Thursday, April 16, 2020

labour saving devices

Alright I know I am about to turn 55, but I am not necessarily always a complete technological idiot and indeed I am lazy enough to care enough to understand enough about technology to figure out how to get what I want out of it. 
So of course we are required at the moment to record our lectures at home. It is not straightforward or pleasant as an activity and recording takes time. I have tended to try to record my lectures onto powerpoint, which does (who knew!) have a function whereby you can record a narration to slides. Powerpoint seems to regard the recording of voice to slides as of minor importance (ie there is no way of seeing levels or anything, and indeed there is nothing to indicate whether you are actually recording anything - it tells you you're recording, but it is ambivalent about whether you're recording complete silence or the talking you want to record). 
I have four lectures to record before next week. I did one in the afternoon, it was what it was (as they say). It worked. I converted it to an MP4 and uploaded it to the system. All easy peasy lemon squeezy. (Well it wasn't EPLS, I spent two hours in the morning getting access to the computer etc, it's something the university has provided me with, but essentially I got it done). 
Then, I recorded my second lecture. Turned it into an MP4. Just before I uploaded the fucker I checked and found there was actually no sound recorded to it at all. Complete silence. For whatever reason, the computer registers no sound either through my microphone which worked fine a few hours before, or through its inbuilt microphone.
So much time wasted. So boring. Tomorrow I will have to work out what's wrong (I've contacted university IT and 'logged a job') and, assuming I can do it again, do it again. 
Meanwhile, none of us are getting any younger. And it's 4:02 as I write this by the way, but that's because I fell asleep watching Mad as Hell and woke up just before 12 (btw I have since watched that episode of Mad as Hell, it was pretty good). 

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