TidBITS#759/13-Dec-04
=====================
Publishing two more Take Control ebooks on top of last week's
gift issue has fried our brains. But this issue still brings
you an inside look at the evolution of hardware-based scrolling
controls from Joe Kissell, some great tips on recording with
GarageBand from Jeff Tolbert, and a brief thought about the most
important fact to keep in mind when buying a digital camera from
Adam. In the news, the iTMS starts taking PayPal, and Peachpit
gives away Macworld Expo passes.
Topics:
MailBITS/13-Dec-04
Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera
The Evolution of Scrolling: Reinventing the Wheel
Tips and Tricks for Recording in GarageBand
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/13-Dec-04
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-759.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2004/TidBITS#759_13-Dec-04.etx>
Copyright 2004 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/13-Dec-04
------------------
**iTunes Music Store Takes PayPal** -- Money is money, and PayPal
is big money. So it's no wonder that Apple has finally partnered
with PayPal to accept payments for the U.S. iTunes Music Store.
As of 10-Dec-04, you can purchase music, audiobooks, and gift
certificates using a PayPal account. Apple is also offering a
sign-up incentive: the first 50,000 customers to open a new
account using PayPal as the form of payment will receive five
free songs (through 31-Mar-05).
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/dec/10paypal.html>
<http://www.paypal.com/>
<http://www.apple.com/itunes/>
PayPal started as a cash interchange: a way to avoid messing about
with credit card transactions of sufficiently small amounts that
the transactions weren't worth the accompanying processing fees
associated (see "Worthy Web Sites: PayPal" in TidBITS-562_). It
quickly morphed into a tool for individuals and businesses to
pay for transactions, mostly auctions, and is now an eBay-owned
behemoth with bank-like services grafted on. Although it seems
from my initial tests that the iTunes Music Store works only with
PayPal accounts linked to a credit card (rather than funded from
a bank account), it's possible that part of Apple's desire to
work with PayPal is to experiment with reducing the transaction
fees that can eat a significant chunk of a small credit card
purchase. [GF]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06260>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06862>
**More on Ballmer's Spam Comments** -- After my tongue-in-cheek
piece about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's claim that Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates receives 4 million spam messages per day,
two bits of relevant clarification have appeared. First, in an
interview with journalist Mike Wendland, Ballmer says he misspoke
and Bill Gates actually receives 4 million pieces of spam every
year, not every day. Just a slight difference there, but 4 million
per year works out to almost 11,000 per day, which is still rather
high, if not stratospheric. I could easily see other people
receiving more; one TidBITS reader reported receiving about 4,000
per day due to worm-generated spam from the infected computers
of other parents and teachers at his kids' school.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07911>
<http://mikesejournal.com/archives/003089.php>
Second, although it's entirely likely that spammers don't like
Gates and Ballmer and thus are targeting them directly in a
sort of a denial-of-service attack, a number of people suggested
that a more logical explanation is that lots of Internet users,
when asked for an email address in Web forms of questionable
legitimacy, enter [EMAIL PROTECTED], thus avoiding the privacy
concerns of giving their email addresses out, and, shall we say,
expressing an opinion. I hadn't considered such a situation, but
if lots of people around the Internet do it, that could explain
the 11,000 spam messages a day that Gates receives. Lastly, be
sure to check out the Joy of Tech cartoon on the whole situation
for a trenchant comment. [ACE]
<http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/621.html>
**Free Macworld Expo Passes** -- It's time to start thinking
about January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco! Fortunately,
our friends at Peachpit Press are again offering free passes
to the upcoming show. To request a pair of passes (which are
exhibit-only passes, normally $40 each), send an email message
to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with your name and postal address.
The passes are available on a first-come, first-serve basis,
and Peachpit must receive all requests by 03-Jan-05. If you
end up with the passes, be sure to stop by the Peachpit booth
to thank them, check out their books, and chat with your
favorite authors like Adam Engst and Jeff Carlson. [JLC]
<http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20SFO05A>
<http://www.peachpit.com/>
**DealBITS Drawing: Audio Hijack Pro Winners** -- Congratulations
to Jon Levine of labornet.org, Thilo Dannenmann of
unicorndesign.de, and John E. Connerat of publications.emory.edu,
whose entries were chosen randomly in last week's DealBITS drawing
and who each received a copy of Rogue Amoeba's $32 Audio Hijack
Pro 2.1.1. Even if you didn't win, you can save $5 off the
purchase price of Audio Hijack Pro by using coupon code TIDBITS
when placing an order; this offer is open to all TidBITS readers.
Thanks to the 988 people who entered, and keep an eye out for
future DealBITS drawings! [ACE]
<http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/rogue-amoeba/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07907>
Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera
---------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Back in 2000, when I decided that I needed a good digital
camera, I checked around online and was utterly flummoxed by
the incredible level of detail provided by the camera review
sites. I have no grounding in traditional photography, so the
jargon went completely over my head. Many of my photographer
friends had the Nikon Coolpix 990, I think, which was a large,
expensive camera with a lot of features, and I considered
just buying the Nikon 990 and being done with it. But I was
uncomfortable with its high price, and I had a nagging feeling
that it wasn't the camera I needed to take toddler pictures
for the grandparents.
After some soul-searching, I realized the problem was that the
Nikon wasn't the right camera for me - I don't care about manual
controls and the highest possible image quality, since it's more
important that I have the camera with me and ready to shoot when
Tristan is being particularly cute. I ended up deciding on the
Canon PowerShot S100, and I liked it so much that when the time
came to pass that camera on to Tonya, I bought its successor,
the PowerShot S400.
All this is by way of introduction to our latest $5 ebook,
"Take Control of Buying a Digital Camera," by Seattle photographer
Larry Chen. Put simply, it contains the advice I wish I'd had
back when I was faced with the decision about which digital camera
to buy, if only because Larry starts by drawing the important
distinction between people who take snapshots and those who are
looking to make artistic photographs. For anyone overwhelmed by
the number of camera models out there and the massive level of
technical detail in most reviews, this one distinction is your
best starting point. Thinking about just how you plan to use the
camera goes a long way to narrowing your choices, and it allows
you to feel good about your eventual decision. Do be honest with
yourself - for instance, I'd love to take artistic photos, but
I've been forced to admit that I lack the time to devote to
such an effort.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/buying-digicam.html>
For people like me, features like small size and fast shot-to-shot
performance turn out to be paramount, since if the camera doesn't
fit in my pocket, I won't carry it with me and thus won't have it
when the perfect picture presents itself. But for those more
interested in artistic photos, features like high resolution and
manual controls are significantly more important. So if you're
either in the market for a new camera for yourself or are helping
someone else pick the right camera, I think you'll find that
Larry's ebook will help frame your questions and narrow the
choices once you start to pore through the detailed discussions
on the camera review sites. "Take Control of Buying a Digital
Camera" is available as a 73 page PDF (a 1 MB download); I also
encourage you to download the free 27-page sample to get a feel
for the book.
<http://www.tidbits.com/TakeControl/samples/TCoBuyingDigicamSample-1.0.pdf>
The Evolution of Scrolling: Reinventing the Wheel
-------------------------------------------------
by Joe Kissell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[Interesting Thing of the Day (ITotD) is an ongoing series of
articles about any topic I find interesting, including surprising
discoveries in food, geography, science, language, history,
philosophy, and even - from time to time - technology. Because
I write for a general audience, the following article, which
appeared on the site in early October 2004, contains some
information that may seem like old news to technically savvy
TidBITS readers. But I hope you'll find it useful and enjoy
this taste of ITotD.]
<http://itotd.com/>
When I'm not writing about interesting things, I spend my
time writing computer books and doing the odd consulting job
here and there - projects that hark back to the nine years
I spent managing software development for high-tech companies.
I spent five of those years working for Kensington Technology
Group, a company best known for its mice and trackballs.
You may not think of mice as the most cutting-edge computer
peripheral, but it's hard to imagine where we'd be without
them. And I was privileged during the time I was at Kensington
to be involved in the development of some extremely cool
input-device technologies. This is probably going to sound
like a thinly veiled Kensington commercial, but I make no
apologies: even though I don't work there anymore, I'm still
a huge fan of their products.
<http://www.kensington.com/html/1436.html>
**Getting to the Point** -- All modern computer operating systems
are based on some form of graphical user interface (GUI) that
assumes the presence of a mouse (or comparable pointing device)
to move a pointer around on the screen. Most of us have become
so accustomed to using a mouse that we don't even think about
it anymore. Although it's possible to use most GUI programs
with a keyboard alone, it's much more cumbersome - and the whole
point of modern interfaces was to be less cumbersome than their
keyboard-only predecessors.
When it comes to scrolling, however, most GUIs don't make it
easy for ordinary mice. The usual way to move the contents of
a window up and down (or left and right) is to position your
mouse pointer over the tiny arrows at the corners of the window
and click a button. The problem with this approach is one of
target acquisition: if your pointer doesn't happen to be near
those arrows (and it usually isn't) you have to move it into
position, and it can be difficult to reach a relatively small
clickable area on the screen both quickly and accurately.
You must either move the pointer slowly or back up after
overshooting. Although you may have become so used to doing
this that you don't notice it, this method of scrolling is
error-prone and time-consuming; it also results in your pointer
being far away from the controls you're likely to need next
(menus or toolbars, say).
One solution, certainly, is to use the Page Up/Page Down keys
on your keyboard to scroll. But that requires moving your hand
back and forth between your pointing device and your keyboard,
which can also be tedious. Another approach, which has been an
option in Kensington's MouseWorks software for years, is called
"Scroll With Mouse" (formerly known by the unwieldy term "Scroll
When You Move The Mouse"). The feature gave users the option
of holding down a key or mouse button to turn the entire mouse
(or trackball) into a virtual scroll control.
**Wheel of Fortune** -- The first widely successful attempt to
address this problem in hardware was the scroll wheel. The idea
was to combine a special wheel on a mouse with software that
turned the wheel's movement into window-scrolling instructions.
Although the scroll wheel was invented by Mouse Systems (now owned
by KYE) in the early 1990s, its popularity skyrocketed in 1996
when Microsoft made it part of their IntelliMouse. Unlike other
mouse manufacturers, Microsoft was in the unique position to adapt
both their operating systems and applications to include "hooks"
that tightly integrated the hardware with scrolling behavior in
the software. All of a sudden, scrolling was no longer cumbersome;
without moving your hand from the mouse or even having any idea
where your pointer was, you could scroll up or down with a flick
of the finger. This mechanism was almost immediately embraced by
consumers, so that within about two years scroll wheels were the
norm on almost all mice - except, incomprehensibly, for those made
by Apple, on the grounds that anything more than a single button
makes mice seem too complicated.
<http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/default.mspx>
The near-universal acceptance of the scroll wheel could have
been the happy ending of the story, were it not for two niggling
issues. First was the problem of horizontal scrolling. When
documents are wider than a window - often the case with
spreadsheets and graphics, for example - a single-axis scrolling
mechanism only solves half of the problem. Numerous solutions
emerged, with varying levels of acceptance. In some cases, holding
down the Shift key or another modifier while moving a scroll wheel
changes scrolling from vertical to horizontal. A few manufacturers
chose to put two wheels on their mice, one for each axis. IBM's
TrackPoint device, that miniature joystick that looks like an
eraser head, found its way onto some mice in place of a wheel.
And more recently, Microsoft began selling mice with "tilt wheel
technology," in which the wheel assembly is mounted on a gimbal
so that it can tilt to either side, thus scrolling left or right.
<http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/features/tiltwheel.mspx>
**One Ring to Rule Them All** -- The other issue was that given
the design of some input devices - notably trackballs - there
simply isn't a good place to put a wheel so that it is as easily
reachable as it would be on a mouse. During my time at Kensington,
we spent long hours puzzling over this issue. The solution we
arrived at was to replace the vertically oriented scroll wheel
with a horizontal ring encircling the trackball. The shape of the
ring enables it to be moved easily by the fingertips; users can
choose to have clockwise turns scroll down and counterclockwise
turns scroll up, or vice-versa. (You wouldn't believe how long
and earnestly we argued over which of those two directions should
be the default.) The Scroll Ring first appeared on Kensington's
TurboRing trackball in 2000, which for a variety of reasons didn't
sell especially well. But the company still felt the basic idea
was a good one, and in 2003, they released version 7 of their
flagship trackball, Expert Mouse - this time with both an optical
sensor and a new, improved scroll ring. I have one on my desk
right now, and all I can say is that having used Kensington
trackballs for over 10 years, my fingers have never been happier.
<http://www.kensington.com/html/2200.html>
No discussion of innovative scrolling mechanisms would be
complete without mentioning a design that's near to my heart:
the no-moving-parts, touch-sensitive, flat scroll sensor.
My first encounter with touch-sensitive scrolling came during
the development of Kensington's ill-fated WebRacer input device
in the late 1990s. Pointer movement was controlled by a touchpad,
and the right and bottom edges of the pad behaved just like the
scroll bars in windows: slide your finger up or down on the right
edge, for example, and the window scrolls at the same speed.
Although WebRacer was not a commercial success, flat scrolling
reappeared a few years later when the company was trying to
design a sleek mouse with no aesthetically jarring protrusions.
After many months of effort, they came up with the touch-sensitive
pad on StudioMouse. It works just like a scroll wheel, with the
added benefit that you can scroll up or down continuously by
holding your finger at either end of the sensor.
<http://www.kensington.com/html/4769.html>
Then there's a design that combines the touch-sensitivity
of a flat scroll sensor with the shape of the scroll ring:
the Apple Click Wheel used on all current models of the iPod.
The first iPods had scroll wheels that physically moved, and
were thus sensitive to dirt, moisture, and other contaminants.
Besides providing touch-sensitive scrolling, the cardinal points
of the click wheel can be depressed slightly to activate buttons
beneath, making for an elegant all-purpose input control.
<http://www.apple.com/ipod/>
**More Flatter-y** -- Notwithstanding Apple's outstanding
click wheel design, input devices on Macintosh computers
remain behind the times. My current laptop, an Apple PowerBook
G4, has a trackpad with no built-in scrolling capabilities
(and, frustratingly, just one button). Fortunately I was able
to find a wonderful $15 piece of software called SideTrack,
which turns the edges of the trackpad into a highly configurable
scrolling device much like the WebRacer touchpad - and many
Windows-based laptops. This is a great enhancement, because
target acquisition is even more difficult with a trackpad
than with a mouse.
<http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/>
Having a scrolling mechanism (of whatever kind) on my input device
has become a necessity for me. Like cell phones, it seems like
a luxury until you get used to it; then you can't do without.
So when I see someone laboriously scrolling the old-fashioned way
by clicking on arrows, I just cringe. They might as well be using
a rotary phone. Hmmm... a ring-shaped input device. Interesting.
I guess it's true: what goes around, comes around.
[If you found Joe's discussion of scrolling devices useful,
consider subscribing to Interesting Thing of the Day. You can
opt to receive a daily email with a link to that day's article
(free), the full text of each daily article by email ($5 for
one year), or a high-quality audio recording of each article
($20 for one year).]
<http://itotd.com/subscribe.alt>
Tips and Tricks for Recording with GarageBand
---------------------------------------------
by Jeff Tolbert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's no secret that GarageBand is entry-level music software.
For the non-musician getting started, a peek at the controls and
settings in high-end audio software like Pro Tools or Logic Pro
can fry synapses faster than a late 1960s road trip on the Rolling
Stones' tour bus. But at the same time, GarageBand can perform
feats that aren't immediately obvious.
I've spent a lot of time learning just what GarageBand can
do over the last few months while writing my latest ebook,
"Take Control of Recording with GarageBand." Whereas my first
ebook, "Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand," helped
people combine and edit loops in GarageBand, this latest volume
focuses on using GarageBand to create musical compositions with
vocals, drums, guitars, MIDI keyboards, and even the kitchen sink.
Below are a few of my favorite tips and tricks from the book;
I hope you find them useful, and if you're left wanting more,
the $10 ebook has 106 pages of real-world recording studio
techniques and practical advice.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/garageband-recording.html>
**Record Two Tracks at Once** -- A lot of people take issue with
the fact that GarageBand allows you to record only one track
at a time. This is a drag for several reasons. Not only are you
unable to record your whole band at once and keep each element
on its own track, but you also can't even record a guitar and
vocals at the same time. Or can you? GarageBand does enable you
to record a stereo track, which is just two mono tracks panned
hard left and right. The trick is that you need to export this
stereo track and separate the two elements in another program.
This task isn't so much difficult as it is time consuming.
Use the following method to record any two elements at once - bass
and guitar, bongos and vocals, two accordions, or any other
combination of sounds:
1. Check if you have a copy of Felt Tip's Sound Studio on your
Mac. Many recent models ship with it preinstalled. If not,
download either Audacity or Sound Studio and install it.
<http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/>
<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>
2. Create a new stereo track in GarageBand.
3. Plug one mic or guitar into Channel 1 of your preamp, and the
other into Channel 2.
4. Record your track normally.
5. Export just this one track to iTunes by choosing Export to
iTunes from the File menu. If other tracks in your song are
active, mute them before you export.
6. Open the exported track in Audacity or Sound Studio. In
Audacity, choose Split Stereo Track from the drop down menu to
the left of the waveform. Then choose Export Multiple from the
Edit menu to create two mono files. If you're using Sound Studio,
choose Export Dual Mono from the File menu.
7. Drag the resulting mono files from the Finder into GarageBand,
which automatically creates new tracks for them. Now, do with them
what you will!
**Beware of Bleed** -- Anytime you record two or more tracks with
microphones, there's a danger that one track could bleed into the
other. This happens when a microphone, say the vocal mic, picks
up the acoustic guitar as well, and vice versa. This limits your
flexibility come mix time: if you decide to scrap the vocal
altogether but keep the guitar track, the old vocal bleed is
still on the guitar mic recording.
You can prevent bleed in a couple of ways:
* Isolation involves placing the microphones in different rooms,
or at least far enough apart that bleed is minimized. This
obviously won't work if you're recording one person playing an
acoustic guitar and singing.
* You can place baffles (pieces of sound-absorbing material)
between the two mics to reduce leakage. This approach is
also problematic for a singer/guitarist.
Obviously, plugging the guitar directly into the preamp will
eliminate one microphone, and with it any leakage problems.
You can also make sure you're using a more directional mic,
and point the mics away from each other somewhat.
**Double-Track Vocals and Guitars** -- Double-tracking is an
old technique for thickening vocals and other types of tracks.
The idea is that you record two takes of the same part and lay
them on top of each other. The resulting product has a thicker
sound and a unique quality. Double-tracking can also hide minor
tuning flaws in vocal tracks. The two versions blend together
and mask the out-of-tune bits.
The trick to double-tracking is that the two versions have to be
as identical as possible, at least if you want the effect to be
invisible. There's certainly nothing wrong with playing the second
part differently and panning the two parts away from each other.
This will add thickness as well as a not-so-subtle stereo effect.
Feel free to try adding reverb or other effects to the second
track for variety.
**Make Your Own Loops** -- The wonderful thing about GarageBand's
loops is that you can play them in any tempo and key that you
want. But if you've tried to do this with Real Instrument
tracks you recorded yourself, it doesn't work - you end up
with a strange-sounding mix of tempos and keys. But it is possible
to turn your recordings into loops that you can use just like
Apple's own loops. To do this, you need a copy of the Soundtrack
Loop Utility, part of the Apple Loops Software Developer Kit.
Follow these steps to make loops out of your recordings.
<http://developer.apple.com/sdk/#AppleLoops>
1. In GarageBand, solo the track you want to make into a loop.
Use a cycle region to isolate only a specific chunk of the song,
and then export it to iTunes by choosing Export to iTunes from
the File menu. Make a note of how many beats your loop is.
2. Open the resulting file in the Soundtrack Loop Utility.
3. Change the Number of Beats to the number you noted in Step 1.
Make sure File Type is set to Loop and save the file.
4. Drag the loop into GarageBand. It's now a normal GarageBand
loop. You can change the tempo and key and the loop changes
with the song.
**Turn Your Guitar into a Bass** -- So you have an electric
guitar, but you don't have a bass. You could play bass lines
on a MIDI keyboard, but maybe you lack one of those as well,
or you want a more natural-sounding bass part. What can you do?
Here's a little trick to turn your guitar into a bass (virtually -
don't worry, no power tools are required and your vintage axe
won't be damaged):
1. Record your guitar playing the bass line an octave higher
than you want it to sound when you're finished.
2. Solo this track and export it by choosing Export to iTunes
from the File menu.
3. Follow the steps in Make Your Own Loops, above, to turn
this guitar track into a loop.
4. Drag the guitar loop back into GarageBand.
5. Open the Track Editor and move the Transpose slider down
to -12. This transposes the guitar loop down one octave.
Your guitar should sound a lot like a bass.
6. To make it even more realistic, double click the track header
to open the Track Info window. Play with the following effects
settings until you like what you get:
* Turn on the Compressor and move the slider to about 30.
* Activate the Equalizer. Boost the bass a little and cut the
midrange.
* Add some Amp Simulation. Try American Clean with a touch of
gain. Turn the bass up, the midrange down, and set treble and
presence to taste.
**Take Control of GarageBand** -- When GarageBand came out, I got
so excited about making music on my iBook that I went out and
spent close to $1,000 on music equipment and additional software.
Although I've been a musician in many capacities over the years,
I rely on GarageBand at home to record songs and sound textures
that pop into my head. If you own iLife '04 and haven't yet
launched GarageBand, give it a try, even if you think you're
not musical. (Tonya Engst wrote about her experiences with
GarageBand when my first ebook - "Take Control of Making Music
with GarageBand" - was released: see "How GarageBand Made Me
Feel Young and Hip" in TidBITS-735_).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07720>
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/garageband-music.html>
[Jeff Tolbert is a musician, painter, and graphic designer
living in Seattle. He plays bass and guitar and is becoming
passable at keyboards. He has played in numerous bands over
the years, including What Fell?, the Goat-Footed Senators,
the diary of Anne Frank String Quartet, 80 Bones, and the
Fireproof Beauties.]
<http://www.jefftolbert.com/>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/13-Dec-04
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be much
faster.
**Mailing list software and services** -- After using a mailing
list service and growing tired of all the advertising that get
sent, a reader solicits opinions on other mailing list solutions.
(4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2402>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/259>
**Apple and CPUs** -- Will Apple use Sun processors in future
Macs? The "Apple ports its OS to [insert processor here]" rumors
continue to resurface, even in the absence of facts. But that
doesn't stop a good discussion! (9 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2401>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/262>
**Alternatives to Spell Catcher** -- When looking for something
to use besides Spell Catcher for expanding shortcuts, the
TidBITS Talk community agrees: TypeIt4Me and an upcoming
version of CopyPaste. (5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2397>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/258>
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