Advice for incoming students!

For those taking CS1300 next semester I suggest them to:

1. Come to class from day 1- it really helps to come to class and learn in order to do the homework as good as possible. If you miss class it's easier to get lost.
2. Do not procrastinate- if you leave everything for the last minute it will harm you since most assignments take longer than you think.
3. DO NOT take this as your 18 hour class- this goes especially for sophomores and juniors that have a lot of upper division or dificult classes, this is a demanding class and you actually learn a lot so take it seriously and understand that the workload is substantial.

Finally just enjoy and learn because this is a class you can get so much from and that will help you in every single field within your career and life.

Students Websites

My three favorite websites were Katie's, Morgan's, and Kayleigh's.

Katie's website was nicely designed and very appropriate for her topic. I really liked her navigation bar and her pictures were all very interesting and engaging.

Morgan's website was amazing, it was very creative and the design was outstanding. It looked very professional and each page was well organized and very nicely done.

Kayleigh's website had a unique twist to it which were the transitions for every page and I thought that was really cool and I like she included something new to the table.

Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~apinto1

Finalizing my website was quite challenging but very fulfilling. I had helped to do a professional website before therefore I expected it to be a similar experiece, but I had never used Expression Web so it was a completely new experience. It was very time consuming to make sure all the details were in and although it looks like a simple website, it took a lot of effort, time, and patience. I used hand coding and Expression Web, I tried to use KompoZer since I am a Mac user but it was too complicated. I believe that the section I am most proud of is my gallery and collections page because it took me a long time to align the tables and to make sure that all the thumbnails were the correct size and hoped they all worked. One of the things I plan to could change is to delete the blue borders of my thumbnails because it does not go with the layout or design. My biggest technical challenge was to just learn through working and trying different things how to use tables to align pictures since I started off using just one column tables instead of one with many and this made my website a lot more organized. My biggest decide challenge was to decide how to organize my photos in my all photos page, but I decided to do it by my favorite pictures and to appeal design wise I put all the vertical pictures in the last three rows and the horizontal ones in the first row. I would love to show my website to my family and friends so they can see my development as a photographer and hopefully potential customers. After learning how to make a website I will definitely make one for another class or another ocassion in the future.

Power Point Presentations

I enjoyed doing this assignment very much and was very content with my final outcome. I decided to pick a topic that would interest the students in my class and that could bring a beneficial message to all. AKPsi business fraternity was well shown through the four slides compiled of transitions, animations, videos, among other power point techniques. Doing this presentation taught me so much about producing an interesting and successful power point presentation since I put many transitions in one slide without needing to have 20 slides to put in all my information. I found that many animations can pertain exactly to the purpose like highlighting or making a shocking entrance. Learning how to do hyperlinks and using a slide's space wisely was my favorite part and was also the part that I am most proud of and most liked in my presentation. I also liked that the layout and progression of my power point allowed me to fluidly present to the audience and did not distract or diminish the presentation overall. The only thing I would have added or improved was to present the three interesting facts of slide three in a  more interactive and engaging way.

The presentations that I most liked were Hank's and Morgan's. I really enjoyed Hank's presentation because it was a very interesting topic for me and he presented in an engaging way. He showed all the power point skills we learned and compiled them in the presentation so that it attracted the audience to the subject. Morgan's topic especially appealed to me since I personally love this organization and she appealed to all the audience's emotion through her shocking visuals and smoothly put them together through the successful use of transitions.

Pictures that lie

The article that I read was quite inspiring and helped me came up with my idea. This article I found from the database Academic Search Complete talked about how in France there was a marketing campaign going on in order to use image alteration to ban all images of tobacco. They replaced tobacco images with kids windmills. They talked about how this influences french cinema and they also became part of the controversy and campaign. Therefore, one can analyze that as much as image alteration can be hazardous in many ways to society, people nowadays are finding positive ways to use this fantastic tool.


Roddick, Nick. "Pipe dreams." Sight & Sound 19.7 (2009): 14. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.


The picture that I chose to do was a quite entertaining one with a subtle message and a personal approach to it. I used many pictures, three of them are layers and they were all taken by me because its a picture of my cousin, my uncle and me. The background picture was part of one of my favorite's photographer's, Annie Lebovitz,  Disney series. I used various tools to manipulate, first of all I had three different layers and each layer is altered in many ways. I changed saturation and lightness in two layers and then merged them down so that they only changed the layer in question. I added two text layers to give the picture that personal approach and meaning and I deleted part of the original text by coloring in the color of the background on top. I used the eraser tool a lot, I also used the blur tool, the selection tool and I changed the opacity in every layer. I decided to manipulate this picture because first of all the composition of this caricature background is amazing and it brings back memories from when I was very young. The underlining idea is that people are always looking for approval "beyond the mirror" and this is portrayed in fantasy stories we hear since we are children. I decided to continue with this fairy tale and grant the happiness to a beautiful little girl instead of the evil witch because although many of this made up stories are exaggerated they still have that element that good beats bad above all. Unfortunately, I am the witch in this alteration, but it fits quite right since I am smiling therefore I approve of the beauty of this little girl. This manipulation is not harmful if it is not published because the original background is part of a famous photographer's work, therefore it would be infringement of copyrights, but besides that it is not harmful just entertaining and meaningful in a way. Finally, it relates to the article I read because in both image manipulation cases one is trying to alter the message sent to childhood by altering the original intended message. In this case we are banning tobacco and shallow superficiality and creating childish positive messages of no tobacco in the media and society, and happily ever afters.

Learning from Chris Nolan

Mr. Nolan’s presentation was very instructive and taught me a lot about useful tools for every day use of search engines. Important common sense information I was unaware of such as the fact that .com signals that it is a commercial site, .org represents non profit organizations, among others. I also found it very useful to learn that Google shows the popular sites in the initial pages, but scholarly journals and information that could be really helpful is in the pages further back. Something that surprised me from this informative lecture was the JC Penney case:

JC Penny contracted a company who created fake websites that linked to the JC Penney webpage so it was on an extremely high place in many search results. Google changed logarithms and took other measures to avoid this to happen and allow more honest search to occur.

This showed Google is valuable and in many ways tries to find the best results for its customers

Power Point Entry

Power point is one of Microsoft Office's greatest tools in my opinion. It helps to organize ideas into a single presentation which portrays them in an organized manner which is visually appealing to an audience. Furthermore, it contains so many small applications within to make the presentation interactive and interesting. Hyperlinks and transitions help the presentation be smooth and easy to use in order for the person giving the presentation to not distract others by taking out posters or other ineffective aids. Lately power point is used more and more throughout businesses and educational systems, one can even suggest that in many ways it is over used or incorrectly used.

Although power point is a fantastic tool, people tend to misinterpret the purpose of it and use it erroneously. Coming to college was very different to what I was used to in my school where power point was used by the students to give entertaining presentations to the class. At Trinity most professors use power point and it really is evident how they use it just to write down information instead of using all its tricks and tools to make the class better. One of the things they tend to do is write a lot of information in each bullet point which just makes it visually hard to see and it drags on the presentation longer. Another thing seen on an awful power point presentation is the lack of organization. Each slide layout is there to help each section and many times scattered ideas and data are found all over the presentation without considering that each sub topic can be narrowed down into one or a few organized slides. Using transitions helps and many times we see this application being neglected, when it takes only a few seconds to add them. Honestly as I learn more about power point I realize how easy it is to make a great presentation and how we could all benefit from it. I just hope to take advantage of this amazing tool once I learn more about its wonders!

CLT visit

This CLT visit was very instructing and interesting. Robert Chapman talked about the many services CLT provides for the students. He mentioned all the new updates that have been done over the years such as the video conference room where students, faculty, professors and really anyone that needs it can use it to communicate long distance. Not only class lectures from teachers abroad are given there, but important conference calls which might include data and many participants. He also mentioned a lot other rooms that are available for video editing and even to practice for a group presentation. I had use the CLT media presentation room once before for a collaborative interview for my business fraternity, but other then that I had no idea of the amazing services this place offers. What I thought was the most interesting of this introduction to CLT was the fact Mr. Chapman mentioned the importance of innovation and how they always get top technology and new systems very fast. They manage their own computers and systems this is why they are updated with all the new technology (ITS has no control over their systems). It is very useful to know this space is available for students to learn, work, and interact with new technology!

This is my self portrait which I drew and scanned it using the technology in CLT.

Excel Progress

Excel is a great working tool and I am learning a lot about it. It is quite easy to follow the book because it is very detailed and it allows me to refer back in the chapter to review over the things I didn't understand. The complicated part is that I have a mac instead of a pc which makes it more challenging to complete the assignments. I wish that the book and the tutorials were a little bit more directed to mac users since I feel that not only within a group of students but also in companies mac systems are used more and more. Besides this conflict I really am enjoying learning about Excel!

Photoshop Manipulation

I chose the picture below because its a picture I actually have seen and actually thought it was too unbelievable to be true. The matter of the fact it is not true, it was originated in 2001. They added the shark to the picture of a U.S. Air Force helicopter. It was manipulated to show the world the amazing power of nature and input more fright to shark attacks. I believe any manipulation that exaggerates or deceives an audience is unethical, nevertheless, this particular one is not harmful since its just trying to make up an unreal, ridiculous event.

To me the following photoshop video showed me how media deceives our society to makes us believe models and famous artists are perfect when they are really just retouched through photoshop. It is unbelievable they provide us with the outstanding presumed fact that 99% of the pictures in magazines are altered in photoshop before being published.

Private Information Now on Facebook!

Facebook is a social network that has had a positive impact on our society, but has also negatively affected our private lives. Many people that try to apply for jobs or for college are denied due to the research employers and universities do on the person’s Facebook page. On your profile you have your personal information, which covers a wide range of intricate information about your daily life, your likes, your friends, and even simple things as your relationship status. All of these pieces can somehow alter the professional impression you made on your future employer for good or for bad. From the prompt given to us we can observe that this could be broken down into three important parts. First of all arguing the degree of ethics in the decision of the friend to post the picture on Facebook, and secondly if the law firm had reason to disqualify this individual from the job.
Social networking is a way to connect to people within your society in a virtual level, meaning that all parties are aware of the happenings within this web page. Once you decided to have a Facebook profile you comply with various legal agreements and with your ethical decision of letting many people look at your information and know about your daily life. This is why there are privacy settings and you choose who you want to befriend. Therefore, the friend had all the right to put up that picture. For me, it was the fault of the applicant since he was foolish to allow private information that could harm his reputation be exposed online. Un-tagging, deleting, and making pictures private are only one of the few options offered to make these pictures private. Blaming his friend for putting up this picture has no legal value since it was reasonably foreseeable because it was posted on a social network where the claimant knew what the consequences where.
The process of hiring for companies is quite delicate since they must take into consideration many aspects of the applicants. For this case, I believe that the company was wise to make a Facebook background research since you can discover interesting aspects of a person just by looking at their information and profile. This could be a great technique if used for the right purposes, if they just research to find all the negative things in a person’s life then they are misusing social networks. No one should ever judge a person by his or her profile or pictures revealed in the Internet. Yes, this picture was quite revealing of the possible incrimination of the usage of an illegal substance, but that should not be the reason why a person is denied a job. Unless, of course if this picture contains illicit drugs that could be harmful to society or have an important legal impact. But then again, I think that Facebook should be a tool not a decision-making advisor. I researched in the United States laws and I found out through the 5th amendment that: “No person shall be held to answer for….private property be taken for public use, without just compensation” (FindLaw, 1). This is an important part of the Constitution since infringement of private property could hold the company liable. In further research I found out that to avoid lawsuits such as these ones Facebook have agreements a person must approve before being part of the social network. The Terms of Use for Facebook are clear therefore both the company and the applicant should look at them to make sure they are using them correctly for business and professional reasons.
My suggestion to everyone out there is to be wise with the information you post online. It not only could become a very dangerous tool against your well-being, or as seen in the previous case to your professional life. Use privacy settings, make sure you accept the friends you want and know, and always try to portray yourself wisely in the pictures posted of you by you and your friends. Be careful always and don’t misuse social networking because every day tools like these are appearing and growing making your private information more public.

Copyrights

Copyright infringement is a very sensitive legal topic in the United States. Everyday hackers are hired to find people who try to download material from the Internet without the right copyright permits. Copyright is very important to this capitalist nation since it encourages innovation. In order to understand all of these topics, schools, institutions, companies and various other entities provide the population with the correct information on how to handle copyrights and what they are. This is considered a crime and if its not respected and applied it could cost somebody a simple take down notice or a very expensive lawsuit such as Harper vs. Maverick.

The Harper vs. Maverick case was a lawsuit, which began with a San Antonio teenager who decided to illegally download a few songs from a file sharing software. She tried to argue that this was "innocent infringement" but the jury and court decided that this was invalid and that she was guilty of this fault. I personally agree that if she was warned about copyright earlier in her life the court had all the right to punish her. On the other hand, if she was unaware, like a lot of young people are, that this great software which offered free music was illegal and could ignite a costly lawsuit then she should not have been held liable. I just believe everyone living in USA should be informed of the copyright laws.

Thank you to Jason Hardin, Manager of Access Services at Trinity University, for all the valuable information on copyrights.


Copyrights by Andrea Pinto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Network Server Diagram

My Trinity Network Diagram

This is my network diagram for Trinity network. It includes the most important buildings and their basic objectives in relation to internet and network services. Hope it's easy to understand and helpful!

Mystery Photo

MYSTERY PICTURE

WHERE IS THIS ON TRINITY CAMPUS?

I took this shot because it is a place that most people pass by everyday. People that go to various upper campus buildings pass this place but never take a real look at the beauty of it. 


Trinity is known to have a very beautiful campus full of plants and trees and warm red brick colors. But I decided to change this picture into sepia to give it a new perspective. I added a black vignette and a 1960's effect to give it the old, yet classy look. A very important element I added was the snow because although this past month has been really cold we have not seen snow. I added some leaves of color to give it a vivid and almost cartoonish look. 


The original picture was taken by me in black and white. This edited version has given Trinity a mysterious, old-fashioned, fantasy look.

Best Tech Tip

Mr. Joe Hatch gave a great speech on crucial information every body should know about the technology within Trinity campus and in each student's computer systems. The two main instructional topics I grasped where about support systems on campus and about computer performance.

The most important tech tip I got from Mr. Hatch was related to inefficiency on computers. He taught us about defragmentation and how to avoid lack of efficient performance through elimination of junk and controlling fragmentation. I enjoyed how he gave solutions for both Mac and PC. I learned to reset Safari and to use a better privacy program to delete super cookies to allow greater privacy and less chance of being a target within the usage of Firefox.

Hello!

Hello! My name is Andrea Pinto, some people call me Andie, so either one works. I am from Quito, Ecuador and I have lived there my entire life with my big family.
I love to listen to music, play and watch soccer, eat, and my favorite TV series is How I met your mother. I am very passionate about photography as well.
My majors are Economics, International Business, and Marketing and I am currently a sophomore here at Trinity University. I am involved in various activities on campus including Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and Latino Exchange.
I do not have much experience using specific computer programs, but I do know the basics and I own a Mac, therefore I work better with them than with a PC. I also have basic knowledge on Microsoft and Photoshop.






The most important thing in my life is my family this is why I have posted a picture of me and my brother in the equatorial line which is only 10 minutes away from my house.






Well that was a little bit about me, if you have any questions or ever want to visit Ecuador let me know. My email is apinto1@trinity.edu.