Still Learning

any.do

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:16:00 +0000

Trying out a new (to me) To Do app for my Android phone.
For several years I used Taskos http://taskos.com/
but recently I downloaded and tried out Any.DO http://www.any.do/
and so far I like it.
Although I think I still prefer pen & paper for morning planning, having a to-do app on my phone's home screen allows me to quickly input reminder's via voice, like book titles, restaurants, etc.

Speaking of to-do lists, this might be my favorite: Grouchy Rabbit: to do list

Inbox Report for February 26

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:23:00 +0000

thanks Mailstrom

E-mail overload

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:26:00 +0000

Lately I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed by my inbox, using traditional sort, delete, and move techniques I would go from thousands of messages to hundreds and then within several days I'd be back up in the thousands.

I recently heard about a service aimed at getting you to Inbox Zero called Mailstrom and decided to try it out. It was surprisingly simple to use and within a day or two I had reduced two of my three e-mail accounts down to zero. For one reason or another I couldn't get the other account loaded into Mailstrom, but by this time I had a greater understanding of the delete/archive/sort methods used by Mailstrom. Last night I spent about two hours and pored through roughly 2,000 messages, deleting, moving and archiving until it was done. Nothing in any inbox.

With a completely empty inbox I began digging through various folders and labels (where bulk messages were moved to) - and realized roughly 1 in 4 messages might be useful in the future.
For example:
I send a request for info
someone replies that they will get that to me soon
I thank them
They send me the info requested [!!!]
I thank them again
They reply "no problem"
- of all these e-mails I really only need to keep the one e-mail with the requested information. I realize its different when e-mailing with friends or family - in that case every singe e-mail counts (right?). I'm not in any hurry to get rid of the unneeded messages, primarily because I'm not running out of storage.

At this time it looks like Mailstrom has a waiting queue due to a large number of people signing up, most likely because of the recent Lifehacker article:

How I Went From 1,000 Emails to Inbox Zero (and Stayed There) with Mailstrom

One helpful folder/label I created for each of the accounts is named "_Deal with it" [the underscore sorts it to the top of the list] this is my actionable items, waiting to be processed. I used to have an "Action Items" folder, but for some reason I find "Deal with it" to be more motivating.

Here's an old post (April 2009) I wrote about Spring (inbox) Cleaning

Do you know of any tips or tricks for dealing with e-mail overload?
Share them in the comments!

California Visual Resources Association Conference

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:36:00 +0000

CaVraCon 2013
California Visual Resources Association Conference
June 27th & 28th, 2013
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park

The Northern and Southern California Chapters of the Visual Resources Association are hosting a two-day mini-conference on digital image collections.

The conference will offer educational opportunities dealing with the many aspects of creating, managing and maintaining digital image collections, as well as the chance to network with both emerging professionals and veterans of the field.
https://sites.google.com/site/cavracon2013/

The organizers are seeking proposals for sessions, workshops, case studies and other program formats.

Although not limited, possible topics could include:

Metadata/Cataloging
Analog/Digital Collections
Teaching with Images: New Developments
Preservation
Digitization
Professional Issues
Copyright Issues
Digital Imaging Tools

Abode CS2 for FREE

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Apparently Adobe is offering CS2 for free download...
Creative Suite2, Acrobat Pro 8.0, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, Photoshop CS2, and more!
Find them at the Adobe Downloads section here.

System requirements:
Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8. PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor
Microsoft® Windows® 2000/Windows XP. Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor

Patience

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:12:00 +0000

Well played internet, well played...

http://www.patience-is-a-virtue.org/

Name Changer

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Every so often there's a folder of files that need to be renamed, awhile back I found a handy bit of software called Name Changer, which does just that.
Check it out here: http://www.mrrsoftware.com/MRRSoftware/NameChanger.html
The software is Mac only

Designed for OS X 10.6+, NameChanger is a Universal Binary, so it runs on both Intel and PowerPC.

and best of all it's free, but donations are accepted via paypal.

See it in action.

ink & paper, abjads & chess

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:17:00 +0000

CaVraCon 2013!

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:23:00 +0000

The California Visual Resources Association Conference, also known as CaVraCon, will provide workshops, presentations and demos dealing with the many aspects of creating, managing and maintaining digital image collections, as well as the opportunity to network with both emerging professionals and veterans of the field.
CaVraCon 2013

Today is the last day to vote on which dates you'd prefer CaVraCon to take place on:
Survey for CaVraCon 2013 Date Selection

The first CaVraCon was June 16th & 17th, 2011, held at UC Santa Barbara.

Increased Dropbox storage

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:34:00 +0000

I may have missed the announcements but I recently plugged a card reader into my laptop and was presented with the option of uploading its contents directly to Dropbox - and by doing so earning extra gigabytes of storage.

I didn't really want to upload everything from the card to my Dropbox folder, so I took one picture (on another card) and let that one photo be uploaded to Dropbox as a test run...

it worked seamlessly and added 3GB of storage.

Go figure.

vacation

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:07:00 +0000

I did it. I finally did it. I took a vacation. For fun. I've taken long weekends, little road trips, camping and such, but this time I flew up to Portland for about a week without planning where I'd go or what I'd do. It was amazing. The weather was perfect, partly cloudy with only a little rain. The food was delicious. I can't remember the last time I flew somewhere for fun.

an intersection in Sunnyside, Portland

I returned less than a week ago, and still can't put together a complete list of everything I did or saw there. I did bike around the first and last days there, which was an incredibly fun experience - bike lanes everywhere and courteous drivers.

Went to McMenamins/Kennedy School, which was pretty incredible. Haven't really seen much like that before. Rode bikes around popping in and out of various pubs, cafes, restaurants for most of the first day.

The second day brunch was at Cricket Cafe, where I was introduced to Secret Aardvark sauce, which at first I thought was some horrible notion of making hot sauce out of aardvarks, but I don't think that's the case. Later in the day I wandered around the Lewis & Clark campus and was given a tour of the Watzek Library.

Lewis & Clark campus

That evening was filled with breweries, bars and clubs. (I'll just leave it at that)

Saturday I went to the Portland Art Museum - lots to see there. Was really impressed by Mike Kelley's City 0000...

City 0000

view from City Grill

Had lunch at Huber's, which is Portland's oldest restaurant, established in 1879.

Played video games, pinball & had beer at Ground Kontrol.

Enjoy cocktails and an amazing view at Portland City Grill.

Saw a little bit of the Starlight Parade, it was exciting trying to get across one of the main streets back to the car, stepping over people, running out into and across the parade route, etc.

The next day after brunch at Jam on Hawthorne it was off to the International Rose Test Garden, which was pretty amazing.

I don't think I've ever seen so many rose variations.

International Rose Test Gardens

After wandering around the roses I wandered up to the Portland Japanese Garden...

Wandered around downtown for awhile on foot, dropped into Powell's, Al's Den, Shanghai Tunnel and a couple other places. Later that evening went to the Academy Theater and watched Mad Men, which they show live & for free...? They also have microbrews on tap.

The next day, after lunch with colleagues from Lewis & Clark, explored Mt. Tabor. The day was slightly rainy, nothing serious but enough to get a taste of the non-sunny Portland.

view from Mt. Tabor

Dinner at le Bistro Montage, and then onto more pubs and bars.
If you can't tell I'm leaving a lot out.
My last day in Portland I didn't have to leave until later in the evening, so the day began with some walking & biking. Coffee and pastries before riding south to Oaks Park and Sellwood. Tacos, then onto Doug Fir, ping pong at Rontoms, video games at Red Flag and then eventually to the airport.
Back home by 11:30pm and back to work by 9am the next day.

This post is long overdue, and I'll try to get back to posting more often, now that I'm back.

Albuquerque: Board Meetings & Bicycling

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:04:00 +0000

Last week I attended the 30^th Annual Visual Resources Association conference in Albuquerque, NM.

I had an incredible time and wanted to share some accounts of various activities and highlights.

Before I begin I have to mention that prior to the conference I had been nominated and elected to the VRA’s Executive Board, as Public Relations and Communications Officer. So this conference was unlike any I had been to in the past, more meetings, responsibilities and business.

I opted to take an Amtrak to Albuquerque, and bring my bicycle with me. I packed a huge frame-pack Saturday night and rode to the Metrolink Sunday morning to get to downtown L.A. for CicLAvia...

I had signed up for a two hour shift as Route Angel in the afternoon (1:30 -3:30pm) – which is basically riding a section of the route, helping fix people’s flat tires, chair problems, clearing debris, etc. Throughout the day I rode over 30 miles. After CicLAvia I stopped for some food and then back to Union Station where I boxed up my bike and hopped on the Southwest Chief headed for Albuquerque. The train ride was 16 hours and I arrived the next morning.

MONDAY

observation car

I woke up around 7am on the train, the sun was up and we were in some unknown part of the southwest. I took my laptop up to the observation car, thinking I could continue refining the talk I was going to give on visualization.

But the scenery was amazing and instead of working on a presentation I found myself mesmerized by the beautiful vistas.

Once in Albuquerque I unboxed my bike and rode to the Hotel Albuquerque.

What should’ve been about a two mile ride turned into a six mile ride with many wrong turns, eventually riding along the Paseo del Bosque Trail, which I would come to love.

Once checked in I asked at the front desk about cycling, bike routes, and such and was pointed to a nearby bike shop, Routes, that had maps of the area, bike lanes, trails, etc.

I ended up getting a bicycling map of the region and buying a t-shirt.

After that it was time for some green chili enchiladas and margaritas. I ran into colleagues back at the hotel who were headed out for dinner, so I joined them and had a salad, since I was already stuffed.

TUESDAY

The next morning there were board meetings at 7:30am, so I woke up around 6am to get a bike ride in along the Rio Grande. The sky was light but the sun had not yet peaked over the mountains and when it did I had to stop and admire it.

It was a gorgeous sunrise.

After that it was back to the hotel, shower & change and into the board meetings. After all the meetings were done we cabbed it to a restaurant (forgot the name) for dinner.

WEDNESDAY

downtown Albuquerque

I woke up and jumped on my bike before 8am and rode to downtown Albuquerque looking for cuff links, as I had a French-cuffed shirt but forgot to bring cuff links. Downtown was quiet and nothing really opened until 9am so I rode around some more until I could do some shopping.

The only cuff links I found were $75.00 and up, so I decided to just wear that shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Back at the hotel I attended the Publications Programming Group meeting.

As an incoming board member, I attended a Student Members and Emerging Professionals lunch and got to meet several new members and hear about their work.

After that was a talk by Todd Carter, CEO & co-Founder of Tagasauris.

Photo by Steve Tatum

Then there was the Welcome Reception: What’s Your Story? Where members were encouraged to get up and talk a bit about what they’re doing, interesting projects or anything. I gave a brief presentation on Endurance Cycling and Digital Preservation – the harmonious interactions between humans and machines.

After that I attended the Publishing Advisory Group meeting, and then onto the Two Fools Tavern, Tractor Brewing Co., and some other places.

THURSDAY

I woke up and headed to the New Members & First Time Attendees breakfast and at 9am was the Engaging New Technologies session, where I presented a talk on visualization.

VRA 2012, Engaging New Technologies, Visualization

View more presentations from Visual Resources Association

My other colleagues in the session presented on:
video
screens
& productivity.

This was followed by the Awards Luncheon, where recipients of the Association’s major honors and awards were announced, amidst an elegant luncheon.

After that I hit the Bosque Trail and rode about 16 miles.

Back to the hotel to shower & change before the VRA 30^th Anniversary Fiesta, held at the amazing CasaEsencia -

Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. After that some colleagues and I went to the Q Bar (which claims to be Albuquerque’s most upscale bar and nightclub) – shot pool for free with colleagues while sipping Don Julio.

FRIDAY

At 8:00am in suit & tie I attended the Annual Membership & Business Meeting, I was recognized and given a certificate of appreciation as outgoing Chair of the VRA’s Southern California Chapter, and was inducted into the executive board. I can not express the simple act of taking office adequately, close terms would be honor, enthusiasm, respect and terror. Time dissolved.

I went for a short, fast bike ride after that.

That evening was the vendor slam. Wine, cheese and mingling.

The Northern & Southern California Chapters met on the patio and discussed, amongst other things, another joint California Conference, tentatively planned for 2013?

Had dinner at St. ClairWinery & Bistro. The food was delicious, I believe I ordered a pasta with a white sauce, which ended up tasting more like an arrabbiata (which I happen to love).

Then there was Flamenco, more drinks and socializing.

SATURDAY

7:30am was the Leadership breakfast, where the leadership gathers to eat and discuss organizational matters. After that I rode my bike around Old Town Albuquerque and to a store for chap stick and water.

At noon I facilitated a “Birds of a Feather” networking lunch, focused on Social Media. Nice casual discussion about how people were using blogs, twitter, Facebook, RSS and the likes at their institutions.

The closing plenary was The Art of Perception given by Amy Herman – which was amazing. That signaled the end of the official conference and the hotel had died down quite a bit.

The board went bowling and out to eat that afternoon/evening. That evening I had to begin packing for my return trip.

SUNDAY

All packed, I checked out of the hotel & had them store my stuff while I attended the final board meetings (from 8:30 – 3pm). After the meetings I rode back to the Albuquerque Amtrak station, this time knowing exactly where I was going. During the train ride back I was exhausted but still energized, sat in the observation car gazing at the landscape and occasionally writing down post-conference follow up tasks.

When I arrived back in L.A. there were clouds and a slight bit of rain, it was an entirely unexpected and surreal experience.

overcast Los Angeles

I know I'm leaving quite a bit out, I may come back to this post & add other info but the whole week was was amazing and I often didn't realize what day or time it was - there was that one evening by the hot tub... no clue which night that was. If you were in Albuquerque for the conference say Hi in the comments and point me to any photo's, galleries, image sets there might be floating around the internet & feel free to connect with me on the various social networking sites we may both be on.

messing with additional Mac OSX preferences

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:12:00 +0000

TinkerTool:
http://bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

TinkerTool is an application that gives you access to additional preference settings Apple has built into Mac OS X. This allows to activate hidden features in the operating system and in some of the applications delivered with the system.

Camouflage (Mac):
http://camouflage.en.softonic.com/mac

I may have posted about Camouflage before, but it's still a great tool. It basically hides all the cluttered icons, folders, etc.

VRA + CAA, February 2012, Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:57:00 +0000

The annual College Art Association (CAA) conference will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from February 22nd to 25th.

From the CAA’s website:

“Speakers and panelists will present their recent artistic projects and art-historical research, while others will talk about relevant issues in pedagogy, technology, publishing, and the academic workforce.”

CAA is the Visual Resources Association’s oldest affiliate society and this year marks the VRA’s 30^th anniversary and CAA’s 100^th.

The VRA is planning a number of activities to celebrate this momentous year, including, a panel on the history of teaching with images, a business meeting and a walking tour with the LA Conservancy.

Thursday, February 23rd

12:30-2:00pm

LA Convention Center Concourse Meeting Room 403A.

Paint, Prints and Pixels: Learning from the History of Teaching with Images
Chair: John Trendler, Scripps College

Revisioning Art History: How a Century of Change in Imaging Technologies Helped to Shape a Discipline
Allan T. Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Light Explorations: Teaching 19th - 21st Century Intersections of Photographic, Scientific, and Digital Technologies
Sheila Pinkel, Pomona College

Pictures of Art History: The Getty Research Institute's Photo Study Collection
Anne Blecksmith and Tracey Schuster, The Getty Research Institute

New Challenges for a Digital Generation: An Information Literacy Approach to Teaching Visual Literacy
Joanna Burgess, Reed College; Ann Medaille, University of Nevada, Reno

Update: VRA Business meeting cancelled so we can all attend:
CAA Committee on Intellectual Property
Give and Take: Copyright's Balancing Act
Saturday, February 25, 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
West Hall Meeting Room 515B, Level 2, Los Angeles Convention Center
Chairs: Christine L. Sundt, Visual Resources Journal; Doralynn Pines, Metropolitan Museum of Art, emerita; Jeffrey P. Cunard, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
"Give & Take: Copyright's Balancing Act." The purpose of the session is to discuss what the law gives to creators and users through basic provisions of the law and the many exemptions that are also written into the law and to consider why taking is not always something forbidden, wrong, or evil. In this session I propose that we cover various guidelines which could include the older DMCA and its effects on newer art technologies and the new best practices or guidelines that various subgroups are crafting. These include the documentary filmmakers, the AAMD (on thumbnails), ARL (academic and research libraries), SAA (archives), and the promised best practices guidelines from the VRA. We could also use the time to inform members about the revised CIP website which we are working on and which should be completed by then.

The session will be followed by a walking tour of "Historic Downtown" provided by the LA Conservancy and refreshments at the most intriguing establishment seen along the way. After the tour we will be meeting casually for food and drinks.

The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), another CAA affiliate will also hold a session focused on image issues.

Friday, February 24th

5:30-7:00pm

West Hall Meeting Room 511BC, Level 2

Collaboration, Access, Sustainability: The Future of Image Research Collections

Chairs: Tony White, Indiana University Bloomington; Laura Graveline, Dartmouth College

Picturing the Future: Private Collections and Public Institutions

Inge Reist, Frick Art Reference Library

Digital Humanities and New Emerging Paradigms for Librarians

Ann Whiteside, Harvard University

The Evolution of Corporate-Personal-Public Image Collections: Implications for Research and Preservation

Andrea Copeland, Indiana University

Yours, Mine, and Our Common Cultural Heritage: Losing Control of Digital Visual Information

Joane Beaudoin, Wayne State University

Full session information and schedules are live on the website.
http://conference.collegeart.org/2012/sessions/

More about the conference can be found here:

http://conference.collegeart.org/2012/

In order to attend either the VRA or ARLIS activities you do not need to be a member or register for the conference.

Paint, Prints & Pixels

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:37:00 +0000

As you may or may not know, I'll be chairing a session at the upcoming College Art Association's conference in Los Angeles, titled "Paint, Prints & Pixels: Learning from the History of Teaching with Images."

VRA will be hosting the session “Paint, Prints and Pixels: Learning from the history of teaching with Art” at CAA’s 100th annual conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, February 23rd from 12:30-2:00pm. The session will explore the historic and current imaging paradigm shifts to inform 21st century classroom teaching, the implications of increased access to digital images, intersections of photographic and scientific technologies, interdisciplinary uses of images for teaching and research as well as recently developed visual literacy competency standards. The session will be followed by time for questions and answers.

Full session information and schedules are live on the website.
http://conference.collegeart.org/2012/sessions/

I'll post more information about the session next month, but if you're interested you can review the call for proposals that was sent out last summer here.

Hope to see you there!

calligraphics tablet

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Using a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet and Illustrator, I tweaked the blob brush to something similar to a chisel tipped pen. Changing the size variation (set to pressure sensitivity) gives the ink flow a different feel - sort of like a softer or harder nib.

After you've drawn/written something you can fine tune the lines by altering the paths - adding, deleting or moving anchor points at will - but I like to leave things as is, making it more personal.

I played around with digital lettering, flourishes and the likes for quite sometime,

then came across a website that generates graph & writing paper: Incometech

which was useful for practice lettering.

One nice thing about digital calligraphy is that you can delete it and start over as often as you like, or just delete one offending letter or squiggle (I still prefer real ink on paper, just saying). After a long time of writing, deleting, and just messing around eventually I ended up with this.

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:41:00 +0000

interesting...Twitter's new "Compose new Tweet" button has an image of a quill pen!

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:23:00 +0000

For the past month or so I've been writing exclusively with a Sheaffer calligraphy pen. I haven't been trying to perfect a specific letter system, just adapting my natural writing to the pen. It takes more time to write and I've noticed I've become more concise.

VRA/SC meeting

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:00:00 +0000

The Visual Resources Association's Southern California Chapter will be holding it's fall meeting Friday, December 9th at the Claremont Colleges. More information can be found here.

Blogger to Google+ profile swap

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000

switching from the Blogger profile to the Google+ profile

(read more about it here)

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:21:00 +0000

What a day

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:47:00 +0000

a hard drive decided to give up,

had to backup to another terabyte hard drive

thought everything would be simple

digital rot

I learned to really dislike "error code -36"

decided to try something else

to no avail

baby steps

seriously?!

ready to smash things, but refrained

things begin to work

I'll be staying late tonight

Google Music beta & Spotify

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:37:00 +0000

So in the last week I've been playing with both Google Music beta & Spotify,
they are both great and have different strengths.
Google Music allows you to upload music from your computer, which can take a long time - but then you have access to those songs from anywhere you can log in to Google Music. Works on my Android phone too.

Spotify doesn't upload your music but allows you to play almost any song you can think of. In the beginning it was almost overwhelming trying to think of songs it wouldn't know. I would come up with something I didn't think would be in there and it would return more music by the artist than I even knew existed. In Spotify you can create playlists, I'm not sure if there's a limit to how many. It also has a social element in that you can connect with Facebook and see who you know is already using Spotify. If they make their playlists Public you can listen to their playlists - if you don't want anyone to see a certain playlist you can right-click it and un-check "publish."

Spotify invite via Klout

Google+ invites & info

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:28:00 +0000

So I've had a Google+ account for a few days now and figured I'd share some news & information.
First off, I have invites if anyone wants one - I'm not sure how many I have to give out, I think there's a limited number per day, so it may take a day or two for me to send you an invite if I get swamped. Just send me your e-mail address and I'll invite you as soon as I can.
If you don't know my e-mail address feel free to send me a message through my About.me page
or send me a direct message on Twitter

There's an abundance of information about Google+ online, but I figured I'd share a couple links I found interesting or useful:

7 Additional Thoughts on Google Plus

HOW TO: Disable Google+ Email Notification

Why Lehigh (and every other) University needs to be on Gplus. Now.

If you know of any other interesting reads regarding Google+ feel free to post them in the comments.

Happy Fun Intern Post

noreply@blogger.com (John Trendler) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:53:00 +0000

The summer interns have fired up the blog,
here's their first post of the summer:
Happy Fun Intern Post

(note the awesome photo credit)