Capturing online course content using Audio Hijack and MacWhisper
I’m almost 4/5 of the way through my Sustainability Certificate, and have hit on a new way to process and review the instructor’s weekly lectures. I’m recording the audio of the lectures from Safari using Audio Hijack, and then converting speech to text using MacWhisper. I then re-read the transcribed lecture and take notes.
MacWhisper has become astonishingly good. In the first few weeks of class, the text output was pretty accurate, but it was delivered as just a bunch of lines of about the same length, with no regard for where sentences began or ended. I needed to paste the MacWhisper output into BBEdit, strip all the line endings, and then parse through the text manually to break up the sentences and paragraphs and correct (usually a very few) errors. This week, though, I just copied the MacWhisper output and pasted it straight into my Craft note and didn’t have to change a thing. The sentences were broken out separately and names and other content were captured almost perfectly. Just remarkable.
Now I have a searchable text archive of the course lectures and my notes, which will make referencing these in the future much easier. Wish I had this system in place for previous classes.
The Climatebase Fellowship is accepting applications to their 3rd cohort. As a 2nd cohort fellow, I can recommend the experience wholeheartedly. You’ll get excellent instruction in all aspects of sustainability and meet some of the nicest and most dedicated professionals around.
♻️ If this pans out, it would be a big deal. Wind turbine blades wear out and need to be replaced periodically. They’re made of epoxy, which means they’ve been going to the landfill… until now.
A Danish wind turbine giant just discovered how to recycle all blades
A friend of mine has put together a project to help the folks in her homeland of Ukraine. If you’re a yoga teacher or student, check out yoga4ukraine.com. The goal is to find 1000 yoga teachers around the world to donate the proceeds of one class by 12/31.
Well, we’ve had a busy weekend. We put a deposit down on a fully loaded Chevy Bolt EUV, and sold our gas-guzzler. (The CarMax selling process was a breeze!) We’re now an electric-vehicle-only family, and it feels great!
Want to read: The Upcycle by William McDonough 📚 Just added this to my queue after watching this video where McDonough talks about the philosophy and design thinking behind the book. He has a really inspiring and motivating take on designing for sustainability. In short, it’s: Why is getting to zero (waste, carbon, etc.) our goal? We can do better.
Finished reading: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin 📚 A rich and absorbing novel, with an impressively detailed world. The “trick” of the novel’s structure worked on me, making for a very satisfying final chapter. 4/5 stars.
I’ve been reading a lot about sports psychology lately to figure out how to improve my mental game, so I found this post very interesting. Being a hockey goalie has got to be one of the toughest mental challenges in sports. Inside the mind of Kraken netminder Chris Driedger 🏒
Went to the Seattle Kraken’s first home game last night at Climate Pledge Arena. What a great facility! A win would have been nice, but it was still a great game and an electric atmosphere. Looking forward to the rest of the season.
3d-printed Lincoln.
I don’t mind dealing with the delta variant, but I am not paying a monthly subscription for delta+.
Got a decent view of the stage for the Seattle Kraken expansion draft announcement. And just found out that the draft list was leaked. I’ll try to act surprised.
Passed by Lady Liberty on our Circle Line Cruise yesterday and she said to tell you all “Happy Independence Day!”
Finished reading: Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1) by Lee Child 📚
Finished reading: The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters 📚 I didn’t quite buy a couple of critical story hooks, but found myself engrossed nevertheless. The main character’s choices lead him into a slow-motion car wreck that’s hard to look away from. ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Finished reading: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel by Bryn Greenwood 📚 A remarkable book. Challenging, sweet, disturbing, romantic, and heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Many years ago, I was an Improvisor at SAK Comedy Lab in Orlando. Several of my friends are still there, and I have thought about them often during Covid. Great article in Vox about how they’re coping:
How do you put on a comedy show when laughter is a risk? www.vox.com
Well, this is a beautiful sight. Dropped in the replacement power supply and the MK3S is in business! Just needed a few tweaks to get the filament to stick, but now it’s cranking out prints pretty well. It’s faster and a lot quieter than the MK2S. A very worthwhile upgrade.
Great article by a medical expert on the use cases (not many) and accuracy (pretty good, under some circumstances) of the blood oxygen sensor in the new Apple Watch.
The Paramedic’s Guide to Blood Oxygen and the Apple Watch Series 6 - TidBITS
Nearly there. Electronics are all hooked up, wires are managed, initial checks check out. Now to see if it actually works…
