Webpage Assignment

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

I enjoyed this assignment, but it was definitely harder than I thought.  I didn't realize how so much as one little detail (such as changing the page properties from percent to pixel) can completely alter the website's appearance in a browser.  I tried to use Kompozer from my laptop to work on the assignment, but it was different enough from Expression Web that I had trouble with it, so I ended up downloading Expression Web from the Trinity network.  I really like my navigation bar because I think the pictures I chose make it look clean and simple, but the colors and styles work together so it looks nice. 

I would have liked to maybe add more pictures and personal touches to the website.  I really wanted to add some music and animations, but I had such a difficult time just making sure the pictures and text were set up correctly that I didn't have time to figure out how to do that.  My biggest technical challenge was getting everything to appear in the browser the way I wanted it to - I had to resize and re-center almost everything to get it right.  My biggest design challenge was trying to make sure everything appeared balanced (text vs. pics, colors, etc.).  I'll probably end up showing my site to my mom and my roommate.  Depending on the situation, I may end up making another website for another class in the future. 

Larry Hechler's Hardware Lecture

In my opinion, the most important thing that Larry Hechler shared with our class is the importance of backing up files.  He told us a few horror stories about students who had put in countless hours of work on projects that were stored on their laptops, and when their laptops crashed or were damaged, they lost all of their work.  Those stories really made me think about how valuable some files are - essays, music, pictures, etc. are all things that are difficult (if not impossible) to replace.  So I'll definitely be backing up my files from now on... He also shared some useful computer cleaning tips.  For example, you should never use any kind of cleaner with alcohol, acetone, or ammonia in it.  It may seem like common sense to more tech-savvy people, but I've definitely been guilty of wiping my laptop down with Lysol wipes to kill germs.  He suggested that we use a rag moistened with water and a mild detergent for cleaning off our computers.  Good to know.  Also, while he was telling us the stories about students who had not backed up their files, he mentioned that Dell is the only brand that offers complete care on laptops - that includes up to four years of protection that includes free repair/replacement if something happens to it.  After that lecture, I'm definitely thinking that my next laptop will be a Dell (and that I will be consistently backing up my files from now on!).

Pictures That Lie

I chose to do this picture because I find it amusing that the majority of Trinity students don't consider it "weird" when strange things happen on campus.  For example, the other day I saw a random guy just scale a tree outside of Murchison.  He just ran right up the trunk! Nobody stared at him or looked confused.  It's Trinity. Everyone is involved in their own schedules.  Anyway, I find it amusing. So I found a picture of the fountain that I had taken last summer and found a picture of a zebra off of the stock exchange website.  I placed the zebra in front of the fountain because I thought it would be hilarious for a student to walk by something like that and continue on with his or her business.  I don't believe that this manipulation was harmful because there isn't an agenda behind it.  The pictures on the photo fakery website were manipulated to look either better or worse to the public (depending on the situation).  If the photographer wants to make a political statement, the photograph will most likely look more dramatic and/or tragic, and if someone wants to make a person "look better" to a particular audience, the photo will be edited so that the subject appears "more attractive."

The article that I found was not related to the ethics of photo manipulation, but rather detecting the fraudulent image itself (although it is clear in the article that the author feels it is wrong to submit fake images as real news stories).  The author says that the biggest giveaways for detecting fraudulent images are inconsistencies in light (especially reflected off of people's eyes) and sloppy copy/paste jobs.  I thought that the article was interesting because generally, nobody discusses how the fake images are discovered; people hone in on the scandal of the pictures after they are exposed.  Using this article, I'm more aware of the image manipulations lurking out there... and a little more self conscious about the quality of my own manipulated picture!

Farid, Hany. "Digital Image Forensics." Scientific American 298.6 (2008): 66-71. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

In-Class Powerpoint Presentation

My powerpoint presentation was on the Blood-Brain Barrier.  I had a bit of a difficult time narrowing down my topic - my major is neuroscience, which is technically a branch of biology, but since it's an interdisciplinary major, it's formed by the overlap of biology, psychology, chemistry, and medicine.  I liked the topic of the Blood-Brain Barrier, personally, and I hope that the class found it at least somewhat interesting, but I understand that some people may not be as interested in science as I am.  But I guess if I had to change something, I would add more information and fun pictures and try to rely less on verbally addressing the audience (which didn't work out as well as I wanted it to because I was sick).  I was also concerned about the length of my presentation, because it seemed a lot shorter than everyone else's, but upon further consideration, I think I kept it in the 2-3 minute range, which was what was required.  So I would keep it about the same length (maybe a little longer) and add more visuals and effects.

Unfortunately, I missed the second day of presentations, but out of the presentations that I did see, I was very impressed by Langston's Tectonic Plate Boundaries presentation and Kayvon's Multi-Lingual Doctor Presentation.  For Langston's, I really enjoyed the animations; I thought those were very effective, especially for his topic.  He seemed very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic, so it was interesting to watch.  Kayvon's presentation was definitely emotionally appealing.  I am also a pre-med student, so I was automatically interested, but the images and videos he used were designed to grab the audience's emotions and make them care about what was going on in the world in regards to tropical diseases.  Even though both presentations were drastically different in subject matter, design, and presentation, I thought they were quite effective and well-executed.

Chris Nolan Lecture

I thought that Chris Nolan's lecture was pretty interesting.  I didn't know how Google "worked," exactly.  Apparently it makes all of its money from the ads on the side of the page. Talk about the power of advertising... I also thought it was interesting how many people choose Google as their web browser - I just use Google because it's turned into a habit... I never really thought about using other web browsers.  Chris Nolan also talked about sources, and what to think about when you're selecting one.  ".com" sites are business sites for profit, which means they are literally trying to sell you something... So they might not be the most reliable sources.  ".org" sites are non-profit organizations, so even though they don't make money, they may be trying to sell you an idea.  And ".edu" sites are usually reserved for higher education, which means they're probably the most reliable.