CS 1300 blog

Last Post- Advice

2009-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

The class is really great, but you have to do your homework if you want to make sure you get a good grade. There are a lot of grades you receive during class so this can help your overall average if you get some bad grades. The multiple choice parts on test are more difficult than the hands on part, but all in all the course is good.

Picture that lies

2009-11-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

I chose a picture of Tiger Woods because like most of the world I believe is one of the greatest golfers alive and to have played the game. The picture came from http://www.spartyandfriends.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/tiger-woods-wins-2008-accenture-match-play-championship1.jpg and this was him after winning the Accenture Tournament. The picture was originally showing Tiger Woods holding a trophy with a background of the crowd. As you can see here, the picture now has enhanced color, and shows Tiger holding the world in his hands. This represents him being number one in the golf ranking system. The picture was changed to show how dominate Tiger Woods is at golf by representing him holding the world in his hands and the text saying that he is number one in the world again. He has been the number one golfer for many years and people can't seem to catch up to him. The manipulation wasn't harmful because it only is adding to the fact he is number one. The truth isn't being bent, but the truth is being exaggerated. Although it is being exaggerated, people can conclude that the picture is fake and from current reports Tiger Woods is the number one golfer.

Powerpoints

2009-11-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

I liked Will P.'s PowerPoint about biology for many different reasons. One of the major reasons i liked his PowerPoint presentation was because his background corresponded to his topic. This helped establish a visual of what his interests were and helped to make the information he was providing easier to understand. Another reason i liked it was because it wasn't cluttered with text. This allowed for easy an easy read and allowed for me to listen to what he was explaining about his PowerPoint. Also, towards the end of the slide the use of music was appropriate for the pictures he was showing. This helped to draw the attention of the viewers and to get his point across about his topic of choice. Overall his PowerPoint was very good and he was able to illustrate what he wanted to do with the use of limited text.

The second PowerPoint I liked was Caroline A's. Her PowerPoint was very appealing in many ways. For one, her background was a theater which was appropriate because of her interest in drama. This visual helped to establish a feeling of the ambiance associated with that of a drama major. Also, she used multiple stacked picture and information in her presentation. This allowed the presentation to flow easily and not be cluttered. The stacking technique also gave her more space to provide more information and pictures in such a limited space. Her tips on the basics of drama were very interesting and could be useful if one was to enter that field of study. Another thing she did very well was her font choice. The choice of font also added to the feeling of her field of interest. The type of font was very appropriate for her slides because it showed a level of elegance, maybe of that you would expect to see on a title of a play. All in all, this was a very well done PowerPoint in many different ways and could be used as a model of what to do.

Powerpoint DO's and DONT's

2009-10-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

1. Keep it simple- The more useless information there is, the less effective it is. "The less clutter you have on your slide, the more powerful your visual message will become." (Reynolds)
2. Use high quality graphics- Using low quality graphics and then trying to force them into a big space results in the image becoming distorted. This is visually unpleasing. I believe that is a good point because using a good quality photo will help capture the audiences focus instead of distracting them.
3.Example of a bad PowerPoint- don't use as a teleprompter. People don't want to view your slides information and then hear you regurgitate it to the audience. It is one of the most boring and uninteresting things to do when creating a PowerPoint.
4.Use more pictures than words- PowerPoints are made to back up what your trying to say. using pictures is a much more effective means than having bullet points.
5. Sound effects- Sound effects are good in most cases, but use sounds other than what are offered to you in PowerPoint. Try burning sounds from a CD or a website. This will sound more interesting and give you more options to please your audience.

CLT

2009-10-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

I never knew the CLT existed until we visited during class. I was surprised to see all the updated technology in there, and all the different things available for student use. The most helpful thing the CLT offers for our class is all the computers with Adobe Photoshop. Looking ahead at our schedule, we will be doing some assignmnets in photoshop. The CLT would be very helpful in doing these assignments because I do not have photoshop on my computer. Also, the CLT staff will gladly help you if you need assistance. Something I discovered while being down there was the presentation room, which emulates a class room setting. This would have been useful for my seminar class earlier in the year because we just finished our power point presentations. Being able to use the room would have better prepared us for our presentation. Also, the recording studio would be something that I would consider utilizing. A couple of my friends and I paly guitar and it would be fun to record some of our playing.

Excel

2009-10-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

When we first started using excel i was familiar with all the things we covered. Later on though, i had never used absolute and relative cell references. This would prove useful in keeping a running tab, such as your check book balance. Also, if in the future I was running a store and had the employees payments on excel, then it would be extremely useful. Another useful thing i never knew about was conditional formatting. This made it easier to have certain numbers stand out in a set. This helped to make the spreadsheet be a lot easier to read. Actually, in biology were are working with excel right now. We are doing histograms and t-tests for a certain set of data. Using the formulas in class has made this easier for me to do, and a lot easier to understand. Also, when running a business you can keep track of profits in a spreadsheet, keep a running balance, and to help calculate employees payment. This would allow for the business to run more efficiently and to minimize errors in calculations.

Chris Nolan

2009-10-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

During Chris Nolan's presentation, I thought the most interesting thing i learned was about Google and how to do advanced searches. Also, what makes a website not a creditable source. I never knew how you could take out websites with .com endings or look up just .com endings. Also, the pdf he had about advanced searches was another good insight on how to do advanced searches on Google. For instance, I didn't know you could type define: then a word you wanted defined and the results would be instant definition of the word. Also, I never knew that Google offered scholarly sources for references. I assumed that you would have to go to the library or look it for them through the library's website. It is helpful to know that you can search for scholarly sources through Google and sometimes it reverts to back the library website.(Trinity's Etext) Something that surprised me was how the martinlutherking.org website was not a legitimate site for accurate information. I thought just because of the .org ending it had to be a good source. I was mistaken about the .org endings being a good, relevant source because it was obviously run by a very biased group. In the end you have to be careful of what websites you look at because a name of a website can be very deceiving.

Picture

2009-10-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

I chose the picture of the British Soilder telling Iraqi civillians to seek cover because the picture looked appealing. The picture originated in "April 2003 on the front page of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq." The photo "combined two of his photographs( Solider and Civilians) to "improve" the composition." The photo was manipulated to make the war seem even worse than it actually was. The manipualtion could possibly be harmful but most likely it had no adverse impact because many people probably felt ill will towards the war but did not take any extreme actions to voice their opinions.

Copyright

2009-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Jason Hardin visited our class the other day and shared some valuable information about copyright that I never knew existed. Some of these things were websites that provide information about copyright, the fair use policy, and the rights of authors. The fair use policy and the websites intrigued me the most. The websites that provide help and understanding for copyrighting are public knowledge and creative commons. These can be useful for an individual who has just published work but doesn't want to visit the copyright office and file a copyright. Creative commons allows you, the author, to publish a copyright on your work, and provide many different types of copyrights. These rights include attribution-give credit, attribution share alike, attribution no derivatives, and attribution non-commercial. These allow you as an author to share your ideas publicly and allow the public to use them without having to fear a lawsuit if used properly. Some benefits are that if more people apply these, the more the legal landscape will change and the more power that returns to the hands of the people. Although this is beneficiary to the public, many big corporations might fear this idea of power to the people. If a company makes a video game, they will most likely have to use software for this game to work. If you are the one to invent this software and put an attribution non-commercial copyright on it, then the company will not be able to use your software and produce revenue. This is primarily the main disadvantage to big corporations because if a company needs your idea and they can't use it to make profit then most likely there will be big loses. I feel that giving the power to the people is very beneficial. This would allow many more people to pursue avenues of invention and ultimately lead to creation of new ideas not driven by greed. These ideas would most likely be used for the greater good of people; therefore, the general population would greatly benefit.

Network Diagram

2009-09-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

Joe Hatch's visit

2009-09-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

The tip i like the most was CCleaner. When i left class i went and downloaded it and used it immediately. It really helped to clean up my computer.

About Me...

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

Hey, my name is James McClure but i go by Matt. I'm from Southlake, TX which is near Dallas. I was born and raised as an only child. During high school i played four years varsity golf, played in regionals 3 years, and state one. (Fact for the scavenger hunt: four years of golf) Now I'm playing for Trinity's golf team and am looking forward to it. I am currently studying biology and want to major in molecular biology during my time at Trinity. During my spare time i usually hang with my friends and also love to watch football. During high school i took one class over computers and that was during junior year, and to be honest i really don't remember any of the information we covered except a little on excel.

Email address is james.mcclure@trinity.edu