5 things make a ... thing
Feb. 7th, 2015 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniJust because.
1) This information tidbit has been floating around in my head since I first heard it, a few months ago, and I've been meaning to post about it:
Quote:
Unquote.
Where I found that quote, today: Sex, chocolate... new language?
I always knew words turned me on, figuratively... But it turns out they also do it literally. ;-)
2) There's a new-ish series on PBS (in its second season), called "Genealogy Roadshow." Between that, and the British (And America-clone) show "Who do you think you are?" I've now come to the conclusion that Genealogy is the new Astrology -- people searching for, and clinging to, explanations for their lives ... And, like astrology, it all works through invisible forces acting at a distance (only through time, instead of space): "My mother is an accountant, and my father is a tone-deaf real estate agent, but my third-great granduncle was a vaudevillian juggler; so that's where my drive to become a dancer on Broadway comes from!" Individual lives are so full of tiny, often contradictory details, that like horoscopes, we can all find exactly the parts of ourselves we wish to see. And like astrology, genealogy is cloaked in scientific sounding language.
...But I still like watching these shows.
3) I realized, in making a post, yesterday, that I don't have any sort of access filter for Disability-related topics (history, culture, personal confrontations with ableism, etc.). Should I? And if I made one, would you like to be on it?
4) I made a new journal icon, a couple days ago:
(text only: "Beware of the Words" in the colors of an antique book)
I have an icon with illustration of Mother Goose flying on her gander, with a witch-like hat, and carrying her crutch, and the caption: "Beware the magic of words." But it occurred to me that detail is often inversely proportional to impact, especially if (as I suspect) the associated visual image has shifted in public awareness -- When people think of Mother Goose, these days, I doubt many of them conjure up an image of a spell-casting witch that could dive bomb you at a moment's notice. ...But that's just a hunch.
5) I like to think of myself as aware of, and careful with, my privilege as a Hearing person. But since my headphones broke, I've been shocked to realize how rare actual closed captions are on YouTube videos -- especially on Big, High Profile, High-Production Value, channels that focus on educational content -- such as Ted-Ed and PBS Idea Channel (PB-freakin'-S, people!). Seems like everyone, even those who should know better, have decided: "Well, YouTube-Google (YouToogle?) have a speech recognition algorithm, now. So I don't have to think about it, ever again."
Except that algorithm is geared toward adult male voices speaking with a caucasian, midwestern, able-bodied American accent, and is entirely based on the most common, highest-trending words in the current culture (probably based on the code Google uses for word completion when you do a search). If you've made a video explaining a new scientific discovery, or discussing a little-known period of 16th-century history in Sub-Saharan Africa (as a high profile, high production value, educationally-focused, channel is apt to do) that "speech recognition" program is going to spit out random nonsense.
So, once I get a replacement set of headphones (Which probably won't be for at least a couple more months, the way things are going), I'm going to make a how-to video for writing your own closed caption tracks. There are a few already out there, sure. But the more the merrier? I'm even considering name-checking a few of those big-name, high-profile channels in the title of my video. Which may be a sneaky way to view-bait. But this needs to be view-baited, imnsho. The thing is: it is super damned easy. If you've taken the time to write and edit the script for your video in the first place, 99.97% of the work of making a caption track is already done. If you already take the time to check your sound levels and lighting, to edit out bloopers and reshoot scenes -- in short, if you've already decided to make sure your work has some level of professional quality before you upload it to the public sphere, you have no excuse to skip writing the caption track.
I wrote a set of instructions on how to do it a few years ago and posted it here updated a few weeks ago since Windows 8.x has made it even easier than XP did.
1) This information tidbit has been floating around in my head since I first heard it, a few months ago, and I've been meaning to post about it:
Quote:
Learning new words stimulates the same brain center as such long-proven means of deriving pleasure, as having sex, gambling or eating chocolate, a new study says.
Unquote.
Where I found that quote, today: Sex, chocolate... new language?
I always knew words turned me on, figuratively... But it turns out they also do it literally. ;-)
2) There's a new-ish series on PBS (in its second season), called "Genealogy Roadshow." Between that, and the British (And America-clone) show "Who do you think you are?" I've now come to the conclusion that Genealogy is the new Astrology -- people searching for, and clinging to, explanations for their lives ... And, like astrology, it all works through invisible forces acting at a distance (only through time, instead of space): "My mother is an accountant, and my father is a tone-deaf real estate agent, but my third-great granduncle was a vaudevillian juggler; so that's where my drive to become a dancer on Broadway comes from!" Individual lives are so full of tiny, often contradictory details, that like horoscopes, we can all find exactly the parts of ourselves we wish to see. And like astrology, genealogy is cloaked in scientific sounding language.
...But I still like watching these shows.
3) I realized, in making a post, yesterday, that I don't have any sort of access filter for Disability-related topics (history, culture, personal confrontations with ableism, etc.). Should I? And if I made one, would you like to be on it?
4) I made a new journal icon, a couple days ago:
I have an icon with illustration of Mother Goose flying on her gander, with a witch-like hat, and carrying her crutch, and the caption: "Beware the magic of words." But it occurred to me that detail is often inversely proportional to impact, especially if (as I suspect) the associated visual image has shifted in public awareness -- When people think of Mother Goose, these days, I doubt many of them conjure up an image of a spell-casting witch that could dive bomb you at a moment's notice. ...But that's just a hunch.
5) I like to think of myself as aware of, and careful with, my privilege as a Hearing person. But since my headphones broke, I've been shocked to realize how rare actual closed captions are on YouTube videos -- especially on Big, High Profile, High-Production Value, channels that focus on educational content -- such as Ted-Ed and PBS Idea Channel (PB-freakin'-S, people!). Seems like everyone, even those who should know better, have decided: "Well, YouTube-Google (YouToogle?) have a speech recognition algorithm, now. So I don't have to think about it, ever again."
Except that algorithm is geared toward adult male voices speaking with a caucasian, midwestern, able-bodied American accent, and is entirely based on the most common, highest-trending words in the current culture (probably based on the code Google uses for word completion when you do a search). If you've made a video explaining a new scientific discovery, or discussing a little-known period of 16th-century history in Sub-Saharan Africa (as a high profile, high production value, educationally-focused, channel is apt to do) that "speech recognition" program is going to spit out random nonsense.
So, once I get a replacement set of headphones (Which probably won't be for at least a couple more months, the way things are going), I'm going to make a how-to video for writing your own closed caption tracks. There are a few already out there, sure. But the more the merrier? I'm even considering name-checking a few of those big-name, high-profile channels in the title of my video. Which may be a sneaky way to view-bait. But this needs to be view-baited, imnsho. The thing is: it is super damned easy. If you've taken the time to write and edit the script for your video in the first place, 99.97% of the work of making a caption track is already done. If you already take the time to check your sound levels and lighting, to edit out bloopers and reshoot scenes -- in short, if you've already decided to make sure your work has some level of professional quality before you upload it to the public sphere, you have no excuse to skip writing the caption track.
I wrote a set of instructions on how to do it a few years ago and posted it here updated a few weeks ago since Windows 8.x has made it even easier than XP did.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-07 05:26 pm (UTC)http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/5237225.html
no subject
Date: 2015-02-07 05:45 pm (UTC)I can't help but wonder if she's in league that plush unicorn of eeevilll you found haunting the side of the road, a while back...
no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 12:05 am (UTC)3. I want on the disability filter! (JIC you couldn't guess)
5. PB foul S' absent captions makes me cranky. Watching modern captions on the BBC (through Tunnelbear) makes me weep -- they use color to differentiate speakers, and it makes things so much easier to follow. I so want there to be super easy to follow instructions BUT BUT BUT I also want people to get that folks are relying on one's work. So: important to establish a proofreading buddy to check your work and .......
no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 12:42 am (UTC)Skip Gates' one is entirely separate. And yes, I do think he's using it to tease at the knot of racial assumptions. I also think he pays more attention to how family stories that the guest of the day actually learned growing up, and why those stories might have started.
3) You got it!
5) PBS's actual broadcast station is pretty good with captions, actually (at least when it comes to the uploads of complete programs, clips and previews are captionless... but that par for the course for every website for TV stations). I was complaining about their YouTube-original content. When you upload a video to YouTube, now, there's a legal-jargon checklist of exemptions to click with a whole list of reasons why you're not obligated by law to have captions on your video, and I think, when people see that, it leads them to conclude that caption are no big deal. And yes, when I finally get around to making that video, I'm going to focus on the moral and social imperative to be a good Internet Citizen... especially since the big name YouTubers I want to call out all consider themselves community and social justice minded.