The Golden Rules of CS 1300

ATTENTION:

FUTURE CS 1300 STUDENTS

A little word of advice:

Do NOT miss class nor stay behind on assignments, because in the end it will hurt you. This class is very time demanding and you need to learn how to manage your time. But do not worry you will all get through with the class as long as you listen to Mrs. Belisle and attend class regularly and stay on top of you classwork, homework, and blogs!!! Have fun because it is a real relaxing and fun class.

-Alexa Calderon

My favorite websites were...

As the year semester is winding down our CS 1300 final project was to create a personal website of ourselves. I had so much fun creating my website and staying in the work lab till 1:00 in the morning for almost an entire week. Every one's website was amazing, everybody added their own special touch to their site that gave it that extra bang BUT my three favorite sites were those by...

1. Tasha Kopecky- Her site was wonderful. I really enjoyed her animated giff on her home page. I also enjoyed all of her travel pictures, they were amazing. My favorite picture of her website was the one she was carrying the koala. I also like the colors she choose for her website, they really brought out her information and pictures. All in all I enjoyed her website a lot. 

2. Chiara Ferrari- Wow!!! This girl is an artist. I loved, loved, loved her site because she is one of the many that really personalized her web page. Although it was not a personal website about herself it was a very entertaining page of her artwork. I love the animations she draws, they are so cute. I also liked Chiara's web page because on the drawing she did have color on they were bright and I liked the way she stuck with the light pink as her background color. She did an excellent job. Hopefully, one day I can draw just as good as her. 

3. Jennifer Wight- I enjoyed her web page as well because I loved how she used just pastel colors. I thought it was very interesting for her to want to join the peace corps, something I wish to do as well but I am afraid to do so. All of her pages gave excellent information about their topics. I enjoyed reading about Austin as well as Trinity and the Peace Corps. I think Jen put a lot of time and effort into her web page and I honestly enjoyed viewing it.

So those were my favorite three, in no particular order, I loved all of them equally. I had so much fun creating my web page that I told my dad I would help him create a web page for his Law Firm. I am glad the web page was our last project as well because we were able to demonstrate almost everything we learned in our CS 1300 class. I will miss being able to use a computer as next semester my classes don't seem as fun and peppy. But overall EXCELLENT job to everyone in the 8:30 class. You can visit my web page at www.cs.trinity.edu/~acaldero. Send me an e-mail if you have any questions. Enjoy my web page.

The Importance of HTML Coding

HTML coding is a very important subject because it is the default language that all computers understand in order to function. Yes, it can be very annoying and frustrating when using but HTML coding is very useful when creating a website or any web based project. The reasons behind HTML coding's importance is that one, web-designers and web-programmers are taught to HTML code in order to set up their assignment/project. It is the basis of what and how the assignment/project will appear when finished. We are fortunate enough to have Mrs. Belisle allow us to use such an amazing program called Microsoft Expression Web, which creates our website without us having to spend numerous hours coding our website. But HTML coding is also important for Web-designers and web-programmers to know because if a problem were to occur and the web site project is not appearing the way the designer thought it would, the designer will quickly be able to tell where the problem has occurred unlike us students using Expression Web. Their are many things you need to understand about HTML coding and patience is one. I am glad I have learned how to do the basics of HTML coding and even more glad that we get to use Expression Web, although HTML coding is preferred. 

My Favorite Power Point Presentations Are...

It was hard to choose my two favorite presentations because their were so many good presentations. I believe that everybody did an excellent job on their presentations. It was hard to decide on my two favorite presentations but I have decided. My first favorite presentation was Reuben. I choose his because I loved the little happy face on his opening slide. Also, his presentation was by far the most humorous and I like the fact that he had fun with his presentation. The music that was in his presentation was very relevant to his topic and his goal in life which was to make money, but also because it went along with the having fun part of his presentation. I enjoyed Reuben's presentation the most and I wish him the best of luck in Accounting. My second favorite presentation was Jordan of course. I think Jordan's presentation will probably be at least one of the entire class favorites. Jordan's presentation was very informative and he spoke really well when he gave his presentation. He knew the topic very well and did not even need to use cue cards. Good job! I also picked Jordan's because his graphics were really cool and they were relevant as well to his topic. My favorite graphic would have to be all the men lined up marching and it was moving as it were real. Very cool! I really had fun using Power Point and making up my presentation but the best part of this project was watching everybody else's presentations. As Mrs. Belisle said "their all so good, it is going to be hard to choose my two favorites".

Searching the Internet

Search engines have became a very useful tool in not only my life but in any person's life. Because of search engines my life as a college student has became a bit easier when it comes to finding information pertaining to any of my paper topics. The search engine of my choice is Google. I use Google because it is one of the most relevant search engines that has valuable sites with much information.

The other day in class we had a presentation by Chris Nolan, who is the assistant librarian at Trinity University. His topic of discussion was how to search the Internet the right way. I really enjoyed having Mr. Nolan as a presenter because he not only was a great presenter he was very energetic about his topic. I learned many things from Mr. Nolan that I previously was not aware of when using a search engine such as Yahoo, or Google. First, about sixty percent on the United States uses Google as their preferred search engine. Other search engines that are used by U.S. residents are Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Ask. Another thing I learned from Mr. Nolan's presentation was that Google provides students and anybody else the option to search for information using Google Scholar, which is relevant in finding academic scholar articles or information about a topic. Another option while using Google is using the Advance Search option which allows you to narrow your search that has information only coming from specific sources that you type in. For example, you can type in .edu and the topic of information you are looking for and only information on your topic will appear but its sources will only be from universities or special educational institutions. With Advanced Search you can also limit your search links by domain as well. Advanced search is just an easier way to help limit your search results. I found the Advanced search option to be amazingly awesome! Also, I never knew what the word cached meant under the link to the links that were provided to me by Google, but I learned that if you were to push the cached button it highlights the words that were used in the search engine bar. That is pretty darn cool if you ask me :) Another interesting thing I learned from Mr. Nolan was another way to narrow my searches by inserting a + or " " in the search bar to get better results when searching for two topics that pertain to each other. This is a search shortcut I was unaware of and am happy I learned it because it will help me in my searches from now on.

I am very happy that I was able to learn about all the amazing options Google search provides me. They will be very useful in my future, I have a paper due this Friday and I need at least four sources so now I know how to properly search the Internet for sources. I can tell you I will be using the Advanced search option and the Google Scholar option to obtain my sources for my paper. Thank You, Mr. Nolan for your wonderful presentation on better ways to search the Internet. :)

Information On Creating A Successful Power Point Presentation

The primary use of a Power Point Presentation is to relay information to a audience. I have used a great amount of PPP here at Trinity as well as in high school. After reading the articles I realized that I have committed many PPP no-no's. One of my main problems is putting excess information. I usually don't read off the slide but I do try and cram up information so that my PPP won't appear to be too long. But after reading the articles I have cleared up some misconceptions about PPP. I enjoyed reading all the articles because they have a significant amount of information discussing how to improve one's PPP. 

Some guidelines in creating a successful PPP are as follow:

1. Keep a PPP Simple. Too much information on one slide is not very interesting, it bores the reader. Also by keeping it simple less clutter appears on the slide as well and the slide looks more appealing and readable to the audience.

2. Use Visual Effects. When editing your slides be creative when it comes to the slides visual effects. Some effects that are helpful in creating a better presentation are sound effects, animations, clear images. Try to avoid the PP clip-art and avoid using PP templates as the Master slide. Creativity is the best tool a person can use.

3. Use Cue Cards. Using cue cards during your presentation will be very helpful in saying what you have to say. This technique also helps you not to read directly off the slides. Take time to gather all the information and section it throughout your slides. Cue cards is what helps the presentation run smoothly.

4. Use Color. Using color in your slides is a great way to catch your audiences attention BUT do not use bright colors that will annoy your audiences eyes. Cool colors and warm colors are suggested in one of the articles we read. Cool colors are usually used for backgrounds whereas warm colors are used for objects in the foreground (such as the text). Color is everything, it can make or break your presentation.

5. Direction of Images. When using images in your presentation remember to face the object inwards of the text's location. By doing this it will keep the reader to focus on the information as well as the image that is presented in the slide or slides.

These are five guidelines I would suggest everyone try to follow when making their PPP. 

I enjoyed reading the articles titled Top Ten Slide Tips and Pedagogical Value of Power Point-Recommendations. These two articles go hand in hand and give almost the say information. The article titled Really Bad PowerPoint- and How to Avoid It did not make much sense to me. I did understand that the author was trying to help people avoid making bad PowerPoint presentations but the text just annoyed and frustrated me because it was unclear to me. 

My Experience Using Excel

I learned so much from the book about using Excel the proper way. I am very excited that I now know how Excel and all its fun gadgets are used. At the beginning I was very confused especially with the toolbar Excel provides for its users but I now am 100% confident using Excel. Some of the things that I learned were being able to format the information in the cell you choose. I also learned how to insert formulas the correct way including the shortcut way that Excel provides its users with. I also learned that you are able to protect worksheets from any changes by locking them, this is used so that their may be no changes by unauthorized users. Another important thin I learned that I did not know before was absolute cell reference, in which a cell reference does not change when copied. I learned so much more that I could make this blog about three pages long but I prefer not to bore you with my new knowledge on Excel. I will be able to use all of the things I listed and Excel itself in the future. I will definitely use it to keep my payment information totals and to keep by bill payments totals as well. I also will use this when I have to perform a spreadsheet in any of my business classes, biology classes, chemistry classes, and lab classes while at Trinity. Excel is just a great tool to know how to use when calculating any kind of numerical data. Excel is always correct on its calculations and I trust Excel 100%. Excel is useful to many business such as banks, any corporations, pretty much any company that keeps numerical information.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words", but to what extent does the actual meaning of a photo fade as digital editing/retouching is done? We looked at some pictures from a website and I choose the picture of Katie Couric because this one striked me the most. It looks as if Katie Couric has an amazing digital retoucher editing all her photos. The original picture of Katie Couric is the official first picture of Katie, which was released by CBS to be posted in TVNewser in May. 

The photo of Mrs. Couric was manipulated by having Katie appear much much slimmer than the original photo. Her figure and face were altered very much in the photo which was posted by Watch Magazine in September. Katie appears to be as thin as a supermodel and her face appears to be perfectly shaped to fit her "new" altered figure. The photo that was altered is not as bright as the original photo of Mrs. Couric. The lighting was dimmed in the altered photo. I believe the digital enhancing photo was manipulated in a Hollywood way. By Hollywood I mean that the Watch Magazine altered the photo so Mrs. Couric could appear Hollywood thin and picture perfect for the readers. In reality as Katie is shown in the original photo she appears more curvaceous and in honestly more lovely than the typical Hollywood thin figure the altered photo of her.

I believe no harm was done in any way but I disagree in altering the photo so that Mrs. Couric could appear much much slimmer than she normally is. The altered image just sets a negative impression on how people are perceived to look like and what role models should look like as well but size does not matter. A person's figure should not be altered because it is then considered a fake photo. In real life Mrs. Couric or anybody else that digitally enhances their photo to appear slimmer should not because they should be proud of what they got no matter of what their circumstances are. A person is beautiful inside and out. A role model is looked up to because of what they do and how they act not on how their figures look. 

Wow! Trinity Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

I knew Trinity was technological but WOW was I amazed when I walked down to the first floor and entered the area called AT&T Center for Learning and Technology which is abbreviated CLT. I was able to get a quick tour of the CLT since they were not expecting our class students. The CLT provides students and professors access to different technological equipment. The CLT includes many facilities such as the Studios @ CLT, a Digital Audio Lab, a Media Presentation Lab, a Video Conference Center, and a Innovative Studio. Yes, all these facilities are located on the first floor of Coates Library and make up the CLT. The area I found most interesting was the Studios @ CLT because it has many workstations with computers. This area also has editing software which I plan on taking advantage of. The Studios @ CLT also offers video editing for those who are into making video projects or any kind of video editing. I really enjoy editing videos especially because my older brother Michael first showed me how to edit using iMovie which is also available on the Mac's. I believe I can use this area the most also to simply make a presentation using pictures from ArtStor and I can edit them all I want. I love editing everything from videos to pictures. 

Another area of the CLT is the Media Presentation Room located in room 101Q. This area is more unique than the others because a student or a faculty member must fill out request online to reserve the room for its use. This is usually used for presentations and meetings. I am not sure if I will use this area of the CLT as much but I may in the future for some sort of group project meeting room. 

I learned a lot from my shorten tour of the CLT. I am happy I have three years left to use this wonderful and technological areas. The first floor should be used more often by students and faculty as well. I am really excited to start working with digital imaging and Photoshop because that means now I have a reason to come and use all the technology that is available to me at the CLT. 

:)

-Alexa Calderon

Copyright Information

We had a lecture on Tuesday about Copyright. This presentation was given to us by Diane Graves. I learned a lot of different things concerning copyright information that I before was not aware of. The thing that interest me the most was the fact that RIAA (Recording Industry Assn. of American), MPAA(Motion Picture Association of America), and ESA (Entertainment Software Association) are all disproportionately interested in campus-based file sharing. Diane Graves told us that four percent of file sharing occurs on college campuses. This said I know understand why Trinity told us to delete any file sharing programs off our personal computers when connecting to the TU network. Trinity has had four subpoenaed actions taken against students who illegally were file sharing. The RIAA demanded Trinity release the names of the students who were illegally file sharing and were then sued by the RIAA. According to Diane Graves she believed that the cost of settlement for one song only was around $13,000-$17,000 dollars. I now know to quit file sharing and buy my songs off of itunes for a dollar each song. Not bad considering the amount paid by settlement cases for a single song. I also learned that it was considered a felony to commit a copyright infringement involving more than ten copies and a value of more than $2,500 dollars.

This copyright presentation was worth the gained knowledge. I am glad I now know what could happen if caught. Many Universities usually ask their students to delete any file sharing programs when connecting to their campus network. I believe this is fair considering that file sharing is illegal and has some pricey consequences if caught. From now on it is all itunes for me :)

Trinity's Wireless Network!

Well first off the bat, I love wireless Internet. It has been the best idea that anybody has ever had. Well maybe not the best but it is pretty high up on my "great ideas" list. When I transferred from Colorado College I was so annoyed that to set up Internet services we were forced to use a cable to connect, but when I choose Trinity I was so excited that Trinity was ranked it the top 10 list of most unwired college campuses. For more information on this topic follow the link below: http://www.trinity.edu/departments/public_relations/news_releases/051019unwired.htm

At Trinity University I use the wireless Internet access like it is nobody's business, I take my Mac book Pro everywhere I go on campus and usually 99% of the time have access to the web. I also use Trinity's wireless access to do research and browse the world wide web. My favorite websites I like to visit are Facebook, CNN, Hotmail, log into Trinity network. I am able to log onto all my favorite websites anywhere I am on campus! How exciting is that? It is by far very useful to have, I am able to go outside on my balcony and use my computer without having it be connected to a port using a Ethernet cable. Wireless Internet access is great! I cannot stress how much I love wireless Internet access, it is like heaven for me and I am very glad to hear that Trinity was ranked among the top 10! Well that is what I think about Trinity's wireless connection. Have a nice day. :)

Simply Me

My name is Alexa Christina Calderon. I am from Eagle Pass, Texas which is located on the Texas-Mexican border. Eagle Pass is a small city with a population of  45,000. I have a twin brother who attends Stanford University. I attended Colorado College my freshman year and I soon realized that Colorado was not going to work out for me. I then decided to transfer back to Texas just two weeks before the transfer deadline. I choose Trinity over many other Texas universities because of the small classes, the friendly environment, the softball program and the excellent Biology department.

Some things that interest me are softball, shopping, and biology. Softball has been a big part of my life since I was five years old and I have continued playing at the collegiate level, first as a freshman at Colorado College and now as a sophomore at Trinity University. Another thing that I am passionate about is biology. I intend to major in biology and soon after attend medical school to become either an internal medicine physician or a pediatrician.

Finally, I am not up to date with my computer skills but I do know enough to get by. I own a Mac and he only office programs I know how to use are Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I am really looking forward to learning about all the computer skills and programs I am unfamiliar with. The one program I am extremely excited to be learning  is Photo Shop. I really enjoy taking pictures but the only editing I ever do on my pictures in the basic elementary editing.