Advice for the new class!

You will find this class most useful for the rest of your time at Trinity, so make sure you attend every single class!

Class Webpages

Making a website was the most fun and the most challenging out of all the activities we had to do for this class. I was really amazed at the creativity and talent of my classmates. One of the websites I liked the most was Ralph Petang's, he made a website about traveling and fine dining, both of which I enjoy very much. His choice of pictures was incredible. Another website I enjoyed looking at was Case Kay's, and what I liked the most is that it was very original and funny at the same time. Joy had to my choice the best website in the class, it looked very professional and her use of colors was very interesting.

Please visit my own website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~avargast

Advantages of HTML code

When building a webpage, you are using HTML whether you use web development software or not. All the web development tools do is create HTML code for you. These tools seem attractive because they appear to be easier than learning coding but it becomes inconvenient when dealing with complicated pages that carry a lot of information.

Here is a quote from a friend


"The problem lies in the underlying code, HTML is a language that describes information, a package like Dreamweaver knows nothing about this information or how its structured just how it is to be presented.

By writing HTML by hand you can describe the information correctly which has a number of advantages. Google will be able to read and understand far more about your site for example. If the HTML is to be used with other technologies such as PHP or a content management system, development will be far easier (and therefore cheaper)."
- David P

PowerPoint Presentations from class

Well first of all, I am very sorry that I only got to see two other presentaions other than mine. Marlies and David did a very good job with presenting their topic of interest. Both of the topics are areas of study that I am not very familiar with and it was very nice to learn a little about philosophy and chemistry.

Chris Nolan's presentation.

One of the things that I was most interested in was to learn more about google, because it seems that virtually everybody uses it and prefers it over the other search engines. Today google's search engine is used by more than 60% of the people that use the internet. How did they gain control of the market so quickly is still not very clear to me, but their model of search engine has proven to be easy and useful for the average user of the internet.
The other information that I found very interesting was the worldcat site that has recorded millions and millions of books in libraries all over the continental U.S. For the most part, I feel that I can find any book I may need in my school library but if I am ever in need of a very specialized book, I can visit worldcat and find in what library near me that book is found.

Powerpoint Advice

I felt like the articles on Powerpoint were extremely useful. Over the past four years I've made more than a dozen presentations and had to watch twice as many, whether it was in a classroom, work, or a conference I've have witnessed some very useful and well planed presentations but for the most part it has been painful to listen to someone read out loud their information. It seems that it would be easy to make a clear and simple presentation with powerpoint since it is very easy and straight forward to use, but people often feel the need to include all of their information on the slides. Here are some tips that that I learned from Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist that listens to business proposals all day and shares his insight of what works and doesn't work when trying to sell something.

a presentation should be:
1 clear
2 concise
3 precise
4 coherent
5 captivating

If you wanna check out G. kawasaki and his his advice on how to pitch a business idea using powerpoint follow the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJtK7D90XgQ

Doctored Photographs

I chose picture #7, in this photograph a british soldier seems to be looking after Iraqi refugees and asking them to take cover.

This image first appeared in April 2003 on the front page of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

A soldier was cropped and pasted in a photograph of a refugee camp.

The way I see it, this photograph was manipulated for two reasons, the first reason is that they did not have a good picture of the ally troops doing something humanitarian during the invasion. The second reason is that the photograph portrays the invading countries as the good guys and it serves as excellent PR if you are promoting the war.

The manipulation was harmful because it deceives the public of what the army is really doing in the invaded country. It is dishonest and it defends the argument that going to war was a good choice, which proves that someone is covering the truth from the public.

CLT

The Center for Learning and Technology is great place to work on special projects that require tools that are not available on regular computers on campus. The first time I went down to the CLT was my freshman year and I was working as a TA for the modern languages and literature department. One of the tasks for my job was to scan some pictures from several art books and required a scanner that was larger than the average scanner one would use at home. The people at the CLT were very helpful and gave me tips on how to do my job better and faster, they also taught me how to use a program to make slideshows that was more complex than powerpoint. The CLT is also a very useful place to make and edit digital videos, they have high end computers with large monitors and just about the latest softwares for anything you may require when designing a digital art or making a video. 

The other occasions in which I have found myself at the CLT were when I was require to watch italian Films for my italian class. they have two or three rooms which are completely equipped for watching videos in any format, well almost any format I don't remember them having blue-ray but I'm sure that by now they probably have it available.

Essays for Sale

Now it seems that there is a cheaper way for students to submit a good essay in their college application. A company called Ivy essays sells essays written by students that have been accepted to top universities. It is not a secret that the students accepted to the best universities are usually privilege and when it comes down to preparing for college they have access to the best tutors and teachers. The bill for tutoring services can get pretty expensive very quickly and a well written essay is in many occasions the factors that determines which students are best prepared for the best universities. This company is providing a service for those students that cannot afford the proper preparation for the application process, in a way it seems that they should also have the same chances to get in to college as the more privilege students do, but at the same time there is the integrity issue that defeats the purpose of trying to help when all it is doing is causing a false sense of approval and undeserved success.

"Now the application essay too, has been corrupted by the almighty dollar. Two years ago 28 year old entrepreneur Daniel kaufman launched Ivyessays. the firm sells packages of model college essays that have been written by students who have been accepted to 33 elite undergraduate institutions." (The JBHE Foundation)

Wireless Networks

Ever since I got to college I've been more and more concerned with being available online. I used to no care very much when I was in highschool and rarely checked my inbox, but now I probably check my email and facebook account at least three times a day. Since I live off campus, I don't really bring my laptop anymore and just use the local network computers, however I always carry my pda which is wi-fi enabled and constantly check the news, my email, youtube, or google whatver comes to mind. Sometimes it can be a real distraction but when I'm really busy I completely shut it off.

This is a very interesting article that intervies a CEO of a technology company and his relationship to wireless networks:
http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/symbian/rb_64.html

About me

My name is Arturo Vargas. I am from Monterrey, a small town in northeast Mexico. I was born and raised there, but spent a great deal living abroad. I went to boarding school in Ireland when I was 14 years old and then moved to Buenos Aires, where my Family was living at the time. After living in Argentina I went to another boarding school in Switzerland for my sophomore/junior year of high school. I like to play basketball with my friends and one of the things I enjoy the most is visiting friends that live in other countries. I am an economics major and I hope to get a job in some sort of financial institution when I graduate.

this is a link to my hometown: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=monterrey&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image

Computer background: I am familiar with the basic office programs such as word, power point, and excel. I have used this programs for school projects and internships.

email me at avargast@trinity.edu