Video

Click here to skip to the howto section.  It's funny how it was basically the exact same problem that I ran into in Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhale) that put me on the correct path to resolve this issue.  Basically, to sum up, this problem affects a number of modern laptops that have dual-channel internal microphones, which (apparently) are intended to support dual channel audio recording.  Exactly how two microphone channels on either side of your laptop are going to produce anything remotely near to the quality of two microphones is beyond me, but in this case it causes special issues that need to be addressed in LINUX.

I like to create videos of my desktop and various other things, and occasionally even use the YouTube webcam recorder.  Even more occasionally I'll take advantage of Google Talk's built-in video chat.  Nothing drives me crazier than something that I occasionally use not working and costing me stupid amounts of time trying to resolve, so I've started categorizing this issue as a high-priority item to resolve just to get it out of the way before I need it.

After installing #!, I noticed that I was not getting any microphone response on the YouTube webcam recorder, and initially attempted to resolve it using the GUI mixer by right-clicking on the volume control icon and selecting "mixer".  I then activated the microphone by clicking the red X next to the speaker icon and, when that didn't help, I clicked on the chain icon and lowered the right channel volume to 0, leaving the left channel volume set to maximum.  This still didn't help, so I selected the Capture tab, clicked on the gray dot beneath the first Capture entry, and when this did not resolve the problem I set it aside for the time being.

Because these sorts of issues tend to fester in my brain, I took another couple cracks at it before finally applying myself to focusing on the issue in alsamixer like I had before.  In my experience, solutions tend to be more likely and also tend to stick when using terminal (or in this case terminator).

Again, in alsamixer I had the right channel of the microphone reduced to 0 volume, and the left channel set to 100, as this is what had solved my problems in Ubuntu.  This didn't help me here.  I then experimented with various settings, but finally came up with this as the final solution:

I arrived at this solution after pressing F1 to read the Help dialogue, and noticed that while Capture was selected, I could press the Spacebar to toggle Capture on and off (it shows up red in the above screenshot).  More importantly, I noticed that if I pressed either the ; or ' keys I would toggle the left or right capture channel off and on.  I toggled the right channel to off with the ' key and left the left channel enabled, then tried again.  Success!  In this case it appears that the left and right microphone channels compete with each other for the same resources, effectively cancelling each other out.  Disabling one allows the other to work.  Since I have no plans for recording dual channel audio with my internal laptop microphone, this solution works just fine.  YouTube and Record My Desktop work great now.

I still need to work out how to resolve issues with Google+ Hangouts / Google Talk, but that's not a priority for me at the moment.  See below for step by step instructions including support for Google+ Hangouts / Google Talk video chat / Google Voice.

Instructions:

Open a terminal window and type the following to open the mixer:

Make sure you have the correct sound card selected.  In my case it was the default sound card, but you can press F6 and use the arrow keys to select the one you want from the small window that pops up in the alsamixer, or the Esc key to leave the window and return to the mixer.  See the included screenshot above for reference.

Press F5 to view all devices - typically they will not all fit on a default size terminal window, but you can extend the window or maximize it so you can view everything on one screen if you so wish.  Alternately you can use your right and left arrow keys to move between each section as you jump from device to device.

Use the right and left arrow keys to navigate to Mic.  If you see MM at the bottom of the volume indicator, that means the microphone is muted, otherwise it should display 00.  Press the M key on your keyboard to toggle to unmuted if it is not already displaying 00.  Also use the up and down arrow keys to change the volume, I recommend setting it to 100 with the up arrow key.

Now use the right or left arrow key to select Mic Boost (there may be two entries) and lower the volume (on each) to 0.  Mic Boost is likely to cause problems by creating distortion and noise interference - only if you find your recording volume is too low should you raise the volume on these devices.

Verify that Input source is set to the correct device.  In my case, Input Source is set to Internal Mic, and Input Source 1 is set to Mic (to allow me to hook up an external microphone if I so choose).  To change either, use the left or right arrow keys to select each device, then while selected use the up and down arrow keys to select your preferred option.

Next, select Capture using the left or right arrow key.  Raise the volume to 100.  If you do not see the word CAPTURE in capital red letters, press the Space bar to toggle it enabled.  If your system is a laptop equipped with dual channel audio, press either the ; or the ' key to toggle either the left or the right channel disabled (only one needs to be disabled).  If this does not work, you may need disable CAPTURE on this device, and enable it on Capture1 or Digital (sometimes these entries are not labeled correctly and some trial and error may be necessary to determine which one matches your audio card's microphone).

Press the Esc key to quit out of the alsamixer.  This would be a good time to test audio recording using something like RecordmyDesktop or YouTube's web camera recorder.  YouTube's web camera recorder is particularly helpful because it will display microphone activity even if you are not recording.

If you intend to use Google Talk's video chat, Google Voice or Google+ Hangouts you will need to do the following.  If you have already installed the GoogleTalk Plugin skip down to the enxt step. Download the GoogleTalk Plugin here: http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ and select the correct .deb file for your system (32-bit or 64-bit).  Install it with Gdebi Package Installer by right-clicking the downloaded file in the File Manager and selecting this option.  Enter your password when prompted and allow the install to complete.

Enter the following commands into your terminal window:

Look the following entry (if you are creating a new options file or this entry is not present skip to the next step):

And change it to the following (or simply add this line if it is not in the options file):

Then press CTRL+X to Exit, and save your changes when prompted by pressing the Y key.  Enter the following into your terminal window to return to your home directory:

Now you need to figure out the hardware name of your microphone by typing this command:

This should generate something that looks like the following:

In my case, the device name I was looking for was to the right of card 0: - Intel.  Now it's time to create an .asoundrc file if you don't already have one.

Add the following into your new .asoundrc file (if you already have a .asoundrc file you may wish to copy your file to something like .asoundrc-old first as a backup):

Click CTRL+X to Exit, and save when prompted by pressing the Y key.  Reload ALSA by typing the following:

You should now be able to use your microphone via the Google Talk plugin in Google Talk, Google Voice or Google+ Hangouts.  Because Skype is now owned by Microsoft, please don't ask me to help you with your Skype issues - however, the above should help get you working.

There are a few different references out there about everything going to black, or everyone being covered by darkness, during the apocolypse.  There are also many people who think that is what happens when you die, athiests chief among them.  For most people this is a frightening concept.  In a brief discussion with Brigitte, however, I came to the sudden realization that the loss of sight would be of great benefit in the long run to human beings as a species, provided that this loss is accompanied by the acquisition of another sense, empathy being my preferred sense among the possibilities out there.

Empathy is the ability to sense the mood, feelings, and presence of others around you.  In my mind, this would be superior to sight, which is fallible to distraction, manipulation, and misinterpretation, which causes all sorts of problems.  To be clear, I'm not ready to lose my sight, because as we all know there are certain significant benefits to vision that I'm not quite ready to give up just yet.  But to reiterate - it is much easier for someone to be fooled into believing that they saw something, when in fact they did not.  Performing magicians exploit this regularly through their performances, using a variety of techniques designed to fool someone's vision.

Empathy, however, would be beneficial to everyone because it would permit them to have a closer understanding of the world around them and everything in it.  People would not be as interested in inflicting pain because they would be forced to share it.  People would have a greater sense of other living things, and even things that are believed to not be alive, yet still possess a certain level of sentience.  You would be aware of your environment in a way that no human currently is - you would "feel" the trees, the plants, the rocks, and all the various animals, insects and other creatures around you, in addition to all of human kind surrounding you.

With this level of connection with your surroundings, nature, and "fellow man", it would be difficult to continue our raping of the earth.  We would be less inclined to strip mine, to deforest, to pollute.  We would be less inclined to hurt, maim or kill.  We would have a greater understanding of one another, without needing to use words to explain to each other how we feel.  And it would be impossible to use words in deception - it would be impossible to tell a lie.

I believe empathy is the best path of human evolution.

One congruency that I can assume exists across all timelines would be the Georgia Guidestones.  These mysterious stones appeared in Elbert County, Geogia, upon the request of a mysterious uknown person by the apparent pseudonym of R.C. Christian.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

Assuming I were a time traveller and wished to avoid repeating my mistakes, yet I was unable to pass the message to the source of the problem, because that source was far into the future, this is the best possible idea I can think of - create a monument that will hopefully survive intact to reach the future in order to warn time travellers of their folly.

Be entertained by the chaos that ensues as we try to get ready for Autumn's 7th Birthday after I get home from work.

"I will bet my last penny that the person giving this tour is not even a native of New Orleans. This guy speaks toooooo fast and is not a good story- teller. I'm from New Orleans and have always found it amazing how many of the residents of the French Quarter are not even native to New Orleans. And the ones telling the stories are usually quite new to the area. Don't believe these ridiculous stories. It's just to make money." - RedLikeWine

For a period of roughly five years I led tours covering haunted sites of the city of New Orleans.  The above video is one of seven-nine stops I tended to visit for the duration of the store, depending on the path I happened to take through the historic French Quarter with my tour group.  It was a lot of fun, both for me and my tour group, and I was given a lot of freedom in terms of how I delivered my tour presentation, and that I could choose to dress in period clothing or as something spooky - it was almost like celebrating Halloween every night of the year.

One of the hazards of the job were the local citizens of New Orleans.  Drunks from Bourbon Street were a bit of a problem, but the local citizens believed that tourists had invaded their fair city (which heavily depended upon and promoted tourism in order to keep operating the majority of its local businesses) and therefore took their spite out on passing tours and tour guides.

The above quote is a good example of that.  I had thought upon leaving New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that I would no longer have to put up with such foolishness, but apparently that just wasn't meant to be.  However, I managed to get RedLikeWine to retract her comment with the following reply:

At least 16 other commentors here disagree with you on the quality of my storytelling, but I suppose it's not possible to make everyone happy. No I am not native, and I never claimed to be, but after 7 years of living there I still consider New Orleans to be more my home than the home I grew up in, even though I have not been able to return since hurricane Katrina because I have a family to provide for.

To be a licensed tour guide in New Orleans requires a 70% correct score on the most difficult exam I have ever taken. The exam extensively covers New Orleans history. Unlicensed tour guides face severe fines and/or arrest, consequently few are foolish enough to operate without one. As a licensed tour guide, why would I falsify the history that I studied? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

"Don't believe these ridiculous stories. It's just to make money." Some listeners who take these tours strongly believe in ghosts & paranormal activity; things that the vast majority of people claim are just a bunch of superstitious nonsense. To date nobody has successfully proven the existence of ghosts, but can you prove that they do not exist? Those who do not believe still enjoy these tours because they get to learn about New Orlean's past in an entertaining fashion.

 "I'm from New Orleans and have always found it amazing how many of the residents of the French Quarter are not even native to New Orleans." If you are familiar with the history of your hometown, you should know that New Orleans is called a "melting pot" because the French Quarter has historically been home to people of various cultures from all over the world. Because New Orleans is a major port city this is still true today. This melting pot is what attracts people to New Orleans.

Upon visiting RedLikeWine's profile I noticed her About Me section contained this quote "Hope to make lots of new friends here:-)" which prompted me to post a comment on the page stating "You may want to consider changing your tactics."  Shortly afterward RedLikeWine's offending comment was removed from the video.

Since I'm not one to just let things go like that, I quickly copied and pasted her comment back into the comment feed for those who might otherwise be curious about my reply.  As far as I'm concerned, if someone is foolish enough to make themselves look like an idiot in a virtual environment that I have created, I have the right to keep a record of it for all who visit to see.

I suppose it would be nice some day if these idiots would stop trying to build themselves up by trying to point out the shortcomings (and failing in the process) of other people.  I only hope that she does not have offspring who will learn to perpetuate such behavior.

Just saw Iron Man 2 last night - even though a lot of critics claim it was not as good as the first I disagree - though I would not say it was any better than the first, and that's just fine.  I've been a fan of Iron Man ever since I was a kid and got to read some of the comic books.  I'm not sure why I didn't keep up with it, but these things happen.  Regardless - one of my favorite scenes was Tony hacking into video screens with his cell phone in the middle of his hearing. Found the video above today by accident - very well done for an independant project.  It would be nice if they followed through and created the entire film, but then again, maybe this short slice is just enough. Here's some more fun:

Nola French Quarter. Our old neighborhood!

here's a cool little video that shows our old neighborhood. And yes the things you see in the video were daily life there. There wasn't a day that went by that there weren't dramatic costumes, performers, music and magic being performed in the streets. Actually the video is quite tame compared to what I remember. Also, the last door that the delivery guy goes into, well the pink building across the street is where I worked and met my husband. The green shutters are closed on the doors so you can't see inside but it is Reverend Zombies House Of Voodoo. Dang I loved that job! Enjoy the video for a little taste of French Quarter life! oh, YES your food was delivered to you buy way of bicycle from every eatery in the quarter. How cool is that?! I miss my home!

Originally written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, this song is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Clint Maedgen on vocals. Filmed mid-2005, this music video features Clint Maedgen, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a guest appearance by the New Orleans Bingo! Show.