I just came across this TED talk on Google (and others’) approaches to filtering what we get, based on what we’ve looked for. VERY imperfect and a bit concerning on where it might be heading… check it out, what do you think?

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a “filter bubble” and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy. (Recorded at TED2011, March 2011, in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 9:05)

…source….

Have you been driven absolutely out of your ever-lovin’ mind, because you recorded a video using the fabulous and free Jing, only to discover that now you can’t convert it to MP4, Youtube, Amazon S3, or anywhere else because NOTHING will open Jing SWFs??

I know I sure have, and I’m sick to death of it. I looked high and low, and despite finding many programs that can indeed open and convert SWF files, NONE of them can open or convert a Jing SWF in specific.

So what’s the solution? Well it may come as no surprise that the ONE PROGRAM that can actually open a Jing SWF, is Techsmith’s own Camtasia Studio program. In fact in Jing, there’s a button you can click to “Edit in Camtasia” which will actually open the Jing SWF in Camtasia, convert it to an AVI, and then import that AVI into Camtasia for your editing/publishing pleasure.

But you don’t have to then output it with Camtasia. By default, the converted file will be stored in:

C:\Users\[YOUR USER NAME]\Documents\Camtasia Studio\

You can simply grab the AVI file, drop it into Handbrake or whatever else you’re using, and convert away.

The only downside here is that Camtasia Studio isn’t free. But there is a 30 day trial, and if you can’t afford to buy it and you’re clever you can run it in a sandbox forever and just keep using the trial endlessly.

I hope this helps someone else who’s been as frustrated by needing to convert Jing videos as I have been!

JVC

I wrote about this a little while back, but the matter at hand is getting closer and closer to reality (we have less than 2 weeks left!!) and it must be stopped!!

Please take a moment to look at the official stance from WordPress.org on this matter, and do what you can to help kill this insanity in its tracks.

No matter where in the world you are, if you’re reading this now then you use the internet, which means you could be affected in a big way by this really stupid and harmful regulation.

Jonathan

Often when migrating a domain to a new host, or when having just purchased a domain, you aren’t totally sure if the DNS is totally ready yet (known as “propagated”) and it would be useful to be certain.

I was turned onto this website a week or two ago, which is a simple way to find out your DNS status from all over the world.  So, be certain… don’t guess that your site might be ready – KNOW for sure!

JVC