PPT BlogEval

The best powerpoints presented were Hunter Ramsey's, Kevin Clements, and Tanner Barron for their enthusiasm for their respected fields.

Next Year's Class

My best advice to the next CSCI class would be to follow the class textbook EXACTLY for any excel homework because if you don't, one mistake might equal a failing homework grade. The quizes we take are worth studying for if you know nothing about the subjects we learn in class....other than that just do the homework and it's all good.

Last Entry

Finally, our final blog entry.
This entry is about our favorite websites presented during class, and while all of them were amazing, I had to narrow it down to three...
Moira Allen and Abby Talley presented what seemed to be the most structured and professional web pages that possessed clean transitions between pages. Travis Halff wins my third spot because of how his web site was very comical, yet was done in a clean and structured fashion.

My Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~nsteffen

Creating my own website was made easier than I thought thanks to the program Expression Web. I prefer my default page among the others because it best represents myself and the hobbies I enjoy. If I could change anything on my web page it would have to be the gallery because the different size pictures in the table I created fit unevenly. The little things such as the hotspot pose the most difficult of all the tasks for me. The technical part of my website creation that proved most difficult occurred during transferring my class file to the website publishing file to actually publish my website because it needed a lower case "d" in order to properly read my page. I will likely not show anyone this site because everyone I talk to knows these things about me, however I did show Ramsey the rap page to compare ours. I doubt I will take another computer class because it isn't my forte, so the likelihood of creating another web site is small.

Pictures that Lie

Semiotic Review of Books Volume 6 Book 2
SRB Archives
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/srb/pictures.html
"Pictures have for a long time served as scapegoats to the apocalyptists in the domain of media studies. The apocalyptic scenario of the power which pictures exert in manipulating and deceiving the masses appears as early as 1895..." (Noth, Winfred)

Depicting lies isn't something new, and it has been used to trick the masses for decades. These ideals were likely sparked by elitists such as Gustave LeBon, who wrote the Psychology of the Masses and stated that ,"To them, the unreal is almost as important as the real." It's thoughts like these that have caused our worlds numerous fibs.
Even early paintings have referred to "mere imaginary objects" to stimulate the minds of average citizens. The big question presented in this document, however, is whether these lying pictures can actually TELL a lie, and the truth is "Pictures can tell a thousand words" but it's only been recently that people have caught on to the deception pictures create. With all sorts of information floating around due to the internet, it would seem impossible for the public to be unaware, and it is. Now, more than ever, pictures are being re-created to portray the desired effects the producer wishes, not for truth. These lies are made easy with software like photoshop, but also we can thank electronics for better informing us of some sort of truth so that we may weed out the imaginary.

I chose a picture of the alamo because I have lived in San Antonio since I was 3 and the Alamo symbolizes San Antonio's history and the beginning of the city. I used google images to find a picture of the alamo and I added meteors to the picture to represent the "end of the world" as many believe our time period to be, and to show how it might end here. The Alamo is symbolic in displaying the end of San Antonio because it was the city's beginning. This, too, is the way I believe my picture relates to the website I researched in the sense that my picture speaks for itself, as anyone who views the picture will realize that it represents the end of San Antonio and does "tell a thousand words". The picture is not harmful in any way because it's merely a possibility and many wouldn't be gullable enough to believe it. Unless someone thought it disembodied the Alamo and they had strong tides with the Alamo, then that would be an exception. I manipulated the picture by first using the magic wand tool to isolate the meteor, I then increased both Hue and Saturation and decreased the lightness to add to the devistating effects the meteor would have on our city. I zoomed in and erased squared parts to make the meteor more realistic looking, then made two copies of it to bring emphasis on the damage being created. I made the meteor on the sunier side of the alamo brighter to make it seem more realistic. I then added burns on the building using the burn tool and the shadow option to make it seem as if the picture was taken just before the meteors hit.

Noth, Winfred. "Pictures Lying..." SRB Archives. SRB, 2009. Web. 12 Apr 2010.

Web Design

HTML code is responsible for the creation of web sites and there are applications such as Expression Web that enable you to create such web pages without knowing this code. However, for web designers it is essential that they know HTML code as it is the basis for everything a web designer does and if they don't understand it then there is no way they can provide their own feel to a web site. Web-Authoring software doesn't teach you how to separate your web site from others, but if you understand the code then you will be able to configure your own site to your liking, much like it should be.

Photoshop

"Throw away or they'll go away."

In other words, if we continue to not recycle, we will hurt our pets and at some point a once simple walk won't be possible. In order to save our pets favorite spots, such as Janes favorite spot (as shown in the picture), we must first do the little things like throwing away our trash. This picture shows the effects of trash to be toxic and the exact opposite of what Jane needs.(opposing sides of the picture)