CS 1300 Blog

Advice for Next Semester's Students

2009-12-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

I have the following advice for next semester's students:

1) Start early on projects, especially those that involve photoshop and powerpoint. Projects involving these programs can take a long time, so start early in case you run into any problems.

2) When in doubt about anything, ask Ms. Belisle or the teacher assistant! They are willing to help you.

3) Don't get behind, especially with excel!!!

Thank you Ms. Belisle for a great semester!

My Picture that Lies

2009-11-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

This (right) is an original picture of a beach in Ireland. It came off of flikr.com, and I selected it to give an example of how a travel agancy could manipulate it and post it on their site in order to advertize vacations in Ireland.

Now the travel agency manipulates the picture (left) in an attempt to make this particular beach look more appealing and "people friendly."There appears to be a little more room to walk on the beach. I manipulated this pic by using the clone tool to get rid of some of the grass, and used the hue and saturation adjustments to make the water appear more blue. I also used the gradient tool to harmonize the colors.

This manipulation could be considered harmful, as the original picture was altered for advertising purposes in order to convince people to visit this particular part of Ireland. If people do choose to visit this particular place, they might notice that the water is not as "blue"and that there is more grass in real life.

Class Presentations

2009-11-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

My two favorite presentations were those of Josh Friedman and Kyle Trella.

Josh Friedman's presentation was over philosophy. He even chose to focus on a particular philosopher, which made the presentation more interesting. The animation he used really helped explain his story, and further drew the audience in. He also integrated several animated gifs, which showed that he really took on a challenge.

Kyle Trella's presentation over climate change was also very fascinating. His use of animated gifs was also very impressive, and really helped to convey his message. I especially enjoyed the gif in which the car was moving across the slide with pollution coming out of the tailpipe.

Great job guys!

***Note: I was out of class November 3rd, so I was asked to complete this blog after I saw presentations on November 10th.***

PowerPoint Presentations

2009-10-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

I thought that all three of the articles gave very good advice on giving a professional PowerPoint presentation. There were many things I never realized about slide design that could really help draw more attention to the speaker instead of the slides themselves. PowerPoint should be used to reinforce what you are saying, and should not be the star of the presentation!

Here are five guidelines that I would like to give to my classmates about creating a good PowerPoint presentation:

1) If you are going to put words on your slides, please limit yourself to only a few. Don't put a ton of text on your slides. It's really annoying when people just deliver their whole presentation by reading the text on the slides!

2) Be careful with the use of color on the slides. Of course, use a few complimentary colors on the slides to make it interesting, but don't go crazy. You don't want the audience getting headaches just by glancing at your slides. On the other hand, you don't want your slides to be too dull.

3) Try to avoid using clip art, unless it is absolutely necessary. Use more professional pictures instead. Clip art can make the slides look very elementary and very unprofessional. Plus, actual photographs are more interesting!

4) Use little or no animation in your presentation. Sometimes, animation is necessary, but most of the time, it is horribly distracting. It's especially frustrating when the speaker doesn't even know how to control the animation when giving the actual presentation.

5) Avoid using Microsoft templates if at all possible. They're boring, and almost everyone uses them. Be unique; maybe use a photograph on the background of all your slides to act as the templete. But make sure any text can still be seen. You can do this by making the photograph more transparent.

I hope this helps! Best of luck with your presentations!

The Visit to CLT

2009-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

The visit to CLT was very fascinating! I already knew that the library had a ton of resources for the students to use, but I didn't realize that there was video and recording equipment that students could use, as well as photoshop programs, Mac computers, and many other things!

For information technology class, I can use CLT for editing photos. Since I am somewhat new to photoshop elements, not only could I use the technology provided in CLT to edit photos, but I could also ask the staff for instructions and tips.

CLT could be useful for some of my other classes as well. For example, my Spanish class requires me to record dialogues for certain projects. I could use equipment provided by CLT to record, then edit if necessary. For public speaking class, I could use equipment in CLT to create videos as visual aids if necessary.

For personal projects, CLT could be very handy as well. Maybe I would like to gain more experience using a Mac, as I am thinking about purchasing one next summer. I could get the staff at CLT to show me the benefits of using a Mac instead of a PC. I might also want to edit photos and possibly videos I recorded on my iPhone.

My Experience with Excel

2009-10-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

I have learned a lot about Excel this semester. Before taking this class, I had no idea how to use equations in a spreadsheet. I also did not know how to insert clip art and format in Excel.

Excel will be very useful in the future. It can help keep track of the balance of my bank account, and be used for many other purposes where data is involved.

It is an extremely useful tool for academic fields and businesses, as Excel can be used to calculate and organize data. Templates can be created so that a certain spreadsheet can be used multiple times! Excel is an awesome program!

Searching the Internet

2009-10-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

I never knew that Google could actually be a somewhat reliable search engine when conducting academic research. The “advanced search” option really helps with this task, as the search itself can be limited to more scholarly sources. In fact, an advanced search can be conducted on Google just to find only scholarly articles, and not necessarily websites. But in regard to finding reliable websites for academic research, the search can be limited to particular domains. For example, domains such as “.edu” and “.gov” are probably better to cite in academic research papers than “.org”, as the information is, most likely, less biased. On another note, the advanced search option can also be used to eliminate sites in a search with a particular domain. If the advanced search option is not being used, inserting quotation marks around text in the search bar helps filter results so that they contain that particular phrase.

I was surprised to find that Google, unlike many other search engines, monitors how sites link to other sites, allowing for the most linked sites to appear first in the search results list. Also, Google separates the advertising sites from the non-advertising sites, making an academic search easier to conduct. Although Google does separate these two types of sites in the search results, the company does make a lot of money on small text ads.

A Picture that Lies

2009-10-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

This picture is actually not what it seems. Displayed on the CNET NEWS website, it is described as two separate images of John Kerry and Jane Fonda photoshopped together to make one image. This altered picture surfaced during the 2004 presidential primaries. It was supposed to depict Kerry and Fonda together at an antiwar rally. The picture of Kerry was taken in 1971 when he was at the Register for Peace Rally, and the picture of Fonda was taken in 1972, when she spoke at a political rally.

I chose to analyze this picture because I was interested in how someone was able to merge two pictures from the 1970s. I thought there was probably a lot of controversy over this picture as well, since it was released during a presidential campaign. Someone in the media was probably trying to attack Kerry and his campaign. This manipulation may have been harmful to Kerry's campaign, as it depicts him with Fonda, when the two, in fact, where not in the same place at the same time.

The Fair & Unfair Use Law

2009-09-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

There are four factors (nature of work being reproduced, purpose of reproduction, amount of reproduction, and how production affects profit) that are used to determine if the reproduction of a copyright work is fair, and it is the right of the company to use these four factors as a basis for proving that a consumer did violate the copyright standards of a particular product. However, the Fair Use Law is too vague, and can be open to too much interpretation on the consumer’s part. The copyright standards of a particular product are usually not initially spelled out to the consumers. Therefore, the consumers do not know that they are violating the Fair Use Law until they are slapped in the face with a lawsuit by the company.

I believe that the Fair Use Law needs to be revised so that a company must specifically indicate the conditions in which a consumer can reproduce a certain product. It is unfair to hold the consumers accountable for violating copyright laws when the company itself did not make the circumstances of reproducing a product clear.

Network Diagram of Trinity Network

2009-09-15T06:49:00.001-07:00

Computer "Survival Skills"

2009-09-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

My favorite tip from Joe Hatch's presentation last Thursday was the computer maintenance advice. A great program to use for regular maintenance on the computer is CCleaner. It is a great resource for removing cookies and deleting usernames and passwords from browsing history. Mr. Hatch said that PC users should download CCleaner. It's free!!! I myself am looking forward to using the program!

Introduction

2009-08-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Alison, and I am a first year student at Trinity University. I am very excited to be here!

Born and raised in Dallas, TX, I am the 2nd of three kids. I have an older sister who attends Caltech and a younger brother who is going into the 8th grade. I have three pets, which include a miniature dachshund and two tuxedo cats.

Here is a link to a map of Dallas: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Dallas,+TX&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.188995,78.837891&ie=UTF8&ll=32.780925,-96.797104&spn=0.154426,0.307961&t=h&z=12.

My interests include academics, watching sports (not playing), learning about different cultures, and driving, although I have received two speeding tickets. But don't worry, I took defensive driving and got those tickets dismissed. I am a good driver most of the time!

At Trinity, I hope to get involved with activities such as community service and debate. I believe community service is the best thing anyone can do to help society, and I hope to become more involved with these efforts. In high school, I was part of a debate club, and I want to continue that activity in order to strengthen my skills.

I also hope to improve my knowledge about technology, which is why I am taking this class. I do know basics, such as using Word and Powerpoint, but I could learn a lot more about Excel and Photoshop. My biggest concern about this class is that it may move too fast. I hope I can keep up!

cwhitten@trinity.edu