Friday, November 27, 2009
Talking to Bob Degrande about using a Mac
A good chat was had and covered all the good stuff about being a Mac user. Bob is in the process of making a podcast about Bridge the card game. He started doing it as an audio podcast then decided to start again but with video. Makes more sense if you can see the cards, for this he has been using BoinxTV. I also have BoinxTV but it didn’t work on my iMac and when I looked at it working on the MacBook I decided that it was more for making Live TV programs with multiple cameras. I think I am better off using FinalCut Express or iMovie.
Whilst on the subject of FinalCut Express, I have still been working away to learn how to use the application and I am pleased that I am getting into it due to using Lynda .com with the excellent tutorials they have there. I also found FinalCutKing web site and there is a whole load of video tutorials on the IzzyVideo web site. All good quality stuff. I checked out YouTube also but the quality of the tutorials is much more variable and at the lower end of the scale.
I though it was funny that all the news sites have been talking about Applecare not being available to smokers because the filth that had accumulated in the machine had made it un safe for the technicians, Well smokers are disgusting creatures and deserve it if it is true. Blackened lungs and blackened insides of the computer. So there you go passive smoking is bad for computers too.
Back to Bob – he is certainly a die hard Mac user, having experience with Macs from the very early days, he did veer away during the dark days when Jobs was pushed aside but was happy to come back to the fold when Intel processors appeared in the Mac computers. Thanks to Bob for coming on Mac 20 Questions. I had a great time chatting with him and if you would like to be featured on Mac 20 Questions then why not contact me and we can make a date and time to record an interview.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
JC Hutchins who wrote 7th Son is a Mac using author
Listen to the Podcast at Writers20Q
This morning I finished editing the interview that I did with J.C. Hutchins. I really had a great chat with him about the craft of writing and about the podcasting part of what he has done. Didn’t get to talk much about the fact that he uses the Mac to do his work in Pages from iWork and with Garageband for making his podcasts of his novels. Maybe I will have to get him back to talk just about being a Mac user.
I really enjoyed talking to him and also enjoyed listening to it again when I edited the interview. If you want to listen you will be able to find the podcast at the Writers20Qweb site. JC is a great guy and I teased him a bit about mental hospital experience, which he thought was very funny, he has an excellent sense of humour which is always good in a person.
The story that he podcasted is called 7th Son: Descent
He now has a book out called Personal Effects: Dark Art
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Keyboard shortcut tricks on Mac OSX
You know when you turn on the caps lock and type in a pile of text then have to either type in again or find a way to change it. How about if you were to turn off the Caps Lock Key, you know you hardly ever use it. Seems that it is more there to annoy than to be useful. Well in this video I show you how to turn off the Caps Lock.
See how you can set up active corners that will work with a modifier key so that it doesn’t just annoy you when you are trying to something in one of the active corners, like hit the Apple in the menu bar at top left.
I made this video with ScreenFlow to capture the screen and narrate, then I put it in Final Cut Express to set it up. It is really the first project I have set up in Final Cut so I was pleased that it went so well. I have been using Lynda.com to learn how to use Final Cut. It cost $25 to get Lynda for a month and I would say that with the quality of the screencasts it is well worth it. I have been doing the TrueType lessons as well as Final Cut.
I have been amazed by the capabilities of LiveType and being able to do some round trip editing between it and FinalCut Express. I have opened a Live Type section in FinalCut Express – gone in and changed it, saved it and returned to Final cut to see it updated ready for action.
Here is the Video and if you want to see in High Definition then go to the YouTube site to watch it in 1280 by 720
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Mac20Q Podcast 72 Confessing a British view of Mac technology
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (33.6MB)
Today I am talking to a guy that nearly confessed to being a makeup guy, you know lipstick and blusher and all that, but did confess to being a geek. Unfortunately his wife is not a Mac person yet but he is working on her, I tell him to get out the thumbscrews. His son aged five though is a computer user with a laptop of his own.
David does have an iMac 20 inch model and is a recent switcher. He got drawn into the Mac world with iPods and moved into it with a white Macbook, he has moved on to a later model MacBook though. He is a firm believer in AppleCare. I have not had AppleCare on any of my Macs but he has got his moneys’ worth out of it.
We talk about Boxee and Plex, I don’t use those because I can’t get the best out of it because I live in Spain. I just wish I could use the BBC iPlayer, I may have to get something that will hide my IP address.
I talk about getting a satellite box from Elgato which will allow me to save things to watch later. He has a Sanyo Xacti video camcorder and loves using iMovie to make professional looking DVDs for the family.
He has his own podcast and is on episode 14 at the moment. He said the latest was going to be about Christmas presents for the Geek in your life.
David confesses to being an inbox zero type and also to having been outside the Milton Keynes Apple Store at 4am in the morning to get an iPhone. He uses Tweetie two and uses Brizzly which is a web based twitter client. There was a Twitter client in the latest MacHeist, Twitterific
Hooray I finally got my hands on Final Cut Express, Only took 2 weeks to get here from Birmingham to Spain. There is a chance that it was in the post office here for a few days because I didn’t get the note to say it was in the post office to collect. Often the post person is completely useless putting the post in the wrong box. Some of the house owners don’t check their post for months because they don’t live here – they live in Holland or Germany. Then when they do check and find a letter or whatever that is not theirs, they just dump it rather than put in the right box
Grrrr !!
Ah well I have it now just because I called to correos and asked if they had anything for me, or it would have probably sat there for a few more days or weeks. I still am happy to have saved 70 euro by buying off the Apple Store site in the UK rather than getting from the Apple Store Spain.
As soon as I had installed FinalCut Express I had to download a 180 mb to update it to the latest. I will talk more about how it is going in a blog post and podcast.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Starting the week at Mac20Q
The first job will be to finish editing the interview of David from Iconfessimageek.com. I have a terrible cold during that interview and I have to take a good few sniffs, but I do sound like I have a cold anyway with a head all blocked up. Then I will have a think about what to do next for a screencast. I could do some more for ScreenFlow or I could do a few small tips like showing a few of the more useful keyboard short cuts in MacOSX.Another plan for the week will be to perhaps to a software review for the MacReviewcast. Tim Verpoorten is publishing every other week now and I think he will be bringing out a new one at the end of this week.It is nice and warm here in Spain this week, good to be missing out on those storms that battered England during the weekend.I will be able to go back to my Spanish and Catalan classes this week. Last week with the bad cold I could face going into the Catalan class because the room is like a fridge. I am sure the light comes on automatically when the door is opened.Still waiting for the arrival of my Final Cut Express and the Contour Shuttle Express, getting a bit miffed after waiting two week already. I want to dive into the movie editing and also finish setting up the green screen in my studio.Don't forget to give me a ReTweet from time to time to help build the number up for Mac20Q and Video20Q.There is another interview I have already which is for Writers20Q, an interview of J.C. Hutchins. I really had a blast talking to him, teased him a bit and made him laugh too.The other thing to do is to have more of a play with Google Wave. If you want to get a Wave invite then use a form on one of my sites to send me and email with the words Wave to me in the subject or in the body of the email. I still have more to give away.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Mac20Q Podcast 71 Paul McGovern - Education Special
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (30.4MB)
In the ramble I mention my new Magic Mouse which I am really pleased with, Google Wave and The Film Ink which got featured on Video20Q Podcast, the film got put on torrent this week and was downloaded thousands of times. I would like to see them getting paid for it though. Excellent looking movie. I have a DVD on its way to me now.
Paul McGovern is a new media teacher – lecturer in Northern Ireland and in impressing his students with being a total tech head. He tells me about apps like Blender, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere. He also does things on the audio side with Audacity and other apps you can find out about in the interview. He is fond also of ScreenSteps an Application which Allison of the Nosillacast often bangs on about.
Planbook is designed to replace your traditional paper planbook with a robust digital scheduler. Planbook is designed and written by a full-time teacher and includes all the features you need to save time, stay organized, keep others informed and help you finish your teaching day a little bit earlier.
Paul tells me of a thing called Moodle, which is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. I must check it out my wife is a teacher, maybe she could find it useful.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Interview with ScreenFlow makers Telestream
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.3MB)
In this podcast I am talking to two people from Telestream, the company that make ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow is a super product that I use often to make screencasts. Barbara deHart and Christine Porter tell me all about ScreenFlow and also mention other products from Telestream.
I was able to give them direct a feature I would like to see in the ScreenFlow, they are keen to improve ScreenFlow and you never know my suggestion about being able to specify the placement of a clip within the screen might make it into ScreenFlow. It pretty good that they have snapping lines that let you snap a clip to the centres and to the edges but sometimes you might want a clip be at an exact position and for that you need some boxes where you can enter some numbers in the same way you can enter a number to specify the zoom level for example.
ScreenFlow
the best ScreenCapture Application
I also use VideoCue from Telestream and other people have requested some of the features in that to be merged into ScreenFlow, I agree with that for sure.
I know there are other screen capture applications out there and I have paid for a couple of them but in the end I had to get ScreenFlow because of what it can do with the editing. It really is handy to be able to do all you need to do in the one application, from capturing the whole of the screen to uploading it to YouTube.
See the Screencast I made about using ScreenFlow. I show some of the basics like adding extra media and using transitions in between clips. I will be producing more screencasts as soon as my cold/flu symptoms abate a little.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Joke and Biagio Producers and Directors of Scream Queens talk to Mac20Q
These guy have been using Final Cut for a lot of years now and also use Final Draft AV while giving a recommendation to Celtx. When they are organising a project, one of their reality TV Shows like Scream Queens or Beauty and the geek they will use Bento. Joke tells me that she rescued Biago from PC sufferance 13 years ago and he has not looked back since. They are also making a documentary about a friend, Steve Mazan who is a comedian who has cancer and it is called ‘Dying to be on Letterman’.
In the interview we talk quite a bit about the making of TV shows because that is what they do and the interview is destined for Video 20 Questions too.
They seem to do mostly reality TV shows but also do scripted work. As you will tell from their interview they are totally committed to what they do. As you have to be in a business that takes no prisoners. If someone can get in there before you with your idea but better then you should watch your back.
Joke (her real name) and Biagio (Sicilian roots) als talk to me about the technical side of the work and about how they organise themselves using Macs, well they are using Macs to edit with FInal Cut Pro so it make sense to use Macs for everything.
They can be found on Twitter and FaceBook. Like many independent producers they are building a following online to get their name and brand out there, and doing it quite successfully it seems. And their brand new Joke and Biagio Facebook page, which has 1 fan: Biagio. Would love to change that!
They have advice to folks that want to break in to showbiz: Become a Hands on Producer. Here’s the post Well Joke and Biagio are not the only ones that recommend you just get in there and learn the process by doing it. here they say that making a short TV promo is a great idea for selling the project to the Television networks. maybe not making a full pilot episode unless you want to have the experience of doing it.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Interview with David Hewson Author of Nic Costa Series of Novels
Writers 20 Questions is where the Podcast is situated
Since the first Nic Costa title, A Season for the Dead, appeared in 2003 the series has grown a book a year, and spread to some twenty different languages around the world including Japanese, Thai, French, Spanish and Italian. It has won multiple plaudits including, most recently the American Library Association award for Best Mystery of 2008 for the sixth book, The Garden of Evil and was on the shortlist for the Theakston prize for Crime Novel of the Year.
David talks to me about using his MacBook Air which he will carry with him when he is traveling. He likes to use the excellent Scrivener software and the his other favourite is MacJournal. He is not a fan of the iPhone and has an Android phone on which he uses the task manager Remember the Milk.
He can’t decide whether to keep using Mobile Me, but likes Dropbox and Evernote. The fact that you can use Dropbox to have your files available to you while you are out and about.
He treats writing as a job or profession and works 5 days a week writing. I found out about him because I have on my shelf the book The Seventh Sacrament
David talks about how he went to Italy, learned the language and writes about italians in Italy rather than writing about an English man in Rome, His books are translated into Italian as well as about 20 other languages and he says that the italians love his books too. He likes to choose an area and go there and walk the streets, visit the cafes and talk to people to get the feel for the place where he will be setting the story. His book The Garden of Evil won Mystery of the year.
Since the first Nic Costa title, A Season for the Dead
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Mac20Q Podcast 68 Andy McCaskey of Slashdot Review
Andy has been podcasting for some time and so we had a great chat about the Mac and Podcasting. Andy is responsible for SDR News which is SlashDot Review. SDR News is a Daily Monday to Friday Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit. It is a 12 to 14 minute podcast.
Here are a couple of examples of the news from SDRNews
DVR is TV's New BFF | Electronic Frontier Foundation
IT snake oil: Six tech cure-alls that went bunk
TV Finds That a Mortal Foe, the DVR, Is Really a Best Friend - NYTimes.com
He also has CMS Weekly in which he talks about Joomla, Drupal, Alfresco and Wordpress for example.
He actually started podcasting with a Dell computer and a gamer mic, he has a long relationship with the Mac though and as we know the Mac is the best way to go for making podcasts. He edits audio with a few different audio applications including ProTools, he like the encoder to mp3 in that one, find out more in the podcast. The Heil PR40 takes a bow again, it is a very popular mic for the podcasters.He tells me that he still has the packaging for nearly all of the Apple Products he has ever bought.
Andy is getting more interested in making videos now, visiting tech trade show, to interview people, strangely he is using the iSight camera to record them and then send them straight out with UStream video.
He tells me about he favourite applications on the Mac, things like CamTwist, AmadeusPro, Pro Tools, Audacity even?? Andy, like me struggles a bit with Automator, we both think it is a great concept though. Just need a problem to solve with Automator.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Mac20Q 67 Podcast featuring Filmutopia
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (38.8MB)
Clive is an avid Mac user and we talk quite a bit about how he uses his Mac with his film making business. He is taking footage from a Red Camera (huge data files) to do rough edits in FinalCutPro. He talks about Final Draft and Celtx.
The Filmutopia company website, where people can see clips from my movies and Clive has a Filmutopia blog, The blog is published with a new post every Sunday morning – European time, which I then discuss with readers on twitter.
Here’s a little bit of blurb about about Filmutopia :
Clive Davies-Frayne is a screenwriter and producer, whose company Filmutopia Ltd develops and produces feature films for cinema. So far, Clive has written and directed half a dozen short films, including one which won a UK Royal Television Society award.. and also two feature films. The first “Punx,” never completed due to funding issues… the second “No Place” was made in HD with a $750,000 budget was completed in 2005, but has spent the last four years mired in distribution issues…
Filmutopia was founded after “No Place” was completed, when Clive decided to walk away from his previous production company and a nine year business partnership, in order to change dramatically the way his movies were made, in particular the business strategies adopted. Clive admits “Everything I ever learned about how to make movies, I learned by first getting it completely wrong”
Filmutopia’s latest movie project, “Smoke” is a comedy and is currently in the development phase… the projected budget, €6M.
“After making movies the indie way for years and seeing little in return for my efforts, I decided to look at different way to make, finance, market and distribute movies. My passions are movies and the movie business… I don’t see the two as contradictions. All I want to do is entertain people and make a profit in the process.”