give us a wilhelm scream!

I subscribe to the feed from boingboing.net, and the strange and wonderful things it brings me are … well, strange and wonderful. Perfect example: The Wilhelm Scream. I was reading the caption of a video taken by someone who was hit by lightening while recording (she survived), and part of it said that her scream was more chilling than the Wilhelm Scream. Well, that was a challenge. I had to find out what The Wilhelm Scream was. Here’s what I found: It’s a scream recording in a motion picture production company library that has been used - over and over and over - in movies beginning in the 1950s (most recently it seems to have been used in the new Indiana Jones movie). Skeptical? All righty, take a look and a listen.

The history: http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm/ (link to list of movies with Wilhelm Scream at the bottom of the entry)

The clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

Enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend!

supple clicking

Here’s an interesting Chronicle article that discusses Supple, a tool that tests a person’s pointing/clicking/dragging ability on the personal computer, then adjusts mouse operations to fit that person’s needs. This points (forgive me) to many interesting implications for people with disabilities. Read more about Supple at the University of Washington website.

fun with photos

I have discovered a new online tool, and I love it. It’s called Animoto, and it takes your photos and turns them into a fun video. I quickly escalated from the freebie 30-second videos to the $30/year unlimited subscription. Because I have photos - oh MAN do I have photos. I inherited my mother’s collection of family photos … and she was both a genealogist and an amateur photographer, among other creative things. I’m currently scanning a massive history of family photos to share, and Animoto is making it a little more fun. You can even post your videos on Facebook and YouTube, or download them to your computer.

Now I’m beginning to think about how it could be used to share images from University of KY Island in Second Life or in other ways. If you want to try it, a free account will get you started. Once you enter your information (be sure to read and click the usage agreement) then follow the instructions to upload photos (or retrieve them from another site, like your Flickr account) and set them to music (they have several music categories to choose from, or you can upload your own). Have fun, and be sure to share what you create.

Here’s a little example of what Animoto can do:

mixing it up

Here’s an interesting site: ccmixter, a “community music site” where you can freely sample, download, remix and otherwise “interact” with the music found there under a Creative Commons license. If you are exploring podcasting or video (for noncommercial purposes), ccmixter can be an interesting destination for a soundtrack. Just remember to abide by the licensing rules for the site.

twitter tweets and fail whales

If you understand the title of this post, you most likely use or know a few things about Twitter, a micro-blogging application. Huh? Yeah, okay: micro-blogging means posting brief text updates rather than longer, traditional blog entries. Twitter is a free web-based service that allows you to post “tweets” of 140 or fewer characters. Subscribers have a page from which they can access their own tweets and the others to which they subscribe. You also have the option of receiving your tweets on your mobile device (messaging service fees, if applicable, will apply). The “fail whale,” by the way, is the dreaded graphic one sees when Twitter is overloaded and temporarily out of service.

I have posted before a few sites that tout the educational Tweet. Here’s a review plus a couple:

• Teaching with Twitter (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Twitter Tweets for Higher Education
• Teaching Journalism Students to Twitter: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
• Thinkery: Teaching with Twitter
• Why We Use Twitter (University of Maryland and NEC)

Want to try it? Here are some simple instructions to give Twitter a try and start tweeting.

• First go to http://twitter.com/.
• Click on the green button that says: Get Started - Join!
• Enter the requested information (password needs to be at least 6 characters). Take a moment to email yourself the username and password or do something else to help you remember.
• Once you are on your Twitter homepage, bookmark it! Check out the Settings to see what your options are.
• At this point, if you like, you can add “friends.” If you are a tech180 reader, you know about Blue 2.0. Twitter is one of this week’s assignments, and so if you like you can add the Blue 2.0 tweet (you can remove it any time). Click on Find & Follow in your top right menu. Go to https://twitter.com/connectedcampus and click on the word Follow under the picture. Now go back to your own Twitter home page. Next time Blue 2.0 tweets, you’ll see the its “feed” show up with your own messages.
• Want to add others? Here are a few (just a very few examples of what’s out there):
  • Wildcat Thursday (Patsy Carruthers, but as UKY Island Admin in Second Life): http://twitter.com/WildcatThursday (you will see Wildcat’s Tweet at the top right of this page)
  • Bret Foster, CIO, Anderson County (KY) Schools http://twitter.com/Ed_Tech
  • Intellagirl, educational tech geek and Second Life enthusiast http://twitter.com/Intellagirl
  • Wil Wheaton, actor (yes, from Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation) and technology geek http://twitter.com/wilw
  • Search in Twitter for other interesting feeds

If you find a use for Twitter, come back and post a comment to this article.

state of the web

This amusing (and too true) graphic is a representation of the “state of the Web” for summer ‘08. Enjoy: http://0at.org/summer-2008.html

online video: fair use

From the Center for Social Media at American University: a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. This helpful site allows you to sort through fair use and current acceptable practices. At the bottom of the page is a link to Documentary Filmmakers’ Best Practices in Fair Use that contains further information of interest.

web 2.0 aplenty

Can’t get your fill of Web 2.0 apps? Try this website: http://www.go2web20.net/

Audacity tutorial

Have you tried Audacity, the free audio recording and editing program? It’s pretty nifty. Here’s a tutorial if you’d like to try it:

Audacity Tutorial

·        Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

·        Download the current Audacity version for your platform, which would be Windows, Mac or Linux/Unix (this tutorial is based on the version for “all users,” not the Beta for “advanced users”).

·        Click on the Audacity (version number) installer (.exe file for Windows; .dmg file for Mac) and follow instructions.

·        Go to your My Documents folder, your Home folder, or wherever you save your documents regularly and within that create a NEW FOLDER titled Audacity Files. Take a minute and make a mental note of where this folder is so you can find it later.

·        You will also need the LAME encoder to convert Audacity files to mp3 format. Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3 and read for background information; click on the appropriate LAME download page link for your platform.

·        Click on the .zip file link for Audacity on your platform. Click SAVE when prompted, and then save the “zip file” in your Audacity Files folder.

·        Close your Internet browser; open your Audacity Files folder so that you see the .zip folder displayed in the window.

·        In Windows, right-click on the .zip folder and choose Extract All from the pop-up menu. On the Mac, double-click the .zip file and it will automatically create an unzipped folder in the same parent folder (Audacity Files).

·        Follow the instructions where prompted. When prompted to select a folder, you should have a path that looks something like this: C:\Documents and Settings\pcarr3\My Documents\Audacity files\libmp3lame-win-3.97. Examine what I have highlighted. Ensure that you are saving to My Documents\Audacity Files or Your Home folder\Audacity Files or whatever folder and subfolder you have chosen. This is important – LAME must be easily accessible when you save your Audacity files. When you are done, you may close your folder window.

·        Now for the fun part! If you have a headset with microphone, ensure it’s plugged in to your computer. It cuts down on noise and embarrassment when you are recording. J

·        Open Audacity.

·        See the red button at the top? It looks a little grayed out, but that’s okay. Also locate the square button, which is grayed out but is going to be yellow when you record.

·        Click the red button and say: “Testing, testing, this is my Audacity test” or some such nonsense.

·        Click the yellow button when you finish.

·        Now click the green “play” button. You should hear your recording. Way to go!

·        Click on FILE (top left) and choose SAVE PROJECT from the menu.

·        Make sure you are saving in your main Audacity Files folder!

·        Save your file as Test1.

·        Close Audacity.

·        Open Audacity (I’m not being tedious, really; I’m just trying to teach you how to get back to your file).

·        Now go to FILE>OPEN and open Test1.

·        Click on FILE>EXPORT AS MP3

·        Be sure you are in your main Audacity Files folder before you save.

·        You will be asked form some tags, which you may fill in or skip. (The next step may happen first.)

·        The first time you save, you will likely be prompted to find LAME, because your computer needs to know where it is. Do NOT open the .zip folder; open the similarly named folder that is not a zip file. You may have to open yet another folder after that. Then click on the lame_enc.dll file. That’ll do it.

·        You now have an mp3, and you can open it in iTunes or whatever you open mp3’s in. You can even download it to your mp3 player, so that you can walk around listening to yourself saying ,“Testing, testing, this is my Audacity test.”

tech180 on a break

technology180 will take a brief break mid-summer. Visit the blog again after July 8 for the next posting. In the meantime, be sure to visit and follow along with Blue 2.0 at http://connectedcampus.wordpress.com/.