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Recording a Webcast

I often register for webcasts with the best intentions of attending, but they often end up running at times that conflict with other work of a higher priority.

Today I decided to record a webcast so I can watch it at my leisure. I did this using a very nice screen recording utility called CamStudio which costs absolutely nothing!

CamStudio captures the graphics and audio currently occurring on your PC and records them to an avi file. So I was able to simply join my webcast, start CamStudio then run off to a meeting. When I came back from the meeting I stopped the recording and used Windows Movie Maker to trim the excess from the end, add a title and export as a .wmv that I can watch and pass around to my colleagues.

One thing I had to work out before I could start recording with CamStudio was how to get sound to record. A few things have to be done here:

1. In CamStudio select Options–>Record audio from speakers
2. In Control Panel–>Hardware and Sound–>Sound select the Recording tab. Right click on Stereo Mix and Enable the right click on Microphone and Disable (on Windows 7)

Now the sound recording will be from whatever is sent to your PC speakers rather than your microphone.

Technorati Tags: Screen,Record,Capture,Webcast

Steve Irwin in Fremantle

The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin is currently docked at C shed in Fremantle making preparations to head off on Operation Waltzing Matilda in early December to disrupt the Japanese whaling fleet.

We took a family trip down to Freo yesterday and went on a fantastic guided tour of this imposing black ship. Our tour guide was a Sea Shepherd volunteer who will be heading south on the Steve Irwin in December.

One thing our guide made clear was that the Sea Shepherd crews are not engaging in anything illegal. It is international law that the hunting of endangered species is illegal. The problem is that no country is prepared to enforce those laws in international waters. So it is up to an independent organisation to enforce this law.

Sea Shepherd relies completely on donations to continue its operations, and the donation must be generous with the Steve Irwin costing in excess of one million dollars a year to run. The majority of the running costs are for the fuel required to intercept and harass the Japanese whaling fleet in the southern ocean.

Hollywood is heavily involved with Sea Shepherd. Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers donated a large amount of money to fund the initial purchase of the Steve Irwin while Darryl Hannah and Pierce Brosnan are among those who have made a voyage to the southern ocean.

Tours run Friday to Sunday 9:30-5:30 PM and I recommend taking a look while the Steve Irwin is in town.

Technorati Tags: Sea Shepherd,Whaling,Steve Irwin,Conservation,Oceans,Antarctica,Hollywood

Tether Your Phone Without Rooting it

Good news Android users, you no longer have to “root your phone” to tether it to a laptop!

A tidy little application called PdaNet makes this  possible. From what I understand PdaNet is actually a two part installation. The first part is a small application that you install on your PC. The second part happens automatically when you plug your android phone in via USB. The PdaNet application actually installs a small android app on your phone which is used to access its data (3G etc) connection.

I’ve tried PdaNet on a windows 7 laptop and it works beautifully. Now I need to investigate whether I can set my laptop to prevent such things as windows updates happening when I’m connected to my phone and using up the measly 500MB of my phone plan.

Technorati Tags: Android,Tether,Root,PdaNet,Mobile,Data,Phone