Tag: Linux

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Simple Screen Recorder – Easy Screencasting on Linux

In my spare time I volunteer as a digital literacy trainer in our local library. Recently I put together a training wiki that featured a number of YouTube videos on a variety of topics including word processing. I could not find exactly what I wanted to introduce my students to LibreOffice so I decided I would create my own. I considered a number of options for doing that but finally setttled on “Simple Screen Recorder” which is an open source software released on the GPL3 license. I liked it because unlike the other programs I had considered it had a very simple interface but produced high quality video files which I could easily upload to YouTube and then share in my wiki. “SimpleScreenRecorder” allows a user to capture the whole screen or just a self selected rectangle. Files can be saved as Matroska, Ogg, WebM and MP4.

I liked “SimpleScreenRecorder” because it was so easy to use and it provided exactly what I was looking for. I have used other proprietary screen capture programs which cost a hundred dollars and more while not providing a more intuitive interface. “Simple Screen Recorder” has a number of features that I liked including: graphical interface; the ability to record an entire screen or just a portion of it; synchronization of audio and video; pause and resume and the use of hot-keys for starting and ending recordings.

I installed it using instructions provided on their website. They provide instructions for Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Slackware, OpenSuse and others. I also found RPMs that allow it to be installed on Fedora. Once installed the user opens a terminal and enters “simplescreenrecorder” on the command line and the program starts. After a welcome screen the user is presented with some very simple choices about area to be recorded. I chose a rectangle and could easily select it with a “cross-hair” type selection tool. At the next screen I was presented with choices of the name of my recorded file along with the format. I chose MP4 for video and MP3 for audio and then I began my recording. The source code for Simple Screen Recorder can be found at, https://github.com/MaartenBaert/ssr.

Here is a short YouTube video I created with “Simple Screen Recorder” to demonstrate how easy the program is to use. You can report bugs and submit feature requests on GitHub: https://github.com/MaartenBaert/ssr/issues or if you don’t have a GitHub account you can send requests directly to Maarten Baert via email.

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Two Years

It’s been two years since I retired or almost that long and in that space of time I’ve found time to do as much or more than I ever did before. Since January I have been writing for Opensource.com and today I found out that two of my interviews made it to the top ten interviews on the site for the first six months of the year. That’s gratifying but also humbling too. I remember praying a few years ago about finding a job where I could research and write and that is exactly what I am doing. Add to that I am part of a much larger whole. I am part of a team of selfless souls who make the community of moderators and content managers at Opensource.com.

In addition to my recent work with Opensource.com I’ve found lots of other ways to give back to the community. I’ve recently become involved in a local food pantry which is operated by Catholic Charities of Buffalo. The patrons come from around the Franklinville area and it too is an answered prayer although one of a more recent nature. My prayer life has deepened and I’m more relaxed most of the time than I ever have been. The open source community of which I am a part invites the humanitarian, compassionate and contemplative within me and I see it’s application everywhere. Recently I was given a chance to refurbish two ten year old computers and I installed Lubuntu, which is a version of Ubuntu Linux on them. Yesterday I was thinking that there might be an opportunity to help some lower income members of the community with these two older computers. Exactly how they might be deployed I’m not sure yet but there is an opportunity to give back in yet another way.

I’m grateful for each day. Peace.

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Once a teacher, always a teacher

I am preparing once again to teach class next Wednesday night at the Blount Library in Franklinville, New York. My first class of three adults met a couple of weeks ago and our topic was introduction to computers. The next class will be an extension of that same topic. I was fortunate to be asked to teach this group. I was thinking earlier today of my first student, my brother, whom I taught when we were in primary grades. I would make up tests for him with my Dad’s typewriter. Later as a member of the United States Navy I was called on to educate members of my company in recruit training at Great Lakes, Illinois. Though I recently retired from public education, teaching is something I enjoy. My students on Wednesday night will learn more about Google Drive and Microsoft Office. I’m going to teach them how to attach documents to an email and how to collaborate with others.  I enjoy blogging and using social media and soon I hope to teach a class on that topic too. I was thinking too of teaching a course on introduction to Linux and open source software. Though iPads and tablets in general are very popular there are still computer users who enjoy tinkering and that group would enjoy a class on open source software like Ubuntu Linux or creating your own podcasts with Audacity. Linux is like a software erector set. There is almost no limit to what you could teach a class about Linux. Linux skills are in demand in the marketplace too according to a recent article in PC World.

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Does cost really matter?

Earlier today I read a tweet from Phil Shapiro that suggested that the massive iPad initiative in Los Angeles Schools was in trouble. I did some “googling” and it does seem that the project is over budget. According to what I read the original estimates of cost per iPad were actually one-hundred dollars less than what the school district actually paid for the iPads.  How long will these iPads last and what is the replacement cost? Along with those thoughts are some of my own. I’ve been volunteering in the local library and there they have ten Dell computers which are now five years old.  I spoke with the librarian about upgrading them which would cost about $629 each on New York State Contract. Can the Blount Library afford that? Perhaps, but what will become of the units that are being replaced. Can they be refurbished and used elsewhere in the library? Yes, they could be and they might even serve as part of a “maker space.”  In one of Phil Shapiro’s tweets yesterday he stated that libraries could become local centers for the “Maker Movement.” This do-it-yourself revolutions which is sweeping across the country is gathering momentum and it’s one more purpose for today’s libraries.

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Inkpad for iPad

Just today I received a tweet from Phil Shapiro (@philshapiro) about an open source program for the iPad. It’s called InkPad and it’s the equivalent of Inkscape for the iPad. I was determined to use it and produce a graphic that I could share back to Phil. My mission is accomplished but more than that I can recommend InkPad to any of you iPad users who are interested in producing scalable vector graphics on your iPad. It’s very easy to use and the “Help” section of the application is very complete and easy to use. I’d give it five stars and I’m using it on an iPad 3 running iOS 7.

I’m blogging today on Ubuntu 12.04 Linux which is running on a four year old Dell Vostro 1520. Ageing technology given new life by Ubuntu Linux.

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Open Source of Course

I have been an advocate for open source software for a number of years. Until I bought a MacBook Pro four years ago I used Ubuntu as my primary platform. Ubuntu and other Linux distributions provide a reasonable alternative desktop. The library I’ve been volunteering in the past couple of months has aging Dell Optiplex 755 desktop computers that struggle a bit to run Windows 7 with 4 gigabytes of  RAM. I know these same units using a Ubuntu desktop would still be quite responsive. I have an older Dell Vostro laptop that came with Windows XP Professional on it four years ago. With the end of support for XP I’m tempted to install Ubuntu on it. I could put more memory in the computer and run Windows 7 on it but that’s going to cost about two-hundred dollars. In addition to that I’m going to have to install sometime of antivirus client. With Ubuntu or some other Linux distribution I need none of that and I get a host of other free software programs to install on this older laptop. Open source operating systems like Fedora or Ubuntu provide reasonable alternatives to Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh platform.

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Got to give it up

Ending ISTE 2011 listening to Steve Hargadon speak on open source brought me home. Steve said 20 years ago at ISTE teachers used to swap disks and programs because that’s the way it was. I remember those days well. That was the day of Al Rogers, FredWriter, Apple II & IIe. There was an altruism among teachers and tech coordinators. That’s been supplanted in many cases by vendors hawking their wares. There are still some like Apple, Microsoft, & Google who provide free services but for most vendors schools are markets to be monetized.

That is why I find open source so refreshing. I’m an entrepreneur and enjoy the fruits of success but I try to put people first. I do a lot of pro bono work and open source figures into that model well. I regularly use open source and recommend it. Why not use Open Office? I wrote all my papers in a recently completed masters degree with OpenOffice.org. I blog on WordPress, teach students using Moodle, build other websites with Drupal. I use Ubuntu and recommend it to my students. It has so many free tools and as Steve Hargaddon said in his talk ISTE a student can get a job right out of high school with a working knowledge of PHP, MySQL & Apache. I saw a billboard advertisement yesterday from Hostgator.com looking for people with Linux experience. Just sayin.

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Whoa!

I cannot believe the responses I’ve received and the number of site visits my piece on Ubuntu vs. Macintosh and Windows has received. I originally wrote that as an email to my brother who has followed my Macintosh, Windows and Linux adventures over the past decade and a half. One of the readers of my piece inferred that I must have an older Macintosh. I own a three month old MacBook Pro which I really enjoy and continue to use every day. I purchased it when I began my program of study in Educational Leadership at St. Bonaventure University. Prior to purchasing the MacBook Pro I purchased two MacBooks. One for my daughter and another for my son. I really enjoy the Macintosh interface and I was using a Macintosh Plus and programming with HyperCard over twenty years ago. I’m not an Apple hater. Apple Computer has great products, but that being said, I work in education where there are dwindling dollars and when one can purchase two Dell’s equipped either with Ubuntu or Windows 7 for the price of one MacBook one must make choices.

I’ve been using Linux since 1997 when I purchased Red Hat 5 at Staples and a teach yourself Linux in 24 hours book. I’ve progressed from Red Hat 5 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and I’ve used Centos 3 and 4, Fedora 1 through Fedora 5. I was on a trip Portland, Oregon in 2005 when I attended a Portland Linux User Group meeting at Portland State University and a guy handed me Ubuntu 5.04. At first I didn’t like Ubuntu because of “sudo” but then gradually over the last four years it has come to be my favorite Linux distribution even on the server side of things. I’ve used it on standalone servers, created Linux terminal servers, print server, a Mythbox, several desktops and several laptops. I’ve got my Mother using Ubuntu and she likes its simplicity and reliability. Thanks to everyone who left a reply as I’ve learned something from each of you.

Since I originally wrote that piece I’ve installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my new Dell Inspiron 1545 and it works even better than Windows 7 did on that platform. I will eventually virtualize the Windows 7 that came with the notebook using Virtual Box. Today I drove over to pick up a computer that I donated over a year ago to the Franciscan Friars at Mt. Irenaeus. It’s a Dell mini-tower with Windows XP Home. I’m going to give the Friars the option of installing Ubuntu and then virtualizing Windows in that too. There’s something to be said for a stable host operating system and a virtualized guest OS. I’v benefited more than once from reverting my virtual Windows XP desktop to an earlier state after spyware and or Windows updates caused problems.

One the features of the MacBook that I really enjoy is the ease of converting old video tapes to DVD format for clients of mine. I did some of that over the holidays and helped an old friend recover memories of a deceased brother that were locked away on tape. Peace!

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Ubuntu v. Macintosh and Windows

I’m not bowled over by the Macintosh.  It’s a great OS with some great tools and like a friend said on Facebook when I first got it, it is Linux with great multi-media.  I love Photo Booth, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD all great software products that work together rather seamlessly. But are they worth double the price of a Dell for the average person. I don’t think so. I think Apple’s future is with the iPhone and maybe their upcoming tablet. They are really a desktop OS and the future belongs to mobile platforms. I think Microsoft has gotten the bugs out of Vista in Windows 7. So far it’s quite easy to operate and doesn’t have all the “yes/no” permission questions of Vista. I got Windows 7 Premium because I wanted to experiment with their multimedia tools too. I bought this Dell Inspiron 1545 because I got a great price. It was a refurb and most of my PCs are Dell refurbs. I save $200-$300 per unit that way. I wanted to install Ubuntu on it from “go” and I also wanted to virtualize Windows 7 and experiment with it. I will use Virtual Box which is really a great product and one that I’ve got almost two years experience with. I bought the machine for the added RAM, more storage and faster processor because I intend to have some more virtual machines running.

One of the things that I’ve discovered in my Mac adventure is that there is no where near the number of great open source applications on the Macintosh side of the house as their is in either Windows or Linux. I missed that. Also, I do some web application development and the tools aren’t there as easily as they are in Ubuntu. I really discovered that over Christmas break when I was building the Eucalyptus “cloud.” Apple has that software on disk that you can load on the Mac, but since its BSD Unix it’s a bit different than Linux and it just makes it more difficult. The other real pain in the butt with a Mac is its real lack of the second button on the mouse even when you are using a touch pad on a laptop. There are keystroke shortcuts you can use, but its just not as easy as with a PC or a Linux desktop. I’m used to cutting, copying and pasting with Cntrl-X, Cntrl-C etc. and with the Mac it’s a bit different. I miss the big screen of the 15 inch and Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular supports virtual desktops. That’s really not supported as well on either Windows or Macintosh.

The other plus with Ubuntu and Linux in general and this is where Linux really kicks both Windows and the Mac is you have the same OS whether mainframe, desktop, laptop or mobile device and it’s just plain stable.  I’ve had no blue screens with Windows 7 and I didn’t with the Mac either. I can run Ubuntu or Linux on darned near anything and have resources to spare. I also think that Apple doesn’t use the fastest DVD/RW drives and the USB ports on the MacBook were noticeably slower than the USB on my nearly three year old Dell Inspiron 6400. Go figure! Not all Linuces are equal to Ubuntu on the desktop. Red Hat is decidedly more server oriented and their development product Fedora (which I used a lot at one time) is not the equal of Ubuntu at present. Ubuntu is more international in it’s flavor which is probably a good thing. Both Dell & IBM are favoring Ubuntu on the desktop and server and much of Amazon’s cloud (EC2) is Ubuntu oriented too.

I really think the future is mobile and Microsoft understands that well and is positioned to support that with mobile devices. Ubuntu and Linux in general is mobile oriented too. Motorola, Google and a host of other vendors are or have developed mobile devices using Linux and Apple Mac while cool is really a desktop OS and although the OS is inexpensive at $29 a copy it is very proprietary after that point. Their real mistake in my opinion is not opening up their platform like Microsoft did with Windows, but that’s because they are desktop or laptop oriented. Apple is a great company and I have always loved their innovative products, but they are pricey too.  Well those are my thoughts. In short you can get two computers for the price of one if you use either Ubuntu or Windows 7. In this day thrift the $1200 Mac has a tough row to hoe. If Microsoft got smart and put Windows on a Unix core the game would be up for Apple.

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Rebel with Cause

This is a cross posting from my other blog.

James Dean made a name for himself in the 1950’s movie, “Rebel Without a Cause.” In the past almost four years I’ve been determined to show that Linux and in particular Ubuntu Linux is a viable desktop operating system. I’ve proven it to myself time and again but still it remains an outlier in consumer circles. In the last week I’ve rebuilt three Windows computers that had been virtually destroyed by malware. In two of the three cases the individuals let their virus protection lapse, in the third the lady was using a well known anti-virus and security solution and she still was victimized. When I returned the computers to their owners I suggested how they could work to keep their machines from becoming infected again.

Lately, I’ve taken a more active stance promoting both Ubuntu equipped personal computers and Macintosh computers because Windows seems more vulnerable than ever. I can’t think of anything I do other than iTunes and Quicken which couldn’t be accomplished on Ubuntu. I’m able to read blogs, write blogs, send and receive email, participate in social networks, write HTML, and create and update websites. Have I left anything out. That’s a pretty complete listing. In any event I’m able to do all of that from my Dell Inspiron 6400 with Ubuntu 9.04. I am definitely plugging Ubuntu, but for you could do the same with Fedora and OpenSuse, PC Linux OS and the other Linux distros. Ubuntu just happens to be my favorite.

Recently I bought my son a MacBook for his home. Why a MacBook and not Ubuntu? Simply so that he could keep up with the Joneses in his life. All his friends have Macs and I thought what the heck. But, really there is no real difference in operating efficiency on Linux or Macintosh OSX. Both are open source at their core and Unix and Linux are much more secure and stable. I have to admit that the Macintosh GUI is compelling, but I still like using two and three buttons on my mouse or touchpad and that’s not possible with a Mac. In fact that two button dilemma is driving my son a bit batty. He’s used Windows most of his life and those of us who use Windows and Linux know that a mouse has more than one button and nearly all of our keyboard shortcuts are the same.

I am going to keep pushing Linux and Ubuntu in particular because it’s the most stable, least costly and most fun operating system on the planet at this time.