General – Page 6 – Chris Koerner

Using a smartphone as a webcam

I’ve been using my iPhone as a webcam for the last few months. I thought I’d share a few notes here on my experiences for others who might want to try this.

Why use a smartphone as a webcam? Because the “top pick” Logitech webcam on almost everyone’s list is terrible. In fact, in my experience, all webcams are terrible. Mostly because there isn’t much competition in this space so the generational improvements are small.

For example, the top recommended webcam by The Wirecutter up until October 2020 came out in 2012, the same year the iPhone 5 was released! Their latest recommended webcam is basically the same camera with very small hardware differences. The white balance is often off, focus is inconsistent, and the built-in microphones are of the most inexpensive quality you could imagine.¹

Conversely, the camera(s) in your smartphone are great and get better every year. Phone manufacturers consistently tout the tech in the camera systems because that’s a huge selling point for these devices. More often than not your most used camera is your phone, right? You probably already have a smartphone too, so one less thing to buy.

So what is the catch? How do I do this magic? I use a free (as in beer) software called Reincubate Camo.². I install their app on my smartphone. I install their companion app for my computer that runs in the background. It sits here ready to pass the video from my smartphone camera to whatever video chat software I’m using (Meet, Zoom, etc.). A few minutes before my call, I plugin in my phone, launch Camo on my phone and select it as my video input in my conferencing software du jour.

Pros:

Hands down the best picture I’ve seen (and I’ve used some top-of-the-line telepresence setups by Cisco).
Consistent, sharp focus on your face, not the bookshelf or wall behind you (I’ve perpetually had this issue with the Logitech).
Use a device you probably already have (instead of buying another webcam).
Higher dynamic range and more natural color (see the photos above. You can actually tell there are trees outside my window!).
You charge your phone while using it. 🙂

Cons:

Have to install an app on your computer and keep running in the background.
Need some way to hold phone up at a decent angle. I use Lego (see below).
Your phone is in use while you are in a call (If you use a 2FA app or something this could be problematic)
Mac and Windows only
If you want a resolution over 720p you need the Pro version (but in my opinion image quality is more important than image resolution).

I hope you find this interesting and maybe useful. I’d love to hear about your setup and what improvements you suggest in creating a nice virtual presence.

The Oasis by Shiro Miyake

Post-Dispatch Magazine article on the garden

There’s this historic house in my home city. Not the most culturally or historically significant, but old by US standards and a handsome specimen of its time. It sat catty-corner to the warehouse/mailroom my dad use to work from before he retired. In 2016 it was purchased and renovations began. My dad would watch the folks work and was curious about the house. We were able to find the completed National Register of Historic Places Registration Form online for the home and learned a lot about the house from the research work within.

About two years ago I started a draft article about the house for Wikipedia ³ and used that document as a foundation. At the urging of a fellow Wikimedian I attended an editing party last week and got the article in a good enough state to move to article namespace on English Wikipedia. It now lives at Dr. George Ashe Bronson House.

At the same time I applied for a library card through the Wikipedia Library to get access to newspapers.com. I wanted to see if I could find out more about the owner of the home, Dr. George A. Bronson, a predominate local dentist. I did, and added a few additional citations to the article.

Along the way I found out about the history of the Japanese garden the doctor built on the premises. Called, “The Oasis”, it was designed by Shiro Miyake from Nio, Sanuki, Japan. ⁴

Miyake came to St. Louis as part of the Japanese exhibit for the 1904 World’s Fair. He was a dentistry student at Washington University and graduated in 1909. He worked with Dr. Bronson to build the garden as his “houseman”.

According to old records from Washington University he was the Sergeant at Arms during his time at the school and his favorite occupation was “grinning”. His favorite song? “Just Fill Them Up Again”.⁵ And his ideal [person] was “Battling Nelson“.

It appears he later lived in Denver at one point and, if this is him, died in California in 1952.

While Miyake himself is not notable enough for his own Wikipedia article, I like that I was able to find out a little more about him through online resources and include his contributions to this well-respected garden in the article.

Five Years Later…

I’ve been at the Wikimedia Foundation for five years now. I don’t often speak publicly⁶ about what it’s like to work at the non-profit behind one of the biggest social movements, website, and community on the planet. Also one of the few that aren’t backed by squicky dude-bros who care more about money than humans. AAAAANNNYYYHOW, there’s something special about the number five and so here are my thoughts.

Where is the Foundation now?

I think the Foundation is in a better position than in the past five years – both internally in how the organization is structured and work is managed, but also in what we work on and where our focus is. We’ve learned a lot from the lumps garnered in the past (deservedly or not) and with Movement Strategy and strong focus on Objectives and Key Results (ORKs) it’s more transparent (and apparent) that our work is tied to the needs of the movement.

Better, not perfect.

For example, the recent strategy and board work are both well-staffed – with regional support. The teams (from my perspective) are taking it slow and giving folks a chance to talk and listen. Doesn’t mean we’re going to do everything (we can’t) or hear everyone (we can’t) but that we are trying to acknowledge gaps and biases.

Product has been kicking butt in building tools that help. In particular the Growth team, mobile web, and the desktop refresh. I still love Community Tech after five years. I think I will after another five. If I were a billionaire they’d get 100 million a year just to do more of this.

I still feel like new teams/initiatives/people still sometimes get burned. Unclear expectations, combative community, crossed wires. We’re working on that. I am seeing less of it. Still a few spots of things we should be doing IMHO, but aren’t. Like Maps and visualizations. Like search and the portal. We need to make a decision about the weird stuff kinda floating out there.

Have you seen the multimedia search for Commons? It’s a media search that’s useful! No more “site:commons.wikimedia.org dog” searches on Google.

Onboarding staff new to this wacky world is a challenge. It’s inconsistent and it takes six months to even get up to speed – if not longer! I know smart people are working on this, so I have optimism for the future. It’s still going to be a struggle. We are a multifaceted organization⁷ and an even more multifaceted movement. And we’re continuing to grow. Obtaining knowledge about the river in which the ship is moving in, while the ship is moving, is tricky. Making this more systemic and process-driven will help, but we still have so much information about our volunteers and the relationship, in well, individual relationships with people. I mean, it should be that way. Humans connecting to humans, but hoo boy does that not scale easily.

Foundation is investing into listening. I mean, I’m on a team literally charged with improving Movement Communications. With Diff, and our needs assessment work, I’m feeling jazzed about moving the needle on the relationship with communities. The Foundation has been inconsistent in talking to folks and connecting our work to theirs. We need to be better storytellers, listeners, and force multipliers. Especially in emerging communities and places of the world where we have communities but know little about them (and therefore can not support them).

I feel like my work is contributing in a more strategic, positive way with Diff. Working with and amplifying the work of people where we can treat each other like teammates and not combatants. It’s encouraging and impactful. Fun Fact: Diff saw 86,865 views from 65,935 visitors in January. Higher than any expectations I had.

As I was drafting this blog post our ED announced she was stepping down. I’ve reflected on all that has happened under her leadership and I think it make sense to mention it here. Katherine has put the org – and by extension the movement – on a solid course.

Gained the role in the midst of a terrible era of trust (both internal to the Foundation and with community).
Lead with grace and dignity in every interaction I had that was reassuring and respectable.
Got a movement strategy rolling for the future and in solid shape to get us to 2030 and beyond.
Leadership at the C-level and below shored up (Hiring new folks for gaps, new needed roles, sorting out HR, etc.).
Clarifying governance (Board make up, sort out the board/Foundation responsibilities, bylaws, election).
Movement-wide Code of Conduct.
Endowment is nearly at it’s 100 million goal.
Organizational growth and capacity.

I mean, the next CEO can step in and goof off all day for ~4 years and still leave successful – assuming they don’t muck with stuff too much. 😉

Where is the movement now?

2020 sucked. I’m inspired by the folks who keep on trucking. And reminded by those that took a step back that you can’t keep others warm by setting yourself on fire. It’s amazing that folks have continued the amazing work, supporting one another, and moving the needle of trust and free knowledge. I was on the committee for Wikimedian of the Year and in all honesty I would have nominated everyone. They were all inspirational and all so human.

There are still folks who like to be edgy jerks and stoke the fire on the whole WMF/Community divide. I think it’s unconstructive. It’s also super demoralizing. It’s also something you can’t do anything about. But I have noticed less petty picking-of-fights over a lack of clarity and supposition with fear and doubt that The Foundation is evil. So that’s nice. I also am caring less about the loud minority of folks as I give more of my attention to those who want to work with me within the system. You know, like you would anywhere else in life.

Where am I now?

Five years is the longest I’ve been at any prior organizations. It’s also easily the longest I’ve been in the same position. Or roughly the same position. Community-facing communications.⁸ Five is also half a decade. A lot can change in five years. When I joined the Foundation my youngest daughter was less than two years old. She’s now kicking my butt (and the world’s) as a smart six-year-old.

I still care and am still invested in my work and the movement. A little less than in the past. I don’t know if that’s me trying to learn how not to give a fuck or if that’s burnout over all the changes the last few years have brung. Ya’ll, the work is hard, the work is plentiful, and working remotely can feel isolating. Not gonna lie.

I worry more about my co-workers than myself. They’re the smart ones I rely on to appear intelligent. 🙂

Working remotely is challenging because getting an attaboy or acknowledgment of your work is really hard when you don’t see your boss in the hallway. This sort of encouragement, I know, is very American, but I like to have a sense of knowing where I stand in organization and how I’m doing with my work. So far, I think I’m doing pretty good. Still a struggle to be OK with ambiguity and chaos.

Remote work productivity tips

So yeah, let’s end this on an up-beat note. I’ve been working from home for five years now. Full-time. I’m super privileged to be able to afford the time/money/space to have built my studio. If you cannot do the same, I still want you to take your self-care seriously. Here’s some advice. Don’t feel bad if it doesn’t work for you. It sometimes doesn’t work for me.

Get a white noise machine. I even have a portable one for when I travel. Helps focus from distracting house-noises.
Don’t work in spaces that distract you. Find yourself feeling unproductive after a day at Starbucks? Don’t work there.
Setup your space to be organized and keep it separate from where you do your personal computering.
Use a quick launcher. I have saved billions of trackpad taps (and seconds) by using a nice launcher. My go-to is Alfred. I was a Quicksliver user for over a decade. Alfred is just so nice. Keep your hands on the keyboard as much as you can. Learn the shortcuts for your commonly used apps. Yell at the ancient gods when you can’t use command-K to add a link in Slack.
Everything is a draft, that’s ok. Perfect is the enemy of good – and feeling like you’re not getting anything done isn’t productive. Even organizing your bookmarks or deleting old email is production. Don’t beat yourself up on slow days.
Work from libraries – in my suburban area we have public libraries with quiet study rooms you can borrow for an hour or two. Lots of comfy seating. People around you, and most are trying to be quiet – unlike a Starbucks.
Write it down.
Listen to music? I can’t listen to anything new to me or anything with lyrics. The best for me is a chill playlist, music in another language, or the creme de la creme – video game soundtracks.

So, five years down. Maybe I’ll do this again in another five?

Don’t Use Your Charging Cables for Data Transfer

I recently got a little external enclosure to use with a SATA SSD that was going unused. Nothing fancy, this one if you’re curious. I’ve been using it without issue with the short cable that it came with (and a USB A to C adapter) to connect to my 2019 Macbook Pro.

Today I was being lazy and instead of getting my butt out of my chair to get the cable from my bag, I just grabbed the closest USB-C cable to transfer some files to the SSD. The cable I happened to use was the one that came with my 2020 iPad Pro 11″. Hooked it all up and started copying over some files. Usually an operation that takes a few minutes. Ten minutes later? Still transferring. Confused I loaded up Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and ran some comparisons for fun.

That’s not right! 41 MB/s is super slow. So I tried the cable the drive enclosure came with.

439 MB/s! Ok, that’s much better. Then I tried a few more cables. How about the nice long and thick USB-C cable that came with my Macbook Pro?

Yikes! Super slow. For giggles (and it’s what I had laying around) the cable that came with my Pokeball Plus.

Again, super slow. These cable are just for charging, not for data transfer. To illustrate how slow, here’s a test using my external spinning disk Western Digital 4TB drive.

Not as fast as the SSD, naturally, but 100 MB/s faster than using the wrong cable on the SSD. 🙂

I know this might be common knowledge for some folks, but I was kinda surprised. Use the right cable folks!

Reflections on the 2020 iPad Pro and Logitech Folio Touch

Way back in 2011 I was lucky enough to win an iPad 2 at a conference I attended in Boston.⁹ I used the heck out of that thing. We had already bought my mother-in-law a first-generation iPad at this point so I was familiar with the device, but having one of my own was great.¹⁰ I could use it to share photos with family on its large screen instead of my tiny iPhone 4s. I could read comics, surf the web, all the stuff iPads are known for. Then in 2013 I upgraded to an iPad Air. So thin. So fast! In 2016 Jackie and I traded in our Airs and we both got the then new iPad Pro 9.7. A pressure-sensitive stylus? Four speakers! Be still my beating heart.

As phones got bigger, laptops lighter, the iPad became something of a strange in-between device for my uses. I ended up not using it much for a span of time. In 2016 I sold my iPad Pro for the same price I bought it for! That’s how amazing the resale value is on Apple products.

Enter 2020. We’re stuck at home more than ever and nothing (temporarily) soothes the soul like buying a new gadget. I’ve been eyeing the new round-rec iPad Pros since 2018. Something about them is very Padd-like – even more so than past generations. It embodies the idea of a simple blank slate that can do whatever is needed at the time. The “naked robotic core” as John Siracusa puts it. I like that in the last year Apple added cursor support to the OS. I’ve also taken an interest in trying to flex my creative side more often by drawing.

But new gadgets are expensive. What is a man to do? Well, in my case it was turning to a life of crime to sustain my gadget habit. Ok, not really. I turned to something far worse. Collectible card games.

You see, dear reader, at the turn of the century I was enrolled in the local community college as a theatre major. As a theatre major you are invariably in the company of fellow nerds.¹¹ At the time, Pokémon was very nerdy, and very popular. I mean, it was popular for kids, but nerdy for college-aged kids to be into. You might known Pokémon from the video game series or the popular kids TV show. What you might not know about is the Pokémon TCG (Trading Card Game). The TCG is a game you play with cards of various Pokémon in a 1:1 battle. The more cards you collect – read: buy – the better you can build a deck of cards. It’s fun, addictive, and apparently, lucrative.

Over the summer of 2020 I was moving stuff around in preparation for moving into my Tiny Studio. In a cabinet I found my old Pokémon card collection.¹² Out of curiosity I looked up how much some of the more rare cards were going for online. Long story longer, I sold about two dozen 1999-2000 era cards on eBay for close to $2,000 total. Ha, who says nerdy hobbies don’t pay! I later found out that 2020 was a gold rush of collectors coming into adulthood and prospecting cards from their youth. I got lucky.

So here I am, owner of a new iPad Pro 11” with Apple Pencil 2, and Logitech Folio Touch. This is my review on what I think of it a few months on. I mentioned it earlier, but one of the reasons I wanted to get an iPad now was that the OS for iPad now supports keyboard and cursor input. This means I can use it like a traditional computer with a physical keyboard and trackpad via the Folio Touch.

Up until now I didn’t actually own my own computer. I mean, I have computers in the house. My wife has a nice 2017 iMac and my work has provided me a 13” MacBook Pro. Neither though are my computer.¹³ This iPad is. For what I need, it works pretty well.

The iPad Pro

This thing is fast. Faster than my new 2019 Macbook Pro 13” in many instances. It’s beautiful to look at with it’s 120Hz screen and it’s beautiful to touch – with a solid, light case and thin bezels.

Everything – mostly text and buttons – look super big and beautiful on this screen. As a man approaching 40, I like big buttons and text.

There’s a trend in modern video games where they often have smaller and near illegible text for important menus and subtitles. I want more folks to take a page from past devices where they had lower resolution screens and had to use larger text to make it legable within that lower resolution. Keep that going even if we have super-high resolution 65”+ screens. Because not all of us do and not all of us can see so well.

Thankfully the iPad embraces big text and even allows you to customize these options to a great degree.

I’ve been using the Pro to edit photos. I can plugin my USB-C SD card reader and suck in the 40MB RAW files from my DSLR super fast. Again, faster than importing to my Mac. And bam, they’re ready to edit. I use Pixemator Photo, which is grossly underpriced at under $10. The features and performance are top-shelf. I was editing a group of these RAW images, making a few slight color corrections and crops. When I went to export, in bulk, it was so fast I thought the operation failed half-way through. Nope, they were all exported, just faster than I anticipated.

Face ID feels futuristic. When does this come to the Mac‽

Logitech Folio Touch

When I ordered the iPad I also ordered one of Apple’s Smart Folios. I thought that I might just buy a bluetooth keyboard and lug that round if I needed a physical keyboard. After a few weeks I felt like the Folio wasn’t offering much protection and the idea of carrying around a separate keyboard soured. I looked into what was available and learned about Logitech’s Folio Touch. A rugged case with a connected full-size keyboard and trackpad. No batteries to charge and backlit? Sold.

I’m really digging the keyboard and trackpad support in iPadOS paired with a keyboard case. It feels like a Mac Jr. The keyboard uses a nice traditional scissor mechanism with a surprising amount of travel. Most keys are full-size and the transition between my desktop keyboard and this one feels pretty natural. There are many common keyboard shortcuts between he Mac and iPad, so the learning curve has been minimal. The trackpad and it’s multi-touch gestures works just like the one on my Mac, albeit smaller.

I will say that initially I felt the trackpad support was a little iffy. Sometimes it was difficult to get the Dock to appear when you mouse to the bottom edge of the screen. Scrolling was a bit jumpy. Since getting the Folio Logitech has released a firmware update and Apple pushed a Smart Connector firmware update too, both of which have lead to a more predictable experience.

I do worry how well the case will wear over time. Particularly the edge of the kickstand as it will see the most friction from opening and adjusting on a surface, and the hinge mechanism itself. When I fold the keyboard back to hold the iPad like a book the keyboard automatically deactivates which is good. It’s really easy to fidget with the keys as you hold the device in your hands.

One thing I had to deal with when I first got the case was a stuck “I” key. The key would stick in the down position randomly. I chalked it up to a manufacturing defect and started the process to return it with Logitech. However, I like to try and figure things out on my own. A gentle pry on one corner of the key and some compressed air fixed it. I surmise that a small bit of plastic from a mold was stuck on a part of the key mechanism. The warranty is for one year so, that’s nice if I do need it. So far, so good.

The case is on the heavy side. Combined with the weight of the iPat it’s not as heavy as a laptop, even a laptop on the smaller, lighter end of things. With the case and iPad it weighs in at 2.06 pounds. The iPad itself is 1.04 pounds. For keyboard use, this is fine. For portably this is fine. For holding in your lap watching a movie or reading, it’s a bit of strain on your wrist. A brand-new M1 MacBook Air is 2.8 pounds in comparison, but I can’t draw on its display (or fold it flat to read with).

Concerns

Remember, I’ve used the iPad as a tablet for years at this point. This is my first time trying to use it as a laptop-like device. A keyboard-attached device? We need a better name than tablet-with-a-keyboard-and-trackpad attached.¹⁴

My concerns and frustrations are notably in this weird between-space where the the iPad currently lives. Let me illustrate a few examples.

The browser agent for the iPad tells websites to load the desktop version of their site. This is fine in most cases. But on Wikipedia I get the desktop version, but Page Previews (the little pop-up that appears when you hover over the title to a liked wiki page) isn’t activated. The newest iPadOS (as of 13.4 specifically) does support cursor-based input and can support hover states. It will take some time for developers to fix this, if at all.¹⁵

It’s an example of the difficulties of the iPad being both a very popular device and the people using it with a cursor/keyboard input device are rather small in comparison to say, well anything else – much less smartphones and traditional desktop computers.

Another niggle. Not having a physical, or even software, Escape key is bugging me. For instance, many dialogs on web pages and in software can be dismissed by pressing the Escape key. There isn’t an Escape key on any made-for iPad keyboards or cases.¹⁶

Through modern computing history the Escape key is always up in the top left corner of the keyboard, so there’s an inherent ease and muscle memory to just *boop* the Escape key to dismiss dialogs. No Escape key in the iPad world. Just a little 🔲 square icon to return to the home screen. Ask me how many times I’ve *booped* that key in error.¹⁷

I use Wikipedia a lot. No surprise, but it’s true! When viewing media at full screen on the ‘ol pedia, the MultimediaViewer allows you to Escape back to the article you were browsing. On the iPad I’m stuck with a little “X” button I have to mouse over and click or, sigh – I know writing this out sounds super lazy – reach up with my hand and touch. Now, I’m able-bodied, but I do think this is an accessibility issue for folks so my complaint isn’t totally selfish and lazy!¹⁸

If it isn’t clear I’m a keyboard shortcut junky. I love not having to move my hands from the keys. A lack of Escape key is frustrating. I am happy however that iPadOS has a system-wide search bar. I used Quicksilver for years before switching to Alfred. Using a Mac without search utility is maddening. Thankfully iPadOS uses the same Command+Spacebar to invoke its Spotlight search, making the transition to using this much easier. And Spotlight has come a long way. It’s actually pretty useful. All my files, Notes, contacts, and bookmarks are indexed and a web search is a quick query away.

Desires

I’d love if I could connect the iPad to an external screen and use that screen as a secondary, extended, surface. Heck, I’d love it if when connected to a 16:9 ratio screen that the content would use the whole screen – even if just mirrored. Games, apps, and the OS should adapt to the connected screen. Right now they appear as a mirror of the iPad screen locked at a 4:3 ratio.¹⁹ I know videos will play at the correct ratio and I’m sure there’s more than enough horsepower in this device to power a 4k display. It’s funny that you can use the iPad as an extended screen for your Mac and can plug your iPad in to an external monitor over HDMI, but can’t extend your desktop, err tablettop.

I still, after nearly a decade of use, want to see some of the boring features of the iPhone come to iPad. A calculator. A weather app.²⁰ Widgets wherever I want them on the home screen. Battery health.

And most importantly, Low power mode. This feature is a life-saver on the iPhone and while the iPad isn’t as critical or portable, it’s much desired to eek out just a little more when you’re away from an electrical plug.²¹.

Conclusion

Having this iPad since October I think it’s pretty close to a perfect device. It’s great as a stand-alone computer for my light needs.²² It’s flexible for the various uses – web browsing, photo editing, typing (This whole thing was written on my iPad!), playing games, drawing, etc. It’s fast and snappy. Some compromises, sure, but the size, speed, and flexibility are unmatched. I’m eager to see more refinements with the iPad software to make it even easier to use as a primary device.

Update: I just read Becky Hansmeyer’s thoughts on the potential for iPads in the post-M1 Mac world. I agree with many of her points and am encourage by what she wrote.