Carl Franklin

.NET Wonk

Carl & Rory's How-To Videos

Rory and I have started making some in-depth how-to videos on various programming topics. We are going to do some introductory videos first, which we will make available for free. Once we measure how well they are received we will figure out a way to charge for more advanced topics. 

The first one is from my VB.NET Master Class, called So you THINK you know what an Object is... in which Rory and I gently lead the VB4/VB5/VB6 developer down the road to OOP in VB.NET. It's painless and fun. Please distribute this page as much as you like. We want to get the word out!

http://www.franklins.net/dotnetrocks/dnrvideos.aspx

Of course, they are done in the same informal style as .NET Rocks!, so if you enjoy listening to the show, you should find the videos helpful and at least entertaining.

We used Camtasia to capture the videos at 1024x768, and convert them to flash. We also did some processing on the audio to bring the levels up and reduce the noise, as we are wont to do. :-)

Posted: Mar 15 2004, 03:30 AM by Carl Franklin | with 15 comment(s)
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Comments

Josh Baltzell said:

I just finished watching the videos as part of my patented "Monday morning strive to complete no real work training regalia" (I’m still working on the title since the acronym for that would be MMSCNRWTR (Which I now notice is kind of close to being pronounceable as “Mmmmm… Screen Writer.” Weird.)

I really enjoyed the movies. As a developer with no formal programming education I think I skipped a lot of important basics as I learned things just for the ability to do something I needed done then and there. This kind of stuff is the mortar to my bricks, so please keep it coming. Why don’t you do some DVD training like the guys at DV Press? I got work to order some for our team even though I have no idea if they are any good or not. At $35 a rattle it’s easy to justify the expense to an employer.
# March 15, 2004 10:47 AM

Carl Franklin said:

Thanks, Josh!

>> Why don’t you do some DVD training like the guys at DV Press <<

I much prefer doing them on the web. Nothing to manufacture and it's accessible from everywhere.
# March 15, 2004 10:49 AM

Josh Baltzell said:

For presenting the demos I'm sure the web is a better medium (albeit slightly less accesible)since DVDs have a limited resolution and all. This video sounded and looked great btw. I will have to look in to the software you used for making custom training sessions for customers.
# March 15, 2004 10:59 AM

Catatonic said:

One problem, my monitor is 1024x768, so I have to scroll around your video to see the whole thing. Otherwise fantastic!
# March 15, 2004 12:50 PM

Carl Franklin said:

Nah, just press F11 to watch it full-screen!
# March 15, 2004 12:55 PM

Joshua Hayworth said:

So...

Why aren't you guys charging for this stuff! AppDev makes $1500 +/- selling their interactive CD's.

Just curious,

Joshua
# March 15, 2004 2:28 PM

Carl Franklin said:

We do plan to charge for it. Think of this as a trial period! <g>
# March 15, 2004 2:31 PM

Catatonic said:

With the F11 trick, I still have to scroll down a bit to find the pause/rewind controls at the bottom. Then the Windows taskbar pops up and gets in the way if the mouse cursor gets too close to the bottom of the screen.

I can solve the problem by bumping up my resolution a bit but I wonder if the video would still look ok if you just sized it to fit the browser. That would also help people running 1600x1200 who want it to fill the screen.
# March 15, 2004 3:03 PM

Josh Baltzell said:

The only other thing I can think of for making it easily viewable is to publish the project from Flash as an exe to distribute. YOu can view those presentations full screen on any PC. You can do the same with a standard SWF, but I don't know if you need to have the full version of Flash installed to get that cool player or not.

Problem is that if it did scale to screen size it will probably look blurry on the straight lines here and there when it has to scale up to a resolution higher than it was intended for.

You can give it a try tho if you are actually using Flash to publish the project. Go to File -- Publish Settings and then check the box for "Windows Projector" befor publishing the project. I use that for when out sales people go on the road and want our presentation on their laptop full screen.
# March 15, 2004 3:13 PM

Carl Franklin said:

> I wonder if the video would still look ok if you just sized it to fit the browser <

No, it doesn't look as good, and I can't size it to the browser as flash. I could, however, make the AVIs available. They require the Camtasia codec.

And I'm not using Flash to publish. The Camtasia Producer does that. I think the best thing is to make the AVI files available. It doesn't look THAT bad at lower sizes, and it's about twice to three times as big as the flash version
# March 15, 2004 3:18 PM

Catatonic said:

Thanks for your quick answers! I would take AVI files if I had the choice. One nice benefit is you can burn them to DVD's without too much effort. I think the big fonts you used would still be readable on a TV.
# March 15, 2004 3:36 PM

TrackBack said:

# March 15, 2004 5:00 PM

TrackBack said:

# March 15, 2004 5:01 PM

vbNullString said:

I love your video. I don't mind subscribing to this kind of video if you guys make it available. There are things I learned. Keep it up!
# March 17, 2004 12:55 AM

Dana McNeil said:

Hey Carl,

Really liked the new video. I'm with Josh in thatI feel like theres foundation stuff that I just never really got. The format of having you and Rory together really makes it more entertaining, and hence, I think, more watchable and I retain more. The demos I've seen of dvpress was great in terms of content, but not nearly as interesting. I would definately be interested in subscribing to something like that as long as it is affordable.

I really liked the flash output, so if you are taking votes, keep it that way!
# March 18, 2004 2:28 PM
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