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This is an experiment of using the newly available istanbul screencast tool that comes with Fedora Core 5.

I'm recording a session of me creating this blog entry with it right now. I'll post a link to the resulting screencast in this link.

Update: Here's some more notes on the utility:

• The video format is something call Ogg Theora which I have never heard of. It can be played back on Fedora Core 5 without problems. I have to install additional software to play it on Windows.
• The istanbul application has a very simple user interface. You start it from the main menu, which put up a tray icon. You click the icon once to start recording. You click it again to stop recording. You can also right click on it to bring up a properties dialog which controls the resolution of the video and the frame rate.
• There's no editing capability. As a result, the screencast starts with the mouse cursor over the istanbul tray icon and ends with the mouse cursor over the tray icon. It will contain all the missteps during the recording.
• It can't handle the animated nature of the mouse cursor and as a result the mouse cursor shows up as a yellow blob. It's just ugly.

So at this point, it's fun to play with. And it might be useful for conveying ideas between friends and colleagues. But it won't be useful for producing polished screencasts for mass consumption.