Bird Eater - a second chance!

In case you missed the first showing... and this time, it's right near campus at the Green Line Cafe @ 45th and Locust.

A film about a monster of a man abandoned in the afternoon sun to devour songbird after songbird so his cold heart can squawk! AND THE DAD WHO HATED HIM FOR LIVING!!

Who	A night of avian extravagance! Brown Bird / Brown Bird Blonde Bird / Birdeater (a film)
When	Wednesday, December 1, 2010 7pm - $5-10 sliding scale - All Ages
Where	45th/Locust (map) 4426 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

Thanksgiving Hours

Thanksgiving Weekend Hours:

Wednesday: 9am-6pm
Thursday: Closed
Friday: Closed
Saturday: 12-6pm
Sunday 12-9pm

Free $3 MP3 Download Credit from Amazon.com

“Simply click the "Get it" link, follow the directions and get your free $3.00 credit for Amazon MP3! Check out some new music or fill out a few missing spots in your current collection for the best price!”

http://www.fatwallet.com/best-deals/free-3-mp3-download-credit/

Thanks to Jesse for pointing this out. You can use it toward albums or mp3 downloads.

Bird Eater

Lab regular Neal Swisher has a film out, showing through this Saturday:

A film about a monster of a man abandoned in the afternoon sun to devour songbird after songbird so his cold heart can squawk! AND THE DAD WHO HATED HIM FOR LIVING!!

Playing at Cha Cha Razzi Studios
Thursday, Nov 18th, 8pm
Friday, Nov 19th, 8pm
Saturday, Nov 20th, 5pm

1918 S. Bancroft St

To be followed by "The Bird Opera of Orpedis," an original al-birdsong opera.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124072624320208&index=1

Pennyloafers Show Thursday

Come see The Penny Loafers Present: "LOAFERS WANTED: Bread or Alive" (with our very own Chase Irwin) this Thursday and Saturday at 8 PM in Dunlop auditorium. Tickets will be sold on the walk all week!

World's largest panorama

Thanks to Jesse for pointing out this new, 80 gigapixel 360 degree panorama--the world's largest as of November, 2010. Make sure you check this out, and see how far you can zoom in. VERY impressive.


http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html

Closed Wednesday for a class

We'll be closed this Wednesday (11/17) for a class from 4:30-6:30. Sorry for any inconvenience!

National Recycling Day

Monday is National Recyling Day. Penn's own David Perlman (and Vitale Digital Media Lab regular) has produced a podcast on how to recycle your gadgets.

Check it out at http://www.e-four.org/Home/e4-resources-1/e4resourceforthepublic-repurposingyourgadgetsandyourprivacy

Closed Wednesday for a class

We'll be closed this Wednesday (11/10) and next wednesday (11/17) for a class from 4:30-6:30. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Erased

Hey guys. Just a reminder that the workstations in the lab are erased without warning and on a fairly regular basis, so you should never leave your files on our computers if you ever want to see them again. We'll be glad to store your files on our network drive for up to 3 days at a time (just ask the lab consultant on duty for help). Even better would be to store your files on your own portable hard drive--they're very inexpensive anymore.

Scanning

Please scan only paper in the lab. 3D objects like keys and coins scratch the glass and prevent others from making high-quality scans. Thanks!

Public USB

Very cool & interesting project in New York City. To quote the manifesto (see links below): "Dead Drops is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space." Someone has mounted USB drives (5 to start with) in walls in various public locations, and is encouraging people to come by to share files. Not only that, but others around the country (ok, just Boston so far) have started mounting their own "dead drops" for people to do the same thing. Check out the full story at: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/dead_drops_preview.html and http://deaddrops.com

Clipart!

We now have a subscription to clipart.com on all of the machines in the Vitale Digital Media Lab.

With over 10,000,000 downloadable photos, illustrations, animations, fonts and sound effects, Clipart.com helps you find what you need. Use keywords, and search Clipart.com to find the content that matches your creative concept.

Just visit http://schools.clipart.com from any of the machines in the lab to get started. Please ask the lab consultant on duty if you'd like us to install one of the fonts.

Youtube - Jump to Time Code

I just discovered this and thought I'd share, although maybe it's old news. Apparently you can include a timecode in the URL for a YouTube video, and when someone clicks on the link, they will jump to that specific point in the video.

For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymKLymvwD2U#t=01m38s

Will jump to 1 minute 38 seconds into the video. Click on it and see.

Library ITA On Duty!

We once again have a Library ITA providing help outside the Digital Media Lab. The lab itself provides assistance with multimedia, sound, graphics and video projects. The Library ITA, who will be at a table right outside the lab entrance, provides assistance with Van Pelt laptop or PC technical issues, Office 2007, wireless connectivity and printing. The hours scheduled so far are:

Monday, 12-2pm
Wednesday, 12-2pm & 4-8pm

Hours for this and other services available in the WIC are listed at http://wic.library.upenn.edu/wicabout/partners.html

Flickr Workshop

Flickr is a online service that allows you to share your photos, connect with friends and stay in touch. Flickr also provides easy ways to find great images, and use social tagging to manage your finds. Come learn more at this lunchtime workshop this Thursday, Oct 14, 1-2pm in the WIC seminar room.

Mac 101: Introduction to Your Mac

Come to our WIC@Nite Mac 101 workshop tonight, Oct 04, 2010, 09:00 PM-09:30 PM! For new Mac users, learn tips and tricks to get the most out of your Mac experience! This workshop will cover questions frequently asked by Mac switchers.

We will take a tour of the Mac, covering topics like must-know shortcuts, applications like Finder and Spotlight, and little-known tips and tricks that will make your life much easier.

Presented by Penn undergraduate and Apple campus rep Will Le.

Details and signup info at

http://wic.library.upenn.edu/wicshops/wicatnite.html

New Apple Stuff

Holy cow. I don't even know where to begin to talk about all of Apple's announcements today, but to get an idea of how cool they are, take a look at the photo of the new iPod Nano over at the left side of this post. Must...resist...purchase...

Other announcements include:

• New Apple TV
• iOS 4.1 release
• iOS 4.2 Preview (now for iPad!)
  
• New iPod Touch with retina display and 2 cameras
• iPod Shuffle update (the buttons are back!)
• iTunes 10

Check out all the details at http://www.engadget.com/

CCX is Gonna Be Busy

With students coming onto campus in large numbers over the next three days, the Computer Connection will be exceptionally crowded and busy from Wednesday 9/1 through Friday 9/3.

If you need to purchase anything this week you should probably do it today or arrive at the store very early in the morning to avoid the heaviest lines. They'll be open each of the next three days from 9am to 6:30pm, over the Labor Day weekend from 10am to 5pm Saturday through Monday, and then return to normal store hours of 8:30am to 6:30pm next Tuesday 9/6.

A reminder, if you are planning to take advantage of the CCX Back-To-School Sale for an individual purchase, there isn’t much time left. They'll continue to accept orders for computers in stock over the next several weeks, but the special Apple promotion of a rebate worth up to $199 with the purchase of a computer and an iPod ends on September 7, 2010.

Letting Visitors Customize Your Webpage

I've really been enjoying the BBC website. If you haven't taken a look at it recently, check it out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

What's so wonderful about it is that you can make it be the website you want it to be. No signing up or registration necessary (good luck talking corporate America into using that approach)--just drag and drop the different page elements where you want them to be--and it REMEMBERS the next time you visit. Don't like business news? Just click the X to remove it from sight. Focused on the weather? Drag it to the top of the page.

And suddenly that page goes from being the BBC homepage to being my own personal source of information, customized by me for me. Which also makes it much more usable, and makes me a lot more likely to go back to that page when I'm looking for news that I know I'll find relevant.