Don’t forget to “unpack” your digital photos from Spring Break!

Around here, Spring Break ‘05 has come and gone. The memories have been made, the clothes unpacked and the dirt and sand swept out of the car. Did you forget to “unpack” something? We take digital photos with the best intentions - to share them with the world the minute you get back to your computer, but instead they sit, not unlike an undeveloped roll of film. I confess. I am guilty! While I didn’t go far for Spring Break, I did take some pictures with my digital camera when I went out to a local bike trail with some friends… And the pictures are still on the card, in the camera and not shared with my friends yet. Before the week is through, I am going to take the few minutes and download my pictures into iPhoto, make some crops and tweaks (you would really be amazed at how good a photographer you are… after a bit of playing around in iPhoto.) and post them on my .mac website for my friends to see and download. It seems like such a simple thing, especially for someone who LOVES to take pictures like me, and with iPhoto 5, you can really make your amateur point-and-shoot photos look good without messing around with exporting to Photoshop and using lots of advanced techniques.
So, did you “finish unpacking”?

— Kelly Alford @ 9:49 am

Welcome Kelly!

This week I’d like to introduce our next rock-star student blogger, Kelly Alford.

Kelly already tackled her first degree as of Spring 2004 in Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. She has since moved on to bigger and better seeking out her Masters in Arts and Culture. Late at night, her iPod belts out the beats of Fatboy Slim, BT, Bjork, The Donnas, and Tergan. She couldn’t even begin to think about a thesis without her Powerbook, iPod and digital camera at her side. And, if her degree doesn’t make her a millionaire, if she won the lottery you’d probably find her jaunting around the US (next up: New Zealand) mountain biking and showing up Ansel Adams with her photography skills.

“Nothing’s impossible for those who don’t have to do it,” she echos.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Welcome Kelly.

— Dave Morin @ 8:28 pm

Opinion-makers

I remember reading Mac magazines in the late 90s. It seemed like every issue brought news of yet another company that was ending support for the Macintosh. Now, Business 2.0 Magazine says that even start-up companies with limited resources should be sure to release their products for the Mac.

Basically, the article’s author suggests that most of the major opinion makers in technology are Mac users: “high-profile bloggers, most (if not all) technology journalists, and, of course, the hipsters.”

Of course, most us aren’t high-profile bloggers or technology students. But, as college students, many people both younger and older that us would consider us “hipsters.” Isn’t it nice to have your opinion valued?

— Stephen Jendrazak @ 1:13 pm

Roommates

Roommates…we all have experienced them at sometime in our lives. Mine of course are the coolest. They are two hysterical and crazy girls who I must say have the most interesting study methods I have ever seen. I have never met anyone who could make me laugh like these two can. I guess that’s the cool thing about having roommates you love, they always have your back.

Now there is one big downfall to both of these girls…neither of them are Mac users. This upsets me deeply and I work day and night to convert them. That aside, they are very intrigued by the iPod (I’m using that as my fist plan of attack to switch them over to the Mac). I had to laugh when they got home from the Mall of America this weekend. The first thing they had to say to me was “The new iPod colors are so cool!” They both made it a point to tell me how cool they think it is that you can choose a color that “expresses” yourself.

One of the girls is making her move to purchase a silver one right after spring break and the other is irate that she just bought one a few months ago and she missed out on the new colors. I wouldn’t be surprised to come home one day and see her sitting on the futon with her old blue iPod in one hand, a new bright pink one in the other and attempting to listen to them both at the same time.

It’s cool to see full out Windows users moving towards the Mac platform and know that I had something to do with it.

— Annie @ 8:26 am

Insanely Great Presentation Possibilities

It’s official. I’m obsessed with iPod Photo (aka. iPP). Beyond being the ultimate media backup solution, here’s another reason why iPP is the silicon Swiss Army Knife of student success…

In-class presentations
They suck. Why? Because if you’ve ever had to make one you know exactly how frustrating it can be to get a basic Powerpoint presentation up and running on a classroom projector. Bring in a laptop so things play right and you’re fumbling with A/V cables. Use the classroom PC and you’re wondering if your presentation even opens.

Here’s an alternative. Use Powerpoint’s Save As… command to export your slides as images (TIFF, JPG, etc), sync your slides to your iPod Photo, and use iPP and its AV cable to plug into the projector and run your show instead. I’ve seen this myself and it’s one of the coolest intersections of technology and presentations… ever. No software incompatibilities, no complex slide transitions, no drained batteries, no crazy cable connections, and (best of all) no reaching behind you, hitting the wrong key and closing out your preso mid-sentence!

Just you, your slides, and your 6 oz iPod (set to music if you like) that’s continuously showing your next slide on a screen in the palm of your hand. Throw in iPod’s disk mode and you’ve even got 30 gigs of storage for presentation materials as well.

Who’s down with I.P.P?
Ya, you know the rest.

— Clif @ 4:33 pm

Welcome Annie!

Over the next few weeks we are introducing a couple new bloggers to rock your world with student life blog-isms.

The first is Annie Schwab, a Public Relations major at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Winter is cold in Wisconsin, so to accompany her climb through 2 feet of snow up Eau Claire’s famous “Hill” to class, her iPod is filled with Dispatch, The Beatles, Niel Young and Ben Harper. She won’t leave home without her PowerBook or her cell phone. And, if you can track her down on campus, you could likely entice her on a date with grilled steak and crab legs.

Her mantra goes something like this: “Have faith, things fall apart so they can fall together again.”

— Dave Morin @ 1:40 pm

Welcome Annie!

Over the next few weeks we are introducing a couple new bloggers to rock your world with student life blog-isms.

The first is Annie Schwab, a Public Relations major at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Winter is cold in Wisconsin, so to accompany her climb through 2 feet of snow up Eau Claire’s famous “Hill” to class, her iPod is filled with Dispatch, The Beatles, Niel Young and Ben Harper. She won’t leave home without her PowerBook or her cell phone. And, if you can track her down on campus, you could likely entice her on a date with grilled steak and crab legs.

Her mantra goes something like this: “Have faith, things fall apart so they can fall together again.”

— Dave Morin @ 9:57 am

Traveling - iPod Style

Traveling. These past few weeks I have been in and out of airports and numerous states and countries. No matter what destination I traveled to, one thing prominent stood out in each and every place: iPods.

California Dreamin’
Whenever I fly I always need to listen to music, especially during lift off. And not any song, thank you. It needs to be Doot-Doot by Freur. I guess over the past few years I’ve just gotten attached with having an iPod in my ears and that song playing; it’s comforting. Oh, but not today! The flight attendant nudged me and asked me to turn off my iPod shuffle for departure. Instead of being upset, I big smile came over my face. How long has the iPod shuffle been out? Three months? And a flight attendant can recognize one clear across the plane. That’s just cool.

Grand Cayman Islands
Let’s speed up five days. A bunch of my friends decided that they wanted to go on a cruise. Sweet. Honduras and Grand Cayman Islands courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Lines. On the beach in the Grand Caymans as I’m slowly sipping my piña colada, two girls walk by giggling. One girl has her pink iPod mini pinned to her short jean skirt with those distinct white headphones shared between her and her friend. Rock solid.

Baltimore Blues
Heading back from the cruise I’m flying from Baltimore (BWI) Airport. As we’re starting to land, the flight attendant comes onto the loud speaker and gives that typical speech that we’ve all heard: “Ladies and gentleman at this time we need you to turn off all digital equipment while we prepare for arrival. This includes laptops, walkmans, iPods and cd players. I looked around. I wasn’t the only one putting away my iPod. But what shocked me again, was that the flight attendant didn’t say “Mp3 Players”. It was “iPods”.

What’s my point with this post? Look around. White headphones are everywhere. iPods are cool. It wasn’t this way a few years ago! It’s awesome to watch. Live life and love music - iPod style.

— Sarah Friedlander @ 7:26 pm

iPod Envy

There’s something about airport security guards and iPods.

Last year, I went to England for a week on my spring break. On the way back, I was randomly chosen to have my bag searched. The guard opened my bag, and immediately became distracted by the iPod. “Oh, an iPod! How many songs does this hold? How long do the batteries last?” Etc.

In fact, he was so distracted that he didn’t notice that I was accidentally still carrying a butter knife I had used on a picnic. That wasn’t discovered until I landed in the U.S. Whoooops.

Back on topic — I just got back from working on a radio documentary in Ireland for two weeks. On the way back, I was once again randomly chosen for a search. I was very glad that this time I had remembered to throw the knife away.

I shouldn’t have even bothered. Once again, the guard became obsessed with my iPod. Now, I can totally understand being excited by iPods. But maybe the guards should spend time looking for weapons instead of music!

— Stephen Jendrazak @ 8:54 am

Dental Floss & Data Backups

Data backup. It’s like flossing your teeth: you know you should do it, but it’s no fun and there’s never a good time to begin. Working in tech support, I see the results of students without backups all the time. Lost papers, entire courses blown away, years of memories gone in a heartbeat. Statistically the guys over at Boston Computing Network suggest that,

6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year [and] 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.

Yet do I have a backup? Not really. Why? Because, as we students know, is not just the clumsiness of backing up, but the sheer size of those media files on our computers. Word docs are one thing, but how do we backup the gigs of music and photos we’ve accumulated?

Here’s a thought: iPod Photo. Beyond the cool-factor, it’s also one of the best media backup systems out there. A continuously-updated duplicate of every music and photo file on your computer. Backup geeks call that “data redundancy,” and it’s the first step toward protecting data.

So here’s my plan: $25/week set aside to a backup fund. Result? A new iPod Photo (and complete media backup solution) in just over 3 months! Hey, if odds are 1 in 3 for complete data loss, dropping a few Franklins for peace of mind sounds like a pretty good deal to me… now flossing, that’s another story entirely…

— Clif @ 5:31 am