Youth Ministry Geek » Mac

RIP Steve Jobs

Chris — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:05:10 +0000

It’s a sad day in the tech world. Steve Jobs has passed away at the age of 56.

His impact on the world of technology is undeniable, and the products (Macs, iPods, iPhones, Pixar) he championed have helped shaped the world we live in.

I had the opportunity to go to his keynote address introducing the iPhone in 2007. It was an experience I’ll never forget. In his honor, here’s a video of that presentation:

Part 2

Steve, you’re vison and innovation will be missed.

Audio Podcasting 101 (Part 2)

Jeremy — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 03:02:33 +0000

… Continued from Part One. As I mentioned, I have been working on a youth ministry training podcast, 10-Minute Training, and after publishing about a dozen, feel ready to share the process here. This post wil look at the recording process itself, and the final post in the series will cover editing and publishing.

Now that you’ve got your gear set and scheduled some recording time, you’re ready to go! I am a mac guy, so I use the great multi-track recording software that comes bundled with every mac: GarageBand. If you aren’t a mac fanboy, you can opt for a great free open source option: Audacity.

The way it works with my setup is I open wiretap and select my inputs: Shure X2u to record my voice and Skype audio to record its audio. It then creates a virtual audio card with four channels that can be selected in the audio preferences of GarageBand. After doing that, I select which audio goes to which track and I’m ready to test the audio levels. The one thing that I dislike about GarageBand is its audio meters. They are small and not extremely accurate. Instead of trusting them, I test record audio from both sources a couple of times until they are as loud as possible without distorting.

The reason for doing all this work to get the different audio sources on different tracks is simple. Though I want to be able to get a podcast that is pretty much ready to chop into 10-minute pieces and publish, I want to be able to go back and fix problems like if the audio levels are too different, the guest wants to edit something out , or if a cell phone goes off in the guest’s office, etc.

A cheaper, but more time consuming, solution for this is to buy Call Recorder from Ecamm. With this method, you record the skype call in one file and your audio in another. After it’s all over you import the two files into the editor and move them around until they are synced (tip: make a loud noise at the beginning that can be heard in both audio files… then you match those sounds together… much faster!)

I generally shoot for recording about 30-45 minutes of audio in each interview that I can then chop down into three episodes after it’s all over. While doing the interview, I watch the clock and when we come to a stopping point at about ten minutes, I make a break and start over as if it was a new episode (which it will be).

After it’s recorded, I go through the effects to get a good sound on the voices, I generally use male narrator for both the Skype audio and my own. I save the file, open another and get my next guest on the line. Over and over again until they are all recorded and saved!

Apple’s Back to the Mac Event: A YouthWorkers Take

Chris — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:12:45 +0000

Apple held an event today called “Back to the Mac”, I think they wanted to remind us they still make computers too. There are 100 sites of blogs talking about what they announced, so I’ll leave that to those that were actually there. But I thought I’d give you my take on the 3 big announcements they made.

1. iLife 2011 -

iPhoto: They enhanced the full screen view, which looks like it will be nicer to work in. They also added new templates for slide shows and books. These should be a welcome edition because I’m sure you’ve used the existing ones hundreds of times for those quick slide shows to show at the end of an event or in a service to show what the youth group is up to. The news ones look really nice, I’m excited to get to play with them in real life.
iMovie: One of the big improvements in iMovie is in the audio editing. This has been my biggest complaint and frustration since Apple moved away from the timeline approach to editing. This updated version allows for easier editing and volume control. (I can’t wait). They also added a new feature to make movie trailers. They looked really fun. I could totally see it as a fun way to make promo videos. I bet there are going to be a lot of movie trailer winter camp promo videos this year.
Garage Band: They made some improvements here with beat matching and some of the training, but since I’m not a musician it’s hard for me to give much commentary, but the demo looked good.

2. OS 10.8 Lion -

A couple big stories here. While nothing that’s going to change the way you do ministry, there are a few things that may help you save some time as you work. Too bad we have to wait till next summer to get our hands on it.
Mission Control, Launch Pad, Full Screen Apps: The story for me here was that is continuing to improve the way to switch windows, launch programs, and keep track of all the things we have open on our computers. I appreciate anything that can help streamline and organize my computer.
App Store: Apple hopes to do for apps on the Mac what the app store did for the iphone and ipad. I know some are concerned this will create a closed environment like on the iPhone, but I don’t think that apple will close out none app store apps, I think they are just trying to simplify it for a majority of it’s users. Hopefully it will make it a lot easier to find apps without searching all over the internet. Also I wonder if this will drive prices down just like in the mobile app store? It will be interesting to see.
FaceTime: This one you don’t really have to wait for. The beta is available HERE. It is what is sounds like. Video FaceTime calling to other computer or phones. I wonder if they’ll make a windows version someday. This will be a great way to call all those students with iPhones now won’t it.

3. MacBook Air

They’ve updated the Macbook Air line. They updated the existing 13.3 in model, plus added an 11.6. The best thing in my book is they have high resolution screens. I’ve also wanted a small computer with a super high res screen. The new Macbook Air is the closest thing yet. However I’m not sure they will fit in to many church budgets. They start at $999, but after looking at the configurations, it seems like a realistic price is $1400 for a machine that I’d be happy with.

IceClean: System Maintenance for your Mac for free

Jeremy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:39:40 +0000

I often get asked what maintenance should be done for mac computers. People coming from the PC world are used to defrags, virus scans, and other routine maintenance tasks on their computers, but once they move to the Mac they aren’t sure what’s best.

I saw this post over on TUAW today with an easy solution and it’s free, IceClean. While you don’t need to do as much as on your PC, there are still some simple things you can do to keep your computer running it’s best. It also includes some great utilities for making some little system tweaks.

If you have been looking for some help it’s definitely worth checking out.

TUAW LINK: IceClean does system maintenance and optimization for your Mac for free.

Send Your Kid to Apple Camp

Chris — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:03:00 +0000

Last summer I signed my daughter up for one of the free day-camps they do at the Apple store and she learned all about photography. She had a great time. I was excited to get an email this morning about this summers program. It’s all about making movies this year. I’ve already signed her up because spaces go fast. Did I mention it’s FREE? I thought I’d pass it along to any of you who may have kids between 8-12 who would love a fun activity for a few days this summer. They are even having a film festival for all the films the kids make. Should be fun.

If you’re in San Diego we are doing the early session at Fashion Valley on July 19 – 20. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Find a location in your area.

Failsafe Backup (The 321 System)

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:28:56 +0000

Peter Krough has written an excellent article on backup in which he suggests the 321 system. It says that you should have three copies (one primary and two backups) on two different media with one off-site. Not only is this incredibly easy to remember, it really helps me sift through the myriad of backup solutions to get what I need and not a lot more.

For my on-site backup, I have mentioned before that I like to use Chronosync to automatically backup selected files whenever I mount a specific hard disc or thumb drive though Apple’s Backup (free with Mobile Me) or Time Machine will meet most mac user’s needs. On the PC side of things, I have heard good things about Paragon Drive Backup and NovaBackup.

For offsite backup, I use and am really satisfied with Carbonite while Chris has written a bit about his preferred offsite backup service: Mozy. Both are great and both support Mac and Windows. The point is that you need to have your mission critical files and irreplaceable memories (photos, videos) stored somewhere that fire or flood will not cause you to lose money or memories.

I think Peter Krough said it best in his article, “There are two types of people, those who have experienced hard drive failure and those who will.” Do yourself a favor and get your 321 system in place today.

Fill Out PDFs Free with Formulate Pro

Jeremy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:31:02 +0000

It seems that although everyone makes their forms downloadable online as a PDF, almost no one formats the files as editable forms that can be filled out within acrobat reader. This means I have to download the form, print it out, fill it out by hand, and then either walk it over to whoever needs it or scan it, save it, and attach it to an email. Sounds like it would be easier to just stop by the registration table and fill it out on the spot. Formulate Pro fixes that problem.

I should say, that if you have Acrobat Pro, there is a typewriter and annotation tool that works relatively well, but at $449 from Adobe’s site, or $378 from Amazon, it is a little pricey just for filling out forms. That is where Formulate Pro comes in. This tool does one thing, and does it well. It allows you to type, draw and make check marks on top of the PDF. Then, you can save it with those edits as a PDF of print it out. And, it’s free!

After downloading and installing the app it is as simple as opening the PDF, clicking the “T” (text tool) for typing, the squiggle tool for drawing, or the checkmark to check a box, then save or print. Right now, it’s only for mac, but the source code is available at GitHub.

Indie+Relief for Haiti

Chris — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:56:41 +0000

We’ve all heard about the devastation in Haiti following the earthquakes there, and it’s exciting to see so many people rushing to help. Here’s a way you can help, but it’s for today (Jan 20, 2010) only. Visit Indie+Relief and buy any of the software from their partners and the proceeds will all go to help those in Haiti.

It’s a great line-up of programs, both Mac and iPhone / iPod Touch titles. Some that I use on the list are Acorn, Things, Instapaper, Rowmote, Tweetie, and there a couple I’m going to pick-up today.

Or if you would just like to donate money click on the Compassion banner in the sidebar.

Check out Indie+Relief.

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Tool for Managing Multiple Gmail Accounts

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:12:48 +0000

I don’t know what my problem is, but I have WAY too many e-mail addresses to deal with. Many of them I have forwarded to/checked by gmail, but that still doesnt solve the problem fully because, for one reason or another, I still have multiple gmail accounts. I have used plugins for firefox over the years, but am irritated at having to constantly have a browser open sucking up resources I’d rather have being used somewhere else.

Finally, an easy app has been released to help monitoring multiple gmail accounts easy. The app is called Notify, and is produced by a company called Vibealicious. They describe it best when they say it’s “like a menu bar app, but better.” Like a menubar app, it lives in the menu bar and changes slightly by adding color and a number when new messages arrive, but once you click, TADA! It pops open a tabbed window showing your accounts with new messages and previews.

It is not without its issues like the fact that it opens some odd google error page when you double click on a message, and it doesn’t automatically log you into the appropriate account when opening up gmail, but it is 1.0. The developers have already slated a .1 release for mid September to include support for google apps and possibly imap which shows a thriving development. It boils down to this: Notify is an amazing tool that seems to be a pretty good answer to my (and your?) multi-account email dilemma.

New Gmail Mobile

Why You Should Upgrade to Quicktime Pro Now

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:47:37 +0000

I recently bought a new computer on which I did not install the normal pro apps I use. That meant that I did not have quicktime pro, and I quickly realized what an incredible deal it is! For a whole lot of common tasks, you do not need to buy or open up a huge, expensive program. If you need to trim a bit of the beginning, rearrange the order of events in a clip, or quickly change a file’s size or format to upload to the web, all you need is the $29 upgrade to quicktime pro (on the mac).

My favorite feature has nothing to do with editing video files. One of the handiest little preferences that shows up is the ability to play a movie on your secondary monitor or projector. Instead of having to do some wonky dragging of the window to the other screen (which doesn’t work in many players), or use a presentation program like keynote or pro presenter, you can simply plug in your laptop, switch the display preference over to the secondary monitor, and voila! Like I said, the $29 is totally worth it. Click here for a link to it in the apple store.

UPDATE: Thanks to Luke for the comment about Quicktime X. Apparently, with the release of Snow Leopard, many of the pro features will be included. Which means it’s time to preorder Snow Leopard for $29 instead!

Mac Users Forum, Sacramento