Computer Skills Blog

Computer Skills Class Advice

2009-04-28T12:17:00.001-07:00

My advice for other computer skills classes:

DO THE HOMEWORK!
This is such an important part of the class and if you miss one you miss out on learning how to work with the taught material and your grade will suffer. I know it can take a long time sometimes but trust me you will greatly benefit if you just do it.

Also GO TO CLASS!
You will suffer greatly if you miss class because there are so many complex things that we go over and each class goes over A LOT of information. It sucks to miss class becuase then you struggle so much with the homework and work to come after it because a lot of it builds upon formerly learned material.

This class may take some time you don't want to give but I promise if you put in some effort, do the work, and come to class you will succeed!!!!
GOOD LUCK!

Websites!!!

2009-04-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone's websites are so cool! Its really cool to learn more about people. I feel like a lot of projects we have done in this class have taught us all more about each other, its pretty amazing!

Anyways, so my top 3 favorites were:

1. Ali's page- the creativity and the designs are amazing. Her image map is so incredible, it looks professional. And the jagged edges of her text boxes on her home page. And the decreased opacity on the picture on the page representing her home in California is so beautiful. I wish I had the eye to create such amazing designs and images.

2. Lindsey's page- I love the little animated thing in the bottom left corner its really clever and eye catching, great idea! The thumbnails of all her artwork and glasswork are amazing, such a good idea to promote her work and make them thumbnails so we could see the full size of each image.

3. Katie's page- I love all the content of her website! There are so many random things that I love on there! Its so cool to see all of Katie's friends and then her "things" page is my favorite! Oh man those desserts look so amazing my mouth was watering!

You can visit my site at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~ntoto

2009-04-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

The rest of the presentations were great. Its cool to see everyone's interests!
My favorite of the final presentations was Maria's! Her pictures were so eye-catching and her information was so interesting. It was great, I was glued to the screen.

Powerpoint Presentations

2009-03-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

My favorite presentation was Lindsey's Art Therapy presentation. She is the only one so far who used music throughout the presentation. The music and the design perfectly complimented the relaxing nature of art therapy. The soft color tones complimented the examples of art that she used in her presentation. It was beautifully done.
My second favorite presentation was Maddy's presentation on Business Management and Marketing using Neimans as an example. Maddy's was great becuase the design was very sophisticated and complimented the face of Neimans that was presented in the pictures she used from the website. It was mainly the design and the elegance of the color schemes that made me like this presentation.

Presentation Tips

2009-03-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I thought the different articles on good and bad presentations gave some great advice, a lot of it I knew already and some of it helped me realize some bad things I had been doing in presentation as well. Here are 5 main points I think are the most important when giving a powerpoint presentation:

1) Do not read off the slides

2) Don't use distracting backgrounds

3) Only use about 3-4 bullet points on a slide

4) Use appropriate charts and keep them simple-less than 5 pieces of data per chart

5) Make text at least 28 pt. font

Excel Blog

2009-03-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really glad we learned how to use Excel so well. At first I didn't think it would be that useful for me but learning all the shortcuts, functions, and uses for Excel. I don't know if I will exactly get to use all these skills in the immediate future but I'm glad I have these skills for the future, either for managing my money once I have my own bank account or doing a project for school, who knows! I'm sure I'll find many uses for it now that I know I don't have to calculate lists by hand. I hate being inefficient and our skills in Excel guarantee efficiency! I can't wait to find something to use Excel for, I just love pulling down that formula. . . I'm a nerd. In conclusion I'm glad we spent so much time learning about Excel.

Help in CLT

2009-03-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited about our trip down to CLT today. I think that after all I learned about the opportunities with the technology there and the importance of keeping up with technology, I think I'm going to try to visit there a couple times before the semester is over to learn some new things. In this class it seems as though we are about to be working with photos and photoshop and it seems like I would be able to get a lot of good help with photoshop down there. Also I'm a vocal performance major so the recording lab seems like it will be really useful to me if I ever need to record audition tapes, my piano skills homework, or any compositions for the composition class I'll probably take next year! I'm really excited about all the cool things I can learn and do in CLT.

Manipulated Photos

2009-03-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

I chose the picture of the author of the children's book "Goodnight Moon". The original picture was of the author holding a cigarette in his hand and the manipulated picture took the cigarette out of his hand. I don't think the manipulation was harmful at all, I think this manipulation was actually good. It probably isn't a good idea to show any kind of images related to cigarettes or smoking. I thought the manipulation was a good choice on the publishers part.

Chris Nolan's talk about search engines

2009-02-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I knew as much as I needed to know about search engines, particularly Google, but Chris Nolan showed me so many other advantages of search engines that I had no idea existed.
One thing that I didn't know is that if a webpage you are trying to get to through google isn't working for some reason --maybe its busy or under maitenance or something-- you can click "Cached" next to the link to the website to see Google's copy of the webpage. On this page you are able to see all the key words you are searching highlighted in the document from when google catalogued the site.
When Chris said that more academicly accurate articles are found at the bottom of the first page of search results and on to the second page it surprised me. I had always just trusted the top hits. But it made so much sense when he described why: the top hits are the most popular basic sites and the sites lower down on the results list are more scientifically correct. Most people aren't trying to write a research paper so they need the most basic information and would probably get frustrated trying to understand a lot of high level academic or scientific jargon.

All in all I was really glad to hear what Chris Nolan had to say because now my research will be much easier.

Copyright Laws

2009-02-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

In class yesterday, Mr. Hardin was telling us about the take down notices that either the RIAA, MPAA, or ESA will send to the university informing the school that a computer on their network has been violating copyright laws. Usually they are sent by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) because the majority of college students are downloading music illegally. A take down notice will inform the school which the IP address of the computer that is infringing on copyright laws. The school will find the student who owns the computer and inform them of the take down notice. The school is legally obligated to give the RIAA the student's name and address. The take down notices are good for students because it acts as a warning. However, sometimes the RIAA will simply skip the take down notice all together and immediately take legal action against the student. One Trinity student was sued by the RIAA for downloading 12 songs illegally, without the warning of a take down notice. I find this to be unfair. If the RIAA is going to grant take down notices to some students they have to grant them to all students. Its not fair that they randomly decide to take actions upon some students. In the case of this girl student, I find it particularly unfair because so many kids download hundreds of songs illegally. Although I completely disagree with the RIAA's random decisions not to issue take down notices, I can see why they would do that. If they issue these take down notices all the time the copyright owners will never make any money for their losses. I think that they RIAA has the right to do this, but they should decide to do one or the other--either always issue take down notices, or always take immediate legal action.

Facebook

2009-02-03T09:13:00.001-08:00

I greatly enjoy Facebook! Although it can be a distraction sometimes it has kept me in touch with so many people from high school that I otherwise would have lost all contact with. I see so many advantages to it but also a lot of things that I think deserve great caution.

I think its a great networking device, and its good for getting me connected to people that will be new friends or even people that can get me a dream job. For example, I did this intense research internship the summer after my junior year and I'm a Facebook friend with the man who conducted the selection process and who supervised us throughout the internship. By keeping in touch with him and saying a simple "hello" every once in a while, I know I can always use him as a reference for a job I might want. With facebook he remembers me better and knows more about my goals in life and can write a great recommendation.

Also the "Groups" application is amazing! A lot of kids check their facebook 10 times more often than they check their email. I'm in a group called TheProject, and when I want to tell the entire group about an upcoming meeting, or send out the notes from a previous meeting, I can use the group to send out a message to all of the members on facebook. I get twice as many responses on facebook than I do on email.

Adults are right to start using facebook because it is the best way to communicate with the youth. People say that it is decreasing face to face communication and even telephone communication but it is, in fact, a much easier way of communication and a pastime for college and high school kids. Facebook is the best way to reach our generation and generations to come.

Why Hello There

2009-01-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, my name is Natalie Toto
I am from Dallas, the best city ever! There are pretty much only three things to do in Dallas; go shopping, eat at awesome restaurants, and see movies, fortunately those are my three favorite things to do. I love music and I love to sing, so I am studying vocal performance here at Trinity. I am taking on a second major in communications too because I really like media studies and eventually I think I want to work in television or film production.

As far as campus activities go I'm working with ASR to try and get an alcohol awareness foundation, called The Gordie Foundation, to work with Trinity on spreading alcohol awareness. Gordie Bailey was a freshman at University of Colorado at Boulder when he died of alcohol poisoning due to a fraternity's initiation tradition and his family created the foundation in his dedication. I have a special connection to the foundation because Gordie's little sister is one of my best friends and I know their family very well. This connection has made me pretty passionate in helping them spread their cause. If you are interested here is the website: www.gordie.org

But enough of that let me tell you of happier things, like my family! I have a younger brother who just turned 16, my mom is a nurse practitioner in cardiology, and my dad is a nephrologist (kidney doctor) who does research and teaches at UT Southwestern medical school, where he is also the head of admissions. If anyone is interested in going to medical school UT Southwestern is great you should check it out. I also have two little puppy dogs, which actually puppies but I call them that anyways. I have a girl beagle who is 1 1/2 years old and a lady golden retriever who is 9. I love them so much! The golden (Crystal is her name) is really mellow and a good snuggler. The beagle (Roxy) is kind of crazy but she is hilariously entertaining and really smart (and really fat but we love her for that).

Here is Roxy in her santa suit, which she happens to love (don't worry I'm not torturing my dog). Its really cute actually because when she didn't have it on she would go get it and bring it to us to put on her.

And here is sweet little Crystal playing with Roxy when she was a puppy:

Actually Crystal is more staring in wonder at Roxy's craziness. Like I said Crystal is pretty mellow (not to mention old) and Roxy was a bit of a surprise for her. Crystal gets annoyed with Roxy a lot because Roxy will just run up and jump on Crystal's face. But I think in the end Crystal loves Roxy because Roxy loves her so much.

As for computers I don't really have any special skills. I'm pretty competent with computers and am able to do everything I need to on my computer.

My email is ntoto@trinity.edu if you ever need me.

Here is my house and my neighborhood if you want to take a look:

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My secret fact . . . . is that George Bush Jr. is moving into my neighborhood. I know its kind of lame, but hopefully I will come up with more interesting things in my life to tell you about in the future.