&Gracias

Images taken from foto decadent.
Textures & brushes used from gender and JC.
Layout by colbydageek

Today in class, we realized the harsh reality of what our parents experience.

We created a spreadsheet containing our expenses and income and realized that a lot of the times, the income is much less than the expenses which makes it very difficult for families to live as they cannot financially support their entire family.

Although my dad is very competent at his job, I've realized how difficult it was for him to say yes everytime I asked for something because of our huge expenses and limited income. It doesn't help that the government basically steals a porportion of your money to give to the poor and needy.

Excel is an amazing way to keep track of your budget and see where you can reduce and fix your budget in order to meet your monthly expenses from your budget. I am now really appreciative that my parents, although on such a tight budget, do try to make me happy by buying me stuff I want. Of course, I will try not to ask for so much and be more appreciative because they are working so hard for money that barely supports us.

Until next time,

- Serena

Labels: Budget, Excel

Labels: Chronicles of BTT, Excel, Podcasts

Test:

- Excel Workbook
- First part: Circles pointing at different parts, and you must identify and explain.
- Questions: e.g. in Cell E8, what would the formula be for E3,E4,E5?
- Different components of Excel (e.g. what the buttons do?)
- Formatting cells
- Remember all the toolbars (e.g. Insert, Edit, View, Format, etcetc)
- Choose data you want before you go into Insert/Chart
- Try to make your chart look unique instead of clicking next, next, next.

TEST IS ON WEDNESDAY!!! :) GOOD LUCK LOSERS!

Labels: cell, Chart, Excel, Test Review

Industry standard - What they use typically. (e.g. Microsoft word is the industy standard for word processing.)

Excel is similar to other Microsoft Office applications.
- go into tools and change toolbars
- tools deal mostly with numbers as it is mathematical based
- every little box is called a cell
- every cell has a name (e.g. D18)
- if you point at a cell, it's name will actually hightlight
- divided into colums and rows, all adjustable in size, can move things around, spread around
- can add text, different fonts
- inside a cell, three different kinds of information: text (string), value, formula
- example of text would be socks, value would be two, formula would be =2*.13 or =B5+D5
- never do math with microsoft excel, let excel do the math
- every formula starts with = sign
- if you use the cell name in a formula instead of a specific number, you can go back later and it will change automatically
- Other formulas: =sum(E7:D14) , =D16/8, =average(E13:F2)
- write sum by writing =sum(and then select all the cells and close bracket) and press enter and you can do the same for average

That's all for now!
- Serena

Labels: cell, Excel, formula, industry standard, Microsoft

So have you ever felt so utterly confused in class that you wanted to rip your hair out and eat it? Well, I have.

Which is why my group has decided to design a podcast with all the qualities that will keep your hair on your head. Think about it, a podcast that is themed to go in-depth about everything we've learned so that you can be fully ready for our summative as well as our exams. So look out for our first podcast coming to you Friday, November 21 2008!


I know probably only a few people read my blog posts but I still want to get it out there that I would love it if people could help out in the blog section of the Wiki. It will be an extensive project that will take quite a bit of time, work and dedication. Another part that I will need assisting in would be to create blog layouts for the Wiki. As I no longer possess photoshop or paint shop pro, I am unable to make any but I am willing to code css & html codes for your layouts if you were to provide me with a banner ;) We can then upload them onto the Wiki and put them there for other people to use! Please message me or talk to me at school for more information or if you would like to help out! Remember, this is an easy way for you graphic designers out there to get an easy mark in business for helping out in the Wiki!

EDIT: I've realized that the quote would look more efficient on TOP of the blog post so I've changed it :P

Thanks guys,

- S

Labels: Blogger, Wiki

To start things off, let's look at the technical definition of a podcast from dictionary.com, shall we?

podcast. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved November 07, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/podcast

Main Entry:	podcast
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet
Example:	There is a podcast directory of offerings.
Etymology:	2004; iPod + broadcast
Usage:	computing

Looking at the definition and roots of the word, you see that podcast originated from iPod and broadcast. Although podcasts are compatible with iPods, it also works with almost anything else so let's pay more attention to broadcast. A broadcast is the transmition of signals or programs from radio or TV stations. However as our world has become so technogically advanced that we now are able to transmit these signals or programs from the internet as well.

So a podcast in the most primitive form, is a great way to spread, share and alert people of new information through a periodically updated broadcast. They are made for the people of the 21st century as they are very accessible and basically hand you the information on a silver platter. You don't need to do much work to have access to a regularly updated podcast other than to subscribe.

First thing that really confused me about the definition was what in the world was an RSS feed? I've heard little bits about it but never got to fully grasp the meaning. Which brought me to do a little research.

RSS stands for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 y 1.0)
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

Since the bottom one seems to be the most recent, I'm going to go with Really Simple Syndication. RSS, to put it simply, syndicates your computer to the web to achieve the podcasts that you wish to be downloaded. You could also subscribe to a podcast and receive the podcast automatically through the internet onto your computer everytime a new podcast is put up, as long as you possess the necessary software (e.g. iTunes) that can read the .XML files (extensible markup language). Of course, you could always just stream the podcast online and not be required to download anything if you do not wish to do so.

There are even search engines for podcasts of which you can discover thousands of different topics from cricket to movies to video games and many more. Initially, podcasts were invented so that people at home were able to express themselves in their own mini radio show and users could interact. However, uses for podcasts has expanded immensely and people have really taken advantage of this handy tool. They can now be used to subsitute a lesson (students can download a lesson & learn it on their own time), tutorials on a broad range of topics that need detailed analysis, comedy, politics, tours, relgion, opinions on nearly everything and many more! A little word that originated from iPod and broadcast which was originally meant for interaction has now become a staple in Web life.

Information was acquired from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) & more importantly, my brain & Mr. Case's lecture :)

Another post will be posted later regarding the Wiki project as well as me rambling. Look out for it as I will be needing people to help for an extensive project since I've noticed nobody has yet touched on the areas of Blogging in the wiki which is shocking :O

I've also decided to now put a quote at the end BEGINNING of each post to reflect my mood that day. That being said, it probably won't last as I am a lazy piece of poop and probably will have Alzheimer's and completely forget about it. But whatever, I prefer road less taken 8)

Labels: Podcasts, Rambling

Serena
Isabelle.

Shehnila
Neda
Sadia
Peggy
Sanjida
Amna
Joanna
Mohammed
Konstantin
Derick

September 2008
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