Memo.m4a Listen on Posterous

Here is an audio sample. I just quickly recorded it on my phone. So quality isn't as good as usual. Also her narration of the traffic status needs work.  I also just noticed she is getting day and month backwards.  I need to fix that in the parsing code.

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I have been playing around making a Jarvis like home notifaction script.  One piece of that for fun is to read me the current Brandon Sanderson book project status report.  I made the below applescript to parse the information off his Web site and read it aloud to me. After all men don't read (a Stormlight Archive reference so go get the book).  I am a huge fan of his Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series.  Oh yeah... He is also finishing the Wheel of Time too. ;-)

Warning that the below script could break at any time.  It has to parse out bits of html code.  Who knows how much that changes each time updates his status.  I won't know till the next update.  You can see those bits in the AppleScript's text item delimeters lines in the script.

*UPDATE 9-18-2011* I updated the script below to help avoid breaking when Brandon updates his progress area.  It relies way less on the html code matching.

on run {}

try

set theSource to (do shell script "curl " & quoted form of ("http://www.brandonsanderson.com/"))

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"<h3>Current Projects</h3>"}

set theText to text item 2 of theSource

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"<h3>Search</h3>"}

set theText to text item 1 of theText

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"<div style=\"float:left;  width:100%;\">"}

set tempProject1 to text item 2 of theText

set tempProject2 to text item 3 of theText

set tempProject3 to text item 4 of theText

set percentStartProj1 to offset of "%" in tempProject1

set percentProj1 to text (percentStartProj1 - 3) thru (percentStartProj1) of tempProject1

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"  <br/>"}

set projectProgress1 to text item 1 of tempProject1 & percentProj1

set percentStartProj2 to offset of "%" in tempProject2

set percentProj2 to text (percentStartProj2 - 3) thru (percentStartProj2) of tempProject2

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"  <br/>"}

set projectProgress2 to text item 1 of tempProject2 & percentProj2

set percentStartProj3 to offset of "%" in tempProject3

set percentProj3 to text (percentStartProj3 - 3) thru (percentStartProj3) of tempProject3

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"  <br/>"}

set projectProgress3 to text item 1 of tempProject3 & percentProj3

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}

say "Brandon Sanderson Project Status Report"

say projectProgress1

say projectProgress2

say projectProgress3

on error

say "Unable to obtain Brandon Sanderson project status information."

return

end try

end run

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I tossed together a video tutorial on using multiple macs to do distributed processing with Compressor 4.

I found that Compressor 4 cannot talk to qmaster nodes on older macs running Compressor 3.5.  And in the case of my 1st generation mac mini it won't install Compressor 4 from the app store.  BUT I did find I could drag Compressor 4 to my mac mini manually and run it as a services only C4 qmaster node.  Thus I still get to use it for extra processing power in my Compressor 4 cluster.

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I picked up a Griffin Powermate last week on a whim. It is a usb connected solidly built alluminum control knob. You can press and turn it to trigger events. It also has a blue LED light for giving status feedback. It can work on Mac and Windows.

It comes with a number of default actions for controlling applications like iTunes, Safari etc. You can add your own and even trigger scripts with it. Griffin provides some apple script samples with the software for the powermate. These can do things like place the led into a triple flash alert mode.

I took the supplied scripts and saved them in a Scripts subfolder on my mac. Then I setup a new Control group for podcasting. You can only choose one active set per powermate at a time. Yes you can connect multiple powermates if you really want. I then found and added the applescripts for controlling skype that I found over at Mystic Coders. Next I put together triggers to toggle muting both an active skype call and the input audio level for my Mac. This way if I am on Skype with someone and they are recording I can mute for coughs, interuptions etc. I have the action also zero out then restore the input audio level as well. That solves muting my mic if I am the one doing the recording. ##Setting up the Triggers

For the Trigger: Mic-Mute: Under Advanced I check to match light state for "Default" This only runs the below actions if the light is in the default state. This keeps it from running twice once we change the light state while muted.
* Action: InputVolume-0: AppleScript: set volume input volume 0
* Action: Skype-MuteON: AppleScript: run the skype mute script from Mystic Coders
* Action: PM-LightPulse: AppleScript: run the Griffin provded script: AlertX3.scpt

For the Trigger: Mic-UnMute: Under Advanced I check to match light state for "Alert x3" This only runs the below actions if the light is in the alert state as defined in the Griffin script. This keeps it from running twice once we change the light state while unmuted.
* Action: InputVolume-72: AppleScript: set volume input volume 72
* Action: Skype-MuteOFF: AppleScript: run the skype unmute script from Mystic Coders
* Action: Clear Light State

That does it. Now when I go to record a podcast I flip my active control set for my powermate to my Podcast set. Press the knob to mute and again to unmute. It flashes while muted to ensure I know I am muted to save me from talking for several minutes without getting it recorded.

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I was making a shared calendar specifically for Macworld with Victor Cajiao. It will be a busy conference so it will help if we can put all known events in one spot. Then we want to be able to modify it on the fly from anywhere and have both of us see it while we are there.

This calendar is a second one beyond my normal one in my google calendar account. My normal calendar default having added my google account in both my iPhone and iPad syncs fine. The problem is the additional calendar was not showing up. I even had my google account added as an MS Exchange server account.

Here is the trick. After you are sure your device is syncing as an ms exchange account go to http://m.google.com/ on your device. Sign into your google or google apps account. Once signed in go to http://m.google.com/sync/ now you can see all the devices syncing to your account. Touch on the desired device to modify the sync settings. Now you can see the list of all your calendars in your account. By default just your main one is selected. Add your other calendars. Last step. Go into the account settings for your google account under mail on your idevice. Turn off calendar sync. Let it remove your calendar data. Ten turn it back on. Give it a minute or two to resync. Now your multiple calendars should show up.

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I keep up on the trends in media production.  What I find really amazing is how things like the iPhone4 and iPad are making seriously professional grade work possible for anyone.  Even the true professionals.  I cannot imagine what it would have cost to make the "Nancy Lee" video for Vintage Trouble five to ten years ago just due to the equipment.  This was shot on an iPhone4 for the raw footage.  Then one of the iPhones was stolen and recovered due to Find my iPhone.   You can read that story on their blog post.

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I have been a fan of http://www.scottsigler.com for years. His horror/scifi stories are excellent entertainment. He and his team (Dark 0verlord Media) have a boundless enthusiasm for Scott's fans.

The most recent developments in how Dark 0verlord Media puts together books, eBooks and audio books just shows a real grip on how media is moving. I think it signals a shift back in favor of the content creators as well. The ability to make such quality content then still deliver it in any format the fan could want is something Hollywood can learn from.

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Interestingly the Twitter TOS adds some markup that tried to give you a sense of how they interpret what the wording of the terms means to them. I did not see that elsewhere.

Facebook actually seems to currently have the most user friendly wording. I know at one time it was really bad, but typical to Facebook a public backlash was required to humiliate them into changing it. They seem to actually say the license to them ends if you successfully delete your content from their site.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms
"You grant the Company and its affiliates a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display your User Content (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate such your User Content in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed."

Posterous: http://posterous.com/tos
"...however, by submitting material to Posterous you grant Posterous the irrevocable, fully transferable rights to use, reproduce, distribute, modify, transmit, prepare derivative works of, display and produce the material in connection with Posterous and Posterous's business, but solely in accordance with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. "

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tos
"By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)."

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to yourprivacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it."

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On a lark I decided to re-read the TOS for audioboo.fm.
You can see them here. http://audioboo.fm/terms

I am NOT a lawyer. BUT I find it funny they say "You own your User Content, not us." and "We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Site. Your profile and the materials you upload remain yours."

YET they say this "You grant the Company and its affiliates a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display your User Content (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate such your User Content in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. "

Now again, I am not a lawyer. To me that sure sounds like they are nullifying your ownership if they can do anything they want in any way in perpetuity. That sure sounds like ownership to me.

This is just a reminder. There are no free rides. Be aware of what you are uploading to sites that are "free" such as audioboo, facebook etc. Even if you pay for an account you should review the terms in case even a paid account is surrendering your rights.

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I cleaned up part two from the tape my grandfather made about his childhood and growing up.  I cleaned up noise and levels, otherwise it is unedited.  The recording ends abruptly at the end for some reason.  Perhaps the batteries died as he was speaking at the time and he just never finished it.

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I have been wondering how to setup chat room access using an IRC chat client for Mac OS Ken Live instead of using the webpage chat. The web page chat is Adobe flash based and sometimes flakes out.

Here I used the donationware IRC Client for Mac OS X - Colloquy.
http://colloquy.info/

See More to get the key steps to the setup.

First you need the show's IRC Channel name. You can see it in the Ustream page screen shot just above where chat text appears. In this case ours is "mac-os-ken-on-ustreamtv" Yup the channel name is the entire thing in quotes.

Next we need to set the server connection settings in the Colloquy program. Ustream has four main chat servers. We just choose the first one. Then we enter our exact Ustream.tv Web site user log in name and password. Then we enter the username again as the Nickname. 

chat1.ustream.tv
chat2.ustream.tv
chat3.ustream.tv
chat4.ustream.tv

Last we go to the Automatic tab for our connection and tell it to automatically join us to the right chat room for Mac OS Ken Live. We type the channel name we got from the show web page from ustream. In our case it is mac-os-ken-on-ustreamtv as we saw earlier. Now when you connect to using your IRC client you go straight into the chat room without having to use the chat on the web page itself. This is real handy if you want to watch the chat on your iPad for instance and have an IRC app on the iPad.

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The call flow shows how a call is handled and routed. The desktop shot is how I organize things on my desktop to keep track and pass information to Ken.

PodcastCallScreenerFlow.pdf Download this file

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Just attach the USB Apple Camera Connector Kit adapter to your iPad.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A?fnode=MTc0MjU4NjE&mco=MTcyMTgxODY

Next attach a Griffin iMic to the USB Camera Connector Kit adapter.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic

Hook it into your mixing board via the in and out ports on the iMic to the appropriate jacks on your mixing board. Start Skype and it will send its audio to the iMic appropriately split to the in/out ports of the iMic.

Congrats you are using Skype running on your iPad mixed into your audio for your show.

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