Advice to Future Students

This is for all future students taking CS1300 next semester or anytime in the future... always, always do your homework and try your hardest to pay attention in class. We cover A LOT of information in one semester, and keeping up with all the work is the key. Also, do not be afraid to ask for help! Ms. Belisle is so nice and knowledgeable, she really cares about helping her students.
Overall, I learned so much it this class, I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn or improve their skills in programs from Microsoft Word to Photoshop... I know I learned how to do things I never thought I could do!

Favorite Student Websites

Overall, I think that everyone in the class did a great job with their websites. I was definitely impressed. Here are my top three: I really liked Leslie's website. She did some really cool things with her layout, you can tell she will be designing more in the future! The next one I enjoyed was Tommie's. Her navbar was my favorite and her website was nicely organized. Kailey's website was really fun, I love good food too! Her "Foodie" section was very informative, I will try the Thai food place soon and her wd-50 adventure was amazing! Although those were my top favorites, I also liked Pablo's and Hang's. It was cool how they brought different elements from the countries they have lived in.
Awesome job on the websites guys!

My Website Adventure

Before I begin, please visit my website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~lsandlin/default.htm!

First of all, making a website is no walk in the park! It is a lot harder than you would think. I used Expression Web for the creation of my website, which just happened to take forever to download on my laptop! However, in the end, I think it was worth it. I like my friends and family page the best... those people make life amazing. By far, my biggest technical challenge was formatting all the text and pictures in tables. It took me about 2 class periods to fully figure it out. My biggest desgin challenge was picking nice backgrounds that were not too confusing. The thing I would have changed was to have more gifs. I think gifs really add something cool. I will show my website to most of my friends and family. I hope they will think it is good! Also, I would consider making a website in the future. Just not in the near future!

Larry Heckler knows his stuff

On Thursday, we had Hardware Technician Supervisor Larry Heckler from Information Technology Services (ITS) talk to the class. One again, the speakers that come to the class never fail to surprise me and give me new, valuable, and interesting information. Mr. Heckler has been at Trinity for 25 years, so he has seen and heard everything that deals with computer. During his talk, he stressed the importance of backing up files on the Y-drive. I will never forget the horror story he told about a girl who was working on her senior thesis paper by the pool and the laptop fell in the water. She had lost over 600 hours of work. If it isn't already, let the Y-drive be your new best friend. 

I really enjoyed Mr. Heckler's discussion on how to maintain a healthy battery. I will definitely use his advice to help my battery power last longer. I also thought his discussion on hardware was enlightening. It surprised me that Macs and PCs are the exact same on the inside. I think if people knew that then there would be less of a battle between which computer is "better."

SpongeBob lies?

For the Pictures that Lie assignment, I decided to take the more light-hearted route. All of the pictures in the "Brief History of Photo Fakery" PowerPoint were very serious, so what better way to get un-serious than a cartoon about a sponge that lives in a pineapple? SpongeBob is my favorite cartoon and he loves Krabby Patties. The biggest lie Spongebob could ever tell is that he loves Krabby Doggies instead of Krabby Patties (a.k.a hotdogs instead of hamburgers)! So that is what I did for my assignment. I got a picture of SpongeBob from one of the cartoon's websites holding a Krabby Patty and I found a picture of a cartoon hotdog. I used the magnetic lasso tool and magic wand tool to separate Spongebob and the Krabby Patty. After that, I replaced the hamburger with the hot dog. I changed both the hue, saturation, and brightness to make SpongeBob and the hotdog darker and more vivid. Lastly, I added text with a basic drop shadow and changed the background color. I think my manipulation is harmful if one is unfamiliar with SpongeBob... if this picture was taken literally, the whole premise of the cartoon show would be altered. However, if one is familiar with the show, I would hope they would think it was pretty funny!
The article I found on Academic Search Complete was called "True Lies." The article mentions how "anyone with  a photo-editing program and some training can alter a photograph", and I realized that the author was talking about me! I was able to take new pictures and manipulate them into one that is totally untrue. Before taking this course, I never thought that I could manipulate a picture... and that is the truth!
Citation:

Wickelgren, Ingrid. "TRUE LIES. (Cover story)." Current Science 92.4 (2006): 10-12. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

The World of PowerPoint

For my PowerPoint presentation, I chose to do a short biography on the famous news journalist and broadcaster Walter Cronkite. Since I am a Communication major and I am the News Director for Tiger TV's Newswave, I am very interested in how the news world is run, however, I realized that the news is not everyone else's interest. I decided to do the project on Cronkite because he is still well-known and changed the way Americans view television and made watching the news an intellectual experience.
Through this project, the best thing I learned was how to better use transitions. Good transitions help the PowerPoint progress smoothly. I think I used transitions pretty well and had nice graphics, but if I were to do this project again, I would add either a video or audio clip. Overall, I enjoyed this project and will use my knowledge to make professional PowerPoint presentations in the future.
My two favorite PowerPoint presentations were Leslie Green and Tommie Ethington's. They both had great colorful and professional looking designs, as well as great use of transitions. They also made their topics interesting and you could see their passion.

Google Surprises

Last Thursday, Chris Nolan, the Assistant University Librarian came to talk to the class about how to find useful and high-quality information of the web. I thought I knew a lot about Google; however Mr. Nolan showed us some very cool things. For example, if one wanted to do a search on hurricanes, but wanted no information about Katrina, the user could type Hurricanes-(minus) Katrina. The minus sign tells Google to not find any information about Hurricane Katrina. I was also very surprised about “cached.” Google actually uses cache to temporarily store data before the  webpage is updated!

PowerPoint Rules. Period.

Based on my choice of title for this blog entry, one can tell that I think PowerPoint is an awesome tool for just about all presentation needs. However, even though it is a great tool, a bad PowerPoint can distract from the information the person is trying to present.

 My top five things that can make a PowerPoint go awry are:

1. A font color you can barely see

2. Too small font size

3. Transitions that make your head hurt

4. Backgrounds that are too busy

5. Too many words on one slide

Although bad PowerPoint presentations can be annoying, a good PowerPoint can't be beat. PowerPoint is good for presenting information in a fun, creative, and interesting way that everyone can understand. A PowerPoint not only is beneficial in school but also is great for job presentations and club meetings. For example, my service fraternity makes a PowerPoint for every meeting. It really livens up topics and helps move the meeting along. So don't rule out PowerPoint!

CLT!!!

I have to admit, I have been to the Center of Learning Technology before... but I have not experienced it like I had today. The last (and only) time I went was to wait for a friend as he finished a paper. I remember thinking how cool CLT looked, but now I know how amazing it actually is.
Robert Chapman spoke to the class on everything CLT has to offer... it is not only the place on campus for the latest up-to date Macs and PCs, but also for the latest software and hardware including Flash, Adobe, Photoshop, engineering software, Dreamweaver, and much more. The CLT is available to all students and faculty, and I even found out that you can check-out and use state of the art equipment such as video cameras, editing equipment, audio/sound tools and other great resources.
Although the CLT has all these great resources, what good would they serve if they did not have people to help you? Thankfully, the CLT has many helpful employees that are there to help students with any projects or answer any questions they may have.
Here is my self-portrait I was able to scan... go CLT!!!

It is the Truth Pictures Lie

For this assignment, I chose the photo of the "British soldier in Basra," where a soldier is signaling to Iraqi civilians to get down. I not only chose this picture because it looked very moving but I also have seen it before. In my Media Interpretation and Criticism class, we talked about this exact same photo and topic. The photographer, Brian Walski, blended two photographs to create this "shot". This picture was used to manipulate readers into supporting the invasion of U.S. soldiers of Iraq and the manipulation was in fact harmful because it showed the British soldier in a negative light and showed civilians who looked like they were in trouble when they were not.

I chose this Youtube video of Rihanna to show the effects of image manipulation. Here someone, uses Photoshop to makeover Rihanna. This video is an example of how anyone, including amateurs can use Photoshop to create something totally different. Do not always believe what you see, because if a normal person like you and me can use Photoshop, think about what trained professionals can do to make us think something is true that really is a lie.

The World of Excel

When Ms. Belisle told us we were going to use Excel, I was definitely not excited. Soon, however, I realized that Excel is not as evil as it is thought to be. So far, I have learned how to do conditional formating, format cells, and enter in formulas I had no idea existed. Although Excel can be tricky at first when you are learning how to use the program, things can get a little confusing. However, once you get the hang of things, Excel is pretty fun. I am glad that learning Excel will help me becoming more organized with my grades at school. As for real life, knowledge of Excel is a great thing to have because not a lot of people know how to use it properly.

The Truth about Copyright

Last class, I learned so much from Jason Hardin's lecture. A U.S. copyright on a work becomes effective right as the work is in a fixed, tangible medium and lasts the time of the author's life plus 70 years. I found it interesting to know what exactly constitutes as copyright infringement.  I learned that it is a felony and is copyright infringement when someone makes more than 10 copies and a value of more than $2500. Fortunately, The Higher Education Opportunity Act has 3 provisions that provide students to file share legally.
Previously, I did not really understand the issue of campus-based file sharing such as Limewire and Bit Torrent. Now I know peer-to-peer file sharing allows people to share music by copying a song from one source without paying for it. Some think this is fine to do, with supporters saying that the artist still gets money from other resources and receives more credit on a wide-spread basis, while critics say that the artist gets no credit for his or her artistic talent. I think file sharing is not the best idea; it is risky because these sites are always monitored. If you get caught, be ready to pay, file sharing is illegal!

The Truth About Copyright by Laura Sandling is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

My Trinity Network Diagram

Last Thursday, the class took a trip to the server room located in Halsell. Jared Pack gave us a tour of the room and explained to us how the TU network worked in general. The tour was enlightening and I learned a lot. For instance, did you know that Trinity records all work saved in your Y-drive? So if something terrible happens and you lose a paper, the guys from information technology services can recover it for you! I am glad the class had a chance to take the tour, I now feel more "connected" to the school :). Here is my diagram of the TU network. Enjoy!

A Trinity Mystery!

I chose this location because it should fairly recognizable to a lot of Trinity Sophomores, because chances are, the building is important to them or one of their friends. I took the original picture and uploaded it to Picnik where I re-sized it, lightened the photo, and applied the HDR-ish effect. I also used the doodle option to draw the wig and the extra man. I added the flower from the romance sticker section. Then I saved the edited photo and uploaded it to my blog. Where is this location? Can you guess?

Tech Tips with Mr. Hatch

When Joe Hatch stepped into class on Tuesday, I thought I knew what to expect. I imagined he would just explain to us what a virus was and how "awesome" Cisco Clean Access and how it was "not annoying" to log in every time you turned on your computer. However, I was wrong. Mr. Hatch did cover viruses and what Clean Access is, but he also went into so much more. I learned so much about the Y drive, how wireless internet really works, and how to protect myself better on the Web. For instance, as a PC user, I am used to hearing about the  amazing Mac. But in Mr. Hatch's lecture, he enlightened the class that EVERY computer is susceptible to viruses and talked about different ways to get rid of "junk". My favorite tip by far was CCleaner. It's free AND cleans up your computer from possible vulnerabilities? I will definitely be using the cleaner in the near future! I greatly enjoyed Mr. Hatch's lecture and am now more alert and educated on how to protect myself on the Web.

About Me

Hi, my name is Laura Sandling and I am from Missouri City, TX, a suburb outside of Houston. I love people and I am always ready to have a good time! I am an only child, but I consider my dog, Daisy and cockatiel, T.J. as my siblings. As a kid, I liked to have lots of "adventures" which sometimes got me into trouble... I am double-jointed because I broke my left arm twice when I was younger! I went to Hightower High School where I was active in Health Occupations Students of America, the freshmen mentor group, Link Crew, and I played Varsity Volleyball. Since I was 13 years old, I have volunteered and worked at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and I am a Gold Award Girl Scout. At Trinity, I am the News Director for Tiger TV-Newswave and I am in Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity, Black Student Union, and play intramural volleyball. In my spare time, I like to watch movies and TV, go out to eat, and just chill with friends.
Unfortunately, I have very little computer background except for the basics, but I am excited to learn more!
Email me at lsandlin@trinity.edu because I think you are awesome!