Steve Jobs Makes the Case for Not Supporting Flash on iPhones

As annoying as the lack of Flash support is, he makes a compelling case.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Privacy and Facebook’s New Instant Personalization

Facebook’s New Instant Personalization feature is a powerful new tool that can certainly improve your online experience if you use it wisely, but it presents some major privacy issues which most of us don't even think about. Also, Facebook has decided to activate for everyone by default, meaning you must OPT OUT if you don't want to share your online activities with your friends and "partner sites" (ie. strangers) alike.

What's to be worried about? Here are a couple examples people cite:

"Like" a movie on IMDB, and all of your friends will get updates to that effect. For that matter, every time you look at a movie on IMDB, you will see a list of friends who have "liked" that page. It is a powerful tool, but my bet is most Facebook users will have no idea where, when, or how their Likes will show up on the Web. Or for how long. [via "Facebook: Privacy Enemy Number One?"]

or...

[For] example, if you sign-on to Pandora ... the site could automatically dip into your Facebook account. ... Your co-workers and other professional contacts will soon be privy to your late-night Miley Cyrus jam sessions. [via Facebook privacy warning; Instant Personalization at F8]

For me, the thing to remember is that Facebook is first and foremost a business. Everything they do is aimed at making them more money. And information about their users (ie. you and me) is a valuable commodity. When they implement new "features," they do it in order to increase profit, not to improve your online experience. Just keep that in mind as you use the site.


Some additional interesting links about Facebook and privacy:

Facebook group: MILLIONS AGAINST FACEBOOK's PRIVACY POLICIES AND LAYOUT REDESIGN
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27233634858

Sophos's recommendations for Facebook settings
http://www.sophos.com/security/best-practice/facebook/

Facebook Planning To Give Away Your Data To “Partners”
http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/03/facebook-planning-to-give-away-your-data-to-partners/

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

Facebook’s Instant Personalization Is the Real Privacy Hairball
http://gigaom.com/2010/04/22/facebooks-instant-personalization-is-the-real-privacy-hairball/

Seltzer Family Digital Media Award Winners 2010

Congratulations to the 5 winners of this year's Seltzer Family Digital Media Awards!

Rose Espinola C'11
Olivia C/W'12Jung
Sascha Murillo C'11
Yuval Orr C'11
Allison Rhodes C'11

You can read more about the Seltzer awards at http://wic.library.upenn.edu/wicideas/seltzeraward.html

House Season Finale Filmed Entirely with Canon 5D Mark II

Very cool.

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/04/09/house-season-finale-filmed-entirely-with-canon-5d-mark-ii/

Sparky Awards 2010 Peoples Choice Award Winner

Aaron Ludwig, a sophomore animation student at Brigham Young University, has won the first-ever Sparky Awards Peoples’ Choice prize for his short film, “Clueless Discovery.” The video was voted the best by students and others everywhere in an open online vote held earlier this Spring.

Clueless Discovery from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

Come try our iPad!

Yes, we've got an iPad. Just ask the lab consultant on duty if you'd like to try it out.

I'll have a short review of it sometime in the coming week, which I'll post here, and I hope we'll be offering a lunchtime session to anybody who'd like to come by, ask questions, and try it out!

Closed for a Workshop

Hi all. We'll be closed today from 2pm-4pm for a class. Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival is this Friday!

The Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival is this Friday!
Friday, April 2nd, 7-9:30pm
Levitt Auditorium at the University of the Arts
401 S. Broad St. (Center City, corner of Broad & Pine)
www.gpsff.com

Have a date on Friday, but low on cash? Want to hang out in Center City with your friends, but have no idea where to go? How does movies and some free food for under $10 sound? The Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival will showcase some of the best student productions from around the region. Doors will open at 6:15pm. Buy your ticket in advance and use the code CAMPUSPHILLY10 to save money on admission. Tickets will be sold at the door for $10.

For more info or to buy tickets in advance, visit www.gpsff.com

Recycling in the Digital Media Lab.

We've finally added a blue paper recycling bin (that's a blue bin, not a bin for blue paper) to the Digital Media Lab. Please be sure to recycle your paper there.

FYI: Our glossy poster printer paper is NOT recyclable due to the plastic coating, so it should go in the standard beige trash can.

Bottles and cans can be recycled in the bins out in the Information Commons, but hopefully you aren't drinking in the lab anyway.

Closings This Week

Hi all. We'll be closed twice this week for workshops:

Tuesday, March 30, 3pm-4:30pm
Thursday, April 1 (no joke!), 1pm-2:30pm

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Flash Mob on 40th Street - please avoid.

Public Safety Notice From Penn Public Safety

The Division of Public Safety has been made aware through various sources that a large gathering of juveniles will be convening on the 40th Street corridor later this afternoon.

DPS is working closely with the City of Philadelphia and SEPTA Police to ensure there will be an enhanced police presence in the area.

Please plan your routes away from 40th Street this afternoon.

Photoshop's Upcoming Content-Aware Fill Feature Looks Like Magic

This is just frakking crazy. This is a sneak-peek at a possible upcoming Photoshop feature (cross your fingers for CS5!) that make our current tools like the clone stamp and healing brush seem almost pointless. It's clearly building on CS4's content-aware scaling technology, but it really takes it to a whole new level. Check the video out below:




via Gizmodo.

Please return Equipment On Time!

Hey guys. Please be sure to return the equipment (video cameras, tripods, projectors, etc.) that you borrow from us on time. When you return equipment late, in addition to racking up some hefty late fines (none of that ten-cents-a-day stuff here in the lab. We charge $25 per day late starting one minute after the due time!), you are depriving your fellow students of the equipment that they need. Other students and staff depend on having that equipment for class assignments, recording performances, and even videotaping weddings. Remember, when you reserve equipment, you get to pick your own return day and time, so pick a time when you know you'll be able to bring it back--you'll save cash, and you won't inconvenience anyone else.

10 cloned animals the government is trying to keep secret

People not reading your blog posts? What you need is the Link Bait Generator. All it does--and excels at it--is generating titles for your blog posts designed for the sole purpose of getting more clicks. Apparently it uses an algorithm to scan the internet to discover what it is that people want to read about. From their FAQ: "Although gay terrorist billionaires on a killer asteroid headed toward Bill O'Reilly may seem unusual, rest assured, people do want to read about them."

Check it out at http://linkbaitgenerator.com

Nick Joins Tabard?

Not sure if this means he's a sister now or not, but kudos on the hair, Nick!

Gosh, I just love our lab consultants!

Hoesley Digital Literacy Fellows

A generous gift to the Libraries from Jim Hoesley, a member of the Libraries Board of Overseers, and his wife Sandra Drews, will help undergraduates develop their facility with technologies commonly used in the workplace. As many as 15 undergraduates will attend hands-on workshops covering a variety of tech topics, ranging from graphic and web design, visual literacy, Excel, PowerPoint, and collaboration software. Students will meet with library staff in September 2010 to plan out personalized programs, and will have opportunity to delve deeper into technologies particularly relevant to their career interests.

Workshops with hands-on instruction and guest speakers on career-related planning will address the following topics:

1. Graphic Design and Visual Literacy – software, design principles, formats
2. Web Resources – search strategies, bookmark management, evaluation and privacy
3. Files, Folders, Formats– finding, organizing, converting and publishing files
4. Spreadsheets and Excel – data analysis, importing data, constructing charts and tables
5. PowerPoint – good design choices, animations, integration
6. Web Design – basic concepts and templates, what to include on a professional website
7. Using the Web to enhance your job search – presented by Career Services – PennLink, social networking sites, researching employers, guidelines for portfolios and resumes.
8. Collaboration and Management – sharing data, calendars, team-based projects

The program, which is co-sponsored by the Libraries, the School of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF), and Career Services will begin in September of 2010.

More info at http://www.upenn.edu/curf/research/grants/hoesley-digital-literacy-fellows-program

$1000 Seltzer Family Digital Media Awards

The deadline is fast arriving!

Thanks to the generosity of Jeff Seltzer W'78 and his wife Annie, the Penn Libraries is proud to offer these digital media project awards. Each award provides up to $1,000 for the purchase of equipment (both hardware and software) and supplies to support a new media project for up to one year. These awards include special consideration for students enrolled in the Huntsman Program. After one year, equipment purchased through the award will return to the Weigle Information Commons for general use. Some examples of technology items that could support new media projects include: digital videocameras, audio recorders, virtual reality camera peripherals, microphones, scanners, mobile devices, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) devices.

http://www.upenn.edu/curf/research/grants/seltzer-family-digital-media-awards

The Walk - Spring issue

The Spring 2010 issue of Penn's own fashion magazine, The Walk, is out! The staff was here in the lab working long hours to make this issue great, and they succeeded! You'll also see some of our friends from Mask & Wig (also big users of the Digital Media Lab), and frequent lab user Sarah Mead featured.

Check the issue out online at http://www.thewalkmagazine.com/

Lynda.com Workshop

We will be offering a lunchtime workshop tomorrow (Friday, March 5) on using Lynda.com, a comprehensive video-based online software training service, with offerings on such diverse topics as Adobe Photoshop, Captivate, Drupal, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, Google Apps, InDesign, MS Office, Facebook, how to use Macintosh computers, Twitter, 3D modelling and rendering, blogging, podcasting, webdesign, SQL, and much more. Training is available for beginners and experts alike.

We will discuss the type of training available, the basics of using the system, and how to get the most out of it. We'll learn how to obtain transcripts of the videos, how to download the sample files that accompany each lesson, how to watch videos at different speeds, and more.

The workshop will be held Friday, March 5 from 12noon - 1pm in the Weigle Information Commons Class of '68 Seminar Room in Van Pelt Library.

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

The State of the Internet

Nice little informational video about the internet along with some interesting (and in some cases staggering) statistics about the way we use it.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.