David Liao creates video tutorials at lookatphysics.com to help interdisciplinary scientists understand biological systems using mathematical intuition and physical creativity. This is his blog. David's illustrations have been published in Science, Physical Review Letters, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. University of California, San Francisco Postdoc, 2010-2012 Tlsty Lab Princeton University PhD, Physics, 2010 MA, Physics, 2007 Advisor: Robert H. Austin 2006-2009 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship 2009-2010 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Harvey Mudd College BS, Physics, 2005 Advisor: Robert J. Cave
This revision was mainly made to divide the previously large 19 min video into 5 shorter videos that are easier to navigate and look through for specific information.
2014 July 15 15h30 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing, encoded 2014-0715 Statistics a.mp4, which comes out to 5m54s.
15h46 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing and editing (adjusting some synchronization between voice and animated events), encoded 2014-0715 Statistics b.mp4, which comes out to 3m43s.
16h37 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing and editing (added a couple pauses to allow viewer to process a couple last-minute text notes), encoded 2014-0715 Statistics c.mp4, which comes out to 5m33s.
18h29 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing, encoded 2014-0715 Statistics d.mp4, which comes out to 6m26s.
19h32 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing and editing (also edited audio a little bit to change a phrase involving covariance = zero), encoded 2014-0715 Statistics e.mp4, which comes out to 7m20s.
This revision was mainly made to improve vocal narration audio quality.
2014 July 15 14h46 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing/editing (adjusted narration timing in one place to increase pause between paragraphs), encoded 2014-0715 DetCellAuto.mp4, which comes out to 5m46s.
The purpose of these edits is to split the limits chapter into six videos (rather than one big video containing a bunch of ideas).
2014 July 15 10h54 EDT After staring in Camtasia during reviewing/editing process, encoded 2014-0715 Limits a.mp4, which comes out to 7m37s.
13h01 EDT After staring in Camtasia during review (no edit, except snipping off trailing video at end), encoded 2014-0715 Limits b.mp4, which comes out to 3m57s.
13h10 EDT After staring in Camtasia during review (no edit, except snipping off trailing video at end), encoded 2014-0715 Limits c.mp4, which comes out to 3m29s.
13h19 EDT After staring in Camtasia during review and editing (added a second of pause before a slide transition and adjusted synchronization of narration and another slide transition), encoded 2014-0715 Limits d.mp4, which comes out to 3m32s.
13h52 EDT After staring in Camtasia during review, encoded 2014-0715 Limits e.mp4, which comes out to 2m40s.
14h24 EDT After staring in Camtasia during review and editing (adjusting synchronization of some edits), encoded 2014-0715 Limits f.mp4, which comes out to 6m59s.
Euclidean geometry and trigonometry re-organization
2014 June 25 14h45 EDT After staring in Camtasia to the synced video go by (while silencing some sounds and cutting out some fractions of seconds here and there), encoded Geometry part a in MP4 (rounds down to 5m59s).
15h12 EDT Encoded Geometry part b and watched the entire MP4 locally (3m03s). Misalignment of the ACME measuring tape is visible. 15h29 EDT Re-recorded Geometry part b to fix misalignment of ACME measuring tape. MP4 is now 3m04s. 15h38 EDT Stared at the MP4 to check for problems. Passed.
17h36 EDT Encoded Geometry part c (including an after-the-recording covering to make a triangle clear). Stared at Camtasia during first syncing and watched while patching over the cover. MP4 is 5m12s.
18h59 EDT Encoded Geometry part d after staring in Camtasia. MP4 is 6m09s. 20h10 EDT Encoded Geometry part d after nudging one of the labels for the length of a side of a triangle, stared at whole thing in Camtasia and made some edits. MP4 is 6m11s
20h21 EDT Uploaded all four updated videos into udemy, published, and set "downloadable" setting to on. 20h37 EDT Sent an email out to udemy students to summarize the changes and provide links for the recent EGT tutorials in Interface Focus.
Redid 02-23 Euler 1g Over x.mp4 (previously 9m17s, now 3m46s) to replace old arduous mathematical demonstration with a much more graphical (and shorter) demonstration based on understanding that plots of inverse functions are obtained by exchanging the roles of x and y. DVD folder updated.
Paid decent visual attention during Camtasia editing, so do not expect any weird virus scanner/system diagnostics/etc. pop-ups. Also, Thunderbird is not on right now.
2013 December 28 17h04 EST Uploading to udemy to replace previous lecture (without altering lecture structure--do not expect a publication announcement to spam students). 17h06 Upload complete and processing (estimated time left: 5 minutes). 17h07 Processing complete, pushed the toggle to set Downloadable to "ON." 17h08 Verified correct video is sitting in place of "lecture 34" on udemy course.
2013 December 28 17h11 EST Uploaded and waiting for conversion to begin on vimeo. 17h11 Conversion underway. 17h12 About a minute remains. 17h12 Conversion complete ahead of ETA. No need to update thumbnail; it chose the final screen, which is a nice summary.
2013 December 28 17h13 EST The correct video appears in the lightbox on lookatphysics.com (which pulls from vimeo).
2013 December 28 17h14 EST Updated the thumbnail on udemy to show the final summary of the main module for integral 1/x = ln(x) + C.
2013 December 28 17h21 EST Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php.
2014 January 03 00h52 EST Clicking on play icon for Euler 1g brings up lightbox with correct 3m46s runtime. 00h57 Watched in entirety. No obvious encoding (or system dialog pop-up nuisance) errors. No obvious frame drops (as can happen when the PC becomes overwhelmed during screen capture). The blue dot and blue vertical arrow are slightly misaligned. This wasn't enough for me to notice a few days ago when I first made the PowerPoint slide and recorded the video. If I really zoom into the PowerPoint slide (editing mode), the arrow and circle look aligned. There are sometimes alignment differences that appear when playing a slideshow at one resolution and editing the same file close up. I can't fish after each one of these problems.
I didn't like the way the previous version (3m15s) sounded. Redid the audio and minor things in the visuals. The goal of this revision was a tolerable placeholder (that wasn't rattling and sounding unnatural/inexperienced).
2013 September 14 18h00 EDT Replacing MP4 on udemy. 18h05 EDT Upload complete. Updated thumbnail. 18h06 EDT Set "Downloadable" to ON. Video length is 5m48s. The filename in udemy is 2013 0914 Sep Var (hyphen missing).
18h46 EDT Replacing vimeo file. Upload complete. 18h47 EDT Conversion and "finishing a few things" complete. Changed thumbnail. 18h48 EDT Updated some metadata. Vimeo duration now reads 5m48s.
18h52 EDT Renamed current DVD flash card folder 2013-0914 DVD. Created folder 2013-0801 DVD and copied into it 02-16 Sep var.mp4 (the old 3m15s version). In 2013-0914 DVD folder, replaced 02-16 Sep var.mp4 (old 3m15s version) with 02-16 Sep var.mp4 (today's 5m48s version).
18h56 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php to reflect changes.
2013 August 01 09h33 EDT Integration part b uploaded to vimeo, filled out metadata, conversion complete, chose thumbnail. 09h34 EDT Uploading Integration parts c and d to vimeo. 09h36 EDT Filled out metadata for Integration part c and changed thumbnail (conversion complete). 09h41 EDT Filled out meta data for Integration part d and changed thumbnail (conversion complete). 09h42 EDT Uploading Integration part a to the original slot on vimeo for the overall Integration video. 09h44 EDT Updated metadata for Integration part a (still processing). 09h45 EDT Conversion complete; vimeo automatically chose a thumbnail with which I was OK. 09h48 EDT Re-arranged vimeo lookatphysics channel. 09h53 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com main index. 09h55 EDT Updated PPTX link for Integration on qbio.lookatphysics.com main index. Updated target: 2012-0118 Integration.pptx (same filename as older version, but newer version sits in qbio.lookatphysics.com/slides/, rather than on physics.davidliao.com. 10h52 EDT Corrected a minor mistake with track id anchor naming on main index of qbio.lookatphysics.com. 10h55 EDT Have not watched the videos in their entirety using the vimeo lightboxes yet, but the videos were edited with careful attention in Camtasia (and I know to put the antivirus in a mode that suppresses notifications and Thunderbird has been set not to display notifications).
2013 August 01 10h56 EDT Beginning to upload updated videos to udemy. 10h58 EDT Filling in metadata . . . ew, why are the descriptions now in boldface font? Ugly. 10h59 EDT Integration parts b, c, and d have been uploaded, had their descriptions written, and are waiting for processing to complete. 11h01 EDT Conversion for part b complete, updated its thumbnail. 11h04 EDT Conversion for part d complete, updated its thumbnail. 11h05 EDT Conversion for part c complete. The thumbnail is left as chosen (I don't like it, but it's the best available). 11h08 EDT Uploading Integration part a into the slot that previously held the comprehensive integration video. 11h10 EDT Upload of Integration part a complete, updated metadata, waiting for video file to finish processing. 11h18 EDT Processing finally complete, changed thumbnail. Reset to downloadable ON. 11h18 EDT Pressed Publish and set downloadable ON for Integration part b. No option appeared during this process to avoid mass emailing everyone. 11h21 EDT Pressed Publish and set downloadable ON for Integration parts c and d. It is possible I just spammed people.
2013 August 1 12h14 EDT Updated DVD folder 2013-0801 DVD. Replaced previous comprehensive Integration video with four-part series a, b, c, and d.
2013 August 1 12h28 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php.
2013 July 31 23h15 EDT Uploaded Taylor b, c, and d to vimeo (will upload a after "the paperwork" for b, c, and d is complete--otherwise we end up with part a referring people to other parts potentially still converting on vimeo). 23h20 EDT Part b seems to have finished converting by the time I finished writing out its vimeo metadata. 23h24 EDT Part c had also finished converting by the time I finished filling out its vimeo metadata. 23h26 EDT Likewise for part d. 23h28 EDT Uploaded Taylor a to vimeo. 23h30 EDT Filled out vimeo metadata for part a, but the video file is still converting. 23h32 EDT Arranged the videos in vimeo lookatphysics channel. 23h33 EDT Changed thumbnail for part a (ok with the thumbnails for the other parts).
2013 July 31 23h41 EDT qbio.lookatphysics.com main index updated to include the four videos for Power series representation (with part a in place of what used to be one video with all four sections together).
2013 August 1 09h57 EDT Replaced PPTX link on qbio.lookatphysics.com main index for power series representations (local approximation file). Updated target: 2013-0724 Local approximation.pptx. 10h52 EDT Corrected minor error in track id anchor naming on main index of qbio.lookatphysics.com. 10h53 EDT Have not watched the videos in their entirety using the vimeo lightboxes yet, but the videos were edited with careful attention in Camtasia (and I know to put the antivirus in a mode that suppresses notifications and Thunderbird has been set not to display notifications).
2013 August 1 11h26 EDT Beginning to upload Taylor b, c, and d to udemy. 11h28 EDT Taylor b, c, and d uploaded, processing. 11h31 EDT Taylor c finished processing, changed thumbnail, wrote description. 11h31 EDT Taylor d finished processing, changed thumbnail, wrote description. 11h35 EDT Taylor b finished processing, changed thumbnail, wrote (copied) description. 11h36 EDT Uploading Taylor a to udemy. 11h39 EDT Taylor a uploaded, processing. 11h43 EDT Taylor a finished processing, set downloadable back to ON, changed thumbnail, updated description. 11h44 EDT Pressed publish and set downloadable to ON for Taylor b, c, and d.
2013 August 1 12h14 EDT Updated DVD folder 2013-0801 DVD. Replaced previous comprehensive local approximations video with four-part series a, b, c, and d.
2013 August 1 12h29 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php.
It was the late ’90s and I was at an interesting phase of my career. For the first time in my life I possessed relevant qualifications, experience and could also show a successful track record in my chosen career path. I had the job seeker’s trifecta. It was also summer and my current employer...
This chapter follows up EGT I by making the connections between the population dynamics and business transaction payoff analysis pictures more firm.
2013 July 15 16h14 EDT Uploading EGT 2a to vimeo. 16h21 Filled out the vimeo metadata. 16h22 The default thumbnail chosen is appropriate.
2013 July 15 20h39 EDT Uploaded EGT 2b to vimeo. Video is converting. 20h40 EDT Conversion complete. Excellent automatic choice of thumbnail. There are a couple sentences with noticeable audio splicing. One of them could pass for a compression artifact or something else of a technical nature like that. The second one sounds like weird splicing to make up for a mistake (i.e. it sounds the way correction fluid looks when applied to a typing mistake). This could be fixed at another time using a new audio recording. I have a higher-pitch version (also with the wrong words) that I would rather not use. It's so highly pitched that one can hear dryness and non-optimal vocal performance (doesn't sound optimally healthy).
2013 July 15 20h44 EDT Added both EGT 2a and 2b to lookatphysics vimeo channel. 20h47 EDT Added EGT 2b to the qbio.lookatphysics.com/egtworkshop.php page (added EGT 2a earlier this afternoon). 21h23 EDT Added EGT 2a and 2b to lookatphysics main qbio.lookatphysics.com/index.php (also their supporting PPTX file). 21h31 EDT Updated dvd.php.
2013 July 16 14h42 EDT Loaded lightbox for EGT 2a on lookatphysics.com (vimeo embed). 15h03 EDT Watched EGT 2a in entirety on lightbox. Generally looks and sounds nice. The opening paragraph is a bit high pitched. Also, the letter-O notation lines are missing spaces between the coefficient "stuff" and the powers of Delta t for some of the terms. 17h03 EDT Re-recorded and now re-encoding EGT 2a to correct the spacing error. I also fixed another small glitch in timing of animated flashing glowing spheres. 17h12 EDT Re-uploading to vimeo. Fortunately, the file is the same length, so I don't need to update metadata anywhere (but I do have to update the dvd file). 17h14 EDT Replaced EGT 2a in DVD folder. Conversion is about to begin on vimeo. 17h17 EDT Conversion is underway with about 3 minutes estimated to remain. 17h19 EDT "Just finishing up a few things." 17h20 EDT Conversion complete, and updated vimeo thumbnail.
2013 July 16 17h27 EDT Loaded lightbox for EGT 2a on lookatphysics.com (vimeo embed). 17h47 EDT Watched EGT 2a in entirety (eyes stayed on screen) on lightbox. Looks fine. No obvious antivirus/system dialog boxes. I noticed that the "definition equal sign" was used somewhere where it might not have been necessary. 18h07 EDT I mentally zoned out (still paid attention to visuals, but not fully attending to audio) during the last half of the video, so I reviewed that locally from the DVD folder starting from time mark 8m34s (as best I as I could remain tuned in -- 20 minutes is a long video). Nothing obviously bad popped up. I was conscious for most of the synced transitions, and I rewound the video when I thought I wasn't fully paying attention. This took a lot of attention. I now feel drained.
2013 July 16 22h34 EDT Re-encoding EGT 2b with a small correction to that one weird-sounding sentence. It's still weird sounding, but, I think, not as bad. This will require a slight adjustment to metadata on dvd.php. 22h38 EDT Replaced EGT 2b mp4 file in DVD folder. 22h39 EDT Updated dvd.php to correct for duration. 22h40 EDT Re-uploading EGT 2b to vimeo. 22h41 EDT Conversion is about to begin. 22h43 EDT Conversion is underway. 22h46 EDT Final touches. 22h47 EDT Conversion complete. Changed thumbnail back to previous one. Viewing locally, the audio weirdness is not too bad if the volume is not too high.
2013 July 17 09h55 EDT Re-encoding EGT 2b with a couple small corrections to the same weird-sounding sentence. I think it's better now. 10h06 EDT Re-uploading EGT 2b to vimeo. 10h11 EDT "Just finishing" 10h12 EDT Conversion complete, and it happened to choose the thumbnail I wanted this time. 12h12 EDT Loaded lightbox for EGT 2b on lookatphysics.com. 12h25 EDT Watched EGT 2b in entirety on lookatphysics.com lightbox (vimeo embed). Great. I just wish it weren't so low pitched, but it has to be so as to avoid an even more stark contrast with the video that follows it (both in the main gallery and in the EGT tour).
2013 July 21 22h27 EDT Re-encoding EGT 2a (small pitch corrections in first 49 seconds of audio--originally rather high). Some timbre artifacts are noticeable, but I think this is less irritating than the previous version with very high-pitched sound. 22h36 EDT Re-uploading to vimeo. 22h37 EDT Replaced EGT 2a in DVD folder. 22h38 EDT Conversion is underway on vimeo (4%, 7.5 minutes remaining). 22h43 EDT Conversion stuck at 50% with estimated time remaining ticker increasing. 22h48 EDT Still stuck at 50%, re-uploading. 22h49 EDT Conversion is about to begin. 22h54 EDT Interesting. Reloading the page shows that the video has completely converted and has a thumbnail (the correct one). However, until I reloaded, I would have thought that it was stuck before conversion for the last 5 minutes. 22h55 EDT It's the right file.
2013 August 1 11h48 EDT Uploading EGT 2a and 2b to udemy. 11h52 EDT EGT 2b has uploaded and is processing. 11h54 EDT EGT 2a has uploaded and is processing. 11h57 EDT EGT 2b finished processing, changed thumbnail, copied description. 12h05 EDT EGT 2a finished processing, changed thumbnail, copied description. 12h05 EDT Pressed publish and set downloadable to ON for both EGT 2a and 2b.
Scratch
1c1
# Audio opening paragraph is crackly
# Audio just before slide 5
# Sync error into slide 5 (too early)
# Sync error fraction C/N on slide 5 (too late)
1c2
# as reasonable: Audio pp. 6-8 particularly crackle here and there throughout
# Sync error slide transition to denim trajectory
1d
# One of the audio edits sounds off-rhythm
# As reasonable, Some of the color stuff is not so good
2013 July 17 21h58 EDT Forgot to mention there is a slight frame drop at the beginning of the first video (EGT 2a).
For many purposes, gold is practically useless. I don't think of the value of US dollars in terms of ounces of gold. Instead, I think of useful work.
I think of an "economy" as a phenomenon that can arise when energy is delivered to a system over time in a sufficiently low-entropy format so that, during the process of degrading that energy into a higher-entropy format, some of that energy can be used by the system to maintain itself away from a heat death. This perspective suggests that a definition of the value of the US dollar (or your favorite currency) in thermodynamic terms might provide more fundamental insight into the nature of business transactions than a conversion rate in terms of ounces of gold. Taken together, these notions suggest that we might be able to associate a unit of currency with a thermodynamic concept/definition in a way that allows us to identify the notion of a unit of currency as broadly relevant for dissipative systems/biological systems.
Order-of-magnitude propositions:
Gasoline costs $10/gallon after accounting for war (ballpark estimates of $5 and $11 easily found online).
Burning 1 gallon of gasoline releases 36.6 kWh of thermal energy
Efficiency beyond 30-40% is difficult to achieve (eCarnot = 1 - Tc/Th)
The cost of purchasing a gallon of gasoline could underestimate the cost of burning a gallon of gasoline by a few dollars (you have to buy and maintain the engine to harness the thermal energy released by combustion in a useful way).
Together, these imply that $1 is, at an-order-of-magnitude level, equivalent to 1 kWh of useful work.
When an individual performs a transaction to "make" a buck, that individual has somehow convinced the world to agree to go to the trouble/effort of delivering the individual access to 1 kWh of useful work. The "trouble/effort of delivering" this useful energy in the short term can, in the long term, include environmental damage and political dysfunction.
Differentiation chapter split into five parts (a, b, c, d, and e) for easier navigation and to improve organization of abstract, basic concepts previously placed apart at the beginning and end of the previous version.
Uploads to udemy, vimeo done. lookatphysics.com index and dvd.php updated. DVD folder updated. Need: vimeo WE, udemy spotcheck, YouTube update.
2013 May 23 10h41 EDT Parts b, c, d, and e uploaded to udemy and processing. 10h58 EDT Processing complete. Added descriptions and went through thumbnails for parts b, c, d, and e. 11h10 EDT Edited description for part a, uploading part a. Uploaded, processing. 11h14 EDT Part a finished processing. I set "downloadable" to on. Checked thumbnail. 11h16 EDT Published and set "downloadable" to on for remaining parts b, c, d, and e. Now my subscribers just got spammed (second time this week). Ugh.
2013 May 23 11h23 EDT Uploading parts b, c, d, and e on vimeo. 11h24 EDT Uploads complete. 11h28 EDT Conversion, description, and thumbnail complete for part b. 11h30 EDT Also completed for part d. Parts b and d now also both have the CC BY-SA flag. 11h32 EDT Also done for part c. 11h34 EDT Done for part e. 11h37 EDT Parts b, c, d, and e added to and arranged in lookatphysics.com vimeo channel. 11h39 EDT Part a uploaded (into old slot for old full video), description and title updated. 11h43 EDT Conversion complete, updated thumbnail. I just noticed that in the video for the definition of the derivative, I did not move the "xo + Delta x" label along the x-axis underneath the moving golden marker the way I did in the following videos. Oops. Save for another draft another day.
2013 May 23 12h04 EDT Added entries on lookatphysics.com main web page. Lightbox thumbnails point to correct videos.
2013 May 23 13h17 EDT Replaced older video in the flash card folder that has now been renamed 2013-0523 DVD. Previous 02-02 Differentiation.mp4 (27m04s) video replaced with
02-02 Differentiation a Derivative.mp4 (08m47s)
02-03 Differentiation b Power rule.mp4 (07m23s)
02-04 Differentiation c Chain rule.mp4 (03m54s)
02-05 Differentiation d Product rule.mp4 (04m25s)
02-06 Differentiation e Sine.mp4 (08m27s)
with track listings in the title adjusted accordingly.
2013 May 23 13h17 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php accordingly.
2013 May 23 19h03 EDT Brought up lightbox on lookatphysics.com for Differentiation a (8m47s). 19h13 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): It's the correct video, without any obvious system notifications/dialog boxes.
2013 May 23 19h17 EDT Brought up lightbox on lookatphysics.com for Differentiation b (7m23s). 19h25 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): Correct video, no system notifications/dialog boxes. However, it is annoying that the first example has a coefficient a while the second example does not. Also, there is a small layering error on slide 8. The semi-transparent mask cuts slightly into the thumbnail figure. The PowerPoint file has now been updated for the mask. This error can be fixed on the Camtasia file without resyncing (by judiciously print-screen patching).
2013 May 23 20h28 EDT Re-encoding Differentiation b with the masking error patched. Interestingly, the Camtasia project file does not display the audio file in its clip bin (even though the audio continues to display appropriately in the timeline). There is an ever so slight mismatch in timing for the fade for the patched section of the screen. However, it is so slight, that I doubt anyone would notice (less care). 20h33 EDT Re-uploading Differentiation b to vimeo. 20h34 EDT Re-uploading also to udemy. Converting on vimeo. 20h35 EDT Upload to udemy complete, processing. 20h36 EDT Converted on vimeo, updated thumbnail. Processing complete on udemy, set "downloadable" to on. 20h37 EDT Updated udemy thumbnail. 20h39 EDT Replaced file flash card folder 2013-0523 DVD.
2013 June 16 19h29 EDT Pulled up lightbox for Differentiation b. 19h37 EDT W.E. in vimeo lightbox on lookatphysics.com. It's lovely. It passes.
2013 June 16 19h41 EDT Pulled up lightbox for Differentiation c. 19h45 EDT W.E. in vimeo lightbox on lookatphysics.com. Lovely. It passes.
2013 June 16 19h50 EDT Pulled up lightbox for Differentiation d. 19h55 EDT W.E. in vimeo lightbox on lookatphysics.com. It passes, but next time you have a chance to fix things: the animated mask on slide 12 momentarily misses the vertical arrow head at the left, and there was a splicing done in the middle of an animation that leaves a slight, faint afterimage for a couple seconds of an animation that should have concluded and vanished completely at the beginning of those couple seconds.
2013 June 16 20h00 EDT Pulled up lightbox for Differentiation e. 20h11 EDT W.E. in vimeo lightbox on lookatphysics.com. It passes.
2013 August 1 09h59 EDT Replaced PPTX link on qbio.lookatphysics.com main index to point to newer 2013-0518 Differentiation.pptx file.
Turned combinatorics (one video) into parts a, b, c for easier navigation and to reduce echo.
Uploads to udemy and vimeo complete. Updated lookatphysics.com index and dvd.php. DVD folder updated. W.E. all parts on lookatphysics.com (vimeo). There's some noticeable ADR in part b and a slight timing issue (a moment didn't "land") in part c.
2013 May 20 16h43 EDT Uploaded parts b and c to udemy. Processing. 16h52 EDT Finished processing, updated descriptions for parts a, b, and c. 16h53 EDT Uploading part a. 16h53 EDT Processing. It seems that turning off "asset ready notification" affects the emails that I usually receive from udemy indicating when my videos have finished processing. 16h56 EDT Set "downloadable" to on for part a. Updated thumbnails for parts a, b, and c. 16h56 EDT Part c: Pressed publish, then set "downloadable" to on. Part b: Pressed publish, then set "downloadable" to on. I think my subscribers just got spammed with a pair of emails for parts b and c. Upload to udemy complete for parts a, b, and c (but not yet spotchecked).
2013 May 23 12h18 EDT Uploading parts b and c to vimeo. 12h20 EDT Upload of part b successful, but upload of part c failed. The robot says the file does not appear to be a valid video file. 12h21 EDT Trying part c again. This time it says it is ok. I uploaded the same file. I don't know what went wrong the first time. This is the first time I have seen the pink box with that error message. 12h24 EDT Part c converted, description completed, thumbnail chosen, CC BY-SA flagged. 12h27 EDT Likewise done for part b. 12h28 EDT Parts b and c added to and arranged in lookatphysics.com vimeo channel. 12h29 EDT uploading part a (into the old slot for the old full video). 12h30 EDT Part a description updated. Converting. 12h31 EDT Part a conversion complete and updated thumbnail.
2013 May 23 12h37 EDT Added listings for parts b and c (and modified description and title for part a) on lookatphysics.com. Checked that lightbox thumbnails seem to point to correct videos.
2013 May 23 13h19 EDT Replaced old video in flash card folder 2013-0523 DVD with parts a, b, and c. Replaced 01-08 Combinatorics.mp4 (13m28s) with
01-08 Combinatorics a Permutations.mp4 (3m20s)
01-09 Combinatorics b Combinations.mp4 (6m59s)
01-10 Combinatorics c Binomial.mp4 (5m05s)
2013 May 23 13h19 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php accordingly.
2013 May 23 16h05 EDT Brought up on lookatphysics.com Combinatorics a (3m20s) lightbox. W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): It's the correct video. No obvious system notifications/dialog boxes or anything annoying like that. 16h13 EDT Brought up Combinatorics b (6m59s) lightbox. 16h20 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): It's the correct video. No obvious system notifications/dialog boxes. Unfortunately, the audio splice around the "not grabbed" section is noticeable (at least through earphones). This is difficult to fix. I think part of the problem is that I had congestion from allergies when I made the original recording, but I was clearer when I did the splice. The splice was done over a paragraph to avoid splicing in the middle of a phrase. 16h23 EDT Brought up on lookatphysics.com Combinatorics c (5m05s) lightbox. 16h28 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): It's the correct video, and there are no obvious system notifications/dialog boxes. The ADR in this video is noticeable, but not as bad as in the previous video and does not require re-recording. There is a timing issue at the end. The final "student activity" should have been followed by an additional seconds (more than what is there) of silence to allow the moment to land.
Re-recorded to reduce echo, re-captured in 960x720 resolution to make the reddish font letter c against blue background look clearer (chroma subsampling problem).
Uploads to udemy and vimeo complete. Update to lookatphysics.com index.php unnecessary, but dvd.php updated. DVD folder updated. W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo). Small vector graphics error.
Corrected version: On vimeo, on udemy, and in DVD folder. Website pages updated as necessary. W.E.d
2013 May 16 19h58 EDT Uploaded to udemy and processing. 20h01 EDT Finished processing, set "downloadable" to on.
2013 May 16 20h06 EDT Uploaded to vimeo and got a warning that the audio was 48kbit/s. Re-encoding. I found that I had the setting on the encoding preset in Camtasia set to audio bitrate of 56kbit/s (the usual preset for 640x480 video has a bitrate of 64kbit/s and tends to produce files with about 56kbit/s or slightly lower bitrates). This implies that the pair of summation 960x720 videos has a low audio bitrate and could stand to be re-encoded (though the sound quality is not offensive). Need to re-upload both to udemy and to vimeo once this re-encoding is done (this is time consuming because it is done at 960x720, instead of 640x480).
Perhaps the sums (actually even the 48kbit/s audio version of today's Quadratic formula video) videos don't sound offensive because they were produced carefully before encoding (garbage in garbage out, but also good stuff in can lead to good stuff out).
2013 May 16 20h14 EDT Re-uploading (re-encoded) version to vimeo. Now, vimeo gives a warning that the audio bitrate is 55.163kbps. 20h15 EDT Conversion is about to begin. 20h15 EDT Conversion is underway. 20h16 EDT Just finishing up a few things. 20h17 EDT Conversion complete, chose thumbnail.
2013 May 16 20h15 EDT Re-uploading to udemy. Processing. 20h18 EDT Processing complete, turned "downloadable" to on. Changed thumbnail.
2013 May 23 12h49 EDT Note that editing listings on lookatphysics.com is unnecessary because the new file was dropped into the slot on vimeo for the old file.
2013 May 23 12h50 EDT In flash card folder 2013-0523 DVD, replaced old 01-03 Quadratic.mp4 (4m08s) with new 01-03 Quadratic.mp4 (6m00s).
2013 May 23 13h11 EDT qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php updated accordingly.
2013 May 23 15h46 EDT Brought up lightbox thumbnail on lookatphysics.com (6m01s). 15h53 EDT Watched in entirety and verified it is the correct video. Unfortunately, the quadratic bowl shape appears to have been hand drawn, rather than traced off of a numerical plot. I can just see where the vector graphics control nodes and slopes are slightly off. It is better than what might be found hand drawn on a chalkboard, but it still bothers me. Keep this in mind for future edits.
NUDGED PLOTS, MISC. EDITS
2013 May 24 08h48 EDT Re-encoded with a variety of corrections (including nudging of vector graphics to align with an actual plot of a quadratic function).
WRONG RESOLUTION VERSION
2013 May 24 08h49 EDT Uploaded to udemy and processing. 08h50 EDT Uploaded to vimeo and conversion is about to begin. In flash card folder, now called 2013-0524 DVD, replaced previous 01-03 Quadratic.mp4 (6m00s) with this 01-03 Quadratic.mp4 (6m00s). This means I don't intend to keep a record of the 6m00s file that has been sitting around since May 16. 08h58 EDT Oops, I encoded at 640x480. I have to re-encode (the source is OK, I just had to change the editing dimensions to 1024x768 and use a different production preset to compress to 960x720).
CORRECTED ENCODING RESOLUTION
2013 May 24 09h08 EDT Re-uploaded to udemy, processing. 09h12 EDT Udemy processing complete, changed thumbnail and set "downloadable" to on. 09h13 EDT Slightly expanded description on udemy.
2013 May 24 09h09 EDT Re-uploaded to vimeo, and conversion is about to begin.
2013 May 24 09h10 EDT Replaced file in flash card folder 2013-0524 DVD (no file name changes). Because the duration of the video is the same as before, no changes to dvd.php are necessary. This file replaces a file in an old slot and no changes to lookatphysics.com index are necessary.
2013 May 24 09h14 EDT Conversion complete on vimeo. For some reason, the thumbnail frame selection tool is returning imagery from a previous version of the file, rather than the most recently uploaded version. Perhaps there is some caching. 09h18 EDT Oh, I think I know what might have happened. There is a message on the main page for the video on vimeo that says, "The HD version of this video is being encoded right now and will be ready soon. Until then please enjoy the SD version." Anyways, I replaced the thumbnail with one generated locally and then uploaded as a PNG. 09h19 EDT It is still encoding the HD version. 09h21 EDT Still. I wonder how long this typically takes. Browsing the vimeo help forum, it appears that this encoding message sometimes indicates a need for someone at vimeo to manually kick the encoding process. Sometimes it takes care on its own (at its own slow pace). There is also an instance where the message was erroneous (the HD version already existed while the message persisted). 09h43 EDT The message is still there. I posted a "Feature Request" on vimeo for a progress bar for HD encoding. As it is, I cannot tell whether encoding is proceeding at a snail's pace or whether, instead, it has simply gotten stuck (and needs to be kicked by someone at vimeo or re-uploaded by me). 10h07 EDT It's still sitting there. Given that the video is short, I am surprised that the HD encoding step has been stuck for 49 minutes, so I will give it a kick.
2013 May 24 10h09 EDT Uploaded (again) to vimeo; conversion is about to begin. 10h12 EDT Conversion underway. 10h14 EDT Conversion completed, and now the "HD version . . . being encoded" message is below the video. 10h14 EDT And now the HD version is ready. That was fast. 10h15 EDT Now the thumbnail chooser generates from (what looks like) the current version of the video, so I don't need to use the manually-uploaded PNG.
2013 May 24 11h16 EDT Brought up lightbox for Quadratic (6m00s) on lookatphysics.com. 11h23 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): Beautiful. It's the correct video, without system notifications/dialog boxes. I see that the word "Solve" is everywhere slightly lower than the equation ax^2 + bx + c. Additionally, the red dashed horizontal line representing the constant height c is off-center relative to the axes (it's slightly displaced toward the right). This horizontal shift was probably masked in earlier versions because the golden slanted line was also incorrectly placed. However, I'm not sure why the displacement of the word "Solve" was not evident.
VERSION WITH SLIGHT NUDGES
2013 May 24 12h20 EDT Nudged the word "Solve" and the red bar. Grayed the shade of the factor brackets after the difference of squares was factored. Re-encoding (960x720).
### 2013 May 24 12h28 EDT Re-uploaded to vimeo, conversion is about to begin. 12h32 EDT Conversion and HD encoding complete, changed thumbnail.
### 2013 May 24 12h29 EDT Replaced 01-03 Quadratic.mp4 (was 6m00s, now 6m04s) in flash card folder 2013-0524 DVD.
### 2013 May 24 12h31 EDT Updated qbio.lookatphysics.com/dvd.php with new duration (also total duration is 11h46m14s, instead of 11h46m11s). No edit to index.php required.
### 2013 May 24 14h15 EDT Brought up lookatphysics.com lightbox for Quadratic (6m04s). Note: It occurs to me that I never actually read out the quadratic formula, heh. The method is important; the answer isn't that important. Still, it's funny. 14h23 EDT W.E. on lookatphysics.com (vimeo): Great. It's the correct video, and system notifications/dialog boxes are not present. There might be a slight misalignment of part of the vector graphics for one of the magnifying glasses. This is not a problem.
### 2013 May 24 14h26 EDT Uploaded to udemy, processing. 14h28 EDT Processing complete. Set "downloadable" to on and changed thumbnail.
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