Roxi's Computer Skills Blog

For New Students..

2009-04-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

This course was a very interesting one. I really enjoyed certain things that this class tought. I really liked the blog entries because I never had one before and this was a chance to have the experience of having one and keeping up with it.
I have one essential advice for incoming students: Keep up with the work.
Even if the work given can be tedious and in many cases you already know how to do it, you should still do it. It isn't a hard class but it isn't an easy A either. If you just put a bit of effort in the projects and homework assignments, Mrs. Belisle will notice that you are not slaking and she will reward you.
Good luck on this semester !

Student Websites

2009-04-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

In this class we only had a few websites presented. But the three I most liked were Jessica's, Nick's and Elena's.
Jessica's website was by far my favorite because it was very entertaining and was artistic. It was a very innovating way to present her life and especially her resume. Her resume, was by far, my favorite part because it was not conventional and it wasn't ambiguous at all.
Nick's website was also very good. The black background emphasized a lot of what the website was presenting. His navbar was very impressive it was very centralized and it had a transparent background to not overlap the black background. His themes were very interesting and I liked the fact he included one of his friends in his research section.
Elena's page was another website that was especially original. The topic that she talked about was one that I like a lot. I have seen her website even after class and I found many useful tips for my own fashion and style. There was also a lot of consistency through out the website.
You can also see my own website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rkhozein and please comment ! (here or to my email found in my website:)

Favorite PowerPoint

2009-03-30T20:28:00.001-07:00

The two blogs I liked the most where Jessica's and Nick's. Jessica talked about her theory of the cause of the horses as a symbol in Phoenicians boats. For Jessica's blog what I mostly liked was the way she talked. The words she used were very formal and exact about the subject she was talking about. She used simple terms that people who haven't taken a mythology class could relate to. The background and other elements she used were relative and coherent with her topic. This is another presentation which I liked because the presentation did not over power the presenter. Such as using animations that weren't needed, distracting sounds or long texts.

I especially liked Nick's because of the material he covered. It was very interesting for me especially because we are studying some of these interactions in Biology. His presentation was also very simple and it concentrated more on what the presenter had to say. One of the key elements I was looking for in the PowerPoint presentations was the fact that the presentation would overshadow the presenter. This was not the case for Nick. His presentation complemented what he was saying. The colors he used were also very appropriate with the topic of his presentation.

Another aspect that these two presentations had were that they weren't as time consuming. They were had short important information and did not go into the details of their topic.

The Power of PowerPoint

2009-03-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

While reading the articles, I agreed on most of what they were saying but I had a few questions. I mainly didn't understand why the writers of the articles advise not to use animations or sounds on PowerPoint presentations. Personally, every time I am in the audience in a PowerPoint presentation and there is an animation or a sound, I wake up and pay more attention to what the person is saying.

Another aspect I didn't know that was really crucial, and in all three articles they had repeated it, was the quality of the pictures someone uses. Even though these articles were mainly talking about presentations in businesses and at a corporate level, I can tell the impact it might have to an audience, instead of using a clip art.

One thing that shocked me was the amount of information someone used in their presentations. In most of the ones I have been in and even presentations I have made, the information in the slides aren't less than six words. In one of the examples there was only a background picture and a number (72%). After reading the article, it made sense to use as little amount of information as possible in the slides and explain it better. By creating visual and vocal connections, the audience will remember what you are saying better.

This would be one of the biggest advices to give to my classmates with their PowerPoint presentation. Use more visual support because in this way the audience will remember more visually then just by using bits of information. Images stay longer in my head rather than words.

Another tip I would give to my classmates would be to use cue cards. This way you will have time to organize what you will say during the presentation and with a few words on it you will remember what comes next. You will also avoid using your PowerPoint presentation as a teleprompter.

The suggestions they made in the articles were very good ones. Especially the amount of information you put on your slides. Thinking about past PowerPoint presentations, the ones I would fall asleep in would be the ones that had 20 points in one slide. The most entertaining one I had seen was about 5 slides. Two of them had 3 bullets each and the rest were images. Your audience will pay more attention to what you are saying and not so much on what they have to read in the slide.

These were the main guidelines I thought were important. And what I really find annoying about some PowerPoint presentation is the simplicity. For example having a white background and writing in black letters. Why not a clear blue background with dark green letters? I like it better :D

Go, Excel, Go!!

2009-03-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

During these past few weeks we have been working mainly on the program: Microsoft Office Excel. Before this class I had a very good understanding of how to work in Excel. I am a big fan of this program. Even though I had some problems working with Excel I learned to work around it.

What I mainly learned from this class were different functions like the IF function. Even though I don't think I will use it any time soon, I didn't know Excel had that type of help in the functions section. Another aspect I learned was the conditional formatting. This tool really helps to visualize data you are trying to find in a large table.

Excel can become a really important program especially if you are in a class that involves stats, graphs, etc. Excel makes this hard processes of making columns or scatter plots of tables that can be 50x50 so much easier! Personally I have already worked with Excel on many of my classes, especially laboratories where most of the data needs to be visualized so that in this way better conclusions can be drawn out of the experiment.
Excel might be the most useful for businesses because you can just apply function and make cell references. When the economy changes, or when a different situation in your company occurs, you can just change one small detail on the Excel program and this will go out making a cascade of correction.

Excel is a very helpful tool for anybody and I highly recommend for anybody. You can even organize your information using the sorting button.

Thanks Excel! :)

CLT !!

2009-03-05T05:29:00.000-08:00

On our tour of the CLT room I learned many things. The first one was that is existed! The CLT room is located in the first floor of Coates Library.
This room has many sorts of resources. The most interesting resource I saw was the machine that converted old movies that came in rolls. The machines seemed very worn out, but still cool. :)
Another aspect about this room that fascinated me was the section where you can have video conferences. This is a very useful place, especially if you want to take classes with someone that is in Japan. This section was also useful for students that need to be interviewed but can’t do it personally. In the CLT, you may achieve this with the help of the kind technicians that work there.
A very helpful tool in the CLT was the fact that there were Macs as well. This could help other students that are used to Macs to keep working with them or can help other people (like me) get use to Macs.
An important part of the CLT room was the fact that they work mainly on video applications. In the CLT you can edit and burn a video you have made into a DVD. Even though I probably don’t think I will use it, this is a very important resource for college students.
I am looking forward to visit the CLT more often, especially because it is a great place to study even though you don’t need a computer.

Pictures and Videos that lie..

2009-03-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

The picture I chose to analyze is the one shown here. This picture is a single frame of the live video broadcast of CBS for New Year's Eve. I chose this picture because of the effect that the changes made to it might have had. There is a very controversial subject behind this that I will get into more detail later on in my entry.

The picture is a fragment from the New Year's Eve broadcast video in Times Square from CBS News. The picutre was subjected to a very sutile change, that at first sight you wouldn't inmediatly realize. To be honest I skimmed through all one the pictures first before reading the description, and this was one of the pictures that didn't have a major impact. But after reading the description, I still couldn't absolutly say that it looks real or not, like in other pictures. The emblem at the upper right corner of the video/single frame, was changed from the emblem of NBC to the one of the news channel that is covering the story, CBS.

In the description it states that the change was made to hide the NBC emblem that was there before. This is totally logic having known that NBC and CBS are network channels that are in a constant competition.

I personally think that the change in the emblem was harmful for the network of NBC. This is so because NBC invested greatly to have the Times Square displaying their emblem. CBS only had to cropp it off and put their emblem for much less money. NBC lost a lot of publicity because of this change, even if it is insignificant and almost unnoticable.

This shows that you can invest a lot of money into publicity and having your company's logo in the right location, or just alter a few pictures with the logo of your company and have it go around the internet having the same impact for much less investement. This really makes me wonder the inegratity of our society...

Where should I look...

2009-02-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

Today, Chris Nolan paid us a visit in our class. He mainly talked about the differences about the variety of search engines at our availability through the internet. By seeing so many of them everywhere, it's no wonder people get confused about the place where they should be looking for the information they need.

Before the class we had today, my mind could be represented as the picture shown. Nothing made sense! The only place I would look for everything was Google.

In this lecture I learned many different things, especially the difference between the search engines which categorize their information based on popularity and on scholarly sources.

Most of the search engines, that are not scholarly, are usually based on the frequency the key words you typed in appear in the page, links it has, reliability, and popularity. Another aspect that the search engines work by is the fact that they eliminate words such as: I, and, or, the, from what you type in the search bar.

I learned what makes scholarly search engines different from the normal search engines we usually use on our everyday life. But what really surprised me was the fact the one key factor of the order in which the sources are presented is the order of the words put in the search bar. I always thought that no matter what order you typed in the words, the result would be the same. Apparently it is not so.

Thanks Chris Nolan for a very informative lecture!

The right of copying... Copyright

2009-02-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

In the visit we had from Diane Graves, the University Librarian, on Tuesday, I learned different aspects about what copyright entails. From the subjects she mentioned, the fact that impressed me the most was the time spam copyright has on works. I had no idea that I wouldn’t be able to officially copy Nemo for another 89 years!!
Even so, another matter that really was contradictory in my mind was the copyright case of “Orphan works”. If there isn’t a rightful owner to claim their work, then why even bother? Any way the copyright industry might be more directed for big companies trying to protect their fixed income than on articles. But probably there is more to a copyright license than the protection of someone’s salary. Why are “Orphan works” copyrighted when there is no possibility that the author might be prejudiced by copying the work? Well, the answer to this question is to meet their objectives. One of the purposes of copyright is to promote innovation and creativity. This way other artists will find the way around their problem on their own instead of depending on someone else’s work. This is my final side on the subject because this way there will be more possibilities and “Orphan Works” can still be used abiding by the “Fair Use” Policy.

2009-01-31T08:24:00.000-08:00

Facebook is a social networking webpage, which I have to admit that I have a slight addiction to it. I check my Trinity email four or five time a day, but I first check my Facebook to see you has commented on which picture or what are the latest gossip from my old high school.

After reading the article, Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact, I realize that Facebook isn't a simple website where you can share pictures. Since I have started studying in college I have seen the impact of Facebook and how teachers and other authorities use it to their advantages. For example, when I got accepted to Trinity, I was immediately sent a friend request by the two representatives of the International Program Department. After a few days I accepted a group invitation of the ISO (International Student Orientation). I also met my roommates through Facebook and this helped me start the college experience.

The article let me recognized that Facebook is growing in the sense that it is not considered anymore just a site where you spend your extra time in. Because of the fact that employers check profiles to determine who they should hire. I have to admit when I read this I went to my Facebook and changed some personal information I had put a few months ago.

I believe that Facebook could go either way. It is a great tool to keep in touch with friends and family who are far away. Or to share stories, pictures, information, thoughts with other people. But it could also affect how you behave in the real world, and this social networking service can be a handicap for many people.

In the academicals sense, I think that it is a great place to start groups and promote true causes, because it is where the college students are. But Facebook also may distract students during class when they take their laptops.

If you use Facebook in a way that you will benefit yourself socially and academically, it can give you great advantages. The article that we read for Computer Skills portrays this idea very well and I suggest any college student to read it.

Processing the Word...

2009-01-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

After reading the chapters assigned for today, I learned much I did not know of.
I knew how to work with Microsoft Word, especially the 2003 version. Even when the 2007 version came out I had it under control, even though some commands I couldn't find.
The readings helped me to locate some of my "lost" commands. Mostly I learned a lot a didn't know of. What I mainly learned were shortcuts, like moving from word to word using the Ctrl key.
What I would like to see more in depth is the "Finding and Replacing Text" section. Before even applying to college I would see many people do this and I have found it interesting ever since.

Joe Hatch: Computer Survival Skills

2009-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Joe Hatch gave me many insights while he was telling us about the importance of the program, Cisco Clean Access. One of the main key words he said was that this program scans our computers for specific threats. I realized then that this followed the Network Protection Policy.
I also learned about Winn 103 and I am planning to visit it sometime soon to ask some questions about my computer.
Another aspect Joe Hatch mentioned was spam and everything to it. For example, what is it, how it works, where does spam start. We get spam emails usually when we subscribe to other websites, and the owners of these websites have a contract with other companies to sell our emails to them. Our emails are in the hands of this company which sends spam emails. Spam emails can contain spyware and eventually can access personal information sucha as Social Security Numbers or Credit Card information.
Personally, I learned a lot from Joe Hatch's visit and I hope to see him soon in our class again.

2009-01-15T07:30:00.000-08:00

Hey ! My name is Roxana Khozein but most of my friends call me Roxi. I am from Quito, Ecuador. I am in the pre-med tract but I haven't decided yet on my major. My father is from Iran and my mom is from Ecuador. I have two brothers, one who is older than me and the other who is younger than I am. I have two dogs, a french poodle and a golden retreiver.

One of my dreams is to travel around the world and visit memorable places. I love soccer ! I love to play it or watch it. My club team is Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito. Another passion I have is dancing, in general and coreographed. I was in a dancing group who won first place in a continental dancing competition. On my free time I like to read, listen to music and catch up with old friends. This is my first computer class I have taken since 8th grade. I know how to use some programs for example, Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel.

My favorite place in the world is my hometown, Quito. URL for Google Earth produced shot: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2717030394_4b3656c5a8.jpg?v=1217426754
You can contact me by email: rkhozein@trinity.edu