Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Next Big Idea: Backseat Video Game
June 13, 2010

I’ve had this idea forever, and at first it sounds like nothing new, but when you see how the pieces fit together you’ll recognize it as something a bit more original.

The idea has its origin in a Star Trek exhibit that the Franklin held many years ago. One of the more creatively inspiring things about the exhibit was the user of the LCARS interface elements on each exhibit display. If you’re only marginally familiar with Star Trek the Next Generation, you’ll know the look of these things on sight. They’re really a contrivance for the show, offering no real UX benefit at all, but some computer applications have taken the look of LCARS and used it to produce some interfaces for things, whether they’re Star Trek-related or not.

Voiceover Class
May 12, 2010

On Monday night I was at J.R. Fugett middle school in West Chester taking an introductory voiceover class via the Chester County Night School. The class was offered by Voice Coaches. I’ve been interested in doing voiceovers for a while, and have bought some self-training courses and books on the topic with the focused intent on learning to do voice work well. Mom noticed that this class was happening, and sent me a copy of the flyer, after which I immediately signed up.

The class was good. The instructor, John Gallogly, knew what he was talking about, and gave a good introduction to the field of voiceovers. About 17 people showed up for the class, of all different age ranges. Everyone introduced themselves in the beginning and talked about what they were hoping to gain from the class.

After the introductions were done, John talked about the voiceover profession. It seems logical that it wouldn’t be possible to individually train 17 people in one class session, so the overview made sense instead. He talked about many useful things: The good and bad aspects of choosing to be a professional voice actor. What happens when you do a recording session. The personalities and the people involved in the process. And, of course, the money.

Keeping Relevant
May 10, 2010

Saying this now basically dooms me to wandering once again into obscurity, but you might have noticed that I’m writing again more. These things usually come in cycles. I’ll go through a period where I don’t want to have anything to do with whatever else I’d do, and I’ll write instead, since the time is free. Writing is not a chore, it’s just something I don’t have time to do unless I toss other things aside. Still, there are other things that I’m doing, trying to keep relevant.

Recently I started throwing a project onto GitHub in an effort to catch up on git. This should be useful with my Drupal work, since Drupal is switching their source control over to git. Anything is an improvement over cvs, and while svn is still my scm of choice, git doesn’t seem too difficult to work with.

Girl Scout Father-Daughter Bowling
May 08, 2010

Last Saturday evening, after we got home from the concert trip, I took Abby to the Bowling Palace for the Girl Scout Father-Daughter bowling event. There were so many scouts there. Most of them were Daisies. Abby is still a Brownie, but if I remember correctly she might bridge into being a Girl Scout proper this year.

As is typical, Abby forgot to wear her vest with all the patches on it. It’s strange when I think about it. My scout uniform had lots of badges that I felt proud of earning. Brownie badges are called “Try-Its” and there doesn’t seem to be much to earning them. Maybe the actual scouts have more requirements. Nonetheless, I think this low barrier to entry may be what generates a lack of pride in Abby’s presentation of her vest. Anyway…

The Thing With Jing
May 04, 2010

Jing is a pretty neat tool. I use it quite a bit. It’s a free program for Mac or PC that takes still image screenshots or movies of your screen and uploads them to various sites for sharing with others. I signed up for a Pro account a while ago, and it’s been useful all along. There are, however, a few things that Jing should do that it does not.

First, the graying out of uncaptured areas needs to go. I’m not sure what Jing is doing during that time, but I have 5 monitors, and it takes forever for it to start up a new capture. The only time I use Jing instead of SnagIt these days is when I need video or am willing to wait for the delay, which isn’t often.