With the recent successes that the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point’s Computing and New Media Technologies’ (CNMT) recognition by Princeton as one of the Top 50 Game Design schools in the nation, I was recently interviewed by the Stevens Point Journal about the recognition. Below is the article, written by Brittany Linenberg
UWSP Computer Game Design Program Among Top 50
By Brittany Linenberg
March 15, 2010
Do you want to design the next “World of Warcraft” or “Madden 2010″?
Stevens Point is the place for you.
The five-year-old gaming development program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has been named one of the top 50 undergraduate programs for studying computer game design.
“This is a great honor and says a lot about what we do,” said Anthony Ellertson, an assistant professor of Web and Digital Media Development at UWSP.
UWSP offers three classes on gaming design, one of which focuses specifically on game development. Students in that class are required to work in groups and construct their own video game.
“A lot of time was spent on advanced animation and programming,” said Brett Widmann, a senior at UWSP majoring in Web development and computer information systems.
The students split into groups and had to create a storyline, design and animation for their game.
“UWSP has an advantage because the labs that students work in are well-funded,” said Ellertson. “Students have the resources necessary to be successful in the program.”
Another aspect of UWSP’s program that sets it apart is its focus toward online gaming development and the mobile game market. According to Ellertson, over the next five years the program will move very deeply into mobile devices, tablet devices, and Web applications.
“We stay on top of what is happening,” said Ellertson.
Aside from the gaming development course, there is a gaming theory class and a history of gaming class that familiarize students with the gaming industry. Widmann said these classes are valuable for anyone in the Web development program even if they do not plan to pursue a gaming development career.
Although he may not go directly into the gaming development field, Widmann said the concepts learned in the gaming development class will definitely be used in his career after he graduates in December.
“The foundational skills learned will help me in all areas of computing,” said Widmann.
There currently are 160 students at UWSP who are pursuing a major or minor in the Web development program. Graduates have gone on to work for top companies such as Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network.
To view the original article, click here.
Finally, Dan Neckar’s article that was written for the Pointer can also be found on the Central Wisconsin Hub website. Congrats, Dan!
Again I’d like to thank everyone who has made all of this possible!
With the recent successes of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Computing and New Media Technologies (CNMT) recognition by the Princeton Review as one of the Top 50 Game Design Programs in the US and Canada, I was recently interviewed for an article that was published in the latest edition of The Pointer, one of our campus newspapers.
Below is the article, written by Dan Neckar.
UWSP CNMT Gets National Game Design Recognition
Dan Neckar
The Pointer
This week, GamePro Magazine and The Princeton Review included the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s department of Computing and New Media Technologies in their first-ever list of the “Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design Programs” in the United States and Canada.
This week, GamePro Magazine and The Princeton Review included the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s department of Computing and New Media Technologies in their first-ever list of the “Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design Programs” in the United States and Canada.
The recognition comes from a joint project between the American video game magazine and The Princeton Review, a test-preparation company that is also known for its annual college rankings including “Best Value College,” “Best Professors,” “Best Dorms” and more. The list has already gained attention from news outlets such as USA Today and Marketwatch.com.
The review based its list on a survey conducted last semester researching several criteria from 500 schools including the quality of the curriculum, faculty, facilities and infrastructure, as well as scholarships, financial aid and career opportunities presented to students.
The UWSP Career Services office conducts their follow-up studies for UWSP graduates every year, offering a look at the number of graduates employed within and outside the field of their major within their first year of graduation.
The two programs offered by the CNMT, Web and Digital Media Development and Computer Information Systems both see over 70 percent of their graduates working in the field within one year of graduating, one of the highest rates across campus. While the CIS major has been at UWSP for over fifteen years, the WDMD program started only seven years ago. This recognition confirms that the young program is already making strides and creating industry buzz.
Assistant professor of multimedia and web development Anthony Ellertson said that he believes the program is garnering attention because it helps students become well-rounded with their skills, excelling in both visual design skills and the technical side of the process as well.
“Years ago, digital agencies who were creating games and Web sites would typically divide project staff into two categories: designers and developers. These agencies are now looking for people who can do both: people who are good with visual design, but also skilled with coding and programming and bringing the two principles together,” said Ellertson, who calls these dual-wielding developers “hybrids.”
Ellertson said that prospective students are interested in the department because it is a creative, fun and challenging industry to work in, with a high demand for employees. He also said that WDMD and CIS graduates have been able to work for some excellent agencies.
“Our alumni work with some of the most advanced companies on the Web today, including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Target, Disney, Hasbro and more,” said Ellertson.
WDMD and CIS double-major Brett Widmann said he thought the major was deserving of the title, and attributed the success of the program to its ability to keep course material relevant and current.
“I really enjoy the fact that it’s a very progressive, and fittingly aggressive program where in some of the classes the course curriculum changes almost every semester. We’re keeping up to date to the best of our abilities, so it’s always good to know that we’re working with the latest technologies being used in the industry,” said Widmann.
Widmann said that the students work together often and have a faculty that comes from many backgrounds and disciplines.
“We’re actually a very tight-knit group of people because of the facilities available where we can all work. There’s a lot of teamwork involved and group interaction with different perspectives and ideas brought to the table, which helps drive the creative process and push the program to its maximum limits,” said Widmann.
GamePro magazine will include the list in their March 9 issue.
To view the original article, click here.
I really want to thank Dan for putting together this article, the faculty for crafting such a strong program, and the students for all of their successes to make our programs a success.
Update: The information in this post is now deprecated. To view all friend statuses scroll down to the bottom of your homepage and click ‘Edit Options’, click ‘Show Posts From’ and change setting to ‘All Of Your Friends and Pages’.
Edit Options is located…
Click on Edit Options to display the feed options
Once you are under Edit Options…
Click on "All of your friends and pages" to view everyone in your feed
Click save. That’s It. That’s all there is to it. 
With the evolution of Facebook and its desire to compete with other networks such as Twitter, one of the features that Facebook has done for its live feed, now known as the Most Recent option in the News Feed section, is control who you see in this feed. My roommate, Chris Leslie, pointed out to me that there was a way to change this feature so that everyone could be seen in my Most Recent news. I admit that I have a larger amount of friends on Facebook than average users, but it would be nice to see more of my friends on the newsfeed rather than Facebook taking control and choosing who I’d like to see. The first thing you need to do is make sure you are viewing the Most Recent feed
Image showing News Feed and Most Recent News selected
Following this step, scroll down to the bottom of the feed. You will see the option to view Older Posts or Edit Options. Click Edit Options
Click on Edit Options to display the feed options for Most Recent
From there, you will be taken to a screen that shows two separate lists; the first list handles and manages the friends you would like to see more on your feed, and the second list manages friends that you do not want to have appear on the feed. As you can see in the below image, you have full reign in customizing who you want to see more of in your feed and not see at all, rather than letting Facebook handle the bulk of this work. I have the Maximum number… box highlighted becase the default value on mine was originally 250, which I changed to 5000 (the max number of friends a Facebook user can have, unless its a Fan Page). I changed the value to this because I did not feel like handpicking and customizing who I wanted or did not want to see on my feed. By having this setting maxed out, I can control on the fly who I want to hide from my feed while updates are posted, which is easier for me, but that’s just a personal preference.
Control who is seen on your Most Recent Feed by changing the settings in this window
As a result of changing these options, I’ve been able to see status updates from a lot of my friends whom I thought dropped off the face of the earth. It’s also made Facebook a little more interesting for me, personally.
I’d like to give some props to Erik Cieslewicz for pointing out that these options are only available in the Most Recent news feed category, not in the Top News.
For the past few months, I’ve had a fair amount of people come to me with a problem that involves an application called Personal Antivirus (PAV) that installs itself on the user’s machine. Everyone who has confronted me about this software was unaware of how it was installed and concerns about the results that the application claims to find on the machine its installed on.
Here’s a few things to know about Personal Antivirus:
Here is a screen capture of PAV in action:
In either case, this application is a fraud and causes your system to be infected. The method I use to rid systems of PAV is to download and scan the infected computer with a program called SuperAntiSpyware. At first, I SuperAntiSpyware was a very ambiguous program itself until I downloaded and tried it on a client’s computer. I was greatly impressed with the program and how effectively it cleans up spyware, trojans and other malware. To be even more elusive, PAV has a very similar user interface to AVG AntiVirus which can be misleading to basic users.
To download the software for free, visit here.
Removing Personal AntiVirus
The first step to removing PAV is to access the Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL. Look for the process called pav.exe and terminate the process. Below is a screen capture of the task manager with the process highlighted.
After ending the pav.exe process, begin the installation of SuperAntiSpyware
When you see the window that states Would you like SuperAntiSpyware to check for the latest… click Yes. it’s not mandatory, but definitely recommended for future use.
Ignore the email portion by clicking Next
For automatic updates, make sure the box is checked to enable the feature. It’s another highly recommended action for future use of the program.
Personally, I usually ignore sending the diagnostic because I’d rather get the computer scan and fixed. The diagnostic report isn’t required or really necessary for removing PAV, so I usually uncheck the box and move on to the next step.
In the event of a security compromise of the browser’s homepage like in PAV, the next step of protecting the home page from being changed is highly recommended, but not required.
Start up SuperAntiSpyware after installation, click the button Scan you Computer, and select the Perform Complete Scan option.
If anything is found during the scan, a window will provide the results found
Following this window, the results of the scan will be shown and the option of choosing what to remove is provided. The screen captures below show some of the files associated with PAV.
Select the infected files you wish to remove. Restart the computer, and your computer should be rid of PAV. The process generally takes about an hour, but is dependent on the number of files and system resources.
This is one of many methods of cleaning up PAV and is the method I’ve found to work the best in the situations I’ve been in. If anyone has any other alternatives to removing PAV, please add them to the comments. I’ll keep this post up to date with any alternatives I may find.
Special thanks goes out to Ashley. Her machine was the infected machine that I used to get screen captures. She’s been PAV free ever since!
