I attended Georgia Tech's Information Design and Technology program. The program is cross-disciplinary (isn't everything thse days)concentrating on the intersection on theory and practice in new media design. I really liked the program because a lot of the emphasis is on doing and thinking at the same time.
The faculty tend to come from programs/backgrounds like English, Film, Design, Theatre, and Critical Theory, but are interested in the application of technology to those disciplines and then what impact that can have on the industry as a whole. They are generally very well known in their fields. Jay Bolter, Terry Harpold, and Janet Murray are well known for their writings. Matthew Causey is an avant garde theatre director of note. Ellen Strain and Greg VanHoosier-Carey have received a NEA grant to develop a CD-ROM to teach film history, history of the South, and film editing techniques which is amazing (note- these people are friends so this is a total plug). The department chair, Robert Kolker , is the author (note - not developer) of another CD-ROM dealing with film, Film, Form, and Culture which was landmark a couple of years ago. Diane Gramola is a well known digital artist (she does cool 3D stuff definately check out the site) who has been involved with organzing SIG-Graph.
The program teaches interactive design (both web on "traditional" interacive design), some graphical design, some web and multimedia scripting, audio and video production and editing, and HCI, as well as some really interesting/cutting edge material like the theoretical (I mean critical theory a la Beaudrillard here) impacts of the technologies and their uses. As you can see the program covers a lot of ground and can allow students to go in a lot of different directions.
Graduates have gone on the PhD programs, started their own companies, and gone on to work places like Macquarium (note this is a shamelessly self-serving plug - that is me), IXL, and IBM.
Anyway, that is the scoop.
In response to the stuff above about "skipping grad school, you don't need it to get a job, etc", just think about what it is that you want to do. Grad school should be about a lot more than getting a job. It should (even at the Master's level) be about advancing knowledge. If you aren't interested in that then don't bother going. I highly recommend the program, if nothing else it is a lot of fun and a good way to get out the IT or.com rat race.
I started reading this thread hoping to pick up a new password strategy. I guess I did this based on the assumption that my system/strategy was fairly weak, but honestly, after reading through some of the hopelessly complex, overly simple systems, or PDA dependent (working on breaking my 3rd Palm now) systems listed here, I think I'll stick with what I have.
Ok here's what I do:
I use a set of names that have meaning to me, and intersperse them with alphanumerics. I then rotate all passwords through this system so that all of them are on the same system. In order to keep my life simple, I also keep one single, simple password for all of those things that need a password, but aren't really life or death.
I don't think that the explanation above made a hell of a lot of sense so here is an example. I was a real Francis Ford Coppola (FFC) run a while back, so all my passwords dealt with him, his work, or his personal life.
Whenever I needed a password, I would take something FFC related, such as Apocolypse Now, and "password-ize it". Apocolypse Now would become a8pocolyps8en8o8w. Probably not susceptible to dictionary cracks, but it does follow a pattern that has meaning to me. All I have to remember is the "key" (not a totally accurate term, but you know what I mean: Francis Ford Coppola), the pattern (where I insert the alphanumerics), and the correct alphas (8).
At worst, using this system, I have had to hit one of the big movie sites to look of FFC's filmography and then cycle through the list of movies.
If I thought I needed something really obscure (i.e. for anything work or finance related), I might take someone who worked on the film, such as the editor, and work their role and name into the password.
The trickiest part is remembering everything that I have a password to, and figuring out when I signed up for it so that I know which system I was using at the time. This is why I try to update everything at once in a single, super boring password update fest...
The topic that I honestly haven't seen covered very much that is probably just as important is the remembering of usernames. As more and more people come online, it is harder and harder to get be the first person to sign up for a service using your 'nick. I try to keep a couple, and then hope that I can get one of those to work.
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I attended Georgia Tech's Information Design and Technology program. The program is cross-disciplinary (isn't everything thse days)concentrating on the intersection on theory and practice in new media design. I really liked the program because a lot of the emphasis is on doing and thinking at the same time.
The faculty tend to come from programs/backgrounds like English, Film, Design, Theatre, and Critical Theory, but are interested in the application of technology to those disciplines and then what impact that can have on the industry as a whole. They are generally very well known in their fields. Jay Bolter , Terry Harpold , and Janet Murray are well known for their writings. Matthew Causey is an avant garde theatre director of note. Ellen Strain and Greg VanHoosier-Carey have received a NEA grant to develop a CD-ROM to teach film history, history of the South, and film editing techniques which is amazing (note- these people are friends so this is a total plug). The department chair, Robert Kolker , is the author (note - not developer) of another CD-ROM dealing with film, Film, Form, and Culture which was landmark a couple of years ago. Diane Gramola is a well known digital artist (she does cool 3D stuff definately check out the site) who has been involved with organzing SIG-Graph.
The program teaches interactive design (both web on "traditional" interacive design), some graphical design, some web and multimedia scripting, audio and video production and editing, and HCI, as well as some really interesting/cutting edge material like the theoretical (I mean critical theory a la Beaudrillard here) impacts of the technologies and their uses. As you can see the program covers a lot of ground and can allow students to go in a lot of different directions.
Graduates have gone on the PhD programs, started their own companies, and gone on to work places like Macquarium (note this is a shamelessly self-serving plug - that is me), IXL, and IBM.
Anyway, that is the scoop.
In response to the stuff above about "skipping grad school, you don't need it to get a job, etc", just think about what it is that you want to do. Grad school should be about a lot more than getting a job. It should (even at the Master's level) be about advancing knowledge. If you aren't interested in that then don't bother going. I highly recommend the program, if nothing else it is a lot of fun and a good way to get out the IT or .com rat race.
Ok here's what I do:
I use a set of names that have meaning to me, and intersperse them with alphanumerics. I then rotate all passwords through this system so that all of them are on the same system. In order to keep my life simple, I also keep one single, simple password for all of those things that need a password, but aren't really life or death.
I don't think that the explanation above made a hell of a lot of sense so here is an example. I was a real Francis Ford Coppola (FFC) run a while back, so all my passwords dealt with him, his work, or his personal life.
Whenever I needed a password, I would take something FFC related, such as Apocolypse Now, and "password-ize it". Apocolypse Now would become a8pocolyps8en8o8w. Probably not susceptible to dictionary cracks, but it does follow a pattern that has meaning to me. All I have to remember is the "key" (not a totally accurate term, but you know what I mean: Francis Ford Coppola), the pattern (where I insert the alphanumerics), and the correct alphas (8).
At worst, using this system, I have had to hit one of the big movie sites to look of FFC's filmography and then cycle through the list of movies.
If I thought I needed something really obscure (i.e. for anything work or finance related), I might take someone who worked on the film, such as the editor, and work their role and name into the password.
The trickiest part is remembering everything that I have a password to, and figuring out when I signed up for it so that I know which system I was using at the time. This is why I try to update everything at once in a single, super boring password update fest...
The topic that I honestly haven't seen covered very much that is probably just as important is the remembering of usernames. As more and more people come online, it is harder and harder to get be the first person to sign up for a service using your 'nick. I try to keep a couple, and then hope that I can get one of those to work.
Anyone found anything better?