Pictures That Lie

I chose the picture of the mythical jackalope. I had never heard of this fictitious animal, and at first thought it was real when I saw this photo! The picture originated from a Colorado postcard. Antlers were added to a photo of a rabbit to achieve this effect. It was manipulated in order to "create" a new species of animal. This manipulation is not harmful as long as the viewer knows there is no such animal as a jackalope, and that the picture has been altered.

Center for Learning and Technology

On Thursday, our computer class visited the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology. We were given a tour, and learned about many of the aspects of the center that we could use for our courses and personal projects. I thought it would be very helpful to use the Studios to learn how to use a Macintosh computer, as I only know how to work a Windows. Additionally, I realized I could use the photo-editing software for class projects and my own projects. Finally, I thought it was beneficial to learn that the Media Presentation Lab could be used to view and critique projects. I could use this in a lot of my classes if I had presentations to do. Overall, the tour on Thursday was extremely helpful, and helped me become familiar with a part of the library I did not know very well.

Copyright Laws

On Thursday in computer class, we were visited by Jason Hardin, the Manager of Access Services at Trinity University. Mr. Hardin talked about copyrighting and file sharing on a college campus. One of the issues which Mr. Hardin discussed was whether or not copyright laws stifled or encouraged creativity.
Copyright laws encourage creativity by guaranteeing security to an individual when they come up with something new. One does not have to worry about sharing their ideas, as they are protected by government recognition. This makes people more likely to share their new ideas because they will not be stolen. Others can then benefit from the newly introduced ideas and come up with their own original thoughts.
Some might argue that copyright laws are stifling, and make people nervous that they might "get in trouble" if their idea is too close to someone else's. Though this might discourage people from sharing their ideas, I think overall copyright laws are beneficial and necessary. Without them, no one would be able to be responsible for or in control of their ideas.

Copyright Laws by Abby Talley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at abbytalley.blogspot.com.

My Trinity Network Diagram

This Tuesday, our CSCI 1300 Class went for a tour of the Trinity Server Room. The tour was very interesting and informative. Above is the diagram I created to illustrate the Trinity Server, and how information is passed to and from various locations on and off campus.

Top Tech Tip

Mr. Hatch's lecture was extremely informative, and taught me many new features and safety precautions for my computer. I thought the best tip that he gave was downloading ccleaner. This program sounded very interesting and useful. I looked the product up after class and found that it not only clears the History and Recycle Bin of a computer, but also cookies, unused programs, and temporary files. I will definitely use ccleaner, as it allows a computer to operate faster.

Introduction

My name is Abigail Talley, but I prefer to be called "Abby." I am from San Antonio, Texas, and have one sibling, an older sister named Samantha. I also have a 13-year-old dachshund named Gretchen, who is a vital part of our family. Gretchen might be the only dachshund in the world who not only gets a daily walk, but also a daily ride in the car!
When I am not acting as my dog's chaffeur, I enjoy acting, dancing, shopping, and watching horror movies. I attended ballet classes for thirteen years, and was a cheerleader for two years. Additionally, I have learned to play the violin, guitar, and piano (though not particularly well.) I also love to do volunteer work. My three favorite volunteer experiences so far have been working in the Recovery room of a hospital, walking dogs for the Humane Society, and mentoring.
Though I love horror movies, I can not stand to watch any that involve clowns. My secret fact is that my biggest fear is clowns. I think this might be due to the fact that I watched the movie "It" at a very young age.
I do not possess any particulary special computer skills, but I have become comfortable with making graphs in Excel, and with Microsoft Word. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about these and other programs during the course!
Abigail.Talley@trinity.edu