Why stop at skills though? If you are trying to solve the provisioning problem for agent tools, shouldn't that also include MCP, commands, hooks, rules, etc in addition to skills?

I could be wrong, but I don't think there is anything in the skills spec that prohibits a skill from having binaries? A skill may even choose to embed them to be able to run in sandboxed environments.

Agreed on skills not being static. Of course, with the way the internet works, I don't want them to be too dynamic either :)

If you want to share skills using something that has versioning, automatic updates, and focused on teams vs the internet at large, consider sx - https://github.com/sleuth-io/sx

If you want to share skills (and other tools) with teams at scale, consider sx - https://github.com/sleuth-io/sx

[yup, my project :)]

I have a CD copy of the game, and many fond memories playing it with the wife in the early 2000's...

Right, Jira is great at planning, but requires a lot of gardening to keep it up to date with actuals like when things ship and where. Glue automations like this can be really helpful.

I met and worked with Bob in open source work in the mid 2000's, mostly with what would become Guice. He wrote this framework, again, thanks to his distaste of Spring and we put an early version of it what would become Apache Struts 2. Man, if I ever got cocky in my programming skills, I just needed to read that Guice prototype code and I was quickly humbled. The best part is he was just an awesome guy to be around. Very friendly, accepting, humble, and a ton of fun. I still talk about this guy I know who was married on the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise 1701 D (at the MGM before it was torn down)...

I tried and liked Mint, but ended up with Red Pocket (MVNO that does Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T) when I moved somewhere that needed AT&T. It is pretty handy having one provider but having a choice of network. It also helps they have plans as low as $5/month, which is great for kids and infrequent users.

$2.50/mo is the lowest, but it's eBay exclusive iirc. Gives you something like 200mb of data. (Which coincidentally makes it one of the best deals for a small IoT project sim like a GPS tracker or remote weather station or whatnot)

I used to be on Tello and loved it since the Sprint network had the best performance where I lived. Sadly that went away when they merged with T-Mobile, so I switched to Red Pocket since AT&T is second best here. Great prices and good customer service (the few times I've contacted them).

I'm also on Red Pocket's $2.50/month plan, totally satisfied, and amazed by the quality of the customer service as well considering I'm paying them essentially nothing. Hope it lasts.

Another vote for Red Pocket. I have 5 handsets on the T-Mobile variant for 30/yr(200min/1kTxt/200mb).

Another handset has RP AT&T for incoming sim. Outgoing sim is T-Mobile starter ($23/mo unlim 10gb), good for 2 mos and then a new one arrives.

$5/month is perfect for expats who need to keep a "real" US mobile number for 2FA that insists on SMS, and who only spend a few weeks a year stateside... looking into it now - thanks so much!

… but sadly, it’s currently useless for that purpose, as Red Pocket doesn’t support international roaming: https://help.redpocket.com/can-i-still-use-my-red-pocket-mob...

Shotcut has this one cool feature [1] - drop a bunch of pictures into it and it'll create an animated slide show automatically. I've looked for ways to automate that via something like ffmpeg, but haven't found any better options.

[1] https://forum.shotcut.org/t/slideshow-generator/19162

So basically this[0] with a crossfade[1] between frames? Which would be (by stitching examples together)

  ffmpeg -framerate 1/5 -pattern_type glob -i '\*.jpg' -pix_fmt yuv420p -filter_complex xfade=transition=fade:duration=2:offset=2 out.mp4

(1 jpg image per 5 seconds with a 2 seconds crossfade in between)

[0] https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Slideshow

[1] https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#xfade (only available in >4.3)

I was just about to write that exact same command from my flawless recollection of stitching examples together from that wiki! But you beat me to it.

Honestly, I'd love a podcast called "Quinecast" where each episode consists of hosts talking in detail about the ffmpeg flags that were used to create the podcast.

Yeah, although I'd be surprised if this isn't what Shotcut does (it uses ffmpeg).

ffmpeg has an entire page in their wiki devoted to slideshows: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Slideshow

There is so much value in doing this in a normal application with a UI that lets you see what you're doing. ffmpeg is a fantastic utility if you already know what you need, but it's absolutely terrible for jobs where you need to be able to see and do things between the two states of "having input" and "having final output".

I agree, although it has to be noted that that you can preview most ffmpeg commands using ffplay. The syntax is the same as the ffmpeg command, without the final output filename obviously.

Right, but now we're going "replace this single app with a normal graphical interface for working with visual media with multiple command line utilities including the terminal that you're always going to have to look up the commands flags for" and that's not really selling it =P

Ffmpeg is a great tool for programmatically editing videos. For one-off jobs a gui editor is probably better.

If you want to create a slideshow for 300 folders of images, ffmpeg is really your best friend. For one, maybe use a gui editor.

Where I found that fell down was wanting to do things like slow zooms and interesting transitions. I'd love something like a Python or bash script to tweak that addressed those.

Like this?

Zoom in up to 1.5x and pan always at center of picture (not tested):

  import ffmpeg
  (
    ffmpeg
    .input(
        '\*.jpg', 
        pattern_type='glob', 
        framerate='1/5'
    )
    .zoompan(
        z='min(zoom+0.0015,1.5)', 
        d=700,
        x='in_w/2-(in_w/zoom/2)',
        y='in_h/2-(in_h/zoom/2)'
    )
    .output('output.mp4', pix_fmt='yuv420p')
    .run()
  )

stitching [0], [1], and [2]

[0]https://github.com/kkroening/ffmpeg-python#quickstart

[1]https://kkroening.github.io/ffmpeg-python/#ffmpeg.zoompan

[2]https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#Examples-133

EDIT: added options for slideshow style

Nice! I think iMovie does this, but I usually use https://www.photofilmstrip.org/en

Apple Photos does it as well.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned using a teleprompter yet. You can pick one up for around $100 and when combined with a little 7" monitor (another $100) attached to your computer, creates a nice setup for zoom calls where you can look directly at your partner. Also doubles as a great talking head setup for video production.

I got a teleprompter when Covid hit. I do a lot of training and I use it mostly for "looking into the eyes" of my students.

I have a twitter thread describing my setup. [0]

Were I to do it again, I would get a slightly larger monitor for it. I don't know if it is causation or just correlation (I'm getting old) but my eyes have gotten a bit worse in the past bit.

0 - https://twitter.com/__mharrison__/status/1515078084600348677

I second this! I’ve been using one of these as well, and I’ve noticed the positive impact looking directly at the camera can have on my conversations.

Do either of you have a shot of what this looks like in practice? Google Images isn't giving me much. Specifically what the Zoom or Meet looks like from your perspective.

Sure, this is what I see [1] and you can see how it looks on the other side from my Twitch streams [2]

[1] https://i.imgur.com/4JPIHx1.jpg [2] https://www.twitch.tv/mrdonbrown

>I'm surprised no one has mentioned using a teleprompter yet. You can pick one up for around $100 and when combined with a little 7" monitor (another $100) attached to your computer, creates a nice setup for zoom calls where you can look directly at your partner. Also doubles as a great talking head setup for video production.

For anyone else confused about what a teleprompter adds here, it's that the two-way mirror lets you put a webcam 'behind' the virtual reflected screen, so it can be perfectly centered in the screen.

Though this just makes me want to tape or suspend a webcam to the middle of a regular monitor, so it could show actual size human faces.

The Youtube channel DIY Perks has a video making essentially a homemade teleprompter mod for a laptop with very cheap materials.[1]

I've thought about getting a proper teleprompter but my issue there would be screen space and lighting. Has this worked well with a decently inexpensive webcam or do you use a full-on streaming/production type camera setup?

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AecAXinars

I haven't tried using the teleprompter with a webcam, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I use a Sony a6600 myself, with a Sigma 16mm/f1.4 prime lense.

Regardless, I recommend capturing in 4k, and running that through OBS so you can zoom/crop the image for ideal framing, optional of course.

Do you have a good telepromper recommendation? I have found it hard to search/find good ones at a good price.

I use the Caddie Buddy one [1], which is a bit more robust for bigger cameras. There are other options where you can use your phone or something, but I prefer using a mirrorless and a good sized monitor.

[1] https://caddiebuddy.com/teleprompter-for-ipads-androids-and-...

Oh my! A teleprompter for less than $200! I haven't kept up with this market, but that's so amazingly affordable. I've long switched to tablet for the text, but this is easily 5x cheaper than what I still use from a purchase back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I'm guessing that mine is 5x heavier too. However, it is one of those things that once you have it, you don't need a new one so I've just never looked to see what is cheaper today