Billy Fire LLC

I have recently written an introductory article describing some of the options available for authenticating e-mail, including Sender Policy Framework (SPF), SenderID and DomainKeys. I also include instructions on setting up DomainKeys on a cPanel based system where SSH access is available.

I mentioned previously that my Canon HG10 replaced a ZR, whose firewire port had ceased to function. I realized a few weeks ago that the ZR replaced another Canon, but not a video camera, a Super 8 film camera, the Canon 318M.

I’ve had this camera in my cupboard for over 25 years and I hadn’t though much about it. I was recently surprised to see that some wedding videographers were actually offering Super 8 footage as part of their wedding packages. The idea being that film has a special quality which is difficult to achieve with video. I also imagine that 8mm film conveys a nostalgic feeling to those of us who used to sit through silent family home movies.

I got the camera out and it is in great condition. The design looks very contemporary. I also realized that there was a film in my camera that was half used. I cannot remember the last time I used the camera exactly, but I suspect it was when I was about 18. A lot has changed since then.

I decided to use the other 25 feet as my (very large) children were enjoying their Easter Egg hunt. I bought some some new batteries, put them in the camera and it worked first time (after I remembered to switch it on).

I searched for where I could get the film developed. It seems that developing the Kodachrome is exceedingly rare and Dwayne’s Photo claim to be the only people that develop it. I sent them the cartridge (see below) and in a very short time it was returned.

I think I receognize my sister in the first few frames, but don;t have a projector and so the next stage is to have the film telecined.

MyMovieTransfer.com appear to have some top notch equipment and so I will be sending it there for transfer to DVD.

One the huge benefits of a hard drive video camera is the ability to find and playback any clip within a matter of seconds. On the Canon HG10, when you change the mode to play, up to six clips are displayed on the screen. You can easily navigate between the clips using the control to the left of the screena and play the clip by pressing the middle button (see the image below). It sure beats rewinding tape, stopping, playing, rewinding etc.

We recently introduced a virtual PBX into our business. The system from 800PBX.com provides us with a toll free number, together with a local fax number. I have initially opted for their lowest cost option ($14.99) per month, this means that since a fax number is included, it is almost cheaper than what I used to pay eFax just for their fax service. $14.99 doesn’t get you that many minutes, but it is a good place to start and you can always upgrade later.

In choosing 800PBX I looked at several competitors. They were all more expensive and some did not allow me to have a number in my area code (858) so they were not an option for us.

There are many really cool things that I like about this service including:

• You can set up several extensions (for people or departments, e.g. sales). Each virtual extension can be associated with several phone numbers (e.g. your cell number, office number, home number, a partners cell phone number). these numbers can be chnaged, if required, and the updates kick-in immediately Once someone calls your 800PBX number the system is set up with two options. Either it will hunt for you, trying each of the numbers you set up in turn, or it will call all the numbers at once.
• You can have the system get the caller to announce themselves. The system then plays back the name to you so that you can decide whether to take the call or send it to voicemail.
• When you get a voicemail you get an e-mail notification. You can then listen to the voicemail by dialing into the virtual PBX or you can log into your 800PBX account on the Web an hear the message on your computer.
• You get several professionally recorded messages as standard as well as on-hold music. You also get one free message recorded by a voiceover artiste (although in our case he mispronounced Sian, which was predictable, I suppose). You can also record your own message and upload them to the system (I use Audacity and I had to try a few settings before this worked correctly).
• The message callers hear depends on whether it is business hours or not (you set your business hours within your control panel).
• Received faxes are delivered by email.
• The system means that you can always be available to potential customers, wherever you are.

There are too many great benefits and features to describe in detail. If you are interested in trying the system you get a 15 day free trial by clicking here.

Podcast feeds use RSS (’Real Simple Syndication’). The beauty of RSS is that once you have subscribed using a ‘feed reader’, you automatically get future episodes of a podcast.

There are many options as far as feed readers are concerned. Some of these are on-line services such as those available from Google and Yahoo. Others are software programs such as iTunes.

An excellent free program is called ‘Juice.’ Juice may be downloaded at http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/. You can use Juice to subscribe to a podcast feed and then adjust the settings so that every time you open the program it checks to see whether any more episodes have been added to the feed to which you subscribed. The program is easy to use, attractive and free!

If you would like to install the software, follow the instructions and then ’subscribe’ to our podcast as follows:

Once you have installed Juice you will see the following screen.

Click on the green ‘cross’ symbol. When prompted enter our RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/<name of feed>, as follows:

Press save and press the refresh symbol

Click on the ‘downloads’ tag and you should see our ‘First time buyer issues’ podcast. Right click on the podcast and select ‘play episode in media player.’

I have been investigating several microphone and recorder options (some probably a little unorthodox) in order to help my clients as they enter the world of podcasting as well as actually recording podcast for some of them. My basic criteria are as high a sound quality as possible, without spending a lot of money. I would also ideally like something that is portable and self contained, more about this later.

So far I have investigated:

• A Beyer M58 microphone (which is the sort of microphone that TV interviews use on outside broadcasts) connected via a Presonus TubePre preamplifier, which provides in input to the line-in of my VAMP MP3 player/recorder. I will describe this set up in a future blog.
• A Logitech USB headset and microphone connected via a USB connection to a laptop.
• A Radio Shack Lavaliere type microphone connected to a Camcorder
• A Samson C01U USB Studio Condenser Microphone connected to my laptop via USB

This post looks at the Samson C01U. I will talk about the other options in future posts and I will also create some audio samples.

The major advantage of the USB microphone is that it plugs directly into a USB port of a PC. No need for an additional preamp or recording device. The image shows the microphone in an optional spider mount which in turn is screwed on to my Radi Shack microphone stand. The spider mount isolates the microphone from vibrations. I also added an optional pop-filter. This is fine netting stretched across a frame. Its purpose is to stop the familiar popping noise that you sometimes hear when people say words beginning in ‘p.’

The microphone I tested came with an USB cable, SONAR LE and Cakewalk software. I loaded the software which is rather complex - and so until I have the time to get to understand it a little better, I have been using the Open Source Audacity.

Audacity, which is very easy to use, enables me to record and edit sound. It also provides a few special effects.

The microphone can be used with a software based pre-amp.

Unfortunately, Samson warn that this cannot be used when you have other USB based microphones installed, and this appears to be the case. I was able to record by modifying the levels in the normal Windows audio settings and was able to record some very acceptable results.

A client asked for tips on what makes a good podcast. I created the following list to include some of the factors that I think makes for good podcasting - and particularly those first few podcasts:

1. Keep it short. I suggest going for about 5 minutes. A shorter podcast may encourage people to give it a try. If they have to listed to 30 minutes, they might not be so keen to invest the time. You can always increase the length of the podcast as your audience grows.
2. Focus. Focus on a particular area of interest and talk in depth on that subject.
3. Project your personality through the podcast. It’s not just the information that the listening audience will be interested in - it is your style of presentation and YOU.
4. Include anecdotes. Just like in any form of public speaking, from Jesus to the present day, story telling really livens up any aural presentation and captures the listener’s attention.
5. Don’t read a script. Unless you have a gift for enlivening things written down as a script, it is far better to create a framework and speak from the framework using your own words. Generally I would prefer to hear a few ‘umms,’ ‘likes’ and ‘arghs’ and have a presentation made spontaneously, than a perfectly read but stultifying presentation from a script.
6. Use a good microphone. I am always amazed at how audibly illiterate some people are when they use an inadequate microphone (or worse a microphone ‘built in’ to their computer or MP3 player) to record a podcast. In the worse cases you have to actually strain your ears to hear the words, in the best, background noise and ambient sound can be clearly heard.
7. Get to the subject at hand as quickly as possible. There seems to be a trend towards adding all sorts of unnecessary clutter (such as a theme tune) at the beginning of a podcast. This may be okay for podcasts that you are listening to passively (e.g. on a car journey), but for those listening purposefully at their desks, unnecessary content can be an annoyance.
8. Listen to other people’s podcasts in your subject area. This can be a great eye opener (or ‘ear’ opener!) as to what works and what doesn’t.
9. Consider asking a colleague or subject mater expert to join you and take part in the podcast. The interchange between two people can make more interesting listening than just one presenter.
10. Solicit questions and suggestions from the audience. By incorporating information that listeners have shown an interest in will automatically ensure that the podcasts are relevant to the audience.
11. Publicize the podcast. If no-one downloads the podcast then, however good it is, it will be a waste of time. Make sure that you include a link on your web site. Send existing clients a link and consider issuing a press release. Also, bear in mind that many of your customers may not know what a podcast is. Make sure that you educate them and provide clear instructions as to how they could ’subscribe’ to the podcast so that they will be assured of getting the next episode.

Shedworx has just released a new version of their software that allows you to do a conversion into the WMV format as well as the AVI format. The added advantage for the Canon HG-10 is that the conversion keeps the video in the correct 16:9 format.

For this version to work Windows Media version 11 needs to be installed. I had an initial problem with this as I had version 9. As before, Shedworx were extremely efficient and worked out why I had an issue.

The following screen shot shows how simple the Shedworx interface is:

In this screen AVCHD files are added for conversion.

This options screen allows you to select the output format. In this case I have selected WMV.

Pressing the green button starts the conversion from AVCHD to AVI or WMV (depending on which you selected). Simple!

I was just reading how Matt Cutts had had some issues with his backup server and it reminded me that someone may be interested in a couple of recent occurrences where my backups saved my bacon (well actually not quite that serious, but it would have required me to do a lot of extra work to get things back to where they were supposed to be).

I while back I decided to install Carbonite. As I mentioned before, it was an extraordinary efficient process and is very easy to use. Carbonite is a backup service that runs in the “cloud” (i.e. somewhere on the Web and thus not subject to power outages at your home/office) that Matt talks about.

Recently I made 2 stupid mistakes by deleting files I needed in my haste to get things done. One of the mistakes was particularly daft. I had created a directory a while ago called Delete-Me. The directory was supposed to be a temporary staging area for files I would probably not need, but they could sit there until I deleted them. If I decided I did need them, they might still be there. For some strange reason I decided to store a very important file that I use multiple times a day in this area. The file is automatically opened by the application that uses it - and so I had forgotten where it was.

A few days ago I decided to clear some disk space and DeleteMe seemed like a good candidate.

The next time I opened my important application, its storage file was GONE.

I quickly realized that there may be a chance that the file in question might still be in my Carbonite backup. Praise God, it was! I presume that Carbonite leaves files in its backup for a period of time, prior to deleting them. I immediately put Carbonite in restore mode (i.e. it stops the backup) and copied the files from the Carbonite backup drive (somewhere in the “cloud”) to my PC. Everything is fine.

This was definitely a God thing because if I hadn’t opened my application when I did, Carbonite might have eventually deleted the file that I needed.

P.S. Len Pallazola of Carbonite kindly clarified (see below) that Carbonite actually retains files for 30 days precisely because of the sort of issues I had. So Carbonite is even better than I thought!

Images of Canon HG10 Camcorder

The following are several images showing some of the main parts of the camera. Excuse the dust.

The camera comes with several cables, notably a sound cable, a component out cable and a USB cable (not shown). The component out cable only transfers video data and hence needs to be used with the sound cable. An HDMI cable was not included with my camera.

These are the main controls for the camera. The top button turns the camera on and off and can change mode. Notice the little gray button at the top. This must be depressed before the button can be turned. The silver oval button starts and stops video capture. The small switch changes between video and still mode.

This larger view shows the battery. The charger input terminal is just to the right of the battery.

My dad always advised me to get a filter on any new camera lens to protect the lens (as well as providing desirable optical effects.) I bought a set of 3 43mm filters: UV, polarizing and skylight.

I have attached a UV filter to the lens.

The top of the HG10.

The top of the hg10 with its plastic cover removed. This show can be used for attaching a microphone.

The microphone input is cunningly concealed behind another plastic cover that has a small rubber hinge. I imagine that this cover is primarily for aesthetic reasons, but it also protects the terminal.

It seems that many camcorder manufacturers have a real blind spot regarding microphone inputs. I guess their studies show that most undiscerning camcorder users don’t really see this as a priority. The fact is, when you compare the two, you can really tell the difference between camera recorded sound and separate microphone recorded sound.

Top of HG10 with screen closed.

Output terminals (HDMI Out, Component Out, and Audio out) with plastic cover pulled back.

USB terminal. When transferring video to the computer this must be connected, as well as the power cable.