Answer 20 Questions

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Bob has been a supporter of Mac20Q for some time and was telling me that he has listened right from the start of the podcast. Thanks Bob, good to have you along for the ride. He was the winner of one of our software giveaway competitions too!

A good chat was had and covered all the good stuff about being a Mac user. Bob is in the process of making a podcast about Bridge the card game. He started doing it as an audio podcast then decided to start again but with video. Makes more sense if you can see the cards, for this he has been using BoinxTV. I also have BoinxTV but it didn’t work on my iMac and when I looked at it working on the MacBook I decided that it was more for making Live TV programs with multiple cameras. I think I am better off using FinalCut Express or iMovie.

Whilst on the subject of FinalCut Express, I have still been working away to learn how to use the application and I am pleased that I am getting into it due to using Lynda .com with the excellent tutorials they have there. I also found FinalCutKing web site and there is a whole load of video tutorials on the IzzyVideo web site. All good quality stuff. I checked out YouTube also but the quality of the tutorials is much more variable and at the lower end of the scale.

I though it was funny that all the news sites have been talking about Applecare not being available to smokers because the filth that had accumulated in the machine had made it un safe for the technicians, Well smokers are disgusting creatures and deserve it if it is true. Blackened lungs and blackened insides of the computer. So there you go passive smoking is bad for computers too.

Back to Bob – he is certainly a die hard Mac user, having experience with Macs from the very early days, he did veer away during the dark days when Jobs was pushed aside but was happy to come back to the fold when Intel processors appeared in the Mac computers. Thanks to Bob for coming on Mac 20 Questions. I had a great time chatting with him and if you would like to be featured on Mac 20 Questions then why not contact me and we can make a date and time to record an interview.

Leave a comment by hitting the blue button above and then scrolling down to get the the input form, or send me an email using the form below

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Had a great chat with the developer of Mercury Mover and I love using the software and you can use it too. I have a copy of it to give away and a copy of  HighBrow also from heliumfoot software.

If you want to see the higher quality version the click on the  YouTube High Quality HQ button on the Youtube site

My MacBook is very nearly a MacBook Pro with the changes that were made in the line up recently. All it really needs is an SD card slot and perhaps a firewire slot. The only regret I have about the computer is the lack of the backlighting for the keyboard. So often on the sofa with the MacBook and I have to resort to a usb light to let me see what I am doing.

What got me thinking about the MacBook was this morning I was using it just from the battery as the electric was turned off for the morning. I have to say that the battery life is just brilliant. With a previous HP laptop that was crappy in a number of ways, the worst of it was the poor battery life on it.

Another thing I a chuffed about with the MacBook is the trackpad with the integrated button. I never liked the extra buttons on other laptops and this one doesn’t get me thinking that I must have a mouse connected to be able to do serious work. That is mainly due to the gestures. I find that I can use AmadeusPro really easily with scrolling left and right and also the two fingers to be able to zoom in and out. I was using these features while I was editing the interview of an indie  filmmaker for the Video20Q Podcast.

It was going so well that I even finished the whole podcast on the MacBook even though I could have waited to have more screenspace available on the iMac 24 inch. AmadeusPro is super for the multitrack editing. Shame more people don’t know about it. Mind you I may have put some of that to rights by doing a review of AmadeusPro which is on the latest episode of The MacReviewcast from Tim Verpoorten.

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-fd5959d7f7c6bd9bea6f3deca25e83bd}

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I got talking to some people that have differing views regarding what to do regarding Snow Leopard. Ranging from a developer that has been running it prior to Snow Leopard Day Friday 28th of August, to some that are holding back to let other mugs, I mean users try it out first and then jump in once the dust has settled and the patches have been posted to make everything run as it should.

During the day there have been reports on Twitter to say that some applications are not functioning properly on Snow Leopard and also people saying that there is a very noticeable speed increase. There is bound to be one or two issues to sort out but it looks like the developers are working pretty quick to make sure their apps will run on Snowy.

I ordered my family pack of the Operating system as soon as I saw that it was available on Monday but didn’t pay for extra quick postal. This was mainly because I am working until Monday and not likely to be able to get to install Snow Leopard by which time the box could be here and in my hands ready to play with. I did have the thought run through my head that I should go to the local re seller in Girona and get the packet but decided against it, it could have arrived here in the post by then.

I will be upgrading the MacBook in the simplest way and I will do a ‘Nuke and Pave’ with the iMac. there is a lot more work involved with the latter due to have to be extra careful with all of the data and all of my applications. I have got my hands on the application called AppFresh to see what I need to upgrade to the latest version. So that by itself will be a major task. I have to make sure all my email is safe and settings in various application that I use either daily or the now and then apps.

Welcome to Video 20 Questions. This is a follow on site from Mac 20 Questions. On this site I will be talking to people with camcorders, video cameras like the Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom
and even the digital SLR cameras that can take video. If it is about video it is here.

Some of the interviewees will have professional broadcast quality cameras and will be using the top Pro applications to edit the resulting video. On the other end I will be talking to the person that wants to make some funny videos of their friend getting kicked in the nuts for YouTube.

The idea is to have the full range possible and you never know we could all improve our video knowledge and skills. We can talk about codecs to use to get the best quality, or to get the best compression, and which is the best way to get a good compromise between size of file and quality.

I have 20 questions that I will ask and over time they will evolve to get the best information from the featured guests. I may have to use different sets of questions depending on the level of skill and knowledge of the guest.

If you want to be featured on the podcast contact me using the form below. Of course question 20 is “Tell me about your web site ” and that is your chance to tell the world about your website or product, with links to it in the show notes for the episode.

My name is David Allen and I go by the name of Wizardgold online usually, sometimes perhaps Spondicious. I am a blogger and podcaster. I interview people about just about anything. I have a very successful Podcast based Blog called Mac 20 Questions. That is what started all of this. I may have to franchise this out.

This site will be the catch all 20 Questions site. All of the podcasts along with the show notes will be inserted on here.

I also expect that I will use this site to add one offs 20 Question interviews. Such as Hamster Lovers 20 Q or 20 Questions about the town where you live or just about anythng really.

Nothing done at all during the weekend due to family party yesterday. So it is nose to the grindstone this morning.

End of last week I purchased the application Scrivener, which I am really pleased with. It is a writers piece of software and I will have to contact the developer to ask him to come on the show. It has some really good features to help organise your work. It won’t write it for you but has many useful features.

There have been a few entries to the competition to win a copy of Amadeus Pro. I will let this run until the end of the week and then I will draw the winner from a hat, like a rabbit but with more panache.

Working on the next podcast today editing the interview with Evan Montgomery. Looking good so far should have posted later today.

The next task after that will be to make a screen cast for AmadeusPro to show a few things. So that is one vide thing and the other is to do a Wizardgold news show.

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Had a great chat with Mark Overy about how he uses his Mac. Have a listen yourself to the latest podcast from Wizardgold for Mac 20 Questions. Mark is into creating web sites for other people but has not got around to making one for himself yet.

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Had a great very good chat with the Bart Busschots from Ireland. He takes charge, hosts the International Mac Podcast and does his best to keep some order over the rest of the Scallywags. I will be one of the scallywags tomorrow on the next live show. Should be fun.

Bart has back up paranoia leading to the use of Rsync and Arrsync to do back ups a plenty. Along with pirate humour, a wooden leg and a parrot on the shoulder type of pirate you should note.
Doesn’t think to highly of Ubercaster for podcasting – reckons it is too flakey in use. Which is why all of the people on the IMP do a recording of the show just in case it is needed.

He likes to drink coffee while using his favourite application – NetNewswire. I have been trying it out since recording the interview and I think I like it but I don’t like coffee. I wonder if it works with tea?

• Daring Fireball – A straight-talking Apple blog
• Mac OSKen
• Des Traynor – Blog by fellow NUIM PhD Student Des Traynor
• Planet MiNDS> – Agregation of blogs by members of the NUI Maynooth IT Society
• Security Now – A must for all computer power users
• The NosillaCast – A tech geek podcast with an ever-so-slight Macintosh bias
• Worse Than Failure – Curious perversions in IT – a blog all programmers should read
• XKCD – A webcomic just for nerds
• Are We Alone from SETI
• Mac Break weekly
• Photo netcast
• Astronomy cast
• MSNBC Keith Alberman podcast – Countdown

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I had an interesting chat with Pat Mahon from Carlow in Ireland about how he uses his Mac. He has  a MacBookPro and a MacMini. We go through the 20 questions and talk about loads of stuff along the way.

Links to some of things we talked about

• SuperDuper for back ups.
• Screensteps
• Tweetie
• SwitchMac
• MyMac
• ScreenCastsOnline

and of course mine which is not up yet! – patmahon.com

I use ScreenFlow to capture video from my Macs and also VideoCue, both from telestream. ScreenFlow has video editing capabilities that make it a worthy purchase. You can do lower thirds and titling really easy. I like the way I can easily zoom into an area of the captured video to highlight something with a video action. I can even highlight mouse clicks. I sometimes record myself with the iSight camera at the same time with ScreenFlow, sometimes with the computer audio as a separate track from the microphone audio. Good for doing narration over clips recorded.

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He’s a bit of an IMP so you will probably enjoy hearing what Stu Helm has to say about how he uses his Mac. Stu lives in Leeds in England and I know that’s a good place to live as I lived in Leeds for 4 years myself in the early eighties. I expect it has changed totally since I was there. The international Mac Podcast comes out once a week and Bart Bushotts is on there also to keep things in check. Sometimes they have just too much fun on there. I was on there once myself  and a few of the people I have interviewed here on Mac 20 Questions have also appeared on the show.

Stu was recently in America and tells me that he took more tech stuff than clothes, so if you have a funny story about a fella from Leeds in England turning up somewhere in the USA only partly dressed, then let us know about it, won’t you. Seriously these days international travel does restrict the amount of stuff you can carry onto an airplane and when you have computers and microphone you can be sure to get your bags searched and molested. It is when they start to put on the rubber gloves you have to get worried though!

Stu is into video production as well as audio podcasts. He is keen to use iLfe and was tellin me a bit about his video camera in the interview.

Stu listens to quite a few podcasts as well as produces them. Listen in to the podcast to find out which are his favourites.

Levelator – Software I use to do some trickery on the levels of the file in between raw editing stage and the podcasting part of the job in Garageband. There a good article which tells you some details about what it does and how it does it. Have a look to learn more.

I so enjoyed talking to Elaine Giles of the Mac Bites Podcast that I listened to it again. Thought you would like a chance to check it out also. Elaine was very funny, the bit about the nightie made me and afew others laugh, despite the being no rudeness involved.

Five podcasts completed and another  interview recorded all with male participants. I am thinking the balance needs to be re dressed with an interview of the opposite sex. All we do is have a bit of a chat and you tell the podcast what your experience is of using a Mac. What do you think then ? Will you go for it and contact me so we can talk Macs and how you use them.

Allison of the NosillaCast has said that when will do an interview on the 13th of February, but that is not going to put much of a dent in the male – female scoreline.

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In Spondcious Podcast 03 I talk about Using various programs to make digital art. ArtRage, PainterX and Photoshop gets a mention.

I talk about the Cintiq 12WX which I expect to have in my hands tomorrow, it only has to get here from Barcelona and the supplier has been quick to deliver in the past.

My son’s art gets a mention as he is posting his work on DeviantArt. I have set up an account for him on Fotolia also. So he can earn some money from his art while at art college.

I continue to rant about iStockPhoto and Fotolia and the problems with rejection of images on one site while accepted on others and the appliction to be an illustrator on iStock.

For keywording your photos try using Picniche

I used GarageBand to record the podcast and then used Levelator to get it sounding better, the music was coming in too loud compared to the voice at first. I am very impressed with Levelator right now. Then I moved it to AmadeusPro to do a bit of low level tweaking  – another good program and not expensive so I will probably buy it. Back in GarageBand I turned it into an enhanced podcast with all of the links and pictures you see when you get the podcast in iTunes.

Here is the Spondicious Podcast 03 as an Mp3 file if you don’t want the enhanced version in the link above