http://thedesignspace.net/ My daily explorations, troubleshooting, solutions and discoveries. en-us ellen@thedesignspace.net Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:48:05 -0500 http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/001038.html I sometimes record lectures or meetings for later reference, and have found Mechanical Turk to be an efficient and affordable method for transcribing them. It can be quite confusing to get started using MTurk though, and the available blogs on the subject don't really help you navigate the current MTurk interface, so here is the step-by-step process I use to... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000901.html Add MPEG StreamClip and Perian to your system to import, play and convert video in more formats. There are some video formats that Quicktime and Quicktime based applications have a hard time interpreting. For instance, certain Sony video cameras produce files in multiplexed (muxed) mpeg format. If you use Quicktime player, iMovie or Final Cut, the video will probably play... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000800.html Logic Pro is a popular digital audio workstation/ Midi sequencer for the Mac. It contains many virtual models of mixers, effects, synths, drum machines and sequencers. Since the typical audio gear requires simultaneous fine-grained control of multiple parameters, the typical adjustment method is with a knob or slider control. A standard mouse is not the best way to control such... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000622.html With some microphones, particularly Plantronics USB headset mic's, you may get an error when you try to set the Microphone Level in Powerpoint. "Powerpoint is not receiving sound from the microphone. Try one of the following ...." This error can occur even if all your settings in the Sound Control Panel are correct. Just hit OK, and don't try to... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000588.html Adobe Presenter is an add-on to Powerpoint that produces Articulate-like Flash presentations from your Powerpoint slides. At around $500.00 list price it's out of reach for a lot of content developers, but with an academic discount the price drops considerably, to about $150, and it starts to be a viable option for SME's to purchase for Rapid Elearning development. But... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000546.html I've been having a lot of authorization issues with iTunes since a recent upgrade, so when this morning, iTunes started garbling playback on ALL my music, I panicked thinking it was another bug. It sounded like the speakers were underwater. Fortunately it turned out to be a USB issue. I use USB headphones by Plantronics, and they seemed to have... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000540.html I've come across several PC's that will play Flash videos, but with no audio. There appear to be a couple of possible fixes to try, thanks to Selder and others in the Weyland.be blog. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services > Windows Audio and make sure the Status is "Started". You will no doubt need administrative access... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000538.html Shazam Listening to a tune I just got my mind blown by "Shazam", a new FREE application for the iPhone. Shazam uses the iPhones microphone to listen to songs or music happening anywhere in earshot. It will then tell you what song you are listening to. Just click "Tag it" and point the mic end of the phone in... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000531.html We had a problem with some people not being able to hear the sound on Flash videos, even after adjusting all their volume controls carefully. It turns out that sometimes the correct settings don't get written to the registry when the flash player is installed. Thanks to "512jones" in the Adobe forums, we have the following fix: "I just reinstalled... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000282.html The new piano sounds available for the Nord Electro B3 clone keyboard only work with Nord operating system v. 3.0 or greater. So you may find that even if you haven't updated before, you will want to do so now. The updater is pretty easy to use: simply download it from ">Update Nord Electro OS v3.00 (OS X) or Update... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000198.html I recently got a new Mac, and wanted to use the iTunes music folder I had been using with the old one. The iTunes Music folder is on a firewire drive, so I plugged that in, and selected it as the new library folder in itunes preferences. Nothing happened. I thought at first it was a permissions issue, but it... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000192.html If your iPod freezes up, as mine did several times before dying completely, follow these instructions: To reset iPod mini, iPod mini (Second Generation), iPod photo, and iPod (Click Wheel) Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.) Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple logo appears, about... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000155.html A usability issue with iTunes: You may think the first column, with index numbers, is the track number. It turns out that it's just an arbitrary identifier assigned to the tracks, no matter WHAT actual order they are in - alphabetical, date, track number, etc. If you don't have the column for Track No. enabled, you may not even realize... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000152.html I found an old MidiSport 2x2 USB midi interface by M-Audio that we had previously used successfully with an older computer, running Finale. When it was hooked up to a new iBook running Panther, it was not recognized at all by Audio-Midi Setup (Apple's new replacement for OMS). It did not appear at all in the configuration screen. It turns... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000004.html Taping people in less than ideal conditions, like echo-y conference rooms and hallways, I've fast learned that hum, echo and background noise are a fact of video life. For example, what is it about taping a person talking in a quiet room that attracts construction workers to begin throwing large chunks of scrap metal into nearby dumpsters? Hum is almost...