Dynamic Subspace

Category: City Tech

  • Intel NUC Compact Computer Picked Up Off the Sidewalk

    compact desktop computer about the size of a hardback book next to its box, which is 3 times as large as the computer

    On our walk to the subway on the way to City Tech yesterday, Y and I found this Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) compact computer left out on the sidewalk. Originally priced about $1000 as a barebones system in 2018, it features Intel® Core™ i7-8809G Processor with Radeon™ RX Vega M GH graphics, two SO-DIMM DDR4-2400 RAM slots, and two M.2 slots for storage. It has numerous input and output ports on the front and rear. For something about the size of a hardback book, it is significantly heavy–I’m guessing its cooling system has a lot of copper. I didn’t have my hex drivers at school, so I wasn’t able to open it up to see how it is configured for RAM and storage. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a PSU, so I don’t have a way to power it up either. There are some compatible PSUs for sale on eBay, but they range from $150 to 185, which is too high for me to gamble on a possibly dead system. While I wait on a bargain on a PSU, I’ll add the NUC to the Retrocomputing at City Tech collection that I keep in my increasingly small office space.

  • Paying Respects to Townsend Harris, Founder of City College of New York and First US Consul General to Japan

    stone memorial with a japanese lantern and large tree with overarching limbs

    Yesterday, Y and I visited Townsend Harris‘ grave in Green-Wood Cemetery yesterday. The tree behind it stretched out its branches to shade it from the crisp mid-afternoon sunlight. Harris is known for being the first Consul General from the United States to the Empire of Japan and he founded the school that would become the City College of New York and the cornerstone of the City University of New York (CUNY). His gravesite was renovated in 1986 by Japan and it retains the evident care that went into its design and construction. It’s a short walk from the Prospect Park West entrance on the south/southeast-facing hillside between Atlantic Ave and Ocean Ave.

    stone grave marker for townsend harris
    stone memorial for townsend harris, founder of city college of new york
    stone dedication memorializing the renovation of townsend harris' gravesite by japan
    stone japanese lantern in graveyard

  • Online Class Production Studio at Home

    For my online, asynchronous Science Fiction (ENG 2420) class at City Tech this semester, I am recording my weekly lectures at my desk at home. I think the setup that I created for the second week’s lecture shown above will work out well for my recordings.

    I have a 1080p Logitech webcam with stereo mics on the left of my monitor. I have a 2 x 3 ft. foam board propped up on the right side. Originally, this was to cut down on the sound from the living room air conditioner. But, tonight, I setup a temperature controlled LED light to reflect light off the foam board onto me. This produced a much better picture than with the overhead pot lights and even provided nice illumination with the overhead lights turned off as shown.

    I used OBS Studio to record my lecture, and I edited the footage with Shotcut. Then, I uploaded the edited MP4 to YouTube.

  • 10 Year Anniversary at City Tech

    New Entrance to the Namm Building at City Tech on Jay Street, Brooklyn.

    It’s hard for me to believe that it’s only been 10 years since I started teaching at City Tech in Brooklyn. My gray hair seems like a testament to it being far longer.

    I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things since landing in Brooklyn as evidenced by my CV and Teaching Portfolio. I’ve had the joy of teaching great students, and I’ve enjoyed the collegiality and comradery of excellent coworkers.

    Some of the greatest hits of things that I’ve done–some alongside the best colleagues and others by myself–include:

    There’s a lot left to do. What can I accomplish in the next 10 years?

  • Busy Preparing My Fall 2024 Science Fiction Class

    An anthropomorphic tuxedo cat wearing a leather jacket is working at a computer terminal. Image created with Stable Diffusion.

    Fall 2024 classes begin on Wednesday, August 28. Originally, I was hoping to teach City Tech’s ENG2420, Science Fiction course in person this semester, but the in-person section had too few students to run. Thankfully, after the administration switched the class to being online, asynchronous and sending a message blast to prospective students, the new online class quickly filled up. Since City Tech recently switched to a new learning management system (LMS) called Brightspace, I’m going to experiment teaching the class on it instead of using our open learning system, OpenLab. However, I will still create my video lectures as YouTube videos, so they will be public facing for anyone interested in following along or using them in their own classes. Also, this will be my first time teaching the class using my open educational resource (OER) Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook. Here’s to a positive and productive semester!