to do with this. If they don’t both watch it, they’ll both be shot by some overzealous fans. I’m not sure if 50 can take getting shot again.

The MPAA’s general counsel, Tim Dewey (also head partner of Dewey, Cheetum, & Howe, P.A.), stated in a press release

We’re aggressively protecting our intellectual property. These two con artists are using our trademarks unlawfully. We’re losing money in meat sales because of this misappropriation of our investments. We spend a lot of time and money promoting our product, and casting it in a good light, but these two hooligans associate one of our flagship products with fighting and anger. Neither has contacted us in regards to licensing our properties. Beef is what’s for dinner — not an argument that will ultimately end in rappers getting shot.

..:: Legal Basis

When asked about the legal basis for the lawsuit, Dewey responded,

We copyrighted the word “Beef” shortly after the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS), the consortium behind the DRM for HD-DVD disks, claimed copyrights over a 32 character string of hexidecimal characters. We figured it would be a sound legal investment. If the AACS can claim copyrights to something that short, we figured we could copyright “Beef” to protect our own industry. In fact, you just heard me say the word “Beef”. Under my copyright license terms, you’re not allowed to say, write, transmit, or listen to the word without paying our licensing fee. You’ve heard me say the word “Beef” 3 times in the last 10 seconds. You now owe me $.51 cents. Pay up.

Jackson’s attorney responded, saying,

It’s absurd that someone can think they can copyright “Beef”. It’s four characters. Actually it’s three characters. One is used twice. This lawsuit is baseless. We’re going to counter-sue them for all their cows. And if that doesn’t cover our legal costs, we’re going to take their pigs and chickens. And if that’s not enough, we may take the Spam and beef jerky too. Hey Dewey, “BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF! BEEF!” You want the money? Sue me.

Dewey later added,

We’ve started a new campaign to aggressively protect our property. We’re asking for punitive damages in this case. We’ve suffered intense damages amidst this misuse, and even our cows are going through extensive pain and suffering. We also intend to go after various congressmen for associating one of our flagship products with unwanted email that advertises penis enlargement, gambling, pornography, and debt consolidation. Spam is a canned meat product of the future, and no one needs a spam filter. Everyone should have more Spam in their home.

This news comes in the wake of U.S. companies aggressively pursuing enforcement of their intellectual property rights, like Apple getting sued for an LED in their chargers. When asked about possible patent protections, Dewey noted,

We may add a patent infringement claim to this lawsuit in the near future. Our application for “System and method of vocally projecting a word with a two consanents and two repeating vowels in between” is still pending, but our legal outlook seems positive. We just needed to get this lawsuit filed as soon as possible to stop the damage everyone is causing. For Christ’s sakes, some of our cows’ milk is curdling in their udders because of this misuse.

..:: Ramifications

Since the lawsuit has been filed, the two lyrical masterminds have attempted using different words — some with less success than others. Kanye noted in a follow-up press conference,

Saying, “50 has got some major pasta with me now” just doesn’t ring the same bell. I tried using “lettuce”, “horseradish”, and “beets”, but my attorney said that a different MPAA, the Master Produce Association of America, would sue us too. And if I say pasta, what’s to stop Italy from suing me? I just don’t get it. Why can’t a man just have another man’s beef?

At the end of the press conference, Kanye waived a fist in the air and shouted out into the sea of microphones,

What do they expect us to do? Have fried chicken together? Racists! The MPAA hates black people!

Then, Kanye stormed out of the room. The chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation commented on the suit,

We intend to join in and help defend these two rappers. If they lose, the ramifications could be disastrous. Every time someone said something, they’d have to pay licensing fees. Merely just responding to your questioning would cost money. Then, the MPAA would have to make or join some sort of licensing association. It would obviously be based off of the sounds people make when exchanging words and ideas. They might call it something like SoundExchange or something similar. Then, SoundExchange would try and charge me 27 cents just for saying this, even if the people who owned various words weren’t part of their association. Then SoundExchange might want to raise rates and silence people. They might use their licensing authority to get a Digital Rights Management chip installed in our brains. It would just be attached to your credit card. Every time you said something, the chip would just add a new fee to your card. Of course, just having this installed into your brain would require you to pay patent licensing fees too. This lawsuit is just a very bad thing for consumers in general.

Dewey responded to the chairman’s comments,

We have property rights, and we must enforce them or lose them. This is just the way of the free market. Anyone who doesn’t support strongly enforcing intellectual property rights supports terrorism and they want to destroy our nation’s corn crops.

Tune into djlosch.com to get the latest updates on this breaking story.

I often get a lot of people asking me why I defend open source. My dad doesn’t understand how it gets done. But, as a testament to the power of open source, compare the open source compositing manager, Compiz Fusion (Beryl merged back into Compiz that is), to Microsoft’s closed source version, Aero.

..:: Comparison

The first minute and a half is Vista’s Aero. When you get to the 3:00 remaining, the rest is all CF. If you’re wondering why CF got more screen time, it’s because, well, CF’s feature list dwarfs Aero’s.

..:: Beryl + Compiz = Compiz Fusion

Note that Beryl is still being extended and was a fork of the Compiz project. The two have re-merged and are now under the name of CF. Check out a few of the preliminary videos.

Today, my Joost Beta application was accepted. So, I went over to their installation page from the link in the email, with an open mind. I was excited. On paper, Joost looks like it may revolutionize the way we view media content. It’s essentially a bittorrent client on a closed bittorrent network with a video player and interface built on top. Before I start, note that I am completely unaffiliated with Joost. I am just a regular computer geek exploring some cutting edge media software. None of this review is endorsed by Joost or any Joost affiliates. These are my opinions. Overall, I’m fairly impressed, but as of now, there are some fundamental flaws preventing this from replacing your cable or satellite provider.

..:: Installation

I arrive at the download page through the link in the email (it has some encoded string in it, so don’t bother guessing it). I look at the download options, and they have a client for … Windows … and OSX only. No support for Linux. This means I have to reboot into WinXP. I reboot and download. It’s a 10.5 mb file so it only took a few minutes (8mbps cable for the win; I know, the Asians and Euros are laughing). The minimum requirements list off:

• 500 mHz processor
• 512 mb ram
• 48 mb video ram
• WinXP
• directx 9.0c

Strangely, the installer detects that I only have 480 mb ram, but I definitely have 512 mb ram. It does detect my video ram (or lack thereof) correctly, and I only have 32 mb. I suspect that this is because my boards video ram is not dedicated, so it just takes the 32 out of the 512 mainboard ram. The client still recommends that I should install despite possible slowdown.

Then comes the EULA acceptance, and the EULA is in a 1″x1″ (roughly) frame. As a law student (particularly in contracts and intellectual property), I actually look through it (skip to first impressions if you don’t care about legal commentary). Ctrl-A is disabled in the frame, so I have to shift-click the top to bottom. Then I Ctrl-C copy it out into notepad to look through it for any crazy terms. I find a few notable terms, but nothing that makes my skin crawl:

2.1.1 Joost and the Joost™ Software will, and will permit third parties to, display advertising and other information within the interface of the Joost™ Software and/or in connection with the display of content and programming, in all cases without compensation to you. Joost or the Joost™ Software serves, and permits third parties to serve, advertisements within or adjacent to the content and programming delivered to you by the Joost™ Software.

So there are ads, but it doesn’t seem to be adware.

2.1.2. The Joost™ Software will utilize the processor, bandwidth and hard drive (or other memory or storage hardware) and/or cache of your computer (or other applicable device) for the limited purpose of facilitating the communication between, and the transmittal of data, content, programming, services or features to, you and other Joost™ Software users, and to facilitate the operation of the network of computers running instances of the Joost™ Software.

In other words, Joost will use my bandwidth, most likely on the bittorrent protocol.

2.1.3. The Joost™ Software will take organizational and technical measures intended to protect the privacy and integrity of the computer resources (or other applicable device) you are utilizing, however, you acknowledge and agree that this is not a representation or warranty of Joost.

Joost cares about my privacy, but makes no guarantees of anything. These kinds of clauses are a joke and mean nothing.

The next section (3.2) of the EULA is rather long and explains all the stuff you cannot do, particularly making hacks for the client, packet sniffing, and stack watching.

4.1. You hereby acknowledge and agree that the Joost™ Software may be incorporated into, and may incorporate itself, software and other technology owned and controlled by third parties. Any such third party software or technology that is incorporated in the Joost™ Software falls under the scope of this Agreement. Any and all other third party software or technology that may be distributed together with the Joost™ Software will be subject to you explicitly accepting a license agreement with that third party. You acknowledge and agree that you will not enter into a contractual relationship with Joost or its affiliates regarding such third party software or technology and you will look solely to the applicable third party and not to Joost or its affiliates to enforce any of your rights.
. . .
4.2.3. When installed on your computer, the Joost™ Software may periodically communicate with Joost servers and/or Joost™ Software installed by other users. Additionally, third party software installed on Your computer may periodically communicate with third party servers for the purposes described in the license agreement or privacy policy between you and that third party.

Third-party software? That may be ad-ware, spyware, or even malware.

5.1. You acknowledge and agree that any and all Intellectual Property Rights to or arising from the Joost™ Software are and shall remain the exclusive property of Joost and/or its licensors. Nothing in this Agreement intends to transfer any such Intellectual Property Rights to, or to vest any such Intellectual Property Rights in, you. You are only entitled to the limited use of the Intellectual Property Rights granted to you in this Agreement.

This is the same nasty that is in the WoW EULA. I can see this in Joost because watching content is a unilateral process. In WoW, one does a ton of work to build up a character, and then Blizzard will eventually yank it from you for whatever reason claiming that it’s not yours and you only have a license to it. Kaplan took a similar stance when I tried to sell my LSAT hard-copy study guides on ebay. They told me I had a license to use these paperback books but not to sell them, and my auction was yanked. This kind of treatment really rubs me the wrong way.

For the most part, the rest is just the typical indemnification, waiver of liability, etc, that you only find in the software industry. Besides the possibility of adware and the grossly limited license to use, this doesn’t seem too wretched. As it’s currently free, I accept because my WinXP installation is sandboxed, and if the Joost client wrecks anything, I’ll just reload my image.

The actual installer takes a few seconds to run and Joost loads up.

..:: Registration

You have to enter your email address that team Joost or your inviter sent the invite to. Then pick a username of 6+ characters and a password of 6+ characters. So far, the process has been seamless. The player pops up showing some intro content.

..:: First Impressions

There are some entire shows from Viacom networks (MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 just to name a few). Unfortunately, the choices of actual shows are limited. When you choose a channel, the player starts the default show if you click the play button, but if you click the list icon (which looks unlike any list icon I’ve ever seen), it shows you everything on that channel. The interface is incredibly simplistic and definitely looks to be modeled for an IR remote control. The content quality is surprisingly good at 1024×768. It’s better than the youtube videos, but it’s clearly not HD. A quick switch to windowed mode (out of the default fullscreen) and it loads up at 800×600. Even still, some of the content shows clear upsampling at 800×600. All the content seems to be at least standard definition, so if you ran this on a second monitor output to a larger television, it might look alright. Since everything is downloaded in real time from gardened bittorrent networks, some of the content comes in a little choppy at first, and may get a little choppy here and there.

Immediately, there is a notice up top about a 16+ age limit, so this content probably isn’t for your toddler. However, there is a Saturday Morning Cartoons channel.

..:: Content

Looking through the channels, the content selection is fairly limited but respectable for this startup. Notably, there are:

• MTV: Laguna Beach, Two-a-Days
• Comedy Central: Stella, Freak Show, Dog Bites Man
• National Geographic: some 15-20 documentaries that are 50 to 90 minutes long.
• Warner Brothers Records: about 15-20 “Making of…” videos. The actual music videos don’t appear to be there.
• VH1: Hogan Knows Best, Sonotorious
• IndieFlix Premier Hits: various videos that appear to be from indy studios.

The shows that are from Viacom are typically 22 minutes because they’re aired on regular television in 30 minute blocks. There are also more shows from channels I’ve never heard of, and a total of 27 channels as of this writing.

..:: Interface

Unfortunately, this interface and system completely fail to lend themselves to quick browsing of content. If you don’t already know what you’re looking for, it will take forever because there is no channel surfing of any kind. There should be some “current media preview” that essentially plays 10 second intervals of currently available content.

However, if you do know what you’re looking for, the system is just as simple as any DVR, whether it be mythtv, tivo, or winmce.

While some of the icons are unintuitive (or just irregular), getting hang of the UI takes only a minute or two. After 2 minutes or so, I was blazing around the menus checking out content.

..:: Upsides

The UI is very simple. If you were running this with a keyboard on a TV, a child could probably operate the system. If you have any experience with any popular DVR, you’ll learn to navigate Joost in a matter of minutes.

There is a My Joost section so you can add your favorite channels into one section.

The entire system transparently manages downloads and playback, as opposed to using azureus to download and then a media player for playback.

Checking my process list didn’t seem to show any spyware, but as Joost can run in the background, there’s no telling what’s going on while it’s running. The project seems reputable enough with their involvement in tons of FOSS, but this isn’t a guarantee.

There are live chat-room overlays, user ratings so users can rate various shows, and various other widgets available.

..:: Downsides

There is an incredible lack of content. The last review of Joost that I read only listed off some of the National Geographic documentaries, and the Indy films, and that was only earlier this week. Therefore, it appears that Joost is laying on the content, but it’s not currently there yet.

There’s also a lack of servers. Thus initial playback takes a while on some programs, and if you’re not watching the most popular section, there just aren’t enough seeds to get the content fast enough. Sometimes, the playback stops altogether and the client tells you to bug off.

Unfortunately, the user ratings are nowhere to be found. They don’t show up in the channel and show listings.

I checked to see how many invites came with my beta application acceptance, and I have 0. So, please do not ask me for an invite.

There is no “seek” or channel surf option, and the only popularity system seems to be the “Most Popular” channel. This will be a HUGE part of these next-gen content delivery systems. With the barrage of content, there will be a need to skim off the chaff. Because there is such little known branding, there needs to be a better method of finding content.

There are advertisements, but they appeared only in the downtime between content sections, not actually intersparsed into the content like regular commercials.

This system will eventually have to make money somehow, and advertisements seem to pave the way. However, because most DVR users are the people who will most likely pave the way to widespread net-tv usage, DVR users probably won’t give up their advertisement free systems for on-demand net-tv.

..:: Overall

It’s still in beta, so there’s obviously going to be some issues. However, at the moment, the content playback is just a little too choppy, and the amount of content available is currently just too small to use this regularly.

The shows my girlfriend and I watch are Daily Show, Colbert Report, South Park, SG1, Good Eats, Mythbusters, Scrubs, Black Donnellys, Heroes, Greys Anatomy, Laguna Beach, The Hills, House, ER, Buffy, and Gilmore Girls. Of all this, only Laguna Beach is on Joost, which means Joost is a long way from replacing my mythtv.

Once again, this is still in beta so I’m not being my usual harsh and cynical self. I foresee that when this goes into open production, this will be incredibly awesome. If there are tons of users viewing content, they’ll be seeding content too, and hopefully this becomes a respectable enough portal that more providers will actually post material. At this instant, though, it’s still merely something to play around with. I can legitimately say that this could replace my cable provider within 5 or 10 years, but I’m not calling up to cancel just yet. There’s still some polishing to do.