Advice

To those who are taking CS 1300

GO TO ALL THE CLASSES!!!!! DON'T SKIP. You really do learn a lot and each class builds upon each other so it's important to go to each one, even if it is 8:30 AM. Also have fun and be creative on your projects and if you want to do something unique, ask and Professor Belisle and Brittany will help you.

My Favorite Websites

I really liked Tess Oliver's website. I'm a huge fan of fashion and she had some brands and designers that I really like also such as Anthropologie and Betsey Johnson. I especially liked her hot off the runway page. Luke Tibbits' website is my second favorite page because I love Zombieland. His website is entertaining and well organized. Lastly, I liked Jenna's website. Her artwork is amazing and her site is simple and clean.
Overall I think everyone did a great job on their websites and put a lot of thought into them.

Websites

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

Making this website was a challenge and definitely more time consuming than I imagined! I ended up using Expression Web which made a lot of things easier for me. I am most proud of my home page. The picture above is a sample of it. My homepage took me the longest to make but it's the coolest page out of them all. On my homepage I created GIFs so that the pictures would change and be more entertaining. The only change I would make is to my album art page. I would like to have made it into a gallery but I didn't have the time to mess with other programs and software to create it. I suppose the biggest technical challenge for me was getting my pictures to stay. Sometimes they would disappear from my page and I wasn't sure why. The biggest design problem was getting all the pictures to align nicely. I'll be showing this site to all my friends and anyone else I think would like to see it. If any classes or projects call for a website now I know how to make one and will!

Larry Hechlar

On Thursday Mr. Hechlar came in and talked to us about computer software. During his talk I learned many interesting things. An important point that he made was to back up our data. You never know when an accident can happen and you can lose important information on your computer. Another point he made is that no amount of memory is ever enough. The more memory you have the faster your computer is and the more you can do on your computer simultaneously. A place that can provide you with memory at a good price is  www.crucial.com. Just input your computer model and it will find a compatible memory for your computer or laptop. The most interesting thing that I learned is that you should run your battery down on your laptop before recharging it or the battery life will become shorter due to the memory effect. An important tip is to never use cleaners with ammonia, alcohol, or acetone on your computer screens. This will cause your screen to lose the special film on it.

Fake Photos

"The rise of digital photography has made photo fakery much easier"

The picture chosen is known as the "Falling Soldier". This photo was taken by war photographer Robert Capa. It is being debated whether the photo was taken in the location that it claims to be in. The photograph of the soldier could have been falsely placed in another environment for the purpose of creating emotions of some sort. It could be harmful in that it will case people to believe falsely about the story it was used in. My article explores the interesting aspect of recognizing false photographs. Hany Farid is a computer scientist pioneering in the world of digital forensics. He has created a program that works to recognize if a photo has been altered or not. Farid's program detects the disturbances that are made in the photograph's pixels. Farid's program is continuing to find ways to detect forgeries within a photograph, the program can currently detect 10 signs of false photography. His skill and program are already in great demand, he has already helped people find the truth in their photos. For example, with this photo he could help determine whether this image was taken in the place that it claims to be. Another example of this is a scientist who came to Farid with photos of findings taken from his laboratory. He was afraid that a member of the lab team may have altered them. It turns out that the photos were authentic.  I think that this is a great development but it will also mean that tools used to alter photos will also grow to become more complex and harder to detect. Though that may happen, starting now this program could help many people in proving their photos true or false.

Wickelgren, Ingrid. "TRUE LIES. (Cover story)." Current Science 92.4 (2006): 10-12. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

Underwater Fashion Photograpgy

My PowerPoint presentation was about underwater fashion photography. I chose this topic because I am interested in photography and I love fashion. The photos of Alix Malka's underwater Japanese fashion shoot in particular caught my eye. The use of shape and movement in the photographs to call attention upon the clothing was fantastic. The photos were a lot of fun to stack but I misjudged the timing on it. If I could change anything that would be the only thing. I discovered that underwater photography has gained popularity lately and that Alix Malka is quite popular in his field. His other works are also quite interesting, I like his style.

I found Hannah's PowerPoint on the Stanford Prison experiment to be very interesting and it caught my full attention throughout. I have always found psychology to be a fascinating topic. I also enjoyed Luke's presentation because he managed to turn a topic that I have never really been interested into something really entertaining and attention catching.

Chris Nolan

On Thursday, Chris Nolan came and gave us a talk about useful search techniques in order to find high-quality information. I learned a lot about Google that I was not aware of. For example, I learned how to use Google's advanced search and that was definitely a huge help for my future searches because now I know how to refine my searches by country, language and domain name. Another aspect of Google that I learned more about is Google scholar that allows you to search for better quality resources that can be used in your research. A particularly interesting point was that Google is connected to our library server so that whenever we use Google scholar we can view the full article if our online library sources carries it. I also learned that Google continuously updates their search engine techniques in order to give the users a better search experience. They base the refinement of their search engine on how many links a certain website has within other sites, but they have developed their counting system in such a way that it will not be tricked by sites created to give boosts to certain websites. I learned a lot of little search tips such as adding a plus or minus sign to search for certain words or not to include certain words. When searching for better quality information it is a good idea to look at the domain name. In the search bar adding the phrase 'site:(domain)' will allow you to directly refine your search as opposed to going to the advanced search section. Now I have a bunch of great tips for finding better research material!

PowerPoints

If you want to have a horrible powerpoint, you need to do these five things. First, it needs to be completely bland, don't have a theme; make it look as ugly and boring as possible. Second, don't use pictures or any animation at all, it would cause the audience to actually pay attention. Third, put everything you are going to say exactly the way you are going to say it on the slides, that way the audience doesn't even have to listen to you. Fourth, read everything of you slides in the most monotone voice you can muster, I'm sure the audience needs a nap. Lastly, to complete this horrible PowerPoint, you must not interact with the audience or care that they have a question.


PowerPoints are a great tool that anyone can use in order to inform groups about anything. It depends on how the presenter works with their PowerPoint. With a PowerPoint you can show a group information, ideas, plans, and examples in a way that it is easy for them to understand and see. A lot of people learn and understand things visually so a PowerPoint is a great way to communicate with them. PowerPoints are great but without the presenter and the skill in which the presenter utilizes their PowerPoint, a PowerPoint would not be as effective in communicating information.

CLT (Center of Learning and Technology)

On Thursday we went to visit the AT&T Center of Learning and Technology or CLT on the first floor of the library. I didn't even know such an amazing place existed. Robert Chapman introduced us to CLT and told us about the helpful and patient staff. CLT has software and equipment to create professional videos or photography for any project. The Center contains 14 Macs and 12 PCs, amongst these computers there is software for audio, picture, and video editing. The Center also contains other equipment such as scanners and has video cameras for rent. There are are special sections for web and graphic design and podcasting. One of the most interesting things about the Center is that in their Video Broadcasting Center  they have video conferencing facilities that can support up to, I believe, 100 video calls in HD. Also in the Video Broadcasting Center are rooms in which students can record themselves playing instruments or whatever they need to record. This tour was a very informative one that showed me the amazing resources that are available to students. If I ever need to make a video for  any classes or edit any media I will definitely come to the CLT. With the help of the staff I can edit and create professional looking videos, recordings, and pictures to impress my teachers or friends.

Photos that lie

 Martha looks pretty fantastic after jail doesn't she? Too bad that's not her actual body. In fact, her body belongs to a model. I chose this picture because this is something that happens a lot in this industry and it creates self-image problems with women everywhere. Not surprisingly, other magazines besides Newsweek (featured) such as Texas Monthly have also used photographs that feature different heads and different bodies. An example of this is their use of a model's body and previous governor Ann Richards. There must be various reasons as to why magazines choose to do this, but for the Newsweek cover it may be to create a cover they think will capture a readers attention and reflect their story. I think that this is a mockery of women and their bodies. They are no longer respected and no longer own their body in the eyes of the editors. 

Check out this video from YouTube.



I chose this video because after watching it it struck me as incredibly true. Our image of beautiful women has become so distorted and men's expectations has become distorted too. This can cause women and girls to yearn to be as beautiful as the photoshopped photos and create problems with their self esteem. This can be dangerous and harmful to women because they may try to undergo dangerous procedures in order to achieve this beauty.

Excel

Before this class, I have never even used Excel so everything that we learned in class was new to me. After doing so many Excel projects I think that I have many of the basics down so that if I ever need to do a spreadsheet for a class I think that I would be able to handle it. Learning to use excel will definitely be beneficial to my classes because you never what classes will want you to use Excel. I could probably use it to keep track of my grades like I'm doing now for my this class. I haven't really found anything yet to dislike about this program but I do like that once you know how to use everything its easy to make a nice spreadsheet. Hopefully another one of my classes will require me to make a spreadsheet so that I can use my new knowledge. :)

Copyright

What do I know about copyright? Almost nothing at all, that was until Mr. Hardin gave us his presentation on the subject of copyright. I definitely learned a lot about the topic of copyright that I never knew before. For example, I learned that not only is copyright for our protection, but it is the government assurance that one will receive all profits and control over one’s property. In addition to this, the U.S. will protect an author’s work for his/her lifetime plus 70 years after his/her death. Another fun fact is that copyright laws date as far back 1790 and is part of our Constitution. Out of everything I learned, the topic that I found most interesting was fair use. Under title 17 we have the right to use anyone’s work-if it follows the 4 government descriptions of fair use: our purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount reproduced, and the effect our use has on the right holder’s revenue stream.

“If it’s free then I can have it.” This is a problem that has continuously been growing for some time now amongst Internet users. Movies that are in theaters can be watched from a computer; software one would usually have to buy is now available for free; there is no song one can’t find for the free. Some think that it’s ok to do all of these things, one can save one’s money and still enjoy these products so who wouldn’t do it right? Wrong. We no longer are willing to support the people behind all the products that we use and that is unfair. These people work hard and so they should be paid, no one would hand over their hard work for free would they? So be respectful and support the products that you love.

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

My Trinity Network Diagram

I decided to make a simple flow chart design for other users to easily understand the Trinity University Networking System. At the top there are two options, wireless users and users who require a cable to connect to the internet. Other than the difference in the users' choice of connection the rest of the process is the same. The connection from the users' device must go through an ethernet cable into a data closet. From the data closet, fiberoptic cables are used between buildings to lead the connection to the Ruth Taylor Center, the portal in which every action users make on the network must pass through first before it is delivered to its destination. The Halsell building contains the server Tucc-tiger, class/group folders, student Y:drives, Library resources and the Trinity University websites. In addition, the Coates Library also offers these services on the University provided computers. 

Guess Where I am!

  

Can you guess where I took this? I chose this place because it caught my eye on the way out from mass media. The colors and shapes were interesting and attractive to me. I used Picnik to make changes to my photo. I first changed the exposure and contrast to make the picture crisper. If you look closely you can see the word 'hello' with a smiley face that I added for fun. I also added music note stickers and a mustache sticker to my picture because I love music and mustaches amuse me. 

Best Tech Tip!

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to viruses or trying to clean out my computer, so Mr. Hatch's talk today was very informative. Usually when I have a problem with my computer I get my brothers to fix it for me, but thanks to Mr. Hatch's talk I can start to take care of my computer by myself. The best tip that I got out of his talk was about CClean. CClean is a program mainly used for Windows users that can clean out junk files and increase the speed of your computer. I never even knew that my computer stored everything that I did online and made a trail of my personal information. I was unaware that someone could take my personal information stored on my computer. It really scared me when I thought about it. Another thing he pointed out to me was the risks of popups that can scam or phish for my information. I own a 2010 Macbook pro and I'm still getting used to it so I haven't quite figured it all out yet, but thanks to Mr. Hatch I am now more informed of how to safely use my computer. 

Hello there!

Hi my name is Lynn Pham and I am from Rockport, Texas.  I am Vietnamese and am proud of it, but I love Korean culture.  I especially love their pop and rap music, and their fashion.  Some of my favorite bands from Korea are DBSK, Big Bang, 2PM, Epik High, MBLAQ, and SS501 just to name a few.  I also want to learn how to speak Korean and one day live there after I travel all over the world.  Besides Korean bands I also like to listen to alternative rock.  A few of my favorite bands are Secondhand Serenade, Framing Hanley and the band YouMeAtSix from England.  I want to eventually learn how to play piano, guitar, and violin.  I recently started to design some clothing and I really enjoy it. I actually designed my senior prom dress and had it made.  Besides designing I like to collect random cute objects; my favorite one right now is my banana pillow.  I like trying all kinds of foods and love to eat. One of my favorite desserts is green tea ice cream.

Right now I am a first year student and I am having an awesome first week.  During new student orientation I got to see a magician and I climbed the Trinity Tower. My major is undecided right now but I want to study abroad, possibly in Korea, Australia, or Vietnam.  I also want to join a mission or volunteer group, and be a part of diversity groups.

My knowledge of the computer doesn't extend very far from the basic use of the internet or Microsoft Word. I hope that I will expand my comprehension of Microsoft, Photoshop, and any other computer skills that will help me throughout my years at Trinity.

If you would like to reach me email me at lpham@trinity.edu