CogBlogged from ‘October, 2011’

I’ve heard requests from people using pechaflickr (http://pechaflickr.cogdogblog.com/) to be able to select a different interval between slides than the pecha kucha 20 seconds. You’ve been heard, I tinkered with the code last night and have revised the site- The front screen offers the basic 20×20- type a flickr tag, and it will spawn a window doing a pecha kucha type show, where 20 random images from flickr are displayed for 20 seconds. Six minutes and forty seconds of fun. But now there is a new advanced options version: Here you can choose any number of slides to use (well 1 to 50) AND you can se the time interval between the images (anywhere from 5 seconds to 30). Five is a minimum given the time to display an image (the should be pre-loaded when the screen sets up). I rigged up some clunky Javascript so any change in these [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Do not take this boyish innocent smile lightly- Tom Woodward is a force of creative and sarcastic genius. It was yet another highlight to have spent tim with Tom in person a few clicks back, and to get to visit with him and his family in Richmond. Until then, I had skyped with Tom when he provided his Amazing Story of Openness for my 2009 Open Ed presentation and probably the most over the top presentation done in Second Life, when he and Jim Groom did The Revolution will Be Syndicated, with extra zombies. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog While at Tom’s house, we broke out the StoryBox and did a 20 minute bit of live broadcasting on ds106 radio. ds106 radio with Tom Woodward Don;t take this all literally- Tom has a great wry [...]

While in Nashville, I noticed these interesting series of reflections from the Cumberland River in an office building, literally twinkling in the windows. I wondered if I could take a series of these to create an animated GIF. I used the camera in multiple shot mode, but still felt like the camera moved slightly (it did). In Photoshop (CS5), I used the option Files -> Scripts -> Load Files into Stack.. This places each image in its own layer. I chose the option to “Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images” From here I crop to take care of the off alignment of edges, and resize to 500 pixels wide (the size of my main blog column). I can then use the Animation window to set up the timing, and preview the effect. I then Save for Web & Devices using the GIF option, and here we go: I like the [...]

I’ve had to keep moving around here in Philly to escape notice. There are way too many people walking around in dark shades, carrying radios, looking around. I apologize for my friends who are here for the EDUCAUSE conference, but I can’t be socializing or hanging around sessions. But I now know my next location I need to get too. I found a quiet spot to sleep 3 hours last night (thanks @pumpkiny for sneaking me some vendor food in a bag and @GardnerCampbell for the night cap) inside a closed up restaurant off of 10th and Race Street. I heard foot steps at 5:00am, and a gentle knock. By the time I pried the door open, the street was empty, but my eye caught an envelope sticking out of a grate at sidewalk level. All it said on the outside was @cogdog. There was nothing inside, but when I [...]

In this week, Michael Branson Smith’s ds106 class is moving into the audio assignments, and I like the concept for a new one he designed, Movie Voice Machines: Create a voice mail message for a character in a film or tv show. Use samples, impressions, and/or music to create your message. See what Michael provided for that Vader dude with the breathing problem. I just gave it a go and made this one for a little guy named “Alfred” who likely is not the best at answering his phone. Alfred is Not Home I cobbled this together in Audacity, my main audio editing tool hands down. I downloaded two clips from YouTube (one for the intro music and the other for the closing tone). There are a gazillion ways to do this, I use a Chrome Extemsion- Download Youtube as MP4. It provides a small drop down menu to any [...]

Things are getting crazy here in the underground. Perhaps it is dark matter or super neutrinos, but I have somehow been transported through some sort of space/time dimension. Let’s recap what’s been happening. When I last reported, I was sticking to the instructions/clues provided by @0pcode49 and following the railroad tracks. Spooked by the scary dudes in the van, I decided to parallel the tracks but stick to the adjacent forest. This was, in hindsight, a bad idea, because I lost track of the tracks, and could not even back track to the tracks. They were gone. So I opted to continue in the same general direction (southwest if I am using the sun and my watch correctly), when I came upon a road sign that bore a clue. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Speed limit 49? Uh-huh. Written in marker on the rear of [...]

This was purely an academic exercuse (that typo is intentional) in learning how to import video into Photoshop and use animation and masks to create animated GIFs. I just used a random video I had laying around in the Storybox… First turn on the music… dance music Get up out of your chair and dance along: FYI for those WordPress bloggers uploading your animated GIFs, be sure your original file size is the one you intend for your blog- if you end up with one of the other files WordPress makes when it resizes images for different options, you will lose the animated features in the GIF.

I fund this post lingering in the drafts. Next week’s will be hard to document! cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of days on the road: 112 Miles Driven: 10,859 Most Recent 1000 mile marker: 10,000 miles, just west of Richmond, VA Number of States/Provinces driven in: 21 Number of US/Canadian Border Crossings: 2 Money spent on gas: $2934 Cheapest gas price: $3.08/gallon (FOuntain Inn, SC). Highest gas price: $5.64/gallon (1.39/liter) (Wawa, ON). Photos posted: 3241 (that is an average of 20.9 per day) Most scenic foliage drive: Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of books read: 12 (Most recent: Things the Grandchildren Should Know) Number of nights in hotels/B&B: 12 Number of nights camping: 18 Number of un,non,anti conference family reunions attended: 1 Bavastock! Most unexpected activities: Riding a tractor on the Durnin Farm, [...]

It’s been another strange day in this place of mystery. I took shelter last night on this deck behind an industrial building; again it was dead quiet all night long except for a constant electronic hum in the air and very distant noises of hovering helicopters. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog In continuing down the marked road I had followed, I continued to move through a warehouse type area. Interestingly, each building had some sort of large satellite dish on top, and they all buzzed as if they were active. I am sure a number of them swiveled my way as I walked past, but when I turned to look they had resumed their position. Paranoid? Hell yes. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The road I was on was sporting “highway 49″ markers, and the scenery slowly opened up into [...]

I have the ds106 fever- I could not resist Jim Groom’s new Spubble assignment (still looking for the tags in the ds106 assignment mix see http://ds106.us/2011/10/16/your-very-own-spubble/): Learn to love yourself, grab a picture of yourself in which your body language, actions, gestures, etc. suggest one thing and then play off that using a speech bubble. Ideally the result would make people laugh—but I must acknowledge there are other possible emotional responses that may be just as acceptable. Think of it as lolcat, save it’s a human (namely you) and there is nothing compelling anyone to abuse the letter z in the speech bubble text. Picnik.com or Aviary.com would make this assignment dead simple. Heck, I did 2 in about 10 minutes using Picnik right in flickr: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog