Duck Podcast: Episode 13 (in HD!)

You may have already noticed, but the Duck Podcast has returned from it’s rather long hiatus, and it’s back with attitude! Or… High Def! Be sure to check out all the action on the official Duck Podcast website, http://duck.jole.ca.
Also, I’ve padded my YouTube account with old goodies from jolevideo, and some new stuff from my video archive. Be sure to check it out. I’ve been contemplating whether to promote jolevideo or just kill it off in favour of YouTube, since ol’ Google has certainly made progress with the popular video service over the past few years. I’ll be keeping both in service, but YouTube will be the primary public distribution area, with jolevideo being reserved for rejected videos.

Whiteboard of the Week – 18

This week’s whiteboard of the week is another guest artist: Simon “Skully” Kully illustrates some sort of epic battle, along with “hell” later converted to “shell”. Deep stuff. I’m sure he will comment on it further in the comment section, especially considering how the iPad seems to be saving the day.

EDIT: Sorry we’re a bit behind with the Whiteboards of the Week, it’s been busy with shows and other adventures!

Production: ASLC 2010

Every year a high school in Alberta hosts the Alberta Student Leadership Conference (ASLC) that brings together students in leadership from across the province together to network and learn. I’ve been hearing about it for the past year before I even graduated, but this month the whole thing came together in what ended up being a technical bonanza.
There were three major events that required servicing: the Opening Ceremonies, the Dance later the same day, and the Closing Ceremonies. The first two were serviced by Stardust Events along with volunteers from the Harry Ainlay Tech Team, and of course me, jole.ca Technical Services. The Closing Ceremonies were held at the Myer Horowitz theatre, and was run mostly by the tech team and I, with some help from the house tech there. In all it was a pretty fun time with lots of new experiences with new people, albeit somewhat tiring and certainly stressful.
Opening

It’s the GrandMA! Bill from Stardust cues up lighting during rehearsal for the opening ceremonies. They had about four lighting stands along with a large lighting bar lighting the show, entirely composed of intelligent fixtures, both LED and traditional. Controlling the whole rig was the GrandMA Lite.

More

Whiteboard of the Week – 17

Hurray! I remembered to publish one this week!

 

In this Whiteboard…
  • “Tag” (Rebecca)
  • The TI-34 (Rebecca)
  • “The Game (Rebecca)
  • A monster truck (Misha)
  • A Turtle (R)
  • A battle involving underwater canoes (Misha)
  • A TurkeyGoose™
  • Wild Kevin fighting Wild Misha, with Joel appearing to throw Pokeballs at them. (Misha…who else?)
  • An’s Pencil (An)
  • A cliff (\/)

 

 

Fixing your CS3 Installation in 10.6.3

If you’ve been having issues with your installation of Adobe CS3 on the latest 10.6.3 OS X update, I have found a solution (for my case anyway).

Adobe has acknowledged the issue, albeit without a real fix for the problem. It offers three “solutions” to the problem, which is due to a System Serial number that exceeds 12 characters. If you’ve ever had your motherboard replaced on your Mac and the tech forgot to transfer your serial number into the NVRAM, you likely see “SystemSerialNum” when you open System Profiler. Apparently this crashes CS3. (Geez!)

For me this issue has been a long time coming: I’ve had the top-case on my MacBook replaced at least 3 times, and amongst those trips to AppleCare the techs forgot to re-place the system identifier sticker back on my computer. By the time it was time for a new motherboard, they had no clue what my serial number was so they couldn’t enter it. I have it on my original invoice though.

There’s a guy on InsanelyMac though that seems to have picked up the image to a Serial Number Utility (for Technicians obviously).

You can check out the discussion here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t28529.html where you’ll also find the download links.

I did it and it solved the issue! I’m set to go!

AffectiveDesign.com Launches Today!

Today marks the launch of AffectiveDesign.com, a project I’ve been working on for Design and UX Expert, Trevor van Gorp. The design and flow of the site was created by Trevor; the HTMLification and integration into WordPress being my task. WordPress has come a long way from its early days as a simple blogging platform. Previously it required a lot of hacking to get it to behave like a Content Management System (CMS) but thanks to Pages and a bit of theme code, it actually works quite well for light-duty websites. 

The theme I created for AD implements some interesting WordPress-as-a-CMS functionality. While plug-ins play an important role, I tried to implement the bulk of it using WordPress theme templates. WordPress supports distinction between “Posts” and “Pages” (and sub-pages) which I used extensively to organize page data. Top-level pages are the source for the tab navigation, with any sub-pages living within those tabs. Blog “posts” live within the Blog page, which is specified within Settings > Reading of WP.

Home Page

The homepage uses a special template (homepage.php) which houses various elements. The left-box houses the “Home” page contents, and is coupled with the Flashfader plugin, configurable inside WP. The purple-headed items are Sub-Pages of the Home Page, and the items below them are WP Widgets, all managed within WordPress.

Top-Level Pages

Diving into a Top-Level Page, some of the CMS features come to life. Starting with the left sidebar, subpages of Services are listed automatically. Below these items is a customizable sidebar of widgets (just a Twitter widget is being used here). Theme code in functions.php automatically creates dedicated Left and Right sidebars for every page for maximum flexibility. I haven’t evaluated the actual load this imposes on the server, but load times do not seem to be severely affected, and WP-Cache takes care of the rest.

In the center we have the contents of the Services pages. If desired, a listing of subpages can be inserted in-line by adding the
tag within the page contents. This listing is generated based on variables set in each subpage (for the image) and text processing (to display the snippet). This configuration is not as elegant as I would like, as it requires the use of “custom fields” (which isn’t terribly user-friendly) but allows for thumbnails to appear beside the subpage listing. WordPress has the ability to “attach” a particular image to the post, but I found it to be unreliable and difficult to manage.

The right sidebar stores more customizable widgets. The first is a custom-built widget based on “better-text-widget” and allows for the rounded corner styling along with an image (something that is difficult to do with a default text widget.) The “Testimonials” widget is also custom-built, and randomly selects a quotation from a list given in the backend. The remaining items are simply basic WP text widgets.

Sub-Pages

Strategic Insight is a subpage of “Services”. The breadcrumb behaves accordingly, and the active subpage is highlighted in the navigation. The image browser is SimpleViewer Pro, which allowed us to customize the look and feel of the actual Flash player to match the look of the sight. The sidebars and other functionality is analogous. 

Blog

The blog page behaves just like any other WordPress blog, with appropriate theming for the template.

Other

The only other thing to note would be the Twitter widget, which is based on Twitter Widget Pro, and customized to add a “Follow” button below it and to improve stylability. 

Be sure to check out AffectiveDesign.com to see how they might be able to help you out, or just to checkout how all these WordPress tricks come together to build a very flexible and powerful CMS! 

Production: GFS 2010

I recently came to the decision and announced that I would be applying to the BFA Technical Theatre – Technical Production program at the University of Alberta this Fall, transferring from Computing Science. I haven’t really looked back since the realization came upon me, and last night’s Grad Fashion Show was a great reminder of how much I enjoy the production process.

The Show

To summarize, the Grad Fashion Show is a yearly fundraiser for the graduating class at Harry Ainlay. To most, it’s an opportunity to dress up in donated fashions from our local mall, and enjoy some food and do some silent auction stuff. To us, GFS is the technical extravaganza of the year. It started in 2008 when we were approached days before the actual event requesting live video. At first it seemed like it would be all but impossible, but we threw all our best efforts into it and made it happen. We had a single camera, feeding a quasi-analog video card with PowerPoint overlay.

Since then, it’s been an excuse for me to mess with digital video mixing and FireWire cameras. Last year we used VDMX for the video mixing and GrabberRaster in conjunction with Apple Remote Desktop to have a very high-latency secondary camera over ethernet. This year, despite having moved on and graduated, Kevin invited me to return and help out. Before we knew it, we were hatching plans to deliver my Hackintosh and other materials the next morning.

(A shot of Camera A, a Canon GL2 tethered to jQuad running QLab at the 2010 Grad Fashion Show, Harry Ainlay.)

The Rush

After much preparation, it came down to setting up the video mixing software with the two cameras. Luckily the school now has three Canon GL2s (old, but better than nothing). We used one tethered directly via FireWire right beside jQuad (A), and a second on the other side of the gym (B). Camera B was sending an analog signal (FireWire doesn’t work well/at all over long runs) and then fed into the third GL2 which was acting as an analog to digital converter and supplying the second FireWire signal to jQuad.

The software I planned on using, VDMX, did not support the use of two FireWire cameras simultaneously though, despite having two separate FireWire buses on jQuad. After some quick diagnosis, I realized that Plan B, CamCamX suffered from the exact same problem. Both GL2s showed up in “Camera A” and 0 cameras showed up in “Camera B”. Things were beginning to look bleak, not to mention the fact that our lighting personnel had bailed, and time was running short.

(A shot of our video monitoring rig. We initially brought the mini-TVs along for fun, but we ended up needing them to monitor feeds, which aren’t visible in QLab.)

QLab 2 to the Rescue!

So just like those many years ago when QLab came to rescue me from the complexities of In on It, QLab 2 pulled the whole thing off. It had no problem recognizing two FireWire cameras, even identical GL2 models. The Camera cues worked well, albeit there were a few issues with crashing along the way. I suspect it had something to do with the whole Hackintosh/8GB RAM/Crappy Graphics card/Failfest that was going on, but QLab would choke occasionally and I would need a total restart of the program. We rented a $3 license (which was essentially the only thing we bought to run the whole show) so I could easily reload the camera cues after a crash, but overall the cross fades and everything worked very well. In fact, QLab was definitely pushing out the lowest latency and best frame rates out of anything I had tested over the years.

Monitoring the two video feeds was tricky with QLab because that is not entirely what it’s designed for (but perhaps that would be a feature request?). With the help of the extra mini-TVs Kevin brought along, we were able to preview both cameras successfully though.

It was by no means a completely flawless system, but for $3, it was another great experiment in live video, and in particular, digital live video mixing. Learning how to chose the best shot at any given moment takes loads of practice, and this was without a doubt a great opportunity to do it! Most of my friends at Ainlay will be gone next year, so I doubt there will be another GFS, but I look forward to the many opportunities that lie ahead in my technical theatre career, and hope to share them here on jole.ca along the way!

SU – Vote Now!

It’s election day(s) at the U of A! If you’ve opted to not actually check out any of the candidates, you might chose to participate in my experiment in social-media-totalitarian democracy, and vote the way I do! (Yeah right) but if you really have no clue and would like some tips from someone who went to the Horowitz forum (and took notes!) here’s the lo-down.

Don’t bother ranting in disagreement in the comments or anything, because if you have opinion already, this post is not for you!

VP Academic
Who to vote for: Tom L’Abbé
Why: Of the two, Tom seems to have a good plan to improve faculty association-SU relations, and understands that following prof evaluations are not some magic ticket to better teaching. Also, he seems to be more experienced.

VP Student life
Who to vote for: Rory Tighe
Why: For student life, you probably want someone who is bubbly and entertaining, and Rory definitely wins in this category. He also seems like someone who would be on my side in the bringing of Pizza back to SUB, which Kayla seems to have forgotten is important.

VP Op & Finance
Who to vote for: Zach Fentiman
Why: He’s your only choice, plus he’s pretty adorable. Have you seen his campaign posters? Luckily he’s a good choice.

VP External
Who to vote for: Jon Mastel
Why: This was a tough one, but Jon seemed the best experienced to me. They all seemed qualified, but Jon just seemed to emit the least BS.

Undergrad Board of Governors Rep
Who to vote for: Craig Turner
Why: Besides the fact that Sangram wouldn’t shut up about his completely ridiculous concept of informing the student population with video blogs (not even joking, this is basically his platform), Craig seems to be experienced and good ideas to bring to the table. It looks like this is a boring position, and he’s going to dutifully keep it that way instead of spamming my Facebook Inbox with things I don’t care about.

President
Who to vote for: Nick Dehod
Why: As the brief incumbent President, Nick knows a little bit about what he’s doing. He also didn’t try and tell me that he was “endorsed by Stephen Mandel and Daryl Katz” (BS ALERT) like Adam Zepp did, and didn’t seem to be over-focussed on improving the online calendar of events like Vickram. All three candidates are looking to ditch the $550 fees, so that’s a tie anyway.

Millennium Village Referendum
What to vote: Yes
Why: While I understand the reasonings behind “no” (it’s not a direct benefit to the students, it’s not charity unless you’re giving, etc.) I’m just to far left to say no to this one. The fact is most people don’t care, and if I can force this one through so that the people outside Starbucks right now help out a kid in Africa instead of buying another XL Latte, so be it!

U-Pass Referendum
What to vote: Yes
Why: You like your U-Pass right? Vote to keep it going. Or else.

PAW Fee
What to vote: No
Why: I really don’t understand why we get to vote on what students 5 years from now will be paying for. The fee would fund/pay for a new Rec/Activity centre, but would only apply once it’s built…which would be after your time here. I agree with the idea that we shouldn’t be creating costs for future students, so on that basis, I vote No.

Edit: Vote here!

Facebook spam easily covered up

This morning I woke up to find a pair of interesting Facebook messages from a friend of mine. After a while I came to realize they were spam, but there’s three things I found interesting:

1. Use of Digg links

The spam link itself appears to be the link to a digg entry. I immediately assumed it would be a digg article page, but was actually a redirect service digg offers, similar to http://bit.ly and the like. Above, the link took me to a berry diet site of some kind. Obviously these links are simple to make by just submitting a story to digg, and they immediately look credible. It’s weird how as the web becomes more and more share-y and more susceptible to spam, we’ve somehow managed to make it MORE dangerous with all these redirection services that can fool even the most savvy users. 

2. Mutual friend names

You’ll notice that the message from Mitchell includes a reference to “Alana,” which might be simply a random name, but more likely the spambot looked up the mutual friends between Mitchell and I and found the first one (A) and included it in the message going out to his address book. This provides another level of authenticity to the message, and further convinces the user that it isn’t spam.

3. Facebook deleted the messages

So this is all fine and dandy, but what I find especially disconcerting is that, while I had seen the two messages this morning, they had disappeared from my Facebook Inbox by tonight. I didn’t touch them, and was going to ask Mitch about them later, but found them gone online. The above image was from my iPod which I snapped before turning my WiFi on. Obviously it’s no big surprise that Facebook, as the totalitarian messenger service, Facebook has the power to wipe out any spam they see cropping up on their network, with or without your consent. This probably isn’t a big deal to most users, but make no mistake that Facebook is by no means a replacement for email, because email by definition works in an adhoc manner. Mail jumps from one server to the next to get delivered, and there is very little one single provider can to to stop the flow of that email, which is not the case with Facebook messages.

I’m no one for huge conspiracy theories, but I haven’t been a huge fan of Facebook’s invasion on my life, despite by habits of using it excessively. Remember that Facebook can screw with your mind more than you think. Stay aware folks!

Gallery Updates!

This photo is one of my favourites 🙂 

I realize that I’m not posting enough to the good old jole gallery, which, after all has been the cornerstone of jole.ca since the very beginning and the “jolephoto” monicker. It occurred to me today that there are a fair amount of people who come to my site to look around, but will just go straight to the gallery out of fear of my technical bloggy goodness, so I might as well keep it fresh for them. 

Often I have photos that I’m quite proud of but that simply don’t have enough energy to go through and name and describe. While names and descriptions would be nice, I’m pretty sure it’s the photo that counts. So moving forward, I’ll be just uploading the pictures as-is with just the plain-jane DSC-o-rama title and (no description). I may however provide a brief update such as this one that describes some of the photos in the upload.

  • The ones from February 2010 are mostly of Snow Valley which lights up overcast skies beautifully with its bright white light. I’m not sure the photos I took did it justice, but I found it pretty neat.
  • Some are from Vancouver such as the one in the post and the trees by the ocean. 
  • The sepia-looking shots are in fact not sepia-adjusted but actually the true colour with all the sodium lights illuminating the night at that time of day. I could adjust them to look white but then they simply look like day shots, so enjoy the feeling of a chilly Edmonton at 7pm. 

I’ve been having urges to rework flickrer a bit, which I may or may not do at some point in the future, but for now just enjoy the photos I’ve dug up from 2009 and a few fresh ones from this month, and look forward to more frequent (albeit less descriptive) photo updates.

Finally, a shout out to the Edmonton Journal Student Photo Contest. Submit one photo from 2009 to the journal for a chance to win some cool prizes! (Students Only). I’ve already submitted mine!

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