Grades have been posted

Thanks again everyone on all of the hard work and for the fun semester. Hope you have a wonderful summer break!

- Brett

Randy's videocast deserves a look

I hadn't seen Randy's videocast about gaming language until tonight. And when we featured the various material on our web sites in front of the class, this definitely deserved to be shown. So please take a look now. He really does some interesting things with this form. Nice work, Randy!

- Brett

New WSU email on the way

New Student Outlook LIVE Email Accounts
Fact Sheet

Sign up for your new WSU Vancouver email account starting May 4.
• WSU ITS, in partnership with Microsoft, is implementing a new email system for all students.
• Signing up for the new Microsoft Outlook Live email system is FREE and required.
Getting started is easy.
• Visit my.wsu.edu to get your new account name and temporary password.
o Account names will be firstname.lastname@email.wsu.edu
o Appropriate provisions will be made for students with the same names.
• Go to email.wsu.edu to activate your new account.
• Please remember to change your temporary password.
Access your new account by going to: email.wsu.edu
• Check your account frequently—after May 18, WSU Vancouver student email will not be sent to non-WSU email accounts.
• This is the primary way WSU email communications will be sent to you.
Call if you need help.
• Direct your email.wsu.edu questions to the helpdesk in Pullman 509-335-HELP (4357). Tell the help person that you have a student email question and you are from WSU Vancouver.
Enjoy the perks.
• This is a free, lifetime account – keep your WSU email account long after graduation.
• Store up to 10GB of email.
• Access additional Microsoft services including: 25GB Skydrive, Office Live Workspace, Outlook Calendar and instant messaging.
http://email.wsu.edu.outlooklive.html

Dr. Grigar's lecture on April 15

Here is the slideshow of Dr. Grigar's lecture on telematics and telepresence from April 15.

A harvester of human feelings

Ran across this "harvester of human feelings," called:

We Feel Fine

Not sure what to make of it yet, but it's interesting to explore.

- Brett

Vook a book

Here is a recent call for content producers:

"Social media/Web Producer
Reply to: job-bqcwf-1111576049@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-04-07, 12:03PM PDT

Calling on Portland's creative class. Book junkies, social media mavens we're looking for you too.

This is an opportunity to flex your creative muscles and build your own epic vision of a classic tale.

You may have already read about us in the Times on Sunday (http://www.bit.ly/vooktv) -- Vook weaves together text, videos, photography and social networking to create a brand new way to experience and interact with books.

We're looking for a handful of tech-savvy, local book lovers who can help us realize this vision. We want you to take your favorite classic book and "Vook" it.

Successful candidates will use our platform and should have:

* A love of fiction, non-fiction, long form and short stories.
* A passion for the web -- natch.
* Familiarity with Wordpress -- a must.
* A clear understanding of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and how to source copyright-free content on the Internet -- required.
* An arts, design, video production background -- bonus.
* Literary roots -- over the top.

This is a short-term, contract creative position. Work from home, work from Stumptown. Applicants should submit a resume and links to any on-line portfolio(s). Compensation to be on a completed, per-"Vook" basis.

* Telecommuting is ok.
* This is a contract job.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests."

Which led me to this piece in the New York Times. Please check it out, and apply, if you are interested. Sounds fun,

- Brett

"Woo Hoo!" from the Research Showcase

For those of you who haven't heard yet, this from Dr. Grigar:

"It was a good day for the DTC Program.

First, the DTC Program had a big presence at the Research Showcase. 28 students were involved in projects featured at the event.

The VJ Fleet Team, led by Zach Jepsen, won the "Undergraduate Research Award" at the 2009 Research Showcase. Their project was one of 17 undergraduate projects considered for the prize. Involved in that project was Zach, Ryan Hicks, Ben Hook, Bryce Van Hoosen, Laura Franklin, Phil McArthur, Michael Hatch, Tony Wu, Matt Wright, Jeremy Harget, and Donald Hawthorne. Other cool projects included Ross Swanson, Melissa Vik, Dana Polf, Sophia Stalliviere, Nik Dupuis-Lund & Eric Bahnmiller's project, "Integration of music and digital art," which looked at the relationship between color and music. JJ VanDyke, Tony Wu, Sarah Chesemore, Kerry Mraz & Eric Jackson's poster, "Interactive Artwork Using Web-Based Technologies," used Twitter to produce a community wide poem. Bryce R. VanHoosen, Spring Atkinson, Ben Hook, Cody Reid, Drew Rickman & Robert Thach's project, "Facelife: The Social Network Social Experiment," explored the way social networks may be changing the way we interact in real life.

Second, at FVTV tonight students produced two excellent live video broadcasts. The first group interviewed musician Rob Melton about his school of music and career as a musician. The second organized a discussion with local artists from the community to talk about the state of the arts in Vancouver. The work created tonight at the station will be rebroadcast. Check out FVTV11.org for times.

Great work, everyone! We are very proud of you."

A new way of taking notes

Please keep on the lookout this week for stories like this, about new technologies that are going to change our ways of doing things in the future ...

Shrinking a banner image to fit in Blogger

As I suspected, some of the Blogger templates (such as Minima) allow you to shrink your banner image to fit the width of the main column. There is a box to check when you are editing the image in a template that supports that feature. ... Others require you to resize your image in another program, such as Photoshop. Unfortunately, there isn't a standard size for the photo to fit the column, but it's generally in the range of 600-750 pixels wide by 100-150 pixels high. So either choose a supportive template, or tinker with the image. Let me know if you need further assistance on this.

Please don't forget to do your self evaluation for Wednesday

Here are the specs:

[ ] Self evaluation, a one-page paper (20 points, 10-point font, single spaced) about your efforts as a group team member for this project; includes at least one example of where you went above and beyond your basic duties to contribute something special to the group, one example of where the group dynamics could have been improved (with suggestions for how that could have been done) and one example of an area in which you personally could make significant improvement as a team member. These ideas will
be shared with your group and discussed.