News Media Everywhere

Camera Phone Post: I have never seen anything like it
The news media are everywhere. I was interviewed by Channel Seven. This is Karina Rusk, the person who interviewed me.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, Campus Life, Virginia Shootings, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Virginia on my mind

My Opinion: We need to do what we can to reduce stress and tension
I don't think we do enough to reduce stress at SJSU and tension is often unnecessarily high on our campus. A campus does not have to be as tense as ours is. With a little effort we could make it much more pleasant and less stressful for students to get an education at SJSU. It seems to me that reducing student frustration, stress and anxiety is not a high enough priority on our campus.

For example:

• I believe the hassles students have to go through to get enrolled at SJSU are incredible and inexcusable.
• When students at SJSU have problems it is not clear to students where to go to get their problems resolved. Getting solutions at our campus can be like navigating a maze of disconnected groups that do not talk to each other. For example, today students at SJSU had to pay fees. Many of them created tickets in our "Help Desk" ticketing system asking to get their fee paying issues resolved. Since the university does not have one ticketing system for the entire campus the only resolution we could give our students was to point them in the direction of another help desk who we thought could help them.
• In our computer lab in Clark Hall there is a print station. You have to pay for prints when you use the computers with a card that you have to add value to. But, there is no place in the lab to add money to the card. Try telling that to a student who is in a rush to print a paper before a class.

At the time I am writing this I do not know what set this guy off in Virginia
But, in my heart, I think there is a lot we could be doing to reduce stress at SJSU. It may cost a little bit to fix these stress points. But, it is worth the cost. Life is so short, and so precious.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, Campus Life, Virginia Shootings, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

I'm Busted by Apple

Less than a week after starting vlogging I am busted!

Please be aware that you've exceeded 75% of your .Mac data transfer quota for the current period. At the current rate you may exceed your quota, especially if you have received this email towards the start of a two-week monitoring period (the 1st or the 16th of the month). If this happens, access to your site(s) will be turned off.

My new vlogs are here and here. I am no longer going to be casually posting my train and/or family videos on this tech blog. If you are interested in that content you may wish to look at the other two blogs and see if one suits your fancy.
~Steve

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, ssloansjca, Apple

Jeff comments on previous train

Jeff comments on 1983 train
Jeff Sloan, then five, comments on the train in the previous post. Like the previous post this Video is in Quick Time 7 format, download free viewer.

Santa Fe Train 1983

Santa Fe, Near Collier, CA, 1983
In the summer of 1983 I borrowed a VHS tape deck and a camera and went out and shot some video. It was the first video I ever shot and the beginning of the end of my film making for about 20 years. After sitting around about 24 years this early tape is in pretty bad shape. But, here is one clip that is barely salvaged. This is the face of railroading not so long ago.

Technorati Tags: Trains, Railroads, Railroading, ATSF, BNSF, train video, trackwarrants, Track Warrants, ssloansjca

Friday Funnies: I think we're a clone now

The era of Mac clones
From early 1995 through mid-97, it was possible to buy PowerPC-based clone computers running Mac OS, from companies like Power Computing. They frequently offered better performance at a lower price than true Macs. When Steve Jobs returned to power at Apple one of the first things to happen was the discontinuance of this program. This funny and entertaining music video (complete with Dogcow) was made at the start of that period.

The future of Ultra Mobile Computing

The future of computing
I truly believe the future of computing is ultra mobile with always on wireless broadband. Pervasive and wearable computing devices may not even be thought of as computers. This is what it may be like.

Scoble SJSU visit?

Scoble on podcasting
At last night's class we showed this video by Jason Miller. We are using Scoble and Israel's book Naked Conversations as a text in the class. In the class I told the students that Scoble puts his phone number on his blog. They did not believe he would answer so I called him. He answered. It was very cool.

Scobles coming to SJSU?
Besides being an author, a professional podcaster and an A-list blogger, Bob is a long-time friend and a former student of our Journalism School. When we talked to him he said he would be happy to come and talk to our class. A month and a half ago, I talked to his wife Maryam, and at that time she was open to the idea of coming also. I am hoping she is still open to the idea and that they will both come. As far as I am concerned (this is my class) this event, should it happen, could be open to the world. Perhaps we could Skypecast it? It will definitely be podcast. Stay tuned for more!

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, ssloansjca, scoble, j-school

The Greatest Moment

Vlog: The Best Moment of Your Entire Life
When I assigned this to my class I told them I would also do the assignment. So, here is my video. It was actually not an easy assignment and I put a lot of thought into it.

UPDATE - If the video shown above does not play for you!
This movie is posted in other places that may work better for you:

• It is here on Blip.tv in flash format
  
• Also, it is here on YouTube.

Technorati Tags: Madison Sloan, Sloan Family, Blogging, vlogging, vlogs, ssloansjca

Family holiday gathering

Madison on Easter
Yesterday we had a fun family gathering to celebrate the holiday. Little granddaughter Madison stole the show. It was a very pleasant day.