Mr. Gill's Blog

You Got Skills

2008-04-30T19:54:00.001-07:00

The best piece of advice that I can give to incoming students is to try -- that is how you learn about computers. Initially you just have to sit there until you figure out what to do, I know it sounds difficult, but in a few weeks I learned how to find my way through Microsoft Office. Because computer programs have interfaces that are similar, you can apply processes that you learn in one program to another. After a while anyone can develop a "computer sense" that can guide them through new and powerful applications. Persistence pays off, you just have to try.

Some Awesome Sites

2008-04-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

I was amazed at how well everyone in the class picked up Expression Web. From looking at the many different website designs, I am encouraged to try out some different things the next time I make a site. There were three in particular that caught my attention, each of which had some design elements that I am definitely going to have to incorporate:

Brittany's site was the only one that had sound clips, a feature that distinguished hers as a fun and interactive web site. I remember searching through Expression Web to see if you could add sound, and I must have missed the option that allows you to upload audio. I will have to ask her how she did it, because there are a lot of web pages on the internet, and having a way to distinguish your site is always a good thing.

Brittni Scruggs also did an awesome job on hers. Specifically, I liked the balance between fun and work that was prevalent throughout her site. It is often difficult to portray an academic subject matter in a way that is interesting and that does not make you look like a geek. I will say, she did this well by including pictures of her family and descriptions of her interests. It induces the person visiting her site to learn more about her, which will also give them the opportunity to read about her research.

Max had a good "theme" going on, the "Houston theme". It is hard to come up with a unifying factor between school and one's hobbies, but he did so by using his home town. Max had enumerated on his resume some of the positions he has held in the city, which brings up the question of leisure. The Houston Rockets and the Houston golf course answer the question as to what a hard-working young person does with their free time in the city.

If anyone wants to see my page again, just copy this link into your browser: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~agill

You Can't Get Away From the Code

2008-04-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

You know that song "We Built This City on Rock and Roll"? Well, what if I told you that "we built this website on HTML"? It's the same principle: that no matter what, you should not forget the basic tools that you need to create something great. Those who know the code, and thus how websites are constructed, will be able to be more flexible when creating their website designs. Flexibility in computing skills is integral because computers are often unpredictable; if for some reason there is a malfunction or a complicating factor in an HTML editor, a programmer must have another way of delivering the finished product. HTML code provides a reliable way to fix and improve even the newest website creator programs, programs that will always require fine tuning so that they can function optimally. For this, it is far easier to replace segments of code manually than to scrap an entire web page because of compatibility issues or errors. Think of it as parachuting out of an airplane: you would not go without a reserve parachute would you? Well guess what -- HTML code is that reserve! It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Powerpoint Professionals

2008-04-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

There were many great presentations, I was really surprised how many people came out with some impressive stuff. A couple, however, ran away with the show. My favorites were Alisa's Pompeii presentation and Max's Supreme Court slide show -- the images that they chose were excellent. Max had the best photographs, he seemed to get all of the best pictures of those Justices into one place. I have always heard a lot about the members of the Court, but have never really been able to put a name with a face. Such a representation worked well for Max, because the pictures really spoke for themselves and so he did not have to fill up the slides with text or elaborate excessively in his speech. So content wise, Max really had the "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing working for him.

I admit, I am biased, I am a history major. So I had an instant appreciation for Alisa's slide show when I found out that it was historical in nature. Along these lines, I found the content interesting and informative -- the eruption in Pompeii is a historical record the significance of which is not widely appreciated. The background image, a painting of a violent Vesuvius, was the best background in the entire series of presentations. It gave the presentation a sense of visual context for the pictures that complimented the pictures in the show, but was not overly distracting. Well done everyone!

Some Power Points

2008-03-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

The articles definitely agree on one point: simplicity rules. Many people think that everything in their presentation must also be represented on the slides -- this is not so. I like to think that power point slides are like note cards that you prepare for a speech, basically a list of key terms and concepts that help pull you through a presentation. Your audience will appreciate not having to read extraneous details, and it will make for a more effective presentation. The most annoying presentations are those that end up looking like a children's story book, with slides that are overflowing with pictures and short sentences. By just following a few guidelines, making a presenation in power point can be easier and still really impress the audience:

1. Power Point is not a word processor -- do not write lenghty sentences. Big blocks of text are always more confounding than helpful.
2. Pick themes that match the tenor of the subject matter -- make sure that importatnt slides are not compromised by sloppy or inappropriate formatting.
3. If you are going to use pictures, pick good ones.
4. Make a manageable presentation -- the audience can only keep track of so many slides.
5. Be sure to inlcude citations as necessary in your presentations

Google is....Great!

2008-03-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Chris Nolan was good to point out that all search engines are not created equal. Using the right one can save lots of time and produce better information, and so in class we took a look at some of the best search engines currently available on the web. Truthfully, I have always been more or less apathetic when it comes to searching the web, but after his presentation I realized just how important a search engine can be. For example, I did not know that different search engines used different algorithms to find requested material. Because the programs are different, they will always come up with different search results. Even among the most similar search engines, Yahoo! and Google, there are a number of features that distinguish Google from Yahoo! that can make all the difference in a important search. Google caches more web pages than Yahoo!, and has an advanced search option that can adds a high degree of precision to any search. Given that college students often have to search for meticulous terms and hard-to-find materials, Google honestly has an edge on the competition because of its speed and accuracy.

Copy Cat

2008-03-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Today we learned about "Orphan Works", copyrighted material with one catch -- the author or owner cannot be located. It seems paradoxical that a person who went to the trouble to get their work copyrighted would not establish some sort of contact to maintain the rights on their work. Over a period of time, however, people die and businesses fail. It sounds terrible, but it happens, leaving copyrighted material that is in many respects useless because there is no owner to dictate the terms of use. To remedy this situation, some think that "orphan works" should pass into the public domain. In this way, such material would at least be able to benefit society in some way. Although this is an attractive solution, is it reasonable to assume that the author would be OK with this? A copyright is still property of the owner, and many think that giving the public access to it is a trespass on the rights of ownership.

This predicament reminds me of something that I learned in Business Law class about the abandonment of property. An owner of property, either realty or personalty, has the right to abandon their right to ownership. There are a multitude of reasons why a person would want to get rid of something, but without getting off subject, property that has been abandoned is legally up for grabs. I think that in some cases, it may be reasonable to assume or to prove that a copyright has been abandoned. In those cases, in my opinion, the material should pass into the public domain.

Evaluating Excel Experience

2008-03-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Looking back at our Excel adventure, I can confidently say that I have learned more than I thought I did. Some of the most important tools and features are also the most complicated, so I picked up some valuable skills on making charts, using functions, using spreadsheets within Word, and special formatting. In the past I struggled with making charts for some of my finance classes, and I only wish that I took this class earlier in my academic career so that I could have increased the quality of my charts and spent less time being confused. I think that for any business student, Excel skills can pay off in a big way because it has the tools not only to deliver data, but also to make it look pretty…sometimes presentation is everything. By using some of the skills that we learned in class, one can make data more meaningful by adding formatting, changing the chart layout, or using conditional formatting to emphasize certain statistics. In the future, I am sure to be an Excel user; once you experience how easy it can make life, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Now You See it ... Now You Don't

2008-02-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

I chose the last image, picture 24 (http://www.news.com/2300-1026_3-6033210-24.html?tag=ne.gall.pg), of the man who seems to be smoking a cigarette … only the cigarette has been digitally removed. This seemed like a good choice because many people today who are trying to quit smoking are “editing out” cigarettes from their lives. It seemed appropriate to me that to encourage this positive lifestyle change, images of smokers in popular media could be altered and their cigarettes removed. In the image of discussion, which appears on the cover of the children’s book “Goodnight Moon”, the original picture featured a man holding his smoke in between his fingers. The picture was manipulated by the publisher some years later, and the cigarette removed entirely.

If I had to guess, the cigarette was removed digitally, because the man’s fingers do not appear to have been effected by the editing process. If the manipulation was done in a way less precise than by a computer, I would expect the fingers that once held the cigarette to show some sort of subtle distortion in the pixilation. This said, the quality of the editing job is beautiful, and now the man appears to be merely gesturing with his arm instead of smoking. The reason for such a manipulation is obvious: to keep kids from taking up this harmful habit. Since children often mimic what they see, the removal of the cigarette can be seen as a beneficial alteration, and parents need not worry about this image any longer when their kids choose to read this book.

Wireless is Cool...for School

2008-02-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

Although the internet is a wonderfully entertaining place to be, I have found in my college career that a wireless connection is not always the best for entertainment purposes. All of the online videos, music, games, and other programs run optimally over the Ethernet cable because they require a better connection than the speed that wireless can currently offer. Accordingly, wireless internet is best for slower online applications and media, which makes it perfect for use in the classroom. I have often taken my laptop into class so that I can access blackboard materials and follow the lecture simultaneously. This has turned out to be great for me because when I do not know what the professor is talking about, I can just Google it.

Word Confusion

2008-01-29T06:16:00.000-08:00

After reading about all of the new and improved features on Office 2007, I did find that one feature, headers and footers, was a little too complicated for my taste. I liked it the way it was in Office 2003, but I guess that the technology train keeps on moving. I seem to have no choice but to embrace the change, so that will be my objective this week.

Blue Screen of Death

2008-01-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

This is really no problem. I keep my files backed up on both the Y drive and an external hard drive. So I can go the Murchison lab and work through my Y drive, or I can drive home (30 min) and take my external hard drive and work through that. I have actually done this before. It works swell!!

Who is Mr. Andrew Gill? About Me.

2008-01-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

This is Andrew Gill, a senior at Trinity University. I have just finished my finance and history degrees and have loved my time here at school. As far as university activities, I serve on TIGER Council, the Academic Honor Council, and the Student Finance Board. This means that I do not have a lot of free time, but hey, do I really have anything better to do?

I live only 30 minutes from Trinity, so I guess you could say that San Antonio is like home for me. In fact, here is a picture of my neighborhood in NE San Antonio:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.635926,-98.311342&z=17&t=h&hl=en

Accordingly, as a native San Antonian, I am a die-hard Spurs fan. I actually do better in school when the Spurs when. Crazy, I know, but I just get so excited. So excited. And then I feel motivated to do my work...

Up until a year ago my parents still had a Windows 98 Computer with a 56K internet connection. So, needless to say, until I came to Trinity I really did not know much about the internet and modern computer applications. Luckily, however, I have learned quickly -- the resources here at Trinity are so awesome, one can literally immerse themselves in computers. Since immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language, it follows that it is also a great way to learn about computers and technology. That's what I think anyway.