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Mac users:  Do you have the latest versions of iTunes (9.2), iBooks, and the operating systems for your iPhone and iPod Touch (iOS 4) and your iPad (iOS 3)?  If you do, you can do this...

You can easily place a PDF file of anything you can make a PDF file from (web page, documents, images, etc.) on you portable device.

If you make an alias of the iTunes application icon and place it in your ~/Library/PDF Services folder (where ~ = your user account), you can choose to print any document or webpage as a PDF directly to your portable device the next time you sync.

[Simply select the print command and click on the PDF button on the bottom left and then choose iTunes from the drop down list.  When you go to sync your portable device, be certain that, in iTunes, with your device selected, the "Books" tab is selected and you have checked "Sync Books."  Then simply sync your device.  Poof!  The PDF file(s) appear in iBooks on your device.]

I've tried this, and it actually works!  Nifty.

Other little scripts are available to do similar things with various twists.  Check out this link at Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes.

This is as much to help me remember this as it is to share the info with all humanoids on in interwebs...

This is the post production process I used when creating the Malaga Cove time lapse shorts.  After importing the footage from the camera into the computer:

1. QuickTime Pro 7 ›› File ›› Open Image Sequence...
2. Make sure images are in their chronological shot order
3. Select the first image and click "Open"
4. Select 24 frames per second and click "OK"
5. After the huge file is created, make sure you are displaying it at 100%
6. File ›› Export ›› Export: Movie to QuickTime movie [bottom left drop down]
7. Select "Options..."
   1. In the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Settings...
      1. Compression Type: Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
      2. Frame Rate: 24 fps
      3. OK
   2. Back in the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Size...
      1. Dimensions: Current [Make certain it is the full frame size of the original photos if you wish to pan and crop in Final Cut Pro.]
      2. OK
   3. Select "OK"
   4. Name the file and save it.
8. Create a sequence in Final Cut Pro with these settings:
   1. Frame Size: 1440 x 1080 [HD (1440 x 1080) (16:9)
   2. Pixel Aspect Ration: HD (1440 x 1080)
   3. Editing Timebase: 24 fps
9. Import your media and design your project — the fun part!
10. Once the project is completed in Final Cut Pro ›› Export ›› Using QuickTime Conversion...
    1. Format: MPEG-4
    2. Options
       1. Video Format: H.264
       2. Data Rate: I usually use over 4,000kbits/sec [The higher the number the larger the file size but the better the visual quality.]
       3. Image Size: I usually export three different sizes (three different exports): 1920 x 1080 HD, 1280 x 720 HD, and 640 x 360
       4. Frame Rate: 24fps

Related articles:

• Malaga Cove Sunrise (Time Lapse) (timtyson.us)
• Malaga Cover Time Lapse (Noon) (timtyson.us)

This time lapse, from yesterday, is better than my first because I used manual focus! :)

It's also more interesting because you can see the stars moving through the sky as well as the fog come rolling in off of the ocean during the night. You can even see the moving fog outside during the day! (Look closely. You can see it.) Because this is a time lapse, the fog appears to be moving very rapidly. The truth is, it was going down the street faster than you could comfortably walk!

The downside of the fog: during the day this caused variance in the brightness of the individual shots in the time lapse. I experimented with removing that with a filter that averaged exposure values over time. It worked amazingly well but dulled the fog's motion outside the window. So, I decided to leave it as shot.

You can view full screen by clicking on the full screen icon in the timeline. (It only appears, in the bottom right, when you mouse over the movie.)

Notes to myself on workflow:

• To resize the finished video file, export from FCP with QuickTime conversion out of FCP at the desired size using H.264
• THEN export that file out of MPEG Streamclip at 100% as an mp4 file for the web.
• Otherwise MPEG Streamclip takes insanely f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

This will only be remarkable to me: a proof of concept—use the Canon EOS 5dMkII DSLR to create a filmic look.

I shot this using a 70 - 200mm f2.8L in native 24fps, ISO 100, f2.8, 1/50th, using the Vari-ND to stop the exposure down, shooting at full 1920x1080 HD resolution using the superflat profile. The short little clip was then imported onto my hard drive via ShotPut Pro from my FireWire 800 card reader. I used MPEG Streamclip to transcode the H.264 file using Apple's ProRes 422LT codec and then dropped it into FCP. (I know firsthand that FCP doesn't play well with H.264 files!)

(Unfortunately I had not yet downloaded Canon's free EOS Movie E1 import plugin for FCP which was released today. I'm eager to try it. Interesting post here about that workflow.)

I then did a little color grading in FCP, added titles and a short music clip, and simply exported the file using ProRes 422LT at full size. Then, using MPEG Streamclip to prepare it for the web, I exported the 1920x1080 (137.4MB) file to 720x405 while converting it to an mp4, using the H.264 codec, at 100% quality, with multipass and better downscaling. The exported file is only 5.4MB! Maybe one day I'll compare which delivers a faster QuickTime conversion export: FCP or MPEG Streamclip. (Everyone says it's the latter.)

I'm posting the finished product here. It's very short! The only thing special: it's a first for me, and it worked straight away!

Philip Bloom showed a different cut of this short, Above Skywalker, in the Bonner Theater a couple of weeks ago. It looks magnificent on the large HD screen. I especially like the slider shot during the night time lapse about 30 seconds in (and at 4.20). The macro shots are nice too. Well... The whole thing is. Though I wish the slider shot on the floor of the porch hadn't hit the cutting room floor.

What he didn't tell us was that he shot this in 24p with the new 5dMkII Canon firmware upgrade,released today. The aspect ratio also makes this look really cinematic. I wonder if he used the same plugin he use in his post on How to export and upload 2:35 video to Vimeo.

Be sure to watch this full screen.

Ok, this post will bore my mother. She will skip it.

You may find reading this post easier over at my developing WordPress blog as it uses color-coded and indented syntax structure that highlights the area of code under consideration and allows you to easily copy and paste the code from the page.

But I need to write this so I can remember what I've done when I transition my work blog over to WordPress. This post is about getting my favorite lightbox utility to work in WordPress and customizing it's appearance.

The lightbox is, of course, mediaboxAdv by John Einselen over at iaaian7. mediaboxAdv opens a significant number of file formats, including video and HTML "windows", in a lightbox popup on top of the dimmed web page window.

The successful implementation of mediaboxAdv via the Mootools framework in WordPress is provided by Cheon Nii, at CheonNii's blog. Cheon adapted the mediaboxAdv javascript into the Lightbox M plugin. (Fortunately Cheon uses enough English to make his download understandable for me. I couldn't figure out his native language to translate it.) WordPress has huge issues running Mootools as other plugins frequently seem to use javascript frameworks that conflict with Mootools. Cheon's plugin seems to get around this successfully and can be configured to only implement the javascript code on the pages that require it.

The totally cool customization solution comes from Enric, at Sonic Bite Desarrollo y Diseño Web. I used Google translate to translate it to English. He describes how to include a logo-styled image overlay in a corner on top of the lightbox popup. Great for branding. Nice touch.

The Process

1. Download and install the Lightbox M plugin.
2. Using your FTP client, open the mediaboxAdv-1.2.0.js file (in wp-content --> plugins --> lightbox-m --> js folder)
3. At line 32 in mediaboxAdv-1.2.0.js, add line 1 of the code below (lines 2 - 10 should already be in mediaboxAdv-1.2.0.js. Roroland will become a div for the logo element.
   
   new Element("div", {id: "roroland"}).injectInside(center);
image = new Element("div", {id: "mbImage"}).injectInside(center);
bottom = new Element("div", {id: "mbBottom"}).injectInside(center).adopt(
new Element("a", {id: "mbCloseLink", href: "#"}).addEvent("click", close),
nextLink = new Element("a", {id: "mbNextLink", href: "#"}).addEvent("click", next),
prevLink = new Element("a", {id: "mbPrevLink", href: "#"}).addEvent("click", previous),
title = new Element("div", {id: "mbTitle"}),
number = new Element("div", {id: "mbNumber"}),
caption = new Element("div", {id: "mbCaption"})
);
    
   
4. Open the mediaboxAdvBlack.css file (or the mediaboxAdvWhite.css file if that's the one you are using in the Lightbox M settings panel) and add the custom div below. I just added mine to the bottom of the css file.
   
   /* custom div containing logo */
#roroland {
position: absolute;
z-index: 9999;
width:100px;
height: 113px ;
top:-30px;
left:-40px;
background-image: url(../images/logo.png);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
}
    
   
5. Find the block of code below, in the same css file in step 4, and change it to the block of code in the lower code window. This comments out the css that would otherwise hide any portion of your logo image that extends beyond the boundaries of the lightbox popup.
   
   #mbCenter {
position: absolute;
z-index: 9999;
left: 50%;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #000;
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 10px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.70);
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 10px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.70);
} 

#mbCenter {
position: absolute;
z-index: 9999;
left: 50%;
/* overflow: hidden; THIS IS COMMENTED OUT TO DISPLAY THE LOGO WHICH PARTIALLY APPEARS OUTSIDE THE MEDIABAXADVACED LIGHTBOX */
background-color: #000;
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 10px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.70);
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 10px 40px rgba(0,0,0,0.70);
} 
    
   
6. In an application like Photoshop, create your logo image using a transparent background.
7. Save it as a png-24 file, preserving the transparency, with the name "logo.png" --without the quotation marks, of course.
8. Using your FTP client, upload the logo.png file to the wp-content --> plugins --> lightbox-m --> images folder.
9. Go to wp-content --> plugins -->lightbox-m and edit the lightbox.php file by adding a single line of code to the $lightbox_files = Array statement at line 26. We need to include the logo image in the array. If you used a different name for your logo image, change the name here accordingly. So, this block of code (notice you have to scroll down to see it all):
   
   $lightbox_files = Array(
'css/mediaboxAdvBlack.css',
'css/mediaboxAdvWhite.css',
'images/50.gif',
'images/80.png',
'images/BlackClose.gif',
'images/BlackLoading.gif',
'images/BlackNext.gif',
'images/BlackPrevious.gif',
'images/MinimalClose.png',
'images/MinimalLoading.gif',
'images/MinimalNext.png',
'images/MinimalPrevious.png',
'images/WhiteClose.gif',
'images/WhiteLoading.gif',
'images/WhiteNext.gif',
'images/WhitePrevious.gif',
'js/mediaboxAdv-1.2.0.js',
'js/mootools-1.2.4-core-yc.js',
'swf/NonverBlaster.swf',
'swf/player.swf',
'lightbox.php'
); 
   
   should become this block of code (notice you have to scroll down to see it all):
   
   $lightbox_files = Array(
'css/mediaboxAdvBlack.css',
'css/mediaboxAdvWhite.css',
'images/50.gif',
'images/80.png',
'images/BlackClose.gif',
'images/BlackLoading.gif',
'images/BlackNext.gif',
'images/BlackPrevious.gif',
'images/MinimalClose.png',
'images/MinimalLoading.gif',
'images/MinimalNext.png',
'images/MinimalPrevious.png',
'images/WhiteClose.gif',
'images/WhiteLoading.gif',
'images/WhiteNext.gif',
'images/WhitePrevious.gif',
'images/logo.png',
'js/mediaboxAdv-1.2.0.js',
'js/mootools-1.2.4-core-yc.js',
'swf/NonverBlaster.swf',
'swf/player.swf',
'lightbox.php'
); 
   
   
10. If you use a different name for your logo file, you must update the name in the background-image statement of the roroland div added in step 4.

Now, quite frankly, I don't like my logo image at all at the moment. I'll tweak that later. Just figuring all of this out to get it to work was challenging enough for one day.

Configuring WordPress for Implementation

• After doing the above 10 steps, make sure your Lightbox M plugin is activated.
• At the present time, I export a photo out of Lightroom at 1024 pixels wide, which, based on my visitors' stats, will fill most of my viewers monitors. [This means they will not see all of my logo image unless I adjust the css. Oh well... The world needs more giant monitors!]
• I went to the Media Settings in my WordPress Admin console (You get there from the left column of the Dashboard.) to configure the media settings.
• Since the main body section of my blog is 680 pixels wide, I use a maximum image size of 620. 620 plus a 10 pixel margin on each side plus the 20 pixel margin of the main text area (each side) equals the 680 pixel width of the body area. [Note to self: the 620 image size does not work well when embedded in an indented bulleted list (see below) as it doesn't accommodate the additional indentation.] I have the following media settings (Click to see full size image):
   
  
  
   
  
• I have the following Lightbox M settings (Click to see full size image):
   
  
  
  
  
• And these are the settings I use in the Upload/Insert dialog that appears when I place an image on the server and into a post.
   
  
  
  
  
• The only part of the implementation that is awkward, when placing a picture in a post, is having to copy the title="Top_Line_Title::Bottom_Line_Title" information from the HTML image source code into the hyperlink code as well to have the title also appear in the bottom left corner of the lightbox popup. You don't have to do this, but I really like it.
• I also write my titles in the format shown in the above step and here: title="Top_Line_Title::Bottom_Line_Title." to use both top and bottom lines of the title area in the popup window. The double colons do not appear in the popup lightbox but rather separate the title into two lines at that point.

Again, unless you are into such things, you will not have made it to the end of this post. But it has taken me weeks to sort through all of the weird variables and plugins that are out there for WordPress in my undying effort to figure out how to get the mediaboxAdv plugin to work—a must for my transition from MovableType to WordPress.

Now that I better understand WordPress and the whole media toolset it offers, along with so many other features, I am really getting into WordPress!! And a special thanks to John Einselen, Cheon Nii, and Enric for freely and kindly sharing their expertise with the web community. I could never have done any of this without their brains! You guys are Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

The extreme, religious right-wing conservatives have won yet another significant victory in their efforts to force their world view down the throats of unsuspecting Americans. I personally don't care what they choose to believe. But I take HUGE issue with their feverish evangelical approach to forcing everyone else in the nation live by their narrow belief system. In fact, I resent the hell out of anyone, right or left, forcing their beliefs on me, let alone forcing them on unsuspecting children to whom they didn't give birth!

Knowing they could never pull this off in California, the conservative movement targeted Texas, the state that gave the nation George W. Bush. In a 10 - 5 vote along party lines, the Texas Board of Education voted to approve the following conservative tenets being taught in their state's Social Studies curriculum and supported by the state-adopted textbooks:

• stress the superiority of American capitalism
• question the founding fathers commitment to a purely secular government
• present Republican political ideologies in a more positive light

Make no mistake, this is a carefully planned, well executed strategy by the ultra conservative think tanks. They have turned their initial claims of their own personal religious persecution into the wholesale religious persecution of the entire nation.  The end result will be religious tyranny, a return to the middle ages.

This decision in Texas has enormous ramifications for the entire nation—hence why it was targeted. The school textbook industry sells more textbooks in California, but too many people here have diverse thinking. But Texas is ripe for the picking. The good people of Texas think conservatively—very, ultra conservatively. Texas has the second largest textbook purchasing power in the nation. This is significant.

Now, the textbook industry will rewrite the Social Studies textbooks so they can sell them in Texas. This means the remainder of the nation will be forced to buy the drivel with which the ultra conservatives want their children in Texas indoctrinated. Mark my words:  This is a political victory of the highest order with long term ramifications of the most serious kind.

The extreme right-wing conservative think tanks have taken the minds of many unsuspecting Americans with their ownership of FOX so-called "news."  They have taken ownership of the conservative Republican party of which I was once a part. They have manipulated to control the highest court in the land. Now they are seeking the minds of the nation's children.  This is serious!  My country is actually under assault!

These extremists have quietly and patiently executed their strategy well under the banner of traditional values, heritage, and the homeland for decades.  The only way I think Americans can fight this momentous trend to force the nation to live by a narrowly-defined, prescriptive set of religious values that divest diversity, deep thinking, critical analysis, social justice, economic opportunity for all, open mindedness, tolerance, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of faith practice, et. al., is to support countervailing strategies that are just as well planned and executed.  As I've said, people who have divergent opinions and thoughts are the carefully selected target.

And as I've said before, I've become increasingly disgusted with what my nation is rapidly becoming, where the will of the few is increasingly being inflicted on the many in wealth aggregation, religious practice, legal policy, and now school curriculum. The extremist conservatives are well funded and organized at the grassroots level. It's time to stand up to them in an equally well funded grass roots effort.  The problem:  unlike the radical conservative thinkers of their movement who can manipulate their masses with a highly defined, carefully crafted agenda of fear, open minded people who think critically lack a central focus around which to organize.

We have lacked a motivating rallying cry around which to centralize our efforts.  Let this be it:  preserving our true American heritage from those extremist conservatives who are rapidly redefining it and marginalizing everyone who thinks differently from them!

Where are all of the libertarians that want the freedom to live their lives as they personally define the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness?!

Tim is so not happy!

Related articles

• Texas Textbook MASSACRE: 'Ultraconservatives' Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum (huffingtonpost.com)
• Texas Approves Conservative Curriculum (politics.slashdot.org)
• Texas conservatives rewrite history | Richard Adams (guardian.co.uk)
• Texas Becomes Laughingstock Once Again: State Board of Ed Determines History Is a Liberal Conspiracy (schoolsmatter.info)
• Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards (nytimes.com)
• Texas ed board adopts social studies standards (sfgate.com)

If you watched the City of Lakes trailer, you probably missed the extensive use of slider and dolly shots. They add so much subtle visual interest while increasing perspective, presence and focus! Here is a do-it-yourself from Friedhelm Fischer to build a camslider for about $100. The full post can be found at Friedhelm Fischer's blog.

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Yesterday was an interesting day for me—most days are, actually. But the planets seemed to be especially aligned, or maybe yesterday was a "rip, a hole in the time/space continuum" that "take us thru the event horizon." *

1. I got an email invitation to connect with another Tim Tyson on a social network site. What was particularly interesting is that I've been receiving emails for over a year, maybe two, intended for this guy. Apparently our email addresses at a particular email service provider are very similar, and people would type his incorrectly. Since we both have the same name, it's understandable.

At first I thought these were all some sort of junk mail. But they followed a pattern. Apparently he is a well respected videographer who travels the world filming special projects. Nice. (Maybe he's really me in another life?--hence my quotation above)

I'm not really sure how he figured out who I am or why he asked me to join his social network, but when I checked out his social network site (which talked about what he does for a living) along with his email address (which is almost identical to mine), I realized the connection. (You realize, of course, that this could only happen in a digital world with palm-sized, time-warping transporter devices, right?)

Even more amazingly, the "other" Tim Tyson recently finished projects with the British Council about Global Schools Partnerships. Amazingly, the last year I was a school principal, the Director of Bilateral Programmes from the British Council came to visit my school. She was interested in setting up partnerships between the UK and my school. And now the other Tim Tyson is shooting video about these projects?! What are the odds, I ask—even demand?!

The multi-year-long bizarre mystery of the Tim Tyson emails has been solved! But I save the best for last...

2. Imagine getting an unexpected email from a former student who writes this sentence: "I have come to realize that doing what is comfortable or popular tends to be far less rewarding than doing what is right." Now, this young man is only 18! He apparently has become somewhat of an activist for issues related to respect and social justice "for historically marginalized groups." His efforts have earned him national recognition, honors, and some significant opportunities.

My first encounter with younger students who felt a moral imperative to act on issues of social justice came during the Ronald Reagan years. (To cut big government spending, Reagan eliminated funding for homeless shelters thereby forcing the homeless to literally live on the streets.) Shortly thereafter, one of my 8th grade students first saw homeless people in downtown Atlanta. He was from an affluent home and had no idea such a thing could exist in our country. He was outraged, and, as an 8th grader, on his own, took it upon himself to launch a letter-writing campaign to the Georgia governor to have the issue addressed.

I've known many such young people since then—all with an inner calling directing their efforts to make the world a better place. I celebrate all of these young people who, at a very early age, feel compelled to act for positive change.

Their lives color the world with hope.

* Yes, I stole that line from a tweet by Miles Kahn, a producer for The Daily Show. That's actually part of what he said about tonight's show. I laughed out loud when I read his tweet.

Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play!  I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Related articles:

• Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)
• Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (go.theregister.com)
• Canon's EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? (engadget.com)
• The First Clips Shot on the Canon T2i Look As Good as the 7D [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

I've actually been thinking more and more about leaving the US. I mean: for good. I find myself so disillusioned with what is happening in my native land.

My country forces education reform that is destroying creativity, problem solving, deep thinking, and analysis of knowledge to inform carefully considered long term solution-making for the immediacy of factionalized curriculum memorization. My country will not move beyond prejudice and discrimination. My country is squandering our national (as well as international) resources. My country is flinging privacy and personal freedom as fast as it escalates fear. My country cares more about greed, money, and possessing things than it does about people and their basic wellbeing. My country is removing the separation of church and state and forcing people to live by tenets of religion in which they may not personally believe. My country allows business, built on greed and outsourcing, to become so large they can not fail and must receive tax payer's money to keep the executes rolling in fat bonuses with shameless abandon. My nation's government is bought and sold by transglobal corporations and makes divisiveness its core ethic.

I can do little of nothing to stop or change any of this.

I wonder if this is a natural part of getting older--seeing the world through more jaded eyes. But I see other nations, not without their faults to be sure, at least maintaining some more moderate and productive sense of balance. I just think the US government is fundamentally broken and inept.

I shared last night at dinner that I actually don't think the US will be able to move to a better place within my lifetime. This saddens me greatly.

I've supported Lawrence Lessig's work for some time. I've had his "Change Congress" link on my site for some time. In this video he sums up things, and, unlike my dismal state of disillusion, offers a ray of hope. He doesn't frame the problem as conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat. He is insightful and brilliant.

The puppeteers of the wacko, extremist conservatives that get trotted out in the media every time they want to brainwash Americans don't really fear Obama.

They fear education. They fear enlightenment. They fear a citizenry that is more difficult to manipulate for profiteering because, well... they think critically.

Yes, their favorite word is "fear!" It's what they do best.

Image Source: The Times Tribune

He makes the claim the people around the world are more alike than they are different. His musical demonstration is nothing short of brilliant. He speaks very little in this audience participation, and I had never heard his speaking voice before. I was actually really shocked! But don't worry, be happy.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

I can't tell you how much I agree with what Jack Cafferty says here in his new book, Now or Never!

He says parenting is in greater decline than our schools.

I would suggest that the complete abdication of parents parenting is one of the more significant contributing reasons to schools functioning more in survival mode than in eduction mode. Communities get the schools they will tolerate, and therefore deserve, in my opinion.

When parents expect their children to behave and learn in school and the teachers to teach, amazing things happen. I've witnessed this first hand!

Some parents still have this attitude that their kids are too special to be burdened by discipline. And the rest of us are supposed to put up with their little mutants. That attitude really pisses me off.

I hate to break it to them, but the kids aren't special, and I don't have to put up with their behavior. If you can't control your obnoxious little brats, leave them home.

They don't belong out in public annoying other people, period. I don't remember a generation of kids ever so indulged and enabled to behave so badly. What's going on?

[Source: Excerpt: Parents, your kids aren't that special - CNN.com]

And speaks it well! He can think! What a novel approach to the office: having a president who thinks! Here is one of his sentences diagramed. Language Arts teachers can now use the president as an example of how to speak English correctly and coherently! What a breath of fresh air!

Source: http://www.themillionsblog.com/2009/02/diagramming-obama-sentence.html

The bail out is only a temporary, stop-gap, quick fix–if it's even that!

The bigger fact, though, is that even with a short-term bailout, the underlying mega-economy is in the dumps. Government can help lubricate the gears of the economy by utilizing its capacity to engage in longterm investing. But this is really just a balance sheet adjustment. Unless we are also investing our time, energy, and remaining money in productive industries, education, and renewable resources, we will not have changed the real economy at all. [Source: Bail In or Bail Out?]

So the measure for vouchers failed in Utah, despite the money from Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne, who bankrolled the initiative, calling the referendum a "statewide IQ test" that Utahns failed. Funny to me (not!) that we frequently see those with money trying to manipulate the system to their own personal advantage.

"They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.

Source: The Carpetbagger Report

Or, Mr. Byrne, perhaps the citizens in this reddest of red states are wise and insightful. Perhaps they care about our nation's public schools as essential to the survival of our democracy. Perhaps they love their children. Perhaps they respect the people who work hard teaching their children every day. Perhaps, Mr. Byrne, they lack the hubris and arrogance you demonstrated in what appears to me to be the comments of an ass.

But then neither did the billions of dollars worth of no bid contract work Halliburton received from the Bush/Cheney administration. And, of course, that didn't seem to matter at all, despite the obvious known connections between Cheney and the company. So, I guess this really isn't important either? Where did ethics and a sense of propriety go?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 — The inspector general of the Department of Education has said he will examine whether federal money was inappropriately used by three states to buy educational products from a company owned by Neil Bush, the president’s brother.

John P. Higgins Jr., the inspector general, said he would review the matter after a group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, detailed at least $1 million in spending from the No Child Left Behind program by school districts in Texas, Florida and Nevada to buy products made by Mr. Bush’s company, Ignite Learning of Austin, Tex. Mr. Higgins stated his plans in a letter to the group sent last week.

Members of the group and other critics in Texas contend that school districts are buying Ignite’s signature product, the Curriculum on Wheels, because of political considerations. The product, they said, does not meet standards for financing under the No Child Left Behind Act, which allocates federal money to help students raise their achievement levels, particularly in elementary school reading.

Source: Bush Brother’s Firm Faces Inquiry Over Purchases - New York Times

Let me see, do I want to go to war today? Umm, well... Nah.

The MySpace generation is a "somewhat alien life force," a Navy recruiting presentation contends -- with a language and lifestyle that's almost unrecognizable to adults. And because the kids are such "coddled," "narcissistic praise junkies," they'll be beyond tough to bring into the military. Propensity to join the armed forces among these so-called "millennials" has dropped to as little as 3%; that's down from 26% in 2001.

Source: Danger Room - Wired Blogs

Well, it could be worse. It could be much worse! They could just be mean little brats.

But let's be clear: the recruiting powerpoint is quoting the term, "narcissistic praise junkies," not inventing it. I can first find the term used in The Wall Street Journal in an article, The Most-Praised Generation Goes to Work, by Jeffrey Zaslow, printed on April 20, 2007. I don't think you can get to the article without a subscription. But I found a copy at this link. Goodness, if the Navy recruiters are reading The Wall Street Journal, I'm very impressed!

One final note: the powerpoint is worth reading!

So a friend of mine has been trying to convince me that the next big thing in educational technology (within 5 years or so) will be avatars going to virtual schools in a 3D space like Second Life. Schools and organizations are already buying islands in Second Life for their virtual learners.

I don't know what to think about this yet. I have never been a gamer per se. I tried Sim City a decade ago. After sinking an ungodly amount of time in the game, which was a hell of a lot of fun, I decided I was not being productive and have avoided them ever since.

I know Google is doing some amazing work with 3D realization of actual places, using 3D models of buildings. They are now even developing technology to take a variety of user-created digital photos of a particular place and render them together as an actual 3D representation of the place. Avatars will be able to "walk down the streets" and actually see what the mapped places really look like in the real world represented by a shockingly realistic virtual space.

Maybe my friend is right. Maybe the techno-enthusiasts at NECC 2007 are predicting the future in an effort to create that future. Maybe these virtual tools will be so seamless and transparent to the students a decade from now that going to school as an avatar will not be so cumbersome and so complicated as to get in the way of and distract from learning. Maybe it's all just nonsense or a phase. Maybe human interaction isn't necessary in the real world? Maybe I'd better shut up.

At any rate, I was sent this little animated gif of myself to welcome me into this next leg of my journey. The hair color wasn't exactly right and the glasses were all wrong. So I went to the site and killed about 30 minutes. To get the shirt and shoes I really wanted, I would need to spend about $30 of non-virtual money! Can you imagine such a thing?! But now, with my new hair color and glasses (free, I might add) I look good!

It's just too much! :o) Oh, and yes, clicking on the picture will take you to the site where you can create your own avatar.

Last week was incredibly busy but a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to present the closing keynote at the NECC 2007, which registered about 18,000 people I'm told. Also, through a special partnership between NECC 2007 and KZO Webcasting, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed, along with Hall Davidson from Discovery Education, by Chris Walsh of WestEd at NECC Live!'s Program Video-On-Demand. This webcast, and many others, are hosted on the kzowebcasting site for a full year. Pretty cool resource!

I was delighted to learn today that YouTube is now compressing their video content in H.264. In the past, the Flash compression they have used has such a low data rate (high compression) that it looked horrible. Apparently, since Apple, Inc., now has collaborated with Google, owner of YouTube, to include YouTube content on the AppleTV, Google is going through their content and compressing it using H.264.

For those of you who don't recall, I did a side-by-side comparison of the difference is visual quality between Flash and H.264 in this post--nothing short of astounding. So, while, I have not yet had the time to explore any YouTube content, now that it is on my AppleTV, I plan to do just that. This could have implications for educators.

For those teachers who read my blog, are you familiar with TeacherTube? I guess they want to be considered YouTube for educators. It has real potential.

I stumbled upon this article on compression settings to improve your YouTube content. As it needs to filed away, I am posting just these steps from the detailed and informative article at Squidoo.

Final Tips For The Hardcore Compressionists

If you got to this stage in the article then you are probably pretty serious about getting the best settings and filters compressing videos for YouTube using QuickTime Pro.

1. Use H.264 codec, the best MPEG4 codec in the market today.

2. Set Quality to Best.

3. Set rate control to 1-pass Constant Bit Rate (CBR). So no Variable Bit Rate, no Multipass. YouTube transcoders prefer CBR.

4. Set key frames to every 30 frames or less. The more key frames the more information your video will have. YouTube transcoders loves keyframes. I usually set key frames every 15 frames in my high motion videos, however keep an eye on the file size.

5. Set data rate to 1000 kbps or more, depending on the running length of your video. By default I use 2000 kbps in my short videos. Again keep an eye on the file size.

6. Set aspect ratio to 320x240. You do not want YouTube to resize your video using a bicubic, bilenear or substandard method. Chances are your compression software uses a better algorithm. For widescreen videos set frame size to 320x180 pixels.

7. Set frame rate to 30 fps.

8. Set audio compression to MP3 or AAC: 44.1 KHz, 64 kbps, 16 bits, monophonic.

9. De-interlace your NTSC or PAL source videos, especially if it's high motion

10. Apply filters to improve the look of your video: a bright/contrast filter and/or an image sharpening filter.

Remember, all these compression settings are the best compromise between keeping the video smaller than 100MB and keeping as much information as possible from the original video file.

Source: How To Make YouTube Videos Look Great on Squidoo

I'm sitting here at 1 Infinity Loop in Cupertino, CA (for the unwashed masses, that's Apple's corporate headquarters), blogging. I presented to a group of educators from Florida and legislators from Michigan. I delight in showing our students' work and the quality of what children are capable of producing with elegant tools.

The weather out here is spectacular! I'm heading home soon via San Francisco. Jeeze, I wish I had some time to spend there again! I need to live on the west coast!

Today we continued brainstorming a useful, relevant path to take our nation's schools to a different place, a place where technology is seemlessly integrated into instructional delivery (students and staff), data aggregation and disaggregation for data-driven decision making (assessment), and communication and immersion of stakeholders. Tim Magner, the Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education, is bright, articulate, and a razor sharp thinker. I was immensely impressed with his grasp of the scope and complexity of the technological and political ecosystems in which America's schools live. And he is a young man. He quickly grasps ideas and issues brought to the table and distills them to their core components while reframing them in a more quantitative and qualitative context that creates new thinking for me. That is rare and utterly delightful!

The others in the room, mostly principals, are also amazing leaders in their own right. We were asked to come to DC to work with SRI and Xplane, who were contracted by the DOE. SRI is a think tank designing materials to shape policy and planning for the DOE (and many other agencies and companies). They have people sitting in the room word processing as fast as we talk, (and some of these folks break new speed barriers), designing interactive flash-based animations, recording and synthesizing the ideas and concepts being thrown around the room. Xplane is here to help us visualize the ideas brought to the table. The literally draw everything. "If you can draw it, you can do it." Over the past two days we literally repeatedly plastered the walls with color stickies and large sheets of brightly inked paper.

This is what a brain dump looks like I guess. Fifteen bright people brought into a room, being asked probing, stimulating, challenging, clarifying, difficult questions, sharing our ideas, successes, obstacles, and vision for our nation's schools and how technology invisibly fits into this complex stew of human undertaking.

Yesterday, from the 28th floor of what once was the USAToday/Gannett building, we had a spectacular view of the Mall: the Washington Monument, Whitehouse, Capitol Hill, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials as well as several other memorials near the Potomac--impressive and inspiring to say the least.

I am completely humbled by this experience--being asked to share what we have accomplished at Mabry, how we did it, and how this and more can be extended into our nation's schools in meaningful ways. I've never done anything quit like it. The process has been as amazing to me as the outcomes. I will gnaw on this experience for some time to come!

I've spent the day in the capitol city, a guest of the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. I and about 15 others, mostly elementary, middle, and high school principals, were invited to spend time discussing School 2.0. More will follow when my internet connection is happier.

Tonight I ate at Clyde's in Georgetown. Go there and order the crab cakes and the Tiramisu. You will not be disappointed!

This morning I just finished a video conference with a group of teachers and principals in Shanghai, China. I talk a lot about leveraging connectivity on a global scale, but then it still just amazes me when such things unfold. The world truly is becoming a smaller and smaller place.

I enjoy reading Stephen Downes blog because he tends to see beneath the superficial.  Here is his list of things we need to learn in school:

1. How to predict consequences
2. How to read

Oddly, by this I do not mean 'literacy' in the traditional sense, but rather, how to look at some text and to understand, in a deep way, what is being asserted (this also applies to audio and video, but grounding yourself in text will transfer relatively easily, if incompletely, to other domains).

The four major types of writing are: description, argument, explanation and definition. You should learn to recognize these different types of writing by learning to watch for indicators or keywords.

3. How to distinguish truth from fiction
4. How to empathize
5. How to be creative
6. How to communicate clearly
7. How to Learn
8. How to stay healthy
9. How to value yourself
10. How to live meaningfully

Dear god in heaven, another Nation At Risk report! As my readers know, I have only used profanity on my blog once. Well, I'm so angry, I'm totally tempted to fill this post with it! However, I will let this one sentence suffice: the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report from the National Center on Education and the Economy isn't sham poo, it's real poo!

When executives from Lucent Technologies (who participated in authoring the report) can get their own company out of the toilet, then they can ponder having the audacity to tell me what is wrong with America's public education system. Oh, but I forgot, according to them the reason Lucent Technologies is in the toilet is because of America's sorry public school systems.

I adamantly disagree! I will not quietly sit back and yet once again tolerate the public school bashing that started in 1983 with the Nation at Risk report.

Two weeks ago Georgia's governor, Sunny Purdue, publicly announced (after he was re-elected) he is considering abolishing medical benefits from the state employees' retirement plan. I wondered where on earth he got such a hair-brain idea! One doesn't attract the brightest and best into the field of education by taking such an ill-advised step. Well, his idea comes directly from this very report!

The report proposes to pay for these changes by phasing out today's lavish teacher retirement packages and moving toward benefits that more closely match those in private industry."

Let me tell you about the benefits in private industry: lower co-pays with more coverage for less money than I get as a public servant! I know this first hand. And to add insult to injury, William McGuire, the CEO for United HealthCare, the plan to which governor Sunny Purdue moved all state employees one year ago, earned $1.6 billion in stock options?! Yes, that's supposed to be a "b" as in billion!

Our new health plan with United HealthCare covers less and charges more. I have teachers on my staff that can't afford their medications, who do some of the most important work in our country, and William McGuire made what?!

This is immoral. It is wrong. This is the worst form of corporate greed and corruption!

And the governor wants to now eliminate medical benefits from all state employees' retirement plans?

You will hear a lot from me over the next few weeks about the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report. Bottom line: destroying America's public schools will destroy America, and that's exactly what these fools are up to!

Know the enemy: by clicking the icon at the bottom of this post you can read the executive summary of the Tough Choices Or Tough Times report if you can stomach it. If you want to read the entire report, you have to buy it! HAH!! I will do nothing to fund the dismantling of one of America's most important and effective institutions: our public education system.

I normally do not inject emotionality into my writing about professional matters, but right now I am profoundly offended and deeply enraged!

If the governor wants Georgia's schools to be the best in the nation, or just to improve a wee little bit, then he needs to put the money where his mouth is! One never gets something for nothing. America's public school teachers need to be compensated well and her schools more than adequately funded! Neither is the case. Instead business "leaders" and politicians bash our educators and deny them the resources needed to do their work.

This must stop.

Technorati Tags: education, reform, TCOTT

Granted, I tend to think more outside the box than many I suppose, but... Alex Steffen, at World Changing, recently unveiled their first One Laptop Per Child machine (OLPC)--a project designed to provide access to educational content for the children in the developing world. The laptop is pictured here.

Here's a person's comment to his excited post: "It would probably been [sic] more useful to supply African schoolchildren with other great, versatile, robust and useful innovations: books, paper and pencils."

Well, yes. That would be nice indeed. So let's think this out a bit, shall we?

If we spent the same amount of money on books, paper, and pencils, which has the greatest potential to impact the world for good? Should we afford the third world with second-rate, static learning consumables that are outdated by at least 3 years when they hit market and provide the children with the hope of writing a paper that their parents may well not even be able to read?

Or perhaps, perchance, just maybe, I mean it's only a thought: we take at least some steps to give children the opportunity to connect to the body of knowledge available to the 1,000,000,000 people connected to the world wide web so the children can produce instead of consume, produce knowledge products that can be shared with the whole of the planet, make a contribution beyond their family, their village, their impoverished state?

OLPC has the potential to significantly impact a child's education, more than any other wireless device I can think of, like OPPC (One Pencil Per Child).

I grow weary of ignorance and lack of vision, of slavery to a hackneyed system of education that has allowed third world countries to remain victimized by over-indulgent world markets.

It's time to come up with a better national educational policy that does! Doug has an interesting post at his blog, Borderland. I totally agree with Kozol's statement!

Dismantle NCLB
From Susan Ohanian:

The Educator Roundtable: Ending NCLB is a grassroots movement of educators, parents, and concerned citizens who have signed a petition, rejecting the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act and calling for legislators to vote against its reauthorization. We do so not because we resist accountability, but because the law’s simplistic approach to education reform wastes student potential, undermines public education, and threatens the future of our democracy.

Jonathan Kozol, who spoke here recently, called NCLB a public shaming ritual to punish the public schools and to pave the way for vouchers. Since it’s inception, I’ve said that this law was never about improving public education. It’s emphasis on high-stakes testing is driving us toward mediocrity, and not excellence. Indeed, the achievement gap is not closing.

Testing is not teaching. Sign the petition.

Source: Borderland » Dismantle NCLB