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Leo Laporte A technology journalist, author and broadcast personality. His specialties lie in computers, the Web, video games, digital music and consumer electronics. |
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Amber MacArthur An experienced Web content and usability strategist, Amber is also a tech journalist who specializes in Internet, software, and gadget trends and tips. |
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Reinstalling Windows
John, Medina, OH
Q: I heard Leo say that he occasionally re-installs Windows XP. Does re-installing the O/S cause you to lose the updates/patches downloaded from Microsoft?
Turn off all rules and see if that helps.Sean’s note: Yes, yes you do if your reformat the hard drive like you should. You can get around this problem by rolling your own Windows XP install CD with SP2 built-in, by using a process called slipstreaming.
Creating Video Tutorials
Doug, Staunton, VA
Q: I am a tech support person for my city’s school distrtict and I need to make tutorials on a wide array of subjects.
People don’t care to read ANYTHING so I need something besides “stroke selection..” to circle a dialog button in a written tutorial. I’ve been watching with interest the “asplosion” of video and podcasts in the last year. Is there a way I can leverage the tools used for that to my advantage?
I’d like to do whatever it is, e.g. save files to a server, and have a video of what’s on the screen and audio of me commenting on the process.
I’m thinking maybe if there’s a little show people will pay attention. Also the demo and the speaking may help retention (see, hear, do).
I will tell you this; explaining a two stage login over the phone can be QUITE an experience.
It’s a school district so cheap or free is going to be best for me.
On the mac I do this with the excellent SnapZPro from Ambrosia Software. It lets you record screen video with narration. For Windows I recommend TechSmith’s Camtasia. Unfortunately neither is cheap, and Camtasia is downright expensive at $300. Hypercam is less expensive at $40 and does what you want.Sean’s note: Sounds like a job for screen capture software. One bit of software we’ve been using for LabRats is HyperCam (hyperionics.com/), which is available for $40 (30 day free trial option), and captures both video and sound. Mike Laz likes SnagIt from Techsmith (techsmith.com/products/snagit/default.asp)—also $40 with a 30-day trial option. These programs save to standard movie formats; getting circles or other text onto the screen will require additional video editing/post-production software, which will cost more money. You can do basic captioning with Windows Movie Maker, though that might not be exactly what you’re looking for. (By the way, Snapz Pro X 2 is a great screen-capture application for the Mac. At $70 it’s a bit more expensive, but it does also have a 30-day free trial. ambrosiasw.com)
If you’re looking for something a bit more full-featured, Macromedia’s Captivate captures what you’re doing on the screen, allows you to add captions and narration and create an interactive Flash presentation that can accessed over the web. The downside: it’s about $499, and has a steeper learning curve, but it does have a 15-day trial so you can see if it’ll do what you want. (Note: the program used to be called Robohelp Demo)
Testing Web Site
Fred, Etobicoke, ON
Q: What’s the best way to find out howmany concurrent users a web based script can handle? I have a questionnaire that eventually generates a PDF file and I need to know how many people my system can handle.
There are tools you can use to simulate heavy traffic on a server. Microsoft, for example, offers a Web Application Stress Tool, free from microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e2c0585a-062a-439e-a67d-75a89aa36495&DisplayLang=en. You can also get WAPT from http://www.loadtestingtool.com/.If you’re more the do it yourself type, check out twill - a Python based web testing language that you can use to script out a typical user interaction then execute it hundreds of times simultaneously.
darcs.idyll.org/%7Et/projects/twill/README.html#what-is-twill Onlamp has an excellent article on using twill here
onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2005/11/03/twill.html
