Audacity and OSX 10.8 - MP3 export problems

If you are using Audacity and OSX 10.8, you might find that Audacity won't pick up the right path to the Lame dynamic library file for exporting MP3s, even if you use the recommended Lame install package that puts it in the user library where Audacity wants to find it. The problem is that if you have multiple accounts on a machine, the /usr/library is helpfully hidden by Apple. We've found Audacity can find it if you are in the administrator's account, but if you are in another account, say "student," it won't find it.

The best solution for us has been to create a Lame folder inside the Audacity folder in the Applications folder, point the Lame installer there, and then point Audacity there once the Lame dylib is installed. But this is a pain to do individually if you have a set of lab computers, etc.

However, if you edit the audacity.cfg file and then do a mass copy to the machines, it should work. At the bottom of the .cfg file, after MP3LibPath put in the path to your lame dylib file that you now have in the applications folder (or wherever you have put it):

[Export]
Format=MP3
Path=/Users/faculty/Desktop
[MP3]
MP3LibPath=

Problem is, how do you find this folder because the Library directory is hidden (this is the usr/library, not the root library)? If you click on the Go dropdown menu and while holding it down hit the Option key, "Library" magically appears as one of the places you can go -- and you'll find the .cfg file there.

Hope that helps - Doug

(Here is some more on the topic, including another way to get to the applicable Library folder http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=68006)

How TSA has bulked up its app with crowdsourcing

The headline on this article from NextGov is Agency apps must be regularly updated or face obsolescence, but the really interesting thing to me is the detail on how the TSA has used crowdsourcing to bulk up its app:

The My TSA app pulls together Federal Aviation Administration data about flight delays and crowd sourced data about how long it's taking app users to get through security checkpoints at specific airports.

The app also includes a list of more than 3,000 items fliers can and cannot carry onto their flights or put in checked baggage. That list started at about 900 items but grew rapidly as travelers used a response feature on the app to ask TSA about unlisted items.

Similar direct user feedback and computer analysis of how travelers are using the app has helped TSA to home in on precisely what their app audience wants, Bonner said.

"At a minimum, you should provide some opportunity for users to provide feedback," he said. "Maybe there's a function you think will be a real knockout feature, but if you have a feedback mechanism, you may find out people don't understand it or aren't using it."

Worth considering for those in the newsbiz considering apps.

iMovie '08 - ugh?

The reviews are decidedly mixed on iMovie'08, part of the new suite from Apple.

Andy Dickenson generally likes it but points out some flaws, such as the inability to extract audio.

Chuck Fadley, in comments to the same post, says it's "almost completely useless for journalism," and Angela Grant pretty much seems to agree.

Rich Hernandez at Multimedia Shooter doesn't seem too impressed, either.

Dickenson links to a good post by Bakari Chavanu listing major features available in previous iMovie versions not available in '08. Among the most serious I see are lack of audio extraction, loss of control over fades and the inability to bring older projects into the new program.

I agree with the general sentiment that Apple has mucked this one up, or as Hernandez put it, has made it DUMB. Loss of audio extraction is a nonstarter for me; I use it, for instance, to remove the reporter's voice track from news video to create video and soundbite packages that my beginning writing class learns to write to. (And, no, using Garageband to deal with the audio is not convenient nor particularly practical for this case. And while I can lear FCP or FCE easily enough, it's still a pain when there was a perfectly good simple enough program to do what was needed.)

I admit to not having actually used '08 yet -- and I don't know when I will. But there are enough voices out there that I hope Apple hears, listens and redesigns things.