I have a new aim - a one day turn around of multi-choice tests to a class of 1000+ students.
If I hadn't had so many software install issues I think I could have managed a sub 24 hour turn around time, as it was I managed 28 hours.
My solution of choice was OMR Remark which is pricey (nearly 2K for a license) but very slick at optical scanning of custom "Shade in the bubbles" type answer sheets. It took me 30 minutes to scan 1000 scripts with a high speed scanner and then another 90 minutes to clean the scripts (sometimes the optical character recognition can't tell what's been scanned but you can click on a problem sell and see the raw scan of the script, which is usually enough to figure out using the good 'old mark 1 eyeball).
I trialed this approach last year and there was a bit of a learning curve but I figured second time around things would be smoother. Once the software was installed this was true however installing OMR Remark was an absolute mission which took me two days to sort out.
The problem was OMR Remark depends on something called the .NET 3.5 Framework, which isn't installed on Windows 10 by default. In theory it should only take a couple of minutes to install but in practice every time I tried to enable the .NET 3.5 Framework I ran into a windows update error (enabling the framework requires windows update to download some files).
After a long day fixing my windows update problems (it turned out my windows updates were indeed screwy) I finally was getting updates coming through for everything EXCEPT when I tried enabling the .NET 3.5 Framework.
Much trolling of forums later I discovered a last ditch possible solution by way of doing an offline install of the .NET 3.5 Framework. Fortunately this solved my .NET 3.5 Framwork woes and meant I could finally install and RUN my copy of OMR Remark.
If you ever faced with the same problem, the trick was to first create a Windows USB install media:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
I could then install .NET 3.5 using the instructions here:
http://winaero.com/blog/offline-install-of-net-framework-3-5-in-windows-10-using-dism/
Friday, 18 August 2017
Friday, 24 February 2017
Back to Windows 8.1 and how to update when your system doesn't want to.
Sadly my trusty surface pro 3 developed a hardware issue with the Wifi/bluetooth chip. I had to return it and after a month wait received my replacement. Unfortunately the replacement machine only had Windows 8.1 on it (rather than Windows 10 which is what the machine I had returned was running). Even worse, when I went to check for windows updates, the system wouldn't find any, just checking forever with no progress.
I tried the usual fixes, including using the windows troubleshooter, a refresh and even a couple of clean re-installs, all with no joy.
I tried the usual fixes, including using the windows troubleshooter, a refresh and even a couple of clean re-installs, all with no joy.
The
solution that finally worked was to manually install an update (which deals
with fixing update issues). Here is a link on the update:
Once I had
installed this update and restarted checking for updates finally worked (it
found 183 critical updates!)
The happy end to the story is that I got in touch with microsoft help and they were able to install windows 10 on my machine, so I finally have an up to date working OS, just in time for the start of semester.
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Windows 10 on a surface pro 3
I've successfully migrated to Windows 10 with minimal pain. The in place upgrade downloaded in the background and although it took a few attempts before it downloaded (probably due to my dodgy home internet connection) it then installed very smoothly.
I had the usual problem of my Targus video docking station no longer working properly with my external monitors but I expected that, as the same issue arose when migrating from 8 to 8.1. The fix turned out to be the same too. I just uninstalled the DisplayLink software, ran the cleaner and then reinstalled DisplayLink. Full instructions on how to do these steps are here.
Since then things have been pretty smooth with the exception of one BSOD (Blue screen of death) and a few niggly wifi issues.
On the subject of wifi, it is now trickier to find your wifi settings (it took me ages to figure out how to reach the advanced security settings under windows 10). The way to get to these settings is not at all intuitive and you may want to google it first rather than stumbling around for ages as I did.
Otherwise Windows 10 seems to marry the best bits of Windows 7 and 8. I like the look and feel and some features are gold. Swiping from the left finally works as I wanted it to, giving me a very quick way of switching between open apps. This alone is worth the upgrade for me, particularly in a class situation where you want to toggle very quickly between apps and not always with a keyboard or mouse.
I had the usual problem of my Targus video docking station no longer working properly with my external monitors but I expected that, as the same issue arose when migrating from 8 to 8.1. The fix turned out to be the same too. I just uninstalled the DisplayLink software, ran the cleaner and then reinstalled DisplayLink. Full instructions on how to do these steps are here.
Since then things have been pretty smooth with the exception of one BSOD (Blue screen of death) and a few niggly wifi issues.
On the subject of wifi, it is now trickier to find your wifi settings (it took me ages to figure out how to reach the advanced security settings under windows 10). The way to get to these settings is not at all intuitive and you may want to google it first rather than stumbling around for ages as I did.
Otherwise Windows 10 seems to marry the best bits of Windows 7 and 8. I like the look and feel and some features are gold. Swiping from the left finally works as I wanted it to, giving me a very quick way of switching between open apps. This alone is worth the upgrade for me, particularly in a class situation where you want to toggle very quickly between apps and not always with a keyboard or mouse.
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
One note gotcha
I've been trying to use the "Print to Onenote" option for some time, with much frustration. I wanted to be able to print pdfs to Onenote so that I could annotate them but everytime I tried I received the error message "Before you can use this feature, OneNote must start for the first time. You can return here and try again after OneNote starts."
The error message seems to offer a pretty obvious solution but I have been running Onenote frequently, so was perplexed as to why it kept popping up. After much googling I was still none the wiser until I finally saw Onenote referred to as "Onenote 2013". The penny finally dropped and I realised that windows 8 ships with TWO different versions of Onenote, the metro version (which I use) and the desktop version "Onenote 2013" which I had never started. After digging around through the desktop apps I found and run the desktop version and ran it. My problem is finally fixed (well sort of). I still haven't figured how how to print pdfs to the metro version of Onenote, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place but at least I can print to Onenote 2013.
More investigation required!
The error message seems to offer a pretty obvious solution but I have been running Onenote frequently, so was perplexed as to why it kept popping up. After much googling I was still none the wiser until I finally saw Onenote referred to as "Onenote 2013". The penny finally dropped and I realised that windows 8 ships with TWO different versions of Onenote, the metro version (which I use) and the desktop version "Onenote 2013" which I had never started. After digging around through the desktop apps I found and run the desktop version and ran it. My problem is finally fixed (well sort of). I still haven't figured how how to print pdfs to the metro version of Onenote, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place but at least I can print to Onenote 2013.
More investigation required!
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Mail merging pdfs
In the past I have used software called pdf machine merge to email out personalised pdfs to students (sending personalised pdfs works well for certificates or project feedback). Unfortunately my license expired recently and I recalled that in theory you can do the same thing with adobe acrobat pro and word. In practice when I tried to work through a mail merge in word, there was no way to do a merge to pdf using the adobe plugin because the menu item didn't show in word.
After hours of searching/fiddling/updating I finally identified the problem. It turns out that my version of office wasn't playing nicely with my version of adobe acrobat. As I had the latest version of office (office 2013) I first had to update to the latest version of adobe acrobat (XI pro) AND then install the latest update for that version (to move to 11.0.10). Once this was done the "ACROBAT" menu required to do pdf merging finally appeared again in word. After that it was a fairly simple matter to do the merge as per these instructions.
After hours of searching/fiddling/updating I finally identified the problem. It turns out that my version of office wasn't playing nicely with my version of adobe acrobat. As I had the latest version of office (office 2013) I first had to update to the latest version of adobe acrobat (XI pro) AND then install the latest update for that version (to move to 11.0.10). Once this was done the "ACROBAT" menu required to do pdf merging finally appeared again in word. After that it was a fairly simple matter to do the merge as per these instructions.
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Windows 8 update tip
It seems like whenever I update a Windows 8 system I get stuck in an "update loop".
Windows tells me it is busy installing updates, then it tells me that installing the updates failed so it is rolling back my system, then it trys to install the updates again: repeat ad infinitum.
Eventually, if you are lucky, it might actually allow you to login (having failed the update process for hours on end). Sometimes I've waited SIX hours for this to happen.
Here is where I finally remember to do what I should have done before, the magic step that always seems to sort out this particular problem. I recommend doing this step before any major windows 8 update (and also directly after an operating system update, before the rest of the updates get installed).
1) Swipe from the right and select "Settings".
2) Click on Control Panel.
3) In the top right search box type "Trouble" and then click on the "Troubleshooting" option that comes up.
4) Under "System and Security" click on "Fix Problems with Windows Update"
5) Click Next and then "Try troubleshooting as administrator".
This should fix your updater problems so that when you reboot you don't get stuck.
Windows tells me it is busy installing updates, then it tells me that installing the updates failed so it is rolling back my system, then it trys to install the updates again: repeat ad infinitum.
Eventually, if you are lucky, it might actually allow you to login (having failed the update process for hours on end). Sometimes I've waited SIX hours for this to happen.
Here is where I finally remember to do what I should have done before, the magic step that always seems to sort out this particular problem. I recommend doing this step before any major windows 8 update (and also directly after an operating system update, before the rest of the updates get installed).
1) Swipe from the right and select "Settings".
2) Click on Control Panel.
3) In the top right search box type "Trouble" and then click on the "Troubleshooting" option that comes up.
4) Under "System and Security" click on "Fix Problems with Windows Update"
5) Click Next and then "Try troubleshooting as administrator".
This should fix your updater problems so that when you reboot you don't get stuck.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
Hands on with surface pro 3
I'm typing this update on the new surface pro 3, thanks to a very kind colleague who lent me their machine.
Here are a few thoughts from setting it up.
Initially the surface refused to turn on, despite having been plugged in and charging it for a good length of time. I worked through the instructions here: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-pro-wont-turn-on
Fortunately the very last step worked (essentially a hard reset). I was holding my breath for a while there! It took a long time holding down various buttons before I saw the screen come to life.
Windows 8 setups are usually pretty painless. I've been through several windows 8 installs now but got thrown with this one because I didn't have the stylus handy. As part of the setup you need to do a Bluetooth pairing with the stylus. It took me a while to find the stylus, unscrew it and check the battery was present (I removed the little paper tab that was inside with the battery). By the time I had it ready the surface had tried pairing three times and gave up. I continued with the install but it said it failed at the end, so I redid it with no problems second time around.
One think to be careful of is to make sure you select the correct keyboard type. In a previous setup I inadvertently selected UK (thinking I was selecting UK English), only to discover that I should have selected the US keyboard I had was typing different symbols when I hit certain keys (including the @ symbol which makes it tricky to email anyone!). It took a lot of fiddling to set the keyboard back to US.
As mentioned in other posts, the first thing to install is Classic Shell: http://classicshell.net/. It really does make a difference if you are used to previous windows versions. Unless you are an experienced windows 8 user, you'll be forever trying to find settings and apps that used to be "easy" to locate unless you install this little app which gives you back your start menu.
The display on the surface pro 3 is stunning. The extra size really makes a difference, as does the ability to position the kickstand exactly how you want (it means you can reduce reflective glare). When using the surface with the keyboard docked, the larger screen makes it feel much more like a laptop that a tablet (particularly when compared to the surface pro 2 which felt cramped). This is probably helped by the new 3 by 2 ratio (so it feels less like a widescreen machine). If you undock the keyboard you still feel like you have a tablet.
I like the new larger form factor and it doesn't come at the cost of extra weight or thickness (in fact it is thinner and feels lighter). It feels really nice in the hand, with a solid build.
The new keyboard is an improvement on the old on in just about every respect. There is a surprising amount of travel and while an external keyboard is always going to be nicer, this will do well for on the go. The backlit keys are a nice touch and the trackpad is a bit larger. I actually prefer the keyboard to the "Chiclet" ones that are becoming standard on many laptops. It seems easier to hit the right keys on the this keyboard. It is also very useable on a lap and MUCH more so that the surface 2 or 1 was. The new attachment mechanism which relies on attaching at two points with magnets gives a lot more stability. My only gripe with this attachment mechanism is that it gets in the way of swiping up from the bottom of the screen (which is sometime useful, particularly for charm apps).
The pen feels MUCH nicer than the stylus that came with the surface 2 or surface 1. It has a good heft to it and feels solid and more "pen like". It is also much more accurate and this is particularly noticeable in the corners of the screen (which used to be very problematic to work with on the surface 1, which made hitting the correct option on menus tricky sometimes). It is also nice to have somewhere to stash it on the keyboard (they included a little loop that adheres to the keyboard, so you can slide your pen in for safe storage when it isn't in use. Overall the pen experience is a big improvement and I can see why they switched from the previous stylus (which was a Wacom one) to the new N-trig version. I am slightly concerned that the new one requires batteries and this needs to be kept in mind (you'll want a spare AAAA battery and a couple of 319 button batteries on hand in case they die during something important). The other thing I noticed is that the screen seems to be more slippery than on my older surface (I suspect this may change with use and could just be because the new unit is still pristine and extremely clean)
The sound is surprisingly punchy and there is no problem relying on the speakers if you are watching YouTube videos and the like. In fact you may even be reaching for the volume down button.
Overall first impressions are extremely positive. Microsoft seem to have got a lot right with this iteration.
Here are a few thoughts from setting it up.
Initially the surface refused to turn on, despite having been plugged in and charging it for a good length of time. I worked through the instructions here: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-pro-wont-turn-on
Fortunately the very last step worked (essentially a hard reset). I was holding my breath for a while there! It took a long time holding down various buttons before I saw the screen come to life.
Windows 8 setups are usually pretty painless. I've been through several windows 8 installs now but got thrown with this one because I didn't have the stylus handy. As part of the setup you need to do a Bluetooth pairing with the stylus. It took me a while to find the stylus, unscrew it and check the battery was present (I removed the little paper tab that was inside with the battery). By the time I had it ready the surface had tried pairing three times and gave up. I continued with the install but it said it failed at the end, so I redid it with no problems second time around.
One think to be careful of is to make sure you select the correct keyboard type. In a previous setup I inadvertently selected UK (thinking I was selecting UK English), only to discover that I should have selected the US keyboard I had was typing different symbols when I hit certain keys (including the @ symbol which makes it tricky to email anyone!). It took a lot of fiddling to set the keyboard back to US.
As mentioned in other posts, the first thing to install is Classic Shell: http://classicshell.net/. It really does make a difference if you are used to previous windows versions. Unless you are an experienced windows 8 user, you'll be forever trying to find settings and apps that used to be "easy" to locate unless you install this little app which gives you back your start menu.
The display on the surface pro 3 is stunning. The extra size really makes a difference, as does the ability to position the kickstand exactly how you want (it means you can reduce reflective glare). When using the surface with the keyboard docked, the larger screen makes it feel much more like a laptop that a tablet (particularly when compared to the surface pro 2 which felt cramped). This is probably helped by the new 3 by 2 ratio (so it feels less like a widescreen machine). If you undock the keyboard you still feel like you have a tablet.
I like the new larger form factor and it doesn't come at the cost of extra weight or thickness (in fact it is thinner and feels lighter). It feels really nice in the hand, with a solid build.
The new keyboard is an improvement on the old on in just about every respect. There is a surprising amount of travel and while an external keyboard is always going to be nicer, this will do well for on the go. The backlit keys are a nice touch and the trackpad is a bit larger. I actually prefer the keyboard to the "Chiclet" ones that are becoming standard on many laptops. It seems easier to hit the right keys on the this keyboard. It is also very useable on a lap and MUCH more so that the surface 2 or 1 was. The new attachment mechanism which relies on attaching at two points with magnets gives a lot more stability. My only gripe with this attachment mechanism is that it gets in the way of swiping up from the bottom of the screen (which is sometime useful, particularly for charm apps).
The pen feels MUCH nicer than the stylus that came with the surface 2 or surface 1. It has a good heft to it and feels solid and more "pen like". It is also much more accurate and this is particularly noticeable in the corners of the screen (which used to be very problematic to work with on the surface 1, which made hitting the correct option on menus tricky sometimes). It is also nice to have somewhere to stash it on the keyboard (they included a little loop that adheres to the keyboard, so you can slide your pen in for safe storage when it isn't in use. Overall the pen experience is a big improvement and I can see why they switched from the previous stylus (which was a Wacom one) to the new N-trig version. I am slightly concerned that the new one requires batteries and this needs to be kept in mind (you'll want a spare AAAA battery and a couple of 319 button batteries on hand in case they die during something important). The other thing I noticed is that the screen seems to be more slippery than on my older surface (I suspect this may change with use and could just be because the new unit is still pristine and extremely clean)
The sound is surprisingly punchy and there is no problem relying on the speakers if you are watching YouTube videos and the like. In fact you may even be reaching for the volume down button.
Overall first impressions are extremely positive. Microsoft seem to have got a lot right with this iteration.
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Setting up surface pro 2 (and wishing it was a 3)
So the surface pro 3 is out and it looks fantastic. Microsoft have tweaked the design to add all the features I thought were missing from the 2 (in particular I love the look of the bigger screen, better "lapability" and improved stylus). I think the surface pro has really come of age. Unfortunately due to being at the ends of the earth and having to order through preferred supplies, rather than unboxing a 3, I'm opening up my new surface pro 2 (which took a VERY long time to acquire).
As I run through setup, I'm reminded of a few things I found tricky when setting up my initial surface pro and also just how many additional apps I install.
Here's a brief list of apps I think are worth having
Helping to get things done
- Classic shell (makes windows 8 MUCH more usable by creating a "start" button). Install this FIRST as it makes configuring windows to your liking much easier.
- Wunderlist is the software I use for tracking todos, which in the past has worked reasonably well across multiple platforms (I have used it on windows, osx, ios and android devices). The 3rd version just came out for several platforms but is not yet available for windows 8 so I'm making do with the chrome browser extension.
Web browsing
- Internet Explorer comes standard so you don't need to install it (you actually get two versions, as the one launched from the charms area is different and works better if navigating by finger)
- Chrome is worth installing as google stuff works better with it but be aware the fonts will look fuzzy on a surface. This is easy to fix if you find the right setting (which took me a LONG time to track down the first time). You have to disable display scaling on high DPI settings for chrome, the instructions on how to do this are here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fonts-appear-blurred-windows-8
- Firefox is still a favourite and I find some sites just work better in firefox. If fonts look fuzzy try the same trick for fixing as described above for Chrome.
Mail
- Outlook (I've switched to the dark side) although I really miss some Thunderbird features, I've found Thunderbird buggy of late (but Outlook isn't much better)
Media
- itunes is particularly handy if you have an apple device but also helpful for managing media even if you don't
- doubleTwist is helpful for syncing music from an iTunes library to an android device
- Quicktime is handy for playing quick time movies and other media files
- VLC player is still the best free media player out there
- BBflashback player and recorder is the software I use this for screen capture (with audio) - Handbrake is great for optimising video files
- Dropbox is handy if you have a dropbox account
Office documents
- Open office if I'm looking for a free solution, otherwise the MS office suite
PDF creation
- pdf machine merge is handy for emailing personalised pdfs but it costs a bit of money, does a good job though and can save HEAPS of time.
- pdf annotator is very good but again costs money
- Adobe acrobat reader is an industry standard (although I find this can be a bit buggy)
- Cute pdf editor (I sometimes use this to create pdfs if adobe products fail to work)
Technical
- Matlab (ain't cheap)
- Octave (free!)
- Visual studio (for C++)
- Tex works
- Tex studio
Charms bar apps
Don't use these much as I tend to use other devices for touch based apps
- Kindle (for reading ebooks)
As I run through setup, I'm reminded of a few things I found tricky when setting up my initial surface pro and also just how many additional apps I install.
Here's a brief list of apps I think are worth having
Helping to get things done
- Classic shell (makes windows 8 MUCH more usable by creating a "start" button). Install this FIRST as it makes configuring windows to your liking much easier.
- Wunderlist is the software I use for tracking todos, which in the past has worked reasonably well across multiple platforms (I have used it on windows, osx, ios and android devices). The 3rd version just came out for several platforms but is not yet available for windows 8 so I'm making do with the chrome browser extension.
Web browsing
- Internet Explorer comes standard so you don't need to install it (you actually get two versions, as the one launched from the charms area is different and works better if navigating by finger)
- Chrome is worth installing as google stuff works better with it but be aware the fonts will look fuzzy on a surface. This is easy to fix if you find the right setting (which took me a LONG time to track down the first time). You have to disable display scaling on high DPI settings for chrome, the instructions on how to do this are here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fonts-appear-blurred-windows-8
- Firefox is still a favourite and I find some sites just work better in firefox. If fonts look fuzzy try the same trick for fixing as described above for Chrome.
- Outlook (I've switched to the dark side) although I really miss some Thunderbird features, I've found Thunderbird buggy of late (but Outlook isn't much better)
Media
- itunes is particularly handy if you have an apple device but also helpful for managing media even if you don't
- doubleTwist is helpful for syncing music from an iTunes library to an android device
- Quicktime is handy for playing quick time movies and other media files
- VLC player is still the best free media player out there
- BBflashback player and recorder is the software I use this for screen capture (with audio) - Handbrake is great for optimising video files
- Dropbox is handy if you have a dropbox account
Office documents
- Open office if I'm looking for a free solution, otherwise the MS office suite
PDF creation
- pdf machine merge is handy for emailing personalised pdfs but it costs a bit of money, does a good job though and can save HEAPS of time.
- pdf annotator is very good but again costs money
- Adobe acrobat reader is an industry standard (although I find this can be a bit buggy)
- Cute pdf editor (I sometimes use this to create pdfs if adobe products fail to work)
Technical
- Matlab (ain't cheap)
- Octave (free!)
- Visual studio (for C++)
- Tex works
- Tex studio
Charms bar apps
Don't use these much as I tend to use other devices for touch based apps
- Kindle (for reading ebooks)
Friday, 9 May 2014
How to set up three monitors with a surface pro
It is possible to drive three external monitors from a surface pro. My surface is currently driving three Dell monitors (two 24" monitors and one 23" monitor). They are set up as shown below, with all three monitors extending from the surface screen (so I can drag and drop seamlessly).
As you can see, I have the 23" monitor set up in the middle, which allows my enough space to have the surface screen visible below while having the top still align nicely with the 24" monitors. I find it useful to have the surface centrally located, so that I can still use swipe gestures if needed. The 23" monitor is connected via a DVI to DVI cable which plugs into a small multipurpose adapter that connects to the mini display port on the surface. The adapter also has input ports for HDMI and display port (so is very handy to have around). I have another mini display port to VGA adapter for use on the go and these two adapters together allow you to connect to pretty much any monitor or projector you come across.
The other two monitors are both connected to the docking station (Targus USB 3.0 superspeed dual video docking station), which has one DVI input and one HDMI input.
The 24" monitor on the right hand side is connected to my docking station (Targus USB 3.0 superspeed dual video docking station) using a DVI to DVI cable.
The 24" monitor on the left hand side is connected using a DVI to HDMI cable (The DVI end is plugged into the monitor and the HDMI end goes into the back of the docking station). I had initially tried using the displayport on the monitor with a displayport to HDMI adapter and then a standard HDMI cable but this failed.
Prior to a three monitor setup I used a two monitor set up with the external monitors side by side and the surface below (in the middle) forming an inverted triangle. This also worked well.
Note if the mouse cursor ever disappears you can hit window+P to bring up the projection options. Select "PC screen only", then hit window+P again and select "extend". That should restore your mouse cursor.
As you can see, I have the 23" monitor set up in the middle, which allows my enough space to have the surface screen visible below while having the top still align nicely with the 24" monitors. I find it useful to have the surface centrally located, so that I can still use swipe gestures if needed. The 23" monitor is connected via a DVI to DVI cable which plugs into a small multipurpose adapter that connects to the mini display port on the surface. The adapter also has input ports for HDMI and display port (so is very handy to have around). I have another mini display port to VGA adapter for use on the go and these two adapters together allow you to connect to pretty much any monitor or projector you come across.
The other two monitors are both connected to the docking station (Targus USB 3.0 superspeed dual video docking station), which has one DVI input and one HDMI input.
The 24" monitor on the right hand side is connected to my docking station (Targus USB 3.0 superspeed dual video docking station) using a DVI to DVI cable.
The 24" monitor on the left hand side is connected using a DVI to HDMI cable (The DVI end is plugged into the monitor and the HDMI end goes into the back of the docking station). I had initially tried using the displayport on the monitor with a displayport to HDMI adapter and then a standard HDMI cable but this failed.
Prior to a three monitor setup I used a two monitor set up with the external monitors side by side and the surface below (in the middle) forming an inverted triangle. This also worked well.
Note if the mouse cursor ever disappears you can hit window+P to bring up the projection options. Select "PC screen only", then hit window+P again and select "extend". That should restore your mouse cursor.
Thursday, 8 May 2014
Targus docking station, for all your docking needs
The surface pro is extremely slim on ports (it only has thee - a minidisplay port, a USB 3.0 port and a 3.5mm jack for headphones). I find this is absolutely fine when you are on the go but if you want to use the surface pro as a desktop replacement, three ports doesn't cut it. At present there is not a surface pro specific docking station but there are a number of generic USB 3.0 docking stations out there. I have been using the Targus USB 3.0 Superspeed dual video docking station (with power). The results have been generally very good, although there have been a few glitches that I had to find fixes/workarounds for.
Note that if you go to the link above, the image doesn't quite match the product I received. The photo shows all the ports my version has but mine also has an on/off power switch. This on/off switch is missing from every product photo I have seen online. The power switch comes in very handy as you can use it as a "reboot" option in the event that things get glitch.
The idea behind this docking station is that it sits on your desk and can even be used as a stand to raise the back of a laptop (so that the screen is at a better viewing angle, although this wouldn't work for the surface pro). Once your laptop is on the desk all you need to plug in is a single USB 3.0 port plus a power cable. Then you should be good to go, connected to the myriad of devices plugged into the docking station. There are even power adapters for most major laptop brands hiding inside the unit (lift the lid to reveal them). These plug directly into the docking station, so if your laptop is supported you don't even need your usual power adapter. Unfortunately there isn't one included for the surface pro (but I get along fine with using my standard power adapter).
I am amazed at how much stuff can successfully flow through a single USB 3.0 port. Currently I can connect all the following:
- an external monitor via the DVI port
- another external monitor via the HDMI port (I am using an HDMI to DVI cable to connect this to a Dell monitor, more on this later).
- an audio interface (via usb) which is used for recording audio from a microphone
- a set of speakers (via 3.5mm jack)
- a usb mouse
- a usb keyboard
- an Ethernet cable
- an external usb hard drive
- an external usb bluray drive
This leaves me with one usb port spare, if I need to plug in a usb flash drive (although my monitors appear to have usb ports on them but I'm not sure if they work without additional cabling).
Installation wasn't too bad, although the drivers came on a CD which was a bit of a pain. To install them onto the surface pro you need either an external optical drive or another computer with an optical drive (so that you can transfer them over to usb). The driver file is tiny, so didn't require much space and I transferred it across on a usb flash drive. Alternatively you can just download the drivers direct from the targus website (and get the latest version to boot.
A word of caution if you've installed the drivers from the CD on windows 8 and then upgraded to windows 8.1. I found things stopped working (i.e. I couldn't use my monitor anymore). The solution (when I finally discovered it) was easy but not well documented. Don't just upgrade your drivers to the latest version, an upgrade won't fix things. To get things working with windows 8.1 you first have to UNINSTALL the drivers entirely and THEN install the latest drivers.
Occasionally things stop working (i.e. the monitor doesn't connect or the mouse won't react or the keyboard can't be use to input stuff). Usually switching the power off and on again on the docking station fixes any problem.
Another minor glitch is that sometimes the mouse cursor gets "stuck" in one place or disappears entirely but everything else still seems to work (so you can still type and the monitor is still displaying what you expect). I've found that toggling the display to "PC screen only" and then back to extend mode fixes this issue. To do this quickly hit the windows+P key, choose "PC screen only" and then repeat the process but this time choose extend.
Note that if you go to the link above, the image doesn't quite match the product I received. The photo shows all the ports my version has but mine also has an on/off power switch. This on/off switch is missing from every product photo I have seen online. The power switch comes in very handy as you can use it as a "reboot" option in the event that things get glitch.
The idea behind this docking station is that it sits on your desk and can even be used as a stand to raise the back of a laptop (so that the screen is at a better viewing angle, although this wouldn't work for the surface pro). Once your laptop is on the desk all you need to plug in is a single USB 3.0 port plus a power cable. Then you should be good to go, connected to the myriad of devices plugged into the docking station. There are even power adapters for most major laptop brands hiding inside the unit (lift the lid to reveal them). These plug directly into the docking station, so if your laptop is supported you don't even need your usual power adapter. Unfortunately there isn't one included for the surface pro (but I get along fine with using my standard power adapter).
I am amazed at how much stuff can successfully flow through a single USB 3.0 port. Currently I can connect all the following:
- an external monitor via the DVI port
- another external monitor via the HDMI port (I am using an HDMI to DVI cable to connect this to a Dell monitor, more on this later).
- an audio interface (via usb) which is used for recording audio from a microphone
- a set of speakers (via 3.5mm jack)
- a usb mouse
- a usb keyboard
- an Ethernet cable
- an external usb hard drive
- an external usb bluray drive
This leaves me with one usb port spare, if I need to plug in a usb flash drive (although my monitors appear to have usb ports on them but I'm not sure if they work without additional cabling).
Installation wasn't too bad, although the drivers came on a CD which was a bit of a pain. To install them onto the surface pro you need either an external optical drive or another computer with an optical drive (so that you can transfer them over to usb). The driver file is tiny, so didn't require much space and I transferred it across on a usb flash drive. Alternatively you can just download the drivers direct from the targus website (and get the latest version to boot.
A word of caution if you've installed the drivers from the CD on windows 8 and then upgraded to windows 8.1. I found things stopped working (i.e. I couldn't use my monitor anymore). The solution (when I finally discovered it) was easy but not well documented. Don't just upgrade your drivers to the latest version, an upgrade won't fix things. To get things working with windows 8.1 you first have to UNINSTALL the drivers entirely and THEN install the latest drivers.
Occasionally things stop working (i.e. the monitor doesn't connect or the mouse won't react or the keyboard can't be use to input stuff). Usually switching the power off and on again on the docking station fixes any problem.
Another minor glitch is that sometimes the mouse cursor gets "stuck" in one place or disappears entirely but everything else still seems to work (so you can still type and the monitor is still displaying what you expect). I've found that toggling the display to "PC screen only" and then back to extend mode fixes this issue. To do this quickly hit the windows+P key, choose "PC screen only" and then repeat the process but this time choose extend.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Audio success!
I finally bit the bullet and shelled out for a decent audio system. I got a Shure SM58 vocal mic (with foam wind shield) and hooked it up to the Onyx Mackie blackjack 2x2 audio interface. I've got the mic sitting on a cheap boom arm (think old school desk lamp with spring arm) so the mic can be easily positioned in front of me (i.e. a few inches from my mouth).
The results have been extremely gratifying so far. I'm still exploring the system but I have produced several video podcasts for classes now, ranging from 15 to 30 minutes in length. The audio is clear with next to no background noise (despite being in a room with a computer fan and air con).
I'm still finding that I need to bump up the audio levels in post processing to get something that sounds ok over the built-in external speakers (but for headphone listening that isn't required). I'm not sure how many people will be using external speakers rather than headphones but it isn't too tricky to increase the gain (I've just been using a normalisation filter in bbflashback to do the job).
The only downside is that it would be a pain to move the setup, so if I wanted to use it in a lecture I would be carting quite a bit of stuff down with me. Everything would pack down reasonably small though, so at a pinch I *could* take it all to a lecture theatre if I had to. It would not be convenient though.
The results have been extremely gratifying so far. I'm still exploring the system but I have produced several video podcasts for classes now, ranging from 15 to 30 minutes in length. The audio is clear with next to no background noise (despite being in a room with a computer fan and air con).
I'm still finding that I need to bump up the audio levels in post processing to get something that sounds ok over the built-in external speakers (but for headphone listening that isn't required). I'm not sure how many people will be using external speakers rather than headphones but it isn't too tricky to increase the gain (I've just been using a normalisation filter in bbflashback to do the job).
The only downside is that it would be a pain to move the setup, so if I wanted to use it in a lecture I would be carting quite a bit of stuff down with me. Everything would pack down reasonably small though, so at a pinch I *could* take it all to a lecture theatre if I had to. It would not be convenient though.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Video conversion (so you need a smaller file...)
When recording lectures I use one of two tools:
1) The automated lecture recording software provided by the university
2) Bbflashback on my surface
The first option has the advantage everything is done for you and an email turns up in your inbox with links to whatever you might want (a low quality, high quality and audio only recording). The disadvantage is that even the low quality recording is pretty large, at around 100Mb for a 50 minute lecture. For students based on campus the large file size isn't a problem. For extramural students it is a different story, as their internet connection isn't necessarily reliable or fast.
The second option works well if you want a smaller recording and gives much more control (but I am having problems getting decent noise-free audio). As bbflashback records only changes to the screen (rather than multiple frames a second) you can end up with a much smaller file size (e.g. 15 Mb for a 50 minute lecture). This assumes you export with a very low frame rate and relatively low quality (but it makes for a perfectly viewable recording). It also assumes you are using something like power point or writing on the tablet, rather tha playing video footage.
For some courses I use both, using the automated recording as a backup. This was helpful this week when I accidentally hit the "discard" rather than "save" button after recording a bbflashback lecture.
All was not lost because of the automated recording but I really wanted to convert it from a 100Mb file to something smaller.
After a bit of research I settled on a video conversion tool called Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/ (open source and available for free).
This read my mp4 recording in with no issues and then I set about to tweak settings to see if I could export it as a smaller file. Almost everything I tried in terms of optimisation resulted in an approximately 60Mb file. Tweaking different video settings didn't make much difference (I tried scaling the video size to half the original size, going to greyscale, using higher compression, longer encoding time, lower quality and nothing brought the size down by more than a Mb or two).
In the end I concluded that if altering the video didn't change things much then maybe I should play with the audio instead. After all, a 3 minute song can easily be 3Mb, so an hour of audio could account for a lot of that 60Mb file size. Turns out this hunch was right on the money. By dropping down from 128bps to 64bps I was able to reduce the file size to 33Mb.
The lesson is if you want to reduce your video recording file size, try downgrading the audio quality, you may be pleasantly surprised how much of a space saving that gives you (with no loss of intelligibility for spoken word)
1) The automated lecture recording software provided by the university
2) Bbflashback on my surface
The first option has the advantage everything is done for you and an email turns up in your inbox with links to whatever you might want (a low quality, high quality and audio only recording). The disadvantage is that even the low quality recording is pretty large, at around 100Mb for a 50 minute lecture. For students based on campus the large file size isn't a problem. For extramural students it is a different story, as their internet connection isn't necessarily reliable or fast.
The second option works well if you want a smaller recording and gives much more control (but I am having problems getting decent noise-free audio). As bbflashback records only changes to the screen (rather than multiple frames a second) you can end up with a much smaller file size (e.g. 15 Mb for a 50 minute lecture). This assumes you export with a very low frame rate and relatively low quality (but it makes for a perfectly viewable recording). It also assumes you are using something like power point or writing on the tablet, rather tha playing video footage.
For some courses I use both, using the automated recording as a backup. This was helpful this week when I accidentally hit the "discard" rather than "save" button after recording a bbflashback lecture.
All was not lost because of the automated recording but I really wanted to convert it from a 100Mb file to something smaller.
After a bit of research I settled on a video conversion tool called Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/ (open source and available for free).
This read my mp4 recording in with no issues and then I set about to tweak settings to see if I could export it as a smaller file. Almost everything I tried in terms of optimisation resulted in an approximately 60Mb file. Tweaking different video settings didn't make much difference (I tried scaling the video size to half the original size, going to greyscale, using higher compression, longer encoding time, lower quality and nothing brought the size down by more than a Mb or two).
In the end I concluded that if altering the video didn't change things much then maybe I should play with the audio instead. After all, a 3 minute song can easily be 3Mb, so an hour of audio could account for a lot of that 60Mb file size. Turns out this hunch was right on the money. By dropping down from 128bps to 64bps I was able to reduce the file size to 33Mb.
The lesson is if you want to reduce your video recording file size, try downgrading the audio quality, you may be pleasantly surprised how much of a space saving that gives you (with no loss of intelligibility for spoken word)
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
In search of better screencasting audio
I have been using my surface pro for screen casting every now and then and am slightly frustrated with a few things. I'm after clear video, great audio and a small file size. Not much to ask :-)
On one course I use bb flashback to record live lectures (as opposed to our usual automated lecture recording system provided by the university). The audio gives me speech that is perfectly understandable but there is quite a bit of background noise and it isn't that pleasant to listen to. I noticed that even when recording in my office I still get a fair bit of background noise when using the built-in microphone. I suspect it is picking up my office air conditioning and it is definitely picking up the surface fan when it kicks in. This is a problem I want to solve. Initially I thought it would be as simple as shelling out $20-$50 for a decent external microphone. Turns out it isn't that simple.
I've been doing some reading around audio recording and after trialling a bunch of different microphones and audio interfaces have come to the following conclusions:
a) to avoid electronic noise, use usb
b) to avoid background noise from the environment use a good quality directional dynamic microphone (as opposed to a condenser)
c) microphones may need an amplifier to boost the signal
d) if you want really nice audio, expect to shell out a lot for it (e.g. around $500 NZ)
I'll deal with each conclusion in turn.
Cheap external computer microphones (or headset microphones) will often plug into the 3.5mm jack on a laptop. With the surface pro I have found that every microphone that I've plugged into a 3.5mm jack has had issues with noise. My brother who is an electrical engineer (and audiophile) told me that using the 3.5mm jack and onboard circuits for sound processing is likely to result in noise. The included soundcard on portable computers isn't going to be ideal for processing high quality audio. It is better to ditch the 3.5mm jack and get your audio in via the usb connection (so that the signal processing can be done externally). There are a number of well known microphone manufacturers who produce microphones that plug directly into a usb port. Here are a list of the ones I considered after extensive research: the Rode podcaster, the Blue Snowball, the Blue yeti, the Studio projects LSM, the Samson Go-mic and the Audio-Technica ATR2100 USB. You can find youtube reviews on all of these but the most useful site I found was Recording Hacks: http://recordinghacks.com/
All these microphones come highly recommending for podcasting.
Microphones fall into two main categories, condenser microphones (which use a capacitor) and dynamic microphones (which use a magnet and coil). Condenser microphones tend to be much more sensitive and also need to be powered. I tried out a few condenser mircophones (e.g. the Blue Snowball and Blue Yeti) and while the audio was very clear and electronic noise wasn't an issue, background noise was. Despite these microphones having cardiod pickup patterns (which means in theory they only pick up noise in front of them, rather than from all around) condensers are so sensitive that I as picking up noises from behind the microphone at the very far end of the shop I was in. Condensers would be great in a studio environment with sound proofing where background noise wasn't an issue. Since I have air conditioning on in my office, plus a computer fan and the sound of me writing on my surface with a stylus, condensers weren't going to work. By contrast the dynamic cardiod microphones I tried were MUCH better at picking up just my voice and no background noise. They are less sensitive so you have to position your mouth a lot closer to the microphone but this is a small price to pay for less noise. The Rode podcaster did a lot better job of isolating my voice, even though I was testing it in a relatively noisy shop.
Unfortunately the Rode podcaster didn't give me very high input levels so I had to post process the audio recordings and massively scale the gain. It appears that this is a common complaint with usb microphones and that it is often necessarily to increase the amplitude of the signal. While you can do this in software, increasing the signal via post processing can also introduce audible background noise (that wasn't noticeable until you increase the amplitude). A better solution is to use a pre-amp (pre-amplifier) to increase the signal.
If you are going the route of using a pre-amp, then you need an audio-interface, which does the job of both amplifying the microphone's signal and converting the signal to a digital format so that it can go in via usb. The nice thing about going with this route is you are no longer limited to usb microphones, you can use professional audio microphones which make use of the standard XLR connectors present on just about all mics used in the recording industry. I tried out The Shure SM57 instrument mic (an industry standard) with my brother's audio interface (a TASCAM audio interface ) and got fantastic quality. This may well be the way to go.
In summary, to get really good audio you will probably need a good audio interface (for around $200-$300) plus a good dynamic microphone (for around $150-$250) plus stand and cable.
I've been looking at the Shure SM58 or SM48 for the microphone and the Onyx Mackie blackjack as the interface.
My last hope at a cheaper solution is the Audio-technica AT2100USB microphone, which is currently out of stock, so I haven't been able to try it yet.
On one course I use bb flashback to record live lectures (as opposed to our usual automated lecture recording system provided by the university). The audio gives me speech that is perfectly understandable but there is quite a bit of background noise and it isn't that pleasant to listen to. I noticed that even when recording in my office I still get a fair bit of background noise when using the built-in microphone. I suspect it is picking up my office air conditioning and it is definitely picking up the surface fan when it kicks in. This is a problem I want to solve. Initially I thought it would be as simple as shelling out $20-$50 for a decent external microphone. Turns out it isn't that simple.
I've been doing some reading around audio recording and after trialling a bunch of different microphones and audio interfaces have come to the following conclusions:
a) to avoid electronic noise, use usb
b) to avoid background noise from the environment use a good quality directional dynamic microphone (as opposed to a condenser)
c) microphones may need an amplifier to boost the signal
d) if you want really nice audio, expect to shell out a lot for it (e.g. around $500 NZ)
I'll deal with each conclusion in turn.
Cheap external computer microphones (or headset microphones) will often plug into the 3.5mm jack on a laptop. With the surface pro I have found that every microphone that I've plugged into a 3.5mm jack has had issues with noise. My brother who is an electrical engineer (and audiophile) told me that using the 3.5mm jack and onboard circuits for sound processing is likely to result in noise. The included soundcard on portable computers isn't going to be ideal for processing high quality audio. It is better to ditch the 3.5mm jack and get your audio in via the usb connection (so that the signal processing can be done externally). There are a number of well known microphone manufacturers who produce microphones that plug directly into a usb port. Here are a list of the ones I considered after extensive research: the Rode podcaster, the Blue Snowball, the Blue yeti, the Studio projects LSM, the Samson Go-mic and the Audio-Technica ATR2100 USB. You can find youtube reviews on all of these but the most useful site I found was Recording Hacks: http://recordinghacks.com/
All these microphones come highly recommending for podcasting.
Microphones fall into two main categories, condenser microphones (which use a capacitor) and dynamic microphones (which use a magnet and coil). Condenser microphones tend to be much more sensitive and also need to be powered. I tried out a few condenser mircophones (e.g. the Blue Snowball and Blue Yeti) and while the audio was very clear and electronic noise wasn't an issue, background noise was. Despite these microphones having cardiod pickup patterns (which means in theory they only pick up noise in front of them, rather than from all around) condensers are so sensitive that I as picking up noises from behind the microphone at the very far end of the shop I was in. Condensers would be great in a studio environment with sound proofing where background noise wasn't an issue. Since I have air conditioning on in my office, plus a computer fan and the sound of me writing on my surface with a stylus, condensers weren't going to work. By contrast the dynamic cardiod microphones I tried were MUCH better at picking up just my voice and no background noise. They are less sensitive so you have to position your mouth a lot closer to the microphone but this is a small price to pay for less noise. The Rode podcaster did a lot better job of isolating my voice, even though I was testing it in a relatively noisy shop.
Unfortunately the Rode podcaster didn't give me very high input levels so I had to post process the audio recordings and massively scale the gain. It appears that this is a common complaint with usb microphones and that it is often necessarily to increase the amplitude of the signal. While you can do this in software, increasing the signal via post processing can also introduce audible background noise (that wasn't noticeable until you increase the amplitude). A better solution is to use a pre-amp (pre-amplifier) to increase the signal.
If you are going the route of using a pre-amp, then you need an audio-interface, which does the job of both amplifying the microphone's signal and converting the signal to a digital format so that it can go in via usb. The nice thing about going with this route is you are no longer limited to usb microphones, you can use professional audio microphones which make use of the standard XLR connectors present on just about all mics used in the recording industry. I tried out The Shure SM57 instrument mic (an industry standard) with my brother's audio interface (a TASCAM audio interface ) and got fantastic quality. This may well be the way to go.
In summary, to get really good audio you will probably need a good audio interface (for around $200-$300) plus a good dynamic microphone (for around $150-$250) plus stand and cable.
I've been looking at the Shure SM58 or SM48 for the microphone and the Onyx Mackie blackjack as the interface.
My last hope at a cheaper solution is the Audio-technica AT2100USB microphone, which is currently out of stock, so I haven't been able to try it yet.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Surface RT for teaching (and another educator's thoughts on the Surface pro)
If you are curious about using the surface RT for teaching, take a look at this great blog: http://eiuitc.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/surface-rt-for-teachers-glass-half.html
Click on the home button and take a look at some of Tom's past posts, as he also covers the surface pro.
Click on the home button and take a look at some of Tom's past posts, as he also covers the surface pro.
Video editing sucks
My previous laptop (an aging DELL that was high spec when first purchased) seemed to take forever when editing videos. Unfortunately the surface makes it look speedy by comparison. Video editing is a good way to max out the RAM and the hard disk access at the same time (CPU doesn't seem to max out as much though).
I know exporting and saving video is notoriously expensive computationally but waiting tens of minutes is frustrating.
This is the first instance where I've been really frustrated with the surface performance. Usually it trucks along fairly well with its 4 Gb of RAM but video editors should opt for using something with more grunt.
I know exporting and saving video is notoriously expensive computationally but waiting tens of minutes is frustrating.
This is the first instance where I've been really frustrated with the surface performance. Usually it trucks along fairly well with its 4 Gb of RAM but video editors should opt for using something with more grunt.
Experiments with screen casting and powerpoint
This week I put my surface through its paces as a presentation machine (partly because the screen on my dell died that day, so it was my only option!). Unfortunately not everything went according to plan (in fact just about nothing did). Fortunately every cloud has a silver lining!
On Tuesday I ran an information evening for prospective mathematics students which included talks from seven different people (using five separate power point presentations). I was curious to see how the surface would go as a presentation computer, where rapidly switching between different power point presentations was required,. I also needed to record the entire event (both video and audio).
I decided to install bb flashback to record the audio and video, as I have a little experience with it and know several colleagues who use it. It turned out that bb flashback comes in three different versions (express, standard and pro). The express version is free and you can trial the other two for a month, free of charge. If you are fortunate your institution may well have a site license for the pro version (which I since discovered was the case for us). I know from past experience that bb flashback is capable of creating much smaller recordings, while still maintaining adequate quality. As a back up I also used the university's own recording facilities but this generates very large files (approx 200Mb for an hour of recording). Obviously large files can be painful if you have to download the recording over a slow connection (or you have a limited amount of data included in your broadband plan).
The results were less than stellar. I had plugged the projector in via a vga adapter and opted to duplicate the displays. Powerpoint 2013 had different ideas though and when I started the full screen slide show, I wasn't given a duplicate view on the surface and the projector. Instead the surface showed a control panel with a smaller view of the slide (allowing you to navigate easily through slides) and only the projector showed the full screen slide view. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I was using bb flashback to capture the screen and unfortunately it captured the surface screen, not the projector screen. Even worse it didn't capture the whole screen (that would have been salvageable). Instead it only captured a portion of it, leaving me with not quite usable video.
The good news is that I got pretty reasonable audio quality via plugging in an external microphone into the single line in/line out port on the surface. I was worried that audio quality might have been an issue but the mic did a pretty good job. The mic I used was a pretty simple one that would normally be worn on a lapel, however I attached it to the e-lectern mic. It was fairly good at picking up audio from all directions, which was helpful as some of the presenters roamed a bit. The downside was you picked up a lot of noise from the audience too, resulting in a fair bit of low background noise. Fortunately the pro version of bb flashback includes functionality to remove background noise (although you end up with a slight echo on the recorded voice at times).
Later experiments with bb flashback seem to indicate there are bugs when capturing regions and windows on the surface. Even with no projector plugged in, it does not capture regions and windows correctly. Instead it grabs a slightly offset area from the region or window selected (it captures most of what you want but the area captured is to the left of the one indicated in red when you set up the area to record). Fortunately full screen capture works (but only if you avoid powerpoint run using a projector).
BB flashback also seems to have a buggy save dialogue, as several times when I went to save a file I got a busy icon that lasted for a minute or two, before I was able to enter a filename to save the recording as. This is NOT a good look when you are in the middle of a presentation, so after the first hang took several minutes to recover from I decided to ditch my original plan of making separate recordings for each speaker. I figured I would be able to split things up in post processing (which turned out to be doable with the pro version).
So how did I get around the problem of not quite usable video? Fortunately I had used the university recording system as a backup and it DID record the video from the projector feed (plus audio). Interestingly the audio recorded through the e-lectern mic was much more directional, which meant less background noise. It also meant that if the speaker wasn't talking to the mic the sound was significantly attenuated (and hence hard to hear). Between the bb flashback recording and the university recording system I had good audio and acceptable video for all speakers but needed some way of combining the two and still producing a small file.
For the one speaker who roamed a lot, I ended up using bb flashback player to play back the captured audio (since my external mic tracked him pretty well). I simultaneously used bb flashback recorder to capture the played audio and new video (a fullscreen view of the powerpoint, which I manually navigated through to sync up with the audio). This worked surprisingly well. I ended up with very acceptable video and audio once I had trimmed unnecessary material from either end (and filtered the noise from the audio track).
For the remaining speakers (who had talked to the mic) I initially tried played the university recording in full screen mode (with audio) and set bb flashback to record the entire thing. This wasn't a particularly elegant solution, as it took an hour to run through. Fortunately it was the kind of thing that you could just set up and leave running. At the end I was left with a HUGE bb flashback file (over 7 Gb) which contained adequate audio and video. Note the video was NOT as good quality as would have been obtained if bb flashback had captured the correct screen in the first place (as the recorded video from the university system is downsampled somewhat). I suspect the HUGE size was due to the display continually changing just a little bit, as the video played. This means that the recorded wasn't just grabbing frames when the powerpoint slides were changed, it was continuously grabbing frames. This left me with the option of going with the slides that were cut off or redoing it manually. After several hours of playing with software in the wee hours of the morning I decided to go with the first option (sleep was starting to appeal).
I definitely want to be able to use powerpoint coupled with screen casting software, so need to find a workaround for bb flashback or need something more reliable (I'll take a look at camtasia, in case that works better).
There were plenty of other bugs on the night too. Powerpoint crashed and starting a full screen powerpoint presentation always generated an exception on the e-lectern computer (as it was accepting the display signal from my surface). I suspect this was due to powerpoint overriding the duplicated display mode.
The silver lining to all this was that I had anticipated the possibility of difficulty in transitioning between powerpoint presentations, so had prepared several discussion points to throw out to the audience. At the close of each presentation I simply gave the audience the next discussion point, before setting to work on working around the bugs and setting up the next presentation. This meant it didn't matter if it took me two to three minutes to get things working again (their focus was on the conversation rathe than on me dealing with the technical issues). It also had the unexpected side effect of keeping the audience more alert and engaged throughout the entire evening Incorporating some discusison points or "active learning" exercises could be a REALLY useful strategy to have up your sleave if you think there might be technical hitches.
On Tuesday I ran an information evening for prospective mathematics students which included talks from seven different people (using five separate power point presentations). I was curious to see how the surface would go as a presentation computer, where rapidly switching between different power point presentations was required,. I also needed to record the entire event (both video and audio).
I decided to install bb flashback to record the audio and video, as I have a little experience with it and know several colleagues who use it. It turned out that bb flashback comes in three different versions (express, standard and pro). The express version is free and you can trial the other two for a month, free of charge. If you are fortunate your institution may well have a site license for the pro version (which I since discovered was the case for us). I know from past experience that bb flashback is capable of creating much smaller recordings, while still maintaining adequate quality. As a back up I also used the university's own recording facilities but this generates very large files (approx 200Mb for an hour of recording). Obviously large files can be painful if you have to download the recording over a slow connection (or you have a limited amount of data included in your broadband plan).
The results were less than stellar. I had plugged the projector in via a vga adapter and opted to duplicate the displays. Powerpoint 2013 had different ideas though and when I started the full screen slide show, I wasn't given a duplicate view on the surface and the projector. Instead the surface showed a control panel with a smaller view of the slide (allowing you to navigate easily through slides) and only the projector showed the full screen slide view. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I was using bb flashback to capture the screen and unfortunately it captured the surface screen, not the projector screen. Even worse it didn't capture the whole screen (that would have been salvageable). Instead it only captured a portion of it, leaving me with not quite usable video.
The good news is that I got pretty reasonable audio quality via plugging in an external microphone into the single line in/line out port on the surface. I was worried that audio quality might have been an issue but the mic did a pretty good job. The mic I used was a pretty simple one that would normally be worn on a lapel, however I attached it to the e-lectern mic. It was fairly good at picking up audio from all directions, which was helpful as some of the presenters roamed a bit. The downside was you picked up a lot of noise from the audience too, resulting in a fair bit of low background noise. Fortunately the pro version of bb flashback includes functionality to remove background noise (although you end up with a slight echo on the recorded voice at times).
Later experiments with bb flashback seem to indicate there are bugs when capturing regions and windows on the surface. Even with no projector plugged in, it does not capture regions and windows correctly. Instead it grabs a slightly offset area from the region or window selected (it captures most of what you want but the area captured is to the left of the one indicated in red when you set up the area to record). Fortunately full screen capture works (but only if you avoid powerpoint run using a projector).
BB flashback also seems to have a buggy save dialogue, as several times when I went to save a file I got a busy icon that lasted for a minute or two, before I was able to enter a filename to save the recording as. This is NOT a good look when you are in the middle of a presentation, so after the first hang took several minutes to recover from I decided to ditch my original plan of making separate recordings for each speaker. I figured I would be able to split things up in post processing (which turned out to be doable with the pro version).
So how did I get around the problem of not quite usable video? Fortunately I had used the university recording system as a backup and it DID record the video from the projector feed (plus audio). Interestingly the audio recorded through the e-lectern mic was much more directional, which meant less background noise. It also meant that if the speaker wasn't talking to the mic the sound was significantly attenuated (and hence hard to hear). Between the bb flashback recording and the university recording system I had good audio and acceptable video for all speakers but needed some way of combining the two and still producing a small file.
For the one speaker who roamed a lot, I ended up using bb flashback player to play back the captured audio (since my external mic tracked him pretty well). I simultaneously used bb flashback recorder to capture the played audio and new video (a fullscreen view of the powerpoint, which I manually navigated through to sync up with the audio). This worked surprisingly well. I ended up with very acceptable video and audio once I had trimmed unnecessary material from either end (and filtered the noise from the audio track).
For the remaining speakers (who had talked to the mic) I initially tried played the university recording in full screen mode (with audio) and set bb flashback to record the entire thing. This wasn't a particularly elegant solution, as it took an hour to run through. Fortunately it was the kind of thing that you could just set up and leave running. At the end I was left with a HUGE bb flashback file (over 7 Gb) which contained adequate audio and video. Note the video was NOT as good quality as would have been obtained if bb flashback had captured the correct screen in the first place (as the recorded video from the university system is downsampled somewhat). I suspect the HUGE size was due to the display continually changing just a little bit, as the video played. This means that the recorded wasn't just grabbing frames when the powerpoint slides were changed, it was continuously grabbing frames. This left me with the option of going with the slides that were cut off or redoing it manually. After several hours of playing with software in the wee hours of the morning I decided to go with the first option (sleep was starting to appeal).
I definitely want to be able to use powerpoint coupled with screen casting software, so need to find a workaround for bb flashback or need something more reliable (I'll take a look at camtasia, in case that works better).
There were plenty of other bugs on the night too. Powerpoint crashed and starting a full screen powerpoint presentation always generated an exception on the e-lectern computer (as it was accepting the display signal from my surface). I suspect this was due to powerpoint overriding the duplicated display mode.
The silver lining to all this was that I had anticipated the possibility of difficulty in transitioning between powerpoint presentations, so had prepared several discussion points to throw out to the audience. At the close of each presentation I simply gave the audience the next discussion point, before setting to work on working around the bugs and setting up the next presentation. This meant it didn't matter if it took me two to three minutes to get things working again (their focus was on the conversation rathe than on me dealing with the technical issues). It also had the unexpected side effect of keeping the audience more alert and engaged throughout the entire evening Incorporating some discusison points or "active learning" exercises could be a REALLY useful strategy to have up your sleave if you think there might be technical hitches.
Monday, 19 August 2013
First Use in Class
Here are my thoughts from the first time I tried teaching from the surface, using it in place of the
document camera. It plugged into the vga
cable (with the supplied adaptor) without any issues, although the screen on
the surface became letterboxed, which meant you lost a fair bit of the already
small screen real estate (not as much space for writing). I didn’t have time to experiment with
different orientations or the hdmi adaptor (no hdmi support in the theatre I
tried but I know some other theatres are different).
- if you shut off the display without saving your work you
lose everything (i.e. if the device goes to sleep all the annotations
disappear).
- if you save your work and then re-open the document it is
rendered unreadable on modern reader (but is still fine on other pdf viewers
such as acrobat
- the file sizes are very large
While the modern reader app is not suitable in its current
form (they may resolve the bugs in the future, especially as the annotation
issue is a known problem) there are a myriad of other pdf annotation products,
so I feel hopeful that something appropriate exists. The problem is not with the stylus, rather
with the software.
Also it remains to be seen whether I can set it up using virtual terminal to allow roving. I tried annotating while walking around in the corridor and was able to do so, so assuming a connection could be established to the e-lectern over wifi then it would be possible to move around the room while annotating (which is my aim). When holding the surface in the hand you notice that it is much less pleasant to hold than an ipad. It runs very hot and is quite heavy. It is still possible to carry it around though.
Memory
The 64GB version is nowhere near big enough if you plan on using the Surface as a laptop replacement (although it might be ok for use as a tablet). Part of the reason 64GB is not enough, is that
you lose more than 30 GB of that just on the OS. You
can gain back around 6-7GB by moving the restore partition to USB but even so, that doesn't leave you with much room. I recommend going for the 128GB version of the Surface Pro, plus as much additional memory as
possible in the form of an SDXC card. I've got the largest possible SDXC card (currently
64GB), which gives you a total of around 164GB of usable space (although I'm not sure if the SDXC card will have speed issues and whether you can install applications to it - I'm planning on just using it for data). If you need more storage space then grab a 1 or 2 TB external drive, such as the seagate passport or
similar (usb 3, powered off the port and portable so you can easily take it with
you).
I currently have all the apps installed that I use on a day to day basis (including Office and Matlab which both take up a bit of space). I've still got over 50 GB free on the internal memory but 10GB of that will disappear when I bring the rest of my data over from my laptop.
I/O devices
Keyboards
Stylus
Touch Screen
Easy to use, although unlike the iPad not all applications are optimised for touch, which was a real pain when you didn’t have the keyboard docked. Definitely worth using apps that are touch optimised when possible (e.g. IE was far easy to use than chrome, since it has been optimised for touch). Interestingly when I used splashtop to set up my ipad as a second display, I could happily use touch on that as well to control the cursor position. When using an external 24” monitor I found I was still using touch sometimes, particularly to navigate around through some of the windows 8 stuff (e.g. closing a charm app can be done quickly by swiping a finger from the top to the bottom of the screen), so you want to set up the surface so it can be easily accessed.
Mouse
The
virtual keyboard is similar to the iPad’s.
The physical keyboard is surprisingly usable (I have the black keyboard model, which offers some key action, as opposed to the thinner touch only model).
Despite the small action, the black keyboard (which also functions as a protective case) is very close to
full size keyboard, which means touch typing is much easier than on the virtual
keyboard. The only real issue was that using
cursor keys is a pain, as they have squashed the up and down keys into the
space of one key. This means for fast
data entry (such as exam mark processing) a full size external keyboard is better (and also more ergonomic). On the plus side the trackpad that comes as part of the keyboard is of surprisingly good quality, which means you can get away without plugging in a mouse and still navigate easily.
I tested the Surface with my apple bluetooth keyboard, which tended to work well most of the time, although occasionally a keypress would result in multiple letters coming through.
I typically use an external keyboard via my Targus USB 3 docking station. This works perfectly.
I was
very impressed with the stylus, it worked well with no problems and allowed for
writing at the same resolution I use on paper (plus the rubber mode on the
other end was very handy). It supports
pressure sensitivity too (if the app does).
It was very nice how when the stylus was close to the screen it cut off
the touch input so you could lean your hand against the screen. Best stylus input I’ve ever seen and just
what I was looking for on that front. I’m not sure how robust the included
stylus would be over long term use. If it dies I'll look for other compatible options,
although I would want one with the eraser on the end.
The hand-writing recognition built into windows 8 was
extremely good (no problems reading my writing whatsoever, although I don’t
rely heavily on cursive letters). You
could easily use handwriting as a viable input mode with this device (and it
was nice how you could configure the virtual keyboard to default to
handwriting input mode, meaning hand-writing could be used to input text into any application
whatsoever).
Easy to use, although unlike the iPad not all applications are optimised for touch, which was a real pain when you didn’t have the keyboard docked. Definitely worth using apps that are touch optimised when possible (e.g. IE was far easy to use than chrome, since it has been optimised for touch). Interestingly when I used splashtop to set up my ipad as a second display, I could happily use touch on that as well to control the cursor position. When using an external 24” monitor I found I was still using touch sometimes, particularly to navigate around through some of the windows 8 stuff (e.g. closing a charm app can be done quickly by swiping a finger from the top to the bottom of the screen), so you want to set up the surface so it can be easily accessed.
I hooked
up a wired mouse with no problems. For lecturing I just plug a usb mouse straight into the usb port and when in my office I run the mouse through the Targus docking station. When
travelling a bluetooth mouse could be a good option, so that you don’t tie up
the one usb port. Alternatively a small portable USB hub would allow you to plug in a mouse and a few other things.
Display Thoughts
I am now in possession of a shiny new 128GB model of the
Surface. Here are my initial thoughts with regards to the display.
For reference purposes, the current devices I use include a Dell Precision
M4400 (with matt screen) a first generation iPad and a macbook. I am NOT
a fan of shiny, reflective screens and much prefer a matt screen.
The Surface screen is not as easy on the eyes as the iPad, although it doesn’t have any noticeable flicker and the resolution is very good. It does not work well for outside use (glare is a problem as the screen is very reflective). , If you don't have reflective light sources it works very well indeed and due to the letter box format it is a pleasure to use for wide screen video (cue watching a feature length film in a darkened room). I tested the video by watching Oblivion in SD. I still need to try an HD video to see whether there is any noticeable difference when watching high def material on the tiny screen. Although I really like the small, portable nature of the surface, I do find myself wishing for a slightly larger display, something the size of an A4 piece of paper would be about right for me.
VGA
VGA support is critical for me, as this is still the only option in many lecture theatres (although HDMI cables are becoming more common).
When hooking up the surface to a VGA cable you need to make sure you have the right adapter (mini-display port to VGA). Microsoft sell a Surface Pro specific vga adapter, NOT to be confused with the adaptor for the surface RT. The first time I went to hook up my Surface Pro in a lecturer theatre I discovered I had been supplied with the RT adapter, which isn't compatible (the RT uses a different display port). There are third party adapters available, so you don't have to go with the Microsoft one (although it does look nice and reduces the chances of putting in the adapter the wrong way around).
The surface connected fine to my 24” dell external monitor using a third party vga adaptor and the MS specific one. It also connected fine to a lecture theatre projector using both a third party and MS vga adaptor.
DVI
In my office I work with two external monitors connected to my Surface, both via DVI. One is connected directly to the mini-display port via a third party adapter (you can also get a MS specific one) and the other is connected via a DVI cable to the Targus USB 3 powered docking station (an essential accessory in my opinion - more on this in another post). Connecting directly via the mini-display adapter seems to be pretty much fool proof.
Configuring the docking station took a little work (more on that later). I've now done it twice, first for the evaluation model and then on my personal one.
On the evaluation model things initially worked well but then I passed it on to someone else and when it came back, I ended up with a flickering problem when trying to connect via the docking station. I think something screwy was going on with the drivers but I had to return the evaluation model before I could resolve the problem. This flickering issue hasn't occurred on my personal Surface, so it remains a mystery as to what caused it and how it could be fixed.
Now that I have my personal Surface configured (with display drivers for the docking station installed) it seems to handle reconnecting to the display plugged into the adapter reasonably well, although sometimes I need to power the docking station on and off to pick up the display.
In theory it is possible to drive three external monitors (two via the docking station and one via the mini-display output port). Since I haven't got three monitors, I haven't tried this though.
I usually work with my laptop and an external monitor set up to extend (side by side). This
Scaling Issues
You can zoom in some apps although zooming in google chrome while editing docs does weird things to the cursor location (this is a known chrome issue). If you don't zoom in, you have to have pretty good eye sight to use the default text size when sitting back from the screen.
I tend to use firefox and chrome for browsing but on the Surface IE is the way to go, as it does a much better job of supporting touch screen browsing.
The Surface screen is not as easy on the eyes as the iPad, although it doesn’t have any noticeable flicker and the resolution is very good. It does not work well for outside use (glare is a problem as the screen is very reflective). , If you don't have reflective light sources it works very well indeed and due to the letter box format it is a pleasure to use for wide screen video (cue watching a feature length film in a darkened room). I tested the video by watching Oblivion in SD. I still need to try an HD video to see whether there is any noticeable difference when watching high def material on the tiny screen. Although I really like the small, portable nature of the surface, I do find myself wishing for a slightly larger display, something the size of an A4 piece of paper would be about right for me.
VGA
VGA support is critical for me, as this is still the only option in many lecture theatres (although HDMI cables are becoming more common).
When hooking up the surface to a VGA cable you need to make sure you have the right adapter (mini-display port to VGA). Microsoft sell a Surface Pro specific vga adapter, NOT to be confused with the adaptor for the surface RT. The first time I went to hook up my Surface Pro in a lecturer theatre I discovered I had been supplied with the RT adapter, which isn't compatible (the RT uses a different display port). There are third party adapters available, so you don't have to go with the Microsoft one (although it does look nice and reduces the chances of putting in the adapter the wrong way around).
The surface connected fine to my 24” dell external monitor using a third party vga adaptor and the MS specific one. It also connected fine to a lecture theatre projector using both a third party and MS vga adaptor.
DVI
In my office I work with two external monitors connected to my Surface, both via DVI. One is connected directly to the mini-display port via a third party adapter (you can also get a MS specific one) and the other is connected via a DVI cable to the Targus USB 3 powered docking station (an essential accessory in my opinion - more on this in another post). Connecting directly via the mini-display adapter seems to be pretty much fool proof.
Configuring the docking station took a little work (more on that later). I've now done it twice, first for the evaluation model and then on my personal one.
On the evaluation model things initially worked well but then I passed it on to someone else and when it came back, I ended up with a flickering problem when trying to connect via the docking station. I think something screwy was going on with the drivers but I had to return the evaluation model before I could resolve the problem. This flickering issue hasn't occurred on my personal Surface, so it remains a mystery as to what caused it and how it could be fixed.
Now that I have my personal Surface configured (with display drivers for the docking station installed) it seems to handle reconnecting to the display plugged into the adapter reasonably well, although sometimes I need to power the docking station on and off to pick up the display.
In theory it is possible to drive three external monitors (two via the docking station and one via the mini-display output port). Since I haven't got three monitors, I haven't tried this though.
I usually work with my laptop and an external monitor set up to extend (side by side). This
mode is not so natural for the surface because of the screen
size disparity. Instead it works far better having the external monitors
set up above the surface screen, allowing easy access to the touch
screen. Curently I have them configured in a triangle,with the two
external monitor side by side and the surface in the middle below them.
This places the Surface close enough to use as an input device and I can drag
between all three displays.
iPad as an external monitor
When I was out and about I found myself wishing I
had some more screen real estate, so I used the splashtop app to set up my iPad as a
second monitor and that worked great. You'll need to install splashtop on
your Surface and your iPad. If you happen to have an iPad this gives you
a portable option for extending your display (which if you have an iPad case
that doubles as a stand looks very nifty.
Scaling Issues
One area where windows 8 is a little frustrating
is in the scaling of icons and the like. The Surface has
a very high res screen but the dimensions are small, which can make icons
and text hard to read (and even harder
to navigate using your finger). To get around this
you can scale icons/text to be 125% or 150% of usual size, however the
external monitors look better if using 100% scaling rather than 125% or 150%.
Unfortunately this presents a problem when using external monitors as the
scaling is universally applied to all displays and to make matters
worse to change the scaling you need to log out, so it is not convenient to
toggle this setting. Some apps (e.g. chrome) allow zooming of text.
A better fix may be to disable display scaling on high dpi based on a per app
basis, as described here:
Aside: to do this right click on the google chrome
icon, from properties select the compatibility tab check “disable display
scaling on high DPI settings” This seems to help a bit, although still
not a brilliant solution.
You can zoom in some apps although zooming in google chrome while editing docs does weird things to the cursor location (this is a known chrome issue). If you don't zoom in, you have to have pretty good eye sight to use the default text size when sitting back from the screen.
I tend to use firefox and chrome for browsing but on the Surface IE is the way to go, as it does a much better job of supporting touch screen browsing.
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