Author: James

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Microsoft IT Tech Trends Seminar

Alfred Thompson, Academic Relations Manager for Microsoft

After my morning class the LaGuardia CIS department hosted an IT Tech Trends seminar yesterday that was sponsored by Microsoft. The seminar was open to high school juniors and seniors from the NYC area with the express purpose of getting them interested in IT careers in general, and IT studies at LaGuardia specifically. One of the schools that had confirmed backed out at the last minute because the coordinator had confused the dates and had booked parent-teacher conferences on the same day. The turn out, while not as big as we had originally expected, was still respectable. Continue reading “Microsoft IT Tech Trends Seminar”

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My first Flashcoders meeting

NYC Flashcoders meeting

I went to my first meeting of the New York City Flashcoders user group last night. I have been a member of the mailing list for a few months now and figured that it was time to meet the actual people behind the site. The Flashcoders user group appears to be one of the more active flash communities in the NYC area. In fact, this group of multimedia professionals meet about once a week to discuss and display cool new Flash based projects and tools. The meeting last night was about using Arduino in conjunction with Flash actionscript. Continue reading “My first Flashcoders meeting”

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Drupal Camp at PolyTech

Drupal Camp at Poly Tech

After the late, late party at Miko’s last night, I wasn’t hyped to get up early on a Sunday morning a head off to a  technical conference on administering and programming for Drupal. However since I needed to learn more about this open source content management system for a side project that I am working on called Ensideus.com (more on that soon), I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and headed to Brooklyn. Continue reading “Drupal Camp at PolyTech”

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LaGuardia & Bard Writing Workshop

Bard Writing Workshop

As a benefit of my participation in the LaGuardia and Baruch WID faculty colloquium I was able to attend an all day workshop on the process of defining “Academic writing”. The workshop was developed by English professors from Yale and Bard. A number of my colleagues in the WID workshop had attended a similar workshop last year and raved about it. LaGuardia was hosting a version of the same workshop for members of the English department. The leaders of the WID colloquium thought it would benefit the rest of us to have the same experience, so they acquired the funds to enable us to attend.

The workshop was both enlightening and a bit intimidating for me because I was out my academic discipline and the sole professor from outside of the English department. Now while I was an undergraduate Continue reading “LaGuardia & Bard Writing Workshop”

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Coldfusion User Group Meeting

Coldfusion User Group Meetings

Those of you that have been paying attention to my recent post might have noticed that I have been spending alot of time focusing on my digital audio and video chops. As I result I have been getting nervous that I been letting my web design/development skills start to slip. So to make sure that I didn’t let that happen, I needed to get motivated. The quickest way for me to get motivated is to spend time around other Continue reading “Coldfusion User Group Meeting”

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CIS and ePortfolio

CIS ePortfolio Cohort

Today was the first meeting of the CIS ePortfolio cohort that is being sponsored by LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The main purpose of the faculty group is to research the best ways in which the CIS department can integrate ePortfolio into the Introduction to Computers course (CIS 100). The CIS 100 course is a required course for many of the academic programs at LaGuardia, and as a result, is a perfect class in which to reinforce the technical principles of ePortfolio.

I was asked to participate in this ongoing seminar because, I had taken a lead in researching ways in which digital portfolios can be used to enhance the performance of students in technical disciplines. Continue reading “CIS and ePortfolio”

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Hail Ceasor!!!

Now before you go telling me that I spelled the word “Caesar” incorrectly, let me explain. I woke up this morning to a ringing telephone. The wife and kids had gone to Easter service with my mom so I was actually able to sleep in late for a change. And as much as I love my mom, not even she can make me step inside of a church. But that is a story for another time. Anyway, the ringing phone woke me up. I hate waking up to the phone. Needless to say I was pissed. I was all set to flip out on whatever telemarketer had the balls to wake me up this early in the morning when all of a sudden I hear……

“Rock……what’s up my brother? It’s your boy Ceasor!” Continue reading “Hail Ceasor!!!”

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New Toys!

The Canon HV20 and the S5 IS

I saved up and finally got some new equipment and software to replace some of my aging tools. I had been looking at upgrding to a HD camcorder for some time but waiting until the formats and prices settled down. So after nearly a year of vacillating back and forth, I took the plunge. I broke down and got the Canon HV20 that I reviewed in one of earlier posts, as well as the Canon S5 IS digital still camera.

I got the new camera in anticipation for the summer and some new shorts that I want shoot. I picked up both for under a grand from B&H Photo. Both are midrange cameras but take awesome pictures. I went with the HV20 over the newer HV30 because the black body and 30p mode doesn’t justify the extra 300 buck cost. I got the Powershot because I wanted a point and shoot camera with the ability to go manual as I get my photography chops back. Plus the Powershot takes awesome fullscreen (640×480 at 30fps) video for a still camera. The audio is excellent too. I purchased a big 8gb memory chip for under 40 bucks to store my footage. Since I mostly shoot content for the web, I won’t even need to carry my camcorder all the time since the S5 IS can do both movies and stills.

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My baby is getting old!

Tita and me

It is hard to believe how fast they grow up. It seems like it was just yesterday when I was changing her diapers and pushing her around in a stroller. Now she is a little lady. I love her with all my heart….. but she still ain’t getting that $2,000 Macbook Air.

Daddy may be wrapped around your little finger but he ain’t crazy.