Born on Date
July 4th, 2007 by heathenxGreat! You found us. Let’s get on with it then.
Richard and I had a grand idea to start a blog to go along with our new website, screencasters.heathenx.org This will help keep everyone informed of what we are doing . It probably wasn’t absolutely necessary since we could have written about the universe right on our web page, strictly in HTML. However, a blog just made the most sense. Besides…HTML is just too boring, right?
Not only will we be able to talk about new screencasts, Inkscape, the length of our beards, or whatever interests us in our online lives, we’ll be able to do it in a format that is more productive for us. Furthermore, our RSS feeds will be generated automatically. This is a big plus since we were manually writing our feeds before. I recommend “hand coding” things at first so one gets a full understanding of what they are doing. On the other hand, WordPress cuts out much of the leg work. Now we can concentrate on “writing” a post rather than “coding” a post.
Personally I have never considered myself much of a blogger. Always felt like my life read more like War and Peace rather than The Catcher in the Rye. Although…Inkscape and screencasting are subjects that I am fond of. In the very least that will give me something to write about. Richard, on the other hand, has an interesting blog of his own and has for sometime. I recommend it. He’s definitely not a greenhorn to blogging like I am.
Just like our web site our blog may undergo some changes while we get up and rolling. It’s hard to keep our fingers off of those customize buttons. We’ll try to keep everyone informed along the way. So we hope you enjoy our blog.
Now…back to my Cameron’s cappuccino and the Twin Peaks marathon that they’re playing on the Chiller Channel…
Happy Independence Day!
July 5th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Hey man, I had your previous feed and I just signed up for the new (and old
) one..
I started with Inkscape about year and half ago, and I learned many little details thanks to you
One thing about your screencasts is the lack of using of accelerators (Inkscape has many, as you know). Since you use voice, you can just say “I just pressed ctrl+shift+a for the align tool, or I just pressed the “Not rounded” button instead of setting the Rx and Ry both to 0
)
Anyway, I don’t know what is the software you use to create the screencast but it would be really cool if it could also capture your keystrokes and just display them like little “”subtitles”".. Oh, and I know that would be really hard and workful, but having subtitles would be a very nice detail to death people..
Any way, keep up the great work []
Best Regards, FdB
July 5th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
@FdB
I’m glad that you enjoy our videos.
Regarding the use of “accelerators”, I do use several of them. However, when using them during screencasting the viewer misses out on what just happened if you do not say what you just did. I am constantly leaving out important information in my screencasts so I make an effort to do some of the stuff on screen so that viewers can see what it is that I am doing.
There are multiple ways to draw things. Just find what works best for you and stick to it.
When I screencast in Windows I use SnagIt and my new favorite Camstudio which is free and open source. I have used SnagIt for several years now. I use it for other things that pertain to my job. I recommend Camstudio 2.0.
On the Linux side of things I use RecordMyDesktop most of the time. I am also a big fan of xvidCap. Both work very well on my openSUSE and ubuntu computers.
I took note of your subtitle and keystroke highlighting suggestion but for now I will stay away from it. Sorry. What is important to me is capturing good quality video and audio. That is something that both Windows and Linux can provide. Subtitles and keystroke highlighting seem to be more or less application driven and since I do not use the same applications on both operating systems then I would have inconsistent videos. I hope you understand. Maybe that is something that can be worked in sometime in the future.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I’ve added this blog to Google Reader so I can keep up with the screencasts, but I noticed that the RSS feed includes the previous test posts and the like. It’s probably WordPress being quirky, but it’s a good thing no one said anything too embarrassing
I have to say that I really like the sped up version at the beginning of each video. It’s nice to be able to quickly assess what the video is about and what techniques are used, especially without having to download the entire video first.
That subtitled keystrokes idea is very cool; perhaps you guys could come back to it at some point. Is there a good Linux program for doing that automatically?
July 5th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
@Ian
We never embarrass ourselves. That’s just us posting some silly comments while our blog was in beta mode. They are harmless. I really do like corn by the way.
Richard’s intros are his claim to fame. He really does a nice job.
> That subtitled keystrokes idea is very cool; perhaps you guys could come back to it at some point. Is there a good Linux program for doing that automatically?
Probably but I don’t know of one. If you find one let me know.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:55 am
@FdB
I am trying to stick with using keyboard shortcuts in my screencasts although I realize it might make it tougher for someone to remember. But I think it’s valuable. Personally, I hardly ever use the icons below the menu bar, but others do all the time. I figured that sticking with them (most of the time) during the screencasts might help others out. You only have to learn a few key ones at first before you see the value. Then again, sometimes I feel guilty and go up to the menus to show people where they can pick it graphically.
The subtitle thing is a toughie. Which language(s) would we use? I mumble so much sometimes that maybe they should be English!
Honestly, that would be a very tough thing to do. Provided there was software to accomplish it (superimpose the text), I wouldn’t object to someone taking my screencast and dubbing it with subtitles.
@Ian
I’m glad you like the intros. Actually, doing them is usually more fun than the screencast itself (shhhh – don’t tell anyone)
As far as the test posts go, I stick with my preference for potatoes. If the public gets to see that so be it!
Thanks for the comments guys. Now heathenx.. GET BACK TO WORK!!
July 6th, 2007 at 11:42 am
>Now heathenx.. GET BACK TO WORK!!
Yes sir. Sorry, I was on break. I’ll get back to work now.