I was present! I slid!

Despite lack of screen (thanks, Uni’s room logic) & lack of audio (ditto), I got to sit happily in front of a dozen early-risers & open the Edu MiniConf this morning, with Mr TwinHead DuraBook facing the audience (who couldn’t clearly see same) as a stand-in for a 3m projector screen. Slideshow/talk went reasonably well, even got to answer a few questions.

I’d had a mini-inspiration last night, so instead of spending the early morning trying to get my notes printed, I worked most of them into the slide-show instead.

Spent some time afterwards helping with the Rego desk, got to know a few of of the other participants somewhat better. Met some Perth crew I haven’t seen for years, plus a handful of people from outer (ie not Western) space... was relaxing & enjoyable.

Slide-show is here.

PS, Oh, & Naughtons’ do excellent chips.

PPS, & the Uni’s provisioning (“Functions”) crew know where to get truly excellent biscuits. (-:

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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