TeachJeffSpanish dot com – need a new idea

2 comments

Posted on 23rd September 2008 by Chris in teachjeffspanish

Hi faithful readers!

I need some creative help. My kids and I want a new idea for TeachJeffSpanish.com. He knows about it, and will be watching this year. Last year’s idea of a Scavenger Hunt was so great it’s hard to top. The ideas kids have come up with they admit to not really wanting to even do. Our goal is to come up with an overarching idea that could carry us through the year.

A few caveats…

1. I want something that is fun, new, and fresh. I want something explicity not “schooly” to borrow a term from Clay.

2. I want something that my kids would watch if they happened upon it on YouTube. That’s sort of my litmus test. If it’s not interesting enough to get you to watch it, why bother?

3. I want something not cheesy. Kids come up with ideas that seem to fit the school mold but are unable (seemingly) to come up with something more creative. Granted, my kids are 11-12 years old so developmentally they’re just not there yet.

That said, I want something that folks can learn along with us. Something fun, interesting, and that also teaches Spanish. I think teaching Jeff is a fun gimmick that folks might want to learn along with Jeff.

Ideas?

Thanks..

Chris

Flip Mino getting no sound

4 comments

Posted on 13th September 2008 by Chris in General

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Update: The problem was resolved by installing the Perian plugin. This answer was provided by a commenter. I am forever in her debt.

Now, I heard back from Pure Digital support just this morning. This means they violated their 4 hour turnaround time that they promised. Sad. Even more troubling is there response. In my note to them, listed below, I mentioned that I run Leopard and have the latest version of quicktime, right? Here’s a screenshot to prove it..

So, what do you think there response was? Here it is…

Dear Chris,

Thank you for contacting us.

We have recently become aware of an audio compatibility issue revolving around Flip Video and the QuickTime 7.4.5 update running on the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.

This issue should not affect customers running the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system.

Apple has released an updated version of QuickTime which resolves this issue. Please upgrade to QuickTime 7.5 to regain your audio.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further assistance.

Thank you,
Flip Video Support

Obviously they did not read my original message, and that’s incredibly irritating. Shame on Pure Digital!

Original Post begins after this line…

So I just bought a Flip Mino camera. The trouble I am having is that when I import the video I get no sound. I emailed their tech support with this message.

Hello!

I purchased a Flip Mino yesterday and when I import videos onto my Mac, I get no sound. I hear sound if I play the video in the Flip for Mac application, but when I view the AVI in Quicktime, there is no sound. I tried importing into iMovie and there is still no sound. I tried playing the AVI in VLC Player and no sound either.

I saw the Q&A on this but I am running the very latest version of OS X Leopard (10.5.4) and have all the updates. I recently updated to iTunes 8 and Quicktime’s latest version, so it does not fit the mold of the question previously answered. Please don’t just copy and paste that Q&A to me.

Thanks for your help..

Chris

I am posting it here in the hopes that one of you has seen or heard of this and might offer a suggestion? I know this was an issue with Tiger at one point, but that doesn’t fit me. I tried the usual searches for answers and nothing. Any thoughts?

I’ll update this when they get back to me, supposedly within four hours. I emailed this around 10:00am EST on Saturday, Sept 13, 2008. Let’s see if they stand up to their promise…