Purchased some very handy USB cables (with the somewhat unfortunate name of BONE Accessory Link Series) from Cyberguys. These cables are super short, so I can travel extremely light. Happy with my purchase.
Category Archives: Gadgets
BT-1 and ScreenFlow Problems: Update
It looks like the problem I had with the BT-1 webcam image freezing in ScreenFlow is associated with OS X 10.6.2. I tested on three other machines (Intel and PowerPC) running OS X 10.5.8, and everything worked. Have posted on the Telestream Community Forum. Hoping for a solution.
LightScribe and OS X Snow Leopard
Yeh! LightScribe now works again for me.
Updating to OS X Snow Leopard resulted in each disk that I burnt with LightScribe coming out blank (not the data, but the printed image on the disk). Just found an update to the LaCie LightScribe Labeler, and now everything works again.
Crisis over….
Going Mac
Last week, I attended an IBM event at their Chicago Innovation Center. There were some great presentations, but there was one particular point that I found telling:
One of the presenters made an off-hand comment that his daughter used a Mac.
Now, the presenter has a high-level position with IBM, the room I was in was filled with Lenovo PCs. Even though IBM no longer makes PCs and laptops, I am sure that IBM employees are given Lenovo PCs and that the presenter probably had several PC laptops that his daughter could use.
I asked if he was aware of the apparent disconnect. He responded that the Mac/OS X was a clear better device/platform. His daughter definitely believed that. I think we are on the cusp of a generational inflection point.
I think we will suddenly see swathes of teenagers grow up and buy Macs rather than PCs. These users are going to push for Macs at work. Things will change.
Nintendo Calendar
Nintendo is one of those companies, like Apple, that excels in design. Over the weekend a simple calendar from the nice folks at Nintendo dropped through my letterbox. The images may be cheesy, but the concept is very clever – the calendar is basically a frame, holding a stack of cards. Each card represents a month, and can be shuffled backward and forwards as the year progresses. I like it.
ScreenFlowing
Somewhat embarrassingly, my favorite piece of software on the Mac is ScreenFlow. I started using it a couple of years ago, when the program was sold by Vara Software (who were the purchased by Telestream in 2008). ScreenFlow is a screen capture and editing tool. I use it several days a week.
I updated to version 2 last week – one of those pleasant updates in which the program works well, looks largely the same, but does things better. Version 2 appears to be more stable, has improved editing functions, and has the option to export direct to YouTube. I’m happy.
One thing that I hope is improved with the update is the ability to use the BT-1 bluetooth web cam to record. I record every presentation that I make – and every class that I teach – with ScreenFlow. I had been using the Vado HD for filming (and then importing the footage in during editing), and hoped to use the BT-1 to speed up the process. For reasons yet unknown, the video from the BT-1 freezes in ScreenFlow after a couple of minutes. Part of me thinks this might be a Snow Leopard issue – things seemed to work before I made that update.
Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10
Last week I upgraded the operating system on my netbook, and used the opportunity to install Windows 7.
The upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 went without a hitch – a desktop alert informed me that there was a more recent version of the OS available, and then I let the computer do its thing. The only downside was a long (4 hours) wait for everything to download from the Internet, and then overwrite the existing system.
Slightly more hoops were jumped through to install Windows 7, but nothing terribly onerous. 7 pales next to OS X, but it is an improvement upon XP and Vista. It is brightly mediocre with one notable exception – the Media Center. MCE is now a pleasantly integrated part of the operating system, making the computer a powerful DVR. I don’t understand why Apple has nothing better to compete with. Frontrow and theApple TV are solely neglected, the iMac screams for an integrated television tuner. I wonder why Apple does little here.
Upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04
Last week I took the plunge and upgraded the operating system on my HP2133 to Ubuntu 9.04. I did not notice much in the way of a difference afterwards. This is a good thing.
Installing Ubuntu 8.10 had been fairly painless, but getting video and wireless card drivers to work effectively took some time and research. However, the recent upgrade was merely the case of clicking a few buttons and waiting for files to download and install. This was far easier than any Windows upgrade I have experienced.
Perhaps this is the year that Linux finally gains acceptance from average computer users. Ubuntu is free, easy to install and straightforward to use. Why pay for a Windows license?
I still prefer working in the OS X environment, and there is no way I am ditching my Mac, but every day I am getting to like Ubuntu more and more.
Messing about with Mobile Blogging
Even though iBlogger and BlogPress are fine programs I probably will not use then most of the time. Since I am using the iPod Touch I can only upload when I have WiFi access (and getting photos onto the iPod is unreasonably painfully). Which brings me back to the Blackberry. A device that allows me to upload and update the blog from pretty much any place with a decent signal.
I looked at BBMetaBlog and Mopress but could not get either to work adequately. Email looks to be the easiest option at the moment. All of which means that this site will soon be littered with blurry cellphone shots from the road.
And here I almost threw my laptop in a rage
ScreenFlow
I use Screenflow to record lectures, presentations, and screencasts. Normally it is a program I love and recommend. But not today…
I upgraded Screenflow (which may be the problem) and everything that I recorded and that used screen and video actions was wasted. Somehow the editing process inadvertently merges the video assets and renders the final export unusable.
Several hours were lost today. I hate having to repeat unnecessary work.
Slowly starting to cool down and hoping that this is an aberration.