Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

There are free closed-captioning tools online, that grab your uploaded video, and allow you to write captions as its playing. But the fiddliness varies, and sometimes, the websites go wonky. So I figured it would be worth my while to learn how to do it myself, offline. And I thought, as a Public Service Announcement, that I'd share what I learned this week.

First: It's simple, and more intuitive than you might think.

Second:: Subtitle tracks can be written in .txt format, in Windows Notepad; When you go to save them, change the .txt extension to .srt. and hey, presto! you have a subtitle/closed caption track.

Third: 'Simple' does not necessarily mean 'easy,' however; You do have to mind your commas and colons, so don't proofread while you're tired.

Fourth: Parts of a subtitle/caption code (each letter in this list represents a single line):

a) the number of the title (1, 2, 3, ...)
b) the start time (hour:minute:second,millisecond) arrow (-->) end time (hour:minute:second,millisecond)
c) text of the title
d) empty line

( What a closed-caption file looks like )

Fifth: Things I can do to make the next time I do this easier:

a) make a boilerplate for the time code line, so I can just fill in the numbers, and am less likely to put a colon or comma in the wrong place

b) open Notepad, and write the captions as I go along with putting the video the together, so I don't have to go back and figure out the timing after the fact.

c) YouTube doesn't measure in milliseconds, just just round up to the nearest second, and don't worry about that bit.

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Reasons to go to the "extra trouble" of writing a caption track:

1) It's the right thing to do; the last U.S. Census to include information on deafness or hard of hearing status was 1930. But the most recent estimates from Gallaudet University have about 13% of the total U.S. population have some trouble hearing speech clearly (and that's including all ages, from birth -- it goes up to about 30% when you get into the 60s). And that doesn't include people who can technically hear, but still have trouble understanding the spoken word (not to mention, either, the people who can hear, but may wish to watch your video with the sound off -- such as when they're watching videos in the library, or alongside someone who's reading, or...)

2) Even if no human uses the caption track you provide, Google/YouTube does. Putting a track on your video allows people to find it with greater accuracy in Google Searches -- based on the things you actually say in the video, even if they can't remember the title you gave it, or the exact name of your YouTube channel.

3) Once you have a caption track on your video, Google can provide a translation into other languages. Yes, Google Translate is often dodgy/spotty. But it can do a better job translating my poetry into Arabic (say) than I can. At least, it gives speakers of other languages a sense of the gist of what your video's about.

Overall thumbnail sketch -- Think: the Teletubbies' house.

1. It would be sphere- / dome-based, with curvy, serpentine corridors -- earth-built, poured, molded reinforced concrete, adobe or the like, to avoid the problems of leaking joints in the Geodescic dome Buckminster Fuller designed (as much as I love Bucky).
   
   
2. It would be multi-storied. But instead of stairs (which I cannot climb), or elevators (which can be persnickety and break, and cannot be used in fire) it would have a long, spirally ramp all along the outside wall of the central room, with hand rails within easy pulling reach, so I can pull myself up it fairly easily in event that my motor chair is in the shop, or somthing. And rolling down it would be a major blast. I could sell tickets, and people could come ride it for fun.



3. It would be at least 50% underground (maybe even 60% or 70% underground), and burrow-like, with tunnels, for a safe place to go where tonadoes and hurricanes could not reach me. Also, easier to heat in winter and cool in summer.



4. For light: some variation on fiber optic tubes, which could reflect the natural sunlight light around corners, and into the interior, making the light non-glary and diffuse, but still bright enough to see.



5. For windows: a variation of the same, that would somehow allow me to directly reflect what's going on outside my house onto an interior wall. So I can world-watch and people watch, and skip those large, vulnerable panes of glass that leak energy and have to run-away from in storms (I'd prefer if this tech is passive, relying on mirrors and lenses, rather than electronic cameras and computer digitization; may not even be possible, but this is my dream home).



6. For teh lulz: the exterior facade, leading to the foyer, could be relatively tiny, maybe just a bit wider than the front door, with a gabled, tiled roof, built into the side of the "hill," which would be the main, central dome. For the general TARDIS-y effect of: "It's bigger on the Inside!!!" for new visiters. Also, this would have the practical effect of minimizing the area vulnerable to damaging winds. Floods would be another story, but no building is entirely without risk.


And, saving the most important detail for last:


7. It would be in a wheelchair-accessible neighborhood, with wide sidewalks and well-designed curb cuts, and a bus stop a block or two away, where wheelchair-friendly buses make regular and reasonably frequent stops. So I could leave my cozy burrow when I chose, and go to a wheelchair-accessible art museum, and actually see the art without having to wait outside a locked door begging for a security guard to let me in.

You know, the little things.