Steemit Censorship: You're Not Allowed to Have an Opinion!

Totally disappointing ... it appears this platform not only stops people from expressing an opinion, but they also remove any rewards for those that speak out.

No reason given, do not even ask why!

Threatening is not a way to make people to go there, I most certainly won't encourage  any of my contacts to go to this platform. I looked at this guys comment and saw nothing wrong with it at all.

https://steemit.com/@abusereports/comments

Extremely interesting reading, downvoting also seems attract the attention of this abusereports , so why have the option. Seriously!

I can't see myself staying on this platform much longer!

The Sony FDR-X3000, Endomondo, Virb Edit Experiment.

https://d.tube/#!/v/kiwibloke/l30t1x6k

Virb Edit, creating data overlays for you sports videos. This inbuilt editor is AMAZING, but lets go back to the beginning as to how I started putting this together.

Method

The Walk (that's me and it was freezing outside, mid winter, gets dark at 5:30pm)
- record using Endomondo the entire walk on my Huawei P8lite
- during the walk, record snippets on the Sony FDR-X3000 camera
Video Creation (all with Virb Edit)
- import all the video clips (as is), place in timeline
- while playing through the timeline, trim each clip
- export the GPS to GXP (using Endomondo Website)
- import the GPX file
THE SHOCK
- 1st gauge I added: position - track (the map inside the circle)
- when played, Virb Edit knew where each video clip appears on the track
- as you watch this video you can see the dots move accordingly
- there can be discrepencies within a few meters, you can fine tune if you want
Completion
- add music (provided by Virb Edit)
- add titles

Thoughts

This was all created in-house, no external editors used. I really am impressed with this software (and yes it is free). What is important to realise, the data here is based on a GPS signal and the accuracy of a satelitte. Still, as a graphical indiction I think it is really cool. I really don't like the existing gauges but you do have the ability to create your own.

I wouldn't necessarily use an overlay like this on all my video's, probably when there is sports events, like to 10km charity walks I sometimes participate in. I had fun putting this together.

Note
 
The Endomondo App provides alot more GPS data than the Sony FDR-X3000 which results in more gauges you can use.

https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=6591

**D.tube Exclusive**

Steemit: 2 Weeks On and my Thoughts

I'm really starting to enjoy using this platform, even though I have so much more to learn. Buzz words like cryptocurrency, blockchain, steem, steem power, steem dollars are totally exciting and I liken it to the game Monopoly. I've posted some content, earned some Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars.

Is this real money ??? it can be but from what I've seen I'm just not interested at this point in time. but this is where the fun starts for me ......

STEEM POWER, I gots the power !!!

With this I can control post payouts, ie the more Steem Power (SP) I have, my upvotes will count more and will award different content creators SP and Steem dollars as well. How cool is that!!

For me, this platform is about content and creating content, which I'm not very good at and seldom create. In fact I make videos so that I can look back on snippets of my life, and if other people watch then that is all well and good too.

You can view the upvotes as seen on above image, who upvoted and how much influence each voter has based on their (SP). Currently my SP is so low, my upvotes are valued at $0.0000 LoL but hey, we all start somewhere. Let's peek at my Steemit Wallet ..

5 minutes ago my Steem Power was 1.033, so here's what I did to increase it. I transferred the Steem Dollars ($0.80approx) I earned from my posts to Steem ($2.00approx via Internal Market), which I then Powered Up increasing my Steem Power.

So my short term goal unfolds, when I upvote, I want it to have real meaning.

It is all about content, and not earnings

For Vidme .... I will always remember you guys.
- Amberthest
- Ravenmor Fox
- Dazzlinglatte
- Flying Purple Pizzas
- Calibri Funtimes
- Stefan Jenkins
- Kirsty J
- Jonna

My Thought of the Week: IPFS

https://d.tube/v/kiwibloke/75shs3zs

What is IPFS ... yes I've seen the definitions and what it is capable of with file sharing. Does running it help D.tube or Steemit in some way working in the background. Using the file system found on the "webui' I added a picture of myself (I know, boring but at least I won't run into copyright issues) and got a sharing link.

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRn88qP6XFP2HS2ovki3N9chzy4G3VbkGV4xCyUMXjKfa

This is all well and good, if I wish to share something, but does me sharing 1 file help the community. I feel as if I have missed something important here.

I would be extremely appreciative for any feedback.

Note: Installation on Linux Mint problems - resolved
- go here ... https://canyouseeme.org/ ... see if world can see service on port 4001
- this port opens "AFTER" the daemon is run
1 - turn off the Gufw firewall
2 - set router port forward 4001 (I even set this computer as DMZ host, probably not necessary)

3 - if using Noscript - disable it
4 - Go here ... https://easyengine.io/tutorials/linux/increase-open-files-limit ... Per-User Limit

d.tube: What is this ?

D.Tube is the first crypto-decentralized video platform, built on top of the STEEM Blockchain and the IPFS peer-to-peer network.

Basically another video platform like Youtube, Bitchute.

If you want more detailed information visit this link https://about.d.tube/

I've been part of the Steem Blockchain for a while now, I still have no idea how this works but it is about time I use it's video platform.

All STEEMs applications seemed to be inter-linked, which is a good thing.
Upload video onto d.tube, it automatically appears on my steemit blog.

My thoughts on all 3 platforms - Youtube, Bitchute, d.tube:-

Youtube
massive user base, well supported
searching works well
over censored
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream

Bitchute
small user base
best place to find CCL music to use in your videos
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream

d.tube
small user base:- vlogs here are more personal and engaging
searching sucks
video quality is downgraded to improve the stream BUT will stream source
- eg upload a 1080p5fps mp4, you have the option to watch it at this speed
- default view of 480p is really good.
huge problem - cannot play the videos from the site on my Android phone!

Here's my 1st upload to d.tube https://d.tube/v/kiwibloke/3qlm8m3c
The same "My Wainui Training Cycle Loop" as found on Youtube

So I'm going to use this exclusively for the next few months, then see how I feel about it.

Dissenter, The Comment Section of the Internet.

If you have watched the video's about Rotten Tomatoes, The Captain Marvel Movie with Brie Larson, you'll eventually come across people talking about this browser extension. If a video has it's comments disabled, this browser app creates a "discussion" comment section for that URL, where anyone who has installed, signed up with this app, can write/read comments.

I have actually seen something similar to this before (a long time ago) but cannot remember where.

Dissenter by GAB

I must say, I joined GAB when it was is first launched live, and only a few people was accepted during it's startup. Today I logged in and yep, there's that prompt ... send your first post LoL. Eventually I'll become active there once I work out what GAB is again.

The reason I brought this up, when I tried to sign up for Dissenter, at the prompt where your asked to put in your email, it said mine was already taken. A light bulb moment, lets use my GAB login, I'm in .. hehe.

Back to Dissenter

Let's find out how this dissenter works, time to go find a YouTube video that has had it's comments disabled, this may take me a while, 90.99% of YouTubers I follow are nice people.

 Ok let's do a simple YouTube search --> comments disabled

wow there's heaps ... OK maybe YouTube is not a good example, therefore I'm going to Add a dissenter discussion on this My Blogs homepage ..

As you can see I have left unticked both Share to Gab & NSFW, this is just me playing around. But if another active Dissenter comes to my homepage, they will see that comment and can interact if they wish.... published!

Let's go to a URL where there is an actual Dissenter discussion happening ...

Nice, 940 Dissenter comments on YouTubes homepage ..

Alita: Battle Angel, Must Watch Again!

I thought Avatar cannot be beaten yet James Cameron has come out with another mind blowing story that deserves another visit, before it can no longer be shown on the BIG screen. If I had had an on going rating system this would be a 10/10 :-)

1st 4K UHD Video Upload to Youtube

The best way to try something like this, is to create a small video, then upload it to youtube as a private view, then see what happen when trying to play it back. A timelapse is perfect for this, so this morning I whipped out the Sony FDR-X3000 placed it on the ground and snapped of 600 frames at 5sec intervals.

The using my very slightly modified bash script 3001.sh created a series of timelapses:-

1280x720p(HDTV) 30fps - 24.5MB
1920x1080p(HD) 50fps - 38.8MB
3840x2160p(4K UHD) 60fps - 106.9MB

After uploading the video the only way it would play properly on my browser was to change the quality to 1080p60.

Thoughts
I'm still not convinced creating a 4K is worth it if I cannot play at this quality, and I know I cannot get it to play locally here on a duo2core machine. (plays fine locally on my Intel i5 Opitplex).

I'll leave this video up hoping one day I can get to see it in 4K. Meanwhile it's back to creating 1080p videos and timelapses :-)

Bash Script: 3001.sh
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1909Zgi4TsNx30UA8Gsb1GRF1mb3fdkid/view?usp=sharing

Download and copy (or move) this file into the BIN folder (Linux Mint).

This a a text file so you can read the instructions at the bottom of the file. Note I also had the open the BIN folder as ROOT in order to change the files permissions to "Allow this file to run as a program".

Now just go into the folder containing all your images and type 3001.sh, follow the prompts.

This script can be used on any folder containing images captured and stored by any devices. The Dazzne option was written to allow for images captured with 4:3 aspect ratio.

Are Photo Prints Still Relevant

It's been well over 6 years since I have actually got a photo printed, and that was at Noel Lemmings in Lower Hutt. It was about that time I joined an online photo printing service call Snapfish (www.snapfish.co.nz).

This is a recent screenshot of their website to give you a fair idea what service they provide.

After a recent cycling event (The Taupo Cycle Challenge which I still haven't decided whether or not to create a video of my experience). I bought the downloadable images (of me on the course) to use for my own personal use by the events official photographers (they remain the copyright holders) at $48.00NZ for 20 images.

This was the perfect opportunity to finally try snapfish, so quickly selecting 10 of those images, I put in an order. To be fair I wasn't really excited about it, knowing once the prints arrived I have no idea what to do with them. As I'm writing up this blog post, I realize I don't have a single photo album in this house.

Here's 2 of these images I selected:-

The prints finally arrived a few days ago, I had completely forgotten about them but I'm happy to once again show them of to the family, who have already seen most of the images via whatsapp.

Thoughts:
I would most likely purchase one of those frames that allow multiple pictures and hang it up on the wall, maybe in the hallway.

What I am excited about, is from the prints I came up with a design for a unique mousemat, which I am definitely going to buy.

I'm curious, do other people still get photo images printed ?

WS2812 Cycle Lights Using a Arduino Pro Mini

Really simple project.
Arduino Pro mini, with an 8 LED WS2812 stick, a touch switch, finished with 1x 18650 battery all mounted inside a 2x 18650 powerbank charging case. Sketch includes the FastLED library.

Tested duration in flash mode: 14hours

Time taken to complete project: just under 1hour
Time taken to edit video: 8+ hours LoL (not good at this really)

Camera: Sony HDR-CX405
PC: Optiplex 9010 i5 8GB Ram running Linux Mint 19

Notes
This came out much better than I had expected, especially using the powerbanks case to contain all the components. It is also possible to replace the Arduino Pro Mini with the sketch uploaded onto a ATtiny85 and yes I've tried it and it works just fine.

Ideally it would've been nice to use another touch switch as the Power ON/OFF switch but I have no idea (yet) how to power up any Arduino board using an electronic switch such as these ones.

Bridging both solder points A & B means, as soon as power is applied, the switch in ON, next time you touch the case, it goes off ie it toggles.

This is where you get your 5V and GND power source from.

And yes, don't forget this is still a Powerbank. I would definitelty use this when I create Timelapses on my Sony FDR-X3000 action camera.

Thoughts
The possibility of using this concept has opened many idea opportunities and in my mind I have already formed 4 new projects:-

- Garage minder: detect movement in garage inform household via radio signal
- Emergency House lighting with Solar Panel backup
- Fishing Underwater night LED lighting rig
- WS2812 Christmas tree lighting https://youtu.be/if178oluID4

It has been a while since I've deleted all my old projects, I'll attempt to recreate them again and repost.

Arduino, WS2812 Addressable LEDS, FastLED Library

 

video by Andrew Tuline

We all do it, try something new, have a little play with things then stand back to admire our most recent achievement. Then curiosity leads us to down the youtube path, to see how other people are doing in this field.

Arduino is no exception. I was so proud of myself after purchasing some small WS2812 Driver boards and with a little bit of coding I finally created my rear night flashing cycle lights! (project will be uploaded very soon)

https://www.youtube.com/user/atuline/videos

To be honest here, this is pretty extreme for such a simple project, normal LEDs would have worked just as well, if not better. But !!!

I wanted to be different!!

Very proud of my self with my projects results, where part of the code required the FastLED library. So I decided to look up the creator and he gave some really good advice and there are some really great demo codes you can try.

https://github.com/atuline/FastLED-Demos

Also visit his youtube channel:-

https://www.youtube.com/user/atuline/videos

I feel I have found one of the pioneers in this field, and his demo codes are freely available, well commented with hints on how to change to suit ones purposes.

I want to make christmas tree lights just like in that video, but baby steps first!!

Twitch Experience: I Gots Me A Webcam

After 2 weeks on Twitch it was time to hook up a Webcam. I'm not sure how I would feel about this so the obvious thing to do was to quickly get my hands on a cheap webcam. $1.00 from Trademe, even though it was only 480p, perfect for what I want to do for now and in 3 days was on my doorstep.

You would think a simple device like this would work perfectly the moment you inserted the USB plug. Well yes, kind of. I got no indication/alert telling me a new hardware device has become available. So now what. Linux Software Manager opened to find a webcam program which resulted in a program called Cheese. Installed, ran it, it didn't acknowledge the presence of the webcam. For the next hour I was singing a different version of "Oh happy days" until I decided to do a reboot. It works, hallelujah! I see me on screen and go, geez who's this ugly bugga.

So I closed down Cheese, set up my Twitching environment, added a source using the webcam option, and it did not find the webcam. Here we go, another chorus of "Oh happy days" starts. So once again, started up Cheese and yes, once again Cheese didn't acknowledge the webcam. Well the obvious conclusion was, if you wish to use the webcam that day, do not close webcam window because if you do, you have to reboot the computer!

Using Cheese was fine, but I wanted to use the webcam without this program, it has issues and every time it crashes it was reboot time, so it was BASH time:-

ls -ltr /dev/video*

Use this to find what port Linux recognises the webcam

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 60

This will bring up a window showing, well your face :-)
It is this window I use as the source for OBS

Yes the quality is awful, and I intend on getting a real webcam like a Logitech 920 after watching and talking to Jade from Twitch.

Fight Plastic Polllution

Too few people care about how much an environmental problem this has now become, or they acknowledge it's a problem but it is too late to do anything about it. I used to be in this latter category.

On social media, I follow a lot of small vloggers who's views on anything/everything has more impact on me than watching the latest big hit coming out of Hollywood/Netfix etc. Amberthest (YouTube) is one of them. Creating videos on close to a $0 budget shows how much passion they put into getting their idea's out, regardless if no-one actually watches it.

I've have always been aware of the problem about plastic bags from big chain supermarkets, living in one of the most windy capital cities on this planet I get to see these plastic bags in all sorts of places. Seeing them wave like the national flag on our tallest trees doesn't faze us, next big gust would get rid of it and blow it out to sea. Big sigh here!

So what can WE do about it ? I know what part I can play on fighting plastic pollution.

1) Avoid buying products/goods that use plastic excessively to contain the item/s.

Vegans/vegetarians I do apologize, this isn't meant to offend but I do like meat, and this is just a typical example of how much (way too much) plastic is used on their meat packages.

2) Take your own bags into the supermarket, don't use those thin plastic bags they provide. In some supermarkets they now actually make you pay a small surcharge if you request to use those bags, this isn't good enough in my opinion. Some supermarkets sell reusable bags (as shown in the image below) and this is the best way to go.

Yeah I know, not too pretty hahaha but it is all about looking after our environment. Then of course you can make your own. Shamelessly cue another Amberthest video:-

3) If you see plastic trash (well any trash really) pick it up and dispose of it. It is not embarrassing. In fact on my regular fitness walks I always carry a bag just for the purpose of removing plastics from the streets. Admittedly  I don't get them all on 1 walk because this problem is huge and can change daily.

Finally to end this post, another small time youtuber voicing their concerns, good for them :-)

Small Demo fo Burgulus Streamed on Twitch

The fourth day into streaming my Aardwolf game play via Twitch, it really is pretty easy to setup and so far, I've been enjoying myself. Notice how this isn't a YouTube video but a direct upload into blogger.

I am extremely impressed with blogger.com playback quality, I'm surprised I never tried uploading here before. Sharing this on Twitter using the Icon below only displays the URL and not a thumbnail of the Video, Pity.

Minds.Com & Creative Commons Attribution

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

The Best CC License that suits my purpose and will apply to all the videos/music I create. Read the explanation here: tohatoha.org.nz/licences.

I'm still not convinced using BitChute to showcase my video's. The resulting 480p viewing experience while just passable on  mobile phones, is really disappointing on desktop/laptop monitors.

I've just noticed https://www.minds.com now allow media uploading including videos so a little experiment seems to be in order here. It's a shame blogger doesn't allow a player view of videos originating from minds.com.

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/846423352863223808

Now the player on minds.com suggests it plays back at 720p, I'm not convinced on this either. Finding an alternative to YouTube who offers 4K uploads will probably never happen.

Discord & Twitch, What Are These & Can I Use Them ?

Twitch:
So yesterday I installed Twitch, why ? well not really sure but my grandson said he streams on Twitch. And now that it's installed he won't give me his Stream name, which is probably a good thing, I'd hate to see him play because I don't want to see my angelic wonderful grandson turn into a demon right on my monitor.

In the mean time I get to learn what Twitch is, how to buy BITS (not sure what this does but I can cheer streamers with it) example - cheer10 hello. For the curious it costs $2.50NZ for 100 bits.

Thoughts:
I think I can use this platform, not to stream games but to stream me constructing various stages of electronic projects. It may be possible to complete a whole project, I've seen some streamers go well over 5 hours in 1 session. To make this work it would have to be done on a strict schedule; ie 1 stream a week.

Discord:
This one I am really excited about. Long before the WWW era, I lived my life online in the age of IRC, and this Discord claims to be similar. I was extremely pleased this works with Linux Mint and if you've ever had a IRC server with a Channel BOT, you can see how similar discord is.

This image shows the main program running on Linux Mint, briefly create your own channels, user roles etc etc. I've even added a free BOT from

https://www.dynobot.net/

I'm still fine tuning this and fast track learning how to use the setup and so far, I'm impressed. As you can see I've added the Discord widget onto my blog, which displays who's currently online on my Discord Server.

Just in case you haven't noticed, my handle on these platforms is JustABlokeNZ

Thoughts:
Really excited about this!

USO Whanau Ride

I really enjoyed this ride, not only getting to meet a few seasoned USO members with their families, but was surprised to connect with new riders from Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata. Wellington is famous for it's wind and rain we never got it on this day.

This Endomondo image includes our ride out from Hikoikoi Reserve, Petone and along the Wellington SH1 motorway.

Thoughts

Making video content has become an issue, due to the fact I wish to hold onto the originals, which take up a lot of hard drive space. For example, this 1080p50 video is only 896MB (pre-youtube upload 4min25sec), created from a folder containing all footage, GPS information totaling 37.5GB (1hr44mins).

Does one upload to youtube then delete all originals/edited versions knowing that one day youtube will cease, and moment in time will be gone forever.

3 possible solutions come to mind.:-

• buy hard drives to store only original content (creating edited version to upload to social media platforms  is easy to do). Using these hard drives in a docking station makes them a permanent storage solution, there is always that possibility they still can fail.
• Use an on-line cloud storage service, if I went this route it would probably be www.mega.nz , from 200GB at 4.99euro/month $8.50NZ/month to 8TB at 29.99euro/month $50.95NZ/month. This is not cheap.
• Only keep the edited version, delete all originals. This is the practical solution and easily affordable. From a creative point of view, as time goes by, my editing/creative skills will improve and it would be nice to revisit some old videos and give them a new make over. Actually I'm going to do this shortly, I have kept all the original raw files from an Ironmaori ride in 2015.

It would've been nice to have uploaded this on the day, but it took me this long to free up some space to allow editing. I'm already way behind, Oh well LoL

Cycle Ride

hmm is our coffee time longer than our riding time LoL

I'm really happy at the kms covered this morning

This morning we had 7 in the group, the warm up circuit to Norfolk Street went really well. A nice straight line with Eric leading the group, Terina at #2 dictating the speed, Iha 3rd and myself at the rear calling traffic information up the line. The group is starting to learn the signals needed to travel on suburban roads which helps to keep us all safe.

We split up into 3 groups for various reason and finished of with a bit of chat at the village cafe.

Thoughts

At the cafe we was approached by a local and wanted to know if he can ride with us. He spotted our warm up ride earlier and of course we all said yes. We are not a club and we welcome anyone who enjoys social or serious riding.

We have 2 NZ certified cycle riders in our group, Iha and myself and we realize chances are the group is going to increase in numbers and it would be ideal to put another person through the course.

Obtaining a Domain Name

There are many obvious reasons to have your own domain name when running a business, on-line presence with a good domain name will determine the success of your site. If you're not yet ready to take the plunge at least consider securing  a domain name before it's taken by someone else.

$21.50NZ +gst /year

Thats like a family pack of fish and chips for the night, peanuts really.

Would this suit an individual and is it worth it ? This can only be answered by the individual and here I will discuss my reasons for finally getting a domain name.

www.taramai.nz

Having my own domain name just looks good, and I'm so proud I went through the process from searching to purchasing. Choosing https://1stdomains.nz/ to manage the domain was an obvious choice for me, it had to be a kiwi outfit. Is it the cheapest ? maybe but keeping it in the country is important to me.

So now that I have a domain name, what could I do with it ? Well I've been using Googles Blogger for many years now, and that is where my new domain points to (for now, I have plans to run a wordpress site hosted from https://1stdomains.nz/).

On top of this I added 1 mailbox to the account, another $21.00NZ +gst per year. Not only having a cool website name, but having a email address attached to it is even better. philip@taramai.nz gets a few raised eyebrows, loving it.

Thoughts

There was mention of securing more extensions like .com .org etc I could understand why businesses would do this, company brands have to be protected. For me, I don't really care if someone else takes taramai.co.nz or taramai.com etc.

13.5km Fitness Walk: A small Blog Experiment

Click here to watch video

The aim here is to break away ties with YouTube, using BitChute as the source to store my video's. As mentioned in the previous post, the disadvantage is the viewer has no playback quality selection.

Original video recorded and uploaded in 1920 x 1080res 50fps, 797.7MB
Post upload BitChute video  15.6MB 768 x 432res 24fps, 15.6MB

The downside of this method, I have create an image, use the images caption as the link to the videos URL, which then opens a new browsers page at the videos URL location.

Thoughts
I wonder if it is possible to easily imbed the video onto this page ...