Tuesday, February 16, 2010

>> movin' out

Hello Friends

This site will move to applegrin.wordpress.com Go Check out ya!

CU there! ;)

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Printed or Digital Reading Materials

     So we have a choice... I love reading digitally because most of the time I do online reading or test messaging, but I will talk about online reading for now. The best part of reading online is that it comes with handy hypertexts or hyperlinks. You don't have to go through other pages to find the issues/words/terms you don't understand, instead it takes you straight away to that explanation page. However, reading the printed materials allows me to focus well; at most - my eyes don't hurt from the light of the screen, and the material is there (no turn ons of turn offs) which is needless for me to us battery or such energy sources.
    Well, to be honest with you I don't have preference.  My idea is to get the best of both 'worlds'. :-)

More Definition... ^_^

 

Monday, January 25, 2010

Sites for Learning English Grammar and for Online Translation

Hi all...
For this entry, I'll be discussing on sites that we use as tools to learn English grammar and sites that are made to translate language, from one to another.



So, the first type of sites we're looking for...

(i) English Grammar Learning Sites

These are the few top sites using different search engine, respectively.



My pick for the Engliah grammar learning site is...

There is clear explanation on the English grammar and the site provides more than 170 interactive quizzes to help the users understand!







(ii) Free Online Translation Sites




For the online translation site,my pick is The Google Translator due to its accuracy of translating.


Friday, January 15, 2010

~ An Ad Remake ~

In our next assignment, we were asked to find a printed advertisement and we have to remake it using computer software.

Do not get confused, this image below is the verdict of my experiment:



What do you think? Well, this is not exactly similar to the original advertisement, but I assure you that the message is all there. Isn't that what matters most? :)

So this is how it is done.

The first thing I did was, find an advertisement that I can remake using computer applications. After searching and considering, I picked the ‘Jingle Nano Rocks’ which is an ad of Apple’s newly iPod nano that now comes with a video camera. So before I started, I looked up for all pictures necessary for the task, specifically iPod nano, my main subject as well as other logos of its features, from the internet.

The multicolor collection of the latest iPod nano from Apple.



Some logos I searched using Google Image Search.



To start the remaking process, I chose Microsoft Publisher 2007 as a tool of designing my advertisement.



Using WordArt, I made the title ‘Jingle Nano Rocks’ (it’s the holiday season – the Christmas jingle and all…) aligned next to the main focus image, a pink iPod as shown.



Then using text boxes, I typed out all the information necessary for this promotion.



After the words and images are ready I arranged them until how it turned out now as the verdict (the first image). The last thing I edited was the background which I looked for the one that matched the main iPod nano image.

The ribbon background.



Talking about images, most all of them were edited in the Publisher using its tool called ‘magic eraser’. I used it to make the background of that image invisible and give it a little neat touch which is nicer to look at. Besides, I also used Windows Photo Gallery to crop picture. For example:

From...



To...



***

My source of the advertisement is the Malaysian edition of CLEO Magazine which is an English magazine that lays out issues on women, motivation, relationship, jobs, fashion, lifestyle and more. It is indeed a good leisure read.



***

Since I edited my advertisement with Microsoft Publisher 2007, I saved it in two formats, the Jpeg format to save it as an image and the publisher document format so that I can edit it if I needed to afterwards.

The Jpeg format.

- This format saves the document as an image and it is uneditable.



The Publisher files format.

- This format saves the file as a publisher file where you can edit and rearrange the design when necessary later.



***

I typed all the details in the advertisement in two ways; using the text box and the word art. The text box is used when I needed to type a long text meanwhile the word art is used when I typed the title for the advertisement and the sub-titles or certain features it wanted to highlight. After that I changed them according to suitable sizes and fonts.

***

Did I use any help tools?

• Spell check : Yes, because in Microsoft Office program it is set automatically to check spelling. The red underlining indicates wrong-spelled words.

• Grammar check : Yes, again the grammar is checked automatically.

• Graphic enhancement : I used some image formatting tools featured in Microsoft Powerpoint, but then I will copy it into Microsoft Publisher of which I was using. Then in the Publisher, I edited the unwanted background of some images using ‘magic eraser’ tool. I also used Windows Photo Gallery and Paint to crop pictures.

***

While doing this assignment, I asked for some friends' opinion mostly about the suitable graphics that could replace the original advertisement. Thanks for the advice! ;)

***

After this assignment is done, I realize that I took quite some time to finish it because I tried so hard to imitate the real look of the advertisement. However I thought it is the message that is the most crucial part. Therefore, I practically had just designed a new advertisement!

So I would personally rate my designing skill as the average 5 and the same rating for my typing skill. There's so much more to improve and I am definitely going to enjoy trying to.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Navigating the Web

Navigating the web is a process of discovering the contents on the web. Three most common ways to navigate webs or websites are by clicking a text link (hypertext), clicking hyperlinked buttons that send users to another page, part f the page or web and by manually type the URL or address of a web page in the location box or the address field. Users can also go to search engine webs such as Yahoo! and Google to navigate information or applications and services involving the webs on its search box.

http://www.learnthenet.com/english/web/060www.htm

Web Browser


Web browser is a software application that retrieves, present and traverses information resources on the World Wide Web (www). Initially, it is only able to access the www but now enables information access offered by web servers and private networks or files in file systems. Moreover, it can be used to view the HTML-formatted documents.

The examples include Internet Explorer, Google Chromes and Mozilla Firefox.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser
http://www.answers.com/topic/web-browser

Netiquette



Netiquette, short for “network etiquette”, is the rules of etiquette that is used as guidelines when communicating over computer networks, especially the Internet. However, as a subjective topic it is different from community to community as in the different cultures between races. The netiquette includes avoiding multi-posting, using simple electronic signatures, sending spam e-mails, and purposely sending virus to other users.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/netiquette?jss=1

Internet

Internet is internetworking computers that comprise private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by optical networking technologies and a broad array of electronic. It serves worldwide users by Internet Protocol Suite and carries a vast range of information services and resources. Particularly, it is mostly noted with World Wide Web (www).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
http://www.cnri.reston.va.us/what_is_internet

Computer-Mediated Communication

Computer-Mediated Communication also known as CMC is communicative transaction by the usage of two or more networked computers. Research on CMC focuses largely on the social effects of different computer-supported communication technologies. Many recent studies involve Internet-based social networking supported by social software.

Well-known examples of such systems include computer conferencing, bulletin boards, discussion lists, and electronic mail (e-mail); furthermore it has also been applied to other forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication
http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/14/index.html

Information Communication Technology

Information Communication Technology or ICT deals with every technical ways for processing and communicating information. ICT is a medium for users to be involved in activities regarding work and others in a world with on-going revolving computer technologies. It allows them to be well-informed and communicative between regions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_communication_technology
http://informationcommunicationtechnology.com/category/information-communication-technology/

Information Technology



By Longman’s Active Study Dictionary of English, information is defined as (something which gives) knowledge in the form of facts while technology is the branch of knowledge dealing with scientific and industrial methods and their practical use in the industry. Therefore information technology is considered scientific and industrial methods on the subject of factual knowledge as well as its practice in the industry itself.

Meanwhile, according to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), information technology (IT) is delineated as the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. IT is also described as the development, installation, and implementation of computer systems and applications.

If we relate all of these definitions, we can say that IT actually refers to an entire industry or rather simply, the use of computers and software to manage information.

http://www.answers.com/topic/information-technology.
http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careersintechnology/p/ITDefinition.htm.