Apple, in iOS 4.3, introduced the ability to stream embedded web videos over
AirPlay. Mac OS Rumors has a good overview of the feature. The main
limitation is that websites must explicitly opt-in to enable AirPlay. Luckily,
Ben Ward and Mathias Bynens posted a really nice bookmarklet to
enable AirPlay for all videos on iOS devices.
The bookmarklet works by modifying video and embed elements to contain the
attributes x-webkit-airplay="allow" and airplay=allow. These attributes
inform the iOS movie player to enable AirPlay (MPMoviePlayerController‘s
allowsAirPlay attribute is set to true). This should allow any embedded web
video to play over AirPlay. However, it turns out modifying the attributes after
loading the page does not cause the movie player to enable AirPlay.
Experimenting and modifying the bookmarklet I found how to enable AirPlay for
all videos. AirPlay is enabled If we load a new page with the modified video
and embed elements from the original. My assumption is movie player
initializes the video elements when the page loads rather than inspecting the
element on tapping (or clicking) thus AirPlay is disabled. The new bookmarklet
is below and has been tested on HTML5Video, Akamai iPhone Showcase,
and Veetle.
This
link contains the bookmarklet. Copy the link and place it in a new bookmark
in Mobile Safari. When you visit a web page with embedded video, load the
bookmark and a new window will open with the same content but AirPlay will be enabled.
Or in human readable form:
javascript:[].slice.call(
document.querySelectorAll('embed,video'),0).map(
function(e) {
e.setAttribute('x-webkit-airplay','allow');
e.setAttribute('airplay','allow')
});
var w = window.open('about:blank');
var d = w.document;
d.open();
d.write(document.documentElement.innerHTML);
d.close();
There is probably a nicer way to do this but I am not that familiar with DOM in
JavaScript. Get in touch if you know of a cleaner method.
I rarely read, listen, or watch any daily news sources because they are extremely low on content and value. (Nick Davies in Flat Earth News provides an excellent analysis of why and how newspapers have become full of recycled PR instead of journalism).
Instapaper is great for managing your reading list and I usually store articles of note on delicious (and mirrored on pinboard).
Podcasts
Podcasts quickly get out of hand and there doesn’t seem to be anything good for managing them (iTunes is awful but at least it syncs to my iPhone). But still, I subscribe to the following:
WNYC’s Radiolab “Science meets culture and information sounds like music. Each episode of Radiolab. is an investigation — a patchwork of people, sounds, stories and experiences centered around One Big Idea.”
TED Talks Ideas, blah, blah. They push out far too many talks so I usually just scan the list for those that interest me.
Analysis Running for over 40 years, documentary programming that makes sense of the ideas that change the world”.
From our own correspondent “Insight, wit and analysis as the BBC’s foreign correspondents take a closer look at the stories behind the headlines”.
In Our Time “The history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including Philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.”
Buying a camera is difficult. There are many models, features and brands. Here are some of my recommendations and information sources that will hopefully making the purchasing decision easier.
Mike Johnston over at The Online Photographer has some very good advice on buying cameras. I usually recommend checking the cameras online and then heading to BestBuy or somewhere to get a real feel for them. Questions to bear in mind when reviewing a camera in person:
How often will you take the camera with you?
Are the controls easy to use?
Do you want to use a viewfinder only?
Is the shutter delay in capturing the picture acceptable?
The key point to remember is that you will only get good pictures if you have your camera with you at the right time. In my opinion this should be one of the key deciding factors when selecting a camera.
The Cameras
These are the cameras I would recommend. It covers a range of consumer camera types but stops short of digital SRLs (DSLRs). All of these cameras will take great pictures and their differentiating factors are typically size, expandability and speed.
Canon S95 or Panasonic Lumix LX5 (S90 and LX3 are the older models) This is the smallest and most compact of the set and probably the best in its (compact) class. The image quality is pretty good but it may lack some manual controls. Edward Taylor at The Online Photographer and Thom Hogan have very good reviews.
Canon G10 (maybe the G11 or G12 are good too) This use to be the camera that people with DSLRs and pros bought as their snapshot camera. It has good manual controls and the image quality is great.
Panasonic GF1 or Olympus EP2 or Olympus EP1 or Olympus EPL1 (ordered recommendation) These are very high quality cameras, almost on par with DSLRs. They take interchangeable lenses which allows for growth but they are bigger than the previous two cameras. Again Thom Hogan and Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer have great reviews.
Other choices
You’ll notice that all the above cameras come with a “3x” optical zoom. This tends to give you the best optics in this price range. Also the above cameras are the ones that “serious” photographers tend to buy.
If you want something with much more reach look at the Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR (14x optical zoom). I don’t know much about this but it is recommended at Steve’s Digicams.
On the much cheaper end I would recommend Canon Powershot SD940IS (or SD1300IS).
Finally a book that always get recommended is Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure. It is a great resource for teaching the basics of exposure and how to use your camera to get the creative images you want.
Clover Food Lab demonstrating their coffee brewing technique:
We have a pretty specific approach to making our coffee. A lot has gone into
developing our technique. It is a balance of practical concerns (e.g., speed,
consistency), and, but I know that each manager has a slightly different
technique. We’re not talking huge differences here, but I was pretty sure there
were slight variations.
Clover use filter-cone-style brewing and want to achieve a constant flow out of
the cone rather than dripping.
