BINGenuity.com : a look at what's on our minds at Bing Design

We recently needed to upload a GoToWebinar recorded video for one of our clients to share, and some of the normal tricks to remove the custom G2M3 codec was not working out so well.

So we got on the phone with a Citrix Customer Support professional, who mentioned that their team had just released a new Windows BAT file that will convert your GoToWebinar videos to a standard WMV file by a simple drag-and-drop on your PC! I thought it was too good to be true, but with a quick download and conversion, the GoToWebinar WMV file with the custom codec was processed and the resulting WMV file was working on Mac and PC alike, and ready to share! Nice job guys!

Citrix Online has 3 very popular services for professionals who want to host or join in a meeting online:

Per the company’s website, GoToWebinar provides the following service…

“With GoToWebinar you can conduct do-it-yourself webinars with up to
1,000 people – all for one flat rate. Reduce travel while reaching larger
audiences around the world.”

While this service is great, if you have ever wanted to share a GoToWebinar recorded video on sites such as YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, or another video site, you are aware of the GoToWebinar WMV G2M3 custom codec. To share this video on a typical video site, this codec must be removed or users will not be able to see it.

There are many sites that have provided some great information on how to remove this codec through a series of steps that can be tricky for most to do. But no longer! The new simple batch converter created by Citrix will help you save your recorded GoToWebinar videos out as standard WMV formatted video more easily than ever!

If you want to try this for yourself, just download the attached ZIP file to your computer, extract the .bat file from the ZIP, drag your GoToWebinar WMV video over the .bat file, and when prompted by the DOS terminal, type in build number of “723″. You should immediately see the converter start processing the video AND it gives you a progress bar so there is no guessing when the file is ready.

Try it out and let us (and Citrix) know how much you like the new tool!

Download the ZIP below, then follow the steps at the bottom of this post, and ENJOY!

• Citrix GoToWebinar WMV Codec Removal Converter (4 KB ZIP)

Steps to install:

Click images to see larger view if needed.

1. 

   Download ZIP to your desktop.

2. 

   Expand the ZIP archive.

3. 

   You should see the Converter.bat file once the ZIP has unarchived the file.

4. 

   Make a copy of your GoToWebinar encoded video in same directory.

5. 

   Next, drag the video file onto the Converter.bat file and the batch process will launch as shown above.

6. 

   At cursor prompt, type in “723″. This is the build number to use for running the conversion. Then hit “ENTER”.

7. 

   Next, you should see the Citrix conversion process begin with a progress bar.

8. Wait until this is done, and you can view/upload your WMV with the world! (a 1 hour video takes about 30 minutes to convert)

This information has been posted as a courtesy to users in need. Bing Design is not responsible for the Citrix Converter.bat file, or its use on your computer or network. It works great for us, but use discretion or consult your IT department before using.

We generally have to convert specific files and file extensions for clients that may not have the program or the software to open or view certain file types. Too make things easier for your file conversions, here is a list of converters we have found to be quite useful!

• Online Converter – Gives you free access to converting files that are audio, document, ebook, image, video and others types, into numerious options. Select the converter of choice, upload your file or enter a URL to convert, and click. The app does the rest and you download your finished converted file. If you sign up you also get the options of sending files as email attachements and having a user panel.

  The audio converter gives you the option of converting audio files into AAC, FLAC, M4A, MMF, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA… OMG!

  The image converter provides options to convert images into BMP, EPS, GIF, HDR/EXP, JPG, PNG, SVG, TGA, TIFF, WBMP, and WebP. Handy if you don’t have Photoshop or another image program at your fingertips.

  The ebook converter lets you select target formats, converting to ePub, FB2, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF, and TCR.

  The document converter allows you to convert scanned documents, faxes, screenshots and photos into editable and searchable text, converting it into DOC, Flash, HTML, ODT, TXT, or PDF files.

• Online OCR – Using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) this app converts your scan, fax, or screenshot, into a file that can be edited, formatted, searched, indexed, automatically translated or converted to speech. It will keep the layout and formatting, and supports PDF, GIF, BMP, JPEG, TIFF or PNG as input, and gives you DOC, PDF, TXT, or RTF as an output. This app will rotate pages, and support lo-res photos, all while working online, keeping your data secure and confidential. Again, just browse, select the format and click!
• Print What You Like – Tired of printing web pages only to find your printout is full of empty space and ads? You won’t be fooled by the name, print exactly what you want from any website. This free online editor lets you format any web page by changing the font sizes and type and removing the background. Save snippets of pages and compile together in one document.
• Swiffy – Google just introduced in their Google Labs a way to convert your Flash SWF files to HTML5, allwoing you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (e.g., iPhones and iPads.) Although taking a complete Flash-driven website into this converter will not generate a completely redone website, it does well for advertisements and banner ads as well as animations.

Know of any additional file converters that work seamlessly? Post them in our comments and let us hear from you.

Over the past couple of years, Bing Design has provided resources and support to a local organization called Simply Women Ohio. The effort is led by Paloma Wiggins, a student at Yellow Springs high school. Paloma is an avid runner, and the main reason that Simply Women began.

This year, Bing Design worked with Paloma and the organization to develop and launch a new WordPress site at simplywomenohio.org with news and information for women who like to run and walk in the area.

The main event for the group is the Simply Women 5k Run and Walk, which is scheduled for July 30, 2011, with a pre-race event in downtown YS on Friday, July 29 for packet and t-shirt pickup, motivational speakers, and music. The website provides an easy way for those wanting to participate to fill-out a registration form and pay for it all online. There is also a downloadable PDF that can be filled-out and mailed in with a check.

The event is getting substantial coverage in local media, and Paloma was able to discuss her passion with Mina Samuels, author of Run Like a Girl: How Strong Women Make Happy Lives (available on Amazon.com). If you live in the area, you might keep up with this site, and maybe sign-up for their July run/walk while you are there!

It’s back! The 2011 Yellow Springs Summer Experience is this weekend! The current list is at 21 events and still growing. The weekend starts on Friday, July 15 and runs through Sunday, July 17th. This year the various events are available a la carté, so if you find something that sounds fun, just contact the presenter to reserve your place.

So far the list of events include:

• Foot Clinic with Jill Becker
• Cirque Carnival
• Ballroom Dancing Under the Stars
• Wildflower Hike
• “Myths and Truths about Coyotes” – Coyotes Lecture
• Birding Hike
• Stargazing
• Sterling Rings
• Introduction to Belly Dance
• “Quick Sketch” Artist
• EdenWorld
• The Show & The Now Device
• Art Opening and Book Signing
• Synesthesia – Multi Media Event
• Fluid Core Class
• Ayurvedic Healing Workshop
• YS Kids Playhouse presents “The Cotton Club”
• Antioch Writers’ Workshop Readings
• Japanese Handmade Paper Lanterns
• The Dance Piazza is back!

So as you can see, there is a LOT going on over these three days. To learn more just check out their website at yellow-springs-experience.org. Whatever you do, we hope you have a great summer experience!

For the past year or so, companies that use the internet for sales, products, or services are aglow with conversations of HTML5 and CSS3 and how it will save the world! Well, it will certainly help your browsing experience be more useful and be a little less work for coders, but it takes content to save the world.

HTML5 is still going through standardization as there are so many browsers and devices, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium – the group who helps make standard for the internet) is still tweaking HTML5 definitions. For now, HTML4 remains the current standard of internet pages, standardized in 1997. HTML5 has been in the works since 2004, and the W3C hopes to have it released in 2012. There is a lot to this to be sure!

The goal for HTML5 is to pull current web technologies into one standard, including HTML4, XHTML1 (HTML with XML), DOM2HTML (document object model HTML), and some JavaScript. Just don’t forget that most users don’t have HTML5-ready browsers, so there is a very good chance that you’ll have to make your content work for both (doubling your work) if HTML5 is what you want.

First, let’s look at some of the key benefits of HTML5 compared to HTML4. Since most of the inner-workings of HTML code is just Greek to most folks, we won’t delve into the specifics of each of the new elements added to HTML5, but here is the list some of them:

article, aside, audio, bdo, canvas, command, datalist, details, embed, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, keygen, mark, meter, nav, output, progress, rp, rt, ruby, section, source, summary, time, video, and wbr

If you have ever worked with a blog such as WordPress or Blogger, you may recognize some of the page elements above that you are familiar with.

Of all the new elements that are listed above, some of the most talked about are these:

• article – an independent piece of content in a document
• audio and video are less dependent, sometimes not dependent, on plug-ins to play multi-media content in HTML5
• canvas – probably one of the most talked-about element in HTML5, it is used to render dynamic bitmap graphics on the fly in graphs or games through the use of JavaScript and other dynamic content tools
• footer, header, and nav – all the regions of a page typically coded in most sites, but especially in blog sites

There are also many new APIs for HTML5 that were not part of HTML4 making using, playing, watching, and interacting with web content a little easier for web servers, computers, and users alike.

Many new mobile devices such as the Apple iPad are using HTML5, as are other desktop browsers, but none fully utilize HTML5 – yet. Currently the top contenders for the use of HTML5 according to HTML 5 Test website are the following (scores indicated out of a possible of 400 points each):

1. Google Chrome v10.0.648 – 288 points
2. Opera v11.10 – 258 points
3. Mozilla Firefox v4.0 – 255 points
4. Apple Safari v5.0.3 – 228 points
5. Microsoft Internet Explorer v9 – 130 points

Browsers are working hard to adopt these new standards, and often standards change as challenges for global implementation arise.

While HTML5 offers some great ways to use JavaScript and built-in processes to provide content a bit faster and with less reliance on plug-ins and add-ons, the changes to CSS3 are substantial too! While changes to how a page displays has been controlled by CSS (cascading style sheets) for over a decade, the slow adoption in consistent support of CSS styles has made it tough on users and developers alike.

While you have been able to add rounded corners, drop-shadows, and gradients to pages with CSS for some time, some of the most prominent browsers (cough, cough, IE) have not provided support for many ’standard’ CSS rules. So developers often have to write separate style rules for specific browsers. Been there, done that, don’t want more of it!

In addition to rounded corners on an HTML page, CSS can now rotate content, it can change the opacity of a page element with RGBA (RGB for colors: RED, GREEN, and BLUE, and A for “alpha” or transparency). So you don’t have to use a semi-opaque PNG file to fill a DIV, but you can just say ‘make this DIV 50% transparent’. SO much easier!

Below is a screen capture from CSS3PIE. They offer tools to allow Internet Explorer to support standards-based applications of CSS. Normally getting IE to render CSS consistent with other browsers is a wash.

The sample below shows some cool CSS3 style examples you might like using on your own site! Note the redundancies in the CSS code below the sample. You’ll see how browsers ‘see’ the styles are NOT the same (click image for a larger view)…

• BORDER-RADIUS: is the new CSS3 definition for HTML5 documents to display rounded corners on DIVs.
• WEBKIT-BORDER-RADIUS: is now Apple’s Safari browser and Google Chrome recognize rounded corners.
• MOZ-BORDER-RADIUS: tells Mozilla and Gecko how to display rounded corners

So as you see, making all browsers play the same game with HTML and CSS styles could really improve our lives, both in time saved making pages online, and time reduced viewing content. But it may not save the world…