Website

Making a website is not quite as easy as you would expect. Its not as simple as laying images together and then hyperlinking them (unless your good and sneaky and utilize adobe photoshop). The business involves layers, and layers are rebellious devils. When I first began working on my website I meet a lot of frustration and actually considered giving up on what my mind took for impossible. Eventually I did complete it, though the final product is nothing special, and to help future students avoid the same migraine that I had, here are a few tips:

-Plan out your site's layout (and each page's layout)
-write out your text before hand
-know the pixel size of all images you want to include
-Make extensive use of photoshop
-Don't put it off to the last minute, it's far too time consuming.
-Make it your own, after all this could be the only website you ever make

Pictures that White Lie

The existence of global warming isn't a revelation to modern society, but neither is stout refusal to accept it. I think the matter mustn't be categorized as a political problem, so much as a problem for all life on Earth. I chose a sheep to represent all of the human and animal kingdoms, because it is a docile creature and often indefensible.
The picture was downloaded from stock exchange but I cropped and manipulated it so much that I can only faintly recognize the final version in the original. I cropped the picture, increased the contrast, darkened the exposure, skewed the saturation, and added text. All this greatly increased the drama of the picture by making the colors striking and adding a dystopian tone. The sheep's faces are totally blotted out in shadow while the ground they stand on appears about ready to catch fire. In other words, it's too late for them to escape and they realize it.
I don't believe the manipulation was harmful unless you like to pretend global warming isn't real. The pastoral picture I manipulated is not fully recognizable in my final version, and no one is being deceived into thinking that mine is an authentic image of rural life. Neither are the dramatic elements harmful. They are too highly stylized to be accepted as fact and must be interpreted with regard to their message.
All in all I'm just trying to say, in a most cliched manner, that we could all be sheep for the slaughter if global warming continues growing.

Powerpointing at good work

The powerpoints presented in class on Tuesday were far more visually entertaining than most I've seen. My favorites had to be Alaska's and Will P.'s.

Alaska design was fairly simple and easy to follow. Her topic was digital photography and she took advantage, showing us some funky pictures that highlighted it's special functions. She spoke on elements of design and used an old man with a bicycle as an example. It's about time somebody did. Anyway her funky, and informative, presentation was as funky as she is. I must say: Good show Alasko!

Will P.'s presentation stood out for it's humor. It was about sex mostly, with some monkey creatures (Bonobos) thrown in for good measure. I liked his verbal adages the most because he spoke very naturally and looked unrehearsed. I respect that kind of bravado, especially for his topic cause who doesn't have an opinion? Like any experienced performer he left the audience in limbo before the climax of his show. He skillfully gave us a snippet of his sexy bonobo montage and then let the audience sweat in anticipation for a minute before successfully playing the slide in full. His presentation was plus plus. Well done William.

Powerpoint (minus the headache)

PowerPoint isn't my forte because technology is like Arabic to me. Because that doesn't make sense I'll explain: before starting college I was largely ignorant of both and I'm taking courses in each. PPT has becoming more difficult to circumvent as I ascended through grade and high school and into college. For me its a lot to digest, but I've discovered I'm not alone. Investigations undertaken in the name of CS 1300 have revealed that there are nations of people utilizing PPT at a level so base as my own. With so many in need there are useful articles that promise to return some measure of dignity to my PPTs, these are their stories:
Tips:
1) Make yourself the star of the show. Slides should be a sidekick.
2) Text on PowerPoint's should only contain the skeleton of what you have to say. Flesh out the details through savvy speaking.
3) Avoid complexity. Distracting animations and transitions turn the audiences' attention away from what is pertinent (hopefully this is the information you are trying to convey).
4) Be innovative. Give the audience themes and graphics that are sophisticated and not worn to death.
5) Consider the flow of your presentation. Look at all slides in the slide sorter and consider the logical progression of your information. Keep in mind that the less topics there are per slide the easier your presentation will be to follow.

Now that the clean business of considering ways to improve our PPTs is out of the way, I'll lament on all the dismal habits we shall have to give up: writing entire paragraphs onto one slide (let the audience figure it out for themselves!), inserting cutesy clip art (in a perfect world bunnies would always be considered appropriate), reading off the slide (why should I have to memorize stuff, I know too much silly information already), and presenting without enthusiasm (this is my default mode when it comes to school projects). Lousy presentations are awful to watch but they are wonderful to prepare for- because you don't! I'll miss rehearsing for lectures by watching Sportscenter and Spongebob but without sacrifice can we truly appreciate the good times?

The CLT

The CLT (Center for Learning and Technology) is housed in a lower level of the library. It's got a ton of glossy Macs and sleek video gadgets...almost like a tech. batcave. The staffers manage both electronic classrooms and TV systems across campus. They also instruct teachers in technological matters. So much power. Let's hope they use it responsibly.
Wonder where multimedia materials on campus are produced? Video equipment is managed? To go to loan out a video camera? That's right! The CLT (Cave of Learning and Technology).
Students are free to get a hold on these resources in addition to faculty. Video equipment, study rooms, and staff help are available. But be on your toes because you may need to reserve some ahead of time (more information at http://www.trinity.edu/departments/clt/about_clt/about.htm ).
An opportunity for me to utilize the CLT has already arisen. My Arabic teacher desires DVDs of her pupils speaking her native tongue in a couple social situations, trouble is I forgot my video camera and DVD formatting equipment at home. Before discovering the CLT I thought myself in a fix, but all I need for the assignment (except mastery of Arabic) is there. Assuming everything goes smoothly with that I'll probably return to burn some movies illegally. I'm kidding obviously...no one does that.

Excel with Excel

Before working with Microsoft Excel in Cs 1300 I didn't know much about the program except that it must perform some important function to merit it's icon a place next to Microsoft word's on my Macbook. It's actually a useful little program. Although not as essential as Word for everyday use, Excel's spreadsheets are excellent for financial and business ventures. The mathematical functions it performs especially caught my eye for this reason. Money matters can be messy and Excel does a great job of sorting and calculating data. I can foresee myself using Excel in the same real life situations that we did mock-ups of in class. It would do an admirable job of warning me just how much I'd have to shell out on interest for big purchases or on loans for a mortgage. Utilizing it for determining cost and earnings in business exercises, as with the KRTU fundraiser (which I participated in!), is equally useful. If I were to establish a primo lemonade stand in my neighborhood I'd better know just how much cash I'm bleeding on lemons, water, and sugar so I can determine what my prices ought to be in order that I make a decent return (luckily the most valuable ingredient in such enterprises -love- is free). Organizing figures in general is easier if your committed to Excel.

A visit by Chris Nolan!

No not the director of the batman movies! A Trinity Internet guru seeking to pass over his skills of web searching and site evaluation to the lucky (and rather sleepy) attendants of CS 1300 @ 8:30.
Because pretty much all college students use Google as their search engine of choice, the majority of his presentation centered around how to use Google more effectively. But first a tiny briefing on Google. Google ranks its search results by the occurrence of the words searched, where those words appear, and (their signature feature) popularity links. Google profit is derived from advertising certain websites, but these sites appear off to the side of the returned search and are not supposed to affect the ordering of results. However, the finer details of how Google ranks search results is kept secret so marketers, kept one step behind Google, can't manipulate the search engine.
What I found most fascinating about Nolan's presentation were all the extra tidbits Google provides to help narrow down a search to help you find precisely what you want. I'm talking about advanced functions. Only want a certain type of website (say .gov or .edu) or only Spanish ones? You actually have the ability to make these specifications. Not that I had any idea. Formerly, I tended to glaze over the actual Google page, spewing in my information and choosing the first websites that satisfied my not-too-high standards. The problem with this method was most glaring whem I searched for scholarly articles for school projects. Real scholarly sites tend to be less viewed than say Time.com, and are buried deep within search results. However, Google has a secret option called "Google Scholar", known only to those who analyze the homepage. Now the Trinity Library won't be my only source for academic articles!
Mr. Nolan touched on other topics as well, like how to evaluate a web page (check out the "about this site" tab), but the information on Google was the most useful for myself.