Recently I was looking for a tool to put up a full-screen writing surface: green letters on a black background.
This is the sort of tool programmers love to write — like Diff tools. I found a half dozen tools, some free and cross-platform.
For now, I’m using Q10. Its lean size (357K) appeals to me, and it has autosave. Q10 plays typewriter sounds (sampled from the movie Amelie!), which can be charming or..annoying. I removed them by changing SoundsEnabled=False in q10.ini. The lineup:
Vimagi is a lot of fun… Flash-based drawing with playback. Kids could do drawings for their parents/grandparents to play back. Some suprisingly good stuff here - I never got the hang of drawing with mouse, it’s like drawing with a bar of soap.
The drawings are embeddable, but WordPress keeps eating my tags. via the brilliant Dave Pollack
I’ve been thinking about books a lot lately.. I’m awash in them, and it’s hard to know which are worth the time. LibraryThing is my source for promising veins of content from like minds. Now all that remains is…well, reading. Put the browser down. Something I’m finding tough in the age of NADD.
A book review group, meeting in person, would help. The Oxford Extremists are a good model. They meet once a month/two months to discuss a book.
Johnny Lee continues to bring the awesomeness with this demo of Head Tracking. The illusion of depth is compelling from 2:45 on.
The LED safety visors are a brilliant hack, and infrared LED’s are cheap at Radio Shack (part #276-143). I am still working on an infrared LED pen for the last hack!
Recently I came across two Python editing environments, Reinteract and Hotwire. The screencasts could not be more different. It’s instructive to consider what makes a superior screencast.
Dislaimer: I know nothing about the two projects beyond having seen these screencasts. Also, Hotwire lead Colin Walters notes that the Hotwire screencast is fan-made; an improved official vid may be in the works.
Let’s deconstruct these examples to figure out: makes a screencast suck or succeed?
Audio
Hotwire uses a hard-rocking song. The soundtrack is irrelevant to the action onscreen, and distracts. Currently a single YouTube comment asks for the song title. Reinteract is narrated by the developer. He knows his stuff and his clarity of speech conveys precision. The pacing feels right.
Video
Hotwire is presented in what Yahtzee has dubbedTeenyWeenyEyestrainoVision. Youtube’s stingy real estate obliterates detail. Add AutoPanning and Beryl fx for added wooziness. Reinteract is clean and sharp. No other distracting windows or desktop. Video is full size; details are preserved. The entire screencast takes place in one window. Overall: clean, simple, focused.
Pacing / Narrative
Hotwire has so many distracting elements it’s impossible for an outsider to follow. After 30 seconds of squinting, I gave up. Hotwire may have fantastic features.. this video does not communicate them. Reinteract has a coherent, well structured progression. The narrator explains features, benefits, and builds complexity. As a viewer I see what makes it cool and useful and how I might apply it
Summary
The purpose of Screencasts is to communicate concepts. Show the Sizzle. Principles of writing apply: dump anything that doesn’t contribute. Audio should be on topic. Video should be sharp, fullscreen, with no distractions. YouTube is a poor choice. Pacing and narrative should set a context, deliver benefits, and communicate something new and useful.
When done right, screencasts can communicate cheaply and effectively to a worldwide audience.
