Category: Geek

I’m starting to get back into reading books after a long hiatus. One thing that’s holding me back, though, is that I’m not really a big fan of buying a bunch of physical books that I’ll only use once. It feels like a waste, I don’t want to go through the hassle of reselling them or going to a library, and I have limited shelf space.

Obviously it makes sense for me to go digital. The Kindle looks very appealing. It has a long battery life, a display that’s not just another LCD screen for me to stare at, and it has a broad selection of books. But, as far as I know, if I buy a book on the Kindle, I cannot transfer it to another non-Kindle device. So if I have a library of Kindle books and then one day decide I’d like to use a book reader from Sony or buy a nook, I’m out of luck, right?

I’m looking for DRM-free ebooks, not free ebooks. Consider music, for example. If I buy music from iTunes, I can play it on my Mac or iPhone, but I can also play it on my Nexus One without having to sign in to my iTunes account or anything silly like that. This wasn’t always the case (Apple used to sell DRM’d music), but I just tested one of their DRM-free AAC files and I can assure you that it works on my Nexus One. And then of course there is the Amazon MP3 store which I have warmed up to recently. They also sell DRM-free music in a standard format. I think this is very reasonable. I still pay for the music, but once I have it, I can play it on any device I want.

So, my questions for anyone who is reading this:

1. Am I wrong about the Kindle? (And no, “They have an app for X device” is not what I’m looking for.)
2. Is there an existing store with a significant number of titles from major publishers that sells DRM-free books in a standard format? If so, which is it?

Please leave any advice in the comments section below. I noticed that iBooks on the iPad will be in the ePub format. This is a good sign, but I haven’t found any clear answers on whether or not these files will have DRM. If anyone can find a confirmation either way, please let me know along with a link to your source. Thanks!

My initial reaction to the iPad:

Looks cool; I can definitely see myself using it to surf the web on my couch. But I really don’t understand having to pay an extra $130 just so I have the option to add 3G service later.

Update: The test is now over. I think Jason saw it. I’ll have him leave a comment.

Today, I’m trying an experiment with the Nexus One. I hope it works.

At 9:15 AM (California time) I’m broadcasting live at qik.com/wysz (with location tracking!) using the Qik Android app while driving to work using Google Maps Navigation. I might also switch over to USTREAM to see how that works, so if I’m not broadcasting on one service, check the other. Some things that this will test:

T-Mobile’s 3G network

It will be interesting to see if the broadcast continues live for the entire commute. I think the Qik application will buffer and upload saved video if I lose the connection, creating a complete archive video, so I’ll have to rely on my live viewers to leave comments below letting me know if the live feed cut out at any point.

Multi-tasking

The Nexus One will be doing all of these things at the same time:

• Broadcasting live geocoded video using Qik or USTREAM
• Playing an MP3
• Providing turn-by-turn GPS navigation
• Running several background processes such as Swift (Twitter), Google Voice, and Gmail

Camera

Although the resolution and quality will be limited by the broadcasting applications, I’m hoping that the nice camera on the Nexus One is able to provide a clear image of the commute.

If you watched, let me know how it went in the comments.

I’m not super-thrilled with some changes to my Chase accounts in the past year, but I was impressed by their new “DepositFriendly” (according to the flyer there is no space) ATMs. The deal with these is that when you make a deposit, you just stick your cash or checks into the ATM, and it automatically calculates the total and deposits the appropriate amount to your account. You don’t even need to feed them in one at a time; it’ll accept a stack of up to 30 checks or 50 bills.

That means:

• No searching for envelopes
• No searching for a pen
• No deposit slips
• No math
• You get the geeky joy out of experiencing the wonder of OCR while getting money.

If you’re in my area want to try one out, the Chase at El Camino & Castro Street in Mountain View has the updated ATMs.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Google Goggles, an image search app for Android phones.

In my previous post, I included a few videos to quickly show off what it can do, but tonight I found a very practical use for the application. I’ve traveled to Europe a couple of times and taken plenty of pictures of famous landmarks, but I never got around to actually captioning them. I may have been able to recall where everything was immediately after the trip, but years later I don’t even know which country some of the photos (which aren’t geotagged) were taken in. Fortunately, one of the things Google Goggles is pretty good at recognizing is landmarks. Knowing this, I’ve been able to figure out where many of my pictures were taken simply by taking pictures of my pictures!

I recorded a video to show how this works. The landmark recognition bit begins about 4.5 minutes into the video.

Google Goggles

This is straight out of a science fiction movie. Search the Android Market for Google Goggles and install it. It’s free. Once you have it installed, you can search just by taking a picture. Don’t know what that famous landmark is? Take a picture of it. Want to look up online deals on a product? Take a picture of it. Learn more about its current capabilities on the official site.

New version of Google Maps for mobile

This is also available in the Android Market. If you’ve already downloaded a previous version of Google Maps from the Market, you should see “Update available” if you click on the Downloads tab in the Market app. One new feature is called “What’s nearby?” which, as you’d expect, tells you what businesses are near a specific location. This version also introduces Google Maps for mobile Labs, which allows you to test new features. I’m currently trying out “Compass arrow.” You can learn more about this new version on the Google Lat Long Blog. And don’t forget that on Android you get free turn-by-turn navigation!

For those of you who want to see a quick demo of Goggles, I just took a few pictures of things from my desk. There’s no audio in the videos since I took them at work. 🙂

Update: I’ve written a new post about a use of Google Goggles.

In August, I shipped off a box of negatives from our family photo collection to ScanCafe, a photo scanning service. I was a little nervous shipping irreplaceable memories to people I didn’t know, but a couple of my colleagues had successfully used the service and I really wanted to get the photos digitized.

For those of you unfamiliar with the service, here’s the basic process:

1. Place an order with ScanCafe.
2. Ship box of photos to ScanCafe.
3. ScanCafe scans your photos and ships the originals and files back to you.

There are plenty of reviews of the service already (mostly positive), and here I’ll talk about my experience.

Ordering and Packing

Estimating the number of negatives is tough. We had many envelopes stuffed with negatives from many rolls, so I couldn’t just multiply a number by 24 or other standard number of exposures. Fortunately, you don’t really need an exact count at all; you’re just supposed to enter in some number so that ScanCafe can provide an estimated cost, which you pay 50% of before shipping. I estimated about 3,000 photos and ScanCafe ended up scanning 4,400.

Because I was nervous about putting everything in one box which was eventually going to be shipped internationally, I randomly divided our photos in half and only sent one half in with the first order. With everything packed, I printed off the shipping label. The label had a weight mentioned on it (I guess determined by the number of photos), so I hoped that the package wasn’t too heavy, and fortunately UPS didn’t complain.

Scanning/Timeline

ScanCafe does a pretty good job of giving updates on the status of the order, which I expect and appreciate. You don’t get to see the scans come in live or anything, but you know when your package has arrived in at the facility, when scanning has started, etc.

Based on the status updates collected in my email archives, here’s the timeline of events for scanning 4,400 photos:

August 10th – ScanCafe received package in Burlingame, CA.
August 24th – Originals received at imaging center. Images expected to be available for review by September 19th.
August 31st – Scanning commences.
September 22nd – Scans available for review.
September 27th – Order completed.
October 13th – Received tracking number.
October 20th – Originals and DVDs delivered.

Image Review and Checkout

Until this point, everything with ScanCafe was as good as I expected it to be based on the reviews, except for it taking a little longer than I thought it would. To be fair, though, they did scan thousands of photos, and I’d much rather wait longer than see a compromise in quality.

One of the nice things about ScanCafe is that you can actually choose to not buy up to half of your scans (you’ll still get the originals back), so they let you preview them all online before placing your order. I wonder if anyone takes advantage of this feature, because the site is excruciatingly slow when loading images. Even loading thumbnails and album lists felt like being on dialup. I’m guessing that the servers are located in India, so it would be nice if they moved to U.S. hosting. The “express checkout” option looked very tempting from the start.

The lack of speed wasn’t what bothered me the most. The site is confusing at this point. There is an option to organize the photos, but I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do. I’m also not sure about the free restoration that’s offered. I didn’t see it as an option, and wondered if it would be something that I chose after selecting which photos I wanted. I had no idea if this process was applied to my photos, as some images definitely looked unrestored in the gallery. Maybe it happens automatically after you choose your photos?

Even though it’s not required to organize your photos before you send them in, they will name the folders based on an labels or containers, which is helpful. I had a few labeled APS cartridges, but everything else was loose, so most of my folder names are things like “Bag 10.” They do label the physical bags/boxes if you didn’t. One funny thing I noticed is that whoever wrote my folder names wasn’t very familiar with the English language. For example, Christmas was written as Charstmas, Chartmas, Charestmas, and Chnstmer.

Delivery

After checkout, things didn’t move as quickly as I thought they would. It took two weeks before I received a tracking number for the return package. I guess they batch up the shipments between India and the U.S., which could explain the delay. The photos arrived in good condition along with the DVDs in full-size DVD cases. The 4,400 photos came in the form of over 50 GB of JPEGs spread across 13 DVDs. I’m in the process of uploading them all to Picasa Web Albums, which fortunately just lowered its storage costs! It would be great if there was a way to directly transfer them from ScanCafe to PWA, though. That’s my feature request.

Unresolved confusion

In the final receipt, there was a line for the optional “pro resolution” service that I selected during the initial order. However, I’m not sure how to interpret this:

Actual  Deleted  Selected
4419    0        2962

I was charged for the “Selected” amount. Does this mean that some of my scans weren’t delivered at pro resolution? I sent an email to ScanCafe asking about this on November 27th, which was forwarded to the imaging center on December 1st, when I was promised an answer within 48 hours. I have not heard back.

Update on December 6th: ScanCafe wrote back and said that this is a glitch in the displayed image count. All of my photos were scanned a pro resolution. Phew.

Update on December 7th: They emailed me again to inform me that the bug has been fixed.

Overall impression

I obviously had some issues with the website, but overall I’m happy with the convenience of the service and the quality of the scans. A second order is on its way.

One more thing

It snowed today in Pennsylvania. I wasn’t there to experience it, but thanks to ScanCafe, I can still show you what I look like in a snowsuit:

The problem

I see a lot of confusion about the use of microphones at live events. A common scenario:

A speaker begins talking, but his or her voice is clearly not playing through the speakers. The speaker immediately looks down at the mic and starts flicking switches. He or she looks at the tech, who gives a thumbs-up that the mic should be on. Still no audio, because by now the speaker has turned off the mic completely. The tech, who knows that everyone thinks it’s his fault, ends up having to join the speaker on stage to fix the equipment.

What has usually happened is that for whatever reason, the tech was unable to enable the speaker’s mic in time to catch their first words. The mic’s audio was probably muted before because the speaker was talking offstage or rubbing the microphone against their clothing. Neither the tech nor the speaker are at fault. Not every speaker should be expected to be proficient in audio equipment, and the tech can only operate the equipment so quickly.

The solution

If I were designing a microphone (let’s imagine we’re dealing with a wireless handheld), there are two main features I would implement. They both address the fact that many reasonable people, when handed a microphone, do not account for the presence of a mixing board. In their minds, if the microphone has power, the sound comes through the speakers. If there is no sound coming through the speakers, the microphone is off. Here’s what I’d do:

1: Concealed switches
If users can’t find a switch, they can’t turn off the mic. Hide any switches in the battery (or separate) compartment. This eliminates the need for the tech to put unsightly (and easily bypassed) tape over the switch.

2: Power light
If the microphone is powered on, it should have a steady green light. Someone who has read the manual can understand that the light comes on for a second when powered on, then turns off, and only comes on again if the battery is low. A regular user thinks that light on = microphone on.

How you can help

If you’re ever handed a microphone, here are a few tips to help out the audio tech:

• If you’re about to speak for the first time in the session, bring the mic into position to signal that you’re ready, and then pause for a second or two to give the tech a chance to turn on the mic.
• Hold the microphone close to, but not directly in front of, your mouth. If you hold it too far away, or even hold it in your lap (I have seen people do this), the tech will have no choice but to turn up your gain, risking feedback. If you hold it “in the line of fire,” you’ll pop your P’s.
• Keep the microphone at a consistent distance from your mouth. This avoids unexpected changes in volume. One trick you can use is to lock the elbow of your microphone-holding arm to your side. With your upper-arm firmly planted, you’re less likely to move that arm around as you speak.
• Project, but don’t yell. If you speak just loud enough that you can hear your voice come back to you through the speakers, but so that if you spoke just a little quieter you wouldn’t, you’re good.
• If the microphone doesn’t work, don’t tap it or blow into it. None of the cool people do this. Test it by speaking or snapping, and look to the tech for instructions before flicking any switches.
• Turn off your cellphone completely or put it in airplane mode. Not all systems will be sufficiently shielded.

And finally, if you’re ever at one of those music award ceremonies, and as you stand at the podium and the microphone is not at the level of your chin, you do not need to lean down and speak into the mic. Technicians who work on live national broadcasts are smart enough to prepare for tall people.

Recently, Google announced a couple of new features related to captions and subtitles on YouTube: automatic captions and automatic timing. A couple of days ago, they released a video of the announcement which was made in Washington, D.C. Of course, since I’m a geek, I watched the entire hour-long video, even though as Googler who manages a YouTube channel with over 100 captioned videos, I totally already knew about anything they would announce.

Or so I thought.

At 20:32 in the video, Ken mentions a search feature that I’ll admit I was unaware of. Since captions have timing data, it’s possible to not only find the video that contains a specific caption, but to also point the user directly to the part of the video they were looking for, which is especially useful for longer videos. Here’s how to do it:

Google Video

1. Search for the text of the quote you’re looking for.
2. Enable the “Closed captioned” filter in the left sidebar. (You can also start out your search with this filter on the Advanced Video Search page.)
3. Make sure you’re in “List view,” and then click on “Start playing at search term” in the result you want to view.

YouTube

1. Search for the text of the quote you’re looking for.
2. Use the “Closed captions” option from the “Type” drop-down.
3. Click on “Start playing at search term” in the result you want to view.

And once you’ve found that specific point in the video that you want to share with everyone, you can link directly to it by adding this to the end of the URL, using 20 minutes and 32 seconds as an example: #t=20m32s

Note that a similar feature exists in the Google Voice app for Android, which allows you to jump to a specific part of a voicemail just by tapping on a word in the transcript.

Finally, I wanted to highlight one more announcement that was made recently about captions and subtitles. Google Translator Toolkit, a free service that assists with translation tasks, now supports editing subtitles in the .srt or .sub format. Just upload your subtitle or caption file with the correct extension (don’t save it as .txt), and you’re on your way to faster translations and a wider audience.

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