Singing the Microphone Blues

Yes, I have a new microphone but don’t worry, I’m not using it for singing. The injuction that the neighbours filed is probably still in effect.

I’ve been making Excel tutorial videos for a while, and posting them on my Contextures site and YouTube. The most popular video, Drop Down List in Excel, was created in June 2008, and I probably used the $10 microphone that came with the computer.

The sound quality isn’t too good, and I’ve tried other microphones since then, with varying results. So, to improve the videos, I decided to splurge on a better microphone.

After hours of Googling, and reading reviews, I chose the Rode Podcaster USB microphone. I ordered it from Vistek, a Canadian chain that specializes in cameras and video equipment.

The microphone, at $349 CDN, wasn’t cheap, and I hoped it would prove to be a good investment. I unpacked the microphone and plugged it in, and after a bit of fiddling with the audio settings, it worked well.

However, the microphone is quite heavy – the specifications say 21.5 ounces, which is about 1.5 pounds. If you’re trying to record your voice and use the keyboard at the same time, it’s a bit of a challenge.

The microphone came with a “Microphone Stand Mount” but I discovered that’s something you attach to a microphone stand. And, of course, I didn’t have one of those lying around the office. (To the people at Rode and Vistek: It would help if you mentioned what accessories are required.)

So, it was back to Vistek to order a microphone stand. After waiting, and waiting, I learned that the new guy who took the order hadn’t processed it. He just took the money and put the order in a drawer somewhere, or forgot to push the right button.

The stand finally arrived, and I tried to figure out how to attach the stand mount and microphone to the stand. There were no instructions with the stand, and no pictures anywhere on the web, that I could find. All the pictures show the microphone separately. What help is that?

Finally, I found instructions that said to attach the microphone through the loop in the stand, using the locking collar at the bottom of the microphone. That was helpful, except that my microphone didn’t come with one of those.

Another phone call to Vistek, and they found another Rode Podcaster in stock. So, they took the locking collar from that one, and gave it to me. Here’s the Rode Podcaster Microphone attached to its microphone stand mount with the locking collar.

RodePodcaster01

And a side view.

 RodePodcaster02

Now, after only five trips to the store, I have a new, fully functioning, microphone and stand.

But I’m too tired to use it!

___________

Website Wiki

I’ve added pages for my sites at the AboutUs.org website wiki.

Because the site is a wiki, you can create an account and edit your own pages, or other pages.

It seems to be well-managed, and I decided it was better to create and edit my own pages, than to leave the default entries that were created.

The account registration only took a couple of seconds, so I’d suggest that you check your site there, and improve the pages, if they exist. If they’re missing, add the pages, with a bit of information about your site.

I don’t know how much traffic you’ll get from the AboutUs.org site, but at least you’ll have another backlink to your site.

___________

Excel Videos Page

I’ve added a new static page to this blog – Excel Videos – using the TubePress plug-in.

It was really easy to install and set up, and you can show YouTube videos for a specific user or playlist, or show popular videos, such as top-rated or most-discussed.

In the TubePress plug-in option settings, on the Advanced tab, you can create a Shortcode Keyword. Then, insert that code, in square brackets, wherever you want the TubePress videos to appear.

___________

Move Blog to Different Web Host

Last weekend I transferred my domain registration for this site to a different web host. That went smoothly and quickly, despite the warning that it could take 5-7 days.

It’s Complicated

With my confidence bolstered by that success, I was ready to tackle the next step – pointing this blog to the new server, and moving all the content.

I prepared by reading everything I could find on the steps required to move a WordPress blog. It seemed complicated, but doable. Hah! Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

The task that I figured would take a couple of hours took almost a day. Yes, some of that time was spent in gnashing teeth, complaining loudly, and consuming medicinal beverages, but it still took way too long.

Password Confusion

The trickiest bit was detangling all the user names and passwords that I had jotted down, for the old host and the new one. Every corner of each host’s site has a different password, and it’s very confusing.

After hours of hair pulling, I finally found an article that said the wp-config file needs the cPanel password. I’d been trying everything BUT the cPanel password.

With that change, I finally cracked the code, and got this blog back up and running.

Lost Settings

As my research suggested, I had exported my old databases, and imported them to the new database, but that had no noticeable effect on the blog. I lost all the settings, and had to re-do things.

Fortunately, I had also done a WordPress export, so I was able to import all the articles and comments that way.

If you notice anything that’s broken or missing, please let me know. Thanks! In the meantime, I think it’s time for a bit more medicine.

___________

RSS and Blog Backups

Today I was backing up my RSS feeds in Google Reader, and was shocked to see that I’m subscribed to 386 feeds. Wow, that’s about double what I would have guessed.

There are only a few blogs that I read every day, and those are in a Google Reader Favourites folder. For most of the rest, I just read the titles, and skim through the articles that sound interesting. Occasionally, I’ll star an article to go back to it later, for a careful read, or to follow the article’s links.

Trim the List

In the feeds list, you can click on a blog name, then click Show Details, to see a chart of recent posts, and which ones you’ve read. If a blog hasn’t posted in a long time, or I never read the articles, I usually unsubscribe.

I wish there was a quick way to review all the Google Reader feeds, to see which feeds I use, and which ones I don’t. It’s a tedious process to go through the list individually, especially since the Show Details doesn’t stay open.

If you know of a better way to manage the list, please let me know.

Now I’ll go and do the backups for my blogs too.

___________

Excel Quick Tips Videos

I use TweetDeck to monitor Twitter, and to post to my Twitter account, most of the time. TweetDeck used to have a link to 12seconds.tv but that link seems to have disappeared in recent versions.

This week I posted a few 12 second videos, showing quick Excel tips, and also posted the videos to my Contextures YouTube channel.

It’s interesting to see what you can record in such a short video. There’s certainly no time for idle chit chat, so you have to get right to the point, and do a quick demo of a useful technique.

Already a couple of the short videos have received 4 or 5 star ratings on YouTube, so I guess someone likes them. I’ll do a few more, after the holidays.

_______

Interactive Video Experiment

Last month, I asked which type of online learning you preferred. As expected, the majority selected written instructions, but the second highest vote was for interactive learning.

I’m still not sure exactly what types of interactive learning people are using. This weekend I experimented with Camtasia Studio, testing its hotspots feature. Users can click on the video, in a specific location, and you can take them to a different spot in the video.

On the Contextures Blog today, I posted a short article on Removing Duplicates in Excel 2007, with a short video.

My goal was to publish an interactive version of the tutorial, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result. I need to refine the jumping around process, and probably the audio should be deleted from that section.

Anyway, if you have a strong stomach or good sense of humour, here’s my first attempt at video with interaction. Skip to the 1:40 mark to see the interactive section.

____________

Online Collaboration

Recently, I tested WiZiQ for an online meeting with a client, and wrote about the experience. In the comments, Pierre suggested edufire and andy recommended showdocument.

I took a quick look at both sites. Edufire looks like it would be great for running training sessions and small classes. ShowDocument lets you upload and work on files, so that could be a good way to work with a client, without having to install anything.

Bob Ryan commented that he plans to use DimDim for his business. I set up an account there, and ran a trial meeting, which worked well, but my screen settings seem slightly different, after using their screen sharing option.

For yesterday’s meeting with my client, I tried Office Live Meeting (OLM). Before the meeting, I set up a practice session, the tested the controls and settings. You can upload files, and share the screen, or a portion of the screen. Also, you can share a specific program, so that’s the option I used most of the time.

OLM was my favourite online meeting tool so far. I could pass the controls to my client, so we could both test the Access database that we were discussing.

I had to use Internet Explorer, instead of Firefox, and there are some components to download and install. But, most people have a computer that’s full of Microsoft products anyway, so that might not be too big a hurdle.

Dick had volunteered to be a guinea pig, if I tested WiZiQ again (thanks, Dick!). I’ll be trying OLM again, to see how some of the fancier tools work, so may he’ll agree to join that test session, if I set something up for later this week.

____________