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• Week ending December 22, 11
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This past week (12-22-11):
• Created two versions of the AD20 graphics for Glenna. Haven't heard back.
• Attended via connect: Millet's Assistant Director plea
• Infographic must have passed muster- haven't heard much. Added Vicki's headers and contact info to the page, even though it isn't a real site...
• Highlights for 2011:
  1. Lawbook publication test site
  2. istudy interview
  3. istudy #8
  4. istudy #9
  5. istudy #10
  6. AD20 Scenarios demo
  7. AD20 image set
  8. Screens for Training Group
  9. Added video to Marta's presentation for Al and Rod
  10. Images for the Toxicology Project
  11. Extensive blog posts on HTML5, video, captioning, accessibility, Wallaby, Swiffy, Edge, Muse, Pixelmator, magazine apps, ebooks, 10 channel photo adjustment
  12. TLT Infographic

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This past week (12-09-11):
• More work on infographic for Vicki's tech classroom faculty survey. Created web site, rebuilt image after software/hardware mishap, responded to feedback.
• Several emails back and forth, questions about job responsibiliyies, best practices, career paths- all for nothing, all shrugged off
• Decided to argue the numbers associated with my job description. If the advertised salary scale can be shown to be false, even intentionally false, maybe someone will listen to me.
• Listened to broadcast of Assistant director presentation, filled out feedback form. The form was painfully superficial, didn't really allow for honest feedback- more of a like or don't like set of buttons. I ignored the buttons and wrote in the available text fields.
• The sound for the presentation was by phone- it was slightly distorted with a good bit of background noise. I'm thinking that to be fair, I should hear the last candidate the same way. Too bad everyone is a white, male, friend of Cole's
• Worked on iStudy toon layout.
• Contacted by Glenna and set up meeting to create Ad20 images
• Finally managed to post a short post about Pixelmator- the Photoshop killer as wellas GIMP. GIMPwill go away when Lion gets installed. Too bad.

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This past week (12-02-11):
• Two weeks off, plus a few afternoons..
• Prepared infographic for Vicki's tech classroom faculty survey.
• Plotter demo for Hannah and her tech rep for Mat Research.
• Plotted poster for Stevie

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This past week (11-04-11):
• Fleshed out documentation, prepared files for easy presentation. Met with Gary Gilden and his assitant. Re-sent URLs and files.
• Quick experiment with new release of Adobe Edge. Interactivity on a level that seems similar to Flash 3 is possible. SHowed to Pat, Mike and Brad.
• After a question about an iStudy dialog I discovered I had started the wrong one. Regrouped and arranged text for next dialog.
• Started a layout of a visualization of the ECAR findings, just in case I need it. Haven't heard back, so just trying to stay ready.
• Went to ITS all-staff. Complete waste of time.
• Note about AD20 video process; Troubleshoot simple html chart with jerry; looking at the new Linda.com&lovin' it.
• Viewed PressPausePlay, downloaded and shared through email, pulled quotes for blog. Several questions asked in video- would make excellent discussion points for wider distribution.

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This past week (10-21-11):
• Attended Susan Ambrose talk to engineering faculty on the worth of online labs. Excellent.
• Attended Zummer lecture on drawing and painting at Palmer Lipcon. Talked too much, but good.
• Posted info on Wacom Touch to blog.
• Posted further info on Adobe Digital Publishing to blog.
• Found training info on diigo, have educatores account. Will figure it out at some point...
• Viewed some of the Educause streaming sessions. Really don't get what the purpose truly is- if it's to network, show me a connection made there that Penn State benefits from.a benefit. If it's to be seen, does Lockheed look for grant recipients at an educause conference? If it's to learn and grow, show me some improvement in staff work after attending. This paradigm needs to change as radically as the old higher ed paradigm. This should be a post.
• Entered dialog for next iStudy toon into balloons.
• Continued entering text into lawbook blog.

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This past week (10-14-11):
• As I entered the men's room vicki was going in the ladies room. She said she'd be talking to me about the educause survey. I said I'd be listening. She said they want it made pretty. I said oh boy. That's as far as we've gotten.
• Moved 16 lion drawings to facebook and flickr after removing identifiable Penn State indicia.
• Lawbook efforts all focused on getting a transferable or even viewable .folio file- the precursor to a magazine "app" It's not very well organized- I've been through the adobe documentation and the lyndadotcom videos and still it won't preview usably. I'll keep at it.
• Discussed eubs with Pat- he seems interested in development. Provided a book and some links. Told him I'd help if he got stuck.
• Attended Aaron Wexler lecture on drawing at Palmer Lipcon. Nice.
• Looked in to Wacom touch tablet. Looks very cool, though I'd hold off another year.

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This past week (10-07-11):
• AD20 stuff seems to have met with a bit of student approvel. Don't know if it will require more of my time, but I doubt it.
• Finished iStudy 10 and sent Brett files. Will start #11 this coming week
• Experimented with Nikon to see if it's worth keeping. I can use a tape measure to get fair shots- so it's still useful to me.
• Heard from Hershey and the lion toon was approved. I noticed a few on my page that could be updated and tweaked two.
• Tried Photoshop Tutorial Builder plug-in and gave some feedback to Adobe. I like the idea, but the output if so general that it's only useful to create a tutorial "template".
• Looking in to my copyright work agreement with Penn State. Either the agreement I needed to sign to get hired was fair and legal, or it wasn't. So far, HR says they don't see the original and I've contacted IPO. I have yet to meet anyone that had to sign a work-for-hire agreement. No one seems to get how serious this is and what the ramifications of laboring under this agreement while all others are free to "share and share a like..." We'll see.
• Had note from Paul that he's still aware of my request to find out if I can bring in my nordicTrak- he's waiting to get a response to his question. Meanwhile, a manager has his own exercise machine in his office and works at his computer while running on it.

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This past week (9-30-11):
• Proof-of-concept webpages for Brian and Kim's AD20 video project.
• Attended web seminars on producing accessible ePubs, and another on testing screen readers
• Spent time exporting an epub based completely on HTML5 and couldn't get it to show up in iBooks or ADE. I'll look more at the proposed spec, but I don't hold a lot of hope for success.
• Quick cartoon for research group at Hershey
• More drawing on iStudy strip.

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These past weeks (9-23-11):
• Halfway through iStudy layot posted two panels that I thought were interesting.
• Continued with lawbook.
• Continued with lawbook blog site.
• Helped hang wallhogs for Derick. Lauren will be doing two more.
• Talking with Tara about a fix for the 'Dunning-Kruger effect' on ITS creativity. Just getting started; maybe this will go somewhere.
• Note to Bert Monroy about speaking at Penn State. He needs more info and hasn't provided rates.
• Attended Kevin's talk on IT Leadership.
• Watched Jim Groom live online; participated through twitter.
• Caught some of the Social Good summit

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These past weeks (9-16-11):
• Background layout-Old Main-for iStudy. Should be re-usable.
• Continued trying to lay out law book blog site. Manipulating to add a mark, necessary end text, or control layout is unreasonably difficult.
• Have hand numbered paragraphs in one lawbook, css auto numbered in another.
• Video experiments with object tag, getting a code set that will universally place a video in the lawbook xhtml version.
• Have pdf version, footnotes entered and exported via InDesign
• Also pdf version with tags entered via Acrobat
• Set up educator's account on diigo. Haven't had much opportunity to explore.
• Updated Edge, Muse. Downloaded Hype- quick look only-html5 animator, 14 trial.

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These past weeks (9-09-11):
• Several versions of an animation technique used by RSA. It looks like someone does very detailed drawings right along with a speaker. It's compiled somehow, certainly, but I couldn't figure how. I came up with an idea and tried several attempts. It was successful, but labor intenssive. I just had a revelation about a better way that would be within my software capabilities and will try it as soon as I can. It would be very useful if anyone's interested...
• Validated lawbook epub, html5. Created print style sheet. Created PDF with video- need to add links.
• Created javascript enabled html lawbook. Footprint action seems jarring both with it and without. the only non-jarring method seems to be print.
• Started a blog site to gather together information on the lawbook as well as comments and discussion.
• Finished last Toxicology illo for this movie.
• Realized I have video cameras in my new monitor and gave it a try.

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These past weeks (8-26-11):
• Time off this week.
• Still having a few minor issues finding software. Nothing major.
• Created what likely will be the final epub version of the lawbook. It took some effort, but inner links work, video works, plays well on the iPad. Wrote a third blog post and shared links. Need to organize my thoughts before writing more. There were a few major revelations, and I have specific insights and recommendations. Next, a print style sheet and a tagged PDF with video.
• Completed three more illustrations for Toxicology- working on final one (for me) in this movie.
• Entered all the dialog text for the next iStudy toon. It's a bit shorter, with fewer characters, and should go more quickly than the others.
• Hannah asked if I'd look at the Kelly menu for the pre-symposium keynote dinner. I did, made suggestions, and also recommended that she could send Kristen a note with the digital menu and get some input from her. She's a foody, has a sense of popular cuisine, and has a feel for appropriate v. Cole's tastes. Also thought it might reflect well on Hannah.
• Mail and calendar conversion to UCS, along with everyone else.

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This past week (8-12-11):
• New machine dominated the week. Resolution difficulties, some minor software issues. Making do.
• Created dead fish for toxicology
• Exported several trial ePubs of the lawbook. Some of my software issues were with the small app I use to edit the internal files of an epub. Troubleshooting- finding exactly what was the cause of certain video and code issues- was especially difficult given the number of variables.
• Finished the experimental iStudy strip for Tara, posted it to my blog.

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This past week (8-05-11):
• Placed css image map in wiki for Brian. Odd coding to use an iframe to load an external doc. Faculty enjoyed it, though. Also experimented with SVG version with no luck. Hard locating info on the syntax of an embedded link in an svg file but managed. Everything worked but wiki wouldn't accept it.
• Downloaded Adobe Edge, the html5 animation package. Didn't have a lot of time- sent quick opinion to Cole, did a few cheezy clips.
• Completed mangrove for toxicology
• I finished coding the lawbook as valid xhtml. That can be copied and pasted into a shell exported from InDesign, and should make a solid epub version. With tweaks, of course; but this is a big step.

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This past week (7-29-11):
• Had to troubleshoot the captioning on the Lawbook captioned video. Captions weren't displaying in my ipad. Summarized in a blog post.
• Test site for Brian- can we do image maps as wiki entries? I did a page with three different "maps"- a traditional image map, a sliced and table-combined set of 16 sub-graphics, and a background image in CSS with styled hot-spots.
• Sent the completed html5 version of the lawbook to the faculty mainly for a reaction. Haven't heard yet.
• Exported first ePub of the lawbook. Video isn't part of the spec yet- it's an Apple add-on so although it's possible, there are some difficulties. One is that the tool i use-Sigil- doesn't allow hml5- it's strictly xhtml. The apple approved version of coding the video is with the html5 video tag. Sigil won't even let it exist on the page.
• Finished corn for Toxicology.
• Sent first panel of iStudy banner to Tara- seems okay, HUB is recognizable..
• Minor troubleshooting on image for Hannah. CSS consult with Jerry.

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This past week (7-22-11):
• So far I've created a manifest list for Chapter 3. I've tried re-compressing the original WMV but Flip4Mac has been putting a watermark on everything. I re-captured the original with SnapzPro then compressed as a half dozen different 320x180 formats to facilitate html5 embedding. Everything works so far. Table of contents at the top seems reasonable but the "back" function from the footnotes file lands at the top of the pge so I'll need to add return anchors. I'd like to see if the manifest works.
• Firefox does add a banner that asks if the site can save things for later use- which is what the manifest provokes. On the righttrack. I think the basic html is done. Compare it to the original: The original is Chapter 3 in the left nav frame and my version is self contained. I managed to add several patterns that enhance accessibility/usability, including footnotes that don't rely on javascript pop-ups and links to the Lexis Nexis that are larger and more descriptive. My guess is that if all the pages were done this way, and could be bookmarked in diigo, it would be everything needed. Cleaning the html is a primary step.
• Finished snow scene, finished truck, and finished snowman for eTox. Will possibly get to more on the weekend, though Tara asked about the three panel iStudy cartoon earlier and I had to put her off with a promise to get to it soon. Damn.
• Layed out and printed a poster for Jeff. Had trouble and needed to trouble shoot the file and plotter.
• Plotted 6- 18x24 images for "camp". It was last minute and as usual, didn't have to be.
• Took lawbook text into InDesign for ePub prep.
• I added a captioned version option for the lawbook frrdom rider video.

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This past week (7-15-11):
• No "name attribute on an anchor is html5? Discovered the easy solution and have tons more typing ahead of me. At least I know how to correctly get past the plethora of named anchors in the law doc. Much work to be done, but am able to make some headway over the weekend. Not quite sure how the diigo sharing process works, but I've started a group. Hopefully, diigo will provide a solid commenting structure around my well formatted html5 document. Have to decide about video embedding. I've downloaded the lawbook video and it's WMV format. That's not very extensible- html5 will allow for a cascade if I embed. I haven't done this much critical html and css in years.
• Time off this week- spent it all on the toxicollogy illustrations. I'm shocked that these would be listed as requiring roughly 3 hours each, though I'm being assured that once we're beyond this first "hook" video, the average time neded will drop radically. It or me, for sure.
• No response to the video I posted for Brian. Controversial because I'm embarrassed by the name "hot team"? Beats me- it was a suitably "chunked" bit of specific math instruction done with a tablet. Maybe I should aim for more humor...
• Note back from Rox thanking me for the info I provided her on tablets. Their group is going with the HP TouchSmart technology. Impressive stuff, for $900.

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This past week (7-08-11):
• Did first two images for Toxicology. Long, involved, and pointless. 6 images in twenty hours is not a great estimate- this is the first two, compiled and reduced in size. Each is 800 X 600. They'll be on screen for less than 10 seconds.
• Quick screen cap video for Brian's video blog post. Experimented with getting it on line.
• Reviewed ideas for short cartoons as lleed-ins for new iStudy pages. They're better than the module scripts, and shorter. Three panels for the first.
• Instapaper was instrumental in creating usable code for the Law Book. A bit daunting knowing that it's one chapter and is about 50,000 words. Next, I want to replace some of the elements in my hnd coded version to reflect instapaper's cleanup. Then on to html5 validation.
• I was asked if I'd heard anything about a poster for Jeff and Robin- I hadn't. May turn in to a bit of a rush job at some point.

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This past week (7-01-11):
• Re-labeled original UCS logo to reflect name change..
• Provided upated whitepaper graphic to Brian for his use with Derick
• Had initial meeting with Mike, talked with Pat, worked on Toxicology images. Six images in 20 hours is a horrible underestimation of time needed.
• Tried repeatedly to validate code for Law book in html. Any kind of html, actually. Validators quit after 1000 errors. Seriously bad- I've copied the text and am re-coding from the beginning. This needs to be right or everything is in question. Looking more at ePub, Instapaper, and diigo, too.
• Met to discuss new images for iStudy. I finished episode 9, but it looks like the scripts and intros might get a polish and overhall. May use photos as a base to draw characters for a "behind the scenes" sort of approach leaving the other strips completely in tact.
• Read through next iStudy10 script; started planning location.
• Still looking at Pixelmator. Installed on modbook. Imported a few PSD brushes. Nice app; Photoshop is better...

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This past week (6-24-11):
• Created initial iteration of a UCS "logotype" to be used for the initial roll-out. Ended week with a tweak to the originals.
• Lobbied gently for name change to accompany logotype- Allan thought Suite instead of Service and I agreed. He suggestedit to Derick, who spearheads all of our mrketing and branding efforts. Gretta made sure the suggestion finely made it to the right people.
• Experiments embedding video in PPT, Quicktime Presentatons and PDF. Also, learned several things to edit PDF files in Acrobat.
• Cleaned up and delivered our version of the AIS-BI presentation for Rod and Al.
• Hosted a small UIE web seminar on Design. I think getting together to chat would be better than the presentations. Maybe gather on a specific topic?
• Information to Roxanne about tablet usage. Suggested she stop by and try mine, or try to borrow one.
• Attended the MacLearn web seminar on epubs. Gathered a few useful URLs and shared the info
• Tried to attend the Educause broadcast- Spotlight on Mobile Computing. Signed up twice, have an account, but the room never appeared. I used their contact form, but never heard back. EDUCAUSE is a pointless, time sucking organization; I've never had success with these, and often have trouble with downloads.
• Still looking at Pixelmator. Nice app; Photoshop is better...
• Started working with the code for the lawbook. I grabbed the source HTML and I really don't understand how it was able to be rendered; it's horrible by 1997 standards. It will take considerable effort to clean it up; maybe they should start there...
• Spent some time picking apart Michael's Toxicology images- shouldn't be very difficult. His style is simple and the images aren't complex.

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This past week (6-17-11):
• Met with Allan to get approval to start Toxicology. Also discussed needs of Law school around epublishing
• Met with Mike and Pat to review Toxicology. Grabbed some of Mike's work to review style.
• Met to discuss Al and Rod's slides. Ran some experiments with screen capture and Acrobat, along with media in Keynote. Provided a relabeled duplicate of the background that I'd created for Training.
• Continuing iStudy. Only four strips to go on this one. Pushed through weekend but didn't complete it.
• Met with K-12 faculty from Indiana. Demoed Photoshop and shared some of my own resources. Started reviewing the syllabus.
• Looking at Pixelmator- an image application that's inexpensive but has much of Photoshop's functionality.
• Looking too at the updated Adobe Nav app for iPad. Allows for image transfer from iPad to Photoshop. Very cool.

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This past 2 weeks (6-10-11):
• Laying out iStudy toon. Going slowly and I've been trying to push this one. Too many people, too much boring dialog and I have trouble feeling the work is worthwhile. Stage is set, concept ready, dialog in place, adding characters.
• Looked at NYPublicLibrary Biblion app on Cole's recommendation. Interesting stuff. Confusing navigation, but comprehensible with work.Looking for gains over a more linear approach and not seeing them.
• Larger icon to TK for his test apps
• Posted a whitepaper test epub for TK to link to.
• Received note from Glenna Emel that I was recommended for Zimbra logo and branding assistance. I explained DEricks over arching "vision" and passed the info on to him.
• Looked in to epub downloads from Wordpress blogs, located some info and passed it on. A wordpress blog doesn't automatically provide for successful epub download- which could be bad news if we move to Wordpress and explore the uses of ePub.
• Finally received my ITS Climate Survey, print version. It took two weeks. I was locked out of the online version, twice. I suggested that we publicise the questions so everyone can read and reflect- not just the people who receive the print copy. It was called a good idea but after two weeks, there were no results. I scanned mine, compressed a PDF, put it online and sent Susan a copy and the link. The next day the copy the committee was preparing was distributed. I was copied on a few of the communications, and I'm shocked.
• Extreme silliness over tallying hours. I don't do piece work. Tallying hours is debasing and demoralizing. When I talked with Mike, I suggested he state how long he thinks an image should take and ETS gets paid that much for a completed image. Or they buy an "asset", an image, just like they'd buy a book, or slides. We'll see how that goes over.
• In touch yet with Gretta over Zimbra roll out. This ended with me forwarding information to Derick, though my preference was UR. While that was going on, I put together a few versions of a "make-do" image. Also, I placed the image in a graphic being used in a Zimbra whitepaper.

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This past week (5-27-11):
• diigo, instapaper and yammer- the new stuff. Not too exciting.
• Starting watching Illustrator training videos. Need to pump up my skills a bit- they aren't nearly as strong as my Photoshop skills.
• Watched recorded photoshop presentation; excellent, novel techniques that have been around since Photoshop's beginning. Made one blog post and will add more..
• Talked with Tara about their horizontal organization presentation. I mentioned that I felt should have been there- she apologized, but I feel it was indicative of my worth and position that management didn't see the need or worth to have my voice, and ear, involved. More and more disturbing every day.
• As I walked by Allen's office, Erin was at the door. They were tallking about Cafe press and she asked about me "doing something cool, maybe a tee shirt with the ets logo..." I said first that maybe just Penn State, then added that there was no ets logo anymore, only TLT- she should ask Derick about it. I didn't hear anything from Allen.
• Looked at article on the "9 things ed tech has wrong" sent by Jerry. I had to agree with it, though it was a small startup blasting the large over-priced guys.
• I like flat, I like horizontal, I like skilled people doing their work: adults who don't need management because they have a personal vision. In this environment there is no one to understand and appreciate, nor truly encourage the creative designers and writers. Everyone gets labeled "marketer" and there personal contribution is corrupted.

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This past week (5-20-11):
• Loaded and blogged about Indiana University's Publication app- which acts as a single distribution point for several magazines. They use the Adobe system. Still not sold on it. It's sealed, and not machine readable. I don't think they're really appropriate for higher ed... though they really have a big "cool" factor.
• Looking at InstaPaper and Diigo workflow. complex for all but the geeky. I do like the move to html to provide content and the use of InstaPaper to keep saved webpages for off line viewing. This is one of the better affordances of HTML5- if it was universally supported. It would then be seemless for users, with the cache happening in the background and the page just displaying as normal even without a live connection.
• Noodling with Brett's poster ideam and the layout of the next iStudy toon
• Looking atstandards for mobile web, just so I'm aware.
• Fires to deal with: Main one is the survey and its lack of usability.

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This past week (5-13-11):
• Referring to linda.com modules, several books and blog posts, I managed an epub that looks good and validates. Used free utility "Sigil"- which I blogged about last year.
• Exported epub successfully from InDesign after some false starts. Haven't included much media, yet.
• Purchased and did initial experiments with the new Photoshop Nav app on the iPad, allowing remote access to some functionalities- adding another control device to my tower. Have not blogged about it yet, but will.
• Showed Photoshop Nav app to TK.
• Showed TK my modbook paper and print stylesheet. Also started tweaking the stylesheet to make it work the same from all browsers. It appears to be possible. Use margins instead of padding will help, I've read...
• IT-Matters recording still not up? Found it myself and posted to twitter. No notice sent; main page says "available soon." Still waiting for subtitles to help translate Adewami from a few weeks back. We are incompetent and should be fired. There are capable people out of work.
• Brett askedfor input on a poster for NMC. Prepared a rough, but he's not sure. It would be a complex undertaking, so I'll continue working on the idea to avoid last minute crisis.

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This past week (5-06-11):
• Several iterations of a background template for the Training Group's video modules. Delivered final version.
• Downloaded update to allow .folio export from InDesign. May be better to wait for InDesign 5.5 to avoid the need to uninstall a few modules...
• Checked out Adobe's export service for turning PDF files into Word docs. Works suprizingly well.
• Showed new ipad magazine app to TK. Also provided some feedback on his handheld friendly whitepaper layout.
• Also put TK's whitepaper into an epub. Had trouble exporting, and it may be because of problems with the new interactive capabilities. Not sure how I feel about all this...
• Refuse to allow the 9.95 per head cost to attend NLI-itmatters. They didn't stream however, and claimed it would be up later in the week. It's Saturday, and not up. I'm still waiting for subtitles to help translate Adewami from a few weeks back. How sad to NOT provide a translation. I'm beginning to think the governor is right.

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This past week (4-29-11):
• Met with Derick and Justin over iTunes marketing images. Added a label to the image that was previously accepted, providing two options. This ended up being several more iterations for iTunesU and iPad. I believe it's done- though they want to re-do all college headers and provide "album cover" icons for podcasts.
• Printing posters with Mike's daughter. She's completely independent on the equipment and only needed minor suggestions to be successful. Good to see Emily, too.
• Talked with Tara and Dawn- they want design help with a set of e-learning templates. Not completely sure what will be involved, but will meet again next week to get some specific info.
• I have the text entered into the next iStudy toon and have established a locale and started the background.
• Tried editing a wallaby export- I could alter SVG in illustrator with no problem. The xml and javascript are a bit cryptic. Discovered a timing discrepency between Chrome and Safari, with Chrome (!) getting it right.
• Picked up an experimental "book" through itunes, for ipad. Slickly done with new, beta software.
• I was overly loud in the hall. Following a private incident in the restroom, I vented in the hall as I dealt with the situation in the only way open to me. I was told that I was overly loud- that the behavior should be something that, as a rule, we should not accept in our work environment. I have to agree. The suggestion was that on days that I feel especially at odds with work or other staff, I should take the day off. I see this as good advice.

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This past week (4-22-11):
• Provided to Dana and Gretta several versions of a Penn State Mark usable in Word, in a specific size.
• Adjusted on-the-fly header image to be used in iTunes and iPad -for Justin and Derick.
• Looking at Wallaby- an Adobe utility that exports an FLA as html, svg, and javascript in an editable folder. Interesting. Promisigng. Apparently, it was presented at AdobeMax. Made two posts, am working on a third.
• Mike stopped by to mention he would need to plot Plone posters. I sent an email pointing out the recnt footprint ticket and suggested that he might want to get another plan in place, just in case.
• Looked into the possibility of using "Adobe Nav" with iPad. Hard to find specifics, but it will need to be supported by a Photoshop update due in May. Could be promising...
• Called in to meeting to tweak the iTunes header.
• Weeks ago Brent sent out an email to his Second Life educators list asking for a statement on how SL was used. I prepared and posted about it with text, images and video.
• Several vacation days this week.
• (Green for earth Day....)

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This past week (4-15-11):
• Sent small group of old main photos to Derick, for an iTunes header, at his request. One photo was selected and I did some masking on it for Justin, through Derick. Derick asked to watch, and I just showed him some of my process.
• Finished the iStudy toon I've been working on. I packaged all the web strips with their code and included PSD versions for each. I placed them all in the iStudy folder on athena at Brett's request seems like a good idea- the only difficulty will be when I see a minor correction, I'll have to fix it in multiple places.
• Read résumés, searched on line, and attended director presentations. I discussed the presentations with colleagues, sent feedback to Terry. This has been an almost system wide debilitation of our unit. That and the srdp have filled our time with work that should be done, I believe, by HR. Add the symposium, which actually has worth, and the entire year so far has been pretty much spent. That just seems wrong...
• SRDP with barb.
• This was actually last week, but I just realized it should go here. Mike came into my cubicle while I was talking with someone. I had eight or nine windows open and was involved in several things. Mike still came in, still persisted. My other colleague left to allow Mike to talk- mike needed me to change the date on his plone tee shirt logo as he was on the way to the printer. This involved completely shifting gears, trying to locate extra files that Mike needed, either on Athena, a disk, or my computer. I usually have no trouble with this, but I was completely of guard. I know I burned all of my Plone work to a disk for Mike and myself, but at the moment, under the circumstances, I couldn't remember why I didn't have it where I keep things. Unfortunately the artwork needed specific fonts. I couldn't recall what they were, they weren't loading when I tried to open the files even though I had the fonts and had sent copies to both Mike and Rob. Part of the artwork that Mike was able to get from Rob was rasterized- unusable. I replaced it with vector art. Later I also found that my font issues were due to a recent Mac upgrade. This is really something Mike could do, Rob certainly, and I've provided material and fonts each year to facilitate this. When I couldn't readily say what font it was, Mike suggested that "maybe I should make a note somewhere..." At which point I cut him off and said- "No mike, You need to make a note somewhere and store these where you cn get them." I was good natured when I said it, Mike took it that way, and I'm putting it here because it was grossly unfair, a major imposition showing complete disrespect for my colleagues, my work, and my time- and I was good natured about it. I was livid; and I was good natured. Just sayin'...

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These past weeks (4-08-11):
• Looked at free fonts via @font in response to email request from faculty
• Completed two new strips of iStudy toon. One more to finish the first toon.
• Met with group to discuss process and brand. Outcome- I will send identity stuff to Derick. Except for the Plone stuff I had to do pdq for Mike on Friday.
• Changed date on a plone image for Mike's teeshirt printing. It was pretty much of an interuption, and I had trouble locating files.
• Started pushing around pixels and text with in an epub file and am looking at access through different devices.
• Minor house keeping- changed the header on this page. Added my "chrome" identity bar. Discovered that 2002-and-earlier files lacked closing tags and used tags in uppercase. I fixed as much as seemed practical.
• Brett sent a note to everyone who has used Second Life, asking for a "how I used it" statement by May. I went "in world" and did some minor building and made some screen caps. I'd like to do something decent, even though I haven't officially used it in education.
• Took what I would call a "first pass" discussion of the srdp.
• Several vacation days this week.

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These past weeks (4-01-11):
• Sign and button for Brian completed
• Mounted and trimmed posters for Derick.
• Took symposium photos with bad camera- uploaded from office at lunch so Lauren had material to work with. Minor retouching of the 100+ images, but images are overwhelmingly poorly focused. Did the best I could. Audrey was there with the D-90.
• Elizabeth asked me if I could participate in her accessibility group as someone who knows something about Kindle, pdf, and epub. I agreed. Really don't know if I'll be much help...
• Attended symposium, but technically did not attend any sessions. What a waste.
• Attended Connect meeting with Larry Ragan and David LeFevre. Another one was a live interview with Lynda.com and David Wesch. I do this sort of thing regularly, but never bother including it in pofessional development number. Same goes for ITS staff meetings.
• Every morning, Brian, Michael T and I spend a tad less than an hour talking over coffee. It's about process, design, responsibility, other stuff- seems valid and important. Occassionally talking design with Mike.
• iStudy toon is almost done- many tough parts, but I think it will be worth it
• launcher icon for TK. Much discussion with this, coming mostly, I'd guess, for TK's request for a "logo".

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These past weeks (3-18-11):
• Buttons from Purebutton needed adjustment- poor printing, but excellent customer service.
• Went back to Pollock to sketch- came up with a decent overview of the lab, stylistically placing the istudy kids in the "informal" learning space in Pollock
• Two strips from the iStudy toon done.
• Put level on hall's wallhogs and tweeked the positioning.
• Went through batteries for the Nikon D1X- full charge on each, and they seem to be holding it. Past experience has me a bit concerned. Also clearing out space in my flickr account to make room. May just come back to office at lunch to upload images. There is a "psuets" account, but I think it's Cole's. I found a "psutlt" site and asked Derick if I can get access.
• Very little symposium work

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These past weeks (3-11-11):
• Helped Brian brainstorm, then setup modbook to record staff handwritten input as frames. Converted resulting SWF into three short web ready MP4 files
• Justin asked for the apple "bite" to be removed from the MacAdmin logo- I did, sent files, have heard nothing
• Turned in a "soft release" of my SRDP.
• Have layout of "learning space" for iStudy cartoon.
• Made and ordered a couple "ask me about clickers" buttons for Brian to use at symposium.
• Brian showed our guerilla button to Allan, and we're going to do a generic version for people to write things on. Changed the layout slightly and will go through PureButton instead of CafePress.
• "Emergency" images for Mike- header and footer for WEBLION
• Hung wallhogs with Derick.
• Watched ITMatters video- could not understand accent. Asked if there was a transcript. Few people that I've talked to could understand it. No transcript available, but I'm thinking that NOT providing insight into the difficult accent represents EXTREME racism. I guess it'll be okay if I sign the "principles."
• Very little symposium work

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This past week (2-25-11):
• Cropped and adjusted four web images for Brian.
• Retouched three large images for Kim to give Jamie. Used one of them to prepare a blog post on the Photoshop process, but I don't know if it's appropriate to use a photo of a staff member. Maybe I'll check.
• Justin got back to me and I started work on his logo the for Mac Admins. Not the best timing. Sent several versions.
• Laid out text for first iStudy toon. Kim suggested I stage the toon in one of our "new" learning spaces since we're marketing them. Finding addresses is a bit tough from the site: I didn't know where several buildings are. I used the Nikon and went to Willard- the first place I recognized. I went to Pollock and grabbed several useful shots. The spaces aren't kept very orderly- nor are they very private. I think the unusual furniture may help to create a recognizable, fun toon.
• Helped Stevie print several posters.
• "Emergency" images for Mike- header and footer for WEBLION
• Discussed idea with Barb and Kim:
  • Remove 'ITS Principles" from the wall and the SRDP; they are superficial and condescending, do not teach, and do not give people credit for the integrity they've developed, brought with them, and already share. We are not children. We all can learn. We all deserve respect.
  • Ask staff to write a paragraph on diversity or personal integrity as part of and to be included in the SRDP.
  • Hire Sam Richards to develop a short course to run in 101 Thomas, exposing the concepts of nationalism, racism, agism, gender and sex issues, class, and other biases effecting the pure exercise of a diverse life. Use blogs and video, patterned after Sam's Soc class.
  • If the course is five sessions, make attending three mandatory. Otherwise, we're teaching the choir. Everyone goes. Everyone is included and we are all responsible for encouraging attendance.
  • This tests the technology and methods, is proactive in attacking the enemies of diversity, and stands a good chance of working.
  • Keep it away from people who "just want to do good." It isn't a "good" it represents what should be a status quo "given" Involve professional educators and sociologists.
  • This sets a standard for ITS, and gives Sam and the Soc department an opportunity to develop something useful for a new audience, while providing access to instructional designers and technology specialists.
  • Pay Sam.
  • Do not take short cuts or water this down.
  • There can be no penalties for voiced contention nor reward for agreement.
  • Take attendance the way Sam always takes attendance. Count blog comments. Consider offering continuing ed credit.

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This past week (2-18-11):
• In discussion with Brian and Mike about a separation within ETS splitting our direction. They clearly see the same things that I've been seeing and that Cole and his inner core patently deny.
• Caught several of the ELI sessions via online streaming. The first day they weren't advertising streaming or recorded sessions at all; instead, they had registration for online attendance. Very sad. By the last day, they put a "streaming" notice on their main page with a link to several canned and live sessions. Unfortunate. The closing session on copyright was infuriating. I'm shocked by thetone of the Google lawyer. The only reaction I've read so far has been Allan's- and he claims the guy was "preaching to the choir."
• Created an experimental wooden scribe device for iPad and thought a quick video might demo that while giving me a chance to upload and caption something on YouTube. Discovered that the Modbook- my only video device-was not recognizing the iSight camera. Last time I tried it was June of '09
• Made a few changes in vicki's powerpoint, though I still haven't talked with her.
• Started laying out next iStudy toon.
• Retouched an image for Kim.
• Had a chat with Kasey about the scanner. She came over as a follow-up to a footprints request. It's an exrtremely volatile situation, and neitherof us have any control or input. At one point she said I was getting pretty intense- I was, and I tried to make certain she knew I appreciated her help and concern and understood she was in no way responsible for any of the difficulties. She did very well- going so far as to watch as I logged into the lab machine and tried to scan. I realize that I often feel as though I'm commiserating with a peer when in fact, I appear to be ranting like a crazy old guy. It's always refreshing talking with people who see me as a commiserating peer, though finding them is difficult.

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This past week (2-11-11):
• Downloaded an update to EPUB production manual I'd purchased. It includes info on producing "fixed layout" EPUB books. May be an alternative to the Adobe magazine publishing tools. (Ideally, I like html...)
• Found and installed very old copy of GoLive. It's the only tool I know of that has a GUI for working with QuickTime and especially, wired sprite tracks. It's a bit buggy- initially I was getting a few errors, now it seems okay. Maybe it conflicts with something else? Don't know. It's from 2005.
• Captioning experiments. Finally worked with Pat's tool, and it seems very good. Easier than hand coding and it has several useful export options.
• Several blog posts about my captioning exploits. Hopefully building to a point where what I'm saying is useful to someone.
• Managed to create a sprite in GoLive that can operate as a "CC" button to open and close a text track in QuickTime, making it closed caption.
• Talked with Molly about Job Descriptions and dead end careers.
• Started reviewing PPT for Vicki. Generally ugly- I think the real solution is a re-do. I asked if she was in Friday- she wasn't but agreed to meet Tuesday.
• Brett sent several scripts for iStudy cartoons; started to look, saw what they were, but didn't start any work.
• Got note from Justin Elliot. I responded,"I can do that Justin. The only suggestion that's clear from your note is a typographic logo. If that would be the case, what would it say? Just 'Penn State MacAdmins' ? It would also help to know where and how you think you'd use it."
  So... haven't heard back....
• Talked briefly with Derick after his return- Allan likes the graphics he's seeing for symposium. Looks like a go for Lauren's work.

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This past week (2-04-11):
• Adobe Digital Publishing stuff still seems like a confusing morass- I can't imagine that the resulting apps are accessible, but I'll keep looking.
• Expanding Illustrator and InDesign skills.
• Looking at captioning. I'm thinking a series of three or four blog posts to document what I find. I captioned a video on captions and wrote about hand captioning in the first one. I'll re-do the same piece with Pat's tool.
• Blog post to test successful video formats.
• No symposium marketing meeting, with Derick in LA

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This past week (1-28-11):
• I was finally able, with TK's help, to add "subscribe to comments" on my blog. It enables real conversations-which is good. The directions are missing, though. Possibly it happens automatically on new blogs, but it didn't on mine. There's just a short line of code that gets added to the comment html template- it would be easy to do for anyone. May make a post out of it, but I should probably clear it with the blog folks.
• I added random personal content to and enlarged the physical size of my 'magazine' template. I also signed up as a pre-release user of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. From what I've seen, the magic behind making an InDesign file a magazine "App" comes from having an account with the Adobe enterprise solution and uploading an InDesign file to their "compiler". Not the best solution in my mind.
• Noticed the progress arrow on the Moveable Type publish window was displaying unwanted pixels in Safari and Chrome. Did some trouble shooting with TK and finally just sent him a replacement graphic.
• Attended ITS all-staff. Followed comments on question tool.
• At 3:15 on Friday, Jim L called for help with a poster needed Monday. I printed it for him.
• Derick told me that he had Lauren (?) working on a symposium "mosaic" and wanted my feedback- He sent the file, I provided feedback and Derick agreed.

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This past week (1-21-11):
• It still feels like people are still trying o get back from the holiday. Possibly due to the unsure status of the director's position, and hense, OUR position, mission, purpose, path...
• I've decided to continue looking at InDesign to familiarize myself with the tool. I use my own content in the process, and feel as though I'm learning. It's slow.
• After Effects is tedious. Even the screen is difficult to see. I'll continue, though.
• This may be a good time to advance my Illustrator skills. Perhaps a screen cap in Illustrator will help with purposeful content for After Effects?
• A couple blog posts, if that counts as something accomplished.
• Symposium marketing meeting. Don't really get what I'm supposed to contribute...

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This past week (1-14-11):
• Going through After Effects tutorials on LYNDA.COM. Trying to look at JavaScript as well.
• Laminated seven prints of Jerry's. Posted to my blog and sent him the link-he in turn posted to facebook. Seems like a nice way to explore the capabilities of social media.
• handed in a new jrw- thought the schedule said it should be done in January. Looks like the answer to that is no.

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This past week (1-07-11):
• Go through email, RSS feeds after break.
• Shot photos, developed script, illustrated cartoon for "interview" blog post.
• Update to OS 10.6.6- test printing remedies for postscript fix, post to adobe forums foorprints.
• Test postscript fix in InDesign.
• Palette layout tests in photoshop- arrangement on one monitor to allow full tablet to single screen pen control. Confusing at first. Not sure if it's better, but it is different.