blog.forret.com » media

PDF podcasts: proof of concept

Peter — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:30:23 +0000

Background
I read a lot of info on digital cinema these last months. I find there is little syndicated content (blog feeds) to be found on the topic. Some sites have a page of press releases and/or an email newsletter, but that’s about it. That’s why I have created some custom RSS feeds with feed43. (e.g. Digital Cinematography feed for the CMP Digital Cinematography Magazine)
What I do see is that some sites publish really nice magazines in PDF (Portable Document Format – by Adobe) format (see Videography on the right). You only know about these if you go visit the site of course – very Web 1.0. So if there could be a feed that alerts me of new issues of these PDF files … And while we’re at it, why not put the PDF link as an enclosure in the RSS feed, podcast style? And just like an MP3 podcast is automatically transferred to a portable MP3 player, could a PDF podcast be automatically printed? The answer is: Yes. Let me show you how.

STEP 1: the RRS with PDF enclosures
That was harder than it should be: Feed43 does not do podcast feeds, Feedburner only recognizes audio/video and image files. So I ended up creating an RSS file by hand:

Since I’m only testing I don’t mind for now. It should be possible to auto-create it with Wordpress, or maybe Feedburner could add it to its list of “rich media files” for SmartCast.

STEP 2: podcatching the PDF feed
Now what? There is a podcast feed with PDF enclosures, and I want a podcatching application to download them. I chose Juice (the former iPodder) application here, because I can configure it to run a script for each downloaded enclosure (see further). I copy/paste the feed URL in the Juice aggregator and it has no problem downloading the PDF files:

The result of this is: the podcatcher will create a folder for the podcast where all PDF files are stored. So if you prefer to read them on your screen, this is already good enough. But let’s try to get them printed the moment they arrive.

STEP 3: auto-printing the PDF files
Task at hand: I want the PDF files to be printed automatically upon download. I can configure Juice to execute a command line after each download, and I configure it to run a script print_pdf.cmd "%f":

What the script does is:

check if the file is a PDF file (so skip all MP3, … files)
if it is call "c:\(path to Adobe Reader)\Acrord32.exe" /p /h %1 so that Adobe Reader opens the file in the background (option /h or ‘hidden’) and prints the document (option /p).

This print operation will take the default printer with default settings, so you have to configure the computer to e.g. print on the color laser (looks nice) with 2 pages on 1 sheet (to save trees) with automatic stapling (if your printer supports that).

Conclusion:
A PDF podcast feed allows you to subscribe to regular releases of PDF files that are automatically printed the moment they are published. There are no technological barriers to do it. It would be nice if Feedburner supported it in its Smartcast service.
Anyone publishing magazines, reports, statistics, account overviews in PDF format: try it out!

UPDATE: Apple iTunes now supports “PDF enclosures subscriptions“. (via Pascal)

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The Next German Top Model will be thin

Peter — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:55:00 +0000

The ‘top model’ Heidi Klum presents a TV show: Germany’s Next Top Model, basically a contest for a bunch of girls who want to become a top model (date actors, eat carrots, spend hours getting your hair done, dress lightly and get paid a whole lot of money while doing that). Recently one of the candidates was dismissed and the reasons were somewhat controversial:

Irina’s misfortune was her height-weight ratio — she weighed 52 kilograms (114.5 pounds) and was 1.76 meters (5 feet 9 inches) tall. With that kind of body, Irina, 19, was used to being adoringly ogled, but on supermodel Heidi Klum’s television show “Germany’s Next Top-Model” her body became her downfall. “Too fat,” was the verdict handed down by the show’s jury. The svelte Irina was sent home.
Der Spiegel

The poor thing has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 16.8, which places her under the 5th percentile for her age. In theory, she could very well be an anorexic.

One wonders: do only extremely thin/skinny girls get a chance at becoming a top model? “Germany’s Next Top Model” (Prosieben) actually publishes dimensions and measurements for all girls. Which means that, if one were to throw those into a spreadsheet, one could make some graphs of that, couldn’t one? And so it happened that that was exactly what I did. Here are some results:

BMI (BODY MASS INDEX)

The average BMI is 17,6. Granted, there are some 16-years olds amongst them (younger girls typically have smaller BMIs – cf BMI percentile for girls (PDF)) but more than half would be considered a candidate for anorexia by a US nutrition specialist (see remark). The lowest BMI was Katrin (23y, 171cm, 46kg) with 15,7 and the highest Ramona (17y, 173cm, 61kg) with 20,4. Both didn’t make it to the final selection. Heidi Klum herself is also a small eater: 17,2.
REMARK: the indicator used is: below the 5th percentile in that age group. It indicates a risk for anorexia. Keep in mind that “anorexia nervosa => exceptionally thin” does not mean “exceptionally thin => anorexia nervosa” (classical ‘non-sequitur‘)). The only percentile numbers I found are for the US population, but remember that the average weight in the States (27% overweight) is significantly higher than Germany (19%) or Belgium (12% overweight). So a woman with a BMI of 18 in the US can be considered ‘exceptionally thin’, while the same weight/height ratio in Belgium is not that exceptional. I have several female friends with a BMI of 18 or lower, and I can assure you they do not have any eating disorder.

CURVES

OK, bear with me for a moment. I also had the bust/waist/hips measurements. But I wanted a single number instead of 3. So I did the following: there is this 90-60-90 ideal that men seem to prefer (the ‘average man’ presumably, my hands are too small). Think “Monica Belluci” (perfect 100%)! Now calm your breathing and read on. So I came up with a CURVE (or ‘wasp‘) coefficient that scores 100% for that mythical 90-60-90 and that grows the more wasp-like the figure is (waist/[[hip+bust]/2] is smaller) and the more symmetric it is (hip/bust is 1). To get a feeling for it: the minimal score is 76% for Jennifer (80-66-91) and the maximum score is 97% for Missy (90-62-90). Heidi Klum scores an average 93% (88-61-86). There is of course a correlation between BMI and CURVE. It’s kinda hard to be a 90-60-90 and be exceptionally thin. Something’s gotta give.

CONCLUSIONS

BMI: is not the defining factor for making it in a “Top Model” kind of show (in the sense of: the lower the better). What a relief! Although, a look at the chart shows that having an ‘unusual’ BMI does not help: all candidates with a BMI below 17 or above 18 are no longer in the running.
CURVE: Monica Belluci would have a hard time here. The least curvy girl (76% Jennifer, mainly because of her err… less significant chest area) is still in there. All candidates with a CURVES coefficient above 93% are out.
QUALITY/QUANTITY: I am confident that, in order to win a contest like that, a lot of other qualities are more important than measurements (say: IQ, character, confidence, prettiness) but I limited myself here to an exercise in Excel statistics.
TOPIC: statistics and pretty women: I love it. Any related stuff I should dive in to? Actresses? European models compared to US models? Spanish vs German?

Technorati Tags: germany, heidiklum, model, bmi, weight, curves

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Prince Charles and the Pope

Peter — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 18:10:00 +0000

Headlines from 1981:

Prince Charles got married

Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe

Australia lost the Ashes tournament

Pope died

Headlines from 2005:

Prince Charles got married

Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe

Australia lost the Ashes tournament

Pope died

In the future, if Prince Charles decides to remarry, somebody should warn the pope.
(via haveadaydotcom)

Technorati: charles – pope – 2005

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“Lost” in iTunes: good and bad news

Peter — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:17:54 +0000

There’s good news and bad news. First the good: Steve Jobs just issued a wake-up call to the movie industry. He already has shown everyone how to sell music (fixed price, basic DRM, no limits on burning) and hopes to do the same with video. The new iPod video looks great, and is clearly gonna end up on my desk in the near future.

The bad news: all that “Lost“, “Desperate housewives“, Pixar, Disney, ABC eye candy is not for us Europeans (apparently not even for all Americans either – digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com). Which makes me feel like that great “When Harry Met Sally” song (Harry Connick Jr.)

They’re selling shows of “Lost”, but not to me.
at a very modest cost, but not to me.
I’d love to see them play
I even want to pay
I guess there’s just no way but on TV.

It would be cool to know within the day
Is Sawyer just a prick, or is he gay,
How long can Jack resist,
to grab Kate and french kiss?
I guess it’s not for me.

(grab a guitar and join in: “Not for me“)

I hope that when digital cinema breaks through, films can be released worldwide at the same time and this whole US-first, Europe-afterwards mentality changes. It would reduce a lot of the BitTorrent traffic too. When “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” opens here in Nov 2004, 8 months after the release in the USA, it is only normal that people who hear the buzz and want to see the movie will find other ways (maybe even -gasp- illegal ones) to see it. It’s a global market now, guys. Wake up!

Technorati: lost – apple – ipod – video – movie – cinema

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Using movies on a web page

Peter — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:21:00 +0000

So you recorded those first steps of your youngest, your first public milonga performance, uncle Tom falling backwards into that cake, or auntie Janet dressed like a man. Now you want to show into to the world. You save the movie into a .WMV (Windows Media – Video), .RM (Real Media), .MOV (Quicktime), .MPG or .MP4 (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) , .SWF (Shockwave/Flash) or .AVI (Microsoft Video for Windows) file, sprinkled some Sorenson or DivX magic on it (if you’re not familiar with these terms, don’t worry. It’s another topic alltogether), upload it to your web server, and then what? What is the best way to present it to your visitors?

ANCHOR tag – a plain link: Works: everywhere; Description: Provide just a link to the movie file, and count on the user’s browser to figure out which application it should give the URL to. WMV files will generally open in Windows Media Player, MOV files in Quicktime, but there is no way to be sure what AVI and MPG files will open in. This depends on the client’s configuration. An additional disadvantage is that a lot of browsers will first download the whole file and only then play it, so you lose the quasi-immediate start of a streaming experience.; <a href="http://www.example.com/movie.mpg" title="The movie">Click to play</a>
EMBED tag: Works: everywhere; Description: even if it is not part of the HTML specification, it should work everywhere. It can be as minimal as , but also allows the specifying of size, mime-type and player controls. It does not allow you to specify what program (and what version) should be used to play it. It’s again the user’s (browser) configuration that decides.; <br />
OBJECT tag: Works: everywhere; Description: this is the official way to do it (according to the HTML specs). You create an ... pair with a bunch of PARAM in between. Here is the way to do it with Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime and Shockwave/Flash. A very common practice is to combine the EMBED with OBJECT, like in the example below.; <PARAM NAME="src" VALUE="http://www.example.com/movie.mov" > <PARAM NAME="AutoPlay" VALUE="true" > <PARAM NAME="Controller" VALUE="false" > </OBJECT>
IMG with dynsrc: Works: only in Internet Explorer (Windows); Description: very easy to use, but poorly supported. Allows for combining the classic SRC with the DYNSRC property, so that even if the browser does not show the movie, it can still show an image.
MEDIAPLAYER page: Works: everywhere (if it’s done right); Description: if you’re a bit handy, you can create a wrapper page for your streaming media. I use my Cinema Tool to show movies. I just input the URL, the format and the size, and the rest is automatic. On podcasts like Traxsource, I use a special audio-only player page (not yet generally available) that shows the playlist (a web page) within the media player (SMIL for Real & QuickTime/ASX for WMV).; <a href="http://www.forret.com/tools/cinema.asp?w=320&h=260&type=video&format=WMF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fmovie.wmv">Click to play</a>
IFRAME with MEDIAPLAYER: Works: everywhere (but watch out for Javascript scripts like Adsense/counter pages – they can give errors in frames); Description: If you don’t want to send your visitors to a new or a popup page, consider inserting a IFRAME into your page. You can then even trigger new movies by just adding a link with the right TARGET. Remark: if you add a link like described in the ANCHOR example above, even with the right TARGET specified, the file will probably open outside of the browser, and not in the IFRAME where you want it. Webmastering shouldn’t be THAT easy!; <a href="http://www.forret.com/tools/cinema.asp?w=320&h=260&type=video&format=WMF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fmovie.wmv">Movie 1</a> – <a href="http://www.forret.com/tools/cinema.asp?w=320&h=260&type=video&format=WMF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fmovie2.wmv">Movie 2</a> <br />

Also see: fluffbucket.com – Comparison of media players

Technorati: media – html – blog

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QuotePlay and portable SMIL

Peter — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 01:17:00 +0000

Matt Round had released QuotePlay, a Flash-based MP3 player for playing specific parts (’quotes’) of an MP3 sound file. A bit like

for sound, and a handy way to cite podcasters.

I remember Jon Udell talking about a different approach for the same problem:

Peter van Dijck wrote to tell me about his tool for converting the URL of a Real stream, plus start/stop times, into a link to the specified segment. A while ago, I mentioned Rich Persaud’s version of the same idea (PFOR: AutoMeta’s RPXP), which works with Windows Media and QuickTime as well as Real. Using either of these, you can do what I did the other day — namely, link to a segment within a video stream — without hacking URLs and wrapper files.
(from Jon Udell’s Blog – May 13, 2004)

The RPXP tool works by generating a RAM/ASX/SMIL meta file on the spot by processing the ’start’/’stop’ information in the URL. Instantaneously generated playlist files, sounds a lot like Webjay, right?

Which brings me to a related topic: wouldn’t it be great for future portable MP3/WMA players to support the ASX (Windows Media) and SMIL (Quicktime/RealPlayer/MP3) playlist format? There are already devices that support music + images (the iPod photo, the iRiver H10) and even movies (the iRiver PMC140, the Zen Portable Media Center). It would be so easy to glue the audio and video together in playlist files to create slideshows, partial playback (like the above QuotePlay), reuse of the same intro/outro audio for different playlists, …

For the moment, the iPod supports M3U playlists (audio only – but m3u does not support start and end times) and the iPod photo can show album art, i.e. visual metadata embedded in the MP3 file. Both features are very limited.

Imagine a Powerpoint-2-SMIL export functionality that enables you to take your presentation on your portable player, and hook it up to an overhead projector. Imagine a package of 1 video file with 3 soundtracks – each in a different language – and different subtitles, all glued together by a set of small playlist files. Imagine creating a playlist on-the-fly that contains the most memorable quotes ina 90-minute speech, and that is sync’ed with your PC.

Technorati: playlist – podcast

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SpotShop: VRT radiospots on demand

Peter — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 13:08:19 +0000

(post in Dutch)
Al mag reclame dan in veel gevallen ongeinspireerd en storend zijn, nu en dan hoor je een spot op de radio die eruit springt. Onlangs nog de ‘Successie van uw vermogen’ spot van De Tijd op Radio1. Ik heb net ontdekt dat ik dan die spot ook kan beluisteren op SpotShop.be, een dienst van de VAR, die de reclame-regie doet voor Radio1, Radio2, Clara en Studio Brussel. Dit is de spot die ik bedoel:

Man: Dag notaris, euh, ik ben hier met mijn vader, hij had graag nog iets veranderd aan zijn (gesleur met iets zwaar …) testament. Hij wou het bedrijf nog aan mij schenken.
Notaris: Euh, hij beweegt niet veel meer, precies.
Man: Oh jawel hoor, allez pa, zette gij efkes hier uw handtekening? Ja pa (gekriebel op papier) en nu maar los. Allez vader, zeg maar dag tegen de notaris.
Man (duidelijk buiksprekend): Dag notaris!
(…)
[ Play "De Tijd: Successie van uw vermogen " ]

Ze hebben trouwens elke maand een Spot van de Maand in hun Hall of Fame. Een goeie selectie: de Joeri van flySN.com, de telefoniste met de piercing van Creyfs.
De VRT mag dan nog recent overgeschakeld zijn op MP3 voor hun streaming, op spotshop.be staat alles nog in RealAudio.

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The last pinguin to drink coffee

Peter — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:54:41 +0000

Kevin Cornell is an illustrator from Philadelphia and has published his BearSkinRug sketchbook #1 on the web.

This was my sketchbook between July 2002 and February 2003. I have posted the book in its entirity – front cover to back cover. Although a compilation of select drawings would have been smaller (and easier to put together), I felt posting the entire contents was necessary for it to be regarded as a full composition.

An amusing view into the mind and imagination of a talented guy, presented in a very appealing Flash interface.

Also check out his main site on bearskinrug.co.uk, there’s a tamagotchi ice bear on top to keep you company (it eats rabbits and chickens).

(via flabber.nl)

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