Philip M Russell Ltd

Raspberry Pi

2012-02-27T15:21:00.002Z

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) See Website

The Raspberry Pi is for me an ideal computer. I started computing with a TRS-80 in 1980. When I bought that computer and switched it on my Mum, said what is this, ask it who was the Queen of England in 1654?

Now that machine would only do BASIC and only what I could program it to do. Before I could do anything I had to learn to program. Within a few weeks I was writing complex programs to do all sort of things. As a computing teacher I have had many students in my class who could use a computer , but whom had no idea about what you could get a computer to do.

I feel like many that this computer is a great step forward by taking a few steps back.

I sat in ignorance of this computer until this morning when Linux Format came through my postbox.

This seems the ideal computer for education. A small Linux platform and a simple programming language. Costing $35 dollars for 256Mb RAM, 2 USB port, an Ethernet port, an ARM1176JZFS, with floating point, running at 700Mhz, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable of BluRay quality playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/s..The Raspberry Pi measures 85.60mm x 53.98mm x 17mm, with a little overlap for the SD card and connectors which project over the edges. It weighs 45g.

The first shipments are with out a case which makes the computer look more like a machine that can be played with, than a black box. Later versions will have a case.

The computer has no keyboard ( so one needs to be supplied ( although it would probably fit inside one, no monitor ( any HDMI monitor TV will do) or disk. The OS is on a 16Mb or 32Mb full size SD card. The power is from 4AA cells or a small power supply a a mini 5V USB (phone style) connector.

There is already an enthusiastic following and video's up on You Tube to look at.

At the launch in a week or so's time there is another addon board, (the Gertboard) which will allow the user to use GPIO ( General Purpose Input and Output) and the ability to add any other hardware to the computer for a truly fantastic IO experience.

Because of its small size this computer will probably find its way into all sorts of other hardware, becoming the computer controller for many familiar devices.

Many years ago I was involved in creating a Beowulf cluster. With the Raspberry PI this might again became a great possibility. My students learnt an enormous amount from being able to build such a cluster. By having small inexpensive computers the way to opened up to users to discover how all types of computer systems work. Instead of having to buy several servers, the same systems could be created for well less than £100.

What can the added to the system.

Would be developers are talking about adding touch screens and other devices to the Raspberry. The appeal is a machine that is very basic - that will teach the basics of computer hardware and software. The appeal of this machine might just see it appearing in every device you can think of.

Basic Editing

2012-02-23T08:52:00.000Z

A few features about basic editing.

Software

The Free Versions

Windows Movie Maker - The Windows 7 version is not as good as the previous versions. It is possible to download and install a previous version instead.

VideoPad Free quite goodhas many of the features of other expensive programs

Cheap
Sony Vegas
A lite version often comes with some of the cameras.

Expensive
Adobe Premier

Videoing

If you can record the same scene from two different angles. Use 2 cameras. If you only have one camera then do the scene twice and video it from different angles. If the scene is a success then try it again. Two copies of the same thing is useful because one is always so much better than the other.

Tips for Video Production Editing

Know your footage intimately.
Look at all the video you have taken including all the bits that went wrong, although a take may have gone wrong there might be some good parts that you could use. Collect any still photographs that might be used to cut to whilst the narration continues.

Lay-out the key elements of your film.
Start placing all the best parts on the timeline and watch them through in its rough form to start “feeling” what works. This is where most people finish and say this is the final item.

Start building the basic structure.
Narrow down your story into a beginning, middle and end. Keep the video as short as possible. At this time videos normally get longer and longer.

Create a great beginning.
Most videos are made or not in the first few moments so try to make the first few seconds the best you can. A good video captures the audience’s attention right away!

Watch the Adverts
Often in the middle of a program, the adverts creep in. In 15-30 seconds these adverts tell a story and get a message across. The Scenes are quick - perhaps only a few seconds. Now apply this to your video. Add more scenes and make them shorter. Changing the viewpoint makes the video more exciting even when it isn't. Raely do you watch one viewpoint for more that a few seconds.

Refine and Re-edit
The only rule in video production editing is to do what WORKS. Keep Refining and re-editing the video until it’s right. If in doubt - cut it out. Once it is perfect. Save everything. Produce a final copy, so it to someone not involved in the project. Watch their reaction.
Refine and Re-edit
Edit the video again. Put all the things right, Save, produce the final final copy and show it to someone else. They should be happier than the first audience.
Show it to the world
Load your video onto You tube

7 Stages in making your first video blog

2012-02-06T11:44:00.000Z

Now the easiest way of doing your first video is to use the webcam and just record yourself. Most of us do this, or we use the video camera in the mobile phone to record us or something going on around us.

I want to look at the next stage in making a simple video. I singe scene - no editing - just a short little video with some naration.

Stage 1 The script
This doesn't have to be wonderful or detailed, but before you start you need to have some idea of what you are going to say.

Stage 2 Set up the Stage
Put up the green screen, or any other background and get is flat and smooth. My green screen is a piece of material and each time before I use it I need to iron it to get out the creases and then I need to hang it so that there are no creases visible in the area I am filming.

Stage 3 Set up the Lights
If you are going to us a green screen or any other background then you need to get some lights onto the background.
Set up the subect away from the background and then set up the lights on the subject so that there is no shadow cast on the background.
This doesn't need expensive lights.
When my wife is out I often use the kitchen. With the green screen placed behind the kitchen fluorescent light I get fair illumination of the green screen and then I sit far enough away To light the subject I use either just a reflector or a place a couple of small lights at 45 degrees to the subject so that they do not cast a shadow on the green screen.

Stage 4 Set up the camera/Video
If you are like me your camera is the video as well. Place this on a tripod several feet away. You want to take the image so that it is not using too much of a wide angle as this distorts the picture.

Stage 5 Rehersal
Now everything is set up. Go through what you are going to do. Do it with the video recording if you want.

Stage 6 The Take
Now you have practiced. Go for the take - or two or three or more until you manage a perfect one.
If you can do it try the same take but from a different angle. Its great to change the viewpoint when editing.

Stage 7 Saving
Once the video is recorded then save it to the computer in a suitable format.
What is the best format? Mov, wmv or mp4.
Using videopad it doesn't matter too much and the subject of a later blog.

Software and Hardware for video creation

2012-02-02T15:28:00.002Z

More and more people these days are turning to making their own videos and vlogs.
Its easy with a camera phone and some simple editing.
The next stage is to make the video slightly more up market using some simple techniques. The first thing you need is some slightly better but free software.
To create the video software such as VideoPad Video Editor at http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html is an excellent piece of software to get you started.
For the sound, You may want to exract sound so a program such as AoA Audio Extractor (Free) at http://www.aoamedia.com/audioextractor.htm is another bargain. Armed with better software you can now create a better movie.

The better movie requires a script and a design. I also invested in a green screen on ebay for £20 or so and with a suitable camera on a tripod we are ready. The rule of a tripod is simple. You always use a tripod except for the time you want to make a really terrible movie. The background and the foreground need to stay still.For sound recording you can either use the camera and I would always recommend adding a sound track at the time the video is made ( It can always be removed) but this often serves to identify what you are doing. I have a Sony digital recorder which produces excellent quality recordings and once the lip sync is mastered this proves invaluable.
I invested in a Kodak Play water proof video camera. It produced HD movies and has the advantage in the Britsh weather of being waterproof.

This is a bit up from producing a simple mobile phone video bu the difference is amazing.

The best part of the Videopad software is that it can enable the use of green screening, to produce a still or video background to what you are doing.

Maps and formats

2012-01-30T09:30:00.003Z

My son is off on his D of E Gold expedition soon. He spend some time working out his route and his school using memory map. This is a good program which I also use. We have jusr recently upgrraded our system to use the 2012 1:50000 and the 1:25:000 maps. For walking the 1:25000 maps are excellent. I like memory map since it will use height data to create virtual fly through of the route which gives an excellent idea of the steepness of the hills.
Different versions of the software use slightly different formats mno files.

We do some geocaching and the files of these locations is in loc format. The GPS we use, The Garmin 550t, uses gpx format.
Now my son was trying to get a good idea of where he was going. Google Earth provided some excellent views of the terrain and showed photographic images of all the paths. I have also started to subscribe to getamap from the Ordnance Survey. This uses Microsoft Silverlight to display 1:50000 maps on the screen and another type of zoom-able map (without contours).

So what is my problem. The OS maps on getamap are excellent but I am not allowed to put a track on them (or at least if I am I haven't yet found a way.) THe Memeory map at my sons school was a different version to what we have at home, so the mno files were upgraded (no going back). The files here brought home gave an idea of the route but needed improving to fit the tracks on the map. All the routes he brought home were inaccurate - I guess from an older map and students not being able to or careful enough to record the tracks correctly. To view this on the arial photographs using using Google Earth we needed to change the format of the mno files to gpx, and there it was the track brought into Google Earth - but it wasn't quite in the right place the maps and the ariel photographs di not line up. Google Earth would not allow us to edit the gpx file. That could only be done in memory map - which looked ok but didn't line up with Google Earth.

Once finished the route was loaded up into the Garmin. Its maps doesn't correspond either.

So I have lots of different types of maps and toys. They don't speak the same language. They don't line up. They don't share the same file formats. An easy job becomes difficult.

On there own they are great pieces of software, together ... they are hard work. I didn't think that I wanted to do much.

Probably the best solution was me buying the Active map (a plastic coated map) of the area and my son drawing a line over the route. It is simple effective - fits on the map in the right place and works.

Blown Power Supply

2012-01-26T13:25:00.003Z

I had a problem with the server this morning. It seem to have died. The mouse had locked up and in the end there was nothing more to do then to power the machine power. The next problem was that the machine would not power up. No life at all in the machine, so I decided that it was most certainly the power supply. No light on the motherboard and no turning of a fan was my sneaking suspicion.

Fortunately I had a spare, 500W supply. The existing one was labelled 530W one. I decided pon a better course of action which was to remove the 600W power supply from my wife's machine and replace this with the new 500W supply since she only has one HD and two DVD's.

I then put her working 600W power supply into the server. The server has 7 drives - a small IDE with the OS on it and 6 1.5Tb drives which I use to archive all the data on a daily basis to.

The Home Server came up quick and is now happily backing up the systems it failed to do.

With this success I looked at the bust power supply. I have one of these power supply testers from Maplins. Before I tried this out, I noticed that the power supply was rattling.

Being broken anyway I opened up the Power Supply to find out the source of the rattling to see if a screw or something had somehow made its way into the power supply.

Inside the power supply rattling around were the tops of two of the capacitors in the power supply.

Instead of a nice blue shiny capacitor here was a brown coil in its place. The tops of these capacitors must have blown off.

Casting my mind back a week or so ago , there was a bang from one of the computers. My son and I investigated but couldn't find anything. All the machines continued to work ok so we gave up looking.

Now I know that was the time when the capacitor blew and then it was just a matter of time until the machine died. I think that the locking up of the machine had nothing to do with the problem, it was the switching off and on again that the machine could not cope with.

All is now well and the Home Server has a slightly bigger power supply which should keep it happy.

Beating the ISP with Torrents

2012-01-23T11:16:00.001Z

We all suffer from ISP's throttling back on our Torrents.An easy way to fight back is to use a different internet connection. Now I am lucky since I have BT infinity as my main ISP with a high speed up and download. Now if I wish to download a small torrent then this is usually excellent, I fast download and I often only need to be on for a few minutes. Some torrents take much longer and once I have been on for a short while I notice my speeds slowing down considerably. My alternative ISp is Sky - not very fast but I do have unlimited downloads, and SKY keep to their word. This systems is only used for backup and at present my system is not set up with any automatic load balancing. Instead I have my sky boxes and a couple of other machines on the sky network ( my home network ) and the other machines on the BT ( company network).

The laptop that does the torrenting is on cable to the BT network and on wireless to the sky network. When BT slows the system down the sky one seems to take over keeping the speeds up.

Duplicated shares of My Documents, Pictures and Music

2012-01-23T10:41:00.001Z

I had a recent irritating niggle with Windows 7. On my Home network I share My Documents on my main machine so I can access it anywhere on the network.. When I looked at this instead of My Documents - usually shared as documents I had in addition document~1 and document~2 up to document ~21
To delete these files I went onto the main machine and in Windows explorer right clicked on the My Documents Folder (not Documents but the folder underneath this) Select Sharing.

Then click on Advanced Sharing, and the screen below appears

In the share name click on the down arrow to get a list of all the alternative names for this share. Once the name that you do not want is in the box then click on remove.

The share goes as fast as it appeared. Now I am still not sure what I did to make all the duplicate shares of Music, Pictures and My Documents, but at least I have a easy and safe way of removing them.
Odd it was only this machine - since I share other folders on other machines - it only seemed to be My Documents

SMM Activity

2012-01-18T12:56:00.001Z

Getting started is difficult. Where do I start is a very common question.
Facebook and Google+ are the best place followed by Twitter.
Once you have linked to these then start to blog.

Changing Router Hardware

2012-01-17T12:45:00.000Z

BT Home Hub 3

It happens all the time. Something goes wrong with you Hardware and it needs to be replaced. Recently my BT Home Hub died. I don't really know what was wrong with it, the BT engineer on the phone agreed with me that it was a tiny bit dead, so the replacement arrived.

Its at that point the problems start.

How many of us set new settings and do not record what they are?

Now my old Hub was dead so asking it was useless. The big problem was not that I might of changed something , it was which things I had changed. It took some time to go through all the menus and ensure that the new Hub was set up in the same way as the old Hub.

Passwords and WiFi

This had changed. The new Hub had a different SSID and passwords. ll the machines that accessed this Hub wirelessly needed there setups changed so that they could now access the Hub.

Any of the machines that directly accessed the Hub now had to have the administration password changed. Now I often save this password in the browser. The browsers sometimes seem to be relunctant to change to the new password but like remembering the old one.

As usual the answer to most of these problems is good notes and notes recorded in a safe and obvious place so that you can easily find them. I find that Microsoft OneNote is excellent for doing this - but of course when it is stored remotely and the internet is off because the router is broken - what do you do then.

Who Are We Really Attracting Online?

2011-11-30T12:00:00.001Z

It’s safe to say that we are the energies and attitudes that we send out into the world. This carries weight mainly because many believe that what we send out ultimately returns to us whether we are looking for it or not.

What I try to do as a person first, and then as a writer; is to be very mindful of what I’m portraying in and out of the cyber world. With everything we do online today, being only keystrokes and a click away; we have to pay especially close attention to what we are saying online, without us actually saying a single word.

Although you may never have the opportunity to meet that person in Dublin, Ireland that you did a hangout with on Google+, or have brunch with the young lady that you tweeted and thanked for the #FF; it’s highly recommend by the many social media gurus out there, that we be very mindful of the energy and/or message we’re sending out when someone decides to visit our profiles.

Just like many face to face, first impressions we tend to have, it only takes one post to be shared or one picture to be uploaded that can cause your social media death, so to speak.

In life, outside of our cyber lives, we are very selective in who we attach ourselves to and who we allow to attach themselves to us. Normally, we don’t seek out the most negative people to call them “friends”; nor do we tend to call our friends in the real world, followers. While there are obvious differences in how we live online and offline; there should be some things that we consider doing similar if for nothing else than to protect ourselves from getting that awkward response from that questionable individual.

There’s a lot of nutcases out there just waiting for you to turn your head slightly to slip a tracking device in your bag, steal something of great importance to you out of your possession, or something worse, like the perfect opportunity to stab you in your back when you least expect it. OK, maybe some of those were a bit far-fetched, but I’m sure you understand what I’m trying to say.

The cyber-world and blogosphere is in no way different than the “real world”. What we send out into the airwaves determines the type of traffic we attract, and the type of people we connect with and those that will connect to us as well. Of course there’s always the chance of some good apples getting away, as well as bad apples getting through. Such is life though, right?

People are going to be people first and foremost; it’s what we do best. As time continue to proceed on and society continues to get further and further advance in social media technology what we will see is an increase in the App’s, and functions on the various social media platforms that will allow for us to give ourselves even more of our own personalities in the cyber world. As it becomes more available for us to do so, my only advice would be for us to make sure that what we want to be portrayed online is being portrayed through our shares, our +1’s, and our tweets.

Sending or sharing the wrong message has never been of greater importance than when you are giving yourselves an online presence. So before you push Share, Send, or Tweet, think about who exactly your profile will be attracting.

http://mediatapper.com/who-are-we-really-attracting-online/

Blogg Started

2011-08-07T15:25:00.000+01:00

Keeping Track of Movements Work Progress Work Topics