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.

Lynda.com iPhone App

Lynda.com has finally come out with their long-awaited iPhone application. It's available for free in the App Store, but you need to be a subscriber to take advantage of the entire Lynda.com library. There are still certain training movies that are available for free, just as there are on the original website.

It offers both high (default) and low video quality depending on your connection speed. It does not seem to offer variable speed playback, which is one of my favorite features, and of course you're not going to get the same quality or size of video that you get on a 22" monitor over a high-speed ethernet connection, but at least you never need to worry about how to occupy your time the next time you're waiting for a bus. :)

Unfortunately, we can't log in to our accounts on your iPhone, but the good news is that Lynda.com subscriptions are still only $25/month, and is possibly the best money you will over spend on training.

Read more about it on their website.

Now Lending Wacom Tablet

We're now lending a Wacom tablet as part of our equipment lending program. This is the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, and it you can use it with your fingers as well as with the electronic pen. As with our other equipment, you can borrow it for up to 3 days at a time. It comes with the tablet, the pen, and an installation CD that includes the PC/Mac software drivers and a short tutorial on how to use the tablet.

Ultimately it's really just a fancy mouse, so you can use it any way you like, but here in the lab, we mostly use tablets like this when we're using Photoshop, which can take advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the Pen, and it makes for a much more fluid experience when you're drawing or painting on the computer.

Login with your PennKey and reserve the tablet online at http://checkout.sas.upenn.edu/.

CS5 Coming Soon?

Has it really been 18 months already? We're finally seeing the first hints of the next version of Adobe Photoshop. Scott Kelby is reporting on his blog that Adobe is looking for people to beta test the next version of Photoshop. With Photoshop World coming up next month in Orlando, I'd expect to at least hear an announcement of the new product line about then.

DAZ 3D Workshop

Explore the new world of 3D art and animation. We will show how to create objects and work with sample 3D model collections of people, animals, accessories, and environments. Presented by Louise Krasniewicz. Monday, March 1, 2010 10:00am - 11:30am in the Weigle Information Commons Class of '68 Seminar Room.

ShadyURL

Well, thanks (not surprisingly) to Nick for the discovery of a new URL shortening (or lengthening, depending) service along the lines of tinyurl.com or bit.ly known as Shady URL. Just go to ShadyURL.com and type in the URL you would like to make shady, and voila!

For example, the URL for this blog:

http://vitaledigitalmedialab.blogspot.com/

Becomes:

http://5z8.info/banned-in-the-US_n5r2x_russian-brides

Which you can then send out to friends and relatives.

I'm not sure how useful this service actually is, but it's certainly interesting if nothing else.

Closed

Hi all. We'll be closed this afternoon (Tuesday) 3-4:30pm for a class. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Events at Penn

The DP launched their new campus events calendar service this week, "Events at Penn" (http://eventsatpenn.com) It's a clean, clear, simple interface, and anybody with a upenn email address can add an event. Perhaps the best part of all is that it was entirely created--from scratch--by our very own lab consultant, David Lei. Give the new system a try, find out what's going on, post your own events, and let David and the DP know what you think of the new system.

Closed for Workshop

Hi guys. We'll be closed this Thursday, Feb. 18, from 4:30-6:00pm for a class. Sorry for any inconvenience!