So we've come to the finale.

And I have to say that I've enjoyed this class so much. The friends I've made, the memories worth sharing. Everything has just been a joy and I love everyone in this class.



So from what everything I've learned in this class I have to say teaching the class something was the most fun. Well its tied with Craigslist. Either way, I got better with speaking in front of people when nervous and I got to enjoy "24 hours of Craigslist." Probably one of the best movies I've watched with a group of friends. The Craigslist lesson showed me a lot into the website since I had never gotten on there before because of some of the bad things I'd heard about the site.

Matt, you've been a wonderful teacher and I've learnt so much from you. Thanks for everything!



Okay, I'm done. :D

Tumblr Tutorial!

So we had to do a video for class. I did mine on Tumblr and how to help people get started. Its basically a slideshow with me typing through the whole thing. So I'm just going to embed this here and hope people enjoy it.

I do have to say something in my defense though....



Okay...I'm done.

-jess

Social Networking

I don't know if we were supposed to post this yet, but oh well here it is. 

People have become so wired to social media sites that it gets to be a tad ridiculous. You can’t even go anywhere without seeing this phrase on sign or hearing it on a commercial, “Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.” Everywhere we look we’ll see someone using their phones to updates statuses and “tweet” about something that just happened that doesn’t even matter. I’ll admit, I myself do it way too much, but I’ve been starting to look at my Facebook and ask myself, “Why do I stay on here so much?” Social media sites haven’t even been around for ten years and yet we’re all addicted to them like they’re some holy item that we have to keep an eye on. I know my IT 180 class has a bit of a Facebook problem, even if it is hilarious, but to be on there so much just shouts addiction to me.

It started with Myspace back in 2003. Myspace was just a simple networking site where you could make your own profile and find your friends so you could talk without needing a phone and see what they’re up too. Its main competition, Facebook, also started in 2003 but did not take off completely until 2006. Twitter also came out that same year, not doing as well as Facebook but it stayed in the rankings. Google decided it wanted to be in the social network game and started its beta of Google+ this past June, it became open to everyone eighteen and older in Spetember.

With all these social sites, it doesn’t surprise me that people are a bit addicted, but that is really no excuse for updating your status about every little thing you do. “This girl just cut me in line. So not cool.” Yes....I have actually read a status update like that. No one cares. Facebook/Twitter/Google+ is not the place to post about how craptastic your life is or how bad you’re hurting because Jim let Sam on whatever show your watching. No one cares. Or at least I don’t. When these sites go down for maintenance I bet it is like the end of the world for some people when they find out they cannot log into their Facebook.

I think these two links explain Facebook far better than I ever could.http://www.bitrebels.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/What-Kind-Facebook-Are-You.jpg

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

This one also explains Twitter so much better than I ever could.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/twitter_stop

I’m going to take a break from social media for a week staring Monday and just see how much I miss it. I only go on there half the time because I’m bored anyway. The world needs to take a break from social media. The world is not going to end if you don’t update your status every five minutes. If  do not accept your game request that is not an invitation to send me more. Maybe if everyone took a break for even a day, people would realise that they do not need it, but that will never happen because pre-teen girls have to update about their drama that won’t even matter in like ten minutes. I hate my gender sometimes, but that’s unrelated.

The world has become addicted to something so simple in such a short amount of time. This is like saying people get addicted to video games. I’d rather be addicted to video games, which I am, instead of Facebook. And no, Facebook games do not count. Those are not games, they’re money blowers. Seriously.

I think my rant is over now. I have nothing else to say on the manner. Except this.

-Jess

Savings, Saving EVERYWHERE

So we had to check out a bunch of coupon sites, and I have to say I found some great deals. Here's what I thought about them.

Groupon seems to be a site dedicated to giving people good deals on things in their area. Which is great and all except Charleston, WV has no offers. At all. The site would be very useful if I could use it, but other than that small downfall the site looks like it is very useful.

Woot gives one great deal a day on a very random item. If you really want it though, then you’re good to go. They have different categories and each category has its one random sale. Its pretty neat when you look through everything they have.

Fat Wallet gives you coupon codes for online shopping. Beautiful. Looking through the lists I found a lot of codes for stuff I actually wanted. Every code has a “success rate” so you can know whether it works well or not. I think I’ll be coming back to this one for my online shopping needs.

Dealsdigger gives you coupon codes for online shopping. They bundle all their deals by what day it comes to the site. Its very simple and easy to use, not as professional as Fallwallet or Groupon but its still very good.

Dealcatcher gives a good bunch coupon codes on good stuff. They automatically sync your location so trying to find a store near you with these deals isn’t too hard. Although, since its giving the codes you might as well just order the stuff online.

Dealdump takes offers from other sites and links it into their own categories. Its not that great of a site after that. Clicking on an offer just takes you to the site where the offer came from, so its purpose is mainly linking you to other sites like FatWallet and Dealcatcher.

Coupons is a site that allows you to print out the coupons they offer. This site is dedicated to the thrifty shopper. You can clip one of each coupon per visit I believe, which is nice. The site is very user friendly and have coupons for every type of item.

Currentcodes gives you awesome codes for so many different items. They even show you deals from websites that can’t be combined with coupons. The site is very simple looking, but it is extremely easy to use. They also give you the expiration date of all coupons so you don’t have to worry about waiting too long and missing out.

So, Jess, out of these sites, which do you think you would use the most? What about the least?
Out of all these sites I would probably use Fallwallet the most. I found awesome deals really quickly and it made me think to actually go back and use it later. 
Groupons would be the one I’d least likely use. mainly just because there are no offers around me.

Black Friday. The terror day of retail. We've all gone at least once. I usually go to watch people make fools of each other, but when I do go to get stuff I'm sneaky. I make alliances with random people I don't even know. Its fun. You should try it. Anway, Black Friday websites are what people go to a lot this time of year. They need to make sure they know where to go in order to get little Johnny that game system. All the sites are basically the same, scans of major retail Black Friday books. The only difference between the sites are the layouts. Here's a couple of them if you want to look.

BlackFriday.info

TheBlackFriday.com

bfads.net

-Jess

Virtual Dub! - Free Video Editing Software

So we need to do a blog post about a free piece of software. I decided to do mine on the software VirtualDub!

If you're like me, when it comes to editing videos you want to use something other than Windows Movie Maker. So when I went looking for free software I thought why not fix my problem and kill two birds with one stone. Virtual Dub is a little difficult to use, but once you get the hang of it, its not so terrible. The software has a very simple design and interface is a breeze. I like it, but I did find it harder to use after using Windows Movie Maker for so long. Maybe that's just me.

As for being useful to the rest of the class, I only see it as useful if you want to put a lot of effort into making a video. If you don't have the time or patience, I wouldn't worry about it at all. For free software its nice. You can't expect something perfect when you're not paying for it.

That's all I have to write. Tatty-bye! :)

-Jess

24 Hours of Craigslist

I've actually got to say that when I was first told that we were going to be watching this my first thought was, "This is going to be terrible." My opinion was based on the sheer fact of all the stories I'd heard of Craigslist and had a negative opinion of it.

After we began watching it, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! Not going to lie though, our little corner kept making jokes through most of the movie and that increased the enjoyment about ten fold.

Listening to all the different stories, all the different categories, all the ads, etc; it was all very interesting. After watching this documentary I have to say that my opinion of Craigslist has changed. I have a more positive opinion, but I am still very weary of using it. Its so easy to get scammed on Craigslist if you aren't paying attention, but most are easy to spot of you watch.

All in all, Craigslist isn't a bad website like I originally thought. I don't think I'll really use it, but I won't try to warn people away from it either. Its a matter of opinion and if you want to use Craigslist, go for it. Just please be careful.

I also still wanna know who this "Craig" in Craigslist is. Its a mystery the world will never solve perhaps.

- Jess

Creative Commons

I’ve always known of Creative Commons but I’ve never really known a lot about Creative Commons. Our lesson in class really taught me a lot more than I ever thought I needed to know about it. Creative Commons is a beautiful thing so you can bypass all the hassle of trying to get permission to use content. I know I’ll be paying a lot more attention to all Copyrights and Creative Commons that from now on so that I do not use some one's work in way they originally did not intend.

In this blog post I'll give my opinion on various photo and music sites based on Creative Commons. I hope you enjoy!

Photo Sites:

Flickr is a photo site that allows its users to upload pictures into albums to share with the internet. They also give each individual photo its own Copyrite and custom Creative Commons licences if the creator so wishes to have one.The advanced search allows users to search for a certain type of photo and, if they wish to use it, search for photos only with a creative commons.   Yahoo!, who is the provider of Flickr, has stated in their terms of service that Yahoo! claims no ownership of anything that is submitted to Flickr.

Open Clip Art is a website of nothing but clip art. Clip art can be used to spice up a presentation or anything that just seems dull, in case you didn’t know what clip art was. Their library seems to have a total of 34277 individual clipart, which seems to give a good variety for any search one needs to do. The whole website is under CC0, which states that unless noted all content is free to use for whatever purpose. That makes things real simple for people just looking for a small picture.

Commons.wikimedia hosts material that can be freely used under the Creative Commons. Its like Open Clip Art, just with text, photos, videos, etc. Commons.wikimedia is under the CC0, which makes things a breeze. According to the link on the “free use”, everything on the website is meant for people who wish to remix and reuse materials.

Google images is just a search engine to find random pictures. Finding whatever you’re looking for can be easy, just make sure your safe search is on unless you want to see “Rule 34” of anything you type in. Finding the creative commons on Google Images isn’t impossible, but its not exactly easy either.

Music:

Jamendo is the first of the music sites. Users are allowed to download and share the music on Jamendo; and paid users can have access to royalty free background music and music licenses. The music library contains over 333 thousand tracks available for free.

Archive we’ve covered before. Archive is a whole website of open source, free material for anyone to use. Their music selection is varied out into many different categories with a total number by each selection. 

ClassicCat is a website full of classical music. I think I like this one a lot, just because I am a fan of Classical Music. The categories are separated by each composer’s name so everything is easy to find if you know what you’re looking for. All mp3s are free for anyone and everyone to use for whatever they need.

A free to download site for children’s music. The site is updated whenever new music gets added to the site and their list of artists is separated into five categories titled “Artists 1-4” and “Traditional.” Practical. If you know what you’re looking for the site is easy to use....other than that you have no reason being on this site.

iSound is a site full of popular music. Type in the artists and it’ll show you a list of of songs and related artists. All songs on the site are free to download, but you are NOT allowed to use distribute or use the music you download for anything other than private listening. They aren’t very clear about that and unless you actually go looking to make sure, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble.

-Jess