Vitamin CH (Chocolate) » Screencasts

Not getting what you expect from Google Instant Search?

CallKathy — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:27:45 +0000

The technology and web worlds are full of the news today: Google has gone instant! Search as you type. See your results as you type. See the common search phrases as you type. Awesome, huh? Well, as a user, I am not sure I am finding it so awesome.

When @Mindlessfluff started playing with the new Google, he found that the results aren’t always what one might expect. Google is trying to read your mind. It works more often that I would have expected, but it isn’t fool proof.

Here’s the issue in a nutshell: If you are logged in to a Google account, Google will try to guess what you are searching for as you type your search term(s). But, if Google guesses a longer term (or a more defined term) than you are actually searching for, the results can go off the track from what you wanted. Try it now. Go type in the Google search box. Type a word that can change meanings as you type it (words within words, for example). Notice that Google guesses, but not always correctly.

To show you what I mean, I created this screencast. I wanted to find bookstores. Not ASU Bookstores, just bookstores. Watch what I got in that case and in others.

I suggest that as you search you remember a few pointers for using Google Instant Search:

Spaces end words. If you want to search for a single word, don’t hit space – just hit return/enter. Ignore the grayed out letters if they don’t apply to what you are looking for.
Enter is still allowed. Pressing the enter or return key on your keyboard will tell Google that you only want to search for what you have typed or selected, not what it has guessed.
Even if you select a term from the list, you can still type more search terms.
If you find the suggestions unhelpful, sign out of Google. Instant search seems to only affect logged in users (at least in Firefox and IE).

Have you found other tricks or terms that don’t quite get you where you want to go? Let us know!

I asked @mindlessfluff what he thought was going on. He’s blogging about it. I’ll add his link when his post goes live.

@mindlessfluff has blogged his thoughts on Instant Search and a few SEO implications. Find his thoughts in his piece Google Instant Search Changes SEO Rules.

Amplify lists and keep the numbering right

CallKathy — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:19:49 +0000

Amplify user Dave Yank mentioned this morning that he wanted to be able to include lists in his Amp’ed content, but that he wanted the numbering to be continuous instead of starting over at one for each item. This is possible (and fairly easy) – once you know the trick.

To get lists to number correctly, you need to clip the list as a single item instead of as individual points. It is a matter of putting your cursor in the right place. Check out this screencast for details:

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9fixWw

My week with the iPad

CallKathy — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:03:01 +0000

What do you do when the latest geek gadget isn’t something you need, but is something you would like to write about? You borrow one, of course!

The gadget in question: An iPad
Loaned to me by: Symbaloo

Full disclosure time:

Symbaloo is a sister company and client of The Social Media Party, my current employer. That said, I fell in love with Symbaloo on first introduction. I love the concept of the mixes and the implementation. Sharing content from the web just got a lot easier for US netizens. Join me and try it out!

My thoughts

I had use of the iPad for a week. I loved some of it, hated other parts of it. The things that impacted me the most?

	Good	Bad
Creating content		I had real problems with creating any kind of content on the iPad. The key pad that pretends to be a keyboard just isn’t for me. I want to be able to touch type and couldn’t. I ended up using hunt and peck to type anything.
Network connections	The connection to our home network was easy, smooth and consistent.	From work, the connection was terrible. I am not sure if it is the connection here at the office or the iPad, but it wouldn’t stay connected.
Syncing with another device	Once we got Bruce’s iTunes account up to date, syncing the iPad to the music and pictures on his Mac was easy.	Returning the iPad meant stopping the sync with Bruce’s account. Or rather, I thought it would. It actually seems that there are two ways to sync – one is to sync your account and the other is to erase and sync the content. Once we got past that, re-syncing worked.
Apps	I installed a number of free apps. Adding them was easy. Find the app in the store, click the Free button in the left column, then click it again to actually download and install it. I liked what was available. Found some games I really liked. Found some useful gadget-like apps.
Pictures	Another win – pictures do look really good on the iPad screen.	Though I do wish it had a camera or an easier way to get the images onto the machine. I know I can use the sync mechanism to get them there, but I want to just add them.
iBook	The page turn effect is nice. The color pictures are nice. If I had kids, I could see using it to read bedtime stories. That said…	I didn’t find reading on the iPad as easy as on the Kindle or the Nook. The way the pages are shown made it harder for me to do any long term reading.

What I loved: Symbaloo 2.0 on the iPad

Symbaloo 2.0 allowed me to navigate the web in a natural, consistent, and convenient way. Symbaloo is a site new to the US. They allow you to create landing pages (called mixes) created of tiles. Each tile is linked to another piece of information on the web, such as:

Web pages

News or RSS feeds

Widgets

Other mixes

Want to learn how easy it is to use Symbaloo 2.0? Kimmie Chann, Symbaloo’s Community Director for the US, has posted a series of videos on how to use it. Check out this one on “How to Edit and Search for Webmixes”:

How to edit and search for webmixes on Symbaloo

Symbaloo 2.0 wasn’t created for the iPad. It just happens that it works there amazingly well. See for yourself!

Symbaloo 2.0 on the iPad

I also found Symbaloo 2.0 a great way to access my feeds through my iPad. I didn’t like any of the free RSS readers I saw in the apps list. Symbaloo 2.0 let me get to the feed content without hassles or expense. I created an RSS tile for the feeds I wanted to read on the iPad and saved the mix. Voila – My own RSS reader!

Symbaloo Mix for Social Media Feeds

See those feeds live via Symbaloo 2.0!

Clicking a link inside one of those tiles gets you to the linked post. Clicking the box itself usually takes you to the home page for the feed. I say usually because some of the feeds are set up to take you to a page where you can auto subscribe. That’s a feature of the feed settings, not Symbaloo 2.0.

Because Symbaloo 2.0 is all tile based, it was easy for me to navigate without typing. Since typing was the one thing that really bugged me on the iPad, finding that Symbaloo 2.0 worked so well was a definite good thing.

I won’t go so far as to say that I would buy an iPad to use Symbaloo 2.0 on it. I might think about it with a 3G iPad, since that would give me anywhere access. What I will say is that after this week of using the iPad, if someone offered me one – I’d keep it. Until then, I will keep using Symbaloo 2.0 on my desktop and my tablet and leave the iPads to the rest of you.

SnagIt saves the day (again)

CallKathy — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:18:05 +0000

Just a quick post to say how much I love Techsmith’s Snagit – especially when it saves me from other software problems.

I just had yet another Facebook (FB) crash. I type too fast for FB to keep up in comments and notes. When this happens, the screen dims and I know that the error message isn’t far behind.

Tonight, it happened while I was putting in a comment on a friend’s note containing travel hints. (Which, by the way, I will be adding as a guest post when this post is done.)

Instead of panicking, I thought “Snagit”! My first attempt was a text grab, but the text was too faded. The second attempt was an image grab – that worked. When my browser re-opened, I just set the two windows side by side and re-typed the text. The image I grabbed was:

If I had been thinking, I would have dropped it into OneNote to grab the actual text. It just takes a few moments to drop the image into OneNote, copy the text from the image, paste it on the note page, edit it, and copy paste it to the note after the browser comes back. OneNote did a halfway decent job of recognizing the text, as you can see here:

Has SnagIt saved the day for you? How? Let me know!

(In the interest of full disclosure: TechSmith takes good care of those who help them beta test and discuss thier products. In my case, that good care includes a few great tchotchkes through the year and a paid account on Screencast.com. I regularly tell Betsy Weber that I would write about and talk about the products even without the extras and that they rock. If you think so, you should tell them too!)

Animoto Movie: TechSmith Robotics

CallKathy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:51:23 +0000

TechSmith’s Holiday gift to it’s fans and supporters for 2009 was a build-it-yourself robotic calendar. Watch ours groove!

Did you get one?

(Video created on Animoto. Easy as pie to do it too!)

We want COOKIES!

CallKathy — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:56:51 +0000

My mother-in-law, Donna Jacobs, is known for her baking. She is the reason that @mindlessfluff cooks – she taught him and encouraged him. When we come home for visits, the place is full of good smells and better foods. That’s always the case. We are here early this year, but the smells have already started. Why? Because Saturday December 12, 2009 is the annual Cookie Walk for the Ames Farmer’s Market.

On a regular week, you can find Donna’s baked goods at the only year-round farmer’s market in Iowa. Good things like cookies, bars, pecan mini-pies, homemade bread (including tomato bread – yum), and so much more. Everything is made from scratch per her personal recipes. It’s all homemade and all amazingly great. If you have ever had her brownies or rolls, you know what I am talking about.

The market is located in the Old Depot (526 Main Street) in Ames IA. Saturday, @mindlessfluff and I stopped by to see Donna at the market. Unlike the markets we are used to in California, this market is indoors. Each seller has table or shelf space.

Like the markets we are used to, the food sold is all natural and chemical free. Besides the baked goods Donna sells, the market also sells meats, wine, coffee, biscotti, fresh veggies, take-and-bake items, and craft items. Everything is locally made by the members of the market.

This time of year, not only is Donna stocking her table at the market with her regular stuff, but she is also baking cookies. Dozens and dozens of cookies. She has already made almost 60 dozen cookies of varying kinds for the day, and has at least that many more she wants to make. These cookies are both a labor of love and a way to survive. Why? Because the income from the cookie walk goes to support the market.

At the cookie walk, you pay $15 for a clamshell container. You then walk around the market picking up cookies and putting them in your container. Average people get 3 to 4 dozen in each container. The record appears to be 6 dozen.

If you are in the Ames or Des Moines area, stop by the Ames Farmer’s Market. It’s worth the trip. The food is good, the prices are nice, and I bet you will find the people there absolutely amazing!

I took advantage of our visit and took some pictures of the winter veggies which you can see in the video below. The video also shows shots of Donna’s cookies and other baked goods. Enjoy!

Clear Your Skype History

CallKathy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:21:40 +0000

I love Skype. It lets me sit in one place and talk with people in another place. Whether the person I need to talk with is in the other room or in another country, it doesn’t matter. It just works.

That said, there is one thing about Skype that bothers me. By default, Skype saves everything forever. For a screen recorder like me, that can leave me open for some embarrassing screen moments.

There is a fix: Clear your history. It is actually a two step process: Set Skype to not save the history and then clear the history itself. The process itself isn’t hard. It’s finding where to do it that gets complicated.

How do you learn what to do to clear the history? Watch the screencast – It tells you just what you need to know!

(See the video full size.)

What other tools would you like to see screencasts on? Let me know and I will pull them together. As QueenGeek can tell you, I take requests!

Aero Shake

CallKathy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:05:06 +0000

Do you use Windows 7 on your PC? If you do, I’ve got a feature for you to check out: Aero Shake. Shake lets you clear your open windows down to the task bar with a simple shake of your mouse.
Check out this screencast to see it in action.

See the full screencast on Screencast.com!

I love doing screencasts. They are a great way to share tips and ideas. This one was made with TechSmith‘s Jing. I’m willing to make more of them, so if you want to see something specific, let me know!