James' 1300 Blog

Some Helpful Advice

2008-04-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

This class is very informative and you learn a lot about computers and different programs. I would suggest that you make every effort to attend all of the classes because if you miss an important class it may get slightly overwhelming. Other than that just have fun with the class.

Websites!

2008-04-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

My 3 favorite websites: (in no particular order)

1) Danika's website-the design is simple but very clean cut and very organized. The backgrounds seem like plain colors but really have a faint design which is a good touch. Also she lives in Winn and who doesn't like the Cheesecake Factory.

2) Ashley's website- the homepage displays the different sides of Asheley. Like many other sites her page is very organized. I enjoyed looking at the pictures that she took, they were all really good.

3) Jaclyn's website- her favorites site was very unique. When you clicked on an image a list of her favorite foods, music, and tv came up. This was really cool

You can visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~jcoon

The Importance of HTML

2008-04-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

It is key for web designers to understand and be able to use HTML. This is important for a couple of reasons. One reason is in case a problem comes up with website. The designer could look at the coding and would be able to decipher what the problem was. Even though there are programs for creating websites some problems could occur. If one does happen then the designer could just write in what is desired in HTML. Knowing and understanding html is good skill to have.

Power Point Presentations!!!

2008-04-03T09:18:00.001-07:00

So here is what I thought of the Power Point presentations:

I do not know what a single one of them looked like. I am sure they were all good and entertaining.

The reason I was not available to see the presentations is because I was at a baseball game in Seguin. For those of you who are wondering, yes, we won.

This is why I cannot comment on any presentations and the reason my blog gives the equality of a review that a gold fish could give, sorry people.

Have a nice day!!!

POWER Point

2008-03-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

Microsoft PowerPoint is known by many people, and used very frequently. While it is a useful tool and is a great way to give a presentation there are ways to make your presentation either good or bad.

Some guidelinges that will help you with a PowerPoint presentation:

1) Get the attention of you audience!
This sounds easy, and is, if you know how to do it. Create a presentation that is visually appealing but is not distracting. Make the layout look sharp and clean cut, do not have things exploding from every corner. This is a mistake made by many.

2) A lot of information is too much information!
This may sound completely ridiculous, but there is nothing more boring and not to mention deterring than staring a slide full of text right in the face. Seeing a slide full of text is intimidating, also people are there to listen to the information, not read it.

3) Include relevent pictures, sounds, or videos into your
presentation!
There must be a balance of text and animation, without any form of animation you will find your audience daydreaming right away. Balance, and relevence is the key to animations.

4) Have a theme!
This is a common mistake that people make when putting together a presentation. Some people feel that this may be boring, but the fact is that when there is a major difference from slide to slide it gets distracting.

5) Color Choice is Key!
This may be a very small part of the presentation, but it is another problem area for people. Do not forget to view your presentation yourself and look for any text that may be hard to see.

Searching

2008-03-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

Ever try searching for something, and did not get what you were looking for? I know I have. There are different techniques to narrowing your search, to find what you want.

One method to get what you are searching for is to put quotes around, this finds the exact phrase you are searching for. Also, you can search for results that have a certain ending (.com, .edu, etc.). You may also search for pages that are from another country by adding their country code in the advanced search.

These tips should help you get what you are looking for, and they can also help you make sure that the sites are credible.

Copyright

2008-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today I learned that copyright laws are very extensive. For instance, I did not know that you could not download a song from a CD that you own onto your computer, and then place it on a website that you own. I had always figured that since you had not illegally obtained the song, and that you own the CD it was alright for you to but it on your web page. Because both the CD and that website are yours it was okay to transfer the song from the CD to the site, or so I thought.

Copyright laws say that for a person to use a song that person must get permission from the musical composer as well as the sound recording owner before you place music on the internet.

At first I did not understand this and wondered what harm this would do but then I realized that if this were allowed then there would be many websites that let people listen to and download songs for free. This is like all illegal downloading theft of an owned piece of art, which music is.

I have yet to see a copyright law that is absurd, but I have not looked at all of them either. So as far as I can see copyright laws are a pretty good thing.

My Excel Experience

2008-03-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

During our work with excel I have learned many new and quite helpful skills. Probably the most time efficient thing I learned was how to pull down formulas and not have to retype them into every cell. That function would have saved me a lot of time on high school projects.

Aside from the formula functions, the new formatting functions make it easier to keep track of your information, which I have a hard time doing. The conditioned formatting helps point out key pieces of information with color, rather than having to search through the data to find the one piece you are looking for.

Another upgrade that I appreciate is the new charts and graphs. This new version of excel makes it so much easier to create graph that is nice to look and while still being very easy to produce.

I would have to say that I learned a lot from our section on excel and am happy to have learned these new skills.

Photos Tell the Truth... Or do They?

2008-02-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

The picture I chose was the one on the Wisconsin University Application cover. I chose this because it shows the level that some people are willing to drop to, only to make themselves look better.

The picture was changed when a member of Wisconsin University put a 1994 photo of a black student, Diallo Shabazz, into a 1993 shot from a football game. This was done to show the diversity of the campus.

This manipulation may not have been harmful at the time, but it is certainly unethical. This type of manipulation gives a false sense of campus atmosphere, which is a critical factor when a student is choosing which university to attend. This false representation of the school could have harmed students future based on the image on the application cover.

We Have Gone Wireless

2008-02-04T19:27:00.000-08:00

Trinity has become one of the most wireless campuses in the country, and this poses many advantages for the students there. The ability to access the internet from anywhere on campus with a laptop has created an efficient environment for students.

Some the the great advantages of having a wireless campus is that the students appreciate staying connected and being in touch with current events. At anytime a student can check their email, which allows them to be up to date with their professors. One of the most positive things that come from having a wireless campus is that a student can have a power point presentation that the professor had put on the internet infront of them during the class. This allows the student to make their own notes directly to the computer, and not have to spend a majority of their time writing notes; more time is allowed for the student to pay closer attention to the material.

My Word Experience

2008-01-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

Since I can remember I have been working with Microsoft Word. As technology has it though there are upgrades always being made. I have been working with the new Word program for nearly a year now.

There are many things that I know I have not explored yet, and would enjoy knowing how to use Word to its full potential. Lately I have been really interested in taking photos, so how to use its media capabilities to their full extent.

Blue Screen O' Death

2008-01-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

If I were to ever come into an encounter with the Blue Screen O' Death I would be upset beyond recognition. Then, I would suddenly be overcome with relief. This sudden wave of tension free emotion would hit me because I know that I have many options to escape this horrid occurrence.

Option Number 1: Use roommate's computer, while this seems to be the most accessible and convenient option there is one major concern of mine. His computer seems to be from the Stone Age, and it is a miracle that he can still do work on it. I would have to skip this option and save it for a later time.

Option Number 2: I could make the treacherous journey into my suite mate's room for access to his computer. There are a few draw backs to this option though. First of all, it is such a long journey through the bathroom, and what if they were not there? I would have wasted 15 seconds of my life. With all of this being said, I still consider this my best choice.

Option Number 3: Go to a computer lab and do the work there. The main problem with this is that the journey to this far away place that is unknown to me is light-years away. This is a last resort option, that would only be considered if a catastrophe were to occur.

Lets hope that I never encounter the Blue Screen O' Death before a deadline, I might have to exert more energy than I can afford.

Me Myself and I

2008-01-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is James Coon. I am a first year, and live in the Winn Hall. I am not from the same place that my family lives. My family, along with me, moved to Dripping Springs, TX (south of Austin) during this past summer, but like I said this is not where I am from. Technically speaking I am an "Okie" because I was born in Lawton, OK. Just a few years after the date of my birth my family moved to Huntsville, AL, where my younger sister was born. When I was at the mere age of 5 my family moved once again, this time to Seaside, CA. The reason for all of the moves is because my parents were in the army. After another 5 or 6 local moves I ended up in the middle of the city of Salinas, CA. This is where I say that I am from.

Let me tell you a few things about the city of Salinas. First of all Salinas is familiar for a couple of reasons.

1) Salinas is where the famous author John Steinbeck is from, we even have the John Steinbeck museum.

2) It is the Salad Bowl of the world. This means that we grow produce that is shipped everywhere in the world. There are bagged salads in Europe from my city.

3) This isnt really a reason why anyone would know of my city, but there is a bank robbery scene in a movie that happened in Salinas.

Those are pretty much the highlight of my city, except for the movie theater and bowling alley. If you want to do anything else you pretty much need go to Monterey, or another nearby city.

Now, a little bit about me. As I mentioned earlier, my name is James, you can call me Robert, Steve, or Matt, but odds are I will not respond, so stick with James. I am an avid sports fan. I enjoy football, basketball, and best of all BASEBALL. I am actually playing baseball for Trinity this year. One day I hope that I could be lucky enough to make it to the majors. I do have a back-up plan though, I am going to major in business and minor in psychology. One day I plan on going into marketing. I do not really have much experience with computers and there is a lot I hopefully will learn from this class.

This will be a quick section on my family. I have two sisters and no brothers. As I said earlier my younger sister was born in Alabama, and I also have an older half sister who was born in Illinois. My older sister has 4 children and I have been an uncle since the fourth grade. Both my mother and father are absolutely wonderful, and I couldn't ask anything else from them. That is my family.

I will leave you with a little bit about how I am when I am with my friends from CA. First of all, I don't believe that there could be a closer group of friends. The seven of us enjoyed just goofing off. I'm not sure how familiar any of you are with the youtube videos that are a parody of the magician David Blaine, but we have spent time replicating those. If you haven't watched them there is quite a bit of colorful language used (just a warning). We also have made a few movies about the legendary creature known as Big Foot. Just in the past year we have all picked up the fun and time consuming hobby of solving the famous Rubik's Cube. All of us are capable of completing the cube in under 2 minutes. We are now attempting the Rubik's Revenge, unfortunetly two of us have been separated from the group because of college.

If I failed to cover something just ask me (I have a facebook, but that probably isn't much of a surprise) that is the best place considering I check it frequently.

This is a picture of my house and old baseball field. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.666518,-121.66538&z=17&t=h&hl=en

OVER & OUT