Powerpoint

I feel that the articles related to a good PowerPoint presentation are a great help and are very informative. I believe I have make some of the error mentioned in many of the articles and I am sure that many people of the class as well. I think that the main idea that everyone should take in mind is that PowerPoint presentations need to be simple. I think that keeping it simple is basic for a good presentation. The five guidelines I believe are the most important are the following:

1. Keep it simple
2. Concise, not too many words.
3. Matching colors throughout the presentation
4. Aesthetically pleasing
5. Good choice of pictures, not from clip art

I always find annoying the sounds and the many effects that some presentations have.

Searching on the Web

Chirs Nolan's presentation of different ways to look and search for information was interesting because he discussed and presented new and effective ways of looking through google. It was pretty amazing for me to realize that nearly 80% of the information published in the web do not appear when you look for it because of the password restrictions. Moreover, it was really interesting to find out the ranking that google uses to show what you look for. I was informed that sponsored links, and how frequent any webpage is linked to other webpages are used to rank appearances when looking for information in google.
I was pretty amazed as well to learn how to look for definitions. I had no idea that if you write a word with quotation marks then the search will take you to the direct definition of the word. As well as this, I was surprised to see that the "I'm feeling lucky" option actually takes you directly to the first option of wbsites listed for you in any search.
When I thought there could be no more advantages by using google as a searcher, I was surprised with the fact that you can look just for scholarly articles and information rather than just random articles.
Definitely google is a useful tool that has many more advantages that I was not aware of. Now I understand why google is creating such a difference in people's life that even it is starting to be used as a verb!

Copyright

After listening to the truths and facts about the copyright world I must admit that I find it extremely controversial and kind of off-dated. First of all, I was overwhelmed with the fact that there are many pieces of work that are really old, without a living author, that still cannot be used because the law prohibits it. It was more frustrating for me to hear that the copyright law says that a piece has copyright prohibition from the age of the author plus 75 years. I believe it has a sense because it gives credit to author of many piece and creations, but I believe that not everything is white or black, I consider that there are levels and there should exist some sort of exceptions and considerations. Even more, there should exist exceptions with literacy works that could be easily used for educational purposes.
I agree with the fact that certain things need to be protected for a really long time, but I think that when the time comes to change the law ( In 10 years), some ammends should definitely be taken. Specification and clarification of individual cases are necesary in my opinion.

My Experience with Microsoft Office Excel

Throughout these weeks that I have spent learning the fantastic advantages of Microsoft Excel I have discovered many tools that I am 100% sure that will be helpful for my future college life as well as for my professional life. Knowing how to sort; learning how to make graphs; correctly make graphic information; editing graphic designs; creating easier ways to calculate expenditure and income; writings formulas using average, sum, mode, median, if function, are things that are basic knowledge to be successful in any presentation I will ever face throughout my career life. Since I am a Business major, I definitely agree with the importance of excel and all its tools. One of the main reasons I was optimistic about the required computer skills classes here at Trinity was that I knew I will be able to manage programs as excel after completing the course. I know I will apply many of the things I've learned in different aspects in my life; from my statistics class to the development of presentations in my business fraternity. I am really glad I learned so many new things in excel and moreover, happy to see there were many more advantages I was unaware of!!