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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review May 30, 2008 / 25 Iyar 5768

Getting out of a jam — digitally

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | "When I make a mistake," the late New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia reportedly exclaimed during an administrative calamity, "it's a beaut!" My "beaut" is staring me in the face: I'm supposed to be somewhere distant this week for a presentation, and I don't know if I can swing the trip. At the other end, there are a few dozen people waiting to hear what I have to say.


What to do?


Technology might yet "save the day" for me: it turns out that there are numerous ways to record and/or transmit the presentation that I'm supposed to give over there, while remaining here.


The first was suggested by my friend David Coursey, a veteran tech journalist, who believes my answer might be found in GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar . These are online services hosted by Citrix, a Florida firm specializing in remote-access technologies, primarily for Windows-based computers. Mac users can participate in the online sessions, but not host them, the firm's Website states.


The idea is to assemble a small or large group that can log in via an Internet connection, generally something faster than a 56 Kbps dial-up modem. Using a Web browser and a downloadable plug-in, you're connected, securely to a group that you or the presenter has organized; slides can be shown and ideas shared visually. You can either "chat" via the keyboard or call in to a conference call number and speak at the same time that the onscreen presentation is shown.


Pricing starts at $49 a month for GoToMeeting, which can handle up to 15 participants at a clip. Larger groups require the GoToWebinar service, at $99 per month, for up to 1,000 participants. More details can be found at www.citrixonline.com.


The biggest downside that I see from this is an inability to incorporate a video stream in the service; something the firm's documentation concedes is "still" not available. One can hope this will change in the future.


The Citrix services will let you record your meeting for replay at another time, using Windows Media technology, something that allows you to incorporate audio narration. Such recordings can usually be viewed on all platforms.


Another approach would be to record my presentation as a "podcast," using any of the many programs available for Windows or Mac users. On the Mac side, I'm a huge fan of Apple's Garage Band, part of the $79 iLife application suite. Use the built-in video camera on most current Macs, either the internal microphone or the Blue Microphones $99 "Snowball" mic, and you're good to go. Not long ago, I used just this setup to record a video narration for a business film and the producers were quite pleased.


The Mac offers at least two other options that might work well: one is iChat , the text and voice/video conferencing software built into the OS X operating software. The latest version lets you show a slide presentation alongside your video image, and since it's interactive, you could conceivably get questions from your audience in real time.


Another intriguing option is ScreenFlow, a $99 program from Vara Software in London (www.varasoftware.com). This program, which my colleague Adam Engst of TidBITS newsletter suggested, will record both everything you do on screen and a video/audio narration. You can show the two side-by-side, edited so that the slides are visible along with your video.


The program lets you export the recordings as a QuickTime movie, again playable on almost every computer platform, as well as the YouTube service. The firm also makes software for "webcasting" that can handle larger creations using stand-alone video cameras, including HD quality.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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