Tech Tool Evaluation

http://beta.mural.ly/ 

Three things I like about this tools are:

1: It is fun and entertaining 

2: It is easy to use

3: It can help people to get organized

Drawbacks 

1: All murals should be Private

2: There should be more styles of murals

3: There should be an explanation on who can see your mural and the purpose of the website

Two ways to use this tool could be:

1: To have fun 

2: To organize yourself 

http://www.creazaeducation.com/

Three things I like about this tool are: 

1: You can create different comics and cartoons with different tools .

2: You learn to be creative

3: You can create new things like videos and apps that can help you academically 

Drawbacks

1: It is not simple to use. In fact it is complex

2: You can not use it with out an account

3: When you open the website it is not very clear what the website is for. 

Two ways to use this tool could be:

1: Academic projects 

2: Recreational activities 

 

Game Design

I don't really know anything about this topic but I think by the tittle that it relates to how to create or design a game.

I wonder if I will be able to design a game after I investigate this topic?

What are the steps to design a game?

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design

• History: 

In the early video game history game designers were lead programmers and this remained like this until 1970.  Sid Meier, John Romero, Chris Sawyer, adn Will Wrigh were some of them. But a man named Maurice Greenberg created Coleco ( Connecticut Leather Company) in the 1980s. It became a very successful toy company. Coleco was an exception to all the game designers because it started a separated function of design and programming. As games became more complex computers and consoles became more powerful. The jobs of game designers became separate from lead programmers. Soon game complexity demanded team members focused on game design.

• Game designer

There are four types of game designers: The lead designer, the game mechanics, the level designer, and the writer.

• The lead designer is in charge of coordinating the work of other designers and it is also the main visionary of the game. Lead designer also ensures the team communication, makes large design decisions, and presents design outside of the team. Keeping well-presented documentation also falls within the lead designer responsibilities. Lead designer may be the founder of a game development company or may be sent by the publisher, if the game's concept is provided by the publisher. 
• The game mechanics   is the designer or the systems designer. It balances the game's rules.
• The level designer also called environment designer, is a position becoming prominent in the recent years. A Level designer is the person responsible for creating game environment, levels and missions. 
• Finally the writer is a person hired to narrate the game's dialogue and commentary.  

After investigating this topic I realized that the connection that this has to my life is: since we are little we play several games but as generations pass we use more technology and some of the games we have played and still play are video games. And investigating this topic I learned some of the history behind these games and how they are created. 

College Exploration on Naviance

Two Colleges I am interested in are: 1: UFM (University of Minnesota)
                                                       2: Julliard school of arts


           
                                                Public/Private   Location      GPA    Admitted  Diversity  Tuition   Mayors

Hamline Universty                      Private             Minnesota     3.33      77%     Typical    $31,994   Has 2

San Francisco State University   Public              California       3.1        61%     High       $17,436   Has 4

San Diego State University        Public               California       3.36     30%      High        $17,738   Has 2

Whitter College                        Private              California       3.31      71%       High       $36,992   Has 3

My GPA right now is a 3.3

I have to get it higher to get in most of this universities. 

Today I learned that there are many good colleges I could apply to but the 4 that I liked the most were Hamline, San Francisco, San Diego, and Whitter college. I liked them because of their location and the mayors they have. 

Google day 3

Today I will try new Photoshop techniques and I will try to experiment new things with several pictures.

This is one of the pictures I edited today. 

This is how it looked when I finished

To do this I only did a few steps. 

1: I saved the first picture above and opened it on Photoshop

2: Then I used the healing brush tool, to duplicate the image several times.

3: After that I went to a window next to color and swatches (in the right) and placed the puzzle

4: Finally I went to filter and clicked on artistic and put it in neon colors.

It was both simple and fun.

This is another picture before I edited it

This is when I finished editing it.

Do this I only did a few steps.

1: I saved the first picture and opened it in Photoshop.

2: Then I used the healing tool in several ways make the picture look like this.

3: Finally I cropped what I thought the picture didn't need. 

It was very simple and fun.

 

Google day 4

Today I am practicing some photoshop techniques.
Thse links really helped me with some of the techniques:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/41-nicest-photoshop-photo-effects-photoshop-tutorials/

This is what I edited today.

BeforeAfter

Today I learned many new things and used new techniques for pictures.
I really enjoyed editing these pictures

Google Day 2

Goals for today
1: learn what is gifs
2: How can I create a gif
3: Find the history of how gifs were created and how they have impacted society.

Helpful links and information: 
Gif stands for: Graphics Interchange Form.
The format of a gif supports up to 8 bits per pixel allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors. The color limitation makes the gif format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.
Gif images are compressed using the  Lempel-Ziv-Welch loss less data compression, a technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality. This compression technique was patented in 1985. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format

Another definition for gifs is: Animated gifs contain a series of images or frames that are displayed one after the other and give a semblance of animation, just as in traditional animation techniques. Also, in animated gifs you can control the time for which each frame is displayed.
http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/graphics/gifs_animated.php3

How can I create a Gif?
Animated gifs can be created or modified using any of the freeware or shareware available. The program comes bundled with Paint Shop Pro. Most animation programs have many built in effects for images. http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/graphics/gifs_animated.php3

It is not great but in the website: I created a  some gifs.
I need to improve more and make better ones in different ways but this is my gifs.
http://www.createagif.net/actual/92972_CreateAgif.gif
http://www.createagif.net/actual/3063259_CreateAgif.gif
http://www.createagif.net/actual/2798250_CreateAgif.gif

One thing I will do next time is that I will make more advance gifs and involved them more with y project.

Futureme.org

http://www.futureme.org/

 The purpose of this website is to write a letter to your future self and send to yourself to your email. When you go in the website the screen shows you a place where your email goes. You type your email and then put the subject of your letter. Then you type your letter to your future self, saying what ever you want to say to your future self. Then you choose a date you want your letter to arrive, It can be a year or more from now. Finally when your are done writing your letter you click send to future and wait for your letter to arrive. In this website you can also read  letters other people write(you can choose if your letter is private or public). If you sign up for this website it saves your letters and you can visit anytime you want to. 
I wrote a letter to myself explaining how I am right now and how I think I will be in the future. But once I send my letter it was gone to the future and I wont be able to see it until a year from now. 
I think some ways other students could use this website could be to compare and contrast each other how they are today and how they are in the future. Maybe comparing and contrasting their grades to see if they have improved or gotten worst. They can also do it with hobbies, or secrets.  

How do I find a college that is a good match for the career I want?

As i research some ways to find a good college to go to I found helpful this three links.
1:http://www.helpguide.org/life/finding_career.htm
In this website they explained how to choose the best career for you and why you should look forward to have a career.
2:http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careertests/a/careertests.htm
In this website they asked me to take a color test and said that I take a long time making decisions and that might affect me later in life. Truth is I think that is funny because it i not true. Actually I make simple decisions fast but i do take my time in decisions that might have a great impact in my life.  
3:http://www.wisechoice.com/
In this website I was asked to ask a survey and this is what they said about me :

• Because of your warm and agreeable personality, it's easy to get along with you.
• Your people skills are very strong, making you comfortable in most social situations.
• Meeting and opening up to new people is usually easy for you.
• You're quite versatile: You're comfortable spending time on your own, with a small group of good friends, or in a big crowd.
• Sometimes it feels better for you to do your own thing, but you usually don't mind jumping into what your friends are doing.
• You don't want to fade entirely into the background among other students, preferring to stand out a little and be a bit more of an individual.

Now I wonder if colleges take that into account? 

The Cloud

To be honest I really don't have a clue about what the Cloud is or how it relates to technology.
I wonder if the Cloud I am going to research about relates to the icloud in the apples products?
I also wonder if it is were computers stores its backup and memory?
As I research bout the cloud two links that i have found useful are:
1:  http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031
In this website I learned that Cloud computing is at an early stage and that it is a familiar Cliche to the internet but its definition goes much deeper. Cloud computing is the use of computing resources that are delivered as a service over the Internet. The name cloud comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with data, software and computation. 
2: http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/
Before I started researching I was wondering if the cloud had anything to do with the icloud in the apple products. This website showed me the relationship between them. On one hand cloud computing is the use of computing resources that are delivered as a service over the Internet. On the other icloud is and easy way to store all of your music, games, and applications in all your apple products. In someways these two things relate and in others they don't. But now I have the answer to my question.

What I learned today:

• What is the Cloud
• Why it is important for us.
• How the cloud is important for computers.
• How the cloud is just starting and will develop through years.
• How does the cloud relate to the icloud.

As I researched today I realized that without the cloud we wouldn't be able to use computers as we do. 

Google day 1

Goals:

1: Learn how Photoshop started and how it has evolved as years pass. 

2: Learn what are the main Techniques of Photoshop.

3: Learn how to edit pictures.

Goal 1 (How did it start):  In 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan began writing a program. This program, called Display, caught the attention of his brother John Knoll.  He recommended that Thomas turn it into a full-fledged image editing program.Thomas took a six-month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program. Then he renamed it  ImagePro. A year later he called it Photoshop. During this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple and Russell Brown, art director at Adobe. Adobe decided to purchase the license to distribute in September 1988. While John worked on plug-ins in California, Thomas remained in Ann Arbor writing code. Photoshop 1.0 was released in 1990 for Macintosh exclusively. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop 

Thomas did the visual effects supervisor on projects such as "Mission Impossible" (1996), "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), and "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" (1999). http://www.storyphoto.com/multimedia/multimedia_photoshop.html

Brief Photoshop Timeline 

1987 Thomas Knoll begins writing graphics subroutines on a Mac Plus.

1987 Thomas teams up with his brother John and combines these subroutines into an app. called "Display."

1988 Refined version of Display becomes "ImagePro."

1989 BarneyScan licenses the application to bundle with their slide scanner. About 200 copies are shipped.

1989 Adobe strikes a deal to license what becomes known as Photoshop. They begin 10 months of product development.

1990 Photoshop 1.0 ships in February.

1990 Version 2.0, code name "Fast Eddy," ships in the fall.

1993 Version 2.5.1 is released. One of the first apps to run native on a PowerPC chip. Also first release of Windows version (April, 93).

1994 Version 3.0 ships with the "Layers" capability.

1996 Version 4.0 ships. Controversial key commands are changed.

1998 Version 5.0, which includes the "History"palette, ships.

1999 Version 5.5 ships: the first true "web ready" version of the app.


Goal 2 (Photoshop techniques): 
http://www.eyesontutorials.com/articles/19/1/Fairy-Night/Page1.html (Fairly Night Eye)
This task we'll learn how to correct the photos' colors, change the eyes color, work with the layers, applying ready brushes and designs, create your own design and to picture the stars. 




http://www.photoshop-garden.com/view_tut.php?id=49 (Colorful picture Style)
http://www.photoshoptalent.com/photoshop-tutorials/pst/500/Blue-glow-dreamy-portrait.html (Blue Glow Dreamy Portrait)
 http://vitaminpsd.com/index.php?act=cms&com=view&id=233 (A Rather Different Photo Collage)
http://www.photoshop8x.com/view_tut.php?id=33 ( Ocean Girl Phot Effect)

Today I learned many things today. I learned how Photoshop started, who created it and how it has evolved as years pass. I also learned that some of the the techniques used in Photoshop and I cant wait until I can start using them with some of my pictures.

Google 20%

          I am not an artist and I think I never will but as time passes I might need to know how to edit pictures by using photoshop. Considering that we have to do the google 20% project I think this would be a great oppotunity to learn about this.I would like to learn how to contrast colors in pictures. Also I think it would be interesting to learn how to bring two pictures together and make them seem like they are one. As I googled photoshop I realized that there are many cool things that you can do with pictures and it would be amazing if I could do that!
        
          In seven hours I wont be able to become an expert in this but at least I will know some stuff about it. Effects, color, and contrasts are just some of the things that seem really interesting about photo editing. For my project I think that it would be really cool if I took some pictureas around the school and edit them to see how they turn out. I could combine some pictures with others and use juxtaposition to contrast things that might be total opposites or not related with others.

       I think this project will be amazing and I will many things from it.

Link

C/C website