I did not know what to expect going into the term, but I am glad I had sign up for this course. This class has made me more aware of how technology and gender roles relate together. Before this class I never knew why people love to blog so much or why people would even bother reading them. Now I know it is very informative and can be interesting. I enjoyed this class and hope everyone else did as well. Have a great summer!!
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and by no means does the name elude the ease it takes when getting the latest news. The RSS is a function within your browser that lets you access periodically updated articles, blogs, videos and audio. Somewhat like a feed of information and updating you on what is currently being said or written about. Like a live ticker in a sense, that can be customized to your liking.
I have used the RSS functions awhile back when surfing through my internet browser and it being pre set up already. I saw that is showed the current headlines and was easy to access the latest news articles and even had videos. With RSS you can simply set it to put updates in anything you may be interested in, from world news to local news to sports to celebrity gossip. From this exercise I did learn that you can subscribe to people’s blogs, which I didn’t know you could do. Not only can I know see classmates blogs now but see when they update and what the latest thing they wrote was about. Seeing this and setting it up was very easy, just clicking on the bookmark pulldown and clicking the subscribe button. Very simple to set up and very simple to use.
With my new found knowledge of knowing I can subscribe to blogs, I will definitely use that for my own pleasure in the blogs that I try to keep up with now. It is a great way to organize and bookmark blogs and articles. This is also easier then going to a news website and scrolling through all the news and finding the ones you are actually interested in.
A screen shot of the WS320 class RSS subscriptions:
Screen shot by Tram Le 2012
This was really mind blowing!
I never knew such an option even existed on my computer. It was very easy to set up and extremely simple to use. I am using a Macintosh (Apple) computer running operating system X snow leopard, so it was really a few clicks away. No additional programs were needed in this process. Simply clicking on the apple icon on the top left corner, then system preferences. Once in there under the system categories, clicking the speech icon. Once in this menu I was able to check the “speak selected text when key is pressed”. I was then able to set the key stroke to activate the text speech, I set my key stroke as “command + s”. I also went through the different voices to see which I enjoyed listening too and selected the voice named “victoria”. So to make this work, when on a webpage or program with text, highlighting the text you wanted read then pressing the command keys, the computer will then read the highlighted text.
I have used the text speech option a few times now and have found it quite useful. I have used it when reading articles and it has helped me multi task. One thing I have found is that, when I am letting the computer do the reading for me I tend to be doing other things, which may distract me from actually absorbing all the context. I do feel however it is very relieving on the eyes after a long day of looking at the computer. Also it is helpful when takings notes and continuing to listen or read what is on the computer. So I guess its a give and take and how much attention to put into this. You can definitely make it work for you and it could make your life easier. This will be a great tool for me in the future and I am excited to share this with my friends as well.
I have just finish working on the final touches for my financial analysis project and am now in the process of choosing what I should do for my Teach project.
While working on my financial analysis project I have learned that studying abroad in Japan can be a very costly dream but at least after all the research I have done I now know how to prepare for the study. I now understand the process of applying for studying in Japan, how much money I would need to start saving up, and what my budget needs to be. Now all I have to do is start saving money to put aside for the trip. I can’t wait for Japan!
Continued working on the culture site and finished it up. I finally got the pages of the culture site to show up on the side menu. As for the culture site I definitely learned a lot about the industry of bio energy and sustainable energy. One thing that was shocking to me was how one person can have such an affect on the world. Imagining if Dr. Hong Liu’s work would in the future expand and become of world-wide use could change the world. This is definitely an inspiration to me and how finding something you enjoy in life and working on that weather it be technology or music or art could change the world in many ways.
Into the second week of blogging and setting up the visual aspects of this blog, as well as other minor technical stuff has definitely made me feel a bit more comfortable with this whole process. Its still new and I’m still learning but I’m actually getting a hang of it little by little and it’s getting sort of fun in a way. Hopefully the process becomes a bit more smoother as time goes on and I’m excited to dive into the world of women and technology!
…..I feel only a little bit more comfortable with this whole process since creating this. Being that the only thing I have ever really recorded any information in on a daily schedule was about 10 years ago, in a diary that lasted about 1 week, this is definitely a new experience. But who knows, maybe this is a start to an amazing blogging career and next thing you know I’ll be world famous! Haha!
