Tumblr-New easy way to blog
I captured this using the free screencasting web service Screencast-o-matic.com. I also used OmniDazzle to write on the screen with a red pen. Screencast-o-matic allows you to save to their website, but you can also download the video as a Quicktime file. I did this and used Quicktime Pro to save it at a smaller size using H.264 compression and then I uploaded the mov to Blip.tv.
Deepwood Flowers Painting
I finally completed my first painting using the Holbein Water Soluble Oil Paints. They mix and look just like traditional oils, but you thin them with water. Clean up is a snap using soap and water. Also, dry time is greatly reduced. Thin washes dry over night and thickly applied paint dries in a few days. I painted it on a 9 x 12 inch canvas board.
Deepwood Flowers Painting
Originally uploaded by jimblodget.
I used this digital photo as a reference.
I also did a digital painting of the same subject using Painter.
Jasper
Tripod Easel
How to Convert a Camera Tripod into a Painting Easel.
Necessity, who is the mother of invention.
Plato, The Republic
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)
I got a set of Holbein water soluble oil paints for Christmas and after looking around the house for a bit, I realized that I didn't have good tilt-able easel. I did have several good camera tripods. What I really needed was a device that held a canvas and screwed on a tripod. So, I searched through art supply catalogs and the Internet, but I couldn't find anything for sale. There are paint boxes that screw on a tripod and hold a canvas, but I didn't need a paint box. I already had a good one.
After several weeks of thinking about it and going through at least 3 different designs, I decided to build one last weekend. I had everything I needed - wood, screws, power tools and an idea. I picked the easiest one to build. It uses two 1/2 inch dowels as rails and has 3 cross pieces that slide up and down. The center one screws onto the tripod and the outer two adjust for different sized canvases.
Snap Link Previews
I just added the free Snap service to this blog. It provides a small preview of links so you can see what you're linking to before you click the link. Check it out by pointing to any link in the blog. It was very easy to install. All you have to do is sign up on their site by providing a URL to your blog and an email address and they give you the code to embed on your web page or blog. Since this is a WordPress blog I also downloaded the free WordPress plug-in, installed it, activated it, and set my unique 32 character key in the options and it worked. The service also works with Typepad and Blogger blogs.
What is Snap Preview Anywhere? Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of what other sites you're linking to, without having to leave your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted "trips" to linked sites.
Blogging with Flock
I just downloaded Flock and I'm trying it out. It looks like a nice
browser. You can connect to your Flickr account and upload images from
within Flock. I'm writing this post using Flock's blog feature. You can right mouse click on something on a web page and choose Blog This which is what I did with the photo.
It also has a built-in RSS reader, but I prefer the Google RSS Reader. There are a lot more features to check out, but my early impression is good. Firefox goodness with easy multimedia manipulation.
How to Play a Dulcimer
Today I experimented with getting a Flash FLV movie playlist to work. My brother, Bob, gave me access to his excellent dulcimer tutorial Quicktime movies. I converted four of his movies to FLV and created a test page which uses a XML playlist and Javascript to display and control all the movies. I like the way that you can do all this on a single page. In the Quicktime version you have to have a page for each movie. You can start and stop clips, jump forward and back between clips, and even jump to points within a clip (think chapter stops). This is a very powerful set of features for combining movies.
Talking Blog Posts
I just discovered the free web service called Talkr.com which provides a MP3 recording of your blog posts. Just create a free account and point to your blog's RSS or Atom feed. If you have a WordPress blog you can install a free Talkr plug-in. This will place a "Listen to this Post" link at the bottom of each post. People can also subscribe to your Talkr feed in iTunes. This way they can listen to all your text posts as a podcast. You can subscribe to my blog's Talkr feed by copying this link and pasting it into the "Subscribe to Podcast" feature in the Advanced menu of iTunes.
You can listen to this post with this mp3 player:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
or click the "Listen to this post" link at the bottom of this post to link directly to the mp3 file.
Flash Video on DreamHost
This is way cool. DreamHost.com (my hosting service) now offers a free way to convert Quicktime and other video file formats to FLV. They also offer a way to easily embed the video in a blog posting like this one. Here's a sample.
Read Michael D. Pollock's excellent article to learn more about how to add a FLV to your WordPress blog.
Google Sketchup and Google Earth
I discovered Google Sketchup about a week ago and I had a little time this weekend to learn how to use it. I wanted to make a copy stand with two photoflood lights, a camera on a tripod, and an easel with a drawing on it. I imported some basic models, but I couldn't find a photoflood light so I made one by cutting a sphere in half and tacking on a cylander in the back and placing a lightbulb in the center. I thought it would be neat to do a fly-by animation. The free version of Sketchup does not have an animation feature. So, I placed the model in Google Earth and used SnapZ Pro to do a screen capture as I manually zoomed in and out. I edited the movie in iMovie and converted it to Flash with the Flash Video encoder.