Camtasia
Get it while it lasts... here's a
copy of the meat of an email from TechSmith, who is generously letting everyone
download a free copy of Camtasia 3... that's the software
version I used to make the video last week about the personal
database.
Version 5 was recently
released, and downloaders of v3 are eligible to upgrade to v5 for 1/2 price...
or keep using v3 free forever.
Camtasia Studio is not Mac
compatible, and v3 is NOT Vista compatible.
You can access the
download of Camtasia Studio 3 by following these steps:
1. Download the
free trial version of Camtasia Studio 3 at:
http://download.techsmith.com/camtasiastudio/enu/312/camtasiaf.exe
2. Visit the promotion page at
the link below. Complete your name, country and e-mail address and
TechSmith will send you the software key to unlock the program.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/pcpls.asp
3. Install the program you downloaded from step 1 above and then enter
the software key you receive via e-mail to complete the registration
process.
the Canopus DV Codec
We've learned about type I versus
type II DV-AVI files... and we know the Microsoft DV codec is a different
one than the Panasonic DV codec.
This week was
the first time I played with another DV codec, one from Canopus...
interesting!!!
-
The Canopus
ProCoder trial version makes DV-AVI files, adding the overlay you see at
the upper left.
-
Movie Maker
doesn't use any DV codec except the one from Microsoft, so I
tried VirtualDub, to see if I could use the Canopus DV codec to save a
file, as I can with the Panasonic DV codec... I could, but you see the
CANOPUS overlay it adds to the video at the upper
left.
-
The Canopus DV Speed Controller utility is pretty neat
in applying a varying speed rate to a clip. It's also pretty smart. It
works fine if the DV-AVI file was made by Canopus ProCoder, but refuses to
open a DV-AVI file made with the Canopus codec by VirtualDub... or any other
DV-AVI file.
... back to
the main subject.
Focus on the Future...
There are
more than enough places to go and things to do online. Here are the key
things I'm involved with, all of which tug at my time.
Newsgroups
Newsgroups
are great for simple questions and answers.
My posting
activity to newsgroups peaked in 2004. Today there are so many routine
posts made by others who refer to my site, I don't need to post as much.
I browse many newsgroups, with two Microsoft ones about Movie
Maker being the key ones...
Those are
the only ones where I still read every post... but with people like John Inzer
helping posters, I don't feel the need to respond nearly as much as I used
to.
Those who
want to socialize a bit or a lot, in addition to asking
questions and providing support, join forums, facebook or other
socializing places.
Forums
Two of them have been key to me over the years, SimplyDV and
WindowsMovieMakers.
Colin Barrett's
SimplyDV.com started
my forum activities when he asked if I'd be a moderator of a new Movie
Maker section... in May 2003.
As interests of forum owners and users change with time, like everything
else, Colin closed the forum part of his site on April 2nd of this year...
only to reopen it 3-1/2 months later in response to the many followers who
missed it. That's the socializing aspect of it at work.
Colin didn't want to simply reopen the forums that had existed, so he's
been re-engineering them. He's redone the site and is in the middle of
developing a whole new forum section with 7 forums. I'm onboard as a
moderator, but it's too early for me to say what the new forums will be
about, or when they'll move from back room testing to being available to
all.
Here's a clue.... this link about a new joint British Library/Oral History
Society course 'Lives in Focus: Recording oral history interviews on video'.
A few months
after the Movie Maker forum of SimplyDV started, Rob Morris opened an
entire forum site devoted to it...
windowsmoviemakers.net,
which ramped up to become the main forum for Movie Maker users.
I've thought
about adding forum software to my website a number of times... but with Colin's
and Rob's, what else could I offer? I'll just stay with them.
As
my posting at both newsgroups and forums tails off a bit, a couple new
Internet ventures have emerged to keep me busy.
Internet Ventures
The Internet
facilitates all kinds of innovative services and synergy's. It's amazing how
many people in so many parts of the world I routinely touch base with.
The country with my highest website traffic rank keeps changing...
it's currently Mongolia.
I've
been working with a startup venture in the United
States, and another in Israel... Bright Hub and Support Space.
Bright Hub...
... is up
and running... a bright spot for unbiased software reviews in the midst of an
ocean of online marketing-oriented websites and articles. I'm happy to be
working with them, and have 11 reviews online. I added website links
to my
Products and
Services page just the other day.
Support Space...
... is in an
open beta phase in support of resolving Windows XP issues, during
which customers are fully subsidized for their first support session,
and then charged a modest $24.95 per session. Experts receive
$20 per successful session.
Besides
being an expert providing support, I'm a tester of their support
software, currently testing the Vista version, and a member of an
advisory committee of experts.
Websites
www.papajohn.org is my big
site, one that has had Movie Maker and Photo Story at its core. The number of
visitors continues to grow.
To keep it
fresh and moving in parallel with my personal interests, I'll keep changing
it, perhaps somewhat randomly.
There's
still the small site devoted to Photo Story 2. I'll let visitors to it tell
me when it's time to fold it up. I'd have done it a while ago, but when I check
there's still enough viewing to leave it be.
Newsletters
With 3-1/2
years of weekly issues behind me, I don't see them stopping. Each in
itself is a short term project, usually not connected to any of the
previous ones. They go first to regular subscribers, and after 6 weeks or more
are placed online at Rob's forums for open viewing.
But I do see
them changing by using more multimedia content... audio and
video. With tools such as Camtasia and the
Internet supporting higher quality audio and video
tutorials, expect to see multimedia tutorials. Rather than just
writing about how to break a complex Movie Maker project into parts, it's
time to show everyone.
With my
current website using only a few percent of my allotted space at the
1&1 service, I can well afford adding multimedia
content.
