Experimenting with webcams this evening, always looking for some way to make TNJT something New! I kind of stumbled back into Yahoo! Messenger (Mac OS X V2.5.3) and found the Friends / Start My Webcam menu option..voila, my JVC Video Camera quickly Fire-wired in to the Mac and provided a stream of the video camera view finder (the camera doesn't have to be recording, but I think you can record the stream also...an added bonus). Very cool and easy.
Then I went over the Windows machine, fired up Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (7.5.0.814), logged into a second VO Yahoo! account, and both the Windows and Mac machines chirped acknowledgment of the arrival of buddy second VO. That's how it's supposed to work, but I'm always amazed when it does...computer's usually suck.
An invite back and forth, and as easy as pie, the Windows Yahoo! was streaming the webcam connected to the Mac Yahoo!. We even played with recording portions / entirety of the webcam as it was broadcasting. This looks pretty darn easy right now.
So...How many concurrent users can be viewing my webcam at the same time? Could an entire listening audience, if TNJT listeners were so inclined?
I've been looking for such an easy streaming webcam set-up for the show and this looks like something I could have fun with. Especially when I have the ability to record the stream as I'm also streaming it to the Internet. Excellent.
Now I'm off to swap webcams, with the JVC hooking up to the Windows machine and the Mac's iSight camera doing duties there. Testing my two camera set-up. Just in time for an in-studio performance by killer bassist Brian Bromberg thing coming Thursday on http://TheNewJazzThing.com.
Understanding what you can do with your video camera and/or webcam, in the Internet age, opens up a lot of possibilities for fun and interesting communication between groups. Video chat takes Instant Messaging to the next level. Video and photo blogging and sharing via sites like http://YouTube.com and http://Flickr.com are all the rage, opening up individual visual ideas to social networks ranging from small and intimate (like families and friends...people we know) to large and roudy (browse http://Flickr.com/Groups or http://YouTube.com/channels...people we want to keep at arms length...hehe). Video editting sofware on Windows and Macs are making it easy to capture video, add titles, and publish away. But we don't want the fact that some of our friends have Macs and some have Windows ruin the communication-by-video fun, so we have to look for solutions that work with the systems and software our friends and family use...and hopefully we'll be able to tie in with the rest of the unwashed masses to be touched my us and our creations.
I recently pow-wowed on the (l)east coast with friends who hosted us in their beautiful new house with plentiful wi-fi and brand-spanking new Mac and Windows machines. I was carrying my own Windows XP laptop on this trip. Beeb's with the Mac (with video camera built in) never really seemed to bust it out downstairs, but was content to use the Win XP machine for keeping her AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) buddy list up, ready for instant-on contact with her network. She's soon heading to Italy for fashion training and I'm sure would like to keep up with those same contacts and her dear old aunt on the Ipswich Win XP. Wouldn't it be cool to add Video Chat to the mix, without too much disruption to her existing network...like asking them to get different software?
So I started with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), since she was using that on the Win XP machine (and that's where her network of buddies gathered). It also helped that on the Mac side of this, she had the ability to use the iChat client which can utilize AOL's network (use the same account, see your buddy list) and has video chat capability built in. Further research showed that the AIM software for Windows XP supports video also...meeting that must-have requirement. From there it was pretty easy. AIM recoginized my JVC MiniDV video camera when I plugged it into the Win XPs 1394 / Fire-wire jack...instant video chat camera. iChat is totally integrated with my Mac's iSight camera, so the Mac side was no brainer. I also followed these great AIM setup instructions to check on my networks bandwidth to make sure I had could actually push video out of my cable (and receive it too)...which I did and most cable / DSL / broadband installations should). I did have to dial back the iSight video capture to 100Kpbs in order to not overload my networks bandwidth (iSight can capture really high resolution digital video...just like a video camera...but that's far too much information to be pushing over the Internet we've got available today). Then I tested by logging into different AIM accounts from my PC and Mac, initiated a video chat request from either of the machines, and there it was. Cross-platform video chat. And I think it could be as good between video chatters in different countries (like Italy and the Ipswich Country Club) as it was between my family room and the office. But we'll have to test that out next.
Side-bar: When I asked Consuela when she wasn't using her Mac...specifically iChat...for chat, she wasn't happy with the fact that iChat totally bumped her off the AOL network after she was inactive on the Mac for a certain amount of time. She wants to show as on-line, but Idle or Inactive, if I understand what she's trying to do. Well...I tested that out too...seems a shame to not get use out of iChat and the built-in camera because of something like that. When the same thing happened to me...on my windows machine, I showed as totally logging out on the Mac side after 15 minutes of inactivity. The problem seemed to be that on the Mac System Preferences / Energy Saving / Power Adapter (which I think means 'when you're plugged in') it was set to Go To Sleep after 15 minutes. There was a separate setting for 'Dim the Display' (or something like that) and it was set to 5 miunutes. Once I set the computer to Never got to sleep (but kept the display at 5 minutes to save the screen), I was never disconnected from the AOL Network...just showed as InActive or Away. Does that solve the problem Britti?
So, the next step is to set up some bi-coastal video chat tests between here and the 17th fairway. Oh...and find the cords to hook old-aunt's video camera to her new Dell and you gals can video chat the Italian days away.
Ideas, Questions, Outstanding, Random Thoughts:
Why doesn't Yahoo Messenger Windows recognize my JVC video camera, which shows up just fine on My Computer and AIM? Research for all my friends using Yahoo Msg cross-platform.
Video Chat Rooms: Being able to SEE (video / pics) everyone participating in an IM or a Chat. I'm sure there's something enabling you to change your profile picture quickly or something.
IM vs Chat: Finally getting the difference between the two. I've been wanting to, but haven't yet, opened chat rooms where multiple listeners to http://TNJT.com can communicate about the show together. I've got my username posted on the website, but that's for making one-to-one contact...you see it, you click it, and I talk to you. But what I want is to open a chat room and then be able to let others join it...probably by have some sort of URL I can put on a webpage that then launches their chat software. I digress. So...Are AOL Chat Rooms URL addressable?
URLs for AOL, Yahoo Msgr Chat Rooms? When I open a new chat room at the start of each radio show, for instance, I want to be able to broadcast / post something on the weblog with a URL link which launches folks into that chat room. I guess if they added THENEWJAZZTHING to their contact / buddy list, they would see I was on-line and could ask for the new chat room. The key is linking people into the chat rooms while the show is going on.
SAP Developer Network Blogs - BPMN or EPC? provides an overview of both business process modeling languages, with the author showing his bias (correct IMHO) with the more detailed description of BPMN. BPMN is closer to what regular business people know as flow charts, so I think it's much more easily adopted. The support for BPMN in ARIS is very limited, so much so that it can't really be used if you are going to take advantage of the full capabilities in ARIS (automatic relationships between objects, like roles and responsibilities for instance, or simulation). This is a shame. But if you are just adopting standards for modeling in your organization, it doesn't really matter what notation that you use as long as you standardize on one and educate the business through examples, training, etc. Once they start seeing them, they will understand how to read and, eventually write them, themselves.
Barnako.com: iTunes adds music, news PDFs
Steve Rubel, an executive with Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. public relations, has speculated "It's conceivable that Apple could turn iTunes into a dedicated RSS reader ... and become a clearing house for all subscription-based content (including audio books)."
When the new iPhone comes out, you'll have both the downloadable (for bigger files) and the over-the-air (timely news) receiver AND creator device. Excellent.