2022-05-12: Lightning Talks

bkidwell

Title: Lightning Talks
Time: 16 May 2022 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Place: Online Zoom meeting only; see description

Speech Recognition for Your PC and Smartphone — Asa Bacon
Six Ways to Set Up a Raspberry Pi 400 — Steve Walton
Free Private Online Shareable Document — Brendan Kidwell
How To Download Videos from Youtube, Facebook, … — Hank Kee

At least half an hour before the meeting, please email David Metzger ( dbmetzger@yahoo.com ) and Brendan Kidwell ( brendan@glump.net ) to request joining the NYACC meeting. One of them will send you instructions to join our Zoom meeting from desktop computer, laptop, mobile device, or from a phone call. PLEASE REMEMBER TO MUTE YOUR MICROPHONE WHEN YOU ARE NOT SPEAKING.

Don't forget we also have a new BBS and chat room you can use to connect with NYACC members any time, outside of our meetings:

BBS: https://nyacctalk.glump.net/
Chat room: https://webchat.freenode.net/#nyacc
Contact Brendan Kidwell ( brendan@glump.net ) if you have any trouble using the BBS or chat room.

:: ABOUT NYACC ::

http://nyacc.org/
calendar: https://gettogether.community/new-york-amateur-computer-club/

The New York Amateur Computer Club was established in March 1975 with the mission to further education in diverse areas of personal computing. The presentations at monthly meetings cover various platform computing systems and range from in-depth technical subjects to general overviews with broad appeal.

General meetings are always held on the second Thursday of each month and start promptly at 7 PM with announcements followed by a period of Questions and Answers called Random Access in which members and visitors are encouraged to ask technical questions or ask for advice on purchasing or using software, hardware, and related issues. There is a short break before the main presentation to enable attendees to meet and greet each other and to buttonhole people to get more detailed answers to specific questions. As an alternate to the main meeting, if a few people are interested, a new- or prospective-user group meeting is held to assist beginners.

The general meetings are open without charge to the public. Please consider becoming a member for $20 per year or renewing your membership, to help cover our operating costs. See instructions at nyacc.org .

bkidwell

I took notes during today's presentations.

Steve's Notes about Raspberry Pi 400

Presentation notes:
"Six (or More) Ways to Setup a Raspberry Pi 400"
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AEltSVitQfLVlyY&cid=96508A9EAB95409B&id=96508A9EAB95409B%21887&parId=96508A9EAB95409B%21886&o=OneUp (PDF download available)

Pi 400 (computer in a keyboard) specifications:

Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.8GHz
4GB LPDDR4-3200
Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN
Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
Gigabit Ethernet
2 × USB 3.0 and 1 × USB 2.0 ports
Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
2 × micro HDMI ports (supports up to 4Kp60)
H.265 (4Kp60 decode); H.264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode); OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.0
MicroSD card slot for operating system and data storage
78- or 79-key compact keyboard (depending on regional variant)
5V DC via USB connector
Operating temperature: 0°C to +50°C ambient

Link collection:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/

https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-unit/

At Microcenter (Yonkers):
https://www.microcenter.com/product/633751/
$69.99, in stock as of today

Raspberry Pi imager:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

Vidcap HDMI to USB-C 3.0:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Z3XDYQ7/
$18.89

HDMI adapter:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JDRHQ58
2 for $9.97

Power supply:
Inland 118992KN6Y, 5V 3A USB-C
Microcenter (sorry, no link)

HDMI to VGA adapter, with audio out
https://www.walmart.com/ip/j5create-HDMI-to-VGA-Adapter-Cable-Connector/626404033
$19.88

Sylvania SP772_FD rechargeable Bluetooth loudspeaker
$5, Family Dollar (sorry, no link)

Who's got what Pis in stock and at what prices?
https://rpilocator.com/
But it didn't show Microcenter's 400's.

Asa - Speech Recognition 2022 Update

Asa talked about Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) available in Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11 by searching for "speech recognition" in your Start Menu. He pointed out that similar software is available built-in in the OS, in Android, IOS, and MacOS.

Brendan - CryptPad

CryptPad is an online document storage, editing, and sharing solution that is built with the Zero Knowledge concept. The server software can't read your data, and the company running the server can't spy on you. (This also means you MUST NOT lose your password; they can't reset it for you.) This is possible because all fo the cryptography happens in the client software running in your browser. The platform supports editing rich text, spreadsheets, and slide decks. It supports uploading and sharing any kind of files with yourself and with others.

https://cryptpad.fr/

I wrote these meeting notes in CryptPad. See them here: https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/view/TsA0akLnIczDPzzWQaVEvUZzYjVfd6uxcWkgSI1cTSk/

Hank - Downloading Video Files from YouTube and Other Sites

Download video files using 5kPlayer. It supports downloading from many video hosting platforms.
https://www.5kplayer.com/

Use SwitchSound from NCH to convert audio file formats; includes the ability to extract audio from a video file.
https://www.nch.com.au/switch/

Use Audacity to edit audio files.
https://www.audacityteam.org/

Brendan also suggested you can use YouTube-DL to download video files from dozens of hosting sites including YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. This is a command line tool, but there are also GUIs available that invoke the YouTube-DL command line tool for you. This is free open source software.
https://youtube-dl.org/

Brendan also suggests that when other methods fail, Open Broadcast Studio (OBS) can always record whatever is presented on your screen, in the same way Zoom can share your screen and broadcast it to a meeting. Recording from the screen this way incurs a "generation loss" as you decompressing the original file, displaying it to the screen and speakers, and capturing and re-compressing the decoded output. So try using a video file downloader tool before trying OBS.
https://obsproject.com/