Jing: Something a little different

I'm feverishly working on, and trying to finish, a Guide to a program called IDrive-E which is yet another backup program, and if the gods are willing, I'll finish it in the next day or two.

Meanwhile, I can't resist telling you about something a little different. Something called Jing.

I have to admit that this isn't a mainstream application, but I will contend that something like this will become mainstream, so you might as well find out about it now.

Suppose you could capture anything you are doing on your computer, make a video of it much like Mainstream Guides does, and share it with whomever you want. Suppose it was really, really easy to do so. Would you be interested?

Some of us are blessed with having just enough knowledge about the computers and the internet that we have friends and relatives who continually ask us how to do stuff. Would you like to be able to just show them? Or maybe you're one of those friends or relatives, tired of having to make sense of tedious explanations, who would simply like to be shown?

If you fit into either of these categories, you (or your computer mentor) need to know about Jing.

For the moment, Jing is free. You download it and do a simple installation; then you sign up for a service called Screencast.com. A yellow ball sits at the top (or side or bottom -- you choose) of your screen. When you want to record something, click on it and choose 'capture.' Drag a rectangle around whatever window or part of the screen you want to capture, choose whether you want to just capture an image or a video, and you're in business.

If you're showing how to do something, you would record a video, so you press the Stop button when you're done. You can even plug a headset into your computer and record your voice, just like I do in Mainstream Guides. When you're done, you're given the option of uploading the just-made video to Screencast.com. When it's done, you get a link. You can put that link in an email, in an instant message, or even on your MySpace page, and anyone who gets the link can watch your video.

You can see one of my first efforts here. As with other Mainstream Guides, there is a link to the website just above the video, and another one in the video frame itself, at the end. Go there to download the program, or just to find out more about it.

If there is interest, I'll do more on this program to explain some of the subtleties. Or let me know about another program, service, or website for which you would like to see a Mainstream Guide.

"jing project"