If you ever have an audience that is looking at your screen, you have a couple of options to change your screen resolution. You can go all out, and actually change your resolution, but that sometimes has a drastic effect that manipulates all your applications, toolbars, etc. Remember that there is a difference in what you should do, based on your audience. If there are 3 or 4 of you hovered around your monitor for a few minutes, then changing your resolution is probably not a nice choice. On the other hand, if you have hundreds or thousands of people in your Microsoft TechEd audience, then you absolutely change your resolution to 1024X768.

In both situations, if you are projecting your screen, it’s helpful to know about the Windows 7 Magnifier.

The video will show how all this works, but for keyboard junkies, here are the keyboard shortcuts …

• [WINDOWS-LOGO-KEY][+] – Activate the Magnifier, centering the magnification on your current cursor position, magnified at the last zoom percentage.
  • If the magnifier is already active
  • [WINDOWS-LOGO-KEY][+] will increase the magnification percentage by 100
• [WINDOWS-LOGO-KEY][-] – Lower the Magnification percentage in increments of 100 [500%,400%,300%,200%,100%]
• [WINDOWS-LOGO-KEY][ESC] – Close the Magnifier, and show the full screen

Organization is the name of the game, when keeping track of files/folders on your computer. Any computer, Any operating system, it doesn’t matter, if you have tens of thousands of files, they need to be organized. Typically these are organized is some sort of nested fashion. If you don’t use folders, then you end up with hundreds or possible thousands of files in the same place, and things just get harder to find.

Think about your Downloads directory. Everything you download get’s stuffed into the same directory. Think about the ease of having a Utils directory, or maybe a PDFs directory.

Now I’m getting side tracked, but the bottom line is … you’ll need to create folders, and here is a little keyboard shortcut that makes life a tiny little bit easier.

If you’re a KB junkie, save your time on the video, the trick is [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[N] in any Explorer window/dialog (including File | Save, Save As).

Running the Visual Studio Tips and Tricks video blog, I have a lot of screen casts to share. In order to do this, I need to host the videos somewhere. When you think video, first you think of YouTube, at least I do. But there are other options, that are also free, or close to free, and I’m trying them all (or as many as I can).

Because the Video Tips/Tricks are pretty bandwidth heavy, I’m looking for low cost video hosting options. Maybe there are others, but I’ve narrowed my hosting choices down to …

• Silverlight Streaming
• Amazon Cloud Front
• YouTube
• Vimeo.com
• Screencast.com

You know, I say they’re bandwidth heavy, but let’s put that into perspective. The screen casts range in size from 5mb to 100mb. Today, in most parts of the world, that is no longer bandwidth heavy. An hour long HD movie can easily turn into Gigs and Gigs of space, so maybe I’m putting too much weight on my bandwidth constraints.

Currently all of my video blog video sources are hosted on both Silverlight Streaming, and Amazon Cloud Front. I’ve posted a few on YouTube, but until recently I couldn’t figure out the magic of HD on YouTube, so YouTube wasn’t originally an option. Now I’m kind of stuck, because the original content wasn’t recorded to the YouTube spec, and they just look crappy.

So Below, I’ll divide this post into two parts. First, a pro/con list of each of the services I’m considering, followed by an embedded player from the service, if there is one.

Silverlight Streaming …

If I could have my way, I would change nothing. As I mentioned the video’s are currently being served from Silverlight Streaming. And while there is no termination date, Microsoft has announced that the Silverlight Streaming services are not going to be around forever, and they’re recommending moving away from the service. Surprisingly (and confusing to me …) is that as of today (Nov, 2009) you can still sign up for a free account, with 10gig of storage space. I would think that if the service is going away, they would not be accepting new accounts. But, that’s another story …

Amazon Cloud Front …

This really shouldn’t be in the list, but since it’s part of my current solution I’m throwing it out there. This is just a storage service. Nothing more. Could be SkyDrive, Box.net, or any Hosting company like DiscountASP.net. In several instances the Microsoft Silverlight Streaming services has been out of service, so I was throwing the video content up on the Amazon Cloud. The video player that I’m using is a custom Silverlight player, and the only thing I really need is a URL to the WMV file. So in reality, I don’t even need a video hosting solution, just a hosting solution. The problem with the hosting is that it usually comes along with a pay for usage. I’m not against paying for bandwidth, but if there are better services, I’m up for not paying as well 🙂

Vimeo …

Also, Vimeo is a contender. I’ve paid the $60/annual for their premium account, but Vimeo re-encodes the video content and it just doesn’t have the clarity of the original screen capture. You’ll see in the content comparison below, that the quality is MUCH better than event the YouTube HD, but it’s still not close to the original recoding. If I was not recording screen captures, I think Vimeo would be my winner because of the quality. But because my video content is almost always under 100mb in size, I’m looking for perfect quality, which Video doesn’t give me since it goes through a magical re-encoding process.

YouTube …

My biggest problem with YouTube is the pre-production that needs to be done. I really have to jump through hoops to get the content recorded properly, so that after the video is uploaded, it can be rendered in HD. In order to embed the video on my site, I’ve decided that the perfect content size is 900X480. This video size is not conducive to HD playback. I don’t care about the size, this isn’t going to DVD or ever mean to be played on a television. It’s meant to be played on ScottCate.com. Now, the argument could be made that YouTube has enough traffic that I should bend over backwards to get the content uploaded. The argument goes … maybe it would be worth the extra troubles just to get a YouTube channel. So if I chose YouTube, I’m still stuck with looking for a solution for the original content I have, that isn’t YouTube render friendly. YouTube also has not-so-easy sizing options. If I want to play the video back at a certain size, I can’t, unless it lines up with the players they choose. I’m sure this could be hacked, but I don’t wanna think that much about it, just work for me please!

TechSmith Screencast.com …

I record all the content using Camtasia from TechSmith.com. They offer a nice solution of hosting the video output on ScreenCast.com. The premium service is $99 a year, which is well within my “Cheap enough for blogging” price point. A nice part of ScreenCast.com is that there are output options baked into the Camtasia product to upload the final product. In fairness, the product has uploads built for other services, and FTP, and I even think they can be customized to any service. Also, ScreenCast.com doesn’t re-encode the uploaded content, it just streams it out.

And the winner is …

Screencast.com! After typing all this, and thinking about my real problem, I’ve realized that what I need isn’t a video hosting solution to save on bandwidth costs. What I really need is a hosting service that doesn’t re-encode the content that I upload. With that, all I really need is any old hosting service right? But, once you couple the convenience of the upload being built into Camtasia, the service becomes my winner and is a perfect solution for Screencasts.

Below is the same video uploaded to three services, Screencast.com, Vimeo, and YouTube. You tell me the quality difference. Keep in mind that my goal is to play the content back at full size, 900X480, or as close as the player will let me.

ScreenCast.com …

 

 

YouTube …

 

 

Vimeo …

If you’re seen the tech new recently, you’ve heard about the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference). If you couldn’t make the conference (like me) then you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft has posted video of all the sessions and keynotes.

And they’re available for download. In fact, here is a set of CURL scripts that will download them for you all at once (or overnight depending on your bandwidth).

The script basically says – do I have this file? If no, go get it.

Included with the scripts, is a handy Renamer, that renames the file to the session name, which is much more meaningful than the original session number. But … what if (like my) you download 1/2 of them, and the other 1/2 die (or aren’t available)?

If you use the Renamer, the next time you try to fetch the videos, you’ll be fetching them all over again. So I hacked on the Renamer script a bit, to create an Un-Renamer 🙂 Basically the same script backwards. It just took a few minutes, but I thought it might be helpful to provide for others.

Enjoy: PDC09UnRenamer.zip

At TechEd in the US, there are normally dozens of “Official” hotels, and a bus line that is dedicated to your hotel. Just wake up, exit your hotel, get on the bus, snooze for a while, and wake up (again??) at the convention center. Not this year, or at least, not at our hotel. I’m not sure if this was a TechEd decision, or a city of Berlin decision. It doesn’t look like the convention center is setup the same as LAX, or Orlando, where dozens of Bus queues could be handled. Then again, this place is huge so it’s possible (probable) that I missed it.

There is a train that is pretty convenient between the hotel and the convention center, but for my first trip, I was a little confused, so I thought this would be helpful for others, trying to get between the two places. Particularly for those that might not be familiar with trains/tubes in Europe. Not all the signs are in English, and virtually none of the announcements are, so again, I hope this will be helpful.

First, as a speaker I received an email to print that is a weekly transportation pass. The email says the pass needs to be printed, and then validated, but when I went to the train station ticket booth, they said it does not need to be validated, just keep it with you, and if you’re asked for your train pass, just show it. So it’s on the honor system – but have your pass with you. The station isn’t like NY where you need a pass to enter the station, or the train, you just have to have it with you if you’re asked to present it. Mine looks like this …

 

 

I should have printed it with a color printer, so it looks more official, but … it’s too late for that 🙂

OK, now that you have your pass, here is a map of the Hotel Berlin, Berlin, and the closest two train stations … it’ll be an extra stop on the train (while you’re sitting) but I recommend the Lollendorf station. The only reason I’m showing both is that the original directions talk about taking the Wittenberg station, but this one is closer, and the directions are easier. Literally exit the front of the hotel, and make a right down Einemst (Which in my mind is Em-In-Em street – although I know that isn’t correct 🙂 If you look down this street two or three small block, you’ll actually see the train overpass, so you know you’ll be walking in the right direction.

 

 

If you’re not familiar with trains/tube lines, here is a quick lesson. Every train has two names. The train itself has a Line that it’s on, like U1, U2, U3, and second, it has a destination. The train literally runs on a line, and it just goes back and forth. The line that you’re looking for is the U2 line. So when you enter a train station, look for U2, this is the platform that you need. Now you might be confused that there are two U2 platforms, one for each direction of the train. When you are going to the convention center from the hotel, you want to get on the U2-Ruhleben. I think it is 7 or 8 stops, and you want to exit at the Theodor-Heuss-Platz station.

 

 

One thing to note is that the doors don’t open automatically like most trains in the states, so don’t just stand there, press the green circular open button, and the door will open for you.

 

 

When you come up from the station, street side, you’ll be a little confused because there is very little direction. Look across the street and you’ll see a big blue structure, and beyond that, you’ll see a Sky Needle that is very similar to the Needle in Seattle. It’s very large, and tall, probably 50 stories. Even with it’s size, you might miss it based on the trees that are blocking your view. On your tube map, you’ll see this listed as Funk-Turm. Walk towards it walking down the Masuren allee Neue street.

 

 

This actually takes you to the back of the convention center, and TechEd registration is on the Entrance South. Once you see the convention center, simply head towards it. The signs here are in both German and English, so you’ll be able to find your way.

 

One final tip … if you have an iPhone – there is a free application you can download that has all the Berlin tubes on it. It’s named “Berlin City” and has an icon of the likes to the London Tube. You know the famous red circle with the blue line through it. Here is a snap shot of the app running, showing the line you need to be on.

 

 

Or you could just take a taxi 🙂 I’m not sure of the price, since my rail pass was free, the taxi will be more expensive, and you won’t get the exercise. The one pro of a taxi would be eliminating the walk from to/from the stations, but hey … it’s Europe … They want you to walk.

[UPDATE]

It turns out – this is the longer way (in the post below). Ugg. Sorry. I don’ t have images for this, but I have another set of directions. You’re basically doing the same thing as my directions below, but if you make a train connection, then you end up with a shorter walk to the Entrance South.

Here are the updated notes … In order to get closer to the Entrance South, exit the train at the Zoologischer Garten station and change onto the S Bahn line S9(Spandau) or S75(Olympiastadion) and exit at Messe Süd.