This week I decided to update our Slide for Childrens Church. The old one was static and I decided to “spruce” it up a bit with some motion graphics. I used Adobe AE CS 6, Video Copilot’s Optical Flares, and Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular. I’d like to start doing allot more graphic design! If you want to buy or even try demos of the above listed software, you can just click the names for a link to each of the sites.
My son has resently become HEAVILY involved in Minecraft lately and wanted a way for all of us to play together. I originally had a server setup at the house but after a few power outages and other mishaps, we decided to move the server to an online hosted solution!
We decided on Redstone Host due to Cost/Functionality/Support. Needless to say I was up in about 30 minutes after signing up. All it took was an upload of my current servers files to the new server and we were up and running! If you are in search of a quality service to host YOUR Minecraft Server, give them a shot by clicking the link in this post, or the banner at the top left of the main page!
I just acquired an iMAC 27″. I acquired a MacBook 17″ about a year ago and have been adding some Apple experience to my bag of tricks. I didn’t realize it but the 27″ screen can be used as a secondary monitor to the Macbook via a Thunderbolt cable. I have one on order so I’ll post my experience once it arrives. I am also looking for ways to hookup external media devices like an XBOX 360 or a Playstation 3. I’ll post my experiences with that as well!
Looks like a have found my MDM Server of
Choice! Boxtone
This system brings all your mobile device platforms under one management umbrella. I am in the middle of installation right now and so far I am really enjoying it!
From one console I can view every device the user has enrolled including all Blackberries, iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. I can click on the device and reset the password, or remotely wipe the device! This is great for the iDevices. With the out of the box management in Exchange if one of your users forgot his/her password, your only option was to have them wipe the device and start over. Now you can unlock the device for them from the console! They will have 1 hour to set a new password before the device locks out again.
Another nice feature I like is all the reporting they give you out of the box. You can report your entire mobile inventory to one spreadsheet. All the reporting is “automatable” so you can schedule high level overview reports to go to bosses and upper management. There’s also reports that show you who is failing attempts to enroll mobile devices. Boxtone allows you to define who can actually enroll devices. There is performance reporting so you can see if there are any users that have devices that aren’t used. You can then retrieve those devices from users that don’t use them, and re-provision them for users that will. It’s nice to be able to tell a user that just HAD to have an iPad for business use that they have only used the device 2 times in the past 6 months they’ve had it!
Just got my iPad 2 up and running and am making my first test post from it. I’ll let you guys know my thoughts after I have used it for a little while
I have been debating getting an iPad for a while now. I already have an iPhone and it does it’s job very well for what I bought it for. I use Reqal for reminders, lists, and to-dos. I use Evernote to centralize all my research and notes. I always try to never buy version one of a product so now that the iPAD2 is out, the decision is a little easier. I have not received it yet. Like most others I am waiting for mine ot come in. In the meantime here is a good article from the Productivity Ninja on 10 of the apps he uses
http://timemanagementninja.com/2011/03/the-ipad-2-ten-best-productivity-uses/
Need help modifying the Spam settings on your SBS server?
I found a great free training resource for Adobe Illustrator over at Vector Diary
Learn the basics in 30 days (Or faster if you’re REALLY gung ho!)
This is a first attempt at creating motion graphics using Adobe After Effects CS4. I followed the Glow tutorial from http://videocopilot.net HERE. Great site. The cool thing is that now that I have this in the system it is easy to modify and now that I know the basic concept I can create other videos with glowing images! I’m working on learning how to place lights next. This video is VERY unpolished and needs allot of work, but hey, it’s my first one so I was excited!!