Archive for April, 2004
Boston Marathon Shoes
Monday, April 19th, 2004
Link
Monday, April 19th, 2004The Boston Globe: Emerson to build new dorm on Piano Row
Coming my senior year!
BBC News: BBC to screen first TV sperm race
The Christian Science Monitor: Small coffee brewers try to redefine fair tradeThe fair-trade model seeks to ensure livable wages as well as environmental and cultural sustainability for small farmers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia by establishing a base purchase price of $1.26 per pound — about $.75 more than the current market price.
BBC News: Glimpse inside the virtual churchThe preacher, congregation and prayers will be real enough. Only the building will be virtual, but this 3D church could be a taste of things to come.
The Christian Science Monitor: More Christians seek quiet relief in the practice of solitary piety
MacMinute: Alias announces Maya 6Some of the new features include … a 20-50 percent increase in software rendering times on Mac OS X
Um, I hope that MacMinute meant to say a 20-50% performance increase. ;-)
NY Times: Sony betting on minidisc; Jobs: Devices won’t catch on
Sony is expecting its upcoming Connect music service to boost sales of its minidisc and compact disc players. But Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that devices such as Sony’s new Hi-MD disc player (which holds up to 45 hours of music on one $7 recordable disc) would not catch on in the U.S. the way it had overseas. Has Sony actually ever used its Minidisc products? Minidisc sucks. I have killed *so* many minidiscs accidentally. After using an Apple iPod for two years, I do not know why anyone would favor another proprietary media format from Sony. How many formats does Sony need to have fail before the far-too-easily-appeased Japanese simpletons realize that Sony is not god? Seriously. ATRAC3, Betamax, Digital8, Laserdisc, Memory Stick, MicroMV, and MiniDisc are all Sony-invented formats that need to die if they haven’t already.
TOPPAN and Sony Successfully Develop 25GB Paper Disc
The Christian Science Monitor: Life after Columbine[Columbine] definitely influenced me to stay closer to my family and stay closer to my friends. And it influenced me to make something of my life, just because I didn’t realize how easily it could be taken away.
Bush Shoot-out
I feel that this game exemplifies the Republican 2004 re-election campaign strategy.
News.com.com.com: FCC is taking wrong turn on digital mediaNot only is the commission considering rules that would result in the digital television picture from reaching its full, sparkling potential, but the FCC also is considering defining where, when and with what rights consumers can use digital media.
If you do not believe that corporations are ruining fair use and American life in general through far too easily corrupted politicians, you are a fool.
The Christian Science Monitor: One man’s crusade against outsourcing American jobsMichael Emmons had logged almost six years as a software developer when he and more than a dozen colleagues received bad news: Their employer was replacing them with workers from India. And instead of outsourcing the jobs to India, Siemens ICN had a plan that was every bit as controversial – importing Indians to do the work here. The Americans even had to train their Indian replacements in order to receive severance pay.
USA Today: 17 years in the making, WWII shrine is a realityOne executive told Dole that a contribution to the memorial
doesn’t fit into our company’s plans.
Dole says he bristled: I told him World War II didn’t fit into my plans, or the plans of 16 million other people.
Listening to
Monday, April 19th, 2004Happy Endings by The All-American Rejects
Imported Friends
Monday, April 19th, 2004Adam, Bryan, and Courtney have left. I am all alone again. ::sniff::
This just means that it is time to reminisce about the fun times we had in Boston! Eating at Bova’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Cheers, Emerson Dining Hall, Marché Mövenpick, Tealux, Zero Marlboro. Watching and falling asleep during Eddie Izzard’s Dressed to Kill. Shopping and/or watching Adam shop. Laughing and not participating in the more socially lubricated elements of The Midnight Show at the Improv Asylum. Basking in awe of the Museum of Fine Art and playing hide-and-go-seek with Bryan. Long walks through Boston Common, Boston Garden, and the North End. A bum with an attitude. And an air mattress with a vengance.
CambridgeSide
Saturday, April 17th, 2004I am at the CambridgeSide Apple Store with Adam Nolley, Ney, and Schwegie. Who knew that so many Emerson students work here? I met Chris; seems like a chill guy. He came to the EVVY Date Auction in November and plans on returning to Emerson as a graduate student.
Adventures in Taxes
Sunday, April 11th, 2004What is more fun than filing federal and Virginia state taxes on Easter? Filing California and Massachusetts state taxes too! I had forgotten how nomadic I was in the last year.
The federal government owes me $158, Virginia $1, California $2, and Massachusetts is free and clear. Filling out the state tax forms took longer than the worth of my refund. The penalty for properly filling out a withholding form, I guess. One question: Why does the supposed best tech state (CA) not allow non-residents to e-file for free? California is the only state where I must send a paper (you know, that tree killing medium) form.
It Pays to be Honest
Wednesday, April 7th, 2004I have to pay $50 for some deposit related to my semester in Europe. As previously mentioned, Emerson College does not accept Discover Card. I do not have all the money in my bank account right at the moment. My plan was to cash my $39 paycheck from last week and pay $11 from my debit card. Mailing / crediting a deposit with my most awesome credit union takes approximately four business days. I decided to cash the check at my employer’s bank to save time and pay the deposit today.
When the teller at the bank handed me $59, I asked to see my check again. I gave the money back and explained that she had given me an extra $20. I have worked a cash register and know the frustration and personal loss of not having enough cash in the drawer at the end of the day when zeroing out. The teller thanked me for my honesty and then gave me the correct amount. Even cooler, the manager handed me a $10 American Express Traveler’s Check as a thank you for my honesty.
(I bet Emerson doesn’t accept traveler’s checks either.)
Merrily I walked back to the Emerson External Programs office to pay the $50 deposit. In addition to not accepting Discover, the office does not accept cash. What the hell?! Should I be shocked that an incompetent office system at Emerson prefers the obscure, less tangible payment options over cold hard cash? I love this school but hate the office administration. Completely inexcusable!
Additional Note: Emerson College has owed me a $384 housing-related refund since February. This refund is supposedly coming on April 11. If customer service existed within the office system, I would be able to deduct the $50 deposit from the $384 refund. Being that the deposit and refund are in two different departments, this simple billing process cannot take place.
New Media Night
Tuesday, April 6th, 2004SUCCESS!
Brian Wiffin’s (Senior Manager and head of Channel Development) demonstration of Anark Studio 2.5 wowed the audience of ~55 students. Suddenly everyone on campus wants Anark Studio, including Pete Chvany (Digital Post Production Facilities Manager, Faculty Advisor to The EVVY Awards). Michael Schuler’s (Macromedia) demonstration of the newly announced Flex explored how Flash can improve even the most mundane online experiences, like checking out at an e-commerce site; cool and practical. Jon Gleasman’s (Principal) screening of the Bottlecap reel preceded Ben Palmer and Rick Webb’s half-screening of The Barbarian Group reel. Both were hott. Then Jim Sheldon moderated a great panel discussion on evolving rich media and the challenges to des-dev-ducers (designer, developer, producer) in the changing new media industry. Finishing the night, Anark and Macromedia gave away $2000 in software. Sweet.
I could not have asked for a more excellent audience or group of speakers! However, even the best planned evening is subject to the incompetency of others and technology failures.
What I learned: I do not like Emerson Media Services. Carrying a field video monitor from one side of campus to the other will result in a major cramp in your trapezius muscles. Approximately four phone calls are needed to establish how soon I will be anywhere. Even the most tested audio / video setup will be cursed when the show much go on.
It started with chaos. When I was told that New Media Night would not receive the same multi-camera broadcast that every other EVVY focus night enjoyed, I couldn’t have cared less about any video participation in the event. A single-camera shoot was approved for the event. This was entirely planned outside of Joseph Mancuso and my organization of New Media Night. Therefore, I should not have had to do anything related to the EVVY engineering/tech team’s responsibilities. But I ended up moving heavy video equipment across campus when I should have been in the auditorium greeting and preparing my invited guests.
All of the guests arrived on-time, but I did properly greet them because the auditorium was still not setup. Emerson Media Services yelled at me for disconnecting a defunct monitor to make space for presenters’ laptops on the podium. My user account on the PowerMac G4 in the auditorium unexplainably did not grant me enough privileges to allow my guests to play their video reels. The stand-alone DVD player would not play DVD-Rs. The sound system was erratic.
But overall, New Media Night 2004 (sponsored by The 23rd Annual EVVY Awards) received rave reviews.
Special thanks to my Co-Producers (Joseph Mancuso, Mariel Manteleone), Nick Tully (Special Events Coordinator), Elissa Merola (event engineer), Jess Reynoso (moral support, setup, and a whole lot of etc.), and Skye (helping me to not cry throughout the night’s technical problems). Thank you to David Bogen, the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Professor Jim Sheldon, the Department of Visual and Media Arts, and all of the fine people involved in bringing the wisdom of Anark, the Barbarian Group, Bottlecap, and Macromedia to Emerson College.
The Rat Pack
Monday, April 5th, 2004I just got home from The Sacred Covenant of the Wingman shoot. Productions like this are why Emerson totally rocks my world. I have such an emotional high right now and I really need to get some sleep tonight (er, this morning). Everything was so rad. I felt that the camaraderie that was supposed to be acted had a chance to actualize. And not just with the three other guys that were in my rat pack
but also with the other talented EIV and EVVY people that I have seen but never had a chance to meet. Hopefully the video will be edited in time for The 23rd Annual EVVY Awards.
All Credit Card Companies Suck
Friday, April 2nd, 2004CapitalOne frustrated me one too many times. An online payment should not take three days to process, nor should I be penalized for a late payment
when I submitted my online payment three business days before the due date. After this happened THREE times (Capital One reversed all but one charge when I complained), I decided to go hunting for another credit card company.
Before any old farts accuse me of being a bad manager of money because I possess a credit card, let me assure you of a few things. First, I always pay my credit card in full every month. Second, I use my credit card for almost all of my purchases (which are always carefully budgeted). A majority of my purchases are made online and a credit card offers far more protection for online purchases than my Visa Check Card. Third, unlike cash, credit cards keep records by themselves and this allows me to see a percentage breakdown in Quicken of how I am spending my money. Moving right along…
On FastWeb.com, there was a promotion for a Student Discover card. I decided to go for it. Discover gave me a higher credit limit with a far lower interest rate. Additionally, I was able to sign-up for Cash Back Bonus Awards where I get 2.2% of what I spend back at the end of the year. Every little bit helps. And again, CapitalOne annoyed me.
So my Discover card arrived. All is good, but the card did not allow me to activate the cash advance option at the same time that I activated the card. This was only an inconvenience because I did not have my ATM card with me this past weekend on a video shoot and needed cash (there are still some businesses in the stone-age who don’t accept any credit cards). The kind customer service lady gave a temporary 24-hour PIN and I got my cash. However, I have tried to use my Discover card twice this past week and the only thing that I am discovering is that no one accepts Discover. I needed to add minutes to my Virgin Mobile phone. Virgin doesn’t accept Discover. I needed to pay $50 for a deposit for next semester. Emerson doesn’t accept Discover. What is the point of having this card if I cannot ever use it? Discover will join CapitalOne in the cancelled credit card pile after this month.
