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Today we visited the CLT in the library. Pictured here is my friend Bart enjoying the presentation. We learned that the CLT offers many kinds of software for design and editing. They also have a sound editing lab and have conference rooms available. Video cameras, digital cameras and other equipment is available for rent through the CLT. That is a very nice service that i'm sure I'll take advantage of!

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joey!

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My roomie and i on our chapel beach retreat!

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Websites

After listening to our guest speaker, Chris Nolan, the class was assigned to evaluate a website which we could choose from a specific list. The one I chose was www.whitehouse.org.

Do not do this.

The website, after a little bit of browsing, is obviously not the official website of the white house. The first red flag should have been that an official government website has the ".gov" domain. While I was perusing the website, which is clearly a spoof on Bush's politics and platform, I tried to look for the authors of specific "articles" only to find that there were no bylines. What I did find though was that at the bottom of the website there was an icon for "chickenhead.com" which I can only assume is the organization responsible for this lovely website.

This website obviously has no credentials other than being somewhat informed about what Bush's politics are supposed to be and then blowing them out of proportion for satirical purposes.

As far as design goes, it seemed a little busy and crammed, but overall easy to navigate. There were plenty of easy to find links, though I must admit I was a little wary to click on any of them for fear of destroying my computer. I felt a little like I was reading a tabloid-- you're kinda curious but at the same time you sort of feel like you're poisoning your brain.

There wasn't anything I particularly liked about the website. At first glance one might actually think it is a legitimate website, as long as he didn't read anything on the site, look at the advertisements or any of the website content.

Soccer Locker Zoho Show

This is a presentation I made in ZohoShow for class-- it is a bad advertisement from the yellow pages that I redesigned to incorporate the elements of design. ZohoShow is kind of like an online version of powerpoint. I think some of the features are more limited than powerpoint, I don't think you can do animation, but I think it is a very cool and useful website/program.

Copyright Issues

Copyright issues and plagiarism is something that I have had beaten into my brain since I was a sophomore in high school. I've been learning about it in English, Journalism class, Newspaper and various other classes that bring it up any time I have to write a paper or anything else.

One thing that I learned during the guest speaker, Diane Graves' presentation is the difference between copyright and plagiarism. Obviously, they are different things, but I hadn't ever really thought about the difference before. For example, file sharing is considered a violation of copyright but because I wouldn't actually take a song that Taylor Swift sings and try to distribute it on the internet as my own, it isn't considered plagiarism.

I also had no idea how serious the consequences were for file sharing. Lawsuits by the RIAA of college students have been up to $15,000. In addition, Universities are required to give the name and information of students whose IP address is caught file sharing. They really aren't kidding around, especially with college students.

I think that the Copyright laws in the United States are a little bit harsh, but that plagiarism is a problem. There shouldn't be any problem with using another person's material to enhance your own as long as you give that person credit. However, I do sympathize with the RIAA's cause because people should receive monetary compensation for their creative works, particularly if that is their full-time job. What many people do not realize when downloading music illegally is that they are not taking away from the already rich artists, but the song writers and the little people who help with the production. We need to find a middle ground, whether that includes redistributing the income from the profits of things like songs, or changing how copyrights are protected and when they can be used.

Ms. Graves gave us an excellent website called Creative Commons that provides an alternative to Copyright, because the rules are relaxed a little bit more. The philosophy there is "you can use my stuff if I can use yours. But if you're going to make a million dollars off of it, give me a call."