Kurt's Thoughts

David Stockman, former Budget Director for Ronald Reagan, has a whopper of a YouTube channel. 

Check out this video where he crushes Neil Cavuto on his understanding of the US economy, and it starts with this serve & volley:

CAVUTO:
Over the next 10 years, the government looks to take in $43 Trillion dollars in revenue & taxes.  That’s a lot of money.

STOCKMAN:
Yeah, but it looks to put out $53 Trillion in spending!

Stockman: ‘Calamity Don’ Has ‘No Idea He’s Presiding over the Biggest Fiscal Disaster in History’

This video is a simple 10 minute explanation of why Trump’s tax plan won’t work, why reducing corporate taxes doesn’t stimulate job growth, and why our situation today is completely different from the Reagan era from David Stockman, RONALD REAGAN’S BUDGET DIRECTOR as broadcast on the FOX BUSINESS NETWORK.

(…and what should have been done instead.)

Money quote, speaking about Steve Mnuchin & the advocates of the GOP Tax Plan:

“These people are total fakes. I’ve never seen anything that was as content free, as substance-less, as this 9 pager that came out.”

Stockman: Here’s Why Trump’s Tax Plan Won’t Stimulate the Economy Like Reagan’s

Holy cow, this is amazing.

12 MONTHS OF TRUMP’S MESS (Parody of 12 Days of Christmas)

Wanna read something heartwarming?  I had a crap week and this was a very much needed read for me.  A little chicken soup for the soul, perhaps.

• Annoyed Photographer Nearly Ignores Mom Who Walks In At End Of Workday, Then Spots Her Daughter
  https://shareably.net/photographer-cancer-comic/

Bye Felicia.

Omarosa Manigault dragged off of The White House grounds by security, “She’s Always Had Drama”

Watch Roy Moore’s spokesperson stare into the camera, unable to respond after being caught in his own ignorance.  This video is seriously the textbook definition of #rekt.

This is seriously one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. 

Watch Joe Scarborough and his panel laugh their collective tails off after hearing an obviously fake Robocall that Roy Moore claimed was Washington Post’s reporters soliciting people/paying people for claims against Roy Moore.

Apparently, the GOP’s perpetrators of fraud aren’t that sophisticated in Alabama.

UPDATE 1/12/18:
I discovered that hitting MUTE during the call from your VOIP speakerphone may prevent OneNote from recording the audio in both directions (not just audio from your microphone) during the call.  OneNote will record audio while MUTE is off, however when it is on, you may hear long periods of silence.  This may be dependent on your hardware however this is what I’ve seen in my testing on a Polycom CX300 VOIP desk phone.

ORIGINAL POST – 12/13/17:
The other day I received the question:

“How can I record a phone call while using OneNote 2016 for Windows?  For example, if I’m using OneNote to take notes during a phone call with, say, a customer service representative in order to take down their name, the claim/case number they’ve issued me, & the details of what I’ve been told… it’d be great to be able to also record the call using OneNote’s recording feature while I’m taking notes to fully take advantage of things like OneNote’s voice-to-text capabilities, audio search-ability, & audio timemarking to jump to specific spots in the recording & playback.”

[Disclaimer: I’m a tech – not a lawyer.  This is a post about what’s technically possible using OneNote. Please research your state’s laws on this phone recording to ensure you are using this feature in a lawful manner.]

Recording phone calls is simple in OneNote 2016 however there are some pre-requisites.  You must have the following:

1. VOIP phone solution.  Skype for Business 2015 or 2016, Lync 2013, or Skype (consumer) are all great examples of Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) phone solutions in which you can make phone calls over an Internet connection.
2. VOIP speakerphone connected to your Windows computer.  This is critical because VOIP headsets (where the speaker & microphone are isolated) will not work.  Only one channel (the microphone) will be recorded if an attempt is made to record a call using a headset, in my tests. You must use a speakerphone in order for both sides of a call to be recorded.

Configuring this within OneNote requires the following:

1. Set OneNote audio recording device specifically to the “speakerphone”.
   Go to File –> Options: “Audio Video”.  Under “Audio recording settings”, click the “Device” field dropdown list & select the entry matching your speakerphone.
2. [OPTIONAL] Select & configure the codec/format.
   If you require a crystal clear call recording, you can do the following:
   1. 1. 1. Change codecs
            Under “Audio recording settings”, click the “Codec” field dropdown list & select “Windows Media Audio 10 Professional”.  Warning: This will greatly increase the drive storage requirements by as much as 10x and will balloon your OneNote file size, but your audio quality will be substantially higher. You can hear a pin drop with this codec.  If you anticipate only voice discussions, you may consider simply using the default codec, “Windows Media Audio Voice 9” which compresses audio much, much better and is much more efficient on disk space.
         2. Change audio fidelity.
            Under “Audio recording settings”, click “Format” and select “20 kbps, 22.05 kHz, mono”.  This will increase the sampling rate & provide a much clearer recording.  Again, this will produce a larger audio recording in your OneNote in use more drive storage.
3. Click Record Audio.
   From the OneNote ribbon, click File –> Insert –> “Record Audio”. (Note: This will be greyed out if you’ve previously recorded something within the active OneNote page.
4. Press “Stop” when you’re done.

I love everything about this spot.