Joy's CS1300 blog

For future students

2008-12-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is a very useful class. Concentrating on the class, feeling free to ask questions during classes and you will learn a lot from Mrs.Belisle and Mattina!

student websites

2008-12-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

My three favorite student websites are Abigail's, Alexis' and Kathryn's websites. I love the background of Abigail's website. she must spend a lot of time to fix her background to make it continuous. she also put many her personal pictures and explanations. Alexis' website is very easy to read and background is very clean. Her pictures are all very pretty! I also love Kathryn's background in her websites and her thumbnail pictures in her Traver section.
Here is a link to my website: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jlin

Why HTML code is important for web designers?

2008-11-19T15:58:00.001-08:00

We can use Expression Web or Dreamweaver to create a website easily. However, if there are some problems with that website, it is very important for designers to understand and use HTML to fix it. For me, I feel that HTML is like the bones and organs, and the website is like a person’s appearance. When we have some healthy problems, we always need to know what happened inside our bodies. That’s way we need to understand HTML code. From HTML code, I believe that we can find out the wrong code more easily. Moreover, when we surf online, we can know how others designed their websites from checking the HTML code. If we like that website design, and we also can understand the HTML code, then we can learn and create website by ourselves.

My Favorite Presentations

2008-11-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

My first favorite presentation is Alexis’s presentation. Her presentation impressed me because she did interview some accounting students’ internship experience, so the accounting internship information that she offered to us is persuaded and useful. In her PowerPoint, she did not put many words. Instead, she put many pictures to help her explain what an accounting internship looks like. There is also a cute rocket animation, and I think that this rocket symbolized a promising future for those who participated in the accounting internship.
Another one is Abigail’s presentation. She put many pictures in her PowerPoint. During her presentation, she added music, which is really suitable to the animations she made. Moreover, I believe that everyone was impressed by her first slide, because the clouds animation is really cute and fluid. Also, each cloud also accompanies information. There is also a painting brush animation on the top. She must make much effort to make animations!
Here is my presentation:
http://www.blogger.com/www.cs.trinity.edu/jlin/Local/HTML-Documents/Presentation

search the internet

2008-11-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Yahoo is the searching engine that I usually use instead of Google, but sometimes I also use Google. However, although I have used these two searching engine for a long time, I do not know that there is an advanced searching button! Because if we did not limit the information type, it always shows more links to popular sites rather than academics sites. By limiting a search for certain information type, we can save more time to find the useful websites! Also, I learned from Mr. Nolan that from the website addresses, we can know what kind of information that the websites offer. If we only want to search global warming and we also do not want the information including hurricane information, we can type “global warming –hurricane”. In this way, we can only find the information related to global warming. Moreover, when we find the website changed some information but we want to access to the old website, we can click the “ cashed” under the websites links. I also learned that searching result from Google Scholar is higher quality journals, but it always does not offer full contents. We can only get to other different databases from the links that it offers to us. After this class, I really learned a lot convenient ways to search information!

PowerPoint Prenestations

2008-10-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

After I read the articles on the website, the first thing that surprised me is that the Serif font and Sans-Serif font are designed to be used in different purposes. From the article, Sans-Serif font is better for PowerPoint presentations. In the past, I always chose Time New Roman in my PowerPoint presentations, because I thought it was a common font. However, I tried to see the words in the Times New Roman and Arial font from the back of my room. The words in Arial font are really easier to read! Another thing I agree with is that one should never turn back on the audience and read the text from the slides. Sometimes, I do not know what the speaker is looking for, and from my experience, if the speaker keeps reading the text on the slides, we always fall sleep or start to do other things instead of concentrating on the speech. Therefore, I suggest that before we present to the class, we can practice more in front of friends to increase confidence, or make cue cards to avoid turning back to the audience. Moreover, when we explain the charts or more complicated analysis on the slides, we can only turn our head back and point the finger to the target and try to keep facing the audience.
The following are the guidelines that I think are important:
1. Avoid putting a great deal of text on slides. Every time I see text-heavy slides, I can not understand what the speaker wants to convey to us, because there are too many words on the slides. I just want to find a way to get the copy of the slides and go back to read by myself.
2. Never turn your back to the audiences. I believe that making eye contacts is important and the best way to communicate with audiences.
3. Choose appropriate word sizes. If the words are not big enough, the audiences in the back of the room may not see clearly.
4. Put pictures that are related to the topic. Sometimes the pictures are very funny and not related to the topic so we would not focus on the speech. Instead, we start to discuss the pictures.
5. Check the spelling and grammar on the slides before the presentation. I think that it is very important whether it is a formal presentation or just homework.

My experience using Excel

2008-10-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

In this class, I learned some basic and useful formula, how to make charts and conditional formatting, and make a PowerPoint presentation linking data. I am so glad that now I know how to link the data to the PowerPoint. Before I came here to study, I took a part time job in my school. I analyzed the freshman’s scores of college entrance exam, and made the charts to explain by Excel. However, because of some reasons, I always had to change the scores and made charts again and again. At that time, I did not know how to make a PowerPoint linking data, so each time I changed the scores, I made a new chart again. It was really tedious to make a new chart again and again only because there are one or two incorrect scores! However, I learned how to make a link from the original data to the PowerPoint, and today I tried to link the chart in Excel to my Word document, and it also works! Now, when I think I spent so much time to finish my part time job, I really hope that I could learn how to link data earlier! Moreover, as an Accounting student, what I learned in the class really helps me know more about how to use Excel, and I believe I will use those Excel skills I learned in my job. I also created an accounting book on my own computer to record the everyday expenses. It is really useful!

the digitally altered photos

2008-10-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

I chose the O.J Simpson pictures. His mug shot showed on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine but we can tell there is a big difference. Time magazine digitally altered his shot to appear darker. However, Newsweek put his original photo, which was correctly color balanced. I know that almost of the people think that O.J. Simpson was guilty, so maybe the person who digitally altered the photo tried to convey his own feelings.
Moreover, the doctored mug shot obviously gave readers negative connotations, and affect their views on this event. In my opinion, whether J.O. Simpson really committed a crime or not, I feel that O.J. Simpson’s digitally altered mug shot was harmful to the way that readers looked at this big crime, because this mug shot made O.J. Simpson appear menacing and darker, which pushed the readers to believe that he was guilty. I think that manipulating photos is a process to make the object more interesting or look prettier. Therefore, to some extend, I do not support to manipulate the photos on some serious topics.

the AT&T Center for Learning&Technology

2008-10-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

The AT&T Center is an amazing place. The first place I saw was the studio @ CLT. They offer computers which have various software for web design, graphics, and multimedia projects. The computers can also connect to the network, so for example, students can modify the pictures or combine the video clips from the web by using the different kinds of editing software. Second, there is a media presentation room, which is equipped with a presenter’s computer, DVD player, and a projection screen. I went to this room for one time because my friend needed to see a Chinese movie of her Chinese seminar class. There is only one DVD of this movie available in the library so the teacher ask the staff in studio @ CLT play this movie at certain times in this room, so the students solve the problem that someone may keep the DVD for a long time. Also, this room is also used to practice presentation, but the only thing is to check the time slots schedule on the outside wall of this room. Moreover, the place control the TigerTV is also here. Some TigerTV channels can be viewed on computer, for instance, some professors may give students homework related to the TigerTV shows, and then the professors will ask the staff who control the TigerTV channel to provide certain shows on computer. Also, there is also a room where students can record their presentations, but they have to get the permission from their professors.
As to how I might use these resources in my classes, I think I will come here with my ISO (international student orientation) class team members. Because we have a culture shock presentation, we can go to the studio @ CLT to download something we need and edit the videos we record, and then we can practice the presentation in the media presentation room. I feel that the resources here are really convenient. If we incorporate the resources efficiently and appropriately, we can complete a great project.

Copyright

2008-10-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

I have studied at Trinity for more than a month, and I noticed that the people here put much importance on copyright. In my country, we also talk about the copyright, but the schools did not give much information to students. Therefore, before I came here at Trinity, I did not know the copyright very much.
One thing surprised me is that the copyright starts from 1790, and the work can be protected by the copyright for the author’s life plus 70 years, or the date of publication plus 95 years. Moreover, I also learned that because of the Sonny Bono Act, the term of copyright extend for additional 20 years. I totally agree that this Act extended the term, because from the point of the businesses and consumers, businesses can make more profits and consumers can get high-quality products instead of many fake products, and for the creators, it Is great that they definitely can keep their ownership on it for a long time. And another one interested me is that the copyright notice. I saw this notice many times, but I do not know now it is optional for the copyright. After this class, I understand that once you put your work on a tangible fixed form, then the copyright takes in effect.
During this class, I really learned a lot. I am glad that now I have more knowledge about copyright than before.

Trinity’s wireless network

2008-09-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

When I was in Taiwan, I seldom carry the laptop with me at the campus, because one reason is that some places in the campus do not have wireless network, and another reason is that we always use the computers with the cables. We do not take the notes by the computer very often, and my school in Taiwan is not as big as Trinity, so we can go back to our rooms to use computers more easily. That is why it is not very popular to carry a laptop with you all the time in my campus. At Trinity, when I use the computer in the room, I always plug in it. If I go to friends’ rooms to do homework, my computer will connect to the Trinity’s wireless network automatically. Then, Cisco Clean Access will pop up. Filling it out and connect to the TUGuest . I feel that Trinity's wireless network is really convenient! There is a website about the wireless network and security: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/53934.html?wlc=1221625433

About me

2008-08-28T21:45:00.001-07:00

Hi, My name is Joy, and Chinese name is Jia-Yu Lin. I am an exchange student from Taiwan. Here is Taiwan: http://maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&hl=zh-TW&geocode=&q=Taiwan&ie=UTF8&z=7

My major is Accounting. Apart from academic studies, I like sketching and dancing with my friends, but I am not a professional, so each work take me a long time to complete. The picture below is my favorite one of my works.

On the other hand, I have participated in dancing club in my school. I like dancing with friends rather than solo, so please do not ask me to solo…

I have taken a computer class in my college, but unfortunately I cannot understand! Because I am really not good at computer program. I hope to learn how to better use the spreadsheets and Microsoft, and that is why I am here.

In Asian countries, residential area and downtown are mixed together, so it is very convenient! But makes some noise…The picture below is one street in Taipei.

At Trinity, the scenery is beautiful and people here are very friendly! I can always meet students from different countries, but Taiwan is too small- almost my friends are Taiwanese! Now I try my best to get used to the food here…Although Mabee Hall offers some Chinese food, it actually tastes not like Chinese food. But I like the French Fries here! In a word, I still love Trinity!

If you are interested in Chinese culture, or just want to know a little about me, feel free to contact me !!! : jlin@trinity.edu