Author: James

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Class Trip: Seminar on digital books and ePublishing

Today I took my HUW161 Web and Multimedia Design class to a talk on digital books and ePublishing held at Noble Desktop. The seminar was hosted by Dan Rodney, lead instructor and co-owner of Noble Desktop. Digital publishing has been attracting a great deal of attention as a result of all of the new ereaders and tablet devises that have been hitting the market. Amazon reported earlier this year that eBooks on the Kindle began outselling print books in 2010. In addition to books, magazines are moving to the iPad and other tablet as well. Adobe has just released a new digital publishing suite that companies such as Wired, Martha Stewart are using to create digital magazines for devices. Even more shocking is the fact that relatively unknown authors like Amanda Hocking, as well as more established writers like Barry Eisler are profiting from these new digital formats. It is going to be interesting to see how these new developments will impact upon traditional print media outlets. Digital publishing is hot and designers should be learning about it now. I think my students enjoyed the talk.

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The Slow Road Back: Solo Training

The kid is trying to get back into shape after a long and rough year on a number of fronts. It has been about eight months since I was working out on a consistent basis. Still, in that time I have been able to adequately maintain my weight and general health by eating right. However there is no substitute for regular exercise. Plus the wife and kids have been telling me that I am a great deal more pleasant to be around when I workout. Who could have guessed Continue reading “The Slow Road Back: Solo Training”

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The 2011 LaGuardia Publication Reception

This was a brief speech that I gave on the recent article that I authored addressing “Motivating at risk African American and Hispanic students through the study of New Media Technology“. I mentioned this article in one of my earlier posts. The reception was held at LaGuardia Community College. Special thanks to Michael Philogene of LaGuardia’s Business and Technology Department for the impromptu camera work.

The program for the event can be found here: PresidentReception11.pdf

 

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Looking for a new family pet

It has been a little over a year since our cat passed away from old age, and as I mentioned in a previous post, the family is lobbying hard for a new family pet. The wife and kids want a dog but I am very hesitant. Of course this means that they are trying to make me out to be the bad guy because I refuse to budge on this issue. I love dogs and have wanted one since I was a little boy, but I am also well aware that canines are far more “high maintenance” than cats. No matter how much they tell me that they will take care of the dog, I know that I will be the one picking up poop with one of those little plastic bags at 6am in the morning. Not gonna happen. To quote the infamous Tony Montana, “say hello to ‘da bad guy”.

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Royal Wedding Blues…..call the Doctor.

While most of the world is talking about the British Royal wedding, I decided to spend my day unwrapping my new UK inspired purchase, the first four seasons of the new Doctor Who series. I can always tell when I am getting bored or depressed because I start looking for stuff to buy. I caught the DVD box sets on sale from Amazon for 100 bucks. I had been looking for these to come down in price for a while. I love the new series, but at the standard 70 bucks per season I wasn’t going to pull the trigger on them. The sale was offered to celebrate the royal wedding believe or not. So, all in all, I guess something positive for me came about as a result of the royal nuptials.

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Affordable Mini HD Camera setup

Kodak Zi8 mini hd rig

I frequently get a good deal of questions from students and educators on what type of video camera should they buy if they have limited money and they still want great quality. In order to answer these questions I have been looking around for the cheapest rig possible that can still offer decent image and sound quality to recommend to these budget conscious videographers. I did a little research and set aside a maximum budget of 400 bucks for the entire project. The basic criteria for the video Continue reading “Affordable Mini HD Camera setup”