A number of restaurants have taken notice of MacKenzie River Pizza Co.'s Mac Loving desert and made their own variation of it.
The Mac Loving desert is a chocolate chip cookie made the size of a personal pizza served melting hot with a scope of vanilla ice cream on top and covered in hot fudge.
Papa Murphys is now offering cookie dough along with their whole line of take and bake pizzas so you can make one of these deserts for yourself at home.
I just learned that Papa John's has a mega 7" chocolate chip cookie on their menu. It comes in a foil pan and sliced into eight pieces. When it arrives it is hot and melty. I couldn't wait so I took a couple slices before I dug into the pizza. You may want to keep it warm in the oven while you eat the main course pizza.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Video Kiosks for Everyone
Have you seen those video kiosks at a museum or the commercial area of your fair? These are the TVs with a video message that tells you about the product or display. They are usually short videos that are left on continuous loop so everyone can see the message throughout the day.
I think there is a way to do this for the rest of us. In fact I think in the last five years the technology has advanced to the point that we can do it better and organizations, like museums can get more capability at less cost than with their existing equipment.
Here is my idea. Use an inexpensive 13" to 19" LCD TV with an older video iPod.
The first question probably isn't how, but why. For personal use, I see this set up can be part of a school project. You can use it at a Science Fair or local carnival booth. Anywhere you have to set up a table display or a booth, you can now have your own video kiosk. It is one more layer or format where you can present your information to the crowd.
For museums, this offers a solid state easy to modify or update display. In addition to the printed markers and panels of information, you can include a video which goes into more depth or provides animation about the exhibit it is next to. Many museums already have a series of video displays mixed in with their exhibits. The ones I've seen are either run from VHS tapes or DVD players. These have moving parts that are susceptible to wearing out and needing to be replaced on a regular basis. Things like VHS tapes and DVDs wear out or get scratched and have to be replaced as well. Flash based iPods, like the third generation iPod nano don't have moving parts and can provide endless playback without degrading.
For commercial groups at a fair or farmer's market, this can allow you to provide additional information about your products or your organization. It can give the back story about the company and its founding. It can provide customer testimonials about the advantages of your product. It can go into detail about the advantages of your product and the additional value to your customers that you provide them.
The most expensive part of the whole set up is the TV, so if you already have one, keep it. If you don't start hunting garage sales and eBay to get one. Even a brand new 19" flat screen TV can be purchased for $80-$150. Make sure you get one with Composite (red, white, yellow) inputs. Sometimes these are called game inputs. They are very common in portable TVs and projectors. Next in cost is actually the A/V cable. An Apple A/V Composite cable from Apple costs around $50. Finally the older iPod can be picked up from eBay for as little as $35.
When you're shopping for the iPod, be careful as you review the item description. Many people sell nonfunctioning iPods on eBay for parts. Older will be cheaper. Smaller will be cheaper as well. You can also accept some level of damage to the iPod to help bring the costs down. There are so many used iPods available on eBay, that you can name your price. If you loose an auction, just look for another one. There is no reason to get into a biding war over one of these.
I recommend the third generation iPod nano. This was the first iPod nano to offer video. The Video iPod or fifth generation iPod has a hard drive. This is a spinning disk that is subject to damage when dropped or wearing out of the motor that drives it. You lose all advantage of solid state. (Also these tend to be more expensive. I still haven't figured out why people are willing to pay more money for a less capable device.) For the same reason, stay away from the iPod classic. If you get a good price on new iPod nano's then go for it. I would avoid the sixth generation iPod nano because Apple removed video capability from it. Only recently has video been returned to the nano line.
Keep the storage space small. We're talking about a single purpose iPod. You're not going to use this to watch movies on your flight to Hawaii or London. You're not going to use this to watch movies during your week long camping trip to Yellowstone NP either. You only need enough storage for your looping video. This video will likely be 2-5 minutes long. That way people don't feel stuck to listen to your whole pitch and as the crowd moves past your booth, they will all get pretty much the same message. The smallest ever third generation iPod nano was 2 GB. This is approximately the same size as a DVD quality feature length (2 hour) film. Trust me, anything over 2 GB is wasted and you shouldn't pay more for it.
Accept scratches and dents on the iPod. You're feeding the video signal into the TV. You are not going to be watching the video on the iPod, so you can deal with scratches on the display. About all you have to be concerned with is can you read the display well enough to start it up at the beginning of the day. On eBay you're competing with others who want to watch videos on the iPod. They will go for ones with fewer scratches so this keeps the prices down on the ones with scratches.
Accept iPods that don't maintain a charge. The A/V Composite cable from Apple includes a USB connector. Since you'll need power for your TV, you'll have power for this USB connector to keep your iPod running. Like the scratches, there are iPods available on eBay which can no longer maintain a battery charge. This keeps their prices down and helps you get something that works perfectly for your purposes.
The next nice thing about this set up is that all of the hardware is independent of the content. Unlike foam core board or traditional displays, when this project is done, all of the hardware can be reconfigured for the next one. You can use this setup for every project or display from this point forward.
Now that we have all of the equipment, let's talk about configuring it for your project. Start with the video content. You can use your camcorder, cell phone, or newer iPod touch to take videos. You can edit the video on your computer, either Windows or Mac. Mac is nice because you get iMovie that gives you some great editing features and will easily transfer your video to iTunes. No matter how it gets there, get your video file loaded to iTunes. Use this to transfer the file from the computer to the iPod.
You want to look through the iPod settings. In the Video settings look for TV out. You want this turned on. In the U.S. you want to use NTSC format. For European TVs, set it to PAL format. Also set the default for Repeat as Repeat All. If you only have one thing in the playlist it will just repeat it. If later you want a couple different videos, you can do that from iTunes and not have to change the iPod settings. Since this is a single purpose iPod, I recommend removing as many extra items from the Main Menu as possible. You want to turn on the iPod, go straight to your playlist, and start running it. You don't need the rest of the things to scrolls through to do this.
After this it is a matter of plugging in all of the cables and power cords and then starting it. This will vary depending on your TV. It should be a matter of plugging the 30-pin connector into the iPod. The plug the red, white, yellow cables into the jacks for this input on the TV. Then plug the USB connector to a wall charger. Finally plug the wall charger and the TV power cord into the power outlet. Start the iPod video playing. If you don't see the video on the TV, use the TV controls to switch inputs to the Composite or Game input. Adjust volume and you're ready to go for the day. A Ziploc bag taped to the back of the TV is a great way to keep everything together for travel.
Any time you want to update the video you can just connect the iPod back to the computer and sync again.
While we're talking bout this setup, let me present another use for this same gear. You can use this to provide rotating content, like podcasts to an audience. Here is a scenario. Imagine you're part of an Air and Space museum. You want to get the great videos produced by NASA to your audience. You don't want to wire everything up to get the NASA TV feed for a few reasons. One there is a lot of cabling and setup to get the hardware in place for a TV feed. There is also expense in the subscription to either the direct feed or a television service. You also have your exhibit tethered to the television feed. Another reason is NASA TV is boring. There are only a few 10 minute shows worth anything in the 24 hour a day feed.
Instead NASA offers some great short length content for free through their NASAcast Video podcast. You can subscribe in iTunes and set up a Smart Playlist that has the most recent 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB of content. iTunes will download the content to the hard drive. The iPod can then be synced with the computer and then removed. Plug the iPod into the monitor and you can watch hours of NASA programming (just the interesting stuff) on continuous loop every day all day. Once a week the iPod can be synced again with iTunes. The Smart Playlist means that with just the hands free automatic sync built into iTunes, the oldest content is removed from the iPod and the newest content is added.
This will be a great way to encourage more museum memberships. A single visit to the museum and every patron will see that your video display has information directly from NASA that was produced within the last week. They will know that they can return again and again to learn more about the most recent advances by NASA. Who want to keep paying for single admissions? They will quickly purchase an annual membership and then they will return again and again and learn more and more about all of the exhibits in the museum.
If you're this far in the post, you're probably interested in this concept. Now imagine your a school principle or a school teacher. What about setting up one of these video kiosks in the hallway or a central social area of the school? Wouldn't it be nice for the students to get an extra dose of real world education as part of their day? What about other topics? There are thousands of video podcasts available for free on all sorts of different topics. There are programs on music, art, news, science, and more that could take advantage of this set up. Smart Playlists in iTunes allows you to create single topic playlists as well as cross subject playlists. It is all available for minimum cost and minimum effort.
I think there is a way to do this for the rest of us. In fact I think in the last five years the technology has advanced to the point that we can do it better and organizations, like museums can get more capability at less cost than with their existing equipment.
Here is my idea. Use an inexpensive 13" to 19" LCD TV with an older video iPod.
The first question probably isn't how, but why. For personal use, I see this set up can be part of a school project. You can use it at a Science Fair or local carnival booth. Anywhere you have to set up a table display or a booth, you can now have your own video kiosk. It is one more layer or format where you can present your information to the crowd.
For museums, this offers a solid state easy to modify or update display. In addition to the printed markers and panels of information, you can include a video which goes into more depth or provides animation about the exhibit it is next to. Many museums already have a series of video displays mixed in with their exhibits. The ones I've seen are either run from VHS tapes or DVD players. These have moving parts that are susceptible to wearing out and needing to be replaced on a regular basis. Things like VHS tapes and DVDs wear out or get scratched and have to be replaced as well. Flash based iPods, like the third generation iPod nano don't have moving parts and can provide endless playback without degrading.
For commercial groups at a fair or farmer's market, this can allow you to provide additional information about your products or your organization. It can give the back story about the company and its founding. It can provide customer testimonials about the advantages of your product. It can go into detail about the advantages of your product and the additional value to your customers that you provide them.
The most expensive part of the whole set up is the TV, so if you already have one, keep it. If you don't start hunting garage sales and eBay to get one. Even a brand new 19" flat screen TV can be purchased for $80-$150. Make sure you get one with Composite (red, white, yellow) inputs. Sometimes these are called game inputs. They are very common in portable TVs and projectors. Next in cost is actually the A/V cable. An Apple A/V Composite cable from Apple costs around $50. Finally the older iPod can be picked up from eBay for as little as $35.
When you're shopping for the iPod, be careful as you review the item description. Many people sell nonfunctioning iPods on eBay for parts. Older will be cheaper. Smaller will be cheaper as well. You can also accept some level of damage to the iPod to help bring the costs down. There are so many used iPods available on eBay, that you can name your price. If you loose an auction, just look for another one. There is no reason to get into a biding war over one of these.
I recommend the third generation iPod nano. This was the first iPod nano to offer video. The Video iPod or fifth generation iPod has a hard drive. This is a spinning disk that is subject to damage when dropped or wearing out of the motor that drives it. You lose all advantage of solid state. (Also these tend to be more expensive. I still haven't figured out why people are willing to pay more money for a less capable device.) For the same reason, stay away from the iPod classic. If you get a good price on new iPod nano's then go for it. I would avoid the sixth generation iPod nano because Apple removed video capability from it. Only recently has video been returned to the nano line.
Keep the storage space small. We're talking about a single purpose iPod. You're not going to use this to watch movies on your flight to Hawaii or London. You're not going to use this to watch movies during your week long camping trip to Yellowstone NP either. You only need enough storage for your looping video. This video will likely be 2-5 minutes long. That way people don't feel stuck to listen to your whole pitch and as the crowd moves past your booth, they will all get pretty much the same message. The smallest ever third generation iPod nano was 2 GB. This is approximately the same size as a DVD quality feature length (2 hour) film. Trust me, anything over 2 GB is wasted and you shouldn't pay more for it.
Accept scratches and dents on the iPod. You're feeding the video signal into the TV. You are not going to be watching the video on the iPod, so you can deal with scratches on the display. About all you have to be concerned with is can you read the display well enough to start it up at the beginning of the day. On eBay you're competing with others who want to watch videos on the iPod. They will go for ones with fewer scratches so this keeps the prices down on the ones with scratches.
Accept iPods that don't maintain a charge. The A/V Composite cable from Apple includes a USB connector. Since you'll need power for your TV, you'll have power for this USB connector to keep your iPod running. Like the scratches, there are iPods available on eBay which can no longer maintain a battery charge. This keeps their prices down and helps you get something that works perfectly for your purposes.
The next nice thing about this set up is that all of the hardware is independent of the content. Unlike foam core board or traditional displays, when this project is done, all of the hardware can be reconfigured for the next one. You can use this setup for every project or display from this point forward.
Now that we have all of the equipment, let's talk about configuring it for your project. Start with the video content. You can use your camcorder, cell phone, or newer iPod touch to take videos. You can edit the video on your computer, either Windows or Mac. Mac is nice because you get iMovie that gives you some great editing features and will easily transfer your video to iTunes. No matter how it gets there, get your video file loaded to iTunes. Use this to transfer the file from the computer to the iPod.
You want to look through the iPod settings. In the Video settings look for TV out. You want this turned on. In the U.S. you want to use NTSC format. For European TVs, set it to PAL format. Also set the default for Repeat as Repeat All. If you only have one thing in the playlist it will just repeat it. If later you want a couple different videos, you can do that from iTunes and not have to change the iPod settings. Since this is a single purpose iPod, I recommend removing as many extra items from the Main Menu as possible. You want to turn on the iPod, go straight to your playlist, and start running it. You don't need the rest of the things to scrolls through to do this.
After this it is a matter of plugging in all of the cables and power cords and then starting it. This will vary depending on your TV. It should be a matter of plugging the 30-pin connector into the iPod. The plug the red, white, yellow cables into the jacks for this input on the TV. Then plug the USB connector to a wall charger. Finally plug the wall charger and the TV power cord into the power outlet. Start the iPod video playing. If you don't see the video on the TV, use the TV controls to switch inputs to the Composite or Game input. Adjust volume and you're ready to go for the day. A Ziploc bag taped to the back of the TV is a great way to keep everything together for travel.
Any time you want to update the video you can just connect the iPod back to the computer and sync again.
While we're talking bout this setup, let me present another use for this same gear. You can use this to provide rotating content, like podcasts to an audience. Here is a scenario. Imagine you're part of an Air and Space museum. You want to get the great videos produced by NASA to your audience. You don't want to wire everything up to get the NASA TV feed for a few reasons. One there is a lot of cabling and setup to get the hardware in place for a TV feed. There is also expense in the subscription to either the direct feed or a television service. You also have your exhibit tethered to the television feed. Another reason is NASA TV is boring. There are only a few 10 minute shows worth anything in the 24 hour a day feed.
Instead NASA offers some great short length content for free through their NASAcast Video podcast. You can subscribe in iTunes and set up a Smart Playlist that has the most recent 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB of content. iTunes will download the content to the hard drive. The iPod can then be synced with the computer and then removed. Plug the iPod into the monitor and you can watch hours of NASA programming (just the interesting stuff) on continuous loop every day all day. Once a week the iPod can be synced again with iTunes. The Smart Playlist means that with just the hands free automatic sync built into iTunes, the oldest content is removed from the iPod and the newest content is added.
This will be a great way to encourage more museum memberships. A single visit to the museum and every patron will see that your video display has information directly from NASA that was produced within the last week. They will know that they can return again and again to learn more about the most recent advances by NASA. Who want to keep paying for single admissions? They will quickly purchase an annual membership and then they will return again and again and learn more and more about all of the exhibits in the museum.
If you're this far in the post, you're probably interested in this concept. Now imagine your a school principle or a school teacher. What about setting up one of these video kiosks in the hallway or a central social area of the school? Wouldn't it be nice for the students to get an extra dose of real world education as part of their day? What about other topics? There are thousands of video podcasts available for free on all sorts of different topics. There are programs on music, art, news, science, and more that could take advantage of this set up. Smart Playlists in iTunes allows you to create single topic playlists as well as cross subject playlists. It is all available for minimum cost and minimum effort.
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