Author: James

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End of the semester… and on to new adventures!

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Today was the last day of finals. The students in my HUW 269 New Media Project lab capstone course were scheduled to turn in and present their final professional portfolios. The final presentations are always interesting because it gives the students, and me,  an opportunity to see how far they have progressed as multimedia artists since the beginning of the semester. This year was a little different. In addition to displaying visually stunning portfolios, these capstone students, many who had graduated last week,  surprised me with a end of the semester thank you party. They bought pizza, cake, and soda that we all chowed down on as we laughed and critiqued the final portfolios that were presented.

In the 12 plus years I have been teaching at LaGuardia Continue reading “End of the semester… and on to new adventures!”

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Finally, new Mac Pros

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Apple finally is going to release an update to the Mac Pro desktop, and for the first time since they started producing these top of the line towers, I am NOT planning on getting one. This is because I have migrated away from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere Pro, thus eliminating the one reason why I would need a mac this powerful. So without a specific mac application to drive a purchase of this magnitude, I cannot see dropping this much money on the new system.

All of my other software, primarily the Adobe Suite, is cross platform and can run quite well on cheaper PC based equipment. Plus Premiere Pro already integrates much better with After Effects and Photoshop than Final Cut. And according to my research I am not alone in this belief either. It seems that many professional videographers have made the switch away from Final Cut to other platforms because of the debacle that was the initial release of Final Cut X.

All of the other mac specific applications that I use now, like xCode and iBook, can be easily be handled by lower end systems like my Mac Mini and my aging mac laptops. And while I will concede that the cylindrical design of the new Mac Pro looks cool as hell, the price, good gracious, the price is going to be astronomical. As a person more than willing to spend money on cool stuff, I just don’t see a single mac application that would necessitate getting this system. However the challenge for those intrepid people that do decide to get one will be in figuring a way of keeping this monster under 6 or 7 grand if they go with an 8 or 12 core option.

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Yipit…..Yipit good!

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The “agita” that I was feeling yesterday over my preparation, or lack thereof, for my iOS programming course started to ease today.  A large part of the reason for that was that Vin Vacanti, the founder Yipit.com, spoke to our class on the topics of entrepreneurship and tech startup creation. Yipit is a daily deal aggregator that recommends personalized daily deals from websites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City and dozens more.

I have listened to many speakers over the years and I would have to say that Vin was one of the best. He offered excellent insight on the mindset of the success entrepreneur. He took us through his process for starting and implementing a new business. The main take away from his speech was that while learning to code is very important, don’t be afraid to go implement manual processes, especially in the startup phase of your venture. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in starting a business to check out his blog (http://viniciusvacanti.com/).

However, I still have a ton of catch up to do on the iOS programming.

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Objective C and end of semester burnout!

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My journey into the world of Objective C and iOS programming continues, and in truth, it hasn’t been a happy transition. I am actually dreading class tomorrow morning because I have been so far behind. Since the beginning of the iOS course I have accepted a new position, negotiated the conditions of my new responsibilities, finished up the PPR, promoted my recent academic research, and supported the efforts of my students in the last few weeks of the semester. I foolishly thought I was going to have much more free time to practice my coding as the semester winded down. Now as I type this out it is painfully apparent how ludicrous that assumption had been. Silly rabbit, Trixs are for kids.

Luckily the semester will be over this week and I can finally shift gears.

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New Media Tech: LaGuardia Graduation 2013

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To the LaGuardia New Media Technology graduates of 2013:

When you came over to me at the end of the ceremony it brought it all home as to why I do this every day. Y’all made me cry! I LOVE MY STUDENTS! My door will always be open. It has been my honor to be your professor. I am so proud of all of you! Go out into the world and become true “digital disruptors”. Educate, inspire, keeping learning, and most of all, GET PAID!!!! New Media Tech represent!! Westsiiiiiiide!

p.s., Holla at me. On the real, I know of a really good B.A. program in Communication and Media over at CUNY SPS that some of you might be interested in attending. 🙂

Photos from the Event

Continue reading “New Media Tech: LaGuardia Graduation 2013”

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Guilty Pleasure #1: The Venture Brothers

The video above is a series recap on the “Venture Brothers”, one of my true guilty pleasures. It is one of the few series in which I own every available dvd boxset. This season will mark the fifth series for the dysfunctional “Team Venture”. Not many younger viewers realize that the “Venture Brothers” is actually a spoof of the old Hanna Barbera cartoon series from the sixties, “Jonny Quest”.

While new episodes started on June 2nd, the Cartoon Network has made the first episode of the fifth season Continue reading “Guilty Pleasure #1: The Venture Brothers”

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I am calm. No, really. I’m good.

Starting a new job always causes me a slight amount of anxiety. It has happened to me every time that I have made a transition to new responsibilities. However, I don’t have that feeling as I get ready to take over the Academic Directorship of the Communication and Media program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies. I find myself feeling excited but yet surprisingly at ease. Maybe it is because I don’t start until the Fall and September is a long time off. Or maybe it is because I have been ready for a new challenge for a while. However I think it maybe something very simple, like it just seems like a cool place to work.

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Prepare for the Smackdown!

A few months back I was interviewed on the occupational activities of former LaGuardia Media Studies student and Cannes filmfest participant, Girard Tecson of Dayside Productions. The interview appeared in a new documentary on Girard’s unusual decision to make a career shift from independent Filmmaking to professional Wrestling. I wish him luck in his new endeavors. At 5’5″ and 150 lbs, I think he is gonna need it.

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VHS Massacre Interview

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Today I was interviewed by the producers of the upcoming documentary, VHS Massacre, which chronicles the rise and fall of physical media from the origin of film all the way through the video store era and into digital media. The filmmakers wanted to question me on my take about how digital distribution, the proliferation of high speed data connections, and online piracy has hastened the demise of physical media like vhs tapes and CD-Roms. Much of the documentary focuses in the impact of the changes on B-movie and cult films.

The documentary is directed by indie filmmakers Thomas Edward Seymour and Ken Powell, two of the same gentlemen that produce the NewYorkCine Radio podcast on pop culture and film. VHS Massacre is scheduled to be released sometime in 2014.