Posts Tagged ‘macintosh’

A few weeks ago Amber waxed rhapsodic about VisualHub, our go-to choice for quick and easy video conversion on the Mac. In a classic case of really unfortunate timing, between the times she began and finished her post, the software’s developer shut hit doors, effectively discontinuing the product.

All is not lost, however: The developer released his source code to the general public, meaning if you know a little bit about how to compile code on a Mac you can get VisualHub’s open source successor, FilmRedux, up and running on your Mac. It’s actually not very difficult–there’s a nice write-up on the process on WikiHow–but it does require some software for programmers that, more likely than not, isn’t on your computer. The good news is that software’s free as well–it’s just the developer tools that are included on the Mac OS installer DVD (you can also download these tools from Apple’s developers site, but it’s a pretty hefty download).

I just noticed a link to another article on the subject, with links to compiled versions of both FilmRedux and PunyVid (iSquint’s successor). It says they’re for Mac users who don’t have Leopard (OS X 10.5), but you might give them a shot as well if this whole compiling code thing is more than you want to deal with.

Thanks to thriftmac for pointing out this new development.

Video sites like YouTube and Google Video are great sources of materials for your presentations. But what do you do if you don’t have an Internet connection in the conference room or lecture hall in which you’re presenting? Better safe than sorry–save the video clip to your hard drive so you’re ready to share it, connection or no.

There are several video formats these days, all jockeying for position to be the dominant player in this growing market. Flash video is used by most video sharing sites due to the near-ubiquity of Flash Player. However, Flash video is primarily designed for a web browser and does not lend itself to offline viewing (such as being embedded in a PowerPoint stack). Luckily, converting video from one format to another is increasingly easy these days. TubeTV, a free conversion tool, might be the easiest way to accomplish this. TubeTV can’t grab video from every site–for example, TV-on-demand from Hulu, ABC, and other networks won’t work–but most sites that offer video sharing options work great.

TubeTV requires a Mac with OS X version 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard). It also requires QuickTime 7.2 or higher (free and probably already on your Mac) and Perian, a free video conversion utility used behind the scenes. If you don’t already have Perian you’ll be prompted to download and install it the first time you start TubeTV.

Download TubeTV to get started, and move it into your Mac’s Applications folder. Open TubeTV–it kind of looks like a web browser because, in part, it is.

Let’s check TubeTV’s preferences to make sure video gets converted to an appropriate format. Open the Preferences window (open the TubeTV menu, then select Preferences) and click Downloading.

For most presentation purposes, iPod format is probably suitable. If you want video to be saved in the highest quality possible choose Apple TV–however, keep in mind that many online video sources aren’t saved in a quality this high, and there’s no way to improve quality once it’s been reduced.

While we’re here, note where your converted files are destined. In my case they’re saving to my Downloads folder, but if you want to change that to a different folder (say, your Desktop) you may change that now.

Close the Preferences window to return to TubeTV’s main page. We’re now ready to grab and convert a clip.

Using your web browser, (I’m using Safari), find a web page with the video clip you want to save. Here’s a good one to start with. Pause the video if it’s already started playing, then go back to TubeTV.

Click the Grab button (shown above; a glove) to load the same web page in TubeTV. Now, click the Download button (black, downward-pointing arrow) to begin the download and conversion process.

Depending on the length of the clip and the speed of your Mac, conversion will take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. When it’s finished, check the destination folder you specified earlier to find your new file:

This is a standard MPEG-4 video file, which you should be able to embed directly in a slide or play with a standalone media player like QuickTime or iTunes (I personally prefer using a standalone player so I can easily adjust the video to display at full screen).

What about Windows?

TubeTV is a Mac-only product. However, I’ve read good things about a similar program called Ares Tube, designed for Windows, and VConvert, a Web-based conversion application. If you’ve tried either of these, let us know about your experience with a comment below.

Today, as I was waiting for some software to install in the background on my computer (a digital equivalent of watching paint dry), I decided to check out Dashcode, a Mac development tool that makes creating custom Dashboard widgets really, really simple. So simple, in fact, that after about 30 minutes of work I have something to share!

The 2008 SIM Conference Countdown widget does exactly what you think it might–it displays a counter on your Dashboard so you can easily see how long you’ve got to plan your travel and get that PowerPoint ready for this summer’s 30th Anniversary International SIM Conference. Once installed it looks something like this:

(By the way, it’s counting down to Tuesday, July 15, at 6:00 PM. I don’t know if it takes the time zone into effect but I doubt it.)

Want this widget on your Dashboard? Here’s what you need to do:

1. Make sure your computer can run the widget. First things first: You need a Mac. Sorry, Windows people. Second, your Mac needs to have OS X 10.4.3 or newer. You can find out which version of Mac OS you have by going to your Apple menu, then “About This Mac.”
2. Download the widget to your computer. (Provided as-is, no warranty implied, yada yada yada.) What will most likely happen is the file will download to either your Downloads folder or Desktop, automatically expand, and ask you if you want to add the new widget to your Dashboard. If so, you should be ready to roll!
3. If you downloaded the widget and nothing happened, check your Desktop or Downloads folder for a file called “2008 SIM Conference Countdown” or “2008 SIM Conference Countdown.zip.” If you see the former, just double-click it to open it on your Dashboard. If you see the latter, first double-click on it to decompress the zipped file, then double-click on the “2008 SIM Conference Countdown” icon (black, rounded rectangle) to add it to your Dashboard.

Hope you enjoy the widget! Dashcode has been fun to tinker with, so don’t be surprised if I add more widgets here down the road. Let me know what you think!

Want more widgets? Check out Apple’s widget directory.

Leopard’s new Stacks feature has done wonders in terms of keeping my desktop tidy, but I still manage to garner some clutter. It normally doesn’t bother me too much, but if I’m giving a presentation or creating a screencast those extra icons make me feel self-conscious. In the past I’d do something like create a new folder and shove everything into it, but that just confounded the problem.

Here’s a better way: Just hide everything! Camouflage, another handy, free utility for the Mac, makes this easy. Just fire it up and, viola, a clean desktop! Don’t worry, those important files haven’t disappeared–you’ve just thrown a sheet over them for the duration. (How many of you have resorted to this tactic at home when company’s on the way over?) When you’re done presenting, just locate Camouflage’s icon in the menu bar to turn it off and reveal your messy desktop.

Download Camouflage and get a tidy desktop. As always, if you have questions or comments, just add them below.

Isn’t it annoying when you’re presenting and, during some discussion about your slide, your screen saver kicks in or your computer puts itself in sleep mode? If you’re using a Mac, you can keep this from happening by giving your computer a little jolt of Caffeine.

Caffeine is a small, free program for the Mac only. When you start it up, you’ll see a small coffee cup in your menu bar. Click it off and on to enable or disable screen savers and sleep mode. When you’re done using Caffeine, hold down the Apple key (or the cloverleaf key–located to the left or right of your space bar), click the coffee cup, and select Quit.

Download Caffeine and give it a try! Windows users: Do you know of a similar program or trick for your computers? Share in the comments below.

By the way, if it’s your audience that’s falling asleep, this won’t be of much help. You’re on your own there.