Good Advise

I think that this course was really helpful and it is worth taking. I learned a lot of things. I think future students should not hesitate on taking this course, it is not as hard as it sounds!! Plus Ms. Belisle is extremely helpful and really nice! It was a pretty good class overall.

Favorite websites

I have seen all of the websites, and I think my favorite ones are Michelle Rangel's webpage on food; I think it is really nicely done, the colors are beautiful and the pictures sure make me hungry. I think she put a lot of work on this and she did great.
My second favorite website is Christian's. I also think he did a really cool job. He makes people want to go visit Honduras. It looks very professional.
And finally, my third favorite website is Arielle's music website. I think it is really well organized and nicely done.

Webpage

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~eovadia.
When I first got assigned to do a website, I was nervous and thought that the task was going to be of extreme difficulty. As I began coming up with ideas, I decided to do something related to movies because I really enjoy watching movies.
At the end, I thought that creating a webpage was not as hard as I imagined. I used Expression Web to create my site and I thought it was pretty simple to manage and arrange.
I relly like my home page because it includes an animated picture, and some pictures that went through the process of Photoshop. I really like my navigation bar as well.
In terms of design, I think that the most complicated issue was coming up with a nice background; the fact that there were a lot of pictures to upload made it hard to put another background other than black. But I still think that the black backgroung makes my webpage look good.
Also, I thought that the tables sometimes were difficult to orginize because it did not let me move my text and pictures freely but I managed to fix that.
What I changed was the blue border on my navigation bar.
I think I would like showing this site to my friends and family.
It was really cool to learn how to do a webpage and if I have an oportunity I would create another webpage for some other class.

Larry Hechler

Today, Larry Hechler came to class to talk about Hardware. He described all the parts that make up a MacBook and he broke it apart to show us each of the parts. He also mentioned that Apple products are way more expensive than Microsoft ones.
He gave many tips on how to take care of our computers so that they can last longer. For example he told us that we should let our computer battery drain until i hits 5% and then we should charge it, that way our battery will last longer and it will conserve the capacity of charging fully.
Also he told us on how to clean our computers and which chemicals to avoid using. For example, for cleaning the screen we should only use screen cleaners and avoid all liquids that contain chlorine, alcohol, ammonia, and acetate. Also we should never spray the computer directly (this can cause electrical shocks), we should spray directly on the cloth.
It was a very cool lecture and I actually learned many tips on how to take care of my computer so that it can last longer and remain in good shape.

PPT Presentation

I enjoyed doing my Power Point presentation. Ballet is a topic that has fascinated me always, and I have always admired the talent and elegance of professional ballet dancers, like those from the Bolshoi Ballet Company. In a personal manner, I have to say that I had a lot trouble trying to put my music in, but finally I figured it out. I think that it was worth working hard to put the music in because it gave my presentation a special touch. Also, I enjoyed searching for all the incredible pictures and the nice videos. Mainly what I learned was how to put many things in one single slide avoiding it from seeming crowded, but what I really really learned was PATIENCE!!
From the class presentations, I really enjoyed Michel Rangel's presentation on Forensic Science; I thought the topic was very interesting, the way her slides were arranged were in complete coordination with the topic. I actually learned things I did not know from her presentation. The music in the beginning was also completely related to the topic. I really enjoyed this presentation.
Another presentation I likes was Katie's presentation on sushi; I just thought that the topic was so random that it made it sound so interesting and fun. I would have never imagened myself sitting on a presentation over sushi. Also the black background made all her pictures stick out, and I liked the way she exposed her work!



As you can see, both these pictures represent that same scene. The one on the right is the original picture that was taken from the Internet; it represents the Buildings of the Parliament in London, and more specifically the Big Ben. The image on left is a manipulation of the original image, it was created through photoshop. Mainly, what happend on the altered picture was that it became a way more dramatic scene. I decided to play with the weather of this picture, because London is a place that is gloomy for the most part and I wanted to give the image a dramatic modification in the clouds as well as I wanted to make it rain. The rain that was inserted after many trials, gives this image some sort of uniqueness and it also makes it seem real. My purpose in this project was to maintain a realistic image through a picture that definitely lies. Also I played a little with the tones of the picture to make the clouds darker in some areas, the rain was also slanted so it can go in the direction of the clouds (this was to avoid a straight fall of the water). Another effect that I wanted to show was to give the viewer a sense that there was a little bit of sunlight somewhere behind the clouds. This is noticeable through the delicate light that falls on the Big Ben.

In the article I read of Yon Marsh, it says that photography has been manipulated ever since it existed. And now, with technology, pictures have lost their proof value. Since it is possible to manipulate images as much as desired, photos do not serve to prove something, they are not reliable documents. If the manipulated picture shown above was shown alone, people would actually think that the photograpgh was taken on a rainy day in London. And if I did not mention which photograpgh was the original one, people would be confused in determining the manipulated one.

In this case, the alterations produced do not cause harm to the public as pictures that show people involved. For instance when people see pictures of models, they may become psychologically affected.

Sources

Marsh, Yon. "The Changing Flux in the Photograpgh at the Precipice of Change: The Phototrix and the Death of the Photogragh." Journal of Media Practice 10.2 (2009): 267-272. Web. 3 Apr 2011.

Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan talked to us today and he spoke about the credibility o Web Pages. The largest search engine is Google, followed up by Yahoo. When we search something in the Internet, the results that appear first are there not by casuality but because they have been linked the most times with your search, and thsy have been what people are most likely looking for in previous searches over the same topic. Google gets all their money through the advertisements that appears in their Web Pages.
What I learned today that I thought was pretty cool was the idea that you can limit your search in the Advanced Search tab, this helps you find information that is actually usefull to you. Also Google Scholar is a great tool to use because it gives you academic information.
What I found really surprising was what JCPenny did to get to appear in the first positions of any type of search.
It was a cool lecture and also a helpful one!

Reasons to Hate PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a Microsoft Office program that allows people to gather information related to one topic as well as it allows the person to exhibit or present this information to the public through a conference, a class, or a lecture. PowerPoint lets you do so many different things that, if put all together, it may seem overwhelming, unattractive, and most importantly boring.
In the following I will express some of the aspects I dislike about PowerPoint presentations.
To begin with, I cannot stand when people load their slides with text and just read what they have written. If this is the case, I consider the speaker unnecessary because everyone in the audience can read what is on the screen (and that is only possible, if the information is visible).
Another thing I dislike about presentations is the sound effects that are sometimes included in the slideshow, I think they are extra and distracting. Besides, when I had to learn how to insert sound to presentations, I had a very difficult time.
Also I think that some transition effects that PowerPoint offers to change slides or to present text or an image, are sometimes to slow and this makes the viewer lose interest. I hate the effect that put one letter at a time, it takes forever to finish.
I do not like when people use bullet points and do not make themselves clear. It is good to shorten the amount of information, but that should not mean that the points they are expressing should be unclear and incomplete.
When presentations are very long, I get frustrated and lose concentration, I get tired of looking at the presentation. In one of my classes, I have to sit and take a lecture based on a PowerPoint presentation that is 55 slides long, and worse of all I have to study from it for my tests (I do not appreciate that system). In contrast, I also hate when the speaker goes on for a long time but has very few slides to present and get hooked in one for a long period of time.
One very annoying thing is when you can't even see what is on the screen because the font is very small.
One of the most boring PowerPoint presentations I have had to sit through was an Art History one where there were only like four pictures and the speaker kept talking about the same picture nonstop, there was no background, no text, no nothing. I wanted to fall asleep!!

CLT

The CLT is located in the first floor of the library. There you can find many computers, Macs and PC's. The center is divided in areas that are specialized in various things, for instance there are computers that have special softwares for adio editting, others that are in charge of graphing and many other things. Also, in the CLT you can borrow all sorts of technological equipment such as camareas, headphones, video cameras.
They also have a conference room where they can connect to any place in the world through the TV system. They can be communicated with 15 different systems of these at the same time.
This center is helpful to students that are working in projects and want or need to involve specialized technologies to their research. In my case I have used the scanners there, and they work pretty fast and really good.
The CLT is a great location on campus to learn things about softwares.

Excel

During the course I have learned many things about Excel that I did not know before. I used to have a lot of difficulties while trying to work with this program but now I have realized that it is not as bad as it seemed. I like the way it organizes everything as well as all the calculations it can do in very little time.
I also like all the fromats of style that are availabe. I think it is a great way to keep track of many things such as personal expenses. I also think that sometimes it is hard to work with because there are many things that we have to memorize in terms of functions.
However, I think it is a pretty good program.

Image Manipulation

I chose this image because I consider that the way that media changes the human figure is shocking. Images like this one are one of the main factors that cause psychological problems on people. For instance, this image can casue many people to want to change their personal appearance and this decision can take them to become anorexics. This is a CBS picture that apperared in a magazine. The picture from the left side was rejected and therefore they created the false picture you see on the rigth. The manipulation of the photo is considerable because they made the woman look many sizes below her own. I think that the purpose of manipulating photos in terms of physical appearance can best be explained by the popularity that the advertisement will have on people. If the person that they are showing looks nice and thin and pretty, the impact on the population will be higher. I consider that this manipulation is harmful because, in this case, a lot of women around the age of the lady in the picture can feel disapointed on their own image without knowing that this celebrity isn't as slim as she seems. People should now and realize that not everything the media shows us is truthful or real.

I chose this video because it shows us how all the beauty companies trick our eyes and our minds in thinking that supermodels exist. It is not true, they are all normal and average human beings that go through a process of image manipulation thanks to Photoshop. It is very shocking to see how the aspect of a person can change so dramatically. It is almost as if the after image depicts a different person.


This another video that shows a girl that is stereotyped as "ugly" and is turned into what we stereotype as "pretty". It shows again a complete different person. And it also shows the amazing changes that photoshop can do.

Internet: A threat to some lives...

The transition from a not so technological developed world to a very developed technological world was determined in great part by the creation of what we call Internet. Since its appearance, every human being became dependant on the Internet; companies began to merge into the Internet involving their clients to form part of their businesses through the Internet. With time, Internet was available not only in computers but also in many other electronic devices such as cell phones. People began to have access to it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Internet became a necessity in human beings’ lives.
What would happen if the Internet was to be removed from the world only for a day or even for a couple of hours? If this happened, the world would paralyze, people all over the world would lack communication and would be uniformed. Like everything in the world, the Internet has benefits as well as disadvantages. It can be considered as a great tool for achieving information but people must be careful while using the Internet because every person is able to upload the information they wish to share with no restrictions at all.
In the Internet, limits for achieving knowledge or information of any sort do not exist. Everything that the human mind may imagine is found in the Internet. Many people would support the idea that is great and awesome to have access to information of any type, at anytime, anywhere.
But, what would you think about the Internet if you were the parent of a psychologically damaged teenage girl who committed suicide by following instructions from a first-year medical student who posted an entry in his blog post on how to help terminal ill people to commit suicide? You would not consider the Internet as a positive influence over the world. And, would you have someone to blame for the death of your daughter?
Internet represents a great threat to every person that accesses it. For people like the girl in the case, that have mental and psychological problems, the Internet can represent death itself. This mentally ill girl decided to take away her life, and the Internet became her main ally. We must be very careful with the information we acquire from the web. As it was mentioned before, the Internet is an unrestricted and unlimited communication network where anyone can express or share anything.
Let us consider this case a little closer. If we take an ethical, bioethical, and even a legal (depending on the country) point of view, we would conclude that suicide is a crime. Bioethically, human beings do not have the right to take their lives away from themselves. An individual cannot decide whether to remain alive or not, death must come naturally. Now, if a person has a terminal illness, euthanasia may be possible under a physician’s responsibility and care, and depending on the country and state law. It is important to mention that euthanasia and suicide is not the same thing. Euthanasia “refers to the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering" and suicide “is the act of a human being intentionally causing his or her own death”.
Suicide is considered to be a crime; therefore, the teenage girl was in some part responsible for the illegal act. But curiously, assisting suicide is also a crime, and this is what the first-year medical student did by uploading information of this sort to the Internet while not being a certified physician and at the same time violating an ethical and moral code. This makes this student highly responsible for the death of this girl. And, what about the weblog content provider? He is also considered guilty by allowing this type of information in blog posts. It is true that free self-expression is a right that all individuals have in the United States, but ethics and moral occupy higher standards because the main goal of people according to bioethics is to promote and take care of humans’ lives.
It is extremely hard, if not impossible, to control the information that makes the Internet. One solution is to educate people on how to have access to appropriate and safe information in the Internet. In this case, I think that students, from the moment they enter medical school they should be obliged to follow an ethical code that if they violate it, they would no longer be able to continue with the medical career.
Parents should try to be more aware of the web pages that their children are visiting especially if their child is mentally ill. Web pages that involve threat should be blocked for at least minors.
In any case, we cannot avoid the use of Internet, but what we can do is to try to be more careful with the information we access. If we want to share something with the world through the Internet we must be conscious of the consequences that our information represents for every person in the world.


"Euthanasia." Wikipedia. N.p., 06/02/2011. Web. 11 Feb 2011. .


"Suicide." Wikipedia. N.p., 09/02/11. Web. 11 Feb 2011. .

Copyright and Create Commons

During Jason Hardin’s lecture I learend many important details about Copyright laws in the United States. What I want to talk about in this entry is about Fair Use. Fair Use allows people to take certain parts of intelectual property and use it in a good way. By good I mean that this information is not to gain profit, it is not extensive, and mainy it is educational. In order to apply a Fair Use, four factors must be considered: 1. The Purpose of the reproduction, which can be education, 2. The Nature of the reproduced work, which involves information about the property you are copying from, 3. The Amount of the reproduction, which means that you cannot copy an entire book and say it is Fair Use, if you copy a small portion of a book as a quote, then it is considered as Fair Use, and 4. The Effect on the market for the work, if you are using Fair Use, you should not be making profit for that piece of information. It is important to mention that information that comes from the government is easier to copy because they provide this information to inform people and not to make a profit.
I think that Fair Use is good for society but we must be sure that we are doing it correctly. Also, I think that Fair Use is necesary because individuals need information all the time, and cannot contact every single person form which they use information.
As a conclusion, we must be very aware of the things we do in terms of Copyright because it is someting very serious that if we do not follow the rules we can get in trouble with the law.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

My Trinity Network Diagram

The core of Trinity's network is located at the Ruth Taylor building. All the signals that are made throughout campus pass through this building and from there the signal is sent to the building where the signal is being requested from (all this through fiberoptic cables).

In every building, including dorms, there is a data closet which gathers all the signals form that one building and sends the data to Ruth Taylor. The data gets through this closet via Ethernet cables. This is why you are able to access the network form your room.

Halsell is the building that is in charge of student services. Tucc-tiger is located here (including your Y drive and your class and groups folders).

Finally, the library serves as a damage and recovery center. It backs-up information just in case Ruth Taylor turns down.

Our firewall prevents external information to access our network. This is a safty mechanism that avoid hackers and things like that.

Trinity is known for its great network system!

Trinity Mystery Spot

This is a place in campus that I do not know what it is. I am curious to know how to get inside of it. I usually see it when I am around my dorm building. It is kind of neat!
I wanted to give the photo a black and white touch but I also wanted to keep the identity of Trinity which is the wonderful brick.
This place appears to me like some sort of home and that is why I added a rooster as  well as a mushroom.
I hope someone can explain to me what this place exactly is.

Best Tech Tip

Joe Hatch came to class today and talked about a lot of important things related to our computers. What caught my attention the most was when Joe explained to us about the functioning of our computers. He said it is very important to do constant cleaning of files, programs, softwares, etc. that our computer does not need. To do this, he told us about CCleaner which is a program that cleans all the "junk" that your computer does not need. This way your computer works faster and most importantly lasts longer. Apart from cleaning your computer, CCleaner also helps you be safe, it prevents hackers from obtaining information about you because it cleans the history of your computer.

Network Server Diagram

This diagram explains how our network works. It is basically composed of three drives, one is your own personal drive called the Y drive, another one is the class drive which is used by your teachers, and finally there is a group folder where you and your professors can have access to.

Introductory Post

Hello! My name is Esther Ovadia. I was born in Mexico City, Mexico. I've lived in Mexico City my whole life and coming to college was my first opportunity to live in another country. I am a dual national which means that I have two nationalities, one is Mexican and the other is American. I am a US citizen because my mother is a US citizen and she claimed me since I was born.
I studied my whole life in a small and private hebrew school which I loved. Due to the reason I went to a hebrew school, I know how to speak that language. I am proficient in Spanish and English and I can deal with advanced conversations in Hebrew and Italian.
One of my favorite things to do was dancing ballet, which I did for 12 years, and karate which I did for 7 years ( I earned a black belt).
Coming to Trinity has been a whole new experience for me and up till now I have been liking it. I arrived here with the idea of becoming a lawyer, that is why I am planning and still considering to major in Political Science.
Now, about computers I do not know much but I am here to learn.
Well, this is just a little bit about me and I look forward to getting to know everyone!

Please feel free to email me at eovadia@trinity.edu