From Keynote to iMovie

Being an avid Keynote user with a desire to mesh my carefully constructed Keynote presentations (with audio narration) on YouTube, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the conundrum of incorporating Keynote presentations into iMovie projects.

I’ve done many Internet searches on the subject over the past couple of years and most answers are patchwork, incomplete, or just plain wrong.

Let’s hope my blog post floats to the top of the (once) painful Google query “import keynote presentations into imovie”. The biggest and most untreated problem is that, though Keynote can generate quicktime files, these files cannot be automatically imported into iMovie. It takes some converting both in Keynote and in the Finder first.

Here is the straightforward procedure for anyone looking:

First, in Keynote:
0. I am assuming you already have a finished presentation that you would like to narrate. Open it.

Narrate
1. Go to File > Record Slideshow
2. Navigate through your slideshow at any speed you want saying anything you would like as narration. Keynote will record everything.

Export
3. Once you are finished, go to File > Export…; This part is a bit tricky.
3 (a). Click the submenu under Formats and go to Custom…
3 (b). In the Video subsection, click Settings…
3 (c). Change the compression type to MPEG-4 Video.
3 (d). Click Okays and Nexts until you get to the dialogue to save your file; save it somewhere
3 (e). Wait for it to compress…
3 (f). Go to the place where you saved the file and rename it to have “.avi” as its extension. If the OS bugs you, tell it to, yes, use the .avi extension.

Import
Now, in iMovie:
4. Go to File > Import Movies…
5. Viola. Your presentation, complete with narration, should import and you can edit the video however you want.

 

Stairway to Heaven Backwards

look up stairway to heaven backmask.the whole songs satanic if you listen to the full thing.that proves that god an saton is real

jcgreenday1334

This backmasking thing is very interesting and I’d never really looked into it before. So I listened to Stairway to Heaven backwards. First, you can hardly say that the *whole* song is satanic. Most of the song backwards is jibberish.

However, there is one interesting part in the middle that has some clear “satan”s in it. I was so intrigued and disturbed by this that I recorded the original song to my computer and reversed it myself.

What I found was that the contraction “there’s”, which Led Zepplin uses to begin many sentences in the song, directly maps to “Satan” when reversed. I even recorded my own voice starting many sentences with the word “there’s” and, when played in reverse, it sounds like I am saying “Satan” many times.

I think it is an unfortunate coincidence for Led Zepplin that they happened to use “there’s” so many times in his song because they appear to be very unhappy about the satanic interpretation.

So, seems to be an interesting coincidence and nothing more. Unless you think that somehow the word “there’s” holds some kind of dark satanic power…

 

Algorithm for Getting the Power Set of a List

This algorithm returns a list that is a power set of the inputted list. The code for int2bin is from DaniWeb’s Python community.

So the module would give the following output:

>>> PowerSet([1,2,3])
[[3], [2], [2, 3], [1], [1, 3], [1, 2], [1, 2, 3]]

 

How to Use Python 2.5 Modules in Iron Python Studio

This was recently a problem for me when I wanted to use Python 2.5’s string Templates and random number generation with Iron Python Studio but couldn’t. Here’s how you enable the libraries in Iron Python Studio (IPS):

1. Install the version of Python (CPython) you want to use.
2. Direct IPS to the Python directory you are using by inserting the following lines into the beginning of the .py file you wish to use the modules in:

import sys
sys.path.append("C:\\Python25\\Lib")

For your own work, just change “”C:\\Python25\\Lib” to point to the Lib folder of whatever version of Python (in whatever location) you want to use.

 

Bright Splotches Under Macbook Screen From Water Spill

So my daughter spills water all over my Macbook screen leaving huge bright white splotches in the lower right and left corners of my screen. I freak out and take my MB to an Apple technician and he tells me it will be $750 to replace the screen but that I can probably just evaporate the water myself by running an intensive process that heats up my MB. Obviously, I opt for the latter.

The following Python program did the job.

i = 0
while True:
    i = i + 1

It got my CPU A up to a consistent ~80c with the fans obviously kicking on high. I put some pillows behind the screen to increase the heat.

I’ve been running it for about 3 hours now and the splotches are almost cleared up. It will probably take 4-5 hours total to complete the evaporation. But it beats paying $750 for a replacement..

There seems to be no permanent damage to the screen.

UPDATE
Well, it has been about 15 hours total now of drying, some with the program on, most with it off and the splotches are almost all gone. All that is left is a little pea-sized dot for the right splotch. I’ve no reason to think it won’t disappear by the end of the day.

FINAL UPDATE
24 hours later: screen is as good as new. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if you tried.

 

Straight Talk On Health Care

I subscribe to John McCain’s newsletter to see what they are telling their supporters. I also respond to these newsletters when I feel they are misleading.

John McCain’s Newsletter:

As you know, both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are touting outrageously expensive and unrealistic universal health care plans – a government monopoly over health care.

My Response:

McCain, governments can be publicly regulated. Private oligopolies can’t. They just keep screwing us over and there are so many of them that if you smash one of them, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Allocating all of the accountability into a single place (the government) can only increase our chances that all Americans are covered fairly. We will all stand up and criticize and fix the same system instead of each of us taking on individual battles with individual companies with no coherent overall unity.

Also, if government-funded health care were such a problem, then why aren’t people in Canada, the UK, France, Sweden, and Norway (some of the most affluent nations in the world; the pound and the euro beat the dollar, my friend) complaining about it?

The only possible reason I could think of you promoting a plan like this is if you are getting incentives from private insurance companies towards your campaign.

Chris

 

Dvorak Right-Handed Layout

I give plasma every Tuesday and Thursday and when doing so, I can only use my right hand to type because I am pumping with my left since it has better veins. I wanted to use the Dvorak Right-Handed Layout but it doesn’t come with Mac OS X. So I had to create it myself using Ukelele.

Here it is: Dvorak Right-Handed Layout (the file is named “Dvorak-Righty.keylayout”)

You need to place it in ‘/Library/Keyboard Layouts/’ then check it in the International preferences to use it. I typically ‘Show Keyboard Viewer’ from the International menu when using it so I know which keys are which.

 

A Bitter America?

I subscribe to John McCain’s newsletter to see what they are telling their supporters. I also respond to these newsletters when I feel they are misleading.

Obama recently made a comment about small-town Americans being bitter:

It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

He later realized that this was worded poorly and prone to distortions. He clarified the statement to mean:

So I said, well you know, when you’re bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country.

In today’s edition of McCain’s newsletter:

These hard working men and women aren’t “bitter”. They love their country, their faith, their family and their traditions.

My response:

I think you are wrong, Rick. My father lives in a small town in Kansas. He sounds thoroughly disillusioned with politics. He doesn’t really trust McCain, Obama, or anyone else to actually deliver on the promises they make about their presidency. For too long he has seen presidents enter office and not deliver on their promises.

These people may love their country. But they don’t believe in its politics. If my father votes for John McCain it will not be because he actually believes McCain will do something positive for America. He would probably vote for McCain based on religious preferences and because McCain is the most conservative of the three candidates. And that is exactly the point that Obama was making.

Hillary Clinton was also milking the comment for all that it was worth. Obama’s humorous and fairly light hearted synopsis of her reaction can be found here.

 

Obama the “Fat Cat”

I subscribe to the Hillary Clinton newsletter to see what they are telling their supporters. I also respond to these newsletters when I feel they are misleading.

In today’s edition, they said (and have said similar things on many occasions):

We face an opponent who has a virtually unlimited war chest, who is breaking records to spend whatever it takes to win.

Here was my response:

This is very misleading. You make it sound like Obama is a millionaire dropping millions out of his own pocket to win. Obama has a virtually unlimited “war chest” because Obama has an unprecedented amount of supporters making small donations. This isn’t one man trying to blaze his own way with his own money for the sake of personal conquest ; it is someone standing on the shoulders of over a million enthusiastic financial supporters. Obama hasn’t spent a dime of his own money for his campaign. You, on the other hand, have spent $5 million.

So, in short, I resent the fact that your emails constantly paint Obama like some rich fat cat who is using his money to bully you. He has more money because more people support him. He’s winning more delegates because more people support him. If he wins the race it will be, you guessed it, because more people support him.

If you want to stay in the race until you have officially and unequivocally lost, that is your right and I respect you for fighting. But you would have more dignity if you would just admit upfront that Obama is winning because he is doing a good job. Not because he has some unfair personal “war chest”; not because he is using “words” to mislead people. But because he has a genuinely good plan for America, because he inspires people, and because people feel he genuinely understands their dreams, their needs, their struggles, and their concerns.

-Chris

 

Everybody Counts in this Country

I subscribe to the Hillary Clinton newsletter to see what they are telling their supporters. I also respond to these newsletters when I feel they are misleading.

This Monday, they were arguing for Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated in the Democratic Convention:

It’s the American way — everybody counts in this country.

Here was my response:

The problem, Maggie, is that when these people voted, their states did it specifically and intentionally against party rules. For that reason, supporters of candidates other than Hillary (and indeed, probably many Hillary supporters) probably stayed home. When their states decided to break party rules, these people probably counted on their votes not being counted. And so they, understandably, probably did not want to waste their time and energy due to the uncertainty of their vote being counted.

So this was not a fair contest. In Michigan, Hillary was the only candidate that was even on the ballot. Now if I am an Obama supporter in Michigan and I know Obama is not on the ballot, what am I going to do? Am I really going to go vote “undecided”? That’s not my real position: I have decided on Obama. So my voice is, essentially not heard.

So at least for Michigan, you are mistaken: if you count Michigan Hillary votes, you are, in effect, silencing Obama supporters in Michigan by not giving them any delegates. That is not fair.

The only way to be fair is to ask for a revote in these states and let both Hillary and Obama campaign there.

-Chris