Scott Berkun is one of a rare breed, a public speaker who is also a very engaging writer. He writes in an easy to read and entertaining, style. In this work he mines a rich vein of personal experiences in public speaking and beyond.

In a brutally honest and jocular work his copious personal insights bring a distinctly individual touch to proceedings.

While much of the content is common sense it’s common sense that tends to be sacrificed on the pyre of the intense anxiety that pervades the world of anyone who has public speaking duties looming large in their life. Scott addresses all the things that get forgotten in the panic and pressure of an imminent public speaking engagement and does so in such a captivating way you’ll soon be wondering why you were so concerned in the first place.

Although Berkun’s book is not a prescriptive self help guide to improving your presenting skills there is plenty to draw upon.

He includes chapters on most of the areas you would expect covered in a book on public speaking but in addition to the expected he includes checklists of common pitfalls together with suggestions for how to deal effectively with them and their ilk.

He introduces the concept of a Plan B, the contingency plans which could save the day in a variety of circumstances. Nothing beats personal experience and it’s clear Scott Berkun has plenty of practical knowledge he puts to good use debunking the myths that have built up around a subject that is increasingly becoming a must have business skill.

The best part of the book is the laugh out loud, there but for the grace of God, chapter of war stories from various public speakers. These stories bring home that as a public speaker you are not alone; others in the field have not only faced your worst demons but have successfully conquered demons you had not yet even dreamt of.

Shamefully these trials are much funnier when they happen to someone else!

The images in the book look interesting. In fact there’s a whole section dedicated to showing “Photos you don’t expect to see”, sadly though the fact is they are printed far too small to be as useful as they could be. Worse than the size of the images is the decision to display them in black and white. Black and white would be uninspiring enough but the images are dark, so dark that it renders them completely ineffective. Both very strange decisions which make the images uninviting and superfluous.

One of the wonders of the modern web is that in addition to reading the book you are now able to watch the author in action as a public speaker in one or more of the several available videos on YouTube. I was fortunate enough to attend one of Scott’s speaking engagements live online and he is as absorbing in person as his book suggests he might be.

While this is an eminently satisfying read, more emphasis on the visual appeal of the book would be most welcome for future editions of it. Don’t let that dissuade you from purchasing it though as the message transcends the form. I’m looking forward to dipping back into this book again in the future.

Confessions of a Public Speaker is published by O’Reilly. It is available in print (ISBN-10: 0-596-80199-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-596-80199-1), as a PDF or online at O’Reilly Safari Books. If you’ve not used the Safari service before there is a 30 day trial of the system included with Confessions of a Public Speaker. A preview of Confessions of a Public Speaker is available at the O’Reilly web site

Oh yes a new tech toy to play with!!

I started podcasting in 2006 not long after getting my first Mac computer. While GarageBand and other applications installed on every new Mac facilitate the podcast creation process nicely it didn’t take long to realize that you need a good microphone if you want to get the best out of the applications.

I didn’t want to go down the route of external audio interfaces and complicated setups as I needed the solution I settled upon to be as portable as possible for making recordings away from the office. After some research I went with the beautifully crafted Blue Snowball USB microphone and I’ve used it ever since together with it’s smaller sibling the Blue Snowflake.

Obviously I’ve used it for podcasting but also for all the online training, presentations and seminars I’ve delivered and/or participated in during the past four years. The only thing I’d have changed about the Blue Snowball was the addition of a Gain control. I learned to manage the gain in an artificial way via software but it wasn’t ideal.

Enter the Blue Yeti microphone, announced in November 2009, a USB microphone with a stunning feature set and a performance level to match.

The Blue Yeti is large, very large, when using the included stand it towers at almost a foot high. The build quality is superb, the Yeti has a heavy solid feel to it to be expected when it weighs in at 3.5 pounds. The body of the microphone sports simple controls for setting the pattern selection, instantly muting the microphone and configuring the microphone gain. It also has a headphone jack on the base of the unit together with a standard threaded stand mount next to the mini USB port.

Installation, at least on a Mac, is simplicity itself merely a case of plugging in the USB cable and the system recognized it straight away. One of the features the Yeti has that the Snowball doesn’t is a built-in headphone amplifier on the base, as mentioned, which provides zero-latency monitoring. This is extremely convenient for my new studio setup, where I’m using a Mac Mini for audio recording, meaning I don’t have to move the Mini to access the headphone socket.

The pattern selection switch allows the microphone to be configured optimally for various recording types, including:

• Stereo (vocals, ensemble choir and instruments)
• Cardioid (podcasts, voiceovers, vocals and instruments)
• Omnidirectional (conference calls, field recordings and events/orchestra)
• Bidirectional (interviews, instruments and vocal duets)

Despite having a purpose built studio which provides much insulation against external noise I opted to use the cardioid pattern mode, to further reduce the chances of picking up extraneous noise, and was extremely pleased with the results. The sound is rich, deep and crystal clear. The sound quality is very impressive even when compared with Blue’s own Snowball which has served me well.

The instant mute button might be dismissed as nothing more than a nicety but for me it was a major advantage over the Blue Snowball. I spend many hours each week using online conferencing facilities such as Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro where, although software mute is provided, I have to click away from my demonstration to temporarily disable my microphone. The opportunity to simply click an easily accessible button is not only faster but will be less error prone when I have several applications vying for screen space.

Blue are making much of the fact that the Yeti is the world’s first THX Certified microphone. As the joint press release from Blue and THX put it:

“Yeti is the first microphone to offer the quality and range of versatility to produce best quality recordings in a wide range of situations, including podcasts, vocals, live or event recording, interviews, broadcasts, instruments, bands and more. low distortion, high fidelity, and balanced frequency response.”

I’m very pleased with my Blue Yeti so far and looking forward to putting it through it’s paces in the coming months with both existing commitments and some exciting new projects.

For those interested in such details the tech specs are below.

Technical Specifications

Microphone and Performance

• Power Required/Consumption: 5V 150mA
• Sample Rate: 48 kHz
• Bit Rate: 16bit
• Capsules: 3 Blue-proprietary 14mm condenser capsules
• Polar Patterns: Cardioid, Bidirectional, Omnidirectional, Stereo
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
• Sensitivity: 4.5mV/Pa (1 kHz)
• Max SPL: 120dB (THD: 0.5% 1kHz)

Headphone Amplifier

• Impedance:16 ohms
• Power Output (RMS): 130 mW
• THD: 0.009%
• Frequency Response: 15 Hz – 22 kHz
• Signal to Noise: 100dB

Specifications

• Dimensions (extended in stand): 4.72″ (12cm) x 4.92″(12.5cm) x 11.61″(29.5cm)
• Weight (microphone): 1.2 lbs (.55 kg)
• Weight (stand): 2.2 lbs (1 kg)

System Requirements

• PC: Windows 7, Windows Vista, XP Home Edition or XP Professional
• USB 1.1/2.0; 64 MB RAM (minimum)
• Macintosh: Mac OSX ( 10.4.11 or higher )
• USB 1.1/2.0
• 64 MB RAM (minimum)

Picture the scene it’s the Christmas gathering for all the local groups I’m involved in. All the guests either work in technology related areas or are keen technologists in their spare time. So imagine my surprise … no imagine my horror … when one of these folks came out with a declaration to the effect that; a phone’s a phone and a computer’s a computer, completely separate devices with separate functions and never should the twain meet!

His sentiments rendered me almost speechless.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse another guest supported the sentiments of the first and added to it. He explained that he’d bought a “hand held” device that proved to be an expensive waste of time as he’d never really used it.

So did they have a point? Have I been deluding myself for the last 18 months about the imperative that I believe my iPhone to be?

First, I must mention the term “hand held device”, an expression I hadn’t heard since my Windows days, it brought back memories of large clunky devices that cost the earth to connect to the Internet at speeds that would have shamed a 14.4 modem. Not to mention that it was navigated by squinting at an impossibly complex interface while stabbing a stylus at it hopeful of provoking it into some kind action.

I did have a Sony Clie and loved it. I used it to it’s full potential despite the pain of trying to get even the most basic of synchronization working and I used it right up to buying my iPhone.

I don’t think of my iPhone as a “hand held” computer, a second best device only to be used in dire emergencies when there’s no “real” computer available. In fact there are functions that I prefer to use iPhone applications for even when I’m sat in front of my 24 inch widescreen iMac and despite having 5 more than capable Macs within 10 metres of my desk.

Of course a social event isn’t the best place to vehemently expound the virtues of my iPhone. Actually, have you ever noticed how the naysayers are viewed as wise beyond their knowledge while those seeking to elucidate the benefits of some glorious piece of tech are scrutinized as if attempting to legitimizing the dirtiest of proclivities?

So through gritted teeth I managed a half smile and made all the appropriate noises about that being one point of view although it wasn’t mine … I was a model of tact and diplomacy

So the evening wore on and posterity demanded photos were required. The original miscreant explained that his magnificent DSLR kit was languishing at home due to it’s excessive weight and bulk. I wasn’t going to argue with that as so was mine! The difference was of course I had my iPhone … score 1!

As the quiz began so did the frantic Googling from said iPhone, we were doing rather well. The music section of the quiz followed and the second miscreant thought be had me on the ropes. From memory the quote went something like “Your fancy tech won’t help you here.”

Oh how wrong was he. Said music round involved identifying songs from only about 15 seconds of them. Yes it sounded like a job for Shazam to me as well. So without explanation I held the device up to the playing song and within a few seconds it had discovered all the necessary information and was happily flashing it in the unbelieving face of miscreant number two.

While he recovered himself I checked the traffic news and weather for a party goer who’s schedule demanded an early departure. An accident had closed the motorway and since she wasn’t local she knew of no alternative route. Of course there’s an app for that and within minutes she was on her way with instructions and screen shots of the alternative route e-mailed to her corporate issue Blackberry.

Miscreant number one’s other half was now more than interested in the iPhone and it’s capabilities. The exact words were “Why haven’t we got one of those?”. He played his trump card explaining that the iPhone was only available on O2 which didn’t have good coverage where he needed it. Knowing he was with Orange I casually dropped it’s availability via Orange into the conversation … let’s just say his next phone is looking like an iPhone!!

Aperture 3 was announced and released on 9 February 2010. The release coincided with the start of Macworld but Apple’s absence meant that the launch was without the fanfare reserved for Steve-notes.

I was eager enough to order online via the Apple Store immediately. Yes without even installing the trial. Of course installing the trial would have been much easier had Apple had the courtesy to send me the promised download link and serial number after I had duly completed the request form on their web site but let’s assume they were inundated and it’s non-appearance wasn’t anything personal!

The “over 200 new features” looked promising too. While some of these features were playing catch up to Lightroom others went beyond what is already in Lightroom 2 or promised for Lightroom 3. I also have clients using Aperture so not purchasing wasn’t really an option.

Some of the new features I was eagerly awaiting included the chromatic aberration filter to reduce the purple fringing found on many digital images and the halo reduction feature to further refine images. Non destructive brushes with edge detection also augured well for the future of my images.

The ability to segment libraries to facilitate a mobile workflow sounded genius as well. Even better the hived off library could have changes synched back to the main library. For those with huge libraries that alone would be worth the upgrade to version 3.

I was personally looking forward to testing the GPS import from iPhone photos. The idea being to use the iPhone images as GPS co-ordinate carriers for the DSLR images shot at the same location. I had tried doing this manually but quickly gave it up as too time consuming.

The smaller enhancements to the new version included the long awaited inclusion of coloured labels which brings Aperture more in to line with Lightroom which has had such taxonomy niceties since the very earliest betas of version 1.

Of less significance to me was the ability to catalog video files but with many cameras now supporting video it was a logical inclusion.

Anyway, enough of what might have been! The shrink wrapped box arrived on Friday, by the way cheers for the second class post Apple, and that was when things started to go downhill.

Installation was a breeze when compared to the hours it took me to install Final Cut Studio the day before. Sadly the elation of that installation was the high point of a very disappointing day.

On first run Aperture crashed.

Deeming it a blip I tried again and managed to get a little further. I could get to the Getting Started dialog box but none of the videos would play. Figuring I could worry about that later I copied the sample library catalog off the installation disc and set about investigating the new features.

First impression had to be just how slow it was running. Not just a little sluggish but direly slow. Clicking anything seemed to make Aperture slow to a crawl.

I managed to get a sample image loaded in and tried the new adjustment brushes. The results were very impressive but each brush stroke required over 30 seconds of processing.

Even using the loupe required an interminable wait while the image re-rendered.

A check of the Activity Monitor confirmed my intuition, the machine was being maxed out.

This is no underpowered machine either, it’s an early 2009 24 inch iMac with 4GB RAM and 3.06GHz processor.

I did all the right things: repairing permissions before and after install, repairing and rebuilding the library, creating a new library and even closing down all other applications. The outcome was the same each time Aperture slowed down to a crawl after varying amounts of time and/or processing.

Those few clients who tried the new version over the weekend have already been on the phone with corrupt catalogs, speed issues and are rolling back today.

With some software I wait to upgrade but I admit I expect better from Apple. At the very least I expect I won’t have to wait before enjoying the new features of a release that has been two years in the coming.

This version of Aperture doesn’t feel ready for release. I can’t use this in this state. I can’t recommend to clients that they risk their businesses using it either.

I didn’t take any consolation from not being alone in having serious issues with Aperture 3, reports are plentiful of major issues both from third party sites such as Gizmodo and TechTree as well as Apple’s own Aperture forums.

I sincerely hope Apple take on board the feedback and release updates as a matter of urgency that address the issues.

It’s instability isn’t as major an issue for me as it might be for some as I’ve always used both Aperture and Lightroom, yes together, and yes with the same images. I have a system in place where the images are referred on the hard drive rather than imported and it’s been working well for almost 4 years.

So in the meantime I’m using Lightroom 3 Beta, a product that clearly states it’s in beta and as such comes with all the usual caveats that status implies. However, it has not crashed once for me. I was sufficiently confident in it’s stability to do a live demonstration of it’s new features to my user group in January. It’s much faster than Lightroom 2, which was no slouch itself, and the new extensible architecture is heralding an exciting future for a product that holds a special place in my heart for bringing me to the Mac platform way back in the days of the beta of version 1.

Since the announcement of the iPad I’ve been amazed by the strength of feeling demonstrated by both sides of what has become the great Flash debate of 2010.

The iPhone has never supported Flash and while mention was made of that fact when v.1 was released it’s continued omission has not engendered any great depth of feeling. Since the iPad runs on essential the same operating system I didn’t expect Flash to be supported and therefore wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t.

What has happened since has astounded me: the vitriolic claims and counterclaims have flowed thick and fast.

Adobe have voiced their willingness to work together with Apple to resolve any concerns Apple may have. While Apple initially said nothing Steve Jobs this week had plenty to say on the subject at least to his own employees. According to Wired and Macrumors (US spelling is correct!) Apple’s CEO said “They are lazy. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it is because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”

The world may be moving to HTML 5 but Jobs is overlooking the fact that the majority of the browsing world isn’t there yet and as the longevity of Internet Explorer 6 demonstrates old technology takes some considerable time to die out completely.

As an active member of the Adobe Community Programme I have access to the very best Flash developers, programmers and users. Obviously their stance is that Apple are missing a fantastic opportunity to offer a full browsing experience on their newest product by continuing to shun Flash.

Many Apple users are of the opposite opinion even going so far as disabling Flash in their more than capable Mac desktop computers and laptops. To the uninitiated that may seem tantamount to removing the nose to spite the face but to a large percentage of Mac users it makes perfect sense.

Why?

Well while Flash runs admirably on the Windows platform it does so because Microsoft have granted Adobe, the manufacturer of Flash, access to the Windows graphic APIs. Apple have steadfastly refused to do so for their OS X platform. So while the Flash development platform and the Flash Player is available for OS X is does not have access to the Apple OS X graphic APIs and as such is unable to benefit from the performance enhances access to them would provide. The workarounds Adobe have employed to mitigate the effects of having no API access have meant that Flash does not run as well on OS X as it does on Windows.

Hence, Flash is regarded by many OS X users as a resource hog and they choose to deploy third party applications whose sole function is to stop Flash running in their browser. The most popular of these Flash blockers is ClickToFlash available at no cost from http://rentzsch.github.com/clicktoflash/

No-one can deny that much of the Flash content that is presented to users in a browser falls into the category of “annoying adverts” but Adobe would no doubt prefer that their tools are not blamed for the output of web designers with predilections for creating such content. Flash gets such a bad press for the “annoying adverts” that it’s easy to overlook the innovations that it was responsible for and the inventiveness the Flash developers and community continue to demonstration.

Much has been made in the pro-Apple camp of the fact that HTML 5 is an open standard whereas Adobe and it’s Flash platform is a commercial entity. However, this stance conveniently ignores the roots of the Mac community exemplified in the pivotal 1984 advert for Macintosh. The ideology of Apple as the David against the Goliath of IMB is clear from that advert and the seeming reversal of roles is clearly advanced by this erudite post from Adobe Community Manager Rachel Luxemburg.

So a week on instead of enjoying the buildup to the release of the iPad we are bombarded with requests to petition Apple to change it’s stance and subjected to Steve Jobs scornful opinion of Adobe. At the same time we’re witnessing users blocking Flash on one class of device while another equally vocal group of users are demanding it’s deployment on another platform.

As a Mac user for the last four years I personally have never disabled Flash. I have never found it to be so annoyingly slow, unstable or capricious to warrant such treatment but I personally know many who have. Since Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, an online conferencing system I use on a very regular basis, requires Flash I won’t be doing without it anytime soon either.

Sadly the omission of Flash from the iPad means I won’t be lounging somewhere comfortable while presenting or participating via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro when the iPad is released. However, I’m not too concerned about it as I’ve had a Flash-less iPhone for over 18 months now and can’t say life without it has been unbearable.

So what’s your take on it?

So the magic day has arrived … I’m out of contract on my iPhone 3G *deep joy*

Time to change to a better value tariff so off I headed to O2 in Bolton. I knew what I wanted was a tariff called Simplicity 20 for iPhone … if only acquiring it had been simple. Sadly, it was a complete disaster, for the full horror of the day take a listen to MacBites episode 40.

The store staff had clearly had no training in what was available to cater for the specific needs of iPhone customers. A glaring omission given that all the customers who purchased an iPhone 3G on the day of release are out of contract this month. The staff were all most helpful and cordial but this didn’t translate into a smooth transaction when they were unaware of the difference between a Simplicity tariff and a Simplicity for iPhone tariff.

For the record this is the difference:

Simplicity (During January promotion) – £20

• 700 Free voice minutes (100 minutes more than usual)
• 700 Free text messages (100 texts more than usual)
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity (After January promotion ends) – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 600 Free text messages
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity 20 for iPhone – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 1200 Free text messages
• 2 free bolt-ons (they recommend unlimited internet and unlimited wifi)
• Includes visual voice mail

The Best Way to proceed?

From my experiences I’d by-pass the stores, they don’t seem to have a clue what is the best option for iPhone customers coming out of contract, and call O2 directly. If given a choice, which you should be if ringing via your iPhone, select the option to speak to the cancellations department. The option actually connects you to a department called Retentions who seem to be the only people at O2 who have any knowledge of the existence of the iPhone version of the Simplicity tariff.

Tell the Retentions department you want to switch to Simplicity 20 for iPhone with 600 free minutes, 1200 free texts, 2 bolt-ons and visual voice mail. If they deny all knowledge of its existence ask to speak to a supervisor and/or show them this screen capture of my O2 account … it really exists!!

You might have to wait 24 hours for everything to be activated and you might have to manually reconfigure your settings. One of the side effects of changing tariffs was that the phone reset itself and failed to connect to the 3G network. This was easily rectified by entering the following settings into the General > Network > Cellular Data Network of the phone:

The only other gotcha I encountered was having to set Visual Voice Mail up again from scratch but this shouldn’t be necessary if O2 transfer you to the correct tariff in the first place. Being without my visual voice mail made me realize that it was a feature of the iPhone that I had greatly under-appreciated … a mistake I won’t make again

Good luck with your tariff transfers and I’d love to hear how you get on so be sure to leave me a comment below!

So it’s that time of the year when resolutions are made, plans are crafted and successes are plotted.

Judging by my lack of progress in blogging last year I think rather than picking one or more of the Top 10 New Years Resolutions I should resolve to dedicate more time to blogging.

In my defence I did notice in 2009 that the number of episodes of MacBites we released increased in direct proportion to the lack of blog posts though!

So with an interesting 2010 to look forward to I shall endeavour to blog my geeky thoughts much more than in 2009.

Why interesting you ask? Well it looks as if the as yet mythical Apple tablet might just see the light of day and I’m lusting after one (or two!!) of those new shiny 27 inch iMacs too. In business terms I have plenty of speaking engagements booked and more in the planning stage so be sure to keep an eye on my Speaking Engagements page for details of both upcoming events and recordings of previous presentations.

Since I spent the whole of New Years Day dismantling and reassembling hard drive enclosures I guess my love/hate relationship with my storage devices would be a good place to start. Be warned though as threatened on Twitter it could well become a mini series! Watch this space for the first installment of drives from hell, coming as soon as I’ve written it.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and prosperous 2010.

So there it is the first post of the year, day 1 and I’m ahead of myself. As I say on MacBites … See you next time

Within days of getting my iPhone 3G in the summer of 2008 I’d found a real time saving feature on the keyboard for entering URL extensions and blogged about it too at Quick URL Entry on an iPhone.

Well after the v.3 update not only is the feature still there but the range of extensions has been expanded.

Ireland will forever thank you

Nice attention to detail there Apple!

Version 2

Version 3

I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.

The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.

Nothing wrong with that so far if you’re prepared to be bought but where the promotional campaign took a distasteful turn was in the phraseology used to those visitors using a browser other than Internet Explorer 8.

How is telling potential users to “… get rid of it, or get lost.” likely to charm them into using IE8?

Visiting with Safari resulted in:

Firefox visitors don’t fair much better:

Visiting via Opera? They don’t even bother to refer to your browser by name!

No concessions for older versions of IE either but at least those users don’t get told to “get lost”.

However, if there are any remaining users of IE for the Mac they don’t get treated so well and are indeed told to get lost.

Not satisfied with leaving it there Microsoft then produced a broswer comparision chart. They limited themselves to comparing IE8 with only Firefox and Chrome but this didn’t stop Wired Magazine from filling out on the “facts” Microsoft provided in said chart, very amusingly. Soon others where taking the initiative and making their own amendments to said comparison chart including Kilian Valkhof.

This sort of negative approach is so old hat that Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. Competition between browser creators is good for the users but only when the competition results in the creation of better browsers and a better browsing experience.

Negative promotions like this do not move us forward. If Microsoft want to entice more users here’s a radical idea … make a better product.