Colin's CS1300 blog

What to Expect with Computer Skills

2009-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Taking this class was a real pleasure. I learned more about computers than i never knew exsisted. Here are some pointers for people thinking about taking this class and want a good grade.
-Go to class every day. The lectures are important
-Do all of the homework. There is some but it is easy and worth alot of points
-Study for the midters and exams
-Make sure to take your time and design things carefully.

All o fthese pointer will allow you to be sucessfull in this class.

My picture that lies

2009-11-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

The picture I chose to alter was that of a city street in New York City. It originally just showed the ordinary hustly and bustle of a normal busy day in New York. The picture originated off the web on google. I manipulated it by adding a monster tearing through the street. I also made the image a little more blury and darker to give it a more darker, scary atmosphere. I manipulated it so it would give a shock factor. It may scare people to see something so foreign tearing down what looks like a familiar street. I do not believe that this manipulation is not harmful. Most people have the cognitive abilities to realize the odds of a monster tearing through New York Is very low and that the image was faked. Most people can realize that it was all in good fun.

Favorite Powerpoint

2009-11-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

My first favorite powerpoint would have to be Ellee Cooks'. She did a very nice job of using pictures that related to her subject and gifs to express her point. That and also in conjunction with her animations that helped the text come in and out was very stylish and it helped the powerpoint flow. My secong favorite powerpoint would have to be Monica Stantons. She did a very nice job of using animated shapes to explain her point. That and with the conjunction of the pictures she showed helped make a very clear and concise powerpoint.

Making a Great Powerpoint

2009-10-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Alll of the artice provided a wonderful insight in what it takes to make a powerpoint a great visual aid. Many people think that they need to overload slides and make them extremely elaborate; more than they need to. The best advie I can give to my classmates is to keep it simple. All a powerpoint neds to be is a simple, clean visual representation that HELPS you give your presentation; it is NOT the presentation, you are!
Here are 5 guidelines that I go by that help me create a powerpoint

1. As little text as possibe. As i say again the powerpoint is supposed to help the listner get a better picture of what you are saying; it is not the presentation.

2. Keep each slide clean and simple. Do not overload any slide with too many pictures or graphics. It makes it look cluttered and turns readers off.

3. Use a background theme or color that allows text to be easily read and visually easy to look at. I cant tett you how many times my eyes have hurt after looking at a yellow background for 30 minutes

4. Do not over do animations. A liitle is fine and adds polish to the presentation but too much and it gets distracting.

5. Finally, DO NOT over use sounds! especially the powerpoint ones as it just annoys the audience even more if they have to listen to a machine gun as all of the lines come on screen.

The AT&T CLT

2009-10-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Center for Learning and Technology is a wonderful place in the basement of the library. It was donated by AT&T with a grant of 4 million dollars. The technology present at the center is quites impressive. They have the latest Macs and computers all running upgraded specs so they are very powerful and fast. The also have a range of multimedia equipment; from audio and video recording to editing equipment and software. They provide a range of services like help on multimedia projects to producing audio or video tracks for you for a small fee. The staff at the CLT are all very helpful and kind. They also have a classroom you can use to coordinate group projects or, if you need to, practice a presentation you might have to give in the enviroment that you are going to give it in. The class room has everything a normal classroom does so it can be very useful. I plan on using the CLT most for their editing software. They have full subsrcriptions of Photoshop , which is 600$, and viedeo editing software. What I like most about the Clt is that they not only give you the software but they also give yo the knowledge to use it and that is what makes the CLT a very special place.

Microsoft Excell

2009-10-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Going into the Excell portion of the class I was not very excited. I had previously takes an Excel class in highschool and was completely bored with the basic functions we went over. Now after i have completed this section of the class I have to say I am impressed. I never knew how "smart" Excell was with the auto function features and all of the functions. I also thought it was cool how it allows you to express data in charts and other easily read imagery. The most useful feature of excell i learned was the book keeping aspects of excell. It allows you to keep a budget and using some of the templates, allows you to calculate interest and other factors of loans.

Chris Nolan's Talk

2009-10-13T11:02:00.001-07:00

I am very glad that Chris Nolan came and talked to us about internet research. It is a very important and useful topic that everyone learned from. For instance, I did not realize how Google ranked search results. Then he told us the ranking system is based on an algorithm that ranks how many site link to a particular site. I also learned to be very careful about where I get my information and sources. Anyone can put anything on the internet and make it seem factual when it is not. He told us to use peer reviewed sources to make sure the information we were using was indeed factual. Also he told us about a useful feature of Google that I did not even know it had, Google scholar. Google scholar looks up only peer reviewed articles and you can be sure of where they came from. We also learned about the difference between general information sources like the news to more targeted sources like journals. He also told us to use data bases that trinity subscribes too because that is good information. Lastly he warned us of Wikpedia because even though it may look good you have no idea who edited it or why.

2009-10-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

The picture I chose was that of an U.S Navy helicopter being attacked by a great white shark. The picture was created some time in 2001 and made its way across the internet. The picture was manipulated by taking a Navy helicopter hovering over a body of water with a diver hanging from a ladder. The image of the helicopter was then inversed so it was pointing to the left instead of the right. Then a shark that was jumping to the left was added so it gave the appearance that it was jumping right at the diver on the ladder. I believe that this type of altered image is not harmful and is only for entertainment. It is not harmful because most people could recognize that a shark would not jump in the air to attack someone who is being suspended in the air by a helicopter. Also, since it was never passed off as factual by anyone, it is open to interpretation by everyone. This altered photo is much different than on that has been altered for some type of gain and passed off as true. This photo did not help nor harm anyone and its only purpose is to entertain and make people wonder if it really happened.

Copy right issue

2009-09-22T15:27:00.001-07:00

After hearing about the copy right issues in class today I feel that the law is very flawed. The copy right law right now is the author’s life plus 70 years. This law makes intellectual property very protected but it also limits what you can do with it. When property enters the public domain it is free for every one use. Right now however, there is little in this day and age that you can use like that and it makes it very hard not to violate copy right laws. I also believe that they are unfairly prosecuting some file sharing users. Even though they do not own it, getting sued for a large sum of money and they obviously didn’t inflict that much damage on the company is just wrong.

Network diagram of Trinitys LAN

2009-09-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Joe Hatch's Visit

2009-09-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Joe Hatch is obviously a very gifter person when it comes to computers. What makes him even better is that he can put the complicated computer language into terms anyone can understand. The advice i used of his was to down load CCleaner. It was amazing to see how much junk my computer was storing and how it was being slowed down. After I did the Cleaner my computer became much faster starting up and also when it is running programs.

Hello

2009-08-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

My name is Colin Dmochowski and I am from Brentwood, TN. I played lacrosse back at my old highschool. At Trinity I will be apart of the trap and skeet team among other things.
As for a computer background, I tried to build one but i could never get it to work, so that is the extent of it. I would like to learn more about Microsoft Office more in the comming months.

colin.dmochowski@trinity.edu