Excel and the "Real World"

I have used Excel before and considered myself to be somewhat less-than-proficient when it came to organizing and calculating. I am a biology major and it is definitely a critical element in lab work; therefore, I am actually really excited to learn how to maneuver around the program. Excel is clearly a handy tool in not only sorting data, but calculating and creating charts and graphs. These are all really important for research and I know that understanding the different aspects of the program will definitely help me in the future!

Copyright and Creative Commons

Copyright is a permanently fixed original work in a “tangible” form.  This means that the “owner” of the work is solely authorized to their intellectual property and is completely responsible for the distribution and use of that property.  Copyright, included in the original draft of the US Constitution in 1790, was considered a very important issue to the founding fathers.  The fathers understood that when artists, scientists, creators and thinkers are assured that they will benefit from the fruit of their labor then the society will much more rapidly benefit from new ideas.  Currently, much debate has risen in the music industry in regards to sales versus illegal downloading.  Legally, artists are protected under copyright laws that give them complete access of their music distribution and sales.  Illegally, the seemingly infinite bounds of the internet allow users to access, download, and utilize this “intellectual property” with neither permission nor compensation to the artist.  Ethically, it is clear that illegally downloading music is an infringement of copyright law; likewise theoretically, when artists do not believe that they are to be compensated for their efforts, it discourages the production of new, original work.  Upon considering the concept on the whole, users understand the importance of abiding by such laws; however, rarely do people believe that their single music “share” will stunt the intellectual progress of the music industry.  Consider this:  A single new Beyonce hit costs $1.29 on iTunes—a purchase that is considered legal and ethical.  A college student consciously buys “generic” toilet paper in attempt to save $1.29;  likewise, in knowing that Beyonce averages about $87 million/year (meaning that that single song purchase amounts to a whopping .00000000015% of her annual income) if he is able to access music for free then there is little incentive to buy it.  Therefore, illegally downloading music may be both illegal and unethical, but it is easy for individuals to justify doing so without seeing immediate consequences. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dc:title" rel="dc:type">Copyright and Creative Commons</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="http://katherinegarrett.blogspot.com/2010/09/copyright-and-creative-commons.html" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Katie Garrett</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.

My Trinity Network Diagram

This is a network diagram of Trinity University from the perspective of my dorm room on Prassel third.  It's extremely exciting, as you can see.  Essentially, the diagram shows that while I'm just chilling on Facebook or here on Blogger.com in my room, a lot of things are going on behind the scenes.  From my laptop the Ethernet cable carries data through the wall port to Prassel's Data Closet with its own access point.  From here, the data travels all the way up campus to the Ruth Taylor Fine Arts Center then to the Internet... in a split second!  It really makes me appreciate modern technology! 

Trinity Mystery Spot

Of course this image is one that many, hopefully most, here at Trinity would recognize; however, in a valiant attempt to save the world from poor recycling habits, I modified the photo a bit.  I chose this location because it is somewhere that I spend a lot of my time, but whose resources are often unused and undervalued with the technology era.  Using Picnik, I adjusted my original photograph by sharpening the image, adjusting the lighting and adding a warm tone to arouse an overall... affection, of sorts, for the picture.  Likewise, I rotated and cropped the photo to express a more unorthodox perspective of the very commonly seen subject.  Finally, I added a frame that resembled a Polaroid and added some sketch-like drawings around the bottom to overemphasize the message.  I had a bad experience with GreenPeace, so I wouldn't necessarily consider myself your average "Tree Hugger" but I did enjoy this project and I encourage good recycling habits!  Can you figure out where this picture was taken?  Try to figure it out and leave a comment!