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back in October of 2020

Art Text 4 Designs

Art Text 4 is a pretty powerful tool. It gives you lots of ways to create some creative text and graphic files. However, if you need a boost on the design side, they have a design gallery where you can download some very cool design.

Art Text 4 Halloween

Some of the designs you have to pay for, but the Holloween designs are free! There are 8 themed Helloween templates with multiple objects to help you create some cool social media or blog posts.

These are great to make cool looking designs - people think that you spent hours putting it together.

There is a "Winter Session" where you can get 10 Christmas designs. This collection isn't free as it cost $6.99 - still a bargain for the cool-looking designs.

Sample Designs

2020 Halloween

Spiderween
I used the Art Text 4 template and changed the center graphic.

 

Bartholomew Gedney

At the King's Chapel graveyard is the place of where many early colonials are buried. You may find former Governors, Revolutionary War heroes, and more.

One grave that stands out as you walk into the graveyard is Bartholomew Gedney.

M Bartholomew Gedney Grave

Interesting Facts about Bartholomew Gedney

Bartholomew Gedney was born on March 22, 1698, and died on July 16, 1762.

He was a merchant of Boston.

His gravestone has an armorial tablet with three eagles. This is the family Coat of Arms of the Gedney family. There is no significant value to the armor engraving on the gravestone.

Gravestone location: Sec D, Row 16, Grave 387

If you look at the top of the gravestone to the left of Bartholomew you can see a letter "M".

To the right of the words Gedney you can see some numbers: No. 9 (There are more numbers but it's hard to make out.) Maybe it was a different grave number? I guess it would be better to see in person?

Some people may confuse this person with Bartholomew Gedney of Salem, Massachusetts. He was a magistrate to the Salem witchcraft trials and is not the person buried at the King Chapel Graveyard. The magistrate is buried in Salem, Massachusetts.

 

Simon Bradstreet

Walking around Salem's historic "The Burying Point" graveyard, you'll encounter some fascinating colonial gravestones. One of the gravestones that stands out is Simon Bradstreet. He was buried here in 1697, 323 years ago.

Simon Bradstreet Mobile
Simon Bradstreet Desktop

Interesting Facts

He was born in Horbling, England on March 18, 1603.

He came to America in 1630 with John Winthrop

Simon Bradstreet was one of the original founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Simon Bradstreet was the 20th (from 1679-1686) and 21st (from 1689-1692) Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was the last Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

He lived in Cambridge, Ipswich, and Andover, Massachusetts.

He lived to be 93 years old and was called the "Nestor of New England" by Cotton Mather because of his old age.

Died in Salem on March 27, 1697.

His son, John Bradstreet, was accused of being witchcraft. He left Salem for New York. He returned to Massachusetts when the Witch hysteria died down.

If you look carefully at the writing on the gravestone, at the bottom right, you'll see "Woodland Bronze Works -Newburyport Mass." It was a company in Newburyport that created bronze tablets. The company was founded by George. P. Tilton. Tablets were created by the Cire-Perdue process.

The text on the left side of the tomb is written in Latin.

Text on the Tomb

Esquire in the Senate of the Massachusetts Colony from the year 1630 to the year 1673. Then Lieutenant Governor to the year 1679 and at last, Until the year 1680. Governor of the same colony by the general and determined vote of the people. He was a man endowed with keen judgment whom neither threats nor honors could sway. He weighed the authority of the king and the liberty of the people in even scales. In religion devout and upright in his ways, he vanquished the world and relinquished it on the XXVIIth Day of March in the year our lord MDCXCVII. and in the IXth year of King William third and of his life the XCIVTH.

The Last two-line reads: In religion devout and upright in his ways, he vanquished the world and relinquished it on the is 27th (XXVIIth) Day of March in the year our lord 1697 (DCXCVII). and in the (9th) IXth year of King William third and of his life the 94 (XCIVTH)

 

Jump Cuts

When you have a long boring scene it might help spice things up by using jump cuts. They seem to be in all the rage with YouTubers. They seem to be very popular with Rebecca Zamolo YouTube Videos.

What Are Jump Cuts

Jump cuts are when you remove a set of frames with the intent to make the scene go quicker. In Final Cut Pro, you have the option to easily skip 3,5,10,20,30 frames. The more frames you remove the bigger the effect it has.

How to apply Jump Cuts

F C P Jump Cuts

In Final Cut Pro, you define Jump Cuts with markers.

  1. Simple mark where you want to apply a Jump Cut
  2. Select the "Retime" pop-up menu just below the viewer - the icon looks like a dashboard speed gauge. Then go all the way down and select Jump Cut.
  3. Note: If the Jump Cut option is not available, it is because you didn't select the clip to apply the jump cut to.
  4. Then select the number of frames to remove. I have found that "20 frames" works best in most cases.

After you apply the Jump Cut, you'll see a green bar on top of the clip, this is the Retime Editor. If you want to add additional Jump Cuts, you still have to follow the above steps. There are no keyboard shortcuts to add Jump Cuts.

 

Halloween Graphics

All week long we are celebrating Halloween here on cryan.com.

Here are some Halloween inspired Memes for those that work testing software.

Test O Ween
Happy TestOWeen

Scary Testing Q A
Scary Testing

Tester EastWick
Tester of EastWick Logo

I put these are part of the cryan.com's QA graphic gallery.

 

Getting Audio from a Mixer to the iPhone

This weekend I was doing some audio work at a local church. I was trying to figure a way to get better audio from the sound system.

iPhone Speaker Trick

In previous weeks, I would record the audio using an old iPhone 5s and the Shure MV88 Portable iOS microphone. I would place the iPhone on top of a speaker that was reachable and record. I used the iPhone's Voice Memo app to record the sound. The audio has been great using this method. The only problem is getting access to the speaker was not always guaranteed. In addition, in some rare cases, the speaker would be off.

So reliability and accessibility was my motive into looking for another solution.

System Audio Out Solution

Lucky for me, the church sound system has a "Record Output" jack with a 3.5mm plug. This weekend I experimented by connecting my iPhone 6s Plus to the Record Output jack. I connected using a TRRS audio cable from the "Record Output" wall jack to the iPhone.

Before the services started, I tested the jack to make sure that the iPhone was getting audio, and I was happy to get quality audio. So I set my iPhone and let it record the services.

After the service was over, I went home and checked the audio. I was very disappointed, there was a lot of audio clipping going on. This audio distortion happens because the audio is beyond the maximum amplifier levels for the iPhone.

i Phone Audio Clipping

As you can see from the above sound wave, the audio was being clipped for much of the recording.

Now What?

I am doing some research on how I can fix the audio clipping issue. In my research, I have learned about something called an attenuator.

An attenuator is an electronic device that reduces the power of a signal without appreciably distorting its waveform. An attenuator is effectively the opposite of an amplifier, though the two work by different methods. While an amplifier provides gain, an attenuator provides loss, or gain less than 1.

This may fix my solution. There are some various products on Amazon that may work with my situation. I'll have to experiment to see which one works.

Other Experiments

I'll be testing to see if there are any iOS applications that might be able to reduce the audio without compromising the sound. This may not be the best solution, as I am sure that the proper solution would involve hardware.

MOTIC Audio has some microphone gain settings and an Equalizer. The only problem with this is that I am not around when the audio is being recorded. So I would have to guess on the settings and see how it plays out afterward.

In addition, I'll be testing my Samsung Tab A as it might be able to offer a better way to adjust the sound equalization. This is a settings feature that isn't available on an iPhone.

Followup Post

Once I have it figured out, I'll do a followup post to show what solution worked best for my situation.

 

Bongo.cat

Internet time is not all work. Sometimes you want to take a break and be entertained

Bongo.cat is a site to take a break. Put on the headphones and play with the keyboard for a bit. Hey if your good at it, maybe people will think you are still working.

Check out some of the song examples on the GitHub repository. Surprise someone by playing happy birthday when you're on the phone with them.

Website Description

Bongo Cat is a meme created by DitzyFlama (tweet) using StrayRogue's drawing of a cat.

Bongo Cat
https://bongo.cat/

GitHub has a list of even more songs that you can play while using Bongo.cat.

 

Runaway Kernel Task process

If you have been experiencing some weird issue with Snagit - like poor system performance. Maybe the kernel_task is more than 100%. There might be a logical problem.

Runaway Kernel Tasks

On my computer, I had multiple versions of Snagit installed. This is because every time that I did a major upgrade the computer kept the old version.

When the computer boots up it still uses the Snagit 2019 version and libraries. When I would do capture it would mix up which version to use and get stuck in an endless loop.

The quick solution was to remove all but the current version of Snagit. In my case, it's Snagit 2020. My computer performance had improved since removing the applications. (I also restarted the computer after deleting the apps)

I notice this was a problem when using Microsoft Teams and Zoom. I am not sure why using video apps would cause an issue. I think it's just the amount of CPU that is being used.

Try This Fix!

So if you are having problems related to kernel_task, you may want to check to see if you have multiple versions of Snagit. (I assume this might be true for other system base apps.)

Note: My problem was with Snagit, your situation might be a different application.

Your best bet is to restart the computer to properly test to see if removing the old applications fixed the issue.

 

Nathaniel Lewis Gravestone

As you walk around Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston's North End. You'll encounter some notable gravestones. There are a lot of unknown people buried in this historic graveyard.

Nathaniel Lewis Desktop
Nathaniel Lewis Mobile

Nathaniel Lewis

There isn't much that I could find out about Nathaniel Lewis.

  • He died on May 12, 1778.
  • There's no birthdate, based on his age it would be sometime in 1736
  • He was a Merchant. In the 1700s the would buy farmers surplus products and extend credit so the farmers could afford to buy supplied.
  • A flag is planted at his gravesite, which indicates that he was involve with the revolutionary war.
  • At the gravesite you can see a smaller gravestone that contains very little writing.

His Gravestone reads:

Here lies interred the Body of Mr. Nathaniel Lewis Merchant of Great Yarmouth in the Country of Norfolk Old England who departed this Life May 12th, 1778. Age 42.

The bottom of this gravestone has this quote:

"What's Fame, a fancy'd life in other's breath
A thing beyond us ev'n before our Death.
A Wit's a feather and a Chief's a rod
An honest Man's the noble Work of God."

This is a poem from a famous english poet - Alexander Pope ( May 21, 1688 - May 30, 1744).

 

Thompsons Clam Bar

In the 1980s, One of our favorite Cape Cod restaurants was Thompson's Clam Bar. It was a family tradition to get some seafood and watch the boats come into Wychmere Harbor.

Thompsons Clam Bar Desktop
Thompsons Clam Bar Mobile

Remember that jingle: "Hey Where Are You Going..."

Things I Remembered About Thompson's

The restaurant closed in December 1995.

People would wait for hours to get into the 450 seat restaurant.

You could arrive by boat and tie it to the dock. I remember people helping boaters dock their boats.

They offered valet parking and on a busy summer night the car line would back up to the main road. We used to go around and park at the club.

In the late 1980s they put in an outside bar. People could order drinks and appetizers while they waited. They had some kind of bar rice snack in baskets on the tables. They were so good.

In the Summertime in the late 1980s, I worked on the other side of the river at HarwichPort Boat works. I can remember that fresh clam chowder smell - just before lunch hour.

I also remembered getting a steam lobster that smelled like bleach. I asked the waitress to take it back as there was something wrong. I got a new lobster a few minutes later. I enjoy the baked stuff lobster and always treated it as my summertime treat.

 

Transparent Background in PowerPoint

While Apple makes it easy to create transparent movies from Keynote to Final Cut Pro, it's a bit tricky to get it to work with Microsoft Powerpoint.

Why use Microsoft Powerpoint?

PowerPoint has some unique transitions and effects that are not available in Keynote. If you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed it might be better to use that for some cool effects.

Using PowerPoint or Keynote might be better than using Apple Motion for simple tasks.

How to Export Transparent Background

To get a transparent background in PowerPoint you need to use the green screen effect. There is no way to control the export video type.

Example

This has all the transitions that are available in Microsoft PowerPoint. I used a green background and used the Keyer effect to remove that background in Final Cut Pro. (That's how you remove the green screen. )

 

Make Test Steps Great Again

One of the things that I see over and over is when QA engineers fail to provide detailed testing steps to reproduce a bug. The tester assumes that the developer understands the vague steps to reproduce the bug.

There are usually three reasons why QA gets into a vague state.

  1. Rushing to get the bug into Jira. Perhaps QA found a bunch of similar issues and they are reporting as many issues as possible.
  2. Working on the project for a long time and knows the project very well. Why add details that no one cares about?
  3. Bug isn't critical to get into the details. Usually, the title says it all - why add details to a low priority issue?

QA is in the Details

QA is in the details business. One of the rules of any QA Engineers:

QA should always be going out of the way to paying fantastic attention to the testing details.

This applies to everything from writing test cases to writing automation. The value QA brings is in the details.

Don't Make Exceptions

The thing is if you start making some exceptions to the rule then it slowly becomes a habit.

This is similar to how when you make an excuse that it's ok to eat one Twinkie when you're on a diet. Next thing you know you justify going to McDonald's for lunch.

At the End of the day

It's important to keep providing detailed steps on how to reproduce an error. No matter how unimportant the issue is. You never know some future bug may encounter a similar issue and your detailed steps could help speed up the patching process.

Remember: Don't take shortcuts.

 

iOS Screenshot on Google Photos

Today's quick tip applies to Google Photos.

Have you ever wanted to find a video screenshot that you have done on the iPhone? Maybe it was a Tick Tok video or some weather info.

How can you easily find it?

Well it turns out that if you search for rpreplay you will get all the video screenshots that you have taken on your phone.

Now it's a bit easier to find that video that you were looking for.

If you take a lot of iPhone video screenshots, you can always add a date to your query. Example: rpreplay August.

As for regular iPhone screenshots, try IMG_ PNG for your search query.

 

Fall Foliage Prediction Map

This is the most wonderful time of the year to enjoy the great outdoors. There's nothing like enjoying the Fall Foliage from anyplace in the country.

Finding the best fall foliage colors can be tricky. Luckily the folks at SmokyMountain makes it easy with an interactive Fall Foliage Prediction Map.

Not only can you see where the peak colors, but you can learn all about the science behind the leaves changing colors.

Website Description

The 2020 Fall Foliage Map is the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves. While no tool can be 100% accurate, this tool is meant to help travelers better time their trips to have the best opportunity of catching peak color each year.

Fall Foliage Prediction Map
https://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/

 

Thunderbolt Display Cable

One of the disadvantages of Apple's Thunderbolt display is that the cable is not all stable. This is the main cable from the back of the computer that is used to connect to a MacBook or iMac.

I have seen many Apple Thunderbolt displays encounter a tear in them because of the angle that you have to put it in a MacBook. Over time,

Unlike the power cable, there is no way to take this cable out. The end of the cable is mounted to the mainboard. So if something happens to the connector cable, you can't replace it.

Thunder Bolt Display
You can see the cable starting to have a tear. It's only a matter of time before it breaks.

Broken but Not Dead

However the display isn't technically dead. You can still use it as an external display. Simply connect another Thunderbolt 2 cable to the port on the back of the display and then connect it to your computer.

The Apple Thunderbolt Display uses the old Thunderbolt 2 connector, not the new Thunderbolt 3 connector - also known as USB-C.

You can find a Thunderbolt 2 display cable on Amazon for about $40. That's kind of expensive for a cable but it is far cheaper than getting a brand new monitor.

 

Prudential Mall

On Monday, I took a trip to the Prudential Mall in Boston. This was my first trip to the mall since the pandemic had begun.

Prudental Center Desktop
Prudental Center Mobile

Five Things I Learned

I visited on Columbus Day, usually a busy time for the mall. I get that the pandemic has caused people to avoid the mall, but it seemed much quieter than expected.

The Starbucks at Copley was closed. This is surprising since the pre-pandemic it was always busy. I think that it must be closed because of the holiday.

Some stores were enforcing the number of customers in the stores.

The parking lot was very empty. Thankfully it didn't cost an arm and a leg to park there for 3 hours. It cost $15 to park. Personally, they should lower the parking rate to encourage people to visit the mall.

A couple of stores were closed since I was their - David's Tea and the Microsoft store.

 

Quabbin Park Cemetery

The Quabbin Park Cemetery is located in Ware, Massachusetts. It's most famous for being the resting spot for those buried in towns that were eliminated for the Quabbin Reservoir.

Fun Facts

Quabbin Park Cemetery was developed in 1931-32 to house 7,613 graves from the disincorporated towns of Greenwich, Dana, Prescott, and Enfield, after taking 81.,000 acres of land to create an enormous reservoir for Boston.

The graves were moved from 34 cemeteries in the four towns.

One Indian gravesite was not moved as the locals couldn't properly remove the graves as many sites were unmarked.

7,613 graves were moved from 34 cemeteries scattered throughout eight towns.

Various war memories that use to be in town centers of Greenwich, Dana, Prescott, and Enfield are now located in the cemetery. The cemetery has become a memorial to those towns.

One of the Ware locals told me - years ago - that the bodies were not placed at the gravesites. Instead, all the bodies were placed in a crypt that you see as you drive into the cemetery.

 

Trim Start and End

A common task that I have to do in Final Cut Pro is trim a clip. Usually, this is to just clean up the tail end of the clip that doesn't make sense to keep for the story, or when I need to end the clip smoothly.

The quick way to get this done is to use the "trim to end" short cut key:

Trimto Start Trim To End

How this Works

When you mouse over a clip in the timeline and use the above short cut, the clip will get trim from the point of the red mouse over and not the white preview line.

If you make a mistake, simply type in Command - Z to undo the last action.

Quick and Easy Tip

Once you start using this a couple of times, you'll see that this is such a time saver. This is so much better than adding a blade and then deleting the section.

 

WhataEUR(tm)s the best career advice youaEUR(tm)ve ever had?

Over my career at various companies I have gotten great advice from managers and senior people within the organization. They have been helpful to where I am today.

Some of the advice has been specific to the needs of the business, but there's been a few that I think about now and then.

The best career advice that I have gotten:

Alway maintain a positive image at work - no matter what's going on in your personal life or what you know is going on behind the scenes at work.

The thing is that I have gotten similar advice from different people at various companies that I have worked at.

Things I have taken away from the advice

Every business has its up and downs. Bad times will happen just as often as good times. Stay positive and control what you can control.

Sometimes people will have bad days and being a cheerful person in the office can help calm things down.

Senior Team Members like people with optimism and will reward those that spread it around the company.

QA is a tough job because it's important to communicate issues in a calm and understanding matter. Having a positive outlook can help communicate issues from saying its a critical issue to 'customers will run into an issue if we did xyz'' They both communicate that there's an issue just one is deliver in a more positive tone.

Any Good Career QA Advice?

Have you gotten any good QA advice?

 

Closing Pool 2020

This weekend we closed our above ground pool. Ya. We know it's late - we have been busy on the weekends.

The pool has not gotten much use since Labor Day weekend.

This year we did things differently- trying to make sure we have a good spring opening.

Pool Closing 2020

Five Things We Learned

Rakes the Pool - Just before closing the pool we did a final rake of the pool. We tried to get as much of the leaves out as we could.

Clorox Bleach - liquid shock is in short supply we went to BJs and purchased a three-pack of gallon size Clorox bleach. This should hold out for a few months. Clorox Bleach isn't as strong as Pool Shock - but it's a good alternative to get the job done.

New Cover - We usually purchase our cover at Ocean State Job Lot. This year we got ours from Swimlike. We selected a one-year cover because in the past we found the expensive 10-year covers don't last a whole season.

Winter Cover Saver - We are protecting the cover with a 'Saran wrap.' Basically, we took a roll of specially made wrap and wrapped the edges of the pool. We purchased a 500-foot roll and that allowed us to go around the pool 3 times. After wrapping the pool, we used the inner tube to flatten the wrap top.

New Pillow - We got a larger pillow. We got a 4.5 ft by 15 ft pillow. This is about twice as long as we get at Ocean State. The pillow took a long time to inflate. We think it will help reduce the number of areas where water piles up.

Not Done Yet - We still need to close out the skimmer basket and out spout. That's a project for another weekend. It was more important to get the cover on now before more leaves fall.

 

httpbin.org

Sometimes when you are testing, you need to test various HTTP scenarios. Usually, this is to ensure that the server has the proper response or your testing custom responses.

The best solution would be a simple HTTP Request & Response Service.

The one that gives you more bang for your testing would be httpbin.org.

Website Description

Testing an HTTP Library can become difficult sometimes. RequestBin is fantastic for testing POST requests, but doesn't let you control the response. This exists to cover all kinds of HTTP scenarios. Additional endpoints are being considered.

httpbin
http://httpbin.org/

 

Apple SuperDrive

One of the downsides of the new iMacs is that they don't have a DVD drive. This makes it challenging when you want to access old files or create DVD movies for events.

New External Drive

I thought DVD drives were all the same, so when it came time for me to get one I went cheap and purchased a $30 drive. What's nice is the drive had both USB 2 and USB-C ports. I was excited because I could connect this to the USB-C port and not take up any other standard USB port.

Going cheap was a big mistake.

When I started burning DVDs I got a lot of failures. Only about 1 out of 4 disks were good. This happened using the USB3 port and the ISB-C port.

I also had this problem using different computers. So the issue was with the drive. The thing is that it works fine some of the time.

Apple SuperDrive

I got a SuperDrive for my birthday and what a difference it makes.

I have burned 20 DVDs and they were all successful. I didn't encounter and toasted disks.

I have also access old DVDs without a problem. The drive seems much quieter than other external drives I have had in the past.

The morale of the story is to not be cheap when it comes to storage devices. Stick with brands you know.

Couple of complaints

The cable is too short. Basically, the device sits underneath the iMac monitor. Sure I can get a USB extension but that may impact the quality of data going to the drive. Come On Apple, make longer cords.

There is only one cable type - USB 3. It would be nice to have different cable options.

 

Samuel Adams Gravestone

When you are walking around Granary Burying Grounds your encounter many famous gravestones. One gravestone that stands out is Samuel Adams - it's located along Tremont Street.

Samuel Adams Mobile
Samuel Adams Desktop

Looking at the gravestone, against others in the cemetery, it makes you wonder what is special about this marker. Why was it chosen and is there anything special about it.

Fun Facts About Samuel Adams Gravestone

Samuel Adams died on October 2, 1803.

For 95 years the gravestone was a simple in-ground marker. It wasn't visible from the street as people walked by.

He was buried in the tomb of his relatives, the Checkley family.

His grave was unmarked and only had the inscription: No. 63 Richard Checkley 1737. This was the property of Samuel Adams's wife.

In 1898, a bowlder of Roxbury stone was placed on to of the grave of Samuel Adams

The bowlder weighs about three tons. It comes from Roxbury, Massachusetts where

The grave marker was unveiled on April 19, 1898, by the Massachusetts Society Sons of the Revolution. It was the One Hundred and twenty-third anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord.

The Samuel Adams tomb was last open on March 26, 1808. It was open for identification purposes.

Gravestone Text

This is the text on the gravestone:

Here Lies Buried
Samuel Adams
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Governor of this Commonwealth
A Leader of Men and An Ardent Patriot
Born 1722 - Died 1803

At the bottom:

Massachusetts Society Sons of the Revolution 1898

 

Nauset Beach at Sunrise

In August we woke up early to catch the summer sunrise at Nauset Beach in Orleans Massachusetts.

Orleans Sun Rise Desktop
Orleans Sun Rise Mobile

Five Things We Learned

  1. We arrived just as the sun was coming up. We should have planned it better and arrived at about 10-mins before the sunrise to get the best effect.
  2. There were a few people at the beach but a lot less than it was at the sunset at Ocean Edge the night before.
  3. There was plenty of open beach for pictures. Most people were on the northern side of the beach - near the parking lot entrance. We parked all the way on the other side giving us plenty of beaches to take family photos.
  4. We saw a few people leave moments after the sunrise. There were a few people who were sitting on benches enjoying coffee.
  5. After leaving the beach we stopped at the Chocolate Sparrow for a post sunrise treat. We couldn't go earlier as they don't open until 6:39 am. It was a nice way to treat all those who were crazy enough to get up early.

 

Lower Third Overlay

If your building your own lower third from scratch, you may want to have an overlay guide to help you align text correctly.

I found the image overlay on Comedy Central to be very useful to properly laying out the lower third title. The image overlay has a logo placement helps to professionally align a logo on the bottom right of the screen.

Basically you add this image to your Title project and align your lower 3rd correctly. Once you are done simply remove it from your project.

Apple Motion Lower Third Guide

Steps to Add the Overlay in Motion

  1. Download the file from the Comedy Central's overlays website
  2. Open up any Final Cut Pro Title Project
  3. Import the overlay. (You'll see that the overlay fits perfectly into a standard 1920x1080 format.)
  4. You may need to move the Overlay layer below the text layer.
  5. Now adjust the text layer so that its below the lower third line.
  6. Hide the Comedy Central overlay image and continue working as normal.

Don't want to use the guide?

Simply turn on the ruler and look for the 200 on the left side. (See the above screenshot)

 

QA Memes (October)

Here's more collection of QA memes. Some of these you have to be doing QA for a while, but most of these you should understand.

Meme

Yet Another Release Fire
Best Release Ever

Hello Q A Wantsto Go Home
Hello, QA Wants to go Home!

Developers Test Code
why can't developers actually test their code?

 

Clip-on Microphone

Sometimes you need a quality microphone for your iPhone. That's why every iPhone videographer should have a clip-on microphone in their utility bag.

Getting quality audio is critical to any videographer game plan. The clip-on microphone can help get the best possible audio when the standard camera audio just won't work.

Last month I purchased the Ultimate Lavalier Microphone for Bloggers and Vloggers Lapel Mic Clip-on Omnidirectional Condenser for iPhone on Amazon. This has come in handy several times when filming.

Five Things I Learned

  1. Super cheap $10 for 2 microphones. No excuse to get one for those just in case moments.
  2. This microphone has the TRRS audio jack which is supported in every iPhone that Apple has made. It also works on an iMac audio port.
  3. This means you can use an old iPhone as an alternative audio source for your videos. Have an old iPhone 5s? Why not put it to use?
  4. Sound quality is good. I tested against various audio clips and found it to be good.
  5. The nice thing is that you can put the microphone in places where the iPhone may not fit. This gives the videographer the flexibility to record audio from a speaker when the iPhone can't easily be placed.

 

IFTTT Subscription

If you're a fan of IFTTT, you should know about the IFTTT Pro. It's an opportunity to take IFTTT to a whole new level.

If you haven't heard about IFTTT, then check out a post .

What IFTTT Pro brings is the ability to add queries and conditional logic to your IFTTT Applets. Which means you can create actions based on very specific conditions.

I F T T T Pro
https://ifttt.com/pro

For a limited time, you can name your own price to the IFTTT Pro plan. So for $2.99 you can get a more powerful IFTTT service.

Who knows what the price will be in a few months, and what new features will be available just for Pro customers.

 

Quick Camera

Have you ever wanted to take a quick picture using your iMac Camera?

You could use Apple PhotoBooth, but it can get tricky switching Cameras.

I like Quick Camera. It's a simple little app that allows you to easily save pictures.

I like it because I can check out the shot before getting on a Zoom or Microsoft Meeting calls.

If you have multiple cameras connected to your computer, You can easily switch the camera using the keyboard shortcuts. (This is also a good way to validate that the camera is properly connected to the computer. )

Quick Camera

Cool Trick

You can take a picture, when no one is in the picture, and use it as a background in a Zoom call.

This way if someone is actually in the background no one will know. In addition, you can turn off background lighting for those late-night zoom calls.

Getting Quick Camera

Quick Camera is available in the App Store and it's currently free.

 

Top 5 Underrated Places in Boston to Have a Perfect Date

Boston Public Gardens Summer

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, from which the historical origins of America began. Kilometers of streets and visits to the sights of Boston are turned into emotions, impressions, and thoughts. Regardless of the purpose of the visit, any couple in love will choose for themselves what to see in Boston and its environs.

Feel the romance in the Boston public garden

Do you know that many Ukrainian brides for marriage-consider it boring to go to the park when you have a date? But still, this one is probably the most picturesque and most crowded park in the city. Boston's main city park is considered to be the oldest in the USA. And, although it is not the largest, still, it has the status of the best park in such a large country as the United States, and it deserves attention. It is located in the heart of Boston. At the main entrance to the park, visitors are greeted by a statue of George Washington on horseback. A lot of people are sitting or lying on the grass. People in love can often be seen bringing food and having picnics in the park. So, it is a quite romantic place.

Look at the city at Skywalk observatory

For stunning panoramas of Boston, visit the observation deck called the Skywalk Observatory. It is located in the Prudential Tower. From the indoor observation deck on the 50th floor of the building, you can enjoy breathtaking panoramic views of the city's skyline. At nightfall, you can admire the pictures of sparkling Boston from a bird's eye view, and in the daytime, it is better to go to the-observation deck-on sunny days when the city buildings are more clearly visible.

Visit Boston zoo at Franklin park

A visit to this zoo will bring joy even to adults. It covers an area of about 29 hectares and is located just a few kilometers from the center of Boston, in the historic Franklin Park. The zoo employees see their mission in inspiring people to preserve and protect the world around them. In support of the nature conservation program, the zoo regularly hosts exciting events and exhibitions dedicated to animals from different continents, as well as charity concerts. The zoo's inhabitants include a wide variety of animals: lions, tigers, ocelots, tapirs, lemurs, mandrills, giant anteater, kangaroos, emus, tropical birds, and many other representatives of the fauna. If your-girlfriend adores animals, then visiting this zoo is a must!

Get inspired in Harvard art museum

In 2014, the Harvard Art Museum building was renovated and expanded. As a result, it became possible to place a huge collection of three museums of 250,000 works of art under one roof. An Italian architect was the author of the project. The exposition of the museum covers a wide cultural and historical period ' from antiquity to the present day. Separate collections are dedicated to the culture of people from all parts of the world ' Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The rich collection of works of art of European modernism attracts special attention.

Go to a concert at the Hatch Shell and eat in Faneuil Hall

Relax by the river while musicians show their creativity to the city. At this venue, you can meet many of the local pop stars. After the end of the concert, take a boat ride or just enjoy the good weather.

Anyone visiting Boston should have a meal at Quincy Market at least once. Order food in one of the many restaurants and go outside to enjoy the street musicians and other talented people who perform a real show there. Well, if you prefer to eat in a restaurant, then you will find many cozy places in Faneuil Hall.

 

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