I think that my greatest advice is to not go into this class with a negative attitude because if not, you won't enjoy all the cool stuff that we learn how to do.
Raul Erazo
Monday, December 8, 2008
Student Websites
I thought this was a great assignment. I really enjoyed looking at the websites that my other classmates made. My favorite ones were the one of Joy Lin, the one of Katy Sauer, and the one of Andrew Moritz. With Joy's, she had a lot of images that were different from each other and yet looked really nice when she put them all together as she did. When it comes to Katy's website, I just thought her website looked really good and organized. The colors she used, the background, and the way she showed the pictures looked great. In Andrew's website, I thought it was pretty funny how he made his head move all over the place in more than one time. It was pretty cool.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I really enjoyed doing my website, and you can loo at it if you go to: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rerazo/
As I mentioned at the beginning, I really enjoyed doing my website, and you can loo at it if you go to: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rerazo/
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Knowing HTML code
To find the reason why web designers should know HTML code when there are so many fancy technological programs that will make it all easier for them is a good question. At the beginning, I wasn't sure why, but then I thought about it a little bit closer, and it actually made sense to me. These "fancy technological programs" such as Dreamweaver and Expression Web are basically based on HTML code so it is still important to know it. On top of this, knowing HTML code will facilitate and more than facilitate, will allow the person with this knowledge to correct anything on a website, no matter with what program the website was actually made.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
What I learned from Chris Nolan
I learned a lot of interesting things from Chris Nolan. Most of what I learned came from Google. This makes sense because Google is what I use the most when searching for websites for research papers and basically anything from school. I learned that there are differences between directories and search engines. Search engines are based on an algorythm and directories are just a compilation of information or in this case websites, and organized under different topics or names. I learned a little bit more about the Advanced Search option in Google and this is very useful when looking for specific information. I learned about Google Scholar too and how this can be even more helpful for research papers. It will only give me sholarly material and not just random, non important websites. He also talked about how the different top level domains can tell us a lot about the website. It can tell us things such as like if the website is governmental, or if it is an organization, etc.
Something that I found out. thought was really interesting to me, and that I didn't remember (if it is the case that I ever even knew about it) was that when looking for something in google, some websites have a "cashed" option. What this means is that google has an online copy of what the website contains. On top of that, the copy has the words we're looking for highlighted, which can definitely be very helpful when searching for a specific thing in the website.
Something that I found out. thought was really interesting to me, and that I didn't remember (if it is the case that I ever even knew about it) was that when looking for something in google, some websites have a "cashed" option. What this means is that google has an online copy of what the website contains. On top of that, the copy has the words we're looking for highlighted, which can definitely be very helpful when searching for a specific thing in the website.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Favorite Powerpoint Presentations
I think that one of my favorite powerpoint presentations was the one of Steven Sheppard. I thought he really knew what he was talking about. His presentation was about a literary award about science fiction stories. His background pictures throughout his presentation were really interesting and lively because of the colors used. The music he chose was very good too, perfect for his theme.
The second one that I thought was very good was the one that Ralph Petang did. His presentation was about soccer, but more than simply talking about the basics of the sport, he talked a lot about the feelings and emotions that people can and should have when playing soccer. It was all done in a very poetic and peace inducing way. His slides went by in a fluid way, not overcramming them, and the calm music he chose was really appropriate too.
My presentation which was about the business of music can be found in here:
\\www.cs.trinity.edu\rerazo\Local\HTML-Documents\Presentation
The second one that I thought was very good was the one that Ralph Petang did. His presentation was about soccer, but more than simply talking about the basics of the sport, he talked a lot about the feelings and emotions that people can and should have when playing soccer. It was all done in a very poetic and peace inducing way. His slides went by in a fluid way, not overcramming them, and the calm music he chose was really appropriate too.
My presentation which was about the business of music can be found in here:
\\www.cs.trinity.edu\rerazo\Local\HTML-Documents\Presentation
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Powerpoint Presentations
What the articles talked about regarding Powerpoint presentations was true. I've seen so many times people showing their powerpoint presentations with a lot of text in them and simply reading off of them. That is not professional and completely boring. One of the things that the articles mentioned was not to use the already created templates that Microsoft has made for us. Their reason for this is because people have probably seen them already, and it will be too repetitive for them. Something that I definitely do agree with the authors of the articles and that everyone in class should take into consideration is not to put those cheesy sounds on presentations. They were really popular when Microsoft PowerPoint first came out, but now they are too repetitive and boring. Plus, the authors of the articles said it would make the presentation less professional, and would damage the credibility of the presenter. I think that whenever possible, we should definitely use either video or at least some audio (not the cheesy sounds). This really grasps the attention of the audience and makes the presentation not boring. What somewhat surprised me was about the blank spaces in the presentations, because we usually try to fill them up with pictures and other things. When we present (me and my classmates), we have to speak up and let our powerpoint presentations be our aid so that people can relate to our topic, but most importantly, the audience must listen to us. Therefore, we must speak in a loud (not annoyingly loud) and clear voice.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
What I've learned from Excel
I definitely learned many things from Excel. First of all, the major thing is that I learned how to use the new Excel (the one from Office 2007). I learned where to locate all the buttons, and how to use them in better ways. Secondly, learning Excel was really helpful because before this class, I had almost completely forgotten how to write the formulas. I had forgotten that I had to write the equal sign first and later write the actaul equation. I also had forgotten (or simply didn't even know) that there were many functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, Standard Deviation, etc.
Spending so much time learning Excel was also useful because it made me think. What I mean by this is that not only did I not know how exactly to write the formulas, but I didn't even know what particular equation I actually had to use for several different things. Going through all the examples reminded me that I have to think about what I really need to find and when I figured that out, I write the formula accordingly.
For my time in college, since I am a sophomore, I know I will continue to use Excel in my classes, especially since I am business major, and Excel is a good tool for many things that can help with organization in the business world, mostly when it comes to economic issues and basically everything that has to do with numbers.
After college, I wouldn't be surprised if I keep on using Excel. I don't really think I'll use it for my home finances (or maybe, who knows) but I know I'll definitely use it to handle accounts for my business.
Spending so much time learning Excel was also useful because it made me think. What I mean by this is that not only did I not know how exactly to write the formulas, but I didn't even know what particular equation I actually had to use for several different things. Going through all the examples reminded me that I have to think about what I really need to find and when I figured that out, I write the formula accordingly.
For my time in college, since I am a sophomore, I know I will continue to use Excel in my classes, especially since I am business major, and Excel is a good tool for many things that can help with organization in the business world, mostly when it comes to economic issues and basically everything that has to do with numbers.
After college, I wouldn't be surprised if I keep on using Excel. I don't really think I'll use it for my home finances (or maybe, who knows) but I know I'll definitely use it to handle accounts for my business.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Digitally Altered Pictures
I chose to talk about the picture where there is a military helicopter. Hanging from the helicopter is a man on one of those rope ladders that helicopters can have, and right beside the man, there is a huge shark that jumped. I chose this picture because I had seen it before and was unaware that it was an altered pictire and that it wasn't true.The picture is awestriking because since people can only see the picture, they imagine that what happened is that the man in the helicopter was eaten by the shark. In reality, the picture of the helicopter with the man does not really include the shark; The shark was later added to give it a really tragic but amazing seemed-to-be-captured moment.
Even though it is not horribly harmful because no one's prestige or anything of the sort is really harmed, the picture can be harmful in the way that it really tricks people to believe it. I know this because I was tricked by it. I remember when I first saw it, because of the way it was portayed, it seemed that it had actually happened, so it made you think that the man in the helicopter had terrible luck.
This picture was extremely popular on the internet in 2001 and can now be found in the Museum of Hoaxes.
Even though it is not horribly harmful because no one's prestige or anything of the sort is really harmed, the picture can be harmful in the way that it really tricks people to believe it. I know this because I was tricked by it. I remember when I first saw it, because of the way it was portayed, it seemed that it had actually happened, so it made you think that the man in the helicopter had terrible luck.
This picture was extremely popular on the internet in 2001 and can now be found in the Museum of Hoaxes.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Center for Learning and Technology
I found out that they have really interesting features on the CLT room.
First of all, all the computers that are in the main room which is called Studios @ CLT can be used by students without any prior permission from staff or another authority. The computers have pretty cool softwares. Some of the softwares I was most interested about were the audio and video editing ones. On Macs, they have iMovie, and for PC's, they have a software called Sony Vega which is not the most complex software but it certainly isn't the simplest one. Some really cool stuff can be done to videos when editing them with this software. This really does make me want to come here more often.
Inside the room (the area) itself, they have other rooms that are specific for different and neat things. For example, they have a specific room that is made for people to come and record things. Inside, there is a computer with more recording and editing software, a piano, and other machines that control and even make sounds. Even though the room is not sound proof, according to what I was told, people outside can usually not hear what's going on inside the room no matter how loud it may be. They also have some more conference rooms and they even have equipment for video conferencing. The only problem is that in order for us students to use these rooms, permission from a professor or staff is needed. All these rooms can definitely come in handy though when a professor asks us to do some creative assignment such as a video or the like.
As mentioned before, the CLT center's computers can be used whenever (whenever the CLT center is open) and a lot of the computers have their own scanners which can be very benefitial in certain cases. This means that next time we have an assignment from our Essential Computer Skills class, we can easily got to the CLT Center and use its facilities and the same goes for the other classes.
First of all, all the computers that are in the main room which is called Studios @ CLT can be used by students without any prior permission from staff or another authority. The computers have pretty cool softwares. Some of the softwares I was most interested about were the audio and video editing ones. On Macs, they have iMovie, and for PC's, they have a software called Sony Vega which is not the most complex software but it certainly isn't the simplest one. Some really cool stuff can be done to videos when editing them with this software. This really does make me want to come here more often.
Inside the room (the area) itself, they have other rooms that are specific for different and neat things. For example, they have a specific room that is made for people to come and record things. Inside, there is a computer with more recording and editing software, a piano, and other machines that control and even make sounds. Even though the room is not sound proof, according to what I was told, people outside can usually not hear what's going on inside the room no matter how loud it may be. They also have some more conference rooms and they even have equipment for video conferencing. The only problem is that in order for us students to use these rooms, permission from a professor or staff is needed. All these rooms can definitely come in handy though when a professor asks us to do some creative assignment such as a video or the like.
As mentioned before, the CLT center's computers can be used whenever (whenever the CLT center is open) and a lot of the computers have their own scanners which can be very benefitial in certain cases. This means that next time we have an assignment from our Essential Computer Skills class, we can easily got to the CLT Center and use its facilities and the same goes for the other classes.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Copyright and what I learned about it
I definitely did learn a lot about copryright. I learned that copyrighting things started back in 1790. At that time, a copyright was only good for 14 years. I also learned that a public domain can be many different things. One of the meanings is "materials that can be used without requesting permission," which means they are publicly available (for everyone). It is also "another term for national park." The last meaning is "materials that were published with taxpayer support."
Something that really interested me was how the amount of years for which a copyright is valid has changed. Copyrights can now be valid for either one of these two times: Either the author`s life + 70 years, or the date of publications + 95 years. Before, it used to be less, but due to the Sonny Bono Act, 20 more years were added to the preceding amount of time. This act was passed in 1998 and it is also commonly called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. It all started because Disney was afraid because the copyright they owned on their most famous character Mickey Mouse was about to expire. They decided to fight to extend the copyright and at the end, they won. The copyright was extended for 20 more years, but this not only affected and extended teh copyright Disney had on Mickey Mouse, but it also affected and extended all the other copyrights. The librarian even told us that before this act was passed, many people were happy that many creative works would pass to the public domain, and therefore using them would be easier. After this act was passed, people had to wait 20 more years.
For the librarians this can seem unfair, but personnally, I agree with adding more years to copyright. I feel it is unfair to simply lose the full rights and commision that people can get from their creative works. I stand on this side (on the side of the owners of copyrights) because I feel that someday I will own a copyright on something I do and to think that my ownership of it will someday be lost is not a great feeling. At the same time, it will be a long time until the owners of copyrights lose their full ownership, but it still doesn`t feel too good.
Something that really interested me was how the amount of years for which a copyright is valid has changed. Copyrights can now be valid for either one of these two times: Either the author`s life + 70 years, or the date of publications + 95 years. Before, it used to be less, but due to the Sonny Bono Act, 20 more years were added to the preceding amount of time. This act was passed in 1998 and it is also commonly called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. It all started because Disney was afraid because the copyright they owned on their most famous character Mickey Mouse was about to expire. They decided to fight to extend the copyright and at the end, they won. The copyright was extended for 20 more years, but this not only affected and extended teh copyright Disney had on Mickey Mouse, but it also affected and extended all the other copyrights. The librarian even told us that before this act was passed, many people were happy that many creative works would pass to the public domain, and therefore using them would be easier. After this act was passed, people had to wait 20 more years.
For the librarians this can seem unfair, but personnally, I agree with adding more years to copyright. I feel it is unfair to simply lose the full rights and commision that people can get from their creative works. I stand on this side (on the side of the owners of copyrights) because I feel that someday I will own a copyright on something I do and to think that my ownership of it will someday be lost is not a great feeling. At the same time, it will be a long time until the owners of copyrights lose their full ownership, but it still doesn`t feel too good.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Wireless and its uses
Having a wireless campus can be very benefitial for us (the students) as well as for the faculty. It facilitates many day to day tasks such as checking email and such. When I am in the dorm, I usually don´t use wireless because it is slower. But when I am during class or simply outside of my dorm, I do use wireless mostly to check email and of course, to check facebook. It is not good when it distracts us from class but if it is done with a limit, it isn´t too bad. Now a days, many universities are becoming more and more wireless. An example of this is Concordia University and it is very well described in the article below:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/canada/news/2008/pr_01-30.html
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/canada/news/2008/pr_01-30.html
Friday, August 29, 2008
Some stuff about me
My name is Raul. I was born and raised in El Salvador, which is located in Central America and is the smallest country of the whole continent of America. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=El+Salvador&ie=UTF8&z=9
Some of my interests are learning new languages and everything that is international, music, movies, and other things. I love singing and also enjoy a lot playing basketball.
My major here at Trinity is International Business and my minor is Communications Management. Maybe I will be able to get a minor or major in a foreign language but I am still not sure if I have the time for it.
About my computer skills, before coming to Trinity, I didn´t really consider myself a computer genius so it was no real surprise when I found out that I had failed the computer test and therefore was required to take this class. I wasn´t feeling too good about it at the beginning but I now realize that I will learn a great deal of material, for example, how to make a website and other interesting and useful things that I will be able to use in my career later on. I did take a computer course this summer also but it was more theory than hands on.
If you have any questions, email me at rerazo@trinity.edu
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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