Music Is Not for Insects

Inspired by the Flickr group pool “What’s in your bag?”, I decided to take a shot of all the stuff in my backpack I take with me to work since I am transferring all my gear into a new bigger satchel. (Note: I have what you would call a “bag” addiction; messenger bags, backpacks, briefcases, I have several and can’t get enough of them. My wife claims I have a serious problem, but we have an understanding since I tend to bring up her shoe collection when I’m being admonished…)

I’ll highlight some of the things in my bag and why I have them, how I use them and then list what I wish I had in my bag. I’m hoping you’ll comment with some items in common or tell us what’s in your bag.

HIGHLIGHTED CONTENTS:

*13.3″ black MacBook. Not the latest one, but after having to give up a school MacBook at my previous job, I decided to bite the bullet and get my own. The list is endless on how I use this laptop and it’s many apps. You can get some ideas from my previous posts here.

*Flip Video Camera. I have this camera with me for instant digital video shooting. I also have a nifty mini tripod to go with the camera. From camera, to MacBook, to iMovie, to YouTube, the flip is so easy to use for digital video. I have reviewed this at length in the past.

*Sharpies. I currently have three and I am missing one…more thoughts here.

*Metro bus pass provided by my employer. Ask if your school has an employee discount for your local bus or metro system. I did not know this was an option with my school until someone told me about it…

*Cables, cables, cables. Firewire, ethernet, ipod, 1/8″ to RCA, etc., etc. You never know what kind of hook-ups you’ll need.

*USB drives- three of them in various sizes.

*250 GB external drive. More storage and back-up.

*Custom Westone Hearing Protectors. Custom ear plugs; they reduce the sound by about 15db and save my eardrums from constant bombardment. You need these if you teach in a room that is really live or have students blaring instruments at you day after day. I’ll bet your school health plan will pay for them. At first, they will bug you, but then at the end of the day when you are not suffering with a headache, you’ll get used to them and be grateful for some piece of mind and PROTECTION FOR YOUR HEARING.

*Rhodia Staple Bound Graph Pad. I’m a big fan of technology, but nothing beats a good little note pad and pencil to jot down ideas.

*Targus TG-CRD25 Universal 32-in-1 Memory Card Reader. Ok, you may not have to ever read 32 different memory cards, but this adapter works great for SD cards, memory sticks, compact flash, XD- almost any kind of memory card you or your friends digital camera or other digital device uses. Plug it into a USB port, and you are ready to transfer.

*Fish shaped bottle opener (for a refreshing beverage…after work of course), two ipods, Sony earbuds, guitar pick, headphone splitter, Kensington laptop lock and extra cell phone battery.

THINGS NOT PICTURED BUT WORTH MENTIONING

*Scores. Music scores for band, choir and piano classes I teach.

*Daily Lesson Planner. The paper kind.

*Blank CD’s. A couple for playlists that need to be burned.

*Paper calendar. I still use one of these even though I’m a Google Calendar user…

THINGS I WISH I HAD

*Zoom H2 Digital Recorder. I used to have a digital recorder like this at my last school…I would like another one so I can record rehearsals on the fly.

* A digital camera. Crazy, I know, but my wife has the digital camera in her bag!

It looks like I’m going to have to thankfully amend a previous post about the Flip Video and issues with iMovie08. We are documenting some remodeling work around my house this summer using my Flip Video Camera, (not the new Mino which looks really cool…) and when I plugged it into my Macbook running Leopard I was able to directly import my movies from the Flip into iMovie08! It even worked on my iMac running Tiger (OSX 10.4.11).

Previously, I needed a video converter like iSquint or Visual Hub to convert the .avi files on the Flip into a format that iMovie08 would recognize. I guess one of the latest software updates from Apple solved this problem…has anybody else had success with this issue?

There is a nice video review of the flip over at Macworld.

• Breaking: Creative’s Flip Video Clone Leaked | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

  Online reseller JR.com is listing a new mystery-cam from Creative, called the Vado, which promises to be very similar to the super successful Flip. More posts about my use with the flip here.

• Canadians Planning ‘First Massively Multi-User Online Music Festival’ | Listening Post from Wired.com

  With so many excellent music festivals coming up this summer, it would take more money and time than most of us have to attend them all — not to mention growing your carbon footprint a few dozen sizes.

• Another Free Album from NIN – Is Free the New Price of Music? – ReadWriteWeb

  It was just a couple of months ago that Nine Inch Nails released part of their new album for free on BitTorrent and via their web site. The rest of the album, the band sold as a $5 download, a $10 double CD, and pricier “deluxe” packages.

• MediaFuturist: Music blogs: The new wall of sound (via CNet)

  “The leading music blogs will become what used to be called record labels,”

• Jango – Free Music – Internet Radio that Plays What You Want! Listen to Music Online Radio Stations
• The Echo Nest

  We develop music search, personalization and interactive applications on top of a platform that automatically reads about and listens to the entire world of music.

**JULY 2008: FOLLOW-UP TO THIS ISSUE: SEE NEW POST HERE: FLIP VIDEO NOW WORKS WITH IMOVIE08

I have some more insight about using The FlipVideo since I wrote my initial post in January.

I should start off by stating the main reason I use this camera is to make videos available to my family and friends via YouTube or other on-line video sharing sites. This was a strong selling point (and marketing push) for The Flip and other digital video cameras. Many of these devices have a simple “one-click” feature for easy upload directly to YouTube, AOL video or MySpace video.

We are also using The FlipVideo to record student assessments (see my post about this) for music and then uploading them to a district sponsored media sharing site.

And while it is very easy to shoot your video, navigate to the DCIM folder, find your .AVI video and upload it to a video sharing site, for those of us using Macs and iMovie08 to quickly edit videos and then upload them to a video sharing site, we have been out of luck. Here is an FAQ about this from The FlipVideo Support Page:

I’m having trouble using Flip Videos with iMovie ’08 on my Macintosh. What’s wrong?

There is a known compatibility issue with Flip Video Camcorder videos and the new version of Apple’s application suite, iLife ’08, which includes iMovie ‘08, iDVD ‘08, etc., and Apple is working to resolve it. With the release of iLife ’08, Apple introduced an improved video engine that unfortunately also caused many video formats to become incompatible with the new version. As Apple works to resolve the issue, in parallel, Pure Digital is working with Apple to better understand the issue and determine if we can expedite a solution from our side.

A DONATIONWARE SOLUTION: iSquint

So the main issue with iMovie’08 is that you cannot import the .AVI files from The FlipVideo camera directly into iMovie’08 to edit. NOTE: If you are using iMovieHD, the previous iLife’06 version of iMovie, you can easily import your .AVI files from The Flip and edit away…And while you can view your FlipVideo .AVI files in Quicktime, saving it as a .MOV file still doesn’t work for importing into iMovie’08.

After asking some friends about this problem and checking out some forums, one solution I discovered was iSquint: an iPod video conversion app for Mac. Here is a screenshot:

All you have to do is drag your .AVI file into the iSquint window, click the “H.264 Encoding” box, click start and your video is converted into a .MP4 format. Then you can open iMovie’08, choose “Import Movies…” and import your newly converted movie for editing in iMovie’08.

BOTTOM LINE: If you like using iMovie’08 for quick and easy editing of your files and the “Share” feature to YouTube, iSquint may be the solution for you. Why do I use iMovie’08? For videos I share with my family and friends on-line, I typically only need to add a title and a couple of transitions and upload it to the web…iMovie’08 works great for this.

What started off as a review post about the Flip Video quickly expanded into a larger discussion of using video in the classroom thanks to two excellent posts: One by Bob Sprankle at his bit by bit blog
and the other post (discovered in the comments on Bob’s post) by Matthew Needleman at his Creating Lifelong Learners blog

Now before you go and check out these two posts, let me give you my thoughts on my use of the Flip Video. I had been looking for an inexpensive (below $200) digital video camera to use with my music students. I initially purchased an Aiptek 720P HD Camcorder for about $150 at Target. While the video was excellent, the audio was unacceptable.

I was skeptical about getting a Flip Video, but you can’t beat Costco for a good deal on stuff you gotta have…I purchased a Flip Video Ultra for about $120. It records up to 30 minutes of video that is great quality in sound and sight for my purposes.

Some key bullets on having used the camera for awhile-
* I would suggest the Ultra Flip over the plain old Flip (see all the specs here) mainly because the Ultra comes with a tripod mount and looks cooler and is easier to hold.
* The zoom feature on the flip is virtually useless from more than 30 feet away IMHO.
*Mac users: the flip comes with pre-loaded software to allow you to play .avi files on your Mac OS. I could get the .avi files to play just fine in Quicktime, but was unable to import them into iMovie’08. I did get them to import into iMovie HD with no problem. (I’m still using Mac OS 10.4.11)
*This is a no-brainer camera for those of you think that digital+video=genius. It is very simple to use and the included cables for hook-up to your t.v. are a nice bonus for instant playback.
*Buy a USB extension cable before you come home with the camera. The flip out USB dongle is a nice feature, but I’ve found that it doesn’t quite work with my laptop USB configuration or my other desktop computers.

A PLACE ON THE WEB FOR ALL THOSE VIDEOS

I know what you’re thinking, “Not another YouTube like video sharing service…we already use TeacherTube.”

Do check out the intro video below from 5min.com. I think it has some neat things to offer, particularly the video music lessons that can be paused and slowed down. Could have some neat teaching possibilities for your students and parents. I like the 5 minute concept for teaching mini-lessons.