Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
at 9:29pm
Over the past few months, the Educated blog hasn’t seen many changes. However, behind the scenes, I have been working on two new projects, both of which I hope see great success, and I’ve also been working with some new people. This has got to be one of the best points in technology, and I’m certainly catching up with it.
The first new enterprise I’d like to introduce is the MichaelTech Podcast. Podcasting has only made sense to me for a relatively short while, during which I’ve listened to several tech podcast, like Leo Laporte’s This Week In Tech (TWiT), and Daniel Brusilovsky’s Apple Universe. Both producers have shown me the ropes (although not necessarily personally), and given me at least the technical skills required to record, edit, and publish podcast episodes.
Joining the MichaelTech Podcast is a companion blog. On the WOrdPress.com-hosted blog, I will be writing about recent tech stories and product releases as well as my own articles and tutorials.
Speaking of podcasts, I’ve joined Daniel Brusilovsky’s network of sites as the typed content editor. Most of my work in that area revolves around the fact that many people who write online don’t have particularly expansive writing skills. To make it short, I read over Daniel’s blog posts before publishing, edit them for spelling, grammar, and tidy up the HTML formatting in the posts (I keep telling Daniel that the Qumana blog editor for Mac OS produces atrocious HTML). It’s work that I’m quite sure is appreciated by both Daniel as well as all visitors to his sites.
Finally, live media has also taken a place in my mind, mostly thanks to Chris Pirillo’s 24/7 live broadcast. As you can see in the header navigation tabs, I’ve added a live page to the Educated Network site. That special page displays my UStream.tv broadcast channel, as well as a live chat room (powered by the WyldRyde IRC network) that anyone may participate in. If you’d like to join the chat, all I ask is that you follow WyledRyde’s community guidelines, which includes keeping the conversation clean and peaceful.
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
at 9:42pm
Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned more about IRC and the UStream.tv service, thanks to the constant live stream that Chris Pirillo runs twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. While I’ve been watching him and participating in the chat room, I’ve seen many people ask some common questions about Chris Pirillo, his background, and his office setup (including computer gear, furniture, and seating). Perhaps it would do justice to the community if someone pointed out a few key facts.
- Chris uses the free program for Mac OS X called CamTwist to embed the chat in the video. The chat is rendered by an IRC client for Mac OS called Colloquy, and is embedded in the video stream using CamTwist’s picture in picture functionality. Both are free programs.
- Ponzi is Chris’s wife, and Wicket and Pixie are his dogs.
- Chris used to host of several television shows on ZDTV / TechTV / G4TV, most notably the show Call For Help, in which Chris managed to produce several bloopers (which made it to NBC’s 100 Most Outrageous Moments).
- In general, Chris is an all-around computer geek/nerd/[choice of related adjectives]. He produces videos via his live show, runs the blogging network LockerGnome, and does a lot of other stuff I don’t quite know about (but still tech related). Type “what is chris” into the chat room at live.pirillo.com (minus the quotes) to get the official description.
- Chris’s current computer setup includes a Mac Pro (with dual Intel Xeon quad core processors, of the January variety), two 30-inch Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP monitors, a 17-inch MacBook Pro, and a Mac mini (which is used solely for broadcasting the live video stream, and is connected to its own DSL internet connection).
- Bonus #6: Chris’ chair is a Grahl Synchron 8. It’s outrageously expensive, as Chris tries to describe on video.
For comments or more questions, join the chat at live.pirillo.com or drop Chris a line at chris@pirillo.com (his public email address). “We’ll ‘e ya later!”
Monday, February 4th, 2008
at 10:10pm
Since I’m running the operating system considered second-class to a big minority (a.k.a. Windows XP), I am on the lookout for good webcam effects software. So far, I have come across two free equivalents to CamTwist for Windows, by the names of Super Webcam and ManyCam.
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend ManyCam at all. While I was uninstalling it, after finding it to be not incredibly useful, it erased all of the start menu shortcuts on my system! I don’t know whether it was the developers’ fault, Nullsoft’s (or whoever wrote their installers), or my own computer’s fault or glitch, but it sure is annoying.
The quick moral of the story: Don’t download ManyCam! And if you already have it installed, find a way to manually remove it (files, shortcuts, registry keys and all). If you uninstall it, ManyCam will make your life miserable.
