Crispin's Huang's Blog CS1300

Solid Advice

2007-11-29T15:35:00.001-08:00

Well, the semester is coming to a close, but here are some parting words and a tip to next semester's CS1300 classes: be sure to ask for clarity whenever you need - it's the age old saying of "better safe than sorry".

My Classmates' Webs

2007-11-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, my classmates have made some really good webpages! It's hard to pick, but I think my three favorites were Ryleigh's, Austin's and Mary's.

Ryleigh's webpage was easy to navigate and had a definitive color scheme. Also, she fooled me - I thought she meant to say "Anthropology", but then I clicked on the link and the guys in the computer lab made fun of me for being on a clothing website.

I was around when Austin made his webpage, and it turned out quite well. I like the "keep it simple" concept; I have been to too many websites out there that are chaotic and have too many pictures/blocks of text/animations. And, he has a picture of himself with Mickey Mouse ears, which adds a touch of informality.

Mary's webpage is definitely different from everyone else's. I like how all the colors work well - I think they're called pastel colors - and the text is easy to read. Also, the font for the masthead for the page "Mary's Interests" is very cool!

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All of the stumpers were great too. I really liked Chelsea's photo - the way it was taken makes it look very artistic and looks like a photo that someone would put in his or her living room. I also liked Madeline's photo: it offers just enough of a background to give hints as to where the photo was taken. Also, the streaming sunlight makes it look nice. Lastly, I liked Lauren's stumper! I wish there were clues because that is a really good stumper! I have some guesses as to where it is, but it'd be really ingenious if it turned out to be in the basement of one of the buildings. It's no secret that I am very bad at mystery photos.

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Stumper Photo!

2007-11-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all, can you guess where this picture was taken? It's somewhere on the Trinity University campus! I know it's kind of dark in the picture, but that should provide a hint as to where it could or couldn't be (hint: think about what place on campus has a lot of trees close to one another, and what location has a red brick wall. It's not by Murchinson!)

My Website

2007-11-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just made a new website for CS1300! It has some more information about me, my interests and friends that goes beyond what I have written here. It even has pictures! Wow!

E-mail me

Bad PowerPoint

2007-10-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~chuang/bad/Rly%20bad%20powerpiont_files/frame.htm

Everyone's blogs were very good, or very bad depending on how you look at it. It's a safer bet to say everyone completed the assignment well! If I were to choose however, I think my three favorite powerpoints were Belen's, Christian's and Ryleigh's.
Belen's was the first to present so that took some courage. The aspect of her Powerpoint that stood out the most were all the animations and moving images on one of her slides. She made her point in a very interesting way, and the way the objects in the slide moved reminded me of gears (like a person thinking, "what can I do to make this Powerpoint bad?")
Christian's was unique from the beginning because of the Wingdings font, which of course very few are familiar with. The whole presentation was very concise, except when he meant for certain slides to be slow or inefficient. He accomplished this very well.
Ryleigh's presentation contained an element of bad Powerpoints that no one else mentioned! I did not even consider how confusing it can be for an audience if the presenter utilizes facts in non sequitur! It was very original, overall.

A lot of the Powerpoints today featured the same mistakes or positives that a person can make when preparing for a presentation. In my opinion, these three are the most important in making a good Powerpoint:

1.) Text must be easily legible. If no one can read the content, then that is the worst consequence of all.
2.) Slides must include some kind of visual every once in a while. Endless numbers of slides with only hoardes of information and no graphs or backgrounds make it very difficult for the audience to keep its attention.
3.) Do not put too much information on one slide! The Powerpoint is a supplement to the speaker, not vice versa. If there is too much information, the audience may be too busy trying to read what is on the screen instead of listening.

Conversely, the three biggest mistakes you can make in my opinion are:

1.) Text meshes with background or is too light of a color. This can be very problematic.
2.) Slides only contain sentences or...
3.) Too many sentences! Too much information is not a good thing.

I am by no means, a master of Powerpoint. However, if you have any questions, please e-mail me.

Pictures and Copyright Information

2007-09-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

The image I'd like to use

It's no secret that visuals are the foundation to a solid website. They attract people's attention and they clarify the content of your web page. The safest bet would be to take pictures using your own digital camera and then cite the credentials of the image (for example, if you took a picture of a celebrity, you should include the name, location of taken photograph and date of taken photograph). However, if you're going to use an image off another site, it is good to know the three different types of situations.

1.) You may use image without citation
2.) You may use image with citation and express-written consent
3.) You may not use the image

Ways to recognize each situation:

You may use image without citation
Generally, it is a kind and courteous gesture to cite the original author of whatever piece of work you are using. However, some websites - such as Stock Exchange - explicably state that the images are "royalty-free" and can be used with a few exceptions: they cannot be used for commercial gain, they cannot be used in pornographic material etc. They are beyond the realm of reasonable so most of the time, these images are fair use. Another example of being able to use an image without citation is if it has fallen into the range of public domain; that is, the original author of the piece of work has passed away, 70 years have gone by since his/her passing, and he/she did not bequeath the copyrights to an heir.

You may use an image with citation and express-written consent:
This is probably the case with the majority of images. Many webmasters will allow you to use an image for an academic/non-profit purpose as long as you are courteous and ask first. There is a phrase "ask and you shall receive" which does this justice. Once permission is obtained, the image should be properly cited which should include at the very least, a link back to the original author's website.

You may not use the image
Some photographers and picture uploaders simply do not want their work distributed for understandable reasons. Also, it is uncommon for the author of a piece of work to remain calm if someone is using his or her work for profit. This is generally what law suits are about: if a person takes a picture off the People Magazine webpage without a proper citation, he or she will probably be brought down hard on 4 factors that will determine if it was fair use or not.

As Jason Hardin of Trinity University put it, "current copyright law states that the work of intellectual property - whether it's a poem, drawing, sound recording etc - are copyrighted and protected under US law the instant they are fixed in tangible form." As you can see, it gets pretty tricky; a common myth is that you can use any image as long as you cite the source. This is simply not the case, and in many cases, you won't be able to use the image at all. It is not uncommon for people to be sued over copyright infringements. There are many other precautions one can take as well, including paying royalties.

Do I Get a Trophy?

2007-09-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

Time Magazine has awarded the casual viewer - denoted 'you' as the Time Person of the Year for 2006. How did I react to it? Let me start off by saying that I believe the casual viewer is hardly in the same "pantheon" as Harry Truman, Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr., all previous winners of the award. I was thinking, "what could today's Facebook-obsessed, Youtube-addicted Internet Junkie have to offer in today's world?"

One TV show depicted a well-respected teacher who was disgusted with the superficiality of his students. To quote, "[Johannes] Gutenberg's generation thirsted for a new book every six months. Your generation gets a new web page every six seconds!"

Men like Winston Churchill changed the complexion of history. Men like Adolf Hitler will forever leave a legacy (not a good one mind you, but one that will be studied until the end of time). Is there anything special about a generation that does so little with so much?

But then I realized that this award is not always an honor, just as awards won by movies are not always prestigious, or even desirable. The Person of the Year award goes to the person/persons who have most shaped society, and in this regard, today's Web 2.0 generation is absolutely deserving of such merit. To segue into Web 2.0 article I read: it's no secret that firms are always looking to stay competitive and reach out to the correct demographic. Companies today are beginning to catch on. A simple search on Daily Motion (a Youtube clone) for example on a commercial for gum will yield numerous different results. Even bands are beginning to cash in and create MySpace accounts with the specific purpose of capturing a cult following. The article follows one specific example and documents the success of the company Axe. Their provocative and entertaining commercial was sent from friend to friend and posted on the internet within a short matter of time.

My thoughts on the future of Web 2.0? Anyone will tell you that trends come and go and, in very rare cases, they come back. I've seen my friends' fascination transfer somewhat from MySpace to Facebook, as teenagers are beginning to fear being left out more and more. However, the Internet is a far cry from a trend. Never before have communciation and information been so easily accessible, and today's Web 2.0 generation knows it. At the very least, I see things remaining the same. No amount of regulation can cut down on the illegal videos posted on the internet and no amount of actual socializing can replace the convenience of networking websites.

What's in a Word?

2007-09-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Word is by far the best word processor I've used. It offers a lot more flexibility than Notebook or Wordpad, even if it's not as good for HTML. I haven't used Microsoft Office in the past for things other than school assignments, primarily. At times, I would copy an image to Microsoft Word in order to enlarge it and print it at its best. Other than that, I've never used it for creating a newsletter or anything like that.

I've also never used Microsoft Office 2007 before this class. While the program is different however, I can still see a lot of familiar functions that are easy to access and use. I guess one technique I'd like work on is creating a brochure. I had at least two assignments like that in high school for History and English. Instead of what would probably be the easier method (doing it in Word), I opted to just draw and write on a sheet of computer paper. I wouldn't mind becoming more efficient at things like that.

For all those Interested...

2007-08-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

Background Information
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My name is Crispin S Huang; at this time, I'd prefer not to disclose my middle name. My birthday is November 11, 1988 but for those seeking to throw people into the fountain, consider my birthday to be on a leap year. I'm no stranger to Texas, as I used to live in Corpus Christi for 11 years. To be specific, I've lived in 6 different cities in 5 different states. I was born in Philadelphia, spent 11 years in Corpus, 1 year in Chicago, 5 years in Boston and half a summer in San Diego. While I have no favorite city, I will admit that I usually don't appreciate a city until after it is no longer accessible to me. And before it's asked, my father is not in the military.

I come from a family of five. Well, to be perfectly honest, it's a family of eight: I've had two ducks in the past and one cat now who is probably upset over not being able to use me as his scratching post back in San Diego. I have two sisters who are older than me, and my parents immigrated to the United States a good fifty or so years ago. As mentioned before, I was born here and, specifically, was raised in Corpus as a Texan. So what does this mean? GO SPURS!! Because of my time in Massachusetts, I am also a Red Sox fan, even if they almost always find a way to break your heart via curses, freak injuries, late season collapses etc. My favorite players are Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen, Brent Barry, Coco Crisp (obviously), Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez in that order.

My hobbies include the usual: playing video games, hanging out with friends, watching movies and listening to music. My favorite video games are Streets of Rage 2 (a really old school game on the Sega Genesis), MVP Baseball 2004 and PSO. Additionally, one of the benefits of moving around so much is that I have friends all over, even if none of my friends from my tenure in Corpus are currently attending Trinity.

As most people in my Computer Skills class already know, I really enjoyed and am still enjoying the comedy "Bad Santa". My other favorite movies include "The Hot Chick" with Rob Schneider, "White Chicks" with the Wayan brothers, "Troy" with Eric Bana, and some of the animated Disney movies.

While I try to expose myself to a myriad of different musical genres, I'll admit that I am most fond of rock. Most of the bands I listen to probably aren't well known. I don't generally like listing "favorite bands" but rather favorite songs, which would be "Revelation" by American Pearl, "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance and "The Bird and the Worm" by the Used.

I also really enjoy basketball and wiffleball. I don't play for any teams, rather I play for recreation, fitness and because I probably couldn't make the team if I tried out. Is there a such thing as a wiffleball team? I throw a nasty knuckleball, for all those interested.

If you've read all of this and you're still looking for my piece in the scavenger's hunt, try starting over (hint hint). My e-mail address is chuang@trinity.edu so drop me one if you feel inclined to do so.

Computer Experience?
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I always used to consider myself good with computers, but I guess this is a good chance to expand my knowledge on the topic. I began experimenting with the internet and web pages around the time I was in fifth grade, often using the rudimentary tool "friendpages.com" which comes with preset templates. I gradually advanced with Yahoo Pagebuilder, Microsoft Frontpage and finally Angelfire HTML. I also gave learning Javascript a shot, but abandoned that project in favor of gaining extra range on my three pointer.

I did take a keyboarding class at Calallen Middle School which helped to hone my typing speed which had been a work in progress since I was 5. Most of what I know about computers is via experience and browsing the internet/inspecting a computer's hardware and software. Given, I've probably forgotten most of my HTML other than "A href=" and I have little familiarity with Microsoft Excel. I do enjoy using Photoshop to put together pictures of my friends doing bizarre things though. I also make the occasional sports banner or picture that I've used to help me visualize my dream car. I have limited experience with Flash too, although I've forgotten just about all of that.

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