Hate Facebook's New Pop-out Image Viewer?

Me too. 'Cause you can't right-click on the photo and save it to your computer. Turns out all you need to do is reload/refresh your browser (CMD-R, CTRL-R, or F5 depending on your browser and computer) and you're back in the classic view where you can download photos again.

When should I buy a new computer?

Did you finally decide you're going to buy a Mac
With every possible add-on?
Did you save up for a very long time?
Did you agonize over parting with all of these dollars at the store?

Did you then read that Apple announces it's new line of Mac Book Pros? Coming out next month?
Doh.

Here's a handy site that keeps tabs on when you should buy and when you should wait. It covers most Mac products including iPhones, iPods, and computers.

Posters are Back

Our poster printer was cleaned and serviced this morning, and it's up and running again.

2TB External Hard Drive, Great Price

This 2TB baby is only $79.99 after mail-in rebate. Hard to beat that price. I already bought one before posting this to make sure y'all didn't buy out the stock before I had the chance.

Also, just a heads up that this is the type of drive you need to plug into a wall socket.

http://www.techdealdigger.com/pr/cheap-fantom-greendrive-2tb-external-hard-drive-deals/2505

No Posters Today :(

Our poster printer is down today. We're hoping to have it up and running again sometime tomorrow.

Penn's Biomedical Library offers a poster printing service similar to ours (with the same pricing, but with additional payment options), available to UPenn faculty, students, staff, UPHS staff, and affiliates by appointment only. See their FAQ (http://www.library.upenn.edu/computing/Health_Sciences/biomed_poster/poster_faq.html) for more details.

Also, both FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) (3535 Market Street, 215-386-5679) and Campus Copy (3907 Walnut Street, 215-386-6410) provide poster printing services.

Finding Study Spots

The DP had an article yesterday on a new app/website that allows students to find and reserve study spaces on campus:

"Students may obtain a list of suggested and available study spaces through the online database. Study spots are narrowed down based on the number of people, location, time and facilities needed, such as white boards, projectors and computers."

StudySpaces@Penn attempts to centralize the huge pool of study rooms around campus, which is no mean feat in a decentalized environment like Penn. Try it out (and send feedback to them!) at:

http://pennapps.com/studyspaces/

Mash "UP!"

This is a "Pre-Make" of the Pixar movie "UP!" created by Ivan Guerrero. He has a series of videos on Youtube where he recreates modern movies, as if they were shot in the 40's, 50's, and 60's. You can visit his Youtube channel to check out his versions of The Empire Strikes Back, Ghostbusters, and The Avengers.



Our WIC MashUp Contest is right around the corner if you'd like to create your own little masterpiece. Check out the MashUp page for more info.

iMovie 2011 Training

We seldom switch versions of software in the middle of an academic year--and this year is no exception. However, those of you with newer Macs most likely have iLife 2011 installed on your machines, while we've stuck with the 2009 version for the time being. Until we start offering workshops on the new version (most likely starting in September), you can watch some excellent training videos free of charge here in the lab.

iMovie 2011: http://www.lynda.com/tutorial/77957
iPhoto 2011: http://www.lynda.com/tutorial/75922

Computer Culture

Last week, Google unveiled a Street View-esque project that brings viewers face to face with some of the greatest art on earth.

Known as Google Art Project, the initiative will give users remote access to the priceless paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts from 17 of the world's most famous museums, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, London's National Gallery and Tate Britain, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Philadelphia Art Museum, etc.

This means you no longer have to leave the lab to attend a class field trip.

In a blog post announcing the effort, Amit Sood, head of the Google Art Project, explained that users will have initial access to at least 1,000 works from the 17 museums, including one from each institution that will be presented in high-resolution using "'gigapixel' photo-capturing technology."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20030917-52.html#ixzz1DOFOH23K

Microsoft 2011 Demonstration

We'll be showing a live online meeting/demonstration (by Microsoft) on Office 2011 for MacOS today from 11:30-12:30 on the big screen in the lab. Feel free to drop by to watch and learn.

InDesign Gig

Faculty in the Romance Languages Department is looking for a student familiar with Adobe In Design CS5 to work on a Grant project. The project consists of building an interactive multimedia PDF document. The hourly rate is $15.

If interested, please contact Mélanie Péron mperon@sas.upenn.edu

Is Your Hard Drive Dying?

I don't know about you, but my hard drive sometimes makes strange sounds, and I always wonder if I should be worried about it. Well, wonder no more. Now you can listen to what a bad hard drive DOES sound like, and see if it your own drive sounds the same. Check out this great database of dying hard drive sounds, arranged by brand name. Click the triangle next to each line to hear the sound.

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

Alan Moore Loves Libraries

Alan Moore (author of Watchmen, From Hell, and V For Vendetta) visited the St. James Library in Northampton, England on Save Our Libraries Day. Here is what he had to share about libraries influencing him.

Via Boingboing

Back Up Your Stuff!

Backing up files becomes more important when you rely on your laptop and also when you use several computers. You can lose your data to theft, hardware failure or human error. Time Machine, built-in to every Mac computer, provides a simple backup process to secure valuable information and provide easy restore options.

Apple Systems Engineer, Mike Wolk will be on campus this Friday, February 4 to present “Back Up My Stuff” at the Van Pelt Library, Weigle Information Commons’ Technically Speaking Series from noon to 1 PM in the WIC Seminar Room.

What is the Internet?

Great clip from the Today Show in 1994, back when people didn't know what the internet, an email address, or the @ sign was. Thanks to my mom for sending me this. :)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Changes to Penn's Wireless Networks Coming Monday

Monday, January 24, Computers and phones will need to have a new security fingerprint embedded in the OS in order to connect to AirPennNet.

Penn has made available a wizard, called XpressConnect, to help users configure their laptops and other mobile devices for AirPennNet. The wizard can be run before Monday in order to prepare for the certificate change, or after the new certificates are in place as a means to reconnect to AirPennNet. The wizard is available at http://airpennnet-help.net.isc.upenn.edu/ or by choosing AirPennNet-Help (when on campus) from the list of available wireless networks, and then launching a web browser and following the on-screen directions.

You need to launch a web browser after selecting AirPennNet-Help as your wireless network.

Users who do not prepare in advance of the 24th will have the following experiences:

. Mac OS: Users will need to adjust the trust settings for the new certificate. The instructions for doing so are linked below:
http://www.upenn.edu/computing/help/doc/os/macos/8021xcertificate.html

· Windows: Users will receive a warning that noc#.dccs.upenn.edu is invalid and will not be able to connect. They should connect to the AIrPennNet-Help wireless network and run through the XpressConnect wizard.

· iOS (iPhone): Users will be unable to connect to AirPennNet. Connection attempts will fail. They should connect to the AIrPennNet-Help wireless network and run through the XpressConnect wizard.

Sprint Price Bump

Sprint just announced today that they will be adding a $10/month 'Premium Data add-on charge' to all smartphone activations, starting on January 30th. BlackBerrys are included in this new charge. This will not affect existing customers with smartphone plans.

If you're planning on getting a Sprint smartphone any time soon, you may want to consider doing so sooner rather than later.

Details and press release here:

http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110118005871/en/Smartphones-Drive-Wireless-Data-Explosion

Screening in the Sky

Come see short films created in Penn's Video 1 and Video 2 classes! The screening is open to all, and it's a great way to see what is produced in the context of the Fine Arts video classes. Monday, January 17, 7-9pm in the Harrison sky lounge. Refreshments will be provided.

Penn's Stepping Up

Development and Alumni Relations created this video called "Penn Stepping Up," featuring our own Chase Irwin and the Pennyloafers (and I saw some footage in there of former lab consultant Neal Behr, too!) Check out it:

File Systems

Computers have different methods for organizing and storing your files on your hard drive. These methods are known as File Systems. There are 3 main file systems you will encounter. Here's what you need to know about them, as it applies to working in the Digital Media Lab.

NTFS is used by Windows (XP, Vista, Win7, etc.)
The Macs in the lab can read from an NTFS drive, but cannot write/save to it.
This means you can bring your files to the lab on your NTFS-formatted drive, but you won't be able to save new files or update existing files on it while you're here.

OSX (aka HFS) is what Macs generally use.
You can read or write to it while you're here in the lab.
Windows machines cannot read or write to an OSX drive.

FAT32 is readable and writable by both Macs and PCs. (Yay!)
So if you're transferring files between a PC and Mac, or you're not sure what kind of machine you'll be using, format your drive as FAT32.
Its main drawback is that there is an file-size limit of 4GB per file. (ie. if your video is bigger than 4GB, you cannot save it to a FAT32 drive).

Ask us if you'd like help formatting your hard drive. (Reformatting your hard drive will allow you to choose a different file system, but it will erase all data stored on it.) Depending on the amount of data on your drive, you may be able to copy all of the data onto one of our workstations, re-format the drive, and then transfer your files back to your own drive.