Advice for the Newbies

If I could pass on just one bit of advice about this class, it would be this - slacking off is easy, the assignments are easy to overlook, and there are a huge number of them, so it's really easy to let a few slip through the cracks, but doing so will absolutely murder your GPA, so keep a close watch on the workload and don't ever get behind or else you'll never catch up.

Favorite Websites

So I was going through the long list of great webpages presented in class, and I found that they were all so good I could hardly choose any of them as being "the best" without overlooking the generally superior quality they all shared, so congratulations to everyone on a job well done! After a great deal of thought, and a looming assignment, I finally narrowed my selection to three webpages that stood out from the crowd; Ralph's, Joy's, and Greg Cobbs' from the 2:10 class. I think Ralph's showed a generally superior grasp of the visual aspect of website design with his picture oriented pages and incredible links, while Joy demonstrated an amazing mastery of photoshop in a personal website that was both informative and fun. Greg's caught my interest because of his wonderful use of humor and amazing taste in music. His talent helped him to create a personal website that was both visually appealing without being overstimulating and sublime in its portrayal of the daily life of an ordinary college student.

Visit my webpage at www.cs.trinity.edy/~ssheppar

HTML

So the more I learn about HTML coding, the more important I start to realize it is. Even with programs that can do the largest part of the work for you, it is still very necessary and useful to know the HTML code because, it goes without saying, even advanced programs can make mistakes. It is good, therefore, to know what to look for in the code and to be able to rectify problems with the web design manually, rather than having to rely on a computer program 100% of the time.

Power On!

So I really think that judging the presentations has to be one of the hardest assignments yet just because all of them were of such high quality. It seems to me that everyone in the class has such a solid grasp of how to make a great presentation that almost all of them were flawless. That being said, I think my two favorites were Robert's presentation on Coach Carroll and Alexis' presentation on the accounting internship. I think the best things that Robert did on his presentation were: using the matching USC color scheme and exquisite use of matching music (love that fight song), as well as a generally superior presentation demeanor. Alexis', on the other hand, was stunning because of the sheer breadth of her knowledge and amazing use of layering and her general visual superiority. The backgrounds were stunning, her stage presence was very strong and I was especially impressed with her ability to make even a seemingly mundane topic incredibly exciting. Great job to everyone!

That's Incredible

So I think the best thing I got out of Mr. Nolan's presentation was how even official looking websites can contain massive amounts of polarizing, or sometimes just flat out wrong information. I was shocked, in something of a humorous way, when I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. webpage only to find that it was actually run by a group of radical segregationists. That, to me, was a learning experience about how untrustworthy trustworthy looking sites can be. I was quite impressed by his analysis of the credibility of many webpages, with one exception. I think Wikipedia is a more credible source than it is given credit for. Even in the example that Mr. Nolan gave about the attempt by Colbert to drastically change the elephants page seems to reinforce the idea that Wikipedia is never far from the unwavering eyes of the moderators. As he said himself, they locked the article to prevent people from adding false information to the page, an act which I think speaks volumes to the credit of the oft embattled web encyclopedia.

How to Make a Bad Presentation

So I think Microsoft PowerPoint is probably the simplest program to use horribly wrong in the entire Windows suite. While everyone thinks that they know how to create a perfect presentation, I have compiled a list of my top five PowerPoint pet peeves in an attempt to dispel some presentation myths and mistakes.

1. LOTS OF TEXT - Having waaay too much text does not mean you say more, in fact, PowerPoint is a true champion of minimalism, and often embodies the literary truth that less is more, more or less.

2. Too Much Animation - Lots of moving pictures and text are an attention deficit nightmare. If your PowerPoint has to have a surgeon general's warning that it may cause seizures, then it probably isn't getting the message across.

3. Overpowering Music - Music can be a huge helper for most presentations, and can even be the difference between a bad presentation and a good presentation when used properly, but even good music can go horribly wrong if it drowns out the presenter.

4. Don't Just Read What's on the Page - The slides are meant to guide, but too often they become the main device of communication within a presentation. If notes are being used, they should be directly to the point, but should be expansive and shine light on the bullet points presented on the slides.

5. Not Proofreading Slides - It takes very little to destroy even the best buildups, but poor spelling ensures that that even a good presentation will crash and fail.

Excelleration

So I think the best thing about learning excel now is that I won't have to deal with learning about it later. So far I've learned a great number of new things about the program, such as the proper use of formulas to calculate standard deviation and to discern an absolute cell reference. I find these formulas especially useful because they make calculations far more simple and help to reduce the amount of effort and time spent making them. The useful experience I have gained here with the use of formulas and charts and other goodies would be easily applicable in a business field, or any teaching field so that they could easily calculate averages and standard deviations.

Picture Perfect

So I was looking at the picture of Katie Couric on the image website, and it made me think about the capabilities of our photo-editing software and the goods and ills that come with it. In this particular case, I was drawn to the image of the popular starlet because of the incredible effect the seemingly light touches had on the overall effectiveness of the picture without subsequently changing its meaning. The picture, a photo of Couric originally released in May by CBS, is manipulated to make Couric appear thinner and less, well, orange than the original capture. THe colors are lightened, and the picture cropped so that the colors are less abrasive to the eye, an effect that helps Couric seem more vibrant and lively. She is also slimmed in the picture so that she does not appear overweight. Although these changes are certainly noticeable from one frame to the next, I would certainly not label them harmful by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to discuss this particular picture was because of the drastically altered visual efectiveness based on comparitively little change.

CLT

The CLT room is full of little goodies just waiting for us, the students, to take advantage of. Having never been there before, I was pleasantly surprised by the wide array of things available to aid in any technological needs I might have.

First, the opening room in the CLT contains up to date computers with an array of useful software and capabilities. Most of them are equipped with film editing software, Sony Vega for the PC's and iMovie for the Mac's. From the main room, Learning @ CLT, we wandered into another room that was a dedicated study room equipped with surround sound and an overhead projector equipped to play movies. This room bordered another with music editing software that was generally reserved for music classes. We were told that professor's approval is necessary in order to access this room.

From the music room, we went to the production center for Tiger TV and saw the setup thatallows for the filming of Trinity's own programing. This room was under surveilance constantly to protect the valuable materials therein.

Copyrights and Copywrongs

In the intellectual sphere it is easy to get caught up in the fair use frenzy and forget about the need to adequately respect copyright law. I think we have all, at some point or another, taken an image for a presentation, or made copies of a paper without the express permission of the copyright holder and thought nothing of it, but even as the digital age marches on, it remains necessary that we respect and uphold the rights and privelidges guaranteed to copyright holders.

As I listened to the lecture in class about copyright law, it occurred to me that I had personally been guilty of more than one infraction on the law, and that realization helped to reinforce in my mind why copyright law is so important. But there was one issue above all of the others that really stood out to me, and that was the ferocity by which the RIAA seems to stalk the university setting.

On the one hand, it makes sense to me that the music industry should make every attempt to secure its assets in order to keep from being overrun by the wide-scale downloading epidemic that has broken the monopolistic hold it once had, but on the other hand it seems that targeting the academic sphere is more than a little unfair. As was brought up in class, only 4% of all music downloading comes from universities, yet a fair majority of high level takedowns have been against Trinity itself. This proverbial witch hunt only serves to make the RIAA look even more domineering and oppressive to the individual consumer and, in my opinion, encourages further illegal action.

But to the defense of the RIAA, it is much more difficult to monitor the individual actions of every person downloading in today's internet environment. A strict monitoring of the academic setting helps to ensure a successful prosecutorial run by the RIAA on every subpoena, and the university IP addresses are easier to track than those of individual pirates; not to mention, any suspected action instantly gives the RIAA the upper hand since it constitutes a violation of the university fair use policy.

Even with both sides of the argument considered, I would say I have to err on the side of the induvidual. It seems to me that the RIAA wants to overassert its authority by individually prosecuting file sharers and by focussing mostly on academic setting. Personally, I think that the real threat to the recording industry is not from file sharing in academia, but rather from the individuals who have become fed up with paying exhorbidant prices for music.

-Steve

Academic Blogging

So today's blog is supposed to be something about how and when I use the Trinity network, but to be honest, I'm almost ashamed to answer. For me, I think the Trinity network is something of a paradox: on the one hand, it makes life around campus that much easier (email alone is a godsend), but on the other, there is the constant temptation to surf the net during class (mostly because I get a better connection in class than back in my dorm). I usually only get on the internet in my dorm and then only for recreational purposes, but I admit I have used it during class a time or two as well. Overall I think the internet is more a help than a hindrance because it puts basically every piece of information there is to be had at the touch of a button, but I will admit it is amazingly easy to get sidetracked (Facebook is my Achilles heel). You can read more about wireless networks elsewhere by checking out this article http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-10-02-gennext-tech_x.htm

Peace everybody
Steve

Introductions and Such

Hello fellow members of CS 1300, I'm Steven. I usually go by Steve, but I don't really care what you call me, as long as it's in the ballpark. Now that we've got my name out of the way, I suppose you're wondering where I"m from. That's actually an interesting question just because where I say I'm from and where I'm really from are two entirely different things. I was born in Illinois, but thanks to the Air Force, I moved around every two years until I finally ended up at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. I've been there the longest, so that's where I usually say I'm from. Here in San Antonio I work at the airport, which has given me the opportunity to meet quite a few persons of renown including Bruce Willis, Eva Longoria, O.J. Simpson, Sean Astin, F. Murray Abraham, and others.

As for the computer side of my life, I consider myself fairly good with technology, but I don't have any special skills to speak of. I'm not terribly concerned because I'm generally a fast learner and anything I don't know now I'm sure I'll pick up on quickly.

Steven Sheppard
ssheppar@trinity.edu