Lazy-breaking news?
News is “instant” nowadays, right? We are in the accessible 24/7 broadband information age. “News as it happens” has been a media catch-cry for several years.
So I did chuckle this morning when seeing this “breaking” news about the end of daylight savings — four hours AFTER it actually ended.
When I was a teenager, working in a golf shop, the end of daylight savings was always a good day in the shop: golfers turned up early, and with time to spare, spent it in the shop and made extra purchases. And plenty of golfers who were regularly “last-minute” arrivals got to relax for a change (unlike the chaos at the start of daylight savings!).
Maybe back then they’d appreciate the 6am news in a “breaking” sense, but in 2008 that time delay — given the “instant” environment of news reporting — is actually noticeable.
Chipmunk Audio Fix
If you’ve been watching any videos lately where you start hearing chipmunk sounds — it’s not your fault! Don’t touch that dial!
If you make videos with Camtasia prior to version 5.02 (as an SWF file with MP3 audio for online use), this is a MUST read.
What’s happening is that Adobe’s Flash Player and Techsmith’s Camtasia are having a spot of trouble … which is affecting videos made with Camtasia.
Fixing it solves two problems:
- Your site visitors are no longer thinking something is wrong with their browser, video or audio setup — so they can focus on the content and what you want them to do; and
- You stop sounding like a chipmunk!
Techsmith list the issue on this tech support page and how to fix it. Credit to Robert Plank’s blog post where I was first alerted to the issue.