As it turned out, the court waived a reading of the indictment, so the raw video is mostly procedural and doesn’t give much insight into the charges. Nonetheless, here it is:

Click here to listen to his thoughts on the opening of the Stockton 99 Dirt Track at San Joaquin County Fairgrounds.

Former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the keynote speaker at the Advancing Women's Leadership summit at the University of Pacific's Spanos Center in Stockton. CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

I was looking forward to shooting video of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s speech at University of the Pacific last week.

Then we got the warning: Shooting video would only be allowed for the first three minutes of the speech … and “absolutely no audio” would be permitted.

No audio? I guess we could always go with some creative dubbing à la Bad Lip Reading (just kidding).

We often are limited to a few minutes of photos or video (our photographer Clifford Oto blogged about this recently). But no sound? Bummer.

I suppose public figures nowadays have to be extra careful to avoid having a Romney-esque 47% moment caught on camera. Soundbites repeated over and over can greatly impact one’s public image. Or maybe it’s a speech that Rice wants to use and re-use, without “spoiling” any of it online. Who knows.

In any case, we ending up publishing a photo gallery instead of video.

Maybe next time.

Record photographer Calixtro Romias shot this video:

What’d you think of the song? Is there another song that you feel represents Stockton?

Check out The Record’s new tablet site now!

The new site is designed for ease of use and to better highlight recordnet.com content on your tablet device.

You can browse the stories, photos, videos and other features that matter to you.

On an iPad, the first time you visit the site, you’ll get a prompt telling you how to bookmark the site on your iPad home screen:

On Android, there is no immediate prompt. But Android devices allow you to do the same thing.

First, you have to add the site as a bookmark. Then, find the bookmark in your bookmarks and hold your finger down on it.

From there, you’ll see an option to “Add shortcut to home screen.”

The screenshot above is the front page, as viewed on an iPad. At the top, it displays the four top stories of the day, with images and lead paragraphs. Use your finger to scroll through the four stories.

The key icon at the top shows readers how many clicks they’ve used of their monthly limits (3 if you are a non subscriber and not registered).

Click on the key for subscription information.

If you prefer to view the whole site on your tablet device, we also still have that option. Just click on the gear icon and choose your site experience.

If you click on the icon with three horizontal lines, you’ll find many options, including signing up for alerts, visiting our Limelight Deals site and viewing local weather conditions (left).

You can also search the site for previous articles.

Below the four top stories on the homepage are feeds (left) for local news, photo galleries, sports, business, lifestyle and entertainment, videos, user-generated MyRecord content and obituaries.

Scroll with your finger to find more content in each of these sections.

At the bottom (above right) are feeds for opinion, popular stories, state and national/world news.

A highlight of the tablet site is the photo display (seen below). Clicking on a photo gallery will take you to a new screen where you can scroll through images using your finger.

You can also share content via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and email, or choose to buy the photo.

Clicking on a video will take you to a new screen (above) where you can view the YouTube video.

We hope you enjoy the new recordnet.com experience on your tablet device.

Drop us a line and let us know what you think of it, either by commenting here or emailing me at kcombs@recordnet.com.

Record photographer Calixtro Romias shot this clip:

I got some really nice gift for Christmas, but one of my favorites is one I couldn’t resist buying for myself.

It’s fairly common for our department to have multiple people listening to audio on a computer at any time. We can, in some cases, take the headphones out and listen to the audio through the speakers. But that’s bothersome to some of our coworkers.

So during some of my last minute shopping, I saw a “robot headphone splitter” at Cost Plus World Market in Tracy.

The store also had little heart splitters. I thought that one was cheesy.

The robot is pretty awesome. It’s head comes off and connects into the audio jack on our computer. Then each person can put a pair of headphones into the robot’s eyes. His little body protects the main jack. A little tether keeps the pieces together.

I was excited to try it out today. Then I realized I left it at home. (The photo comes from my iPhone, I sent it to a friend after I bought it.)

Sure, you can buy regular headphone splitters. This one, though, is a conversation piece.

Here’s a few that didn’t make it into the chat:

Abdurrahman Muhammad, 66, lives in Stockton and is a retired draftsman and a Vietnam War veteran. He worked as a precinct inspector.

Evelyn Ortega, 48, lives in Stockton and voiced her concerns about the White House.

What races – local, state or national – motivated you to head to the polls this year? Were you happy with the outcome?

Here’s an extra from our week one high school football coverage.

Edison High School football coach Andre Horace knows a thing or two about being a Viking — or a Soul Vike, as he put it.

Horace played football himself at Edison, graduating in 1993 and went on to play at Boise State. In the course of the interview, he spoke about coming home to his alma mater.

I was there shooting video for our website. But, in truth, as a die-hard geek, I would’ve been there regardless.

Just a few weeks earlier, I made the trek down to San Diego for Comic-Con.

If you’ve never been to Comic-Con, it’s massive. There were roughly 130,000 attendees this year. And it’s no longer restricted to comics and science-fiction. “Glee” has a panel.

The San Diego Convention Center

I first attended Comic-Con in 2004. It was big then, but it’s exhausting now. Lines are ridiculous. It’s hard to get around in the nearby Gaslamp Quarter. I camped out all night to get a seat for the panel about the first “Hobbit” film. But there’s a certain camaraderie at 2 a.m. when you’re parked in the grass next to a like-minded fan sharing snacks.

I was really impressed with Stockton-Con’s first year. More than 3,000 people came – with lines that did Stockton proud!

There were dozens of vendors and artists with a variety of wares – comics, video games, card and board games, toys, prints and more.

Growing up in Calaveras County and even now living in Stockton, it can sometimes seem difficult to find geeks of similar interests. When I spotted a woman dressed in a “Doctor Who” costume at the Stockton Library and Literacy Foundation’s Trivia Bee this year, I got a bit overexcited.

But Sunday showed there are plenty of passionate, creative fans here.

The line for Stockton-Con on Sunday. Photo by Calixtro Romias.

As Lori Gilbert touched on in her column today, Stockton-Con could have a great future ahead of it.