Amazing long exposure photos

Hey Guys!
So I am an avid lover of photography and I have just got to say, the little artist in me was blown away with some of these photos. Thought I would share :)

32 Examples of Long exposure photography

Enjoy!
Taylor

Getting that snazzy "old film" look on Final Cut Pro

I used this tutorial to add the awesome effects of old film--like the flicker, scratch lines, hair and dust spots--to my final advertisement. These steps are easy to follow and give you the best look for your Final Cut Pro project.

Here's the website's downloadable sample:

 

Good luck and happy editing!

Source for sample movie: http://library.creativecow.net/articles/smith_stephen/film_look/old_film_sample.mov

Have a Minute?

Google is known to do some pretty fun things, such as animating their home page or coming up with crazy search results, but 'zerg rush' is something they have never done before. If you have a second to kill, type 'zerg rush' into Google and destroy all the O's before they take over the search results! Still bored? Type 'tilt'  or 'do a barrel roll' into the search bar!

If you're feeling extra lucky today you may even try typing 'Chuck Norris Google' and looking at the first link. I warn you though, this could be dangerous...

Copyrighted material

YouTube has a web page on Copyright Education that I would recommend. 

Have you heard of the Education Resource Center?

The Education Resource Center


"The Multimedia Equipment Collection includes laptops, calculators, projectors, Karaoke machine, cameras and camcorders, projection screens, tripods, digital voice recorders, cassette recorders, microphones, transcription machines, desktop presenters, TV/VCR combos, TVs, VCRs, DVD players, amplifier/speakers systems, and CD players.  Loan periods and the number of allowed renewals varies with the item.  Circulation of this equipment is restricted to UD Patrons ONLY."

•  Laptops may be checked out for a period of 3 days with no renewal.

• Equipment items other than laptops are circulated on a limited basis with loan periods varying from 1 day to 1 week depending upon the item.

ERC Hours

Monday - Thursday
8:30 am – 8:00 pm
Friday
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Sunday
CLOSED

If you have read this posting, please let me know.  Thanks.

Wireless Printing Press Release in UDaily

Take a look at today's UDaily for the press release about wireless printing. If you haven't looked at or tried the instructions, please do so. We want to be ready to help people at the desk.

Mini DV tapes -- HD won't work in Studios 1 and 4

Just a reminder that if someone has a Mini DV tape that is HD it probably will not play right or at all in the DV decks in studios 1 and 4. Also, if someone has a tape that had been previously used in an HD camera -- even if the camera h/she used to record was not HD -- it still may not play properly. This happened the other day when a guy had a tape he had recorded in a non-HD camera but his professor had given him the tape to use and it was an HD tape. It would not play right in studio 4 but worked in studio 3. Rich

More Information on 'Operation Ghost Click'

A follow-up to the previous 'Operation Ghost Click' story, the FBI has issued a statement that on July 9th, 2012, any computer still infected with the malware will lose access to the internet, which could be about 300,000 computers! Even if your computer isn't running slow or doing anything 'out of the ordinary,' it would be wise to following this link ( http://www.dns-ok.us/), which will instantly let you know if infected and if so, how to remove the problem. It's believed that around 85,000 computers in the United States are infected and about 350,000 worldwide. The full story about the online scam can be found at CNN.com/tech

p.s. If you think that there's no way your computer was infected, just know that the malware made its way into NASA and other government agencies' computers!

Adobe CS6 is out!

Take a look at what Adobe CS6 has to offer and let me know what you think. Are the differences enough to account for updating to this version in our site? Do you know of other sites on campus that will be updating or faculty who will be teaching based on the newest version?

Operation Ghost Click

The FBI issued a warning about an international cyber ring that infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus allowing the thieves to redirect DNS-Domain Name Systems.  Here is a page that can help you detect if your computer has been violated and infected with DNS Changer.  DCWG

Google's Trimming the Fat with some Spring Cleaning

Google's retiring some of their replaced and lesser used services. Likely you've never heard of them, nor will you need them, but it's interesting to see the side projects they have been running.

Did you know Google was running a variant of Google Maps that helped people find flu vaccinations, or that they had been keeping up the desktop version of their photo software, Picasa, on Linux-based systems? Have a look: Spring-cleaning ... in spring!

Canon HFS20 Import Issues **Updated

**Updated with info from comments**
Hello everybody!
Earlier today I was helping a student who was having multiple issues importing from the Canon HFS20 camcorder into Windows Movie Maker and Live Movie Maker. It seemed that this AVCHD camera saved in a proprietary .mts file format that required a codec that Movie Maker lacks. After importing the student's clips, we were unable to view them. Multiple third-party pieces of software are available to convert these .mts files into a compatible format, but the average user will most likely grow frustrated with this stop-and-go process. **Updated: If a student has used the HFS20 to shoot a video project and cannot seem to import into Movie Maker, refer to this troubleshooting guide:

Users who cannot import from the memory based cameras are not doing it properly. Here is a list of troubleshooting steps to follow:

1. Begin by restarting the computer.
2. After it has completely finished booting, connect the camera using the supplied USB cable.
3. Set the camera to PLAY mode. This can be done by pressing the "switch to play" button or by powering the camera on and then pressing this button.
4. If prompted on the LCD screen of the camera, choose the connected to COMPUTER option.
5. Windows will then recognize the camera. It should automatically prompt to import, select the Live Photo Gallery (I think that is what it is called).
6. Give your video info a name, specify a location to save it, and go.

Users should not try to directly import video files from these cameras, as indicated by the laminated guide attached to the bags. Only via an import do our programs recognize these files.

*I should note that this particular student's laptop was running Windows Vista. This guide works without a hitch with Windows 7, but if we get the chance to use a machine running Vista, we may want to see if we have trouble importing .mts files into Movie Maker.

Especially in light of Sara's post, students should be able to complete their projects without facing error messages at every turn. Many thanks to Diana for her insightful comments and helpful guide. Let's keep learning together!

LearnIT training videos

IT on campus offers "LearnIT" training sessions in person and video. While some are aimed toward staff and not applicable for students, there are several archived sessions of general interest. For example, there are sessions on Dreamweaver, WordPress, Google Docs, and Photoshop. Click here to see the video archive. They also have live streaming sessions on Fridays at noon.

Rich

What's your opinion?

Does embedding videos breach copyright?

'tis the season!

It's that time of year again - it seems like teachers are assigning video projects to students left and right and the Center's video camera kits are flying off the shelves. Here are a few tips to make your upcoming video project as quick, painless, ans successful as possible!

• Plan ahead. Start with the Student Multimedia Design Center's online Video Project Calculator. Enter the due date and type of project your working on to get a sense of how much time you'll have to plan, storyboard, film, edit, and finalize your project.
• Get the right equipment. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, the SMDC has the camera and accessories to make your project shine. We carry memory-based and tape-based cameras, tripods, lighting kits, microphones, green screens, and more to provide you with the right tools for the job.
  
• Edit your video collaboratively. Having trouble crowding all your group members around a single laptop with outdated software? No problem. Simply reserve time for one of our studios where you can edit your videos on dual-monitor Mac or PC platforms running Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, and Final Cut. The studios are also great for voice over work as well as group collaboration.
• Save early, save often. Can't fit your video on your old 1Gb flash drive? The service desk on the lower level sells flash drives, DVDs, CDs, and BluRay discs for saving all your files. We also have external hard drive kits available for loan for storing your work-in-progress.

Good luck and happy filming!

Stuck Between Carriers? There's an App for that. 

On Friday the 13th, SwayMarkets launched its newest app 'CarrierCompare' for iPhones. Once run, CarrierCompare evaluates the signal, response, and speed of your network at your specific location. After about fifteen seconds the results appear on the screen, along with the results of other carriers at the location, such as Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. This is the first time an application like this has been available to the public and could cause some problems for carriers depending on how their connections compare to others. The goal is, in the near future, for CarrierCompare to analyze the user's daily commute and then recommend the best carrier with the strongest signal for that path.

Like the app but don't have an iPhone? Don't worry, SwayMarkets announced that an Android version will be available shortly.

You've heard about the Mac Trojan Flashback.

So you've heard about the Mac Trojan, but do you know the difference between a Trojan, Viruses, Malware and Spyware?  Is your computer protected? 

Read more: http://blog.baroan.com/2012/04/types-of-viruses-malware-and-spyware.html#ixzz1rrzuQ1dd

Weebly: Web-Based Site Design and CMS

If you haven't heard of Weebly, I urge you to not dismiss it on the premise of its drag-and-drop functionality (like I did at first). It's a surprisingly capable all-in-one solution for site design, content management, and hosting. Free to use and free of ads, Weebly is an excellent choice for students needing to create websites for portfolios or class projects. Though it offers hundreds of decent templates, Weebly stands out for its ability to let the user hand-code new elements into the page and edit the html and css for just about every pre-existing component. These features blessedly allow users to break out of what could be frustratingly-static templates. Maybe it's a little bit of prideful stubbornness on my part, but I usually have an aversion to drag-and-drop editors. To my surprise, Weebly has been a very useful tool for both organized, quick web design and richer customization than I had first assumed.

Mac Trojan: Flashback info

In case anyone comes to the desk asking about the new known Mac trojan Flashback, there's a great article here from Macworld. It's pretty short, but here's the part about prevention:

Disable Java in Safari and other Web browsers. Unlike Flash, you rarely need it these days. Again, in Safari, go to Preferences -> Security -> Web Content and uncheck Enable Java. The folks at TidBITS posted instructions and screenshots for doing the same in Chrome and Firefox.
Uninstall Flash and use Google Chrome as your browser. Google Chrome includes an embedded, sandboxed version of Flash that reduces the chances an attacker can infect your system. Download the Flash uninstaller, then install Google Chrome.
If you don’t need Java at all, disable it. The Java Preferences utility is in /Applications/Utilities; uncheck the boxes next to the versions listed in the General tab. Be careful, though: Some programs such as CrashPlan (which I use) require it. But there aren’t many apps like that on the Mac market anymore.

I recommend reading the entire thing just to know what it is and how to fix it in case users ask.

What's behind one professor's microfilm scanning

Many of you will recognize Professor David Smith of the Biology department in this UDaily article. He is a frequent user of the microforms and paper scanners. Read the article to find out what he's using microfilm for and why he's won a national award! Unfortunately the article does not acknowledge the Student Multimedia Design Center nor the Interlibrary Loan office through which he borrows much microfilm of newspapers (though I know Prof. Smith is very thankful for our services).
Rich

Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorials

Here's a couple of YouTube channels with helpful vids about Adobe Premiere Pro (and some related Adobe programs):

http://www.youtube.com/user/aJBprods
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C69C7B12ED95BCD

Mini DVD video camera tip

Someone had a video camera that records directly onto a mini DVD (smaller size than normal DVDs). She was trying to import it and the computer would not recognize the disk, either directly through the camera via USB or from the computer disk tray. Kurt looked up tips online and found that the disk needed to be finalized. We went into the camera menu and found disk finalize, and that worked! So just passing along this tip, and thanks to Kurt.
Rich

Want to learn how to program?

Move the Turtle is a graphical app for the iPhone and iPad for beginners to learn programming concepts in a hands-on, non-theoretical way. The app consists of giving instructions to a turtle who moves around the screen trying to capture diamonds. It teaches basic programming concepts through a game type interface.

Move the Turtle can be found in the App Store for $2.99, and is a great introduction to programming for kids (and adults who like turtles). Whether or not you want to get into programming, the kind of thinking required to solve the tasks in the app can be valuable for everyone to learn, for every field of study.

Dropbox/Cloud Hosting

Looking for more options than the UD Dropbox for your remote file hosting needs? Take a look a some of these options:

Dropbox - A website/service that creates a personal dropbox for you that can be accessed like a regular folder on your computer. As long as you have an internet connection, you can use the dropbox folder to store anything as long as you have the space. Like most hosting services you get started with a small amount of free storage and have the option to upgrade.

Amazon Cloud Drive - This service is similar to dropbox, but you do not need to install the dropbox software/folder onto your computer. All you need is an internet connection and an Amazon account, and you get 5Gb of storage for free!

UD Copland Web Server - If you did not know already, every student, professor, and faculty member has a bit of space allocated to them on the Copland server. To upload files to this space, you need to log into the Copland server using an FTP program like FileZilla, Fetch, or SSH Secure Shell. Fetch (Mac) and SSH Secure Shell (PC) are available at the Student Multimedia Design Center to access Copland. Just enter the server address: copland.udel.edu and use your UD username and password when asked for credentials. Use the "public_html" folder to host files and web pages. Once to files have been uploaded, you can use a web browser to view/download the files. You can find your web space at http://udel.edu/~yourusername

Wikipedia has a nice list of cloud storage options if you are looking for more.

An Alternative to Powerpoint...

Prezi enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. Users place text, images, videos and other media on a canvas. They can group items together in frames. Then they can designate the relative size and position between the objects in the presentation and pan and zoom between them. It is being used as an alternative to PowerPoint for people who prefer presentations that are more visual and flow in a nonlinear way. Try it out! prezi.com

Google Smart Glasses?

We may not have flying cars or mass interplanetary travel yet, but things like mobile video chat, motion capture, and satellite GPS systems are a constant reminder that technological growth has exploded in the 21st century. Here Google has introduced a concept for a headset that allows you to perform the same functions as a smartphone but hands free. What are your thoughts on wearing something like this around?

Our Memory Maker

So, a LivingSocial deal came up today featuring this site. If you take a look, the Memory Maker is basically a Mac laptop setup to use the iSight camera feature to take videos inside a privacy booth for special events. The cost is what really caught my eye --over $500 for 3 hours! A genius business --small investment with good profit. I'm wondering how long it will take saavy consumers to figure out that they can really do this on their own with their own laptop. Sure, if you want an edited DVD made, maybe it's worth having someone else do it for you...but I think several students could do this on the side for a cheaper price! All you need to buy is a 5' X 5' canopy for the privacy booth --and some better lights would be an improvement (from the look of the provided video samples).

Great resource for public domain media

More and more students are being assigned multimedia projects by their professors. Here is a great resource for public domain media that students can download and use for their multimedia projects of all types:

Internet Archive

I myself used this fantastic site to create these two videos using different kinds of found footage and even audio found on the site:

Video montage


Audio montage

Thanks for watching and check out this amazing website!

Premiere Pro Intro Tutorial

In my time at the Student Multimedia Design Center, I've noticed that most people import video using iMovie or Movie Maker, and that people with more experience try using Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro has a reputation for having a steeper learning curve than the other programs we offer, and it is exclusive to Macs. I found this introductory tutorial for Premiere Pro CS5.5 because I have used an older version and I consider it a more straightforward program for editing video. Also, it is available on PCs and Macs. The tutorial shows users how to import, make basic edits, and export their finished product. If you have experience with editing video, consider trying Premiere Pro for your next project.

Phones with feelings.

I just so happened to virtually stumble on this TED Talk given by Fabian Hemmert on the future of smart phones:

The Shape Shifting Future of the Mobile Phone

These days smart phones such as the iPhone and the Droid are almost like members of the family; we've learned to rely on them when we're in a pickle. Hemmert proposes that there are things cooking in the smart phone development fields that incorporates physical movement into the inner workings of the phone itself. He shows video clips of prototypes that have actual weights gliding inside, expanding and contracting sizes, and even one that breathes and has a heartbeat in reaction to stimuli. How cool is that?!

Check out the video, it's really fascinating.

Photo resource: http://static8.businessinsider.com/image/4c29092e7f8b9abd08c30100/iphone-facetime-commercial.jpg


Video Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/fabian_hemmert_the_shape_shifting_future_of_the_mobile_phone.html

Repairing a VHS tape

I had the occasion to fix a VHS tape that was mangled in a VCR here awhile ago. I found this web page that has good instructions on how to do so, written and video. So thought I would share in case this comes up again. The same page also has a link for fixing an audio cassette, which could also come up as well When I was a younger and had lots of them, I could fix a cassette pretty well but VHS is more complicated. It takes some time, a few simple tools and patience, which all paid off and the tape was fixed!
Rich

Cloud Meltdown a Risk?

Cloud computing is taking over as the easy way to access all of your files, pictures, and information from all of your electronic devices. However an article on MIT's technology review page discusses hypothetical dangerous situations for companies and businesses that rely too heavily on this new technology. Countering this authors' argument a WIRED editorial discusses that while we should consider the risks of new technology that doesn't mean that we shouldn't engage with it as it develops. Both articles have very interesting points.