End of the Road - Advice for New Students

Computer Skills with Ms. Belisle has been a great experience. My knowledge of computers and different applications has really grown, and the information you learn in this class will be applicable throughout your time at Trinity. My advice for new students is to always stay on top of the homework. There is not an excessive amount of work, but if you stay on top of it, you are bound to do well. Also, don't be afraid to email Ms. Belisle if you have any questions, she is always really helpful.

Favorite Websites

One of my favorite class websites was John's sport analysis page. John exhibited superior knowledge of design as well as integrating a unique topic, such as sports, into his webpage. His page provided a nice twist on the website project. Another of my favorite website was Taylor's. Taylor and I live in the same hall, so some of the pictures and his experiences at Trinity were more understandable and relative. I was also included in a few of the photos, which was a nice touch. Another of my favorite websites was CJ's page. Out of the whole class, his page layout was maybe the most creative or inventive with the use of the tigers on his navbar. It was a very unique page and very well done.

My Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~tnelin! Making my website was quite an experience, and with the use of Microsoft Expression Web, it was definitely easier than I thought it would be. The only other experience I had with making webpages was in high school, handcoding an entire website (very time consuming by the way). Expression Web helped make the process easier and allowed me to do more advanced things with my webpage. I am most proud of my travels around the world page because I incorporated my trips around the world with hyperlinks to more information about those countries. If I could change something, I might make my website more professional, but I just tried to make it clean and organized throughout. My biggest technical challenge was putting all of the pictures into tables. Not because it is hard to do, but because I forgot to do it at the beginning so I had to go back and reorganize every page. My biggest design challenge was making everything look professional. I ended up just making everything organized and neat in a clean fashion instead of getting overly fancy. I'll show my site to the rest of class when it is presented and probably family and friends as well to show off my accomplishment. I don't know when I'll need to make another website, but if I have to for another class, I will definitely be prepared!

HTML Code

HTML code is the basis and code for making websites on the internet. The importance of HTML code can be likened to the ability of students to learn basic math before using a calculator or program to figure out the problem. HTML code allows the website creator to understand and fully comprehend how the website is created and gives them a basis for making websites. Even if professional programs such as Expression Web or Kompozer are available, HTML code allows the creator to hand edit certain aspects of the page, or if something goes wrong with the website, the creator can use HTML code to hand edit certain aspects of the page without the use of the program. To fully understand how a webpage is made, one must understand the basics, so HTML code is very important to web design.

Pictures That Lie

I chose a picture of a great white shark to superimpose upon an image of a man diving for a frisbee. I chose these pictures because I thought it would be interesting to show a man jumping for a frisbee against a great white shark. The great white shark picture originated from National Geographic's website and the photo of the man playing frisbee was found searching a picture database. The picture was manipulated by making the man playing frisbee into a black and white picture and then decreasing the lightness to match the tone of the great white shark. The shark was outlined using the magnetic lasso tool and then moved to the picture of the man with the move tool. The shark was then made into black and white and the lightness was increased to match the man. The clone stamp tool was then used to create a more natural background for the shark and the blur tool was used to attempt to blur the line of the shark's fin in the water. It was manipulated as a joke, to show a funny or ironic picture of a man competing against a shark. The manipulation could be harmful if anyone believed the shark to be eating the man, but it is not really, as people would take it as a funny joke or image. This related to the researched article about an image that was photoshopped in a magazine article about Dustin Hoffman. The article showed how harmful altered images can be to the reputation of people or create false impressions to viewers of the false images. Although the image can be seen as satirical or a joke, caution must be employed to be sure that nobody's reputation or well-being is harmed by the alteration of an image.

1) Alex Kuczynski. "Dustin Hoffman Wins Suit on Photo Alteration. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 23 Jan. 1999,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2006), ProQuest. Web. 11 Apr. 2010.

Favorite Powerpoint Presentations

All of the class did an excellent job with the powerpoint presentations, but my two favorite presentations were Taylor's and Blake's. Taylor's presentation was very professional. The template he chose was appropriate for his topic and the photos/videos that were incorporated into the presentation added a unique element. If I were not set in a major right now, Taylor's presentation would have been very helpful. Blake also did an excellent job with his presentation. The template that was used was very appealing to the eye as it drew the audience's eye. The presentation consisted of just the right amount of text and picture to keep the audience's attention as well. I also learned some very interesting facts about marketing and Blake seemed very passionate about his major and career choice.

Powerpoint Tips

Powerpoints are a tool that our generation has grown up with. However, this doesn't mean that making an effective powerpoint presentation is easy. My first guideline for making a powerpoint is to keep it simple. Don't get caught up with all of the special effects and custom animations, instead, pick one and go with it. There is nothing more annoying than watching a powerpoint with 50 different effects per slide. My second guideline is limit the length and number of bullet points and text, this will keep your audience more involved. My third guideline is to take advantage of certain charts and graphs that display visual evidence. My fourth guideline is to insert an audio or video clip, youtube videos can be embedded and these are great to keep the audience involved. My final guideline is to use images and graphics that are high in quality. Low quality graphics can lead the audience to be critical of the presentation.

Snow Dogs - Adobe Photoshop Elements Collage

I chose these pictures to make a collage because the pictures are of my three dogs, I'm from Ohio so in the winter we would love to take them on walks in the snow, the collage shows all three of them in their favorite time of the year.

Search Engines and Navigating the Internet

Chris Nolan's presentation today was very informative and interesting. He demonstrated many new features of Google that I was not previously aware of. Some of the different features of the advanced search box are new things that I found. For example, you can use advanced search to narrow your search to search within a site or domain. For example if you wanted to search the noaa for information about hurricanes you could limit your search to only things within the website noaa.gov. You can even be specific by searching only sites with .edu, .org, .gov, etc. or you can exclude certain words in your search which can be used to limit and enhance your search. Something I learned that surprised me were the new options in the search box as well. The new options include searching for things that are geographically close, by the last time updated or using the timeline to show where certain information is by date on a certain topic. Google has come a long way in terms of a search engine, all of its features make it one of the most popular search engine on the web.

Pictures That Lie

I added the image of a man who appears to by flying, propelled solely by his lung power. It is a funny picture because it shows a man in flight, being chased by three people. It's also funny because the method for flight in the picture is very irrational. This picture was ran in the April Fool's edition of Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung in 1934. It was made by manipulating the man jumping on skis to look like he was flying. The background was changed and the two pictures were merged of the man on skis with his flying device and the three men chasing him from behind. It was manipulated to be ran in the April Fool's edition of the magazine as joke for a product that allowed men to fly using their own lung power. The manipulation was not harmful because it did not have any lasting, negative consequences. It was published in an April Fool's article, so the joke was well taken and the picture was even distributed widely in the United States.

Visit to CLT

We visited the Center for Learning and Technology on the first floor of the library. The CLT has both Macs and PCs with all of the latest software, all of this can be taken advantage of throughout college as we probably will not be able to afford the software otherwise. The CLT also had top of the line equipment for video and audio editing that students can use for class assignments or for their own personal leisure. There is also a Video Conference Center which is equipped with satellite down-link and Polycom two-way video conference facilities that accomodate 32 people. This would be very helpful for classes to hold video conferences with other classes abroad or to hold meetings that could not be arranged in person. The computers in CLT are for use of the students and we can go down there and use them at anytime if we want a quiet place to work. Also if I was in a class that required use of audio or video editing, I wouldn't have to leave campus as I could do it all in the library.

Copyright Laws and Time

The copyright presentation given by Jason Hardin was very informative and interesting. Many interesting topics were discussed, one that stood out to me was the fact that U.S. Copyright laws currently state that the terms of a copyright last the author's life plus an additional 70 years. This is very interesting because the time period for the terms of the copyright were originally much shorter when laws were first established in 1790. The additional time period is due largely to the lobbying efforts of the Disney Corporation as they pushed for additional time from the original laws as they stood to lose millions, if not billions of dollars when the copyright of Walt Disney's work expired. On one hand, it is good to ensure that the author is given responsibility for their work. This has the effect of ensuring that authors are motivated because if their work is not credited to them, then why would anybody want to create new material? But on the other hand, extensively long copyright laws are detrimental for an audience that has to pay extra money or maybe cannot even access information that they want to. All in all, current copyright laws stipulate that a copyright lasts the duration of the author's life plus 70 years. With the many important copyright expiration dates approaching, it will be interesting to see if copyright law's are extended even further.

Copyright Laws and Time by Timothy Nelin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

My Trinity Network Diagram

The tour today given by Jared Pack was very helpful and informative. He explained how Trinity's network operated and we got to observe some of the actual servers on campus. The tour was great because it gave me a much better understanding at how the network actually works. This is a diagram I made of the Trinity Network and it outlines how the internet is accessed from a dorm room. It also details how different parts of the network operate including important buildings such as Halsell, Cobb-Racy, Ruth Taylor and the Library.

Computer Top Tech Tip

The presentation by Joe Hatch brought some very interesting and helpful computer tips to light. My number one tech tip that I learned from Joe is how to speed up your personal computer, and get rid of all of the cached information and other data taking up vital space on the computer's hard drive. CCleaner.com is a great, not to mention, free way of removing "junk" from your computer such as browsing history and other random information that has been saved to your computer after surfing the web or using Window's applications. The use of CCleaner will clear space by removing useless things on your computer, which frees up space and in turn, can speed up your computer.

Response to Introductions

I really enjoyed reading everyone's blog the last couple of days, they were all very well done and professionally made. I left comments on Taylor's and Blake's blog: http://www.taylorstratton.blogspot.com/ and http://www.blakedturner.blogspot.com/.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tim Nelin and I am from Columbus, Ohio. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I also lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My parents are Dr. Leif and Mary Ann Nelin, both work at Ohio State and Columbus Children's Hospital. I have two twin sisters that are currently juniors at Western Kentucky University and Millsaps College, both are also preparing to take the MCAT this spring. I also hope to attend medical school and will be majoring in Biochemistry here at Trinity.
Sports, but soccer in particular, pretty much run through the family as I am currently on the soccer team here at Trinity and my sister plays at Millsaps. I also played hockey for 14 years, but I have temporarily hung up the skates because there is not much hockey down here in San Antonio. In my spare time I enjoy watching and playing sports, listening to music of all kinds, spending time with friends and relaxing. On campus, I am very involved with soccer as I am on the team, but I enjoy every second of it. I am also involved in a Bible study with the soccer team.
A "secret" fact about myself is that I am Swedish. Although I was born in the United States, I am a dual United States-Swedish citizen because my dad was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and moved to the States at a young age. Sweden is a beautiful Scandinavian country, it shares one of the world's largest archipelagos with Finland. Many Swedes, including my family that still resides there, have vacation houses on the archipelago, and during the summer the area is breathtaking.

As far as computer skills are concerned, I have not had much in the way of formal computer training besides a web-design class I took in high school. I am proficient with computers but I am looking forward to learning more skills in CSCI 1300 that will help me in the future. If you have any questions about anything on the blog, you can e-mail me here.