Hi all-

I just thought I'd update you on something that's been coming up in the last few shifts. It looks like the Intro to Engineering class was assigned a project with a proprietary piece of software (the project is about designing bridges.) The students are trying to print it, but they are having trouble exporting a file that they can email to one of our computers to print. I worked with one of them and found a work-around. First, you try to print as a PDF. If this works, you're done, but with some of the Windows 8 computers it seems like the print to PDF option isn't there. If it isn't, you can tell the students to print to an XPS file and screen shot it (by doing control, print screen, it takes a picture of the full computer screen, and the student can crop it in paint.) By printing the XPS file, the program formats it in the way that the instructor wants. They can email the screenshot to themselves and print it out.

The students will be rotating through assignments for the last two weeks of the semester, so they might be coming in for help over the next two weeks.

Last Ditch Project Workaround

First thing to note is that I'm not posting this as a catchall solution to any problem.  It really is a final resort scenario.

A common problem I've encountered is the confusion between project folders and final products.  The confusion probably comes from the fact that multimedia software uses the same terminology as Microsoft Office.  So when they "save" their Word document, that's the final product.  Everyone who works at the desk knows the difference, but it's bound to cause some problems for patrons.

A few days ago a student had an issue with an Audacity project.  He had to leave Studio 6 because another reservation was coming in, but when he saved his files he took all the individual audio files instead of the folder hierarchy.  Our solution was to recreate the folder hierarchy on his personal laptop.

The default folder setup looked like:

•  projectname_data
• e00
• d00

All the audio files could be found in d00.  After we created the necessary structure and opened the project, everything popped up just as the student had it in Studio 6.

Since all a project file is is directions for where the software needs to look to find a file.  Recreating the structure rebuilds the figurative bookshelf project files build.  Like I said, this is in no way the go-to solution for fixing project issues.  But it is an option.

Screen Capture with Download Helper

Hey Guys!

So a patron walked up to the desk asking to download a video for a presentation. The video however was not embedded so normal download tactics would not work.

Link to website in screenshot above

After a collaboration of everyone at the desk, we a found a solution to the problem that was quick and easy! On Mozilla Firefox there is an option called "DownHelper" located at the top toolbar next to the url. This will normally allow you to download videos easily but what we found was that it was also a great screen capture tool. To do this there are a few quick steps.

1) Right click on the screen, then highlight the option "DownloadHelper" ---> Preferences

2) Select the ScreenCapture tab located at the top.

3) An alert should pop up telling you to download an add-on call "CS Helper"

4) Click on "Install CSHelper" to download the add-on. (A new page on the browser will appear with a green download button). After the download it will ask to restart the browser so make sure you have everything you want saved!

5) Once the browser had restarted there should be a red circle next to the url.

6) Once you click that the program will automatically start recording the screen and the great thing about this is that it auto detects the video and changes its scope automatically making easy embedding! The red circle button will now turn into a red square for stopping.

7) Once you hit the button again to stop, a pop up will appear and ask if you want to save the file or convert it. Once you've chosen an option, you now have a video ready for your use!

WARNING: This tip will only work on a PC, Macs ask for executable files, and outside programs to screen capture.

Marshilla Brahma

OS X Mavericks

Hey everyone, I don't know if you have all heard, but about a month ago, Apple released the newest operating system for their laptop and desktop hardware called Mavericks. The new update brings a host of changes like being able to have finder tabs, new apps, more efficient processing, and a ton of updates to older apps. I downloaded it myself without much of a problem, though there were some massive changes to programs I use often such as iMovie and Sibelius 7.

It is important to note large update changes before downloading by checking the official site, in addition to forums where other users make commentary on the new updates. This will give you an idea of what pros and cons to expect, and whether or not it is worth waiting for the next patch of the update before you download. When I opened iMovie I was prompted to convert my old video projects to fit the new project format. Unfortunately it seemed that there were errors in carrying over components of my video, that left disjointed in a bit of an array.

The new patch this week fixed it, but it would have been nice to avoid the trouble in the first place. So for you Mac users among us, I highly suggest getting familiar with the new Mavericks update, so that when you have problems, or users have problems that they want us to troubleshoot, we can help at a much more effective rate!

60p Setting on HXR Cameras

Hey guys,

On the new HXR camera there is a frame rate setting of 60p.  The 60p setting has some problems with exporting from iMovie and Premiere, so it would be a good idea to let users know not to use this setting when they are checking out the camera.

Krystina

Audacity Files Needed When Saving

Today some girls came in to use a studio and when they went to go work on their Audacity project, it would not open for them. It turns out that they were missing an important folder when they drop boxed it to themselves.

When you save an Audacity file to go back and edit later, there is an extra folder that comes along with it called the data folder. It is very similar to iMovie's event and project folders. It is VERY important that they take both the Data folder and the Audacity file with them otherwise they will NOT be able to open their project back up later.

If you are helping someone save in Audacity, make sure you remind them to get both files so they don't have to start over!

Libre Graphics Meeting 2014 and Open Source Graphics Programs

   

     Next year in April the Libre Graphics Meeting will be hosted in Leipzig, Germany for a weekend dedicated to interaction between artist and developer. I became pretty excited to hear that these conferences have been going on for the past few years, because it means a growing interest in and use of open source or 'libre software.'

     With more interest in these programs, and with the communication between user and developer, the fight to push libre software into the mainstream art and design world is no longer too far from reality. It's hard to compete with the likes of software giants like Adobe, but they are no longer the only option for small design firms, independent artists that are trying to start something from the ground up, or even high school and college students.

After buying a few versions of Adobe CS, it feels like throwing money down a pit every year.

     On the Participating Projects page of the Libre Graphics Meeting website, there is a nice list of open source graphics programs/projects to try out and check out. Below is the list from that website with a few extra programs I have found over the years added in. Check some of them out, why not, they're free! The descriptions are taken from the Libre Graphics Meeting website.

• darktable - An open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
• FontForge - From the FontForge website: "An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another."
• GEGL - (Generic Graphics Library) is a graph based image processing framework. GEGL’s original design was made to scratch GIMP’s itches for a new compositing and processing core. This core is being designed to have minimal dependencies.
• GIMP - A versatile free bitmap editing tool that accelerates your ability to perform photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It may be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing.
• Inkscape - an Open Source drawing tool with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, that uses the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.)
• Krita - A sketching and painting program that offers an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch. Krita explicitly supports concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering. Modeled on existing real-world painting.
• Laidout - Desktop publishing software, particularly for multipage, cut and folded booklets, with page sizes that don’t even have to be rectangular. You can create layout signatures by folding paper right on screen.
• Libre Graphics Magazine - A printed and web publication intended to give voice to the libre graphics user community.
• Manufactura Independente - A design studio focused on free and open source software, libre culture and critical engagement with design tools.
• MyPaint - A fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it.
• Open Clip Art Library -A library of user-submitted, royalty-free, and free-to-use clip art.
• Open Font Library - A sister project of the Open Clip Art Library. The goal of this project is to collect free software fonts – those that may be used, changed and shared freely.
• Scribus - An open-source DTP application with a modern and user-friendly interface. The program’s main goal is to provide flexible layout and typesetting together with ability to prepare files for professional quality imagesetting equipment.

Saving in iMovie

I sent out an email to all of the student workers about how to save in iMovie, but I thought it would be good to post it here as well. 

There's no "File-- Save" option in iMovie-- because iMovie automatically saves your files, every time you make an edit. In order to save your iMovie project on an external hard drive to work on later, you need to make sure to save both the iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders. If you only save the iMovie Projects folder, the next time you try to open your iMovie project, you'll get a "Source file missing" error message.

There are a couple of ways to save an iMovie project onto an external hard drive.

First way to save

In the upper left hand corner in your iMovie Project Window, you'll see a "Project Library" button. Click on it.

In the "Project Library" view, you'll see all of your available hard drives and iMovie projects. Select your iMovie project and drag and drop it into your external hard drive.

When you drag and drop your iMovie project into your external hard drive, you'll get this message:

Make sure to copy the project AND events. You need both in order to work on the iMovie project in the future. The Project folder contains a file that points to the raw video footage that's in the Events folder. If you don't copy the Events folder over along with the Project folder, you'll get a "Missing source file" error message.

Second way to save

Another way to save to an external hard drive is to go into the Movies folder (click on "Macintosh HD," select "macuser," and double click on the Movies folder). Drag and drop both the iMovie Events folder and iMovie Projects folder onto the external hard drive. 

If you tried saving your project using the first method, and notice that there are yellow exclamation marks on the external hard drive, this means that the hard drive isn't formatted in a file system that iMovie can read and write to. An external hard drive needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (which is the Mac-only format) in order for iMovie to be able to read and write to it. (To check and see how an external hard drive has been formatted, right-click on the hard drive and select "Get Info." The format information will be listed in the "General" section at the top.) 

If you're helping someone and they aren't able to check out one of our hard drives, you can save the iMovie Events and Projects folders onto a flash drive or external hard drive that's formatted as FAT32 (which is the format that's compatible with Macs and PCs). You'll have to go into the Movies folder and drag and drop the iMovie Events and Projects folders onto the flash drive or hard drive. The project will be saved, but the person won't be able to make changes to their project unless they move the project to an external hard drive that's been formatted as Mac OS Extended, or unless they drop their files into the Movies folder on their computer.

To double check that you've saved the iMovie project correctly, plug the external hard drive into another computer. If the project shows up with no errors, you're good to go. If you get an error message, double check to make sure that you've saved both the iMovie Events and Projects folders.

Using your Multimedia Skills for Community Service

I began volunteering with a non-profit organization known as YWCA Girl. Typically, volunteering for such an organization would include going out to schools, tutoring and mentoring. I just received word that they (and other organizations like them) are looking for technologically-savvy volunteers to do things such as database maintenance, advertising and marketing projects, etc. for them. Non-profit organizations, such as this one, prefer not to waste their resources on hiring people to do this kind of work for them. Today, it is almost essential to have some sort of multimedia outreach to be well-known, and in order to fulfill their mission, these organizations need that outreach. I wanted to share this information with you guys, simply because it is a not-so-obvious way to gain some volunteer hours and to give back to the communities we live in. Graduate schools and employers love to see volunteer work and it is an added bonus if it is in the same field you are applying to! Try contacting some of your favorite nonprofit organizations to see if you could be of assistance to them in such a way.

Focus on one thing at a time

Hello All!

It's that time of year again, yep, everyone is in the library scrambling to start and finish their video projects that are due tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock and expecting you to save them from a utter doom. Yep it's chaos and he desk feels like the toaster aisle of Wal-mart on Black Friday. With so many items being returned and checked out, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL that we don't mix up pieces of kits. When working on a return or checkout, DO NOT assist another patron until the item is completely returned and put away. People are getting a little on the desperate side and might try to push you into helping them without you completing the task at hand... yea, don't do that. If you get overwhelmed, don't forget to hit the bell (the white button against the door) and call another supervisor out to help.

Best of Luck!
Taylor

ELI Students and Garage Band

As some of you may have noticed, there have been several ELI students coming in wanting to use Garage Band for an assignment. As Nico mentioned to the staff in an email, the assignment is to create a "radio-style" advertisement with background music or sound FX.

Nico suggests that most students will be looking to use the apple loops library to do this. To access, click on one of the three buttons in the lower right-hand corner of Garage Band. The button you will want is the one left of the blue "i".

From there, the menu will appear and students can drag and drop the desired loops into their project.

Data Recovery from hard drives

There is nothing more irritating (and possibly problematic) than losing access to your files. This can be everything from a minor inconvenience to a personal tragedy. Imagine that weeks, months or years worth of valuable business files, personal photos or writing are stored on a hard drive with no viable back up made. This applies to those who work with multimedia as well as it does anyone else who works with computers.

Here I'll discuss hard drive data recovery.

 

First off, a standard warning. Make BACKUPS! I have personal experience of this. If you have a backup of the information you probably won't be reading this right now, but if you don't have backups and you are looking to this blog for solutions, well, your the idiot and you should feel awe-full. But its okay, I'm an idiot too. I've been there. Its going to be all right.

Second off, if you did not make a backup and your computer just gave up the ghost (or blew up) do not panic.

Readyyyyyyy, Seeeeet, Print!

Just a few moments ago I had a library patron ask me if the computers in the studios were able to be sent to the Print Release Station. Not knowing the answer, I asked two of my fellow coworkers who were also stumped by this question. It was then that I went on a self-declared mission to find out the answer. Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnnn!

Immediately I set out on a quest to an empty studio to send a "This is a Test" document to the Print Release State and it turns out that you can send a document from the studios. However, when you go to select the document at the Print Release Station, instead of the computer name reading as CNTR#, it will read as lib.#.lib.us.udel.edu

Happy Printing!

Video File Converting

Everyone has one of those days when they forget to import files from the camera and just drag them to the desktop. This can be a real drag because then the format of the files cannot be played through iMovie or Windows Media Player, which causes more stress than its worth. Fortunately, there are several solutions to this problem. One way to fix this is through an awesome application called Visual Hub that can convert files from one video format to another, although this program is only for Mac. If your videos are AVI, worry not because they can be converted to MP4 with the click of a button. You just have to wait for these files as they are converted. All of the Macs in the Student Multimedia Design Center have this application but if you encounter this problem at home on your own computer, Visual Hub can be downloaded for free from these souces:
For Mac- https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21888/visualhub

If you are do not have a Mac, there is a similar program called AVS Video Editor which can be downloaded for PC for free. Not only does this program allow you to convert video files but it can also edit the video by speeding up, slowing down, splitting and merging clips, and adding basic effects.
For PC- http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video-Editor.aspx?sct=aff&ct=regnow&cid=189508

GoPro on "60 Minutes"

"60 Minutes" had a segment on the founder of the GoPro camera -- an surfer who just wanted better video shots of his surfing, how he invented it, and how it has become a phenomenon and its various uses. Lots of cool footage, I recommend watching it. (Also on the same show they had a piece on photographer Henry Grossman who shot photos of JFK, the Beatles etc. for all you art/photography people).

Saving in iMovie

Whats up guys,

As most people know there isn't an option in iMovie to "save". I recently had someone come up to the desk trying to figure out how to save their project. On iMovie there are two ways to save the project to be accessed later.

If you the student is finished with his or her project he or she should go to share>>export Movie and export the project to the desktop. However, oftentimes students want to save their progress so that they can come back at a later time and pick up where they left off. If this is the case he or she should close iMovie, open up the movie folder on the desktop and drag BOTH  the "iMovie Project" and "iMovie Events" folders to their external hard-drive. Later when he or she comes back they can drag these two folders back into movies and continue to work.

4K is just around the corner...

You may have heard of "4K cinema" or "Ultra HD", but what does it actually mean? Well, right now when we say HD (high definition) we are usually talking about video with dimensions of 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high or 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high. 4K is the next step up at 4096 pixels wide by 2304 pixels high. Currently only expensive cameras can record this Ultra HD 4K at a normal frame rate like 30 or 24 frames per second. However, one camera we loan the GoPro Hero 3 can record 4K at 12 frames per second (will look sped up when played back). Until this year, the cameras have been way ahead of the projectors and displays, because a consumer could not buy anything that could actually play back 4K footage. A few Ultra HDTVs have been released, but the reviews have not been favorable so far. Canon announced on Wednesday that they are bringing a 4K reference monitor to market. The current price tag is $40,000!

I expect the price of 4K displays and projectors will fall quickly though. When HDTVs first became available 10 or so years ago, they were also very expensive and have since fallen in price dramatically. Even if you can't play back 4K cinema yet, it has other benefits. Since you have so many pixels to work with, you have many cropping options. Since you have twice as many pixels in both directions, it is like shooting 4 regular HD shots at once! Media Services on campus has one RED Epic camera, and they were telling me how they use this strategy when shooting on-campus productions. They don't have to worry about panning and re-focusing the camera as much, since they can always crop to a different part of the 4K shot when they edit the footage.

Scan Away!

With the semester coming to an end, we are starting to see more and more students utilizing the Student Multimedia Design Center and the equipment we offer for rental, whether it be for personal use or academics. However, believe it or not, one piece of equipment being used more lately are the copiers/scanners.

If you are helping a library patron use either one, make sure you remind the individual to take their original documents with them. I have helped quite a few people scan their license, birth certificates, and other personal documents so the last thing we want is for them to accidentally leave them behind where potentially other users can find them.

In addition, help library patrons to protect their identity and remind them to delete personal scanned documents from the Scan folder and the Recycling Bin.

Happy Scanning & Copying!


*Photo Credit: http://starrforce.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Salesforce-Security-300x300.jpg

Time Shift Tool in Audacity

Yesterday, a student was using Audacity to record himself reading some sentences in Spanish. He had created multiple tracks to record different sentences so that he didn’t have to read the entire paragraph at once. When he had finished, he realized that he had accidently skipped a sentence and was wondering if there was any way he could insert a new audio clip recording the forgotten sentence between his existing ones. Being more familiar with GarageBand, this was a learning experience for both of us. We discovered that an easy way to resolve this is to simply add a new track (Tracks > Add new > Audio Track), record, and then move the clip to where you’d like it to play from using the time shift tool. When you open Audacity, the program defaults your mouse to the selection tool, which doesn’t allow you to shift tracks around. You have to select the time shift tool first before you can rearrange the tracks. Once we figured this out, it was a quick and easy solution for this student’s problem! 

Laptops at the Education Resource Center

Every once in a while, a patron will ask for a laptop and then be disheartened when they find out that it's only a 4 hour loan and they need it for a longer period of time. Today, a student came in looking for such, as her laptop was broken and needed a temporary replacement until the weekend. Cassy and I looked at each other and both agreed, "By the amount of times asked this question, how can we never remember the name of the place?!" After a quick search, we remembered it is the Education Resource Center at Willard Hall and the loan is for 3 days. Hopefully this is helpful for anyone who forgets the name of the place, because while it isn't asked too often, this question will certainly come up again.

Here is the website explaining the ERC's laptop circulation policy.

Copier Checks

Hey guys!

As we all know, copier checks are done four times a day. I wanted to remind everyone that the copier checks completed during the morning should always be checking the paper supply and refilling them if necessary. However, during the copier checks performed later in the day, it is not necessary to check to paper supply. Often times over checking the paper can lead to the machines breaking and additional problems. Therefore, make sure to be solely focusing on jams or broken machines during those times.

-Melissa

Adobe Security Threat

Hey everyone!

I don’t know if anyone recalls this, but earlier this month Adobe announced that hackers had gained access to credit card and other personal data for nearly 3 million of its customers. This is obviously a lot, but apparently the scale of the security breach was much, much, bigger. I was skimming the New York Times yesterday when I came across an article (link below) announcing that the true tally of personal data, usernames, and passwords stolen has grown to over 38 million records. 

I’m sure many of you working in the Multimedia Design Center have accounts with some Adobe products, so this might be of concern to some of you. The passwords, after their inscriptions are cracked (which for some reason is apparently pretty easy to do), will most likely be sold on auction-like black market sites. A single password can fetch as much as $20 a pop, which isn’t that bad when you think that these hackers are selling nearly 40million of them… 

But anyways, massive fortune aside, Adobe has said all of the affected passwords have been reset, but, if you’re like me and use 1 or 2 passwords for everything, then the security threat might still be alive and real. If you do have an Adobe account and may have been a victim of this hacking, it may be smart to take precautions to ensure that you don’t become more of a victim here. Or don’t, either way I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this, just in case!

-            

      ~Trey Taraila

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/adobe-online-attack-was-bigger-than-previously-thought/?_r=0