I have had a number of instances where I wanted to take a set of pictures and turn them into a slide show to share with a group of friends. In the Windows world, there is a useful piece of software for this, called Microsoft Photo Story 3. I have worked with Photo Story a number of times, and have learned a number of tricks for getting the software to do what I want it to. So here are my Photo Story Tips.
Photo Story 3 Slide Show Tips
Microsoft Photo Story 3 is a good tool for putting together a slide show from pictures. Some of the features which make it useful are:
- Photos can be arranged and rearranged on a storyboard
- Text captions for photos
- Adjustable duration of each photo
- Transitions between photos
- Panning across photos (the "Ken Burns effect")
- Narration and music
- Slide show output is a WMV file, so it can be viewed on most media players
- It's available for free from Microsoft
However, Photo Story 3 has some limitations which can be quite annoying:
- Limit of 300 photos per story*
- Does not handle video*
- There is no way to select multiple photos for batch operations (e.g. moving a group of pictures or setting the duration of a group of pictures)
- Music and narration are tied to a particular photo, making them difficult to manipulate
- Runs only on Microsoft Windows (sorry Mac & Linux users)
- No support for widescreen formats
- Microsoft is no longer supporting Photo Story, so none of these will be fixed by Microsoft
The asterisks above indicate that there are workarounds (below) for these issues. Here are some tips to make building a large slide show with Photo Story 3 easier:
1. Use Windows Movie Maker to assemble the slide show from parts generated by Photo Story. This is a workaround for the 300 photo limit and the lack of video support in Photo Story.
2. Plan ahead! Know where you want various photos in the show and arrange them in groups, either by copying them into directories or using tags (in Windows Vista).
3. Photo panning is inserted automatically. As far as I know, the pan effect is applied at random, so sometimes it's just right and sometimes it's completely wrong for a given photo. Expect to spend a fairly large amount of time adjusting these.
4. Everything in Photo Story is associated with a photo. Audio tracks, for example, start at, move with, and are deleted with the photo to which they are attached.
5. If an audio track ends in the middle of a photo, Photo Story will trim the audio track (with a fade out) at the end of the previous photo. You may need to adjust the duration of your photos so that the audio track and a photo end at the same time.
6. If you want to fade in a caption (or part of one), load the same photo in twice and put them back-to-back. Add the caption to the second one. You may need to adjust or remove the panning effect from the first photo. When the show fades from the first picture to the second, only the caption will change.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Who's Not Who
The other day I got a letter at work. The letter proudly announced that I had been selected for inclusion in their Who's Who publication. The letter explained that I was being recognized for my achievements as a civil engineer. Sadly, I have no accomplishments as a civil engineer, as I am an aerospace engineer. So it got me to thinking...trying to find the people who have accomplished so much must be very hard. It might be much easier (and more profitable) to find the people who haven't done anything of particular note. The Who's Not Who, if you will.
I can think of a number of business models for this idea:
1. People might not care if Who's Not Who, as long as they see their name published.
2. Listing in Who's not Who as a gag gift.
3. Extortion. (Send us money or we'll list you.)
I notice that the domain whosnotwho.com is already taken, so maybe I'm too late...
I can think of a number of business models for this idea:
1. People might not care if Who's Not Who, as long as they see their name published.
2. Listing in Who's not Who as a gag gift.
3. Extortion. (Send us money or we'll list you.)
I notice that the domain whosnotwho.com is already taken, so maybe I'm too late...
Uno Solitaire
This morning I was sitting at my in-laws' table, with nothing much to do. A deck of Uno cards were sitting on the table, left over from last night's game. I thought, "I could play solitaire, but these are Uno cards. Hmm, I wonder if you could make a solitaire game using an Uno deck. So I decided to try to make one. Here are the rules I came up with.
1. The deck is shuffled and 7 cards are laid, face up, on the table. This is the tableau. The remaining cards are placed face down into the draw pile.
2. Above the tableau are 5 foundation piles, one for each color (suit) and one for action cards.
3. The four foundation piles are built in the following order: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
4. The fifth foundation pile is built as follows:
4a. The first card can be any action card.
4b. All subsequent cards must match either the action or the color (suit) of the previous card.
4c. Wild and Wild +4 cards match any action card.
5. Cards are drawn from the draw pile three at a time. The exposed drawn card can be played directly onto a foundation pile or onto the tableau. When the draw pile has been exhausted, the exposed pile is turned over to make a new draw pile.
6. Cards are played onto the tableau as follows:
6a. Cards are layered in alternating rows of seven and six cards, so that each card overlaps two cards in the previous layer, except for the cards on the ends of seven card rows.
6b. Each card must match each of the cards it overlaps either in value or color, so for example, a green four and a blue seven could be covered by a blue four or a green seven.
6c. The card that overlaps need only match one aspect of the cards it overlaps, so for example, two red nines could be covered by any red card or any nine.
6d. When a card from the first row of the tableau is removed, it must be replaced immediately with the top card from the draw pile.
7. The game is won when all the cards have been moved to the foundation piles.
Commentary:
Many of the rules of this game were designed to mimic rules in the Uno game. I've only played this game once, and I lost. It looks to me like it is a winnable game, but the player must be very careful to avoid burying useful cards. The cards on the ends of a row of seven are particularly useful because they only have to match one card from the previous row. Wild cards are extremely useful in the tableau. Save them until you really need them.
If anyone tries this game, please feel free to let me know how it went. In particular, I'd love it if you could let me know the percentage of games that were won.
Note to the lawyers: Uno is a trademark of Mattel. I don't work for Mattel. I'm not making any money from this. In fact, I'm only making Mattel money by providing a new way for people to enjoy Uno cards. So don't sue me.
1. The deck is shuffled and 7 cards are laid, face up, on the table. This is the tableau. The remaining cards are placed face down into the draw pile.
2. Above the tableau are 5 foundation piles, one for each color (suit) and one for action cards.
3. The four foundation piles are built in the following order: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
4. The fifth foundation pile is built as follows:
4a. The first card can be any action card.
4b. All subsequent cards must match either the action or the color (suit) of the previous card.
4c. Wild and Wild +4 cards match any action card.
5. Cards are drawn from the draw pile three at a time. The exposed drawn card can be played directly onto a foundation pile or onto the tableau. When the draw pile has been exhausted, the exposed pile is turned over to make a new draw pile.
6. Cards are played onto the tableau as follows:
6a. Cards are layered in alternating rows of seven and six cards, so that each card overlaps two cards in the previous layer, except for the cards on the ends of seven card rows.
6b. Each card must match each of the cards it overlaps either in value or color, so for example, a green four and a blue seven could be covered by a blue four or a green seven.
6c. The card that overlaps need only match one aspect of the cards it overlaps, so for example, two red nines could be covered by any red card or any nine.
6d. When a card from the first row of the tableau is removed, it must be replaced immediately with the top card from the draw pile.
7. The game is won when all the cards have been moved to the foundation piles.
Commentary:
Many of the rules of this game were designed to mimic rules in the Uno game. I've only played this game once, and I lost. It looks to me like it is a winnable game, but the player must be very careful to avoid burying useful cards. The cards on the ends of a row of seven are particularly useful because they only have to match one card from the previous row. Wild cards are extremely useful in the tableau. Save them until you really need them.
If anyone tries this game, please feel free to let me know how it went. In particular, I'd love it if you could let me know the percentage of games that were won.
Note to the lawyers: Uno is a trademark of Mattel. I don't work for Mattel. I'm not making any money from this. In fact, I'm only making Mattel money by providing a new way for people to enjoy Uno cards. So don't sue me.
Getting Started
As the title imples, this blog is about nothing in particular. I just have these random ideas that I'd like to put out there and perhaps get some feedback in the process.
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