Peer Review

What are your initial overall impressions of your colleagues non-linear hypermedia dream trip?

I really like anna's website. She used some really cool pics and made some really cool designs. I really like the bars and waves page. The image is really cool. I also really like the chicken page. I like how it moves when you click on it. I really really like the music idea, because I also really enjoy music.


Discuss the level of immersion that you sense as you move through the site. On a scale of one to five (five being the most immersive), how immersive is the experience? Discuss the degree to which the site is non-linear?

I think her site is really immersive. I'd give it a 4 on a scale from 1-5. It just drags you deeper and deeper into the site, which is cool. It's definetely non-linear. The links don't take you to the same page each time. That's what I like about the site.


Is there enough content to keep you interested or does it seem as though the site is lacking content?

There is quite a bit of content, but I think there could be a little more. The amount of content she has now does keep me interested in the site, but having a little more content might be something to think about. As of right now, there is enough content to keep a person interested for a while.


Is there are consistent theme or idea that seems to emerge? What is it? How does the non-linearity/linearity direct your attention to the theme or idea? In other words, what are the relationships between the navigation structure and the main idea of the site?

I'm pretty sure the main theme to her site is music. Each page has some sort of song lyric on it. It's a really creative idea. She has different lyrics set as a link to another page. That's really cool. She also set up a page for the game she made in another MM class. That was a really creative idea. For the most part, the links take you to a different page so it is a non-linear site.


What is the most compelling or most interesting part of the site? What is the most uninteresting part of the site?

I didn't know where each link would take me, so I guess that made it pretty interesting and compelling. I also thought the music idea was very interesting. I don't really think there is just one compelling or interesting part of her site. I think all of it is interesting.


Are there any problem areas that you see as you navigate? This could be a structural problem or a “404” error, broken links, hidden links, etc. Help your colleague understand why it’s a problem and offer solutions.

There were no errors on her page. There were no hidden links, no website errors and no broken links. This made it a lot nicer and easier to navigate through.


Lastly and most importantly...considering your experience at the site, what are the great ideas that you will carry forth on your own dream trip?

I'm thinking that I should change my site now so that each link takes you somewhere new. I think not knowing where each link is going to take you is a good idea. It makes the site more interesting that way.

Final Website Link

The link to my site is:

http://www.ro-unified.net/amber/untitled.htm

Assignment 6

I chose to do a tutorial on Cararra. It is a really fun 3-d software. I decided to just kind of do a tutorial on the interface of cararra and how to make a simple scene with a floor and a little table, because it can be a pretty complex piece of software once you get into it.

Once you open up cararra (the brown cube with a C on it), go to file >new >new empty doc. From here, go to insert > infinite plane. This creates sort of a floor. On the right hand side of the screen, there should be a tab labeled as "motion". Click on it and it opens up a place where you can change the coordinates of the plane.

After you move the plane, click on the blue tab on the left hand side of the screen. Pull it out and look at the different shaders. Look under the category of interior, choose one and drag it onto the plane. I prefer the vase texture. Once you do this, click on insert again, and choose cube.

Once again, choose the motion tab and change the size of the x, y and z. red is x, green is y and blue is z. Change the size of the x to 7, y to 15 and z to 1. After you do this, insert 4 more cubes.
Change the size of each of these cubes. x to 1, y to 1 and z to 10. Move the table legs however you want under the table.

To change the view of what you're looking at, there are 4 icons on the left side of the screen. Each icon has 4 different arrows. The first 3 icons are tracking views. If you click on any of them and click on your scene, you can move the scene around. The 4th icon is the dolly. Play around with all of them for a while so you can get a feel for them. All of these are very useful.

Once you have all of the table legs where you want them, shift click on each piece in your scene and hit apple g. this groups all of the pieces together so when you move the table around, the pieces stay in tact. Click on the drop down arrow on the right hand side of the screen, under the word "Group". You have to shade each piece separately. Click on each piece and select another shader. After you shade each piece, click apple r. this will render the scene. If you like what you see, you can save the product.


This is what I got:















Once you get used to this program and start using it a lot, you can make things like this that I did in my 3-d class:

Assignment 5

When Suzannah Moore came in on friday, we discussed how the media and advertisments can affect how a person thinks. We talked about how people change sometimes because of the media. I've noticed that if a certain celebrity is in an advertisement and a person likes that celebrity, they go out and buy the product. Sometimes people change their style to match celebrities. I will admit that I have gotten caught up in advertisements. If I see something I like, I will go and buy the product. Sometimes the advertisements are done so well that it's hard not to want the product they are trying to sell.

We also discussed how sometimes advertisements can be deceiving. We took a survey on friday. On the first part, we had to guess what the advertisement was trying to sell, and who was trying to sell it. Most of us got them completely wrong. One of them had text that said something like "caviar and wine" and had a woman with bright red fingernail polish. Most of the people in class thought it was trying to sell caviar and alcohol, but it was really an ad for fingernail polish. Another one of the ads had a lady in lingerie. I thought it was an ad for lingerie, but it was really an ad about cancer. It is amazing how you think an ad is about one thing and it is really about something else.

Assignment 4

I chose the places for this assignment because I think they would all be really fun to visit, if I had the money. They all have a lot to do and the geography is awesome too.

Here is my KMZ file.. open it, play it and have fun.

Assignment 3

As I think back, there is one specific non-digital piece of technology that comes to mind. The analog television. This piece of technology has definetely shaped society. Most people now watch tv. We had an analog television when I was little. There were only a few stations that you could watch. The tv's also used to have rabbit ear antennaes. They also used to have dials you had to turn to change the channel. There were remotes but they used to be large and expensive. If it weren't for the analog tv's, I don't think we would have digital television now.



























The analog tv is similar to the radio in some ways. They both broadcast stations to people. They also both broadcast over different frequencies. This sort of non-digital piece of technology is also very different from different technologies. Television now is digital, so there are more stations to watch. There aren't any dials you have to turn to change the station. You don't have to make sure the antennae is in the right spot. The remotes are a lot smaller too. Even the picture is a lot different. The frames per second was a lot less on analog tv's than it is on digital tv's. The picture was not as clear as it is today. Any piece of analog technology is very different from the digital technology we use today.

I kind of like the idea of a techno-utopianism. I know that a lot of people enjoy the digital world we live in. I think that if we do live in a techno-utopia, a lot of people would be happy. Technology is an important part of our lives. The "digital revolution" might actually help a lot of people. Most technology isn't very hard to learn and it really does make life a lot easier. In 2009, people will not be able to use their analog televisions anymore. Everyone has to either buy a new tv and use digital, or not watch tv at all. This just shows that society is leaning more towards digital technology. Not everyone enjoys technology, but in the long run I think it will make life a lot easier.

Assignment 2

Looking at the google maps kind of brought back memories. I got to see what everything looked like again which was nice. I don't really remember everything but now I kind of remember the highways and the other landmarks around where we went. I remember the drive to sacred falls. There were so many palm trees on the drive there. The drive was kind of long but it was cool to see all of the palm trees and the houses. There were a lot of surfboarders out there too.

I placed my placemarks in the spots that I did because they are the actual places that we went on our vacation. We didn't really go anywhere else.. just to the places on the map. We pretty much just drove to the location that we wanted and then would head back to our hotel.


HERE IS MY ADVENTURE IN GOOGLE EARTH






Hunauma Bay from google earth:




















Sacred Falls from google earth:




















Dole Plantation from google earth:

When I was 8 years old, my family and I took a trip to Hawaii. This was by far my favorite trip. I got to skip school for a few days. The trip to the airport and the plane ride there seemed to take forever but it was well worth it. When we stepped off of the plane and stepped outside, I about passed out. The weather there was so warm. Our hotel was extremely nice. There was a path from the hotel to the beach. I remember there being a swimming area, in the ocean. They had it blocked off for people to swim. The water was a light blue. I enjoyed swimming there until I had a heat stroke and got a really bad sunburn. Another fun thing we got to do while we were there was going to this bay where you could feed fish. There was a shop there that we went to where you buy food for the fish. I was excited at first but then I got freaked out when the fish started wrapping themselves around my legs. It took a while, but I finally stopped freaking out and had a good time.


Here are a couple of pictures of the bay:

We also went to the zoo and to the aquarium. I remember having a great time at the aquarium. The fish were really pretty. The zoo was fun also. Getting to see all of the animals was fun. Sea Life Park was also an interesting experience. There was a dolphin that would follow me wherever I went. He would chatter at me whenever he saw me which was weird. The sea lions were fun too. The people who worked there would let you feed them.

Another fun activity we did was going on a hike to Sacred Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall. I remember there being a swimming area there. You could jump off of the rocks into the water. The water was crystal clear, and really cold. There were a lot of people when we went. On the hike up, there were people who would sell coconut milk to you, if you were thirsty. I thought that was pretty cool. There were also banana trees that grew on the side of the trail. I had never seen them before so I was interested in them.

Here are some pictures of the waterfall:

We also went to a luau. It was fun. There were a lot of people, a lot of hula dancing and a lot of food. Everyone was really friendly.

There was a marketplace where we were that was interesting. They sold all kinds of cool little things. There were a lot of people that went to the market. I remember it being packed.

The dole plantation was interesting too. They let you walk around the plantation. When we went inside, they had pineapple laying out for people to eat. They also had a machine where you could get pineapple juice to drink.

Picture of the dole plantation:

The Diamond Head crater was also cool. It was a long hike but once we got there, it was amazing. The view was awesome.

Picture of the crater:

(I didn't take these pics myself.. found them online)