8GB SD card deal

Here's a good deal on a 8GB secure digital card for only $17.50, with free shipping.

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-8gb-secure-digital-high-capacity-sdhc-card-class-6-kingston/q/loc/101/204333366.html

Midi Keyboard in the Lab!

Almost exactly one year ago, I asked if anybody wanted a midi keyboard for the lab. And the answer was yes. So in a less-than-timely manner, we finally have one. And check out the awesome sign (now also hanging on the wall of the lab) that Sarah made for it:


There is also a (better) midi keyboard upstairs in the recording room in the Ormandy Listening Center on the 4th floor of Van Pelt Library.

400gb portable hard drive deal

Hey guys. Another great hard drive deal. This time, it's a 400GB portable USB 2.0 drive for only $99 from buy.com.

Check out the details here: http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-400gb-my-passport-essential-usb-2-0-portable-hard/q/loc/101/209225089.html?adid=17070&dcaid=17070

Open Call - Filmmakers, Visual Artists, VJs

Print from your own Laptop

You can now print to the computers in the library from your own PC or Mac laptop. Instructions are here:

http://www.library.upenn.edu/computing/printing/Personal.html

Subjects Needed for a Study on VISUAL SELF-PERCEPTION on SECOND LIFE

This study seeks to compare the visual self-perception of one's face with the visual perception of one's observers. Subjects will be asked to create Second Life avatars of an unknown subjects based on the subject's photographic image. Second Life is used as a form expressing the visual perception of individuals who are presented with the same subject. Time involved is about 1 hour.

If interested, please contact Ashley Templeton at ashleyht@sas.upenn.edu

Encoding Video for PowerPoint

Thanks to Shawn Zamechek at SAS Multimedia Services (MMS) for this great video tutorial on how to rip a video clip from DVD and encode/embed it for PowerPoint. Shawn uses 2 pieces of software in the video--Handbrake and Quicktime Pro. We have both on all of the Macs here in the lab. You can actually download Handbrake for free (Mac or PC). QuickTime Pro will cost you $29.99 to download from Apple, also for Mac or PC. Shawn provides links to both on the tutorial webpage:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/computing/mms/demos/encode_for_powerpoint

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

This is a useful piece about using Facebook's privacy settings to protect you. It's worth a read for anybody who uses Facebook.

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

Digital ICE

Digital ICE is a technology which works specifically with transparent and semi-transparent materials like photographic film. It fairly reliably reduces or eliminates dust, scratches, and dirt that would be otherwise visible in a scanned image, without loss of quality of the underlying image. It uses a combination of hardware and software, so it's generally integrated into a slide or transparency scanner, much like the one we use here in the lab. It's not something you can simply download for your existing scanner. Also, because of the way it works, it does not have an effect on scans of opaque objects like photographic prints.

Here's a real-life example:


This is a crop from a scan of a slide taken in the 1960s. On the left, you can see all of the dirt, mold, dust, etc. that has accumulated on the surface of the film. This would be nearly impossible--or ridiculously time-consuming at the very least--to clean up in Photoshop. But the right-hand image shows you that turning on Digital ICE cleans up the dirt almost magically.

There are a couple of small drawbacks to Digital ICE. The first is that it slows down the scanning process. The second is that you will notice a slight decrease in sharpness, but nothing that can't be easily rectified in Photoshop with unsharp mask.

You can turn Digital ICE on in Nikon Scan before you start scanning slides. Ask the lab consultant on duty if you need help.

Happy 25th Anniversary to the Macintosh!

Poster Printing at the Biomedical Library!

Very exciting news! The printer is open to Penn faculty, students, staff, UPHS staff, and affiliates. The poster printing service is intended for professional posters only, with priority given to scientific posters. Staff is available to print your poster, but will not provide design, formatting, or editing services.

Printing posters at Biomed is very similar to printing them here (same pricing, software, equipment, etc.), with a couple notable exceptions:

• Printing is by appointment only, which means you no longer need to wake up before dawn just to make sure you're one of the first 7 who need posters that day!
  
• You can pay with a credit card or with a budget number in addition to PennCash and departmental copy cards!

And of course, it's much more conveniently located for those of you already over at the Medical, Vet, and Dental Schools, or one of the hospitals.

To make an appointment, contact the Biomedical Library Reference Desk by email (libref@mail.med.upenn.edu) or call (215-898-5818) or drop by between 11am and 6pm weekdays Use the online form at http://www.library.upenn.edu/forms/biomed/posterprinting.html.

See the full announcement at http://www.library.upenn.edu/computing/Health_Sciences/biomed_poster/poster_about.html, where you can also find a link to their FAQ.

CALL FOR FILM SUBMISSIONS!

What: Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival (GPSFF)

Submission Deadlines: Regular submission ends February 1, 2009. This is about two weeks after school begins. There is no submission fee for regular submission.

Late submission is from February 2nd - February 13, 2009 at 5pm. There is a $10 submission fee.

All submissions must be dropped off or mailed to Cinema Studies Program - 209A Fisher-Bennett Hall - 3340 Walnut Street - Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Anything under 15 minutes that has been made since February 15, 2008 is eligible. All submittants must be registered at a four year college or university in the Philadelphia metropolitan region.

Please make sure to visit www.gpsff.com/submit in order to fill out a submission form and see other relevant submission information.

Why?: This is a chance to get your work seen in front of over 500+ students from around the Philadelphia region in addition to judges who work in the film industry. We also partner with Openfilm.com to distribute your film online and host the film for viewing on our website. Winners receive a trophy engaged with their name.

Film Categories: Drama, Comedy, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental.

Format: Submissions should be Quicktime Movie Files burned onto a data DVD. Please do not encode the DVD.

GPSFF Connect: This service allows you to find crew, composers, actors, and editors for your films. It also has opportunities if you simply want to get involved in film projects. A great way to find work on film productions across the city. www.gpsff.com/connect

GPSFF Watch: Watch the winners and finalists from our past three festivals! www.gpsff.com/watch

Backward Compatibility

Hi guys. Now that Adobe's CS4 software is out, we're starting to see people show up with files created on the newer versions that don't open up properly in the CS3 version that we have here in the lab. Especially InDesign.

To the best of my knowledge, most of the labs on campus (including the Libraries, the School of Design, and the School of Arts and Sciences) are not upgrading to CS4 until at least this summer. In the meantime, if you create files in any of the CS4 software on your own computer, and you plan to work on it in a campus computer lab, you might want to save a copy in the older file format as well to avoid any problems.

Inaugural Events Viewing

The Library is opening the Class of 1955 Conference Room (2nd floor West, just outside of Lippincott Library) for anyone who would like to view the Presidential inauguration. The room will open for viewing at 10am on Tuesday, January 20.

Green IT Website

The University's Green Computing site has been updated and expanded. Check it out for tips on saving money and energy, extending the life of your electronic equipment, safely disposing of e-waste, and more.

http://www.upenn.edu/computing/greenit/

New Poster Printer Prices

Starting today, we will be charging $0.02 per square inch inch for poster printing. So if your poster is 24 inches by 36 inches, the charge would be $0.02 x 24x 36 = $17.28.

Additionally, we are now required to charge 7% tax for posters which are not school-related. Most posters printed in the lab are exempt from this tax. Examples of tax-exempt posters are posters for class assignments, for academic conferences, for student groups, for official dorm or college house activities, or for sports teams/events.

Posters for which we charge tax include posters for a birthday party, posters to hang on your dorm room wall, or presents for friends/family. To calculate tax, use the pricing structure listed above and multiply the poster price by 1.07. For example, an 18"x24" poster would be 1.07 x .02 x 18 x 24 = $9.24

All this in more in our Poster Printer FAQ!

My Bike wins 4th in National Contest

Congratulations to Vince Levy, whose video, "My Bike," just won 4th place in the national Total Recut contest. The same video won 2nd prize in our own Video Mashup contest last year. Vince created "My Bike," a music video for a song written by friends, during his first semester of film production courses here at Penn, and it was only the 2nd video he'd ever made.

Check out Vince's entry at http://www.totalrecut.com/contest-winners.php#fourth

And see the other entries and winners from our own mashup contests at http://wic.library.upenn.edu/mashup/

iTunes to go DRM free!

Gizmodo reports from Mac World that the iTunes store is moving to a totally DRM-free sales model. This is great news for everyone who's ever wanted to download a song from iTunes to include in their home-made student video, but hasn't been able to because of the copyright protection built into most of the songs. There will also be a new 3-tiered pricing system, with songs now going for $.69, $.99, or $1.29. Sounds like the complete switchover happens during the first part of 2009. Yay!

This is not your Father's YouTube.

Everyone's familiar with the "Where the Hell is Matt?" videos, where Matt Harding travels around the world dancing his funny little jig and gets viewers that number in the millions for some reason.

Well Matt's latest video is available on YouTube in Hi Def. Yes, Hi Def. It's about time, am I right? HD is no longer for Vimeo users only. See Matt's latest installment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY and be sure to click on the "Watch in HD" link below the lower right-hand corner of the video. Who knew YouTube could look this good?

Cheap portable hard drive!

Ok, this was just too crazy not to post. Buy.com has a 320GB portable hard drive for $79, with free shipping. Here's the link. I plan to buy 1 of them for myself, too. Go! Buy them! They make good presents--for yourself or others.