Presentation Evaluation Time!

I believe my presentation was eye opening for a few people because it looked at a different culture's, Korean, TV show called RUNNING MAN. I liked how I got to show people an example of the sort of foreign TV I like to watch. The presentation could have included a lot more design elements like transitions, color, stacking pictures and the timing of the elements.

I was impressed by the Lord of the Rings game presentation and the slack-lining presentation. The lord of the rings one had the most technical design elements out of everyone and it really impressed me. I liked the slack-lining because I vaguely knew about the subject, but the video opened my eyes to how far you could take the recreation.

Overall I think everyone did a great job!

The Beauty in Culture

Photoshop...taking it a little too far, don't ya think?

I chose this picture about BP, the oil company, altering a photo to show that they were making an effort to clean up the oil spill from 2010. I chose this picture because it made me laugh. For them to have to alter a picture to show something that they should have been doing, is funny to me. The photo was a picture of two pilots in a helicopter, but it is unknown where the original picture came form. There might have been a helicopter pad next to an oil rig, but it is not confirmed.

The water in the photo where the boats are to the right changes hues and one of the boats gets cut off. There is evidence of bad cutting job on the shoulder of the right pilot, a traffic control tower is in the top left corner of the bottom picture and the pilot on the right is holding a pre-flight checklist when the picture suggests they are in the air.

The photo was manipulated to show people that BP was working to clean up the oil spill. It was harmful to their already crippling reputation because it showed that they did not care about the oil spill. Instead of actually cleaning it up, they chose to make us think they were cleaning it up.


Photoshop gone too far

I chose this video because it shows the effects of Photoshop and how far someone can take it When I first saw this video, it blew my mind. How much it can change is ridiculous and when you watch it you will see what I mean, There is so much it can change and it made me wonder if people should be allowed to take it that far.

Google

Chris Nolan’s, the Assistant University Librarian of Coates Library at Trinity University, was very informative about Google. He discussed how Google earns its money, how Google produces its results, how Google gathered their information about different sites and he provided a couple of minutes of a ted talk that discussed a filter bubble. Google started in 1998 and just recently had its 16^th birthday. Between 2004 and 2012, Google usage has increased around 40% from 42% to 87%. That means almost everyone uses Google. The company gets most of its money from selling ads to companies; at least 90% of its revenue comes from ads. Most people like Google because of the tailored to you results it produces. The search engines uses keywords, popularity, sponsored searches and many other factors to produce search results that fits your needs. The TED TALK on the “filter bubble” says that this can be a bad thing. It can keep you from seeing everything outside of your own personal internet “bubble”. I find it to be a good thing, but other people believe the opposite. Google also uses page rank algorithms to bring up the links that you most want to see and look at. We also covered the different ways to limit your search results by using things like site:edu or –site:com where one only shows results with .edu in the URL and one excludes all sites that have a URL with .com Chris Nolan also covered what makes a site credible like the author, intended audience, the regency of information and the intended purpose. This was a very informational talk and I learned a little more about Google. 

Forced through a Spyglass

After reading "True Lies" by Suzanne Salvo, I agree with her opinion that the photographer, or the person taking the picture has the power to change how other people will view the image. It is the photographer's vision we will see when he takes the picture. They decide on the angles, the lighting or any other feature that will make us see what they want us to see. We, the viewers, are at the mercy of he who takes the picture.

Salvo's example of of the field of tulips and a photographer's power to focus on the one dying tulip is also another great example of how the viewer is at the mercy of the photographer. Instead of seeing the entire field of healthy flowers, the photographer focuses on the only dying one.

My opinion is that everyone should be able to interpret the whole picture and not just what one person wants me to see.

Excel Experience

What I learned about Excel in this class that I didn't know before was how to use absolute cell reference, the two ways to time stamp the spreadsheet, the different types of spread sheets I could make and the different formulas associated with Excel. Future classes will be probably make me use the formulas more than anything, but for my real life, I would probably use the different types of spreadsheets, like the wedding planning one we were shown in class. I don't like how iffy excel can be sometimes. If I have work that needs to be done, I want the program to work with me not against me. Overall though, I believe excel is a great tool to use for both school and my personal life!

LinkedIN

I just updated my LinkedIn Account and would like to share it with you here!
Go ahead and check out some professional facts about me.

Internet Issues: Legal, Social and Ethical Op-Ed Blog Entry

Let's discuss ethical issues on the internet. Let's say that a grad student interviews for a law firm, but gets turned down. When he asks his friend who works at the firm what happened, the friend reveals from the confidential interview that the firm found a picture posted by another friend of the grad taking an illegal substance. The graduate did not even know the photo existed. So, who's to blame and is everyone's positions in this issue justified?

There are a few different aspects in this case. The college grad, let’s call him Jack, the friend at the law firm, Ben, the friend who posted the picture, Kyle and the law firm Jack and Daniels Incorporated. 
Jack who attended the interview went in believing the firm would focus on what was on his resume and his interview. However, that was not the case. There is no law that states a company cannot search potential and current employees on social media. Everyone can use the internet for their own personal reasons or for those of a company/business. The laws of the internet are new, flexible and fragile. While employees find it unfair that businesses can look into their personal lives with just a click of the mouse, who’s to stop them? Everyone has rights on the internet that no one wants to step on, so there is no reason why they cannot. There is the old fashioned way of thinking that the business world and your personal lives are completely separate, however, with the advance of technology, the line has become very blurred.

Jack underestimated the privacy of the internet, the line between his professional and personal life, and the people who post pictures of him. He might have thought that the firm would not search on Facebook for him. If he knew they would and he removed any suspicious pictures or posts, he forgot to factor in what his friends may have posted. From his point of view, this is unfair because he was unaware of the picture and the friend posted it years ago. Anything on Facebook, nowadays, stays on Facebook and the internet for years due to the new update “Timeline” if it was not taken down before the update went into place.
The friend hat told the college graduate why he did not get the job, Ben is also at fault. The interview was supposed to be confidential to prevent any lawsuits against the firm for things probably exactly like this. Ben should have never mentioned the reason behind not getting hired. Because he did tell Jack why he did not get the job, Ben has put himself in a tough situation. If Jack decides to sue the firm for a breach of privacy, Ben could get sued by the company for telling confidential information.  While Ben was being a good friend to Jack, he was being a bad employee to the company.  
The firm, Jack and Daniel’s Incorporated, wanted employees that are dedicated and won’t bring any “bad press” to the company because of their personal life. Mindflash.com claims that “45% of companies use social media sites to screen their employees”[1]. I believe that is why most businesses search you on the internet before they hire you. They want what is best for the company at all times. While it may be considered a breach of privacy, their employees make them money and bad employees that have a questionable background can decrease that amount of money. Most of what a company finds on social media is 35% negative and only 15% positive. Of that 35%, incriminating photos or information make up 53%.¹
For the friend that posted the pictures on to Facebook, Kyle, it was his right to do so. Again, everyone and anyone can post what they want, when they want. It is not the fault of Kyle. However, if Kyle did not tag Jack in the photo, then the blame does fall Kyle. This would have alerted Jack to the incriminating picture’s existence and he would have promptly asked for the photo to be taken down. If Kyle did not tag Jack in the photo, then he is partially at fault.

Everyone is a little at fault here. Jack for not checking his Facebook, Ben for telling Jack the reason for not hiring him, Jack and Daniel's firm for slightly violating his private life, and Kyle for posting the picture without tagging Jack. While Jack is in a sticky situation, his best shot would be to save money, go through all his social media and delete any and all suspicious posts, pictures or comments. This is the high road. If Jack truly feels wronged by the company, then it is up to him to decide what to do.

---

[1] "Social Screening: How Companies Are Using Social Media To Hire &Fire Employees |." Mindflash. N.p., 3 Aug. 2011. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://www.mindflash.com/blog/2011/08/social-screening-how-companies-are-using-social-media-to-hire-fire-employees/>.