March technology blogspot

FlashBack Express is the free version of the paid-for software known as FlashBack Pro. It's a superb tool for recording anything that's happening on your PC screen. The simple interface offers a few key options, including choices of recording full screen, a specific window, or within a region that you designate. You can also choose where sound is going to come from, add your own commentary, and record footage from a webcam if you have one connected. Files can be saved in Flashback's own format, exported to MPEG4, AVI or WMV, or uploaded straight to YouTube or another favourite viewing platform using FTP. Flashback Express is compatible with most versions of Windows from XP to 10.

https://www.flashbackrecorder.com/express/

Picture-in-picture modes

A second PC screen has many uses, such as displaying messages and information while you work and showing companion apps for games. But if you don't have enough room for two screens, picture-in-picture (PIP) mode can deliver a similar experience using only a single monitor. PIP is increasingly popular: Android 8.0 can handle it, Chrome and Opera both feature a mini-player for YouTube and even Microsoft's Film and TV app has a Mini View option. Strictly speaking, PIP is limited to a few apps and programs, but PIP tool for Windows, available from GitHub, works with any Windows program. This feature allows you to watch content (video for example) in thumbnail format on the screen while continuing to use any other software on Windows. Whether you want to avoid jumping between multiple tabs or watch a video while you browse, this tool lets you customise PIP to suit your individual needs.

https://github.com/LionelJouin/PiP-Tool

The art of the nation

Through its website, Art UK allows visitors to see digital copies of over 200,000 artworks from over 3,000 British museums and collections. Many of these works are not physically on display, making the site the only access point to this largely unseen wealth of art. Works digitised by Art UK span several centuries, from a 2nd century AD Roman fresco at the Victoria & Albert Museum to four stitched portraits created by the artist Sorrell Kerrison in 2017 and 2018. These portraits were commissioned by the Bolton Museum and Manchester Art Gallery, and there's a short video detailing Kerrison's process of researching the subjects and stitching the portraits. The site's most intriguing feature is "Art Detective" where visitors are asked to help resolve mysteries and answer questions about particular paintings with information gaps and identity problems.

https://artuk.org

Connected histories

Fans and scholars of our national history may appreciate Connected Histories, a non-profit project that enables visitors to conduct sophisticated web searches through more than two dozen digital history databases and archives simultaneously. Spanning the years 1500 to 1900, examples of the resources in Connected Histories include British Museum Images (with nearly 100,000 images related to early modern Britain), the Convict Transportation Registers Database (containing government records on more than 123,000 convicts who were transported to Australia between 1787 and 1867), and the Newton Project (an online edition of Sir Isaac Newton's complete published and unpublished writings).

https://www.connectedhistories.org