NewEndian

Update: Microsoft email support has been added (Outlook, Hotmail, etc) It seems people are suspicious that something so simple could be useful, so let me start again. I have gotten a lot of suggestions to make a "Callsheet App". It's a reasonable inquiry: the digital age, the digital callsheet. The problem with most callsheet app concepts is that it requires both the AD and the crew members to use the app in tandem. If the app doesn't do something the AD needs, then all support is lost. So this concept turns that around: don't depend on cooperation from the AD. Take all the varied forms that ADs distribute, and take what information from them we can. And for that, we turn to artificial intelligence. Which, believe it or not, is not so simple, but can do enough to detect what a callsheet looks like. Things get complicated when you have to do something like detecting which date (of the many things that look like dates) is the titular date of the callsheet. And way more difficult when detecting where basecamp is. Luckily, much of the utility of a digital callsheet comes merely from having the callsheet accessible at one's fingertips. We can all read. If we're about to approach a person whose name (but not title) we've forgotten, we don't need that name on a specially formatted menu screen. It's midway down page 2. And that situation happens so much - just need to check one thing, but I don't have the paper on me - it's worth creating an app for that. Most people use the built-in pdf reader, and at least on Android, file management is non-existent, so opening the callsheet at the spur of the moment means searching through one's email every time a person wants to open it. Even creating a shortcut to a downloaded file is a cumbersome experience. Now there are certainly integrations that people want to see in a digital callsheet, but without the cooperation of each individual person making the callsheets (and trust me, convincing people to use your app is not easy), you have to rely on AI. And that means that sometimes it won't detect the information, but you still have to have functionality to fall back on. So I need beta testers to make sure the foundation is solid. Because I do want to expand on this concept, but it has to start from a place where everyone can use it.

So this app will do what you've done for yourself: keep your callsheet within a single button press, except without having to import it each day. The plan is to do tie-ins (maps, phone numbers), but no markings.

It's about speed. One button access instead of searching through your email every time you need to look something up.

Not at the moment, but possibly in the future Technically it is worse than a PDF reader because you can't select text, and that is something I plan to remedy. Still my hope is that there's a lot of utility there already.

That is correct Olle. Though if you don't have a callsheet for the day, it should say "No Callsheet Found". I'll check on that. If for some reason you do have a callsheet but it wasn't detected, you can look at a list of pdf attachments with the lower left button. I should change the ads moment to only run when a pdf is about to be displayed (once per day is the plan, with a paid no-ads option) I have opened it up to Canada All important feedback

Hi everybody, I'm working on a callsheet app with a very different premise: just display the callsheet on your screen. I need testers but for the moment there are specific requirements: - You're on Android - You use Gmail or Microsoft (outlook, hotmail, etc) to receive your callsheets - You're comfortable letting an app search your email for today's callsheet (no data is ever transferred off the device) If you're interested, you can check it out here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.newendian.android.opencallsheet Best, James

http://www.icrobotics.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Turning_the_Raspberry_Pi_Into_an_FM_Transmitter

Oh, I'm sorry. I should have mentioned. As the focus of Timecard Buddy is that it includes images of timecards from the major payroll companies, only the US timecards are currently offered and I have limited the availability to US and Canada (for now).

There is now the ability to support in-app purchase promo codes on Android, but licensing has always caused a lot of problems for me so I don't want to risk changing the licensing code to support them and screwing up something else

Just remember to repost the list with the codes removed and count updated

50 Promo codes for Timecard Buddy (App Store -> Featured Page -> Redeem) Just repost the list having removed the codes used and update the count. Cheers, James timecardbuddy.com Available (50): 63P7KMNKMJ6F X6HANYAYNR6L J94XKPWF43YL 3K9RHYTJKPA6 67WLF733K6AX RFFMMNPHPHRF 33P7XEHNJFJK KYFJEKJJAF76 TWXKKJ3JTHFR 9MME9F3P6THH TW364LHRMETX LMKAA7MNFEFK M4MTF4FW6WH3 4XWK3JJEAYTE MXPAE3PM7XY6 449M9WFWR6FK 3PWAN9W493LT HKTMXEXXXTX3 4N4M6EF9KAEJ TRJYLK97ETJT W6XR749WT4RR M9T3L4MMLRJ6 JKRYRH97NT9Y EPN74LPETJY4 9NXF39AEWAHT 36K6WNTWH3JE 9K69FL9AJFWE YPTRPEEX6YKY 4KHTMM47RPTK WJL343XLAXH6 FPENP4JM4FJM JNAYLMWAWYM3 E4Y7NKNPFLAT HRWWLHYTEP4F N6JPMT3JL3JP EHHHHAX99Y44 KHYPLLAJ6FKE PLTF7PFAPPW3 FYJYJ3YF9X33 RYTNPFH9MYFX APYMN9669376 X6AHK7RRJ7KK 7XKYPR37FRR4 7JH463J79TT4 KML69MFRMW67 HN4HFLF4MA66 M4R7T9XW9L67 LKF4M3FY7TX4 YXHM3EMMHRJR EXJE4YJX7ALK

I saw that documentary and it was excellent!!! Well done!

Certainly nVidia's advanced use of GAN (among other techniques) is bleeding edge. The basic concept has been around for a lot longer though. I'm just surprised it isn't a featured strategy. Particularly when they mention LSTM, which is odd because the periodic nature of audio makes short term memory important but long term memory less so (a simple RNN technique seems more à propos). It makes me wonder if they have a philosophical aversion to explicitly generative techniques. But I'm sure they have their reasons, which is naturally why I feel particularly inquisitive about the article. I do find it amazing how much the AI community assumes when you're talking about neural networks, you're either talking about image processing or voice recognition. But its true, thats where the money lies. Thankfully, one of the really great things about neural networks is that they're actually quite accessible. I expect we'll be seeing a real explosion of innovative uses for them in the near future. You might be surprised about the similarity between image and audio processing when neural networks are involved though. The bread and butter of AI image processing, the convolutional neural network, is basically a mass of filters. The AI community talks in terms of 'frequency content' (they mean resolution), which makes sense when you think about how important it is to think about pixels in the context of surrounding pixels. That said, most of the concepts aren't specific to image processing, even if that's how they've been implemented the most. Just look at how adversarial networks and LSTM have been used to defeat 9-Dan Go champion, Lee Sedol. Audio bias strikes again!

Neural Networks are truly incredible. For as long as training can take, the hive-mind nature of software eclipses what any individual human being can learn in his lifetime. And on top of that, computers can train each other, like two individuals playing game after game of chess with the only objective of beating the other player. I'm actually rather surprised Audionamix and iZotope didn't talk about Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). Advanced neural networks usually employ many different techniques chained together to find the optimal outcome. LSTM is an important component in learning significant features over time, but when talking about appealing to human perceptions of quality, more and more there's going to be a generative component. Such processing isn't going to be as much a matter of removing noise or moving noise to where it can't be heard. Actually it's a bit of a misnomer to describe noise as "being removed". Zero signal is still a known quantity; noise is the description of what can't be detected. So, whether it is redefining the unknown as zero or as some other more pleasant sound, generative processes will distort our recordings to make them sound better and that should be ok. After all, every technique from companders on tape machines and radios to advanced lossy digital compression algorithms has been distortion in the name of quality. What I think we'll find and should start to accept is that our perceived notion of "quality" is not at all about purity of signal. At it's most basic, GAN is a technique based on the premise of fooling an entity into believing a generated set of data (image, audio, or other) is actually an observed set of data. That entity is a separate, adversarial, network (called the 'discriminator') that is trained on observed data and taught to recognize the difference so that it can challenge the 'generator' network to fool it... and fool us at the same time. I have to say, I bought a Pixel 2 recently, and the AI used to make up for the limitations of the camera hardware is nothing short of astounding. And then there's this: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2017/12/03/nvidia-research-nips/ It's a scary notion, with unknown consequences, but I find it crazy, and fun, and quite humbling.

Hey y'all. I need some help with a pet project I've been writing for a little over a year. It is not audio related, but I do need a relatively small (relative to the mass scale that I'd like to get to) number of proof of concept testers to get a feel for how the system plays out. Think of it as a "No Drama" social network. It lives as an extension in your browser (Chrome only, for now) and gives you a Like/Dislike button and a Comment field for any webpage. You also get to see other "friend" users comments for that webpage and you can Like/Dislike those as well. That's all you have to worry about. An algorithm decides who your friends are and what comments you see based on the Likes and Dislikes. If for example, someone leaves an obnoxious Comment, click Dislike for the Comment and that person will likely be removed from your friends. That's it. There are no discussions or arguments. And everyone is anonymous, so don't worry about seeing what your friends really think. It's super new, so don't worry if you don't see many comments at first. Until that point, you can think of it as a simple way to collect your thoughts. You can even find a History page by clicking the title button. I really appreciate anyone who's feeling adventurous, has a Facebook account, and is using Chrome web browser: http://coffii.me Thanks, James

Hey thanks, Eric! Just wanted to put out there that I have added widgets (both iOS and Android) for quick access to today's times. Has anyone gotten a chance to use it? What do you think?

I have made a change to LectroRM on Android that I believe is better in the long run, but I also think it will weird people out, so I haven't implemented it on iPhone yet. Instead of pull down menus and having to scroll through the options, I've replaced them with a single text field that will gradually filter out the options as you type. Usually just typing the hex code is enough to bring the options count below scrolling through the dropdown menus, especially if 25khz steps is disabled in the settings. The idea occurred to me when I was working between both wideband and narrowband devices, which made the switching a bit cumbersome and I found myself wishing I could just type in the channel I wanted. Also, I've been considering doing something similar with FreqFinder's channel selection as well. It's a bit of an experiment, but I'd like to hear how you guys feel about it after a little use. Thank you, James

Hey everybody. Just want to check in with you guys after a few months of Timecard Buddy going full scale. Let me know if there's anything you guys want to see in particular for the future. And it is important to see what kind of enthusiasm there is for different features and suggestions. Best, James

iHex lets you read raw data from a drive. If the audio is uncompressed and you can find it, you can copy it into a new file and read it with Audacity

Each template has a comments section on the Finish page, yes.

Backup: Not yet. I'm a little hesitant to put a bulk export into TCBuddy as there is a lot of sensitive information at stake. Both iPhone and Android have built-in mechanisms for backing up user data, which I'm relying on for the near future. Beyond Midnight: TCBuddy will go beyond midnight if you enter an hour greater than 24 Occ Code is the appropriate place for the rerate position Let me know if payroll accepts it and if you have any other questions!

I'm starting to see more and more users for Timecard Buddy! Thank you everyone who is spreading the word around. I just submitted an update that expands the Daily Email. Now many more daily fields will be included depending on whether they are used or not. For instance, if you have a 2nd Meal, those times will be added to the Daily Email. I figured the dynamically generated approach was better than pdf template approach because it is both simpler and more flexible. But if you do find there's something you want to see in the Daily Email that isn't currently considered, please let me know. In other notes, I've decided that the $1.99 introductory price for Ad-Free mode will end on June 30th, at which point the price will increase to $7.99. And I've added ads to the rest of the places where I intended ads to be, namely right before the pdf and daily emails are generated. Thank you all for your support!

Could I ask my JW peeps to send me pictures of blank Daily Time Sheets? I have built into Timecard Buddy a Daily Times export mode (because, let's face it, daily time sheets are a pain), but I need to know what productions are looking for so that they will be sure to accept it. Very much thank you! newendian@gmail.com

I certainly can add more templates in the future. If you feel so inclined you can email me a scan (Color, at least 1650 x 1275 resolution) at newendian@gmail.com. Or you could snail mail me a paper timecard, my business address is on my website: www.newendian.com My other concern would be the Paycheck page. I'm reasonably familiar with American paycheck calculations. I don't know if what I've provided would be compatible with Canadian practices. Some insight on that would be appreciated.

I probably should specify. Timecard Buddy is geared directly toward the popular union payroll companies. Each template is actually attached to an image of the payroll company's timecard. For instance, Entertainment Partners template results in a filled-in Entertainment Partners timecard pdf. I'm hoping that this too will smooth over the transition to digital. I've personally had it both ways. Most productions I've used it on have been just fine with the email. Only one so far has said that receiving a ton of emails from employees would be cumbersome. I'm hoping that since a lot of departments have one person in charge of timecards, the group mode and resulting batch export will also lessen that concern. As for minimizing phone usage, a chief concern for me was that entering times could be done as fast as possible. When lunch comes, open the app and it automatically goes to the correct day. Entering the time in the Default set causes it to be entered for everyone in the department at once. I do need to know when productions do not accept it, and if there's a particular reason that I can properly address. That's where you guys come in.