I've got the PowerPoint

In analyzing the PowerPoint presentations, I was a bit picky. I was looking for good information, a well-spoken presentation, and, of course, a nice-looking slide show with appropriate pictures and animations. There were two in particular that impressed me as very well-done and complete presentations: those of Ian Smith and Chiara Ferrari. My own presentation, of course, was my very favorite.

Ian's was great in part because of his attention to detail. He found and used the exact Star Wars font and had a consistent visual theme to match. His animations were well-timed and fluid. He gave a fantastic concise summary of George Lucas' career, including the stuff that only geeks (and I) know about, such as THX 1138. Ian gave an excellent oral presentation as well, a necessary component that many unfortunately forget.

I really didn't know what to make of Chiara's presentation at first--her visuals seemed so childish. It didn't take me too long to determine that she had a consistent theme and the visuals were absolutely appropriate for her subject, which was a lot of fun. Her animations fit quite well within the overall theme, look, and feel of the slide show. The highlight, by far, was the inclusion of her own original art--that was a great touch! She also gave a lot of great information for anyone interested in drawing, and her verbal presentation was a solid asset to the presentation as a whole.

Both Ian and Chiara obviously put a lot of hard work into their projects, and the finished product in each case was a classy, interesting, enjoyable presentation. They both proved that they really know what they're doing with PowerPoint, they really knew about their chosen subject, and that they have the ability to effectively communicate--a valuable asset in many areas of life and in most fields of employment.

Search like an Egyptian

I learned quite a few things from Mr. Nolan's lecture. I knew Google was popular, but i was surprised to find out that 59.8% of all Internet searches are done on Google. I've always been a Yahoo man, myself. It was good to find out that advertising dollars do not determine which sites get highest placement on Google's search results--well, according to Google, anyway. it was very helpful to learn what a url can tell you about a site and that one can often find more specific information about a website at the bottom of the page. I particularly appreciated the detailed information about the powerful "Advanced Search" option on Google. A new piece of information for me was the difference between a directory and a search engine (while a directory is a small collection of sources gathered by a small, connected group, a search engine is a very large collection of sources gathered by thoroughly combing through a multitude of websites, computers, and servers). The web search exercises we did in class were interesting and even fun. Thank you, Mr. Nolan!

Runnin' with the Excel

Excel is really cool, and I'm not just saying that. I mean it because I am a nerd. I have had previous experience with Excel. When I was in the Air Force, I ran a clinic's budget using an Excel file that I created myself. I even made graphs and charts to give to the Officer In Charge along with a printout every month. However, that was Excel 95, I believe; roughly the equivalent of cave paintings by my fellow students' standards ("Excel 95? Didn't you have to keep that running by shoveling coal into the computer?"). Even then, I thought Excel was cool.

Now, of course, Excel 07 is the programme du jour (that means "complicated geek stuff" in French), and it's much cooler than any previous version. I am just getting to know it through this class, but I am very impressed with how intuitive it is relative to its ancestors. I knew a few formulas before, but I am now a lot more efficient with them. I can use them in conjunction with conditional cell formatting and other tools to do a lot more, which allows me to more effectively communicate a lot more. I have just created a home budget for my wife and I. We are able to keep track of bills, expenses and spending very quickly and easily, as well as quickly and easily adjust certain elements of our budget throughout the month as it becomes necessary.

Obviously, there are uses for Excel in the work place as well (besides budgeting). If I were a History professor (a future possibility), I could keep a beautiful record of my students' grades. Not only could I see instantly what had been completed and what hadn't, the effect of each grade on their overall average could be noted immediately. I could also demonstrate hypothetical scenarios to students, letting them know what they need to do to get the grade they want. I wish my professors were that cool to me...

With or Without You

I chose this pair of pictures which exhibit the amazing disappearing Leon Trotsky because of its political and historical poignancy. Trotsky was a key figure in the Russian Communist Revolution of 1917, second only to Vladimir Lenin, and founder and commander of the Red Army. In the 1920s, however, Trotsky became an outspoken opponent of Josef Stalin's increasingly bureaucratic brand of totalitarian Communism (as opposed to the less bureaucratic Marxist-Leninist brand of totalitarian Communism). He was exiled from the Soviet Union at the end of that decade, and was later assassinated by a Soviet agent in Mexico.

In the photo on the left, Trotsky is seen hobnobbing with other Soviet officials. In the picture on the right, Trotsky is not seen hobnobbing with other Soviet officials, probably because he isn't seen at all. This type of photo manipulation was an extremely common practice in Stalin's workers' paradise. When anyone crossed Stalin, they were either killed or sent to work camps/prisons known as gulags (where they died gradually by intense labor and malnutrition instead of by a bullet to the back of the head). But Stalin was a thorough man--when you were gone, you were way gone. It was as if you never existed. Stalin killed countless officials, Party members, friends, and even family members, but he didn't stop there. Anyone known to the public, especially known to have been in his good graces, was erased from photographs as well as documents, books, news archives, or anything else that mentioned them at all. His enemies were not just removed from this world, but from history altogether, especially if they were once his allies.

Of course, this manipulation is harmful. To deny any relationship with a man who was instrumental in your rise to power (ahem, Barrack Obama, ahem) is to not only dangerously distort history, but to cause a massive cognitive dissonance on the society as a whole. George Orwell brilliantly demonstrates this in 1984: the ever-present socialist regime would not only reverse its positions and claim that the current position was the position it had held all along (ahem, Barrack Obama, ahem), it would claims things that the people could plainly see were not true. Doing this repeatedly caused the aforementioned cognitive dissonance, both in 1984 and in the all-too-real Soviet Union, subjecting those trapped behind the Iron Curtain to a sort of nationwide psychological trauma by creating massive disconnect with reality.

We can CLT if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, 'cause your friends don't CLT and if they don't CLT then they're no friends of mine

There are many impressive things about this university, and the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology (CLT) is definitely one of them. Several of us got a grand tour from Greg Longoria, who himself deserves a lot of credit for being patient, informative, and extremely helpful, even though we dropped in on him unexpectedly.

The Studios at CLT are in one large, open area comprised of several different stations. Each station is comprised of a group of computers, and each station has a different focus. This is the area primarily available for student use. Here you will find the latest hardware and software. All of the computers here are equipped with the full Adobe suite for all kinds of projects. For video editing, the Apple computers are equipped with iMovie and the PCs are equipped with Sony Vega. There isn't much one couldn't do in the studios to make an impressive presentation. I could use these studios to create and/or edit a video or multimedia presentation for this or another class.

The Innovation Studio's primary function is to hold workshops for faculty, although students may sit in on these workshops. The instructor may use either Mac or PC technology (or both) to teach. Right now, most of the workshops have the purpose of instructing our Blackboard-savvy (ahem) faculty in the ways of T-Learn, a similar "core" program.

We weren't able to get a look inside the Digital Audio Lab, but I was surprised and impressed by all it had to offer. In addition to the expected sound editing equipment, the lab contains a CD player, turntables, and a keyboard, among other things. It is nearly a mini recording studio! In fact, it will be put to use this semester by Beginning Guitar students, who will actually use the Digital Audio Lab to record their musical presentations for class.

With the advent of digital technology, there is no longer really a Video Conference Center. In truth, that room's primary function is now actually storage for older equipment. That isn't to say that it's just a glorified closet. This is where professors can have videos made for classroom use. This room also serves as a studio for TigerTV. Attached is a small side room which houses the cable boxes that provide Trinity students with their beloved off-campus television programming (you know--stations people have heard of) and Ruben Rodriguez. Ruben controls Trinity from this little room like the great and powerful Oz from behind his curtain, monitoring student activity and making slight and unnoticed but powerful adjustments to the mind-control devices secretly implanted in all Trinity students (don't worry--your parents agreed to it). The primary function of the Video Conference Center is now performed by the mobile Polycom video conferencing equipment. This is a single cart with a self-contained television, speakers, and two-way video conferencing equipment. The Polycom equipment is housed in the Video Conference Center, but it is primarily used in the Media Presentation Lab, making it the primary location for video conferencing.

The Media Presentation Lab is, believe it or not, a room designed to display and evaluate media demonstrations and presentations. The presenter has at their disposal video conferencing equipment (the Polycom unit), a touch-screen monitor from which to control the presentation, a projector and screen, and speakers in each corner of the ceiling. This room and all of its equipment are available to students.

Lastly, we were shown the office of Pat Ullman. Computers are serviced in the main office. A connected room contains the servers for TriniTV, TigerTV, and MTVU, the electronic scheduling equipment for TigerTV, and even the equipment that provides online streaming video of important speeches and lectures, such as a recent speech by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

We were told more than once that the entire staff was happy to help us at any time. Ruben was helpful and informative when we all invited ourselves into his back room in the bowels of the library. I want to especially thank Greg for all his help and information.

I Can Feel It In The ©opyright, Hold On

Something I did not know before was that the RIAA, MPAA, and ESA are disproportionately interested in campus-based file sharing (whoops--maybe i should have cited that, since it is directly from Ms. Graves' presentation). I am old enough to have experienced the beginnings of widespread file sharing as an adult. I will admit to downloading songs and videos from Napster, Kazaa, and Morpheus when these sites were brand new. I honestly didn't even realize at the time that my actions were illegal. I was under the impression that as long as I just enjoyed videos of Robert Tilton accompanied by hilarious fart sounds in the comfort of my own home and only made music CDs for my wife and myself that I was not doing anything illegal, much less wrong. After all, CDs were way over-priced (they are the only technology I know of that increased in price after coming into common use) and there was usually only one good song on the whole album anyway, right? Also, where else was I going to find "Farting Preacher" and "Farting Preacher II: Fart Harder"? Then the stink started (no pun intended). The RIAA was kicking down people's doors accompanied by S.W.A.T. teams to arrest teenage girls for downloading the latest Backstreet Boys tune. Nightsticks were used on grandmothers for allowing their grandson to burn a CD of a free collection of Busta Rhymes' greatest hits on her computer. Still today (I remind you that it hasn't been that long), we read stories about huge evil organizations using Gestapo tactics to pick on people for simply downloading songs (or even for nothing at all, like the unfortunate lady in this story). After all, didn't the music industry bring this frenzy of free-(down)loading on itself? I distinctly remember my brother-in-law saying "It's more like they priced themselves out of the market" when it was suggested to him that downloading music without paying for it was stealing. "Besides," it has often been intoned, "who are we stealing from, anyway? Record companies have bazillions of dollars and the artists only get a penny for each album they sell." That's true. For all of Lars Ulrich's attacking of Napster, the artists themselves are not affected much at all, relatively speaking.

Here's the thing: none of that matters. Yes, we are charged too much for cheap technology. Yes, the RIAA and others are at times unfair and over reactive in their response to free downloading. Yes, the record companies are already swimming in golden pools filled with liquefied diamonds instead of water. The fact is, stealing is stealing. If a product is overpriced, don't buy it. You see, there's this brand-new concept called "supply and demand." I know, I know--crazy ideas from Futureland, but just try to hang in there with me. If a product is too expensive, less people will buy it--we call this a "decrease in demand." When demand goes down in relation to the supply, the price of that product will drop. This concept is the center of a little thing called "capitalism," which I think may start to catch on one day. All sarcasm aside, greed on someone else's part does not erase moral obligation on our part. It's not like the ESA is twisting its moustache while not allowing you to eat--you can live without a copy of Achy Breaky Heart. What gives an individual the right to decide at which price it becomes acceptable to swipe the product for oneself? Does the high price of gas give me the right to fill up and leave without paying? Does the high price of milk give me the right to hide my half-gallon of organic 2% in the checkout line at Target? Do ridiculous movie ticket prices justify me sneaking into Ghostbusters 3: Egan crosses over? Does a greater number of rhetorical questions make for a better argument? Anyhoo, it is important to remember that many people do make their living off of royalties, including artists and relatively unknown authors. Of course, this issue is much easier today. Most of this class was in diapers at the advent of iTunes (o.k., maybe a slight exaggeration again), but I remember thinking what a great idea it was to make electronic media available that cheap. So cheap, in fact, that no one really has an excuse to download free music anymore. Of course, there are other forms of media involved in this, but the principle is the same. I very much appreciated the example Ms. Graves gave wherein each of us put ourselves in the shoes of a producer of work whose product was stolen or otherwise used for someone else's benefit without our permission. Of course, any one of us would be angry. Some people just can't understand an issue until it is presented to them as something that affects them personally, but there is no essential difference between the person who claims your essay as his own and the student who copies and pastes paragraphs of material into his report without permission and citation. Neither is there any essential difference between the kid who sticks CDs or DVDs inside his jacket and the one who uses Kazaa at home.

Everybody Wi-Fi tonight

I honestly use the Trinity network almost entirely for homework (including this assignment). Also, I never use my computer for personal things such as email and Facebook during class--I'm far too busy taking notes! Of course, I know that the preceding will elicit one of two responses: "yeah, right," or "what a nerd!" Well, I am telling the truth, so I guess that makes me a nerd. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I have experienced the "Real World" (and employment without a college degree) for a number of years. There is simply no way I can take this opportunity for granted or not take it seriously. I am incredibly grateful that Trinity provides us with wireless internet access, and I can't imagine using it primarily as a source of entertainment.

Check out this link for an article about the growing presence of Wi-Fi on college campus and its advantages and disadvantages.