Advice to future students

Ms.Belisle will probably be the most patient teacher you have, so don't worry about falling behind.
In this class, I most enjoy the assignment that involved the design. In case you don't know, Ms.Belisle is an artist and has her own studio in San Antonio. She brings her artistic talent and passion into the class, and emphasizes the aesthetic aspect of the assignment.  Particularly, my favorite assignments are making postcard, manipulating the photos and creating website.

My website

You can see my website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~wlin/. It is a website about myself, that features some of my novel experiences, travel photos and foreign language experiences. ( I still have not totally finished it yet, so some parts are not yet hyperlinked. )

I mainly used Photoshop rather than Expression Web to make my website. I chose my favorite photos from Gregory Colbert as my background, and put a lot of effort on aesthetic impression. I had lots of technical problems using Expression Web, such as writing on the picture and fixing position of pictures.

I would like to use this website in the future, uploading my experiences.

Picture that Lies

 I searched four pictures using Google Image. They originate in the religious websites. I replaced Buddha's head with Jesus's and adds Buddha on the cross.The manipulation conveys the message that each of the world's religious traditions share a single, universal truth on which foundation all religious knowledge and doctrine has grown. In this picture, I particularly try to manifest their shared unconditional love and the wisdom. While my motivation  is benign, the manipulation could be offensive to some viewers if they misinterpret my motivation as the intentional blasphemy or are not interested in the perennial philosophy.

The essay I found is titled The Truth Of A Single Instant" Focusing On The Issue Of Photo Manipulation."
In this essay, it offers an example of the ethic standard of the photo manipulation.
Once, the author took a photo for a company publication, but afterwards she noticed a small but clearly visible identifying mark for a certain organization on the clothes of someone in the photos. While the organization was not objectionable, the author's group realized that featuring it in a company photo might imply that their company endorsed that particular organization — an endorsement they felt would be misleading and inappropriate. But instead of removing the mark with photoshop, the author's group decided to conduct a new shot. The reason of their act was that they thought they didn't have the right to modify the photo since the logo represented a genuine affiliation the photo subject had intended to convey.

Even though it's commonly accepted that "violating the photographer's or subject's intent" is the unethical photo manipulation, the example above shows how rigorous the ethical standard could be applied.

Even though the essay focuses on the photo manipulation, the ethical standards offered in the essay are also applicable in other image manipulation. According to its strict unethical standard, the ethic issue of my altered picture can be very ambiguous. On the one hand, the original pictures are created for the sake of their respective religious faith, but I manipulated them to create a new meaning. But on the other hand, the chosen images have no identifiable creator and, in a sense, contain no actual meaning.


Walton, Susan Balcom. "The Truth Of A Single Instant" Focusing On The Issue Of Photo Manipulation." Public Relations Tactics 14.11 (2007): 25. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 201

my favorites presentations

I was most impressed by Noah's Puppy Fashion. First of all, it was a great choice of topic! It had such a universality that easily intrigued every one. Secondly, his speech skill was impressive: calm, humorous, conversational and engaging. In PowerPoint, the pictures, musics and videos were designed in an aesthetically pleasant manner. Carefully timed animation showed his consideration of audiences' experience.
Overall, it was highly entertaining and technically excellent.  I hope his mom would like it very much.


In Haley's presentation on yoga, I could see many creative design. For example, in the Works Cited slide, the photos were arranged in a creative jigsaw pattern. Her speech was very clear and engaging. It was very nice that she let us know the yoga on campus. I would like to participate.

I was also touched by Daniel's dance presentation. The video she chose was contagious even. I could feel her dance passion.

Web search presentation

In the lecture, Chris presented how Google navigates the web, raised the problem of "filter bubble" and offered us tips on efficient search.

Google navigates the web by over two hundred factors, but most importantly, the result ranking depends on the quality of a webpage. Google decides the quality depending on the frequency that a particular page is linked to other sites.

Google, Facebook and other most popular websites conduct the personalized editing based on our browse history and many other astonishing details, such as where we sit and the computer we use. Such personalized editing is termed as "Filter bubble", which causes us to see only the things we want to see instead of what we should see objectively.

At last, he offered the tip on selecting the key words. For example, we could filter the result by adding "site: .edu" or "-site:.com", or using the word that sounds more academic-related.

Chris shared abundant information and all of them are very interesting. I was greatly benefited. Thank you Chris.

Reasons to hate PowerPoint

I had one bad experience with PowerPoint presentation in China. A distinguished astronaut visited our school and gave the lecture on the basic knowledge of astronomy. Astronomy is a topic that is very easy to evoke the interest with some fabulous pictures and interesting facts. But he designed his PowerPoint to be filled with words. The auditorium was giant and I sat at the last row, so I could see none of the words. He read through the PowerPoint with his thick Northern accent. 

The top sin of PPT is the design that is filled with words and charts. The audiences cannot decide their attention focus on the speaker or the large amount of information in PowerPoint. 

Secondly, the standard of PPT's quality depends on its use. In the case of the class presentation, the oversimplified PPT could not offer enough information that help students review. 

Thirdly, some speakers change the slides too fast and the audiences often cannot finish the reading in the slide before it is switched. 

 

Social, Legal and Ethical Issues on the Internet

While the ethics debate of image manipulation mainly centers on the technology, in this article, Suzanne fuels the debate by reminding us that the image itself is photographer's subjective depiction and manipulation of the fact. When the ethical issues reach this far, in my opinion, it seems that the motivation is the most workable measurement ethics. The following is one example in the article. "you see a vast field of beautiful red tulips, but one of the plants is dying. If you focus your camera only on the sick plant and exclude the healthy ones, you have not digitally altered the image, but you have warped the audience's perception of the scene. The resulting unretouched image is an intentionally misleading representation of the field of tulips." Even though the depiction is contrary to the fact, its ethical judgment depends on its motivation. If this photograph is taken for the artistic purpose, such rendering is deemed as okay. But if this photograph, for example, is used to put the farm in disrepute, it is certainly regarded as unethical.  Of course, the examination of motivation can be quite ambiguous in some cases. Anyway, like any other ethical issue, the ethical judgment of photo manipulation is often ambiguous, especially when we include the very act of photographing into the concern. But in any case, I think motivation is the most direct and relatively accurate way of examining the ethics.  

CLT visit

I often study in CLT, but I did not know so many resources are available:

3-D printer is mind-boggling. I would spread the word among my engineer and artist friends.

I often need to do the presentation in my club and I would like to check out the wireless microphone for my next presentation.

 the fancy presentation room are available for our use. It's a great place for group study and club meetup.

I could use scanner to digitize my notes in case of losing.

and so many more.

Photo Manipulatioin

I picked a funny photo that made me laugh: Giant whopper hopper in the back of the truck.

The original photo is probably the man being proud of his new truck, but the photographer Frank D amplified the whopper hopper and pasted it in the back of the truck.  The manipulation is for the design of the postcard.

It is not harmful. The obviously exaggerated design is the common method employed by photographer and artist to make a point, or just to make people laugh. It does not infringe anyone's right.

This video depicts the whole process of the manipulating a photo into an artful picture.  This speed art is inspired by the Cartoon film, "Up". This piece is based on the movement of the car from his home town to the another place.  The photo manipulation technology makes visible the fantastical image in mind and thus facilitates the idea sharing.
 

Excel Blog Entry

I learned IF function, absolute and relative cell, chart, how to design the calculation of balance and GPA, and numerous other skills. I am a psychology student and need to take statistic classes in coming semesters. I could imagine many functions in Excel would come into handy.  I find "sort&filter" one of the most helpful function. I no longer have to manually sort the names from A to Z. Besides, after the exercise of GPA calculation, I knew how GPA actually works.  One thing I do not like about program is that the users need to strictly follow the formula, and the emission of a comma or the addition of a space can result in the failure. For example, the failure of the long IF formula we exercised in class is probably due to such minor mistake. Maybe Excel can provide the failure shooter.

Legal and ethical issue of assisted suicde

Situation A
A first-year medical student in California whose personal blog is hosted by a large weblog content provider posts explicit directions on facilitating an assisted suicide in the interest of “serving the rights of competent, terminally ill adults.”  Is this legal? Is it ethical? A teenager in another state who is being treated for depression reads the post and succumbs to a fatal, self-administered overdose of drugs, crediting the blogger for “helping her do it right” in her last note to her family.  Who is responsible for the tragedy?  The teenager herself? The medical student? The weblog content provider for allowing the blog content to be posted? The parents for not monitoring their emotionally fragile child’s Internet access closely enough? What, if any, crime has been committed and who can and should be prosecuted?

Comments:

The assisted suicide is not legalized in California, so if the medical student is judged as "assisting", it's not impossible that he would be found guilty.  But was he really assisting? In the case of "assisted suicide", the "assist" is defined as the consensual help that one offers in response to the suicidal person's request. If the teenager asks medical student for the drug prescription and he consented, then he is assisting. We can imagine another scene; the teenager was searching the keyword "suicide drug prescription", and the blog of the medical student is the first result he saw and tried. In this sense, we can joke that the legal responsibility of the medical student depends more on his karma. This scene is of course just one of many possibilities, but the point is clear:  it is not the information-provider's fault if someone takes the information and uses it for a different purpose. It's the similar reasoning as the maker of a sword cannot be found guilty because the sword is used by someone else as a murder weapon. The medical student is protected under Free Speech Law.

The web provider cannot be blamed either, because the web provider does not hold the responsibility for the individual's act. As it is virtually impossible for parents to monitor everything of his children, parents are not to blame, either.  

It's almost impossible to tell whether medical student's act is ethical. The ethical issue of assist suicide has been hugely debated, and each side has sound reasons, so I would not elaborate on this topic. But I would suggest this medical student and people alike to take account of the potential risk and be careful with the information they provide.

Excel Linda.com

Every video is very clear, conversational, sometimes funny, and nothing is confusing.  I learned some convenient tips for pasting, knew the difference between function and formula and put in the time that changes with current time,etc.

copyright presentation

At April this year, I installed two chairs in the grassy area near the pregnant woman statue for three hours, I sat in one of them while anyone can sit opposite me, and we stare at each other's eyes in our utmost presence. This is the performance art that I made for my art design class, and  it had an unexpected and heartfelt effect on both me and my audiences.  Wait a second? what are you talking about?  Well, I know we the topic is copyright. Just like your reaction, I never associated my performance with the copyright infringement before last EIT class.

This performance art is called Artist is Present, originally performed by Marina Abramovic.  According to law, the copyright law first takes effect over an intellectual work when it is fixed in tangible medium, which pushes me to the verge of copyright infringement. But in my case, it's trick to tell whether I violated the rule or law. While it's virtually impossible to get permission from Marina Abramovic, I have two factors that may justify myself. 

The first factor is whether it's my own content. Everything becomes ambiguous and trick in the art. While the form of my performance art was inspired by and identical with that of Marina, it's largely different. Now I understand why the art professor asked me to write a paper to address differences between mine and Marina's. In that paper, I drew seven sound differences. 

The second factor is whether I am under fair use. Marina's art is a spiritual and educational work, and my intention was the personal experience, in another word, the self-education. The nature of original work and copying is far from profitable. 

Jason commended copyright as the stimulus to the intellectualism,but the confusion of whether an copy is infringement and the strict rule of infringement can prevent people from the experience and learning. For example, if I knew my performance art was on the verge of infringement beforehand, I may re-consider whether to do it and probably missed the profound experience. 

my experience of Copyright by Will Lin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

My Selfie

Using Lynda.com

I just checked out "Using a Table to organize text and graphic" in Linda.com. The voice and delivery is clear. The problem is that the speaker spends too much time in stressing one particular technique, but after all, the tutorial videos are designed step by step for the beginners; and I could always drag the progress bar to improve the efficiency.

I prefer to study as a group in the class, because the technical tutorial is often boring, yet the instructor in the class knows how to educate without losing the entertainment.

My Trinity Network Diagram

The 20 minutes tour in the control room showed us behind the taken-for-granted network service, there is a complex yet well-organized system and hard-working managers! 

NETWORK SERVER DIAGRAM

Within Trinity Network, there are many services diagrams and three of them are most commonly used by students: Y Drive, Class Drive and Group Drive.

Best Tech Tips

Mr.Ender shared his experiences on the basic tech survival tips, and those are the experience that would not be taught through the normal classes but are very helpful to our study and life.

Firstly, the download and copyright issue. China is a country that we could download as much music, books,  apps, movies as we want. This is a cultural different that would literally cost a lot if I am not careful.

Secondly, ITS center offers the free service on our laptops, and even repair the iPhone!

Thirdly, right after the class, I equipped my laptop with Microsoft, C-Cleaner that are offered and recommended.

Fourthly, he gave some many other tips. Like clean our recycling box often; recommend Ninite.com that provides the one-time download of the most common applications.

Thank you Mr.Ender!

introduction to me for Ms.Belisle's class

My Chinese name is Weiyu Lin , and go by Will for these years. I had this name in the middle school when I was first asked about my English name. It was at a time when I was fascinated about the movie The Pursuit of Happiness that Will Smith starred in it. In a instant, I replied, "I am Will; My English name is Will".  Ever since, I did not bother to change it.

Today is the second day of this semester, and I gratefully took this essential technology class, which required me and delighted me to start this blog. The first assignment is to write the self-introduction.

I am from a small town in China named Ma Wei, which literally means " the tail of the horse", because my little town is at the beginning of a river. It is located at the southeastern coast and right opposite Taiwan. (And it's not close to Canton or Hongkong at all).    How small is my town?   I could walk everywhere that I cared to go within 30 minutes.  I spend most of my childhood with my grandpa. He had the first television in his whole neighborhood thirty five years ago, which became a public cinema at that time.  Thirty five years later, his house remained, and he was gone. In 9 years' stay with him, we hardly talked, because we did not share the same language. He spoke the dialect which is totally different from the mandarin, yet transmitted enough affection from the gesture, the eyes and just the presence.

I would drag myself back from falling into too much details. Unearthing childhood memory is such a spontaneous thing to do.

So finally,  I left my tiny town at the age of 11 and lived in the dormitory in the middle school in a big city Fuzhou, before I had my own apartment at 13. At my 18th birthday, I came to United States of America.

Next question is my campus activities. I would have my own club this year: Club of Mind. It's an idea sharing program that lets students inspire each other (like TED talk).  I also did the performance art. Last semester, I did the performance art Artist is Present, by Marina Abramovic. I sat in the chair immobile for three hours while anyone can sit opposite me and look at me through the eyes.  It was life-changing.

The "secret fact" that I wrote in scavenger hunt stick note is: I am a traveler that went across China, Tibet, Nepal, U.S. and Mexico with many hitchhiking. Here is my journal that I posted in one traveling website. You may not recognize those characters, but there are photos! http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/1071811.html

My computer background  is limited to the basic use of Microsoft, the common computer usage,  and the most basic programming that I learned in high school. I did not really begin to use computer until 16 years old.


If you ever want to chat with me or subscribe to Club of Mind, you could reach me at wlin@trinity.edu.  I am tired right now and have to stop writing. I would take a little nap before the sunset comes down to San Antonio. Have a beautiful day.