Using Skype

Skype is a VOIP (voice over IP) service that allows anyone with an internet connection to make voice or video calls to both Skype users as well as home and cellular phones. There are a few options for service. A free account allows you to make voice and video calls to other skype users as well as text messaging, while paying as little as 1.2 cents per minute for a subscription plan will allow you to make calls to any phone in the world from your skype device. As far as devices go, Skype is available on nearly any device one could think of: PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even Skype enabled televisions. Nearly any computer made in the last 5 (or even more) years could run Skype based on the system requirements I found. For Macs it only requires 1ghz processor,100mb of disk space, a headset, high speed internet, and OSx 10.5.8 or newer. The PC requirements are even lower.

In order to actually use Skype, it is extremely simple. Once you sign up for an account, install the software, and login, all you have to do is do a search for the username of the Skype member you want to call. Once you dial the user it rings, much like a real phone, until the user accepts or declines the call. Once you are connected you can speak with the other person with just your voice or, if you have one, choose to use your webcam to do a video chat. I made a few different calls for this project and they were both very simple to complete.

I find Skype calls to be both fun and useful. When I was in Costa Rica last summer I was able to make calls home with my phone via skype anywhere there was wifi for around. I only spent around $15 for 3 weeks of calls. It really is exactly like a phone call if you are doing voice chat, but the video chat is a whole different experience. It's much more personal than a phone call or text because you can see them as well as hear them.

Overall I think Skype is a great product that will be around for a long time. I can't wait for services like this to be integrated even more into our daily lives.

Googley

Yesterday I went to a presentation given by a software engineer from the Madison Google office. In the hour  he had to speak, he went over a really wide array of information. From life at the office to how Google goes about solving problems.

The most interesting part of the presentation, for me, was the information on their data centers. Seeing pictures of the meager beginnings of Google (nothing more than a bunch of computers and monitors set up on a banquet table) then transitioning to the servers they built themselves to fill their co-located data center space to the maximum, and then to their absolutely massive data centers they now have was really quite impressive.

At one point I asked about what languages would be good to focus on and he said that Google likes to find generalists. People who are good at a bunch of things rather than experts in one particular language or field. From his comments it seems like it would be smart to learn Java as well as look into languages such as C++, Python, Google's "Go" language, database programming, and specifically mentioned to look into programming for multi-core processors.

Overall I think it was a very good presentation, but I found myself wishing it could have been longer and more in-depth.

Storycorps project.

For this assignment we were instructed to go to storycorps.org and pick out 5 pieces to write a brief overview of. Two of these pieces were to be animated and three just audio. Storycorps is a pretty interesting project where people are given the chance to record a story from their lives and have it converted to a short segment on the website. There are a number of interesting pieces, but here are the ones I chose along with the reviews for them.


Audio
1. I came into the German bar you were bouncing

The audio starts out with the story name and an explanation of the title right away. The story is organized by audio bits from both participants, each pieces the story together in small clips, presented as a conversation with one another. They met because she needed money to support her family and decided to enter an amateur stripping competition and ended up meeting the bouncer and together they went to college. They hadn't even completed the 10th grade, but they were able to finish together and obtained biology degrees. There was no music throughout the story until the end. It serves as a nice close to the story.

2. Most of my interaction with people was the worst moment of their life

A man telling a story of having to inform a mother that her husband and father of her 3 young children had died in a car accident. The key piece was having to explain to a child what had happened and why he felt it was important to be honest rather than lying or covering up the truth. He ends the piece by expressing how difficult it was to do this all the time, but that he felt he was born to do it. Once again, no music until the end of the piece.

3. I have spent a lot of years just hiding it

This piece was a woman telling a story about how she didn't feel special as a kid but found acceptance with a group of white supremacists and the extremes that these beliefs went to and how much it took for her beliefs to change. She tells a story about how violent the group was, often drinking and going out to look for fights. One night they went out and confronted a vehicle full of black men and the women's boyfriend beat one of the men with a bat, resulting in his death. She managed to get away from this group, and while she never stopped feeling guilty about what had happened, her beliefs had changed and now her own son is standing up for a child who is different in his school. Music at the ending.

Animation
4. The Human Voice

An extremely uplifting piece told by Studs Turkel, who according to the website and the intro to the animation was a great inspiration for the creators of the project. Turkel tells a story about an experience on the subway in which a young couple were late and caused the conductor to announce a 30 second delay. This resulted in everyone giving a death glare at the couple. Turkel tried to lighten the mood by making a light-hearted joke, only to receive the same treatment. He then asked a baby "sir or madame, what is your opinion of the human species?" resulting in a giggle from the baby and Turkel exclaiming "Thank god, the sound of the human voice." A very nice piece presented, once again, as a first person recollection. No music until the end. This anmiation could have easily been presented as audio only, though the animation certainly adds to the story, though mainly for comedic value with this piece.

5. Germans in the Woods

This particular animation was presented in nearly identical fashion to the audio only pieces. It was a man recalling a story from his past, explaining in detail the events that led up to him having to shoot a young german soldier and how he has felt haunted by this his entire life. I believe it would translate perfectly into an audio only piece, but the animation really added a lot more depth to the piece. It helped to bring his words to life as well as add a bit more humanity/sadness to it. The music was just like the others, added only at the end to signify that the story was coming to a close.

Five Criteria

It is hard to really pin down what makes for great audio/video, but I think that these 5 points are fairly essential for a truly engaging piece.

1. Clarity. Both in aural quality as well as storyline. You want the listener to understand the speaker as well as the story being told.
2. Flow. If telling a story, you want to make sure it is told in a logical order so the listener can piece it together properly. If telling the story out of order, the listener should be able to clearly recognize this.
3. Connection. The listener should be able to make some sort of connection to the story. Even something as simple as a story about turning your homework in late and the anxiety it causes can do that as it is something most of us have experienced.
4. Imagery. Whether it is video or audio, the piece should provide strong imagery for us to play out the story in our mind. Describe the important places you go or the things you do in a way that people aren't left guessing too much.
5. Music. Don't let music or sound effects overpower what you are doing. It should blend in and serve as a beginning, end, or transition unless the music itself is part of the piece or can significantly add to it.

Mashup Assignment

For this assignment we were to pick 3 or more songs to create a "mashup" and then create a video using the photos we edited along with this song. To be honest, I had no idea how difficult this project would be. I have used audacity and garage band in the past, but never to create content in this way. I have always recorded live music, never mixed together various songs. I spent 3-4 hours on this and I still feel that it isn't very good! But, I am not a musician, and this was really just a test for us to see how these things work and how to hopefully I will be able to apply these concepts to a project in the future!

For my song I mixed "Now I wanna sniff some glue" by The Ramones, "Glass Danse" by The Faint, and It Takes Time to Build" by The Beastie Boys. I essentially just edited out parts of Glass Danse, changed the timing a bit, and added in some beats and vocals from the other two songs. To do this the way I wanted would have required a few weeks of training and work I think.

Ah well, onto the song:

Photoshop Assignment

Here are 3 images I edited in photoshop for my digital media class. The second one is my late Great-Grandfather and Grand-Mother's wedding photo.

Digital Footprint

For this assignment we were instructed to determine our digital footprint. By inputting various pieces of data such as photos taken, e-mails sent, hours spent on the internet, and other data we are able to figure out an idea of the average daily bandwidth we consume.

For me, the most relevant pieces of information for determining my digital footprint were hours spent on the internet, videos and music downloaded/streamed, and number of photos taken. I am not a huge texter or e-mailer and I don't watch much television either, so those were not very influential.

The ease of determining this 'digital footprint' was surprising. The software provided did all the work, I just needed to input the data.

I suppose the most surprising part of this process was realizing that television, public monitoring, and landline telephones would be counted. These are mediums I would not associate with a digital footprint.

As of this writing I have used 525,513,420,272 bytes. In 2012. It really doesn't surprise me, either. I should go on a hike or something.