Closed Captioning Part II, Synching SAMI files using MS Producer

Synching Sami files using MS Producer:
I received the MS Producer resources disk in the mail, and it contained one example of a template that has a captioning window below the video area.

To use it, you need to create a “SAMI” file, which is a text file with HTML-style tags to describe the captioning styles and timing for each line of caption text.

Lacking anything better at the moment, I use Producer to do the synching: Play your video in Producer for the length of one phrase, stop it, note the timing, and use “control-tab” to switch to a text editor where the SAMI file is being edited.

I found this procedure a bit slow, and had some problems with getting the exact timing right, but it does work. Complete instructions for captioning with Producer are available as a (Windows-only .exe file !) download HERE

A non .exe resource for understanding SAMI files is HERE

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Taming viruses to control introduced pest animals

I found this interesting.

Australia has one of the most active research groups in the world in this area, since the Australian environment suffers from many pest animals that were introduced and have no natural predators.

New Scientist reports that Australian researchers have created a highly infectious rabbit virus (myxoma) that could wipe out the country’s rabbit pests by making them sterile. Infected female rabbits produce antibodies against their own eggs, a process called immunocontraception. The team has already applied for permission to carry out field trials with a similar virus that makes European mice infertile.

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“Plug and Play” on Windows

I had occasion to reinstall Windows2000 the other day and got a chance to see what the rest of the world endures when using anything but the most basic standard peripheral devices.

I have a two monitor setup, one a Dell 17″ flat screen, nothing special. The other is a 19″ Dell UltraSharp.

My reinstall was done from a ghost image, made from the install disk that came with the machine. A stripped, basic reinstall, which only had my network settings and network software added on, so at least I didn’t have to do that again.

So, the reinstall went quickly, but then came the endless trips to Windows update, restarts, and back to Windows update for more. Quite a few of the updates have to be installed separately, then the machine restarted.

Oh, did I forget to mention, after the reinstall, the left monitor, the digital Dell Ultrasharp, was black. I figured it would be OK, once I got around to opening the display control panel and setting it to use both monitors.

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A gallery of Drupal themes

Note: the themes shown in this gallery are now largely outdated. Visit The Drupal Theme Garden to see the current themes in action.

To see which themes are currently available and which are up to date, see the version numbers under each theme on the Downloads page on the Drupal.org site

This is a gallery of screenshots of the themes available for Drupal, an open-source platform and content management system for building dynamic web sites. Drupal is available here.

Click any image to see an enlarged view.


ADC – Viewed on Safari


Almaw – Viewed on IE Mac

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