Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~kcaplan
Because it's awesome.
It was actually really exciting for me because I am, as I have previously stated, a technotard.
It was really amazing how easy it was once we got past HTML formatting and into Expressionweb and Kompozer. I actually did everything on Expressionweb, but Kompozer was easy to use too. I'm very very proud of my Rocky Horror page. It's just cute. And Rocky Horror is not usually cute... but I love my family and friends collage too. I actually wanted to do a slideshow type thing for my family and friends, and that was probably the biggest "technical problem" for me, but I thought the collage worked out well. For design I had trouble just making things look good, ya know? Like, with the tables I wanted everything to be centered but not spaced too weirdly. Meh, I think it turned out ok. I already posted the website on my mom's facebook, so who knows is going to see it! I can't imagine my needing to make another website but if I did have to, I'd know how!
Thanks Ms. Belisle

Larry Hechler

Today in class we got a lecture from Larry Hechler, the Hardware Technician Supervisor. What a knowledgeable guy! Here's some of the things we discussed
Always back up your files. you can do this onto a hard drive, thumb drive, DVD, or even the school's Y: drive, especially for assignments. You can also save things to a cloud resource, which stores stuff in cyberspace and can be accessed from anywhere. The reason for backing up files is that if a computer crashes, the likelihood is very low that you can get your "stuff" back. Also, we're already paying for it! A part of our technology fee goes to tucc-tiger and backup space.
When cleaning your computer, never use anything with alcohol, ammonium or acetone. Also never spray anything directly on the monitor. Make sure that your lap top is unplugged and off, because one drop can fry a working monitor. Instead of buying cheap stuff, mix one drop of dawn soap or whatever in 1 quart of water, and then squeeze the towel until almost completely dry before washing with it.
Computer batteries are Lithium Ion Cell batteries, which last a long time if you care for them right. Larry Hechler suggested running the battery all the way down at least once a week, and never to only let it run for 15 minutes before plugging it back in, because then your computer gains a short memory cycle.
If you have a mac, don't take it apart or it invalidates your warranty. The only thing you can do is add more memory. Everything else has to be done by a certified mac technician.
Keyboards are very fragile and they break easy
Thanks Larry Hechler for all the great information!

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

For my pic that lies, I decided to do something silly, like a giant adorable kitty attacking me and some other goofy people running away. I call this "You can run, but you can't hide!" from the giant ginger kitty. In order to accomplish this incredible realistic and awesome picture, I had to do a lot of image resizing. The tiny lady running away in the back was originally about 10 inches tall. Which in pictures is big. I also had to use lots of clone tool to get things out of my original picture. The little girl with the bubbles also presented a problem. I knew I wanted her behind me but I was part of the background picture. What I ultimately did was moved my shoulder into another layer and put that on top of her, and then smudged and clone tooled like crazy so it looks like it was still attached to me. I was amazed doing research how many iconic pictures have been altered- especially that one of Abe Lincoln. I mean, yeah he was awkwardly tall but he pulled it off! They didn't have to stick him on smelly old John Calhoun's body. From JSTOR, I found an article from the Journal of Cell Biology called "What's in a Picture: The Temptation of Image Manipulation." It never occurred to me that this would be a problem in the science world. That seems really sick and twisted if people are altering their data, because that compromises the data's reliability, and the author's integrity. 
Here's where you can find the article. I thought it was really cool
Rossner, Mike, and Kenneth M. Yamada. "What's in a Picture? The Temptation of Image Manipulation."Journal of Cell Biology 166.1 (2004): 11-15. Web. 10 Nov 2010.

Chris Nolan- Not the Batman Guy

Chris Nolan was kind enough to come and speak to us about searching effectively for things on the web. What was so exciting to me was that he had the same name as the director of Batman. In a close second was the versatility and complexity of the searches that Google allows. I always sort of thought Google was a "click and search" search engine, but never realized its capabilities for refining search, especially within an ".edu" or a specific website even, like youtube..

Power Point

Now, sometimes powerpoint presentations can be pretty much the best thing ever. I know that I would not have been able to pass biology without them. The problem is, most of the time powerpoint is horribly misused. Here are my little complaints.
1)  Don't put in snazzy music clips unless you're talking about the birth of jazz.
2) Under no circumstances does text need to swirl in, stop, turn backwards, jump up and down and turn three different colors. Make your point, do it succinctly. No fireworks.
3) Same goes for slide changes. If you want to have one of the subtle ones like this slide slides in from the left to replace the other slide, fine, but no bouncing it makes your audience's head hurt, and you lose credibility.
4) The point of powerpoint is to present an outline of your presentation, with charts and graphs. It is not supposed to be your whole conversation. A lot of the time people put so much information in their slides that their audience is overwhelmed and you override the purpose of a visual aid in the first place.
5) Finally, Presenters are often overshadowed by their powerpoints. If a presenter relies too much on their powerpoint, they lose the power of a live presentation. Be present, or just send an email.

However, if used properly, Powerpoint can be an invaluable tool. It can help you organize your thoughts and points in a presentation, present visual data like charts and graphs and if approached correctly, can turn out really good presentations that are attractive, to the point, and sure to maintain an audience's attention.

Prepare to be Amazed

So today in class we visited CLT. As I type this I am sitting in the awesome computer lab typing on a screen that is about twice as wide as my body is. I even scanned a self portrait of myself, which just might get me discovered and sent to RISD or Julliard or some fancy art school like that.

 Check out those mad artistic skills! In all seriousness, though, I'm really amazed at the amount of resources available in CLT. I'm pretty sure I knew about the video editing software, but I was shocked to learn that they have engineering and music composition software as well. I also think it's great that they make equipment available to check out. My dad has a digital video camera and a digital SLR and stuff like that, but as of right now I don't have any digital photographic devices. Furthermore, if Robert Chapman serves as an example, the staff seems really committed and I appreciate that.

Revisionist Reality

Ok, so this is just awesome. This is a hoax from a 1934 German April Fools edition of some crazy magazine, which somehow ended up traveling around the US as breaking international news. It is supposedly a new machine that ran solely on lung power, but it was always meant to be a hoax. Therefore, since it was never intended to fool the stupid Americans (Dumm Amerikaner, in German) I vote that it was in no way harmful.
However, as it was printed in 1934, I doubt it was photoshopped or otherwise digitally manipulated. Most likely they had the guy tied up by strings.


On an equally awesome note, What you can do with photoshop is amazing. I have never had a problem with altering your appearance, be it by plastic surgery or new make-up. When you can do it digitally its just even more acceptable. Check out this woman becoming 25 years younger: