Installing Mavericks over Leopard

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Reverend

maverick-1994-04-gI was at my brother’s last weekend, and he has an old gold 20″ 2007 iMac that was having compatibility issues with various applications and sites. After looking at it briefly, it seemed the only real issue was the fact it was still running Leopard (OS 10.5.8). Fact is, my brother is not a power user by any stretch of the imagination and, like me, upgrading the OS provides no incentive and offers no pleasure. Fact is, until the computer functioning properly, as in this case, the OS will remain unchanged. And in my brother’s case that means never because he knows even less than me.

That said, the computer is pristine and with an updated OS it will be fine for what he and his family does with it currently. I wasn’t sure if the 2 GB of RAM would be enough, but I read that folks were running Mavericks on 2007 iMacs with no issues. So, we said what the hell and did the upgrade.

I spent most of the night figuring out how to install Mavericks over Leopard, and it took a few hours, but it felt really good to get it done. This article from Macworld was the best guide I found. I opted for the “Quick but techie way” for installing Mavericks over Leopard. What was required for this approach were the following three things (all outlined in the Macworld article):

Formatting the bootable Maverick’s install drive was a bit tricky, but with some trial and error (as well as various resources from the linked documentation above) I got it working. It was cool to see Mavericks on a 2.4 GHZ iMac with 2 GB of RAM running seamlessly. When I am back there for Thanksgiving or Christmas I’m planning on putting at least 2 GBs more RAM in that machine. I’m sure it will run like a brand new computer for them.

Once it was finished and everything worked, I told Antonella how good it felt to do something like this for my family again. From 2001 through 2005 I was the go to guy in my family for technology. And while I straddle the edge of tech fluency when it comes to my colleagues, I’m a tech genius when it comes to my family.  And I have to admit that inflated assessment pushes me a bit to prove them right 🙂 I came back to DTLT—well Tim and Andy more specifically—bragging about my minor accomplishment because they know how facile I can be when it comes to this stuff. I boasted not only in expectation of the concomitant teasing, but also because it’s rewarding to do something like this sometimes, and if it’s for someone else—all the better.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Shenandoah’s Noir Issue Logo

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Reverend

SHENANDOAH_NOIRI’ve been working with the Shenandoah literary magazine for a while now, and next week they launch their noir issue. The editor, Rod Smith, asked me to try and come up with a logo/ad for Poetry Daily, and given it’s design week in ds106 I figured I would share what I did here.

If I were to be counting stars, this would be a one, maybe 2, star design assignment. Rather than creating my own logo, I went to The Noun Project and found this “Smoking” icon by Martin Vanco. It oozes noir, so I simply paid $1.99 for the rights to use it without attribution. After that, I grabbed the free Pulp Fiction font from dafont.com and combined the two in GIMP. In just a few quick steps,  I had myself a quick and easy logo that looks fairly professional. All I had to do is arrange the pieces.

I think this is valuable lesson you might take from ds106: part of being to be an artist of and on the web is knowing where to find and how to recombine things. Making art isn’t only about creating, it’s also about knowing, connecting, and recombining what’s already out there. I should get at least 2 stars for knowing, right? And so should you if you now know 🙂

Posted in digital storytelling, Shenandoah | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wire 106: S02E11 “Bad Dreams”

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Reverend

For this video discussion of Season 2 Episode 11 of The Wire, “Bad Dreams,” Paul Bond and I were joined by UMW #wire106 internauts John Meadows and Ien Harris. Once again, the discussion was focused around screenshots from this episode we found interesting in relationship to design. I’m including the screenshots I shared below, although Paul, John, and Ien had several others as well.

One of the things that has struck me this week is just how closely everyone in wire106 is starting to read this series. The are picking up on broader visual motifs, background information about the actors, deep insights about politics, and more. What I am finding amazing about this version of #ds106 is that is its part digital storytelling class, part film class, and part literature class. It’s the best of all possible worlds. I couldn’t be happier with where it’s going, and the discussion sessions during the week give a small group from the larger course community the opportunity to get together in real time and share observations, ideas, and  sense of occasion that is a powerful part of any class.

Another thing I enjoyed about this discussion was Ien’s idea when talking about the difference between visual and design elements—a distinction that often get blurry. He notes that design suggests intentionality, a sense of purpose. And this really starts to bring together what Paul and I have been harping on about all elements of this TV series, all the pieces matter. The design is crucial to the over arching argument it is making, a precisely articulated vision of the human costs of the post-industrial, US city under capitalism. It’s all in the design, yo!

Posted in digital storytelling | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wire 106: S02E10 “Storm Warnings”

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Reverend

For this video discussion of Season 2 Episode 10 of The Wire, “Storm Warnings,” Paul Bond and I were joined by quite a number of UMW #wire106 internauts Demi Fulcher, Alison Thoet, Stefanie Reutter, Meredith Fierro, and Maggie Stough. This discussion was once again focused around screenshots from this episode that each participant shared in order to speak to design in some fashion. These screenshots could be about composition, set design, costume design, etc. My initial series of shots to get the conversation rolling were focused around various surfaces, in particular countertops, as design spaces in this episode. Interesting how rich these seemingly invisible spaces are when you slow down to look carefully. Having a shared focus of attention for the discussions like these screenshots is proving really useful, and relatively successful.

The thirty screenshots we discussed are included below just in case you want a closer look. Enjoy!

Posted in digital storytelling, TV | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Wire 106: S02E09 “Stray Rounds”

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Reverend


For this video discussion of Season 2 Episode 9 of The Wire, “Stray Rounds,” Paul Bond and I were joined by UMW #wire106 internauts Lakisha Mahone and Nicky Memita. This discussion was pretty tight, and I found it a lot of fun. Since we’ve been coordinating discussions more by having everyone who is joining share a few screenshots from the episode they want to discuss in relationship to design. These screenshots could be composition, set design, costume design, etc. The idea is to have a shared focus of attention for the discussions, and I think it is working pretty well.

We spent a fair share of time talking about twenty screenshots. I’m including them below just in case you want a closer look. Enjoy!

Posted in digital storytelling, TV, YouTube | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A Resource on Copyright and Fair Use

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Reverend

Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 10.28.07 AM

Josiah, Sheldon, and Desiree did an excellent job presenting to The Internet Course last night about how copyright and fair use play out in a digital, connected age. I thought the presentation of their material was so good I wanted to share it, along with a couple of points.

  • The built this site using an html5up template that is very elegant, responsive, and does a brilliant job presenting their material.Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 10.28.21 AM

 

  • They loaded this template through their own domain and web hosting, suggesting the world of possibility where students teach us how to best use this space.

Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 10.28.34 AM

  • This is now an open, accessible resource for others looking for information about copyright and fair use in the internet age.

Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 10.50.29 AM

 

Posted in The Internet Course | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

That Thing: The Napster Phenomenon (2000)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Reverend

During a brilliant presentation on copyright and fair use in The Internet Course tonight, the presenters shared a relatively short video called “The Napster Phenomenon” (2000). It was filmed while Napster was in the midst of its legal battles. It’s a pretty fascinating look at how much the question of copyright is tied up with seemingly indisputable notions of the recording industry as the source of great music, and by extension music as necessarily a commodity. I felt like it got at so many of the issues around control in such an industry that perpetuates a model regardless of its relevance.

But, beyond that, it has some classic moments featuring Lars Ulrich‘s campaign against Napster. No wonder this guy has become such a target for his idiocy when it comes to copyright and the music industry. If you are look for a treat, here’s the link directly to the minute or two of Ulrich spewing his uninformed bile 🙂

Posted in The Internet Course, YouTube | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Wire 106: S02E06/E07/E08 “All Prologue,” “Backwash,” and “Duck and Cover”

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Reverend

WIRE106-LOGOLast week “we took a closer look at visual” in ds106, and we returned to video for the discussions of Season 2, episodes 6, 7, and 8 of The Wire. We used a similar logic to organize these discussions as we did during week 4 with audio, namely we had each participant choose images from the episode they wanted to talk about in terms of the visual elements. I felt we prepared for this well by streaming each episode (without the sound) the night before we had the discussion.  I think there were some excellent discussions last week, and we are starting to get our groove.

ep21_greek_nick_sobotkaIn particular, I think the discussion in episode 8 when we started digging into the questions around money, the Greek, and the implications of a culture driven by consumption was pretty interesting. I want to thank the students that show up for these discussion and continue add thoughtfully commentary. I really like the idea of having ongoing discussions about the episodes , and it will be cool to see all 50 discussions spanning 4 seasons at the end of the semester.

S02E06: “All Prologue”
Participants: Imran Ahmed, Paul Bond, and myself

S02E07: “Backwash”
Participants: Imran Ahmed, Meredith Fierro, Maggie Stough, Paul Bond, and myself

S02E08: “Duck and Cover”
Participants: Imran Ahmed, Maggie Stough, Paul Bond, and myself

Posted in digital storytelling | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wire 106 Radio: S02E03/E04/E05 “Hot Shots,” “Hard Cases,” and “Undertow”

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Reverend

Image credit Nicky MemitaBelow are the discussions of the The Wire episodes we had during week 4 of ds106. They were all done on ds106radio given we were introducing audio and focusing on listening. Turns out it was also very useful for me because it forced me to get back into figuring out the intricacies of ds106radio. Pulling in folks from Google Hangouts and/or Skype, as well as playing sound clips, music. etc. is not always intuitive. I took the time during week 4 to get back up and running with the greatest course radio station ever, and Alan Levine’s post on his configuration was invaluable to the process. #Blogging4life

I also had some help from the station’s founder Grant Potter, who archived the first show of the week for us. Also, special thanks to Mikhail Gershovich for helping me test the setup out—you can hear us talking about the setup in this bit of audio Grant captured.

Below are the three radio shows in their entirety, along with links to all those who took part in the discussions. The setup worked really well in my opinion. Everyone was asked to share an audio clip from the episode they would like to discuss. And we went round robin with about 4-5 minutes on each clip—this really helped focus the discussions. What’s more, it also helped tremendously that we listened to each of these episodes the night before these discussions as a class on ds106radio.

Season 2, Episode 3 “Hot Shots” (9/17/14)
Participants: Maggie Stough, Imran Ahmed, Brittany , Stefanie Reutter, Paul Bond, and myself.

Season 2, Episode 4 “Hard Cases” (9/18/14)
Participants: Melinda Albrycht, Allison Thoet, Syd Bauman, LaKisha Mahone, Paul Bond, and myself.

Season 2, Episode 5 “Undertow” (9/19/14)*
Participants: Imran Ahmed, Paul Bond, and myself.

*  Unfortunately episode 5 was cut off a bit because I didn’t start archiving until about 5-10 minutes into the conversation, mea culpa.

Posted in digital storytelling, ds106radio | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

International Horror Comes to Culpeper: Four Flies on Gray Velvet and Thriller

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Reverend

On October 25th the Library of Congress, Packard Campus will be showing Dario Argento’s 1972 film Four Flies on Gray Velvet. The following description of this trippy film is taken from Wikipedia:
Quattro_mosche

Roberto Tobias (Brandon) is a drummer in a rock band who has noticed a man following him for the last several days. Angered by this, he confronts the stranger in an abandoned theater to find out what he wants. The man claims he does not know what Roberto is talking about, and pulls a switchblade. The two struggle, and Roberto accidentally stabs the man, who falls into an orchestra pit, lifeless. To make matters worse, someone in a bizarre puppet mask has been hiding in the upper wings of the theater and takes incriminating photographs of Roberto holding the bloody knife. Roberto flees, but the next day he receives the dead man’s ID in the mail. It becomes apparent that the masked figure has no interest in going to the police, and instead wants to drive Roberto mad with fear and paranoia. But why?

It’s pretty cool to see Packard Campus busting out some pretty rare, vintage Dario Argento. This film has the “first known instance (in feature films) of following a bullet’s trajectory with high-speed cameras.” Which will be cool to see in 35 MM. I’ve never seen this one in any format, and the reason why is because until fairly recently this film was next to impossible to find on VHS or DVD. Paramount kept it out of circulation until 2009.

Add to that the screening of the British made-for-TV film series “Thriller”  the night before and I might was well be in LA 🙂 I hadn’t heard of this series until I got the handout when I went to see The Empire Strikes Back last weekend, and it seems like a gem of a series. They’ll be airing two of the episodes on the 24th, so it looks like I might be spending a good part of that weekend in Culpeper at the movies.

Friday, Oct. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
THRILLER (ITV, 1974)
Produced in the UK between 1973 and 1976, “Thriller” was a series of 43 short made-for-TV films, each written by prolific film and TV scribe Brian Clemens. Similar to “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” the films were later imported into the U.S. for showing as part of ABC’s late-night offering “ABC Wide World of Entertainment.” Since their original airing, the series has developed a loyal cult following due to its inventive plots, clever twists and colorful casting. Two episodes will be shown: “In the Steps of a Dead Man” and “I’m the Girl He Wants to Kill.”
Black & white, 120 minutes

How bizarrely awesome that a print of this rare Italian film and obscure British TV series will be screening in Culpeper, VA. What an awesome little film mecca that town is.

 

Posted in film, films, movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment