------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 1, Issue 7 This past weekend was an exciting time for me. On Saturday morning Lisa and I went down to the Karate school where I train, for the second in a series of tests for my next Black Belt. My family is pretty spread out, so having everyone come in for the test wasn't particularly practical. The solution? A digital camera, some Windows software, and YouTube. See this issue's article for more info. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Sharing the Good Times 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Sharing the Good Times ---------------------------------------------------------------- The scene: Saturday morning at Keith Hafner's Karate. The characters: A plethora of Black Belt students surrounding our hero, dressed in blue. Each pair holds a single wooden board -- five boards in all. The atmosphere: Electric with anticipation. OK, so maybe it's a bit difficult to convey the exact emotions of the moment. Still there I was, ready to take part in my second examination for my next Black Belt -- to shatter those wooden barriers with a series of hand strikes and kicks. Unfortunately, the duration of my performance (about 3 minutes, including setup) and the travel distances required, prevented me from inviting my whole family to attend. So, we tried the next best thing: a digital camera and YouTube. Our camera, a Canon PowerShot S80, has, as many do these days, the ability to shoot short video clips. In our case we can get up to sixteen minutes of reasonably good video. It shoots 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second -- the speed and resolution necessary to make the action appear smooth and relatively clear. The S80 can get higher resolution (a clearer picture), but the frame rate drops to 15 per second which looks pretty jerky when you watch it. Your camera may vary, so check your manual before you try to capture those once-in-a-lifetime events. Lisa wanted to watch the actual events live, so we cajoled one of my young students, Max Mortimer, to shoot the footage. Later, he thought it exceedingly clever to tell me, with my lovely wife's permission, that he had messed up and forgotten to push the "record" button. What a couple of comedians. That aside, though, we ended up with some pretty decent raw footage. A couple of days later, I uploaded the footage onto my desktop machine and fired up the MovieMaker software which comes with Windows XP. Much as I am decidedly *not* a Microsoft fan, I will admit that this application does most of what is needed to do some pretty nice video editing. It has the ability to make simple titles and credits, do storyboarding, cut your clips (without damaging the original footage), add a musical accompaniment, and even do some fun video transition, including fade-to-black and cross-fading. Some of the interface is a little clunky, but, in general, it does what you need it to do. In short order, I had added a simple title and edited the video to contain only the important parts. Note: *Please* edit your video. There is absolutely no reason to make your loved-ones sit through five minutes of you begging, "Say, daddy! Say, daddy!" before they get to hear your darling cherub uttering her first words. Then it was a quick command to save the resulting file in Windows Media format and we were off to the Internet! YouTube (youtube.com) has a great free service which allows you to upload your videos in a variety of formats to their site for anyone to use. The only limitations are that it has to be less than 100MB (a pretty big video) and less than 10 minutes long (no one really wants to sit through anything longer). After you have signed up for an account, just click on the "Upload a video" link and follow the simple steps to make your masterpiece available to the masses. Or, you can keep it private, available for only those select few with whom you wish to share your vision. One caveat: YouTube automatically processes the video you upload to be a lower quality image. Don't be surprised that it doesn't look as clean as the original. In today's world where our families and friends can be separated by more miles than they dreamed of back when our grandparents were young, it's nice to know that we can make use of a little technology to bring us a little closer. Check it out and let me know what exciting images you can bring to the little silver screen. Oh, my video? You can access it from my blog post describing the board-breaking event: http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/05/another-step-to-third-degree.html (Yes, you can even embed the resulting video in other pages.) Copyright 2007, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year (or so): Tuesday, April 04, 2006 -- Free Books and Audio Books http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2006/04/free-books-and-audio-books.html Monday, May 07, 2007 -- Quick Fun: DIY iGoogle Gadgets http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/05/quick-fun-diy-igoogle-gadgets.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping nonprofit and charitable organizations develop their web presence for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us.