strangely entangled » video

How to combine PDF files in OS X

Mike — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:16:14 +0000

I’m often asked if there is an easy way to combine PDF files into a single document. Sure, there are a number of both commercial and freely available tools out there that will do this, but it so happens that there is an easy way to do this using software that ships with every copy of OS X.

I thought I’d put together a video describing the process. The low resolution might make it a bit hard to read some of the screen text, but I tried to explain each step verbally along the way.

HowTo: Combine PDF files into a single document in OS X from Mike K. on Vimeo.

Live Action “The Year Without a Santa Claus” is just wrong

Mike — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:15:04 +0000

I came across this scene from the live action “The Year Without a Santa Claus” movie, and it’s just wrong. The original stop-motion animation version is so much better! (by better, I mean cheesy, in a good way)

and here’s the original:

Awesome tilt-shift video of a Monster truck rally

Mike — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:02:45 +0000

I’m a big fan of tilt-shift photography, a technique used to make big things like Monster trucks look like toy cars.

A couple weeks ago I came across the following video, taken at a Monster car rally. The photography is beautiful, and the music matches the video nicely.

Keith Loutit (the photographer) has posted several other tilt-shift videos to his Vimeo account. You can find more example of Keith’s work over on his site.

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

My commandN mesh contest entry

Mike — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:39:03 +0000

commandN is running a contest where the winner(s) receive tickets to the mesh Web conference in Toronto later this month. Since 1) mesh looks really interesting, 2) I want to do some podcast work, and 3) I’ve been looking for an excuse to take a break from Vancouver for a couple days, I thought I’d give the contest a shot.

All that is required to enter is a short video explaining why you want to go to mesh. Apparently, points are given for creativity, so I got creative. :)

Dr. Fyzziks – commandN MESH contest

Feeling much better now

Mike — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:20:01 +0000

The reason I haven’t posted anything in the past week is that I’m just getting over what I describe as “SARS-Lite”. I haven’t been sick in nearly 9 years, and this cold hit me pretty hard.

Now that I’m on the mend, I have a few plans for this website. For starters, I’m still settling on a theme. I could build one from scratch, and eventually I probably will. But for the time being I’m going the prebuilt route. So expect the look to change a bit over time as I experiment.

I’ve still got to put together a proper review of the ScotteVest jacket. I’m thinking I might throw a little video together and upload it sometime next week. Overall I’m happy with the purchase, but I don’t think I’ll buy from them again. I think that the quality of the product is highly overstated. Little things like zippers feel fragile, and the overall construction is mediocre. Still, it does look good, and apparently in Vancouver that counts for something.

Other news: I picked up a Canon ZR800 camcorder awhile ago to record podcasts with. I was on a budget, and the main attraction of this device was the mic input jack. These jacks are sorely lacking on many of today’s camcorders, and are a necessity for any kind of serious work as the built-in microphones usually pick up a lot of noise.

I ordered a pair of stereo lapel microphones from Giant Squid Audio Lab, and received them a few days ago. They sound great! The only problem is, they don’t work with the Canon! I’ve discovered that you must use powered microphones with the ZR800, something the manual fails to mention. I’m a bit annoyed, because Canon went out of its way to make the jack look like a standard mic jack on a laptop. I suppose I should have known better though.

In any case, now I’ve got my eye on a Samson Zoom H2 audio recorder. The H2 can act as a microphone amplifier, allowing me to use the lapel mics with my Canon camcorder. It can also record audio on its own, at 24-bit resolution. Much higher than the 16-bit audio that my camcorder supports. I’ve found a Vancouver store that carries them, so there will likely be one on my desk by the end of next week.