Free alternative to Photoshop

An alternative to Photoshop
So, you want the power of high-end image editing programs like Adobe Photoshop (or Corel PaintShop Pro) but have zero money to spend. The GNU Image Manipulation Program (a.k.a. The GIMP) gives you professional-level image editing capabilities at a budget price. It’s free! And it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Find out more at the GIMP website. The Mac GIMP version runs on the UNIX sublayer of MacOS and requires X11 (a version of Xwindows) which may be a deal breaker for all but the Geekiest of Mac users (not your typical Mac user can work in X11). Supposedly, the Windows version is not so constrained and would be easier on the casual user. There are tutorials to using GIMP on their Website and elsewhere on the Internet.

Andrew Venegas on Vlogging

Andrew Venegas talked to the class about Vlogging
Last Tuesday Andrew Venegas spoke to the class about Video Blogging. The conversation is recorded and is available here as an MP3 download.

Podcast: 01:08:12 duration, 15.6 MB MP3 – Posted March 08, 2007 Raw unedited audio, recorded March 06, 2007.
To listen to lower quality, smaller file size, audio, click here –> MP3 File Here

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca, JMC163, Vlogging

John Furrier of PodTech on New Media Journalism

“Content is the new search engine”
John Furrier, Founder and CEO of PodTech.net, spoke today at a get together for Stanford Innovation Journalism Fellows at Podtech’s Palo Alto offices. Furrier really impressed me, this is one sharp guy! Furrier who has a solid background in computer science said, “there is a huge demand for content, content is the new search engine.” Furrier spoke about RSS, the engine that enables podcasting, comparing it to TCP/IP and HTTP in it’s impact on business. He said, “TCP/IP gave people using computers access to the world, HTTP gave them access to information and RSS gave them access to relationships.” Furrier mentioned Robert Scoble and talked about how Scoble reads a thousand blogs a day with RSS and Google Reader. Scoble is a graduate of the SJSU Journalism program, an A-List blogger and a PodTech Podcaster. Robert was out of town but his wife Maryam was there. She is also a blogger and she also works at PodTech.

This was an event focusing on New Media and Journalism and Furrier talked about what he sees as the future of Journalism. He described a new media model where reporter’s roles are more and more becoming about igniting and curating conversations. He said reporters of the future will work in more of a software development model, focusing on parts of the big stories and working as a team with others to develop coverage and conversations in a way that collaborates both with their audiences and each other. He described this world as being like the open source software development model.

Furrier also sees a rich future for virtual worlds like Second Life and a growing role for journalists to both cover and work in that space. He also spoke about politics and said one of the great uncovered stories is what he called the blogosphere primary where politicians are courting the blogosphere. He talked about Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Google and about how Clinton is courting the Google Vote. He said the press is not talking about that much, but they sure are talking about it at Google.

Furrier said there are technologies journalists need to learn and he specifically mentioned Java Script and XML, but he also said the story they’re telling has to be good. He said, “you need to optimize your behavior because if you don’t tell a good story you will be booed.”

STEM is a go!

STEM is official, has a blog and everything
Having one kid in who is in his thirties and two in their twenties (yes, we started young) I can assure you that what is written above is true, but that is another post. I am thrilled to be the faculty adviser to the coolest club at SJSU, the SJSU Technology and Emerging Media Club (STEM.) They are meeting weekly in the Incubator Conference Room in Clark Hall and are sharing and teaching themselves and fellow students how to use and create emerging media including blogs, RSS, Podcasts, Video Blogs and virtual worlds. STEM meets Wednesdays at 4:30 in Clark 116.

New Media and Crime

Creeps who commit crimes and post them
An unfortunate effect of Web 2.0 technologies is that some creeps commit crimes and then post their criminal acts on the Internet. This is mild compared to some stuff that has been put out there. Murders have been posted many times. The acts posted here got a number of comments to YouTube including this comment:

Thanks to all for your comments & support and everyone who contacted us at Metrolink about the video. Good News: The tagger and his partner who videotaped him tagging our equipment were tracked by our LA County Sheriffs and CHP. They were both arrested for felony vandalism. He had a long history of tagging over 30 freeway overpasses in LA and SB counties and is in state prison. The videographer has also been charged and is facing prison as well.

STEM (SJSU Technology & Emerging Media

For those of you that don’t know, I am VP of a new student organization on campus that is looking to educate students on new media. We’re getting them to blog, vlog, cast every which way, tag, and generally be geekier. STEM is still in its infancy, and any attention we can get and hype we generate will only help promote greater respect for technology in education and the need to continuously evolve methodology. Please feel free to pass this vid around the internet and get people talking. And yes, that is Ze Frank doing that thang he does best.) -Drew

How to reserve Clark Hall Conference Room

Incubator Conference Room
There is a state of the art 16 seat conference room that is available for students to complete and practice presentations as they would in a corporate board room. SJSU student clubs are also encouraged to have their meetings there. Students have priority access to this space. Available technologies in the room include:

• A high resolution projection system
• A high resolution document camera
• A video conferencing system
• An audio conferencing system
• DVD and VHS players
• High speed wired 100MB Ethernet connections available for presenters

Please contact the SJSU Help Desk in Clark Hall 102 to check on availability of this space and to reserve it for your use. Currently there is NOT any calendar available on-line to check, so you have to call or walk in to check. The phone number is (408) 924-2377. Email for the helpdesk is helpdesk@sjsu.edu.

This conference room is part of the Academic Success Center.

Linux Installfest at SJSU Saturday

On Saturday the 24^th there will be an installfest hosted by the SJSU Linux User’s group. This event will be from 11am to 4pm in the Computer Science Club Room in MQH 227 at SJSU. This is an excellent opportunity to get assistance in installing or configuring your Linux system. They will also help you set up dual boot with Windows if you so desire. Their next regular meeting is this coming Thursday at 3pm in the Ohlone Room in the Student Union at SJSU.

I have discovered Vista

This is the first time I have used Vista and Office 2007 to do something productive. One of the things I really like is the ability to make blog posts directly from Microsoft Word. I am going to use this! I guess that means I have more reasons to boot into Boot Camp on my MacBook. Don’t tell anybody I said this, but this rocks!

What is Second Life?

Understanding Second Life
Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of Second Life, talks about the creation of Second Life and how Second Life relates to the real world. This is a key podcast for understanding the thinking behind Second Life. Rosedale refers back to the book Show Crash by Neal Stephenson and the concept of a metaverse. This wonderful set of short interviews was done by iinnovate, a podcast about innovation and entrepreneurship by students at Stanford.