My Life in a Nutshell

Hello everyone, my name is Anita Santa-Coloma and I am originally from Mexico but I've lived most of my life in Brownsville. I am currently a senior pursuing a major in public relations with a minor in photography. I have had many years of experience in community service and hope to work in a non-profit organization in the future.

As for the video we watched in class, I thought it was interesting that few people had faith in the success of the internet. The telephone company (AT&T) was glad to see a glitch in the system.

Chase Birthisel

Hey everyone, here is a little get-to-know about me. I am working on a Electronic Media major with a Political Science minor. My hometown is a small place called Waller, outside of Houston. I enjoy the outdoors and try to get out as much as possible (I kayaked the San Marcos River the other day for the first time). Also, I work as the assistant news editor at the University Star.

As far as the movie goes, I think the most interesting aspect was how slow the internet started. Watching the whole history progress reminded me of a train. It took a while to get everything moving, but now that it has, there is no stopping it. Oh, and the fact about our laptops having more power than Neil's spacecraft – that was awesome.

Kristen Williams

My name is Kristen Williams and I'm a public relations major and Spanish minor. However, my passion is songwriting and I plan to move to Nashville after graduation. I am the president of the Student Musicians Organization and a member of the Austin Songwriters Group. This summer I am excited to visit Cuernavaca, Mexico for a month and take two classes.

There were many things that caught my attention on the video. One was that the AT&T reps dismissed the idea of the Internet, happy about the malfunctions. People will believe what they want to believe. Also, it amazed me that the team was only given $1 million to create the network. I always imagined the start-up costs to have been enormous. I also was so fascinated to finally find out who played what role in the creation of the Internet. The beauty of it is that it was truly a world-wide effort, with each person contributing their knowledge. What impressed me more than anything is that people could come up with an idea this lofty and follow through with it. And now it's the most important thing in our culture. Pure respect. Wish I was as innovative. :)

Claire Heathman

I am a junior majoring in general mass communication with a minor in psychology. Right now I'm trying to find a summer internship in copy editing and deciding if I want to do grad school and where. I am also the managing editor for The University Star.

In reference to the video, it is amazing how far technology has come. The part about e-mail reminded me of how a lot of today's greatest inventions were made by accident or on a whim, like sticky notes or dippin dots ice cream. People were afraid of computers and the Internet, but look at us now. Those innovators believed in its potential.

Lunger:

I am majoring in PR and graduating in August. I hope to get started in sports marketing and learn all I can while working on their "dime". Eventually I would like to start my own PR/Advertising agency specializing in sports marketing and promotions. I enjoy all sports especially football and golf. Working out and staying committed to a healthy lifestyle is another hobby of mine. I'll be providing some cheap, healthy meal ideas on my website if anyone needs some help with their diets.

The Internet is awesome and I could not believe there is more computing power on my laptop than there was in the lunar module when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Its amazing how fast the web has grown in such short amount of time. I think it will continue to grow and the huge economy of the Internet is only going to get bigger.

All About Jenn

Hi everybody. It's nice to have something like a blog to introduce ourselves on. My name is Jennifer Trayan, and I am in my last semester as an Advertising major at Texas State. In the last four years I've worked at camps, done an internship at Kohl's Department Store, become a supplementary instructor for the department of history, and somehow managed to maintain a decent GPA in the process.

I've really enjoyed my time here at Texas State, and I'm looking forward to where the road leads me to life after college. My longtime boyfriend has gotten accepted (with a full fellowship) to Michigan State University to get his PhD in higher education, so it looks like I might be headed up there with him in the fall. I'm looking forward to it, but I am a bit nervous about the cold weather. Growing up in Southern California doesn't really prepare you for snow! Whatever comes my way (and I'm always on the lookout for new opportunities), I'm looking forward to it.

As far as the video was concerned, the first thing that caught my attention was "hot potato routing. It was interesting to me, because I didn't realize that even though there are breaks in the system, the message can still get from the sender to the receiver. I also didn't think the Internet was even in people's thoughts since the 1950s. (I thought Al Gore invented it? Just kidding!) It also blew my mind that the Internet has been responsible for 1/3 of the United States' economic growth since 1998. I'm also glad that George Bush and the Supreme Court passed the act that allowed the Internet to become public on June 9th, 1992. Otherwise, where would social media be?

Samantha Taylor

I'm a senior graduating in Aug. with a bachelors degree in PR and minor in Psychology. I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate and no clue where I want to live. I do know I do not want to be back with my parents once I'm done. I love dogs and have recently started to enjoy working out.

About the movie: I found it pretty interesting that the first computer was bigger than my entire apartment and there were only 50 websites a little less than 20 years ago; now there's a zillion. I have trouble using Twitter, which is so simple, but college students who were my age built the internet. That's just crazy talk.

About Me: Lisa Carter

My name is Lisa Carter and I'm currently a junior seeking my bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in Spanish. I'm also the sports editor of the University Star and a City Brights blogger for the San Antonio Express-News.

There were several aspects about the video we watched on the history of the Internet last week that surprised me. One of these aspects was how when the Internet started becoming a mainstream concept, only 18 computers existed at that point in time. When discussing the history of the Internet with other people prior to seeing this video, we had always talked about how there were very few people with computers in the late '60s to '70s. However, I never thought there were as few as 18 computers during that time. I find it amazing now -- considering the number of people worldwide who now have computers and Internet access -- that the Internet has become such a global phenomenon within just a few decades, especially when considering that little tidbit of information from the video.

Daniel Barrera: A Brief Intro...

Hi there. I am Daniel Barrera (but I typically just go by Danny). I'm a public relations student who will be getting his bachelor's degree this May. In my senior year, I'm currently a PR intern at Wyatt Brand in Austin. After graduation, I plan to start an internship with the Texas House of Representatives in the summer.

I have several interests, particularly creating and learning about music. Ultimately, I would really enjoy doing PR work for arts & cultural organizations to help promote their message and cause.

In regard to the documentary, I found it intriguing how so many people around my same age years ago in the 1960s and 1970s were responsible for the development of the Internet. Today we can definitely thank those California graduate students for devoting so much of their time to the project.

About Me - Adrianna G.

Hello,

My name is Adrianna, but I mostly go by Adri (pronounced like "Audrey"). I am graduating in May with a BA in public relations and am getting married two weeks later. I am currently the intern at Texas Old Town in Kyle and they have offered me a full time position upon graduation. I am very excited!

While watching The Internet: Behind the Web I learned several things I didn't know before as well as some interesting facts.

• I thought it was amazing that in 1992 there were only 50 web pages.
  
• The fact that email and the @ sign were just thought up in someone's spare time just blows my mind. I barely have the time to eat it seems like and some grad student just wrote out the coding for email in his spare time... WOW!

It amazes me how much technology has changed and now the apple iPad! :)

journalism requirements at UT

Bachelor of Journalism

Degree Requirements

The Bachelor of Journalism degree comprises 120 credit hours:

General Requirements (Core Curriculum)
A specific combination of coursework in English, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Fine Arts, and writing component courses. See the degree checklists below for detailed course information.

Major requirements
A minimum of 33 and maximum of 36 hours of major-specific coursework in the School of Journalism

College of Communication requirements
Fourth semester proficiency in a foreign language.
Six hours of Communication courses outside your major.
Three hours Communication and Culture coursework.

Electives
Electives are used to bring a student’s total hours to 120.
Elective courses frequently taken by Communication students can be found here.
Students can also fill elective hours by completing a concentration, certificate program, other other Academic Enrichment activity.

Admission with Deficiencies
Students who are admitted with deficiencies from high school, will find these deficiencies listed in their acceptance letters and on their degree audit. The areas of deficiencies are: Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. Students should check with the Office of Student Affairs (CMA 4.140) to learn more about the procedure to fulfill any deficient requirement that he/she may have. Deficiencies should be removed as early as possible to avoid problems later is the student’s academic career. Courses used to remove deficiencies will not count for degree credit.

The College of Communication no longer assesses a penalty for foreign language deficiencies.

Specific information on the courses that fulfill the general requirements, major requirements, and College of Communication requirements can be found in the Degree Checklists. Please click on the appropriate catalog link to download a PDF of your checklist. (Your catalog year is determined by the first year you attend the University.)

Who is Lawrence Lessig?

I used Google to gather some background information on Lawrence Lessig. I typed in "Who is Lawrence Lessig" and clicked on Wikipedia to find my answer.

Lessig is currently the director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Prior to that, he was a professor at Stanford Law School where he founded the "Center for Internet and Society." He is best known for for his proposed concept of "Free Culture," which supports free software, open spectrum and reduces legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum. Lessig is also known for using a style of computer presentations typified by rapid display of short phrases or pictures.

Lowest Airfare from Austin to Singapore

In searching for the lowest airfare from Austin to Singapore, I typed the keywords into a google search:

The best price was from the website: www.wego.com

The cheapest fare was $1, 207 on the Northwest Airlines.

-Selina Affram

Average price of a Home in the Austin Area

I used Google as my search engine with the keyword search: "austin home prices."



I found two different sites that appeared more reliable, with both sites listing the average price only a few hundred dollars apart. The average price for an Austin-area home for the 2009 year was $185,000 plus change.



Austin Board of Realtors and Real Estate Center site



House Almanac site

Wondering when Twin Peaks went off the air?

...I figured you were.

Twin Peaks went off the air sometime in 1992 when the spin off series Fire Walk With Me was created.

To find this I simply typed in "What year did Twin Peaks go off the air" in Google using a Firefox browser. The first hit was Wikipedia, which gave me my answer.

And if anyone's interested, CBS.com has the episodes in full.

Amanda Venable

Hotel room in Manhattan near Times Square

Hello all,

For our first assignment I searched "Manhattan hotel room near times square." I clicked on The Algonquin Hotel and the hotel rate is $245.00 for a room tonight (Jan. 27).

That's it!

Stolen Bases in 2002

Luis Castillo from Florida had the most stolen bases, 48, in 2002. In order to find this I typed [Baseball 2002 stolen bases National Major League]. The first site to come up was a wikipidea page containing the answer about 3/4 of the way down.

Hiking within the Austin area

My search engine challenge was to suggest a good place to go hiking within 60 miles of Austin.

My suggestion is the Buescher Hiking Trail in Smithville, Texas. According to the trails.com Web site, the Buescher Hiking Trail is 4.2 miles long and is located in Buescher State Park. The park is located at the western end of Lost Pines, according to the site, where hikers can view pine trees and can visit other nearby parks, such as Bastrop State Park.

The site suggests other hiking trails close to Austin and includes a map that pinpoints the various hiking destinations in that particular area.

My search for this topic was simple. I went to Google and typed "hiking trips within 60 miles of austin, texas" into the search bar. The Web site I used to find my suggestion was the third link on the "results" page.

Most of the links on the same page -- including the one I used for my suggestion -- refrenced the book 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Antonio and Austin by Tom Taylor and Johnny Molloy, published in 2003.

Austin high speed internet cost

I Googled “Austin high speed internet”

-buytelco.net appeared in the search, listing prices starting at 19.95/month

This site was also the first result on askjeeves

The high temperature in Anchorage, Alaska that is forecasted for this Sunday.

I typed www.weather.com on the search bar. Then, I typed Anchorage, AK in the search box for the weather web site. After the results showed up, I clicked on the 10-day forecast. Once the 10-day forecast appeared on the screen, I scrolled down to Sunday and recorded that the high temperature will be 24 degrees Fahrenheit in Anchorage, Alaska.

Best Picture 1986

Googled "Oscar nominations best picture 1986" Top results were IMDB and filmsite.org. So I decided to check out filmsite. http://www.filmsite.org/aa86.html .

"PLATOON", "Children of a Lesser God", "Hannah and Her Sisters", "The Mission", "A Room with a View"

I'll take "Of War" for 1200, please Alex.

Cinco de Mayo (AKA May 5)

Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin.

This is copied from the Wikipedia website. It was the first site found when I searched for my birthday, May 5th. There might be another cool thing that happened on May 5th, but Wikipedia doesn't know about it, therefore it doesn't exist.

Thank you,
Chase

Search Engines

Q. You're in the market for a new digital camera. How much will it cost and what are some of it's features? What brand would you select?

Went to Google

Typed in ‘best digital camera brands blog’

Found http://www.romow.com/shopping-blog/the-top-five-digital-camera-brands-for-2009/

Lists 5 top brands (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Kodak)

Went back to previous page and found http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-buy-a-digital-camera

I want something with simplicity, good price, and good quality, rechargeable battery

Went to Best Buy website

Chose Nikon Coolpix- $250

12 megapixel

7x optical/4x digital zoom

Rechargeable battery

Simple buttons

Wilco

What are the names of all members of Wilco? Where are they from?

Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen

They are from chicago, Ill.

I googled 'Wilco' and wikipedia was the 1st link to click. All the info was there.

The UK's Current Number One Song: "Fireflies" by Owl City

The number one song in the UK at the moment (as of Sunday, January 24, 2010) is "Fireflies" by Owl City. The song is the ninth track on the group's latest album, Ocean Eyes. While "Fireflies" has had much success in the UK thus far, Ocean Eyes has yet to enter the UK's Top 40 Albums Chart.

To find this information, I did a search on Google, typing "UK number one songs" and clicking on a link titled "BBC - Radio 1 - BBC's Radio 1's Chart Show with Reggie Yates." Other sites came up in my Google search, such as Wikipedia, but I first went to the BBC since it's a recognized television and radio broadcaster based in the UK. Clicking on the BBC link took me directly to the UK's current Top 40 Singles Chart.

Solange Knowles

Solange Knowles was born on June 24, 1986, making her 23 years old. She is a native of Houston Texas, and is (obviously) the younger sister of the famous pop sensation, Beyonce. Originally she was considered to be the fourth member of Destiny's Child when they reunited, but her father had bigger plans for her. When she was 14, she debuted a solo record called "Solo Star."

As of late, it doesn't seem like things are going so great for Solange. When I searched for her on Google, things like "Solange Knowles shaved head" and "Solange Knowles divorce" popped up. Curious about the "shaved head" (I wondered if she was copying Britney), I clicked on it. Apparently she tweeted (she uses Twitter too!) that she wants to "spend money on things besides the hair salon." The divorce link looked like a hoax to me. Just a bunch of random splices or words coming together that make something out to be a lot worse than it sounds.

As for how I found the information on her, I simply used Google. I usually don't use any other search engine when trying to find my information. I looked on her official website for the information about her records and discography; however it was a bit difficult to find her official birthdate surprisingly. Eventually I got that information from celebritywonder.com

A Boook to Find the Right Pet

For those looking for a pet’s companionship for the first time since leaving your parents, checking out a book to help find the right one would be a good idea. There are many variables when considering a pet’s care and attention, like time, money and environment. I would recommend Are You the Right Pet for Me? Choosing the Right Pet for Your Family by Mary Jane Checchi.

I searched “finding the right pet, book” on Google and this was the first listing. For the convenience of online shopping, the book was listed at Amazon for new and used prices starting as low as a penny without shipping and handling. Barnes & Nobles listed only used copies starting at $1.99 without shipping and handling.

All eight customer reviews on Amazon gave the book five stars and paragraphs of praise.

Italian Restaurant in Austin

If you are looking for good italian food in the Austin area, I suggest Carmelo’s located at 504 East 5th Street. It is moderately to high priced, but has a high fan base that says it is worth the money. Lunch specials range from $10-15, and dinner entrees range from $15-20. Majority of its customers claim that the best part about this downtown restaurant is not only the atmosphere, but the appetizers and wine list.

When searching for a good italian restaurant to suggest, I began with Google and clicked on a link that said “10 best”. After reading some reviews and restaurant titles, I noticed that most of the comments disagreed with the ranking and/value the site placed each restaurant at. So I continued my search back at Google and found Carmelo’s with 70 reviews by customers that, for the most part, loved this place.

Hi and Welcome!

Welcome to the Web Design and Publishing blog. We'll use this as a discussion forum and a place to do some exercises throughout the semester. So, join the blog. Your first assignment (updated: we'll actually do this as your 2nd assignment; do search engine ex first) is to introduce yourself. You can add photos, include links and even embed video (basically you can grab the embed code on YouTube and paste into the blog post. Just make sure you are working in the Edit HTML tab).

So, here are some things about me. I've been teaching at TX State for four years. I started teaching Web design in 2000 when I was a Ph.D. student at UT. I love teaching this class and watching students progress with their skills throughout the semester. I do lots of things with social media in my spare time, namely my two blogs. I have a tech blog at cindytech.wordpress.com and a music blog onthatnote.com. I started a Web talk show in my house last year, where I interview local musicians. Check the Sessions tab on the site. Here's a sample of the last one I did with the band Buttercup from San Antonio:



I also write for Texas Music Magazine and their online newsletter.

Follow me on Twitter. I often post links to topics related to class, as well as other things I am doing. I go out to hear live music often, and when I have time I also enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking at Town Lake. I'm looking forward to a fun class!