Swiping the Competition

Business owners across the globe, feast your eyes upon the best thing since sliced bread (well not really but work with me here): Square. Although it has the name of a loser, Square is quite the opposite. Android and iPhone users can now plug up this little device to their cell phones and make CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS. With one fell swipe, Square could be the thing your business needs for the money to circle back into your pockets.

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2010/02/pr_square_iphone/

Have You Heard of the Protect IP and Stop Online Piracy Acts? They May Affect More than You Think.

November 16th marked the start of the hearings for what are becoming known as the Internet Blacklist Bills, the Protect IP Act in the Senate, and the Stop Online Privacy Act in the House. If passed, a massive number of restrictions will be placed upon internet usage in the United States. It's a reasonable concept to try to stop piracy, but when entire sites can be shut down for offending links and streaming of copyrighted content can be charged as a felony with a potential 5 year jail term, it's gone too far. Imagine Facebook being shut down because a small group of users posting. In addition, it makes the websites responsible for policing all content on their websites, which would indicate severely limited privacy. See AmericanCensorship.org for information on how you can contribute, and for more information on the acts.

Showcase Video Tutorial

Hey everyone,

I've gotten a lot of questions about how I did the animation for the Student Multimedia Showcase, so I figured I would put up a brief tutorial on how I did it the flickering light animation.

First off, I used After Effects for this project, using an illustration created by Mike Gates for the background.

After importing Mike's image, I first created a new adjustment layer, which allows changes to be made without directly affecting the footage under it.

My next step was to change the brightness and contrast in the effects menu

I toyed with the slider until I got a look I felt was appropriate; you can always come back to these settings later!

Using the pen tool, I created a mask on the adjustment layer resembling what a projector light might look like.

I didn't want to affect the footage on the screen, so I created another mask and set it to subtract instead of add in its menu on the timeline.

I wanted to give it a more natural feel, so I softened the edges of both masks in their menus on the timeline. The only remaining step would be the animation. Using the keyframe tool in the opacity menu, I alternated the opacity of the mask between 0 and 100 every two frames. This would mean it would animate 0 to 50 and then to 100 and then back down.

Last but not least, I highlighted the keyframes and copy and pasted them further and further down the timeline. It helps to go back and copy again, so the process is quicker!

After all is said and done, I ended up with this!

Hope that answered some questions!

Andrew Czudak

Cool Gadgets = Great Xmas Gifts!

Thanksgiving just passed and that means it's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping! Any one of these Top 10 Gadgets from Consumer Electronics (CE) Week 2011 would be great gifts for your tech-savvy family and friends. Included are a few neat accessories for the iPad and, my personal favorite, a bluetooth camcorder that is constantly recording the last 30 seconds of everything you see!

Chromebook

Holidays are just around the corner, and this could be a nifty gift for someone who needs a new computer.

The Chromebook was developed by Google with it's own OS and it's main purpose is just to get on the internet. That's it. The notebook, about the size of a netbook (screen is about 12"), boots in 8 seconds flat. You turn it on, and in 8 seconds, you're surfing the web. It's pretty spectacular, and for someone who is on the go and needs to have access to the internet, it's very useful (see this video for an example of just how fast and efficient it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn00774nmo0)

It can be a little pigeonholing however. You can't download any programs because there's no room on the hard drive. Everything is cloud based.

However, thinking about it and doing a little research of my own, that's not too bad. The Google Chrome browser has an app store. Many of these apps don't require an internet connection to use. I even found an app that lets you access the entire Microsoft Office suite in your browser (with a Windows Live ID). There's even online hard-drive and backup websites that you can save all of your data too. Again, it's all dependent on your internet connection, but for a netbook, as long as you have an internet connection, you're in good shape.

Chromebooks retail starting at $300, and are available with a 3G data plan through Verizon Wireless as well. While it's not going to be replacing your main computer, it's still a cool little toy to have on the go.

Keep Vid and copyright awareness

This semester 'Keep Vid' has been a popular website used to download embedded videos online from video websites like Youtube and Vimeo. I have seen many people using and asking about this site at The Center this year.

While this maybe an easy way to get that video you are wanting to use in a project or presentation, please be aware of copyrights. Keep in mind the proper way to cite video media, and be sure that the video is posted by the publisher, distributor, or affiliate. Many videos online are posted on accounts that are not affiliated with the original copyright holders, so using that URL may not be sufficient for a proper citation.

For citation help try using Easy Bib for free MLA citation or Citation Machine for free MLA, APA, Chicago and Turabian citation.

Good Luck with your final projects!

Enlightened Designs, Inc.

As people are probably anxious to start setting up the tree, imagine taking your Christmas lights to a whole new level- being able to wear them. This is a really cool company that does custom orders for putting lights on costumes and clothing. They use two types of lighting devices: light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or electroluminescent (EL) wire. LEDs are semiconductors that light up with low voltage, and are commonly used to pulsate with prominent sounds in music. EL wire gives the appearance of a smooth glowing line, and work well with designs on garments. So if you're interested in making a light show of your own to some holiday tunes, check out the website and see what Enlightened Designs, Inc. can do for you.

13 Ugliest cell phones (just for fun!)

What do you think of these ugly phones? Actually some of them aren't too bad... I guess cell phone beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No. 6 looks like something to take on a camping trip.
Rich

Clueless about Social Media?

In this time and age we all should know how to use social media, but if your not as technically suave as some of us this site should help ease you into society. This website provides tutorials for Twitter, Facebook, video and photo, blogging, podcasts and other up and coming social medias. Not only is it for everyday individuals but also for non-profits, and would be great for a student organizations.

Free Music Downloads

Just in case you did not know. . . Android Market and Google Music give away "new tracks each day from today's hottest artists as well as classic favorites, all for free."

https://market.android.com/details?id=music_series_overview_theme_2011_10_29

Tiny USB Stick Brings Android to PCs, TVs

This device is basically a thin computer inside a USB stick. It can be connected to any device that supports USB storage, and it will register as a USB drive. From there, you can run the Android OS in a secure environment inside your desktop, courtesy of a Windows/OSX/Linux-compatible virtualization client embedded in the device.

It's expected to be available around mid-2012 from just under $200.

More information can be found in this article: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab

Student Multimedia Showcase

We are accepting nominations for the Student Multimedia Showcase, which will be held Monday, Feb. 13.

The Showcase celebrates successful video projects that UD students have created throughout the semester using the resources available in the Student Multimedia Design Center.

Instructors are encouraged to nominate the best video projects created by their students during 2010 or 2011. The video projects can be on any subject and must be no more than four minutes long. For longer videos, instructors may recommend a four-minute segment of the video to show. Instructors must submit the projects as video data files (such as .mov, .wmv, or .avi files) on CDs or DVDs, plus a completed nomination form, to the Student Multimedia Design Center by Friday, Dec. 16.

Nomination forms can be found here. If you've created something, ask your instruct to nominate you!

Make Your Own Podcast

Ever dream about having your own iTunes podcast? Well, with a little effort it can become a reality. On the iTunes website they provide a complete list of instructions for making a podcast for the world to hear. There are even opportunities to make some money by becoming a iTunes affiliate to embed in your web links. If you become a iTunes affiliate, any purchase that the customer makes in the 24 hours after clicking on your link is directly credited to your affiliate account (check out the FAQs: For Podcast Makers). The website has tons of information to help guide you through the process and before you know it you'll have your own podcast!

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

Adobe TV site -- lots of how to videos

Here's a great site for learning more about Adobe products by video. The About page says: "Adobe TV is Adobe's online TV network, offering free training, inspiration, and information about the latest Adobe products & services." There are four main links up top. To browse, click on "Channels" to see videos grouped by different topics. Especially useful is "Tutorials" for CS4 and CS5 products. Some of the videos are produced by Lynda.com, giving the benefits of Lynda.com without having to log in. Also under channels, there's a link to "Adobe Evangelists"(?) which seems to be another name for experts on certain topics. Having problems helping a foreign language student? Click on "Translation" up top and there may be a helpful video with captions in his/her language (38 languages listed!). Also the entire site is available in English, German, French and Chinese, links at top right (click on flags).
Rich

FONTS

If you are looking for places to find fonts . . . :


http://www.fontspring.com/

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/

http://www.dafont.com/

http://www.fonts.com/

http://new.myfonts.com/

http://www.fontshop.com/

http://www.urbanfonts.com/

http://www.searchfreefonts.com/

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

"Mobile Mobile" Christmas Jingles

So we've all seen the houses with festive lights that blink on and off to the tune of various holiday songs. But an interactive marketing agency, Lost Boys International, took the idea a step further.

Using mobile phones left over from a company overhaul, LBI created a hanging tree in which every phone has its own tone and (when no one interacts with the installation) it plays a carol.

"We took this as an opportunity to reinterpret the Christmas tree and its role as the traditional focal point for a communal space. 'Mobile Mobile' is a six metre circumference interactive sculpture, and signature piece for the entrance of the Lost Boys London Brick Lane studio.

To cut a long story short, after a company-wide upgrade the agency had a lot of old mobiles gathering dust. We took these, built and hoisted a gigantic interactive chandelier/mobile that plays Christmas jingles in their reception area."

Check out the results!

Experience Mobile Mobile from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo.

Panasonic Toughpad

Just about everyday, it seems, someone is introducing the next big hit in the tablet world. From Apple to Barnes & Noble, everyone wants a part of the action and as a result there is a growing number of options for you to choose from. For example, Panasonic has expanded its full rugged line of products by creating durable tablets. The new ToughPads are impressively tough and with a price tag to match. So if you need it, here's a tablet for you to use just about anywhere:



http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/US/best-android-rugged-tablet.asp

Augmented Reality

In a recent, rare visit to Christiana Mall, I was excited to see and play with a Display at the Lego Store that allows one to show the front of a box of legos and then watch it come to life using augmented reality. Here's just one of the examples of this on YouTube: http://youtu.be/BUDIduApeLI

New Mouse?

Are you looking for a new computer mouse? How about one that is compact, easily portable, and wireless. Introducing the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse:

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/arc-touch-tutorial/

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/arc-touch-mouse

Our Canon T2i is not just for stills...

One of our newest cameras, the Canon T2i DSLR, is great not just for still pictures, but also for video.  This web site gives some tips for shooting that video:

http://www.starkinsider.com/2010/06/canon-t2i-dslr-5-tips-for-shooting-video.html

TED

If you haven't been to TED then you are missing out! This awesome website has loads of talks and speeches on a variety of topics and concerns. Great site to go to if you need a bit of inspiration or are interested in learning something new or want to hear different view points on a certain subject.

www.ted.com

YouTube U?

Check out this Stanford experiment in social media! It could change post-secondary education forever!

iPhone SLR Mount

Although the new camera on the iPhone is great, some of us still want an even better photo. Enter the iPhone SLR mount which allows you to take your Canon EOS or Nikon SLR camera lens and connect it to your iPhone 4.
http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/

Holiday Lights

It's that time of year again, where people bypass thoughts of Thanksgiving to plan ahead for the holiday season- or at least that's how I see it. Anyway, this video is a time-lapse video of a two-day holiday event in South Dakota last November. For some reason I'm always impressed by time-lapse film. Maybe it's because the editing pulls together such long periods of time in a visually appealing way. Plus, the lights look that much cooler when they flash faster.

Take Notes on an iPad

With this app, you can write on the iPad screen with your finger, take notes, draw/distort shapes, etc. To select a portion, you can circle it and then move/edit/cut it.