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Say What? ~ Connecting the Deaf & Hard of Hearing of Y-S to the Community and Beyond

Archive for the 'Cyberspace' Category

Perks of Being Webmaster

October 8th, 2008, 5:47 pm by Hana

The last couple of days I’ve been busy building out new pages for the www.appeal-democrat.com, soon to be unveiled. The most recent release was the Comics voting form, which is currently running until October 19. Pick your next comic strip for the newspaper’s print Comic section, here.

Right now, I have 3 projects on the desk being reviewed, and at least 10 pending. A lot of planning goes into building new sections or pages, even if it is a one-time thing. It begins with an idea that processes quickly into discussion with Internet Operations Director Courtney Lopez and often includes Editor Len La Barth, Internet Managing Editor Steve Nelson, and the Publisher (currently Interim Publisher Debbie Baggett).  When all is agreed on, I begin creating it.  The building process often varies: most of the time I use a module provided by the Corporate, other times I may build it from scratch. When it’s finished, it goes through a review before it is turned public. Often, my work is sent to the Corporate for incorporation into the site.  Seems pretty straightforward and simple, doesn’t it?  In my experience, I’ve noticed that the hardest part seems to be in the details, either in design or the content.  I’d say my chief delight is seeing it online and being used.

Each time I see a work online, I think about how I arrived at this place and where I’m going. Twenty years ago, the Internet was unknown or a vague knowledge.  I was going to be an Illustrator for children books, with a minor in English.  Then all of a sudden, I saw my Macintosh turn from a machine for typing out my essays and reports with the occasional disk game, into a machine that went online and took me around the world!  Friends started talking about MMORPGs, chatrooms, viruses, customizing their computers, discussion boards and web sites.  My art classes started including computer graphics and designing for the Web.  Nine years later, I’m taking classes online from the comfort of my home or during my lunch breaks at work for an advanced degree in Web Development.

Although I’m not drawing or writing like I thought I might end up doing, I’m still doing those two things to some degree in the Web field.  There are other perks that come with the job that I had not realized, such as seeing comics 1 to 2 weeks ahead, testing out games before putting them on our sites, chatting with other webmasters, getting some freebies from vendors.  Like today, a friend that I made while working on a site project, shipped over some manga toy figures for me after finding out I am a big geek about enjoy Japanese manga and anime.  Sweeeet!  (Thanks B!)

By the way, did you know that in addition to tracking your Fed Ex packages, you can also see who signed off your Fed Ex package if a signature was required?  I discovered this feature today while obsessively tracking two of my Fed Ex packages!

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More on Online Classes

September 2nd, 2008, 6:40 pm by Hana

The second half of my first quarter has me in two new classes, and the method these lectures are being done is different from the first class.  If you don’t remember, my previous and first class was done in PowerPoint presentation with live text chat discussing what was on the PowerPoint presentation. This is my second and third classes.

This half of the quarter, one class is done entirely in live chat with the professor and classmates, discussing psychology topics presented by the professor and using our life experiences to understand those topics.

The other class is a digital art class that involves the teacher broadcasting his computer’s desktop to us as he demonstrates techniques in the digital art software (this one is Photoshop CS3).  A student or two, volunteers each class, to type what the teacher said during the demonstration. When he stops demonstrating to lecture, discuss and answer questions with students, he switches to a dictation program, which surprisingly works very well 99% of the time.  If the program screws up a sentence or a vital word, the he types it over or the volunteer student supplies the correction.

The Learning Modules are still in video with subtitling and text transcriptions for those who prefer to read instead of watching the subtitled videos.  Tests are done online via a self-conducted test that is actually timed by the program itself. The test’s clock begins ticking the second you click on “Begin Test” and you have a certain amount of time to take it.  If you run out of time, the test closes itself and posts your score.

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How to tell you are deaf

August 28th, 2008, 10:50 am by Hana

cat
more animals

I saw this in one of my online deaf communities that I subscribe to. Too funny I had to share!

This also reminds me of the several times I accidentally had my tv’s volume on and above the medium range on the volume bar, and realized only hours later, that I had been blaring my tv at my poor neighbors!

Spotted Online

August 27th, 2008, 6:14 pm by Hana

Surfing the Internet, some gems to share — please click to read full articles on each:

Deaf horse teaches children about disabilities - Cali, a deaf wild mustang that was adopted, responds to commands through hand signals and rope movements. 

Young boy saves deaf sister from house fire -  In Kansas, a fire broke out in a home and the family left, except for the 4-year-old deaf sister. The 8-year-old brother went back in to save her and brought her out. Pretty inspiring, huh?

And closer to home: Chico Enterprise Record did a story on Bobbie Holcraft who interprets for the deaf.

How would you handle it if you knew you were going deaf? Jessica Stone had to undergo a surgery to remove a tumor that would leave her deaf. She prepared for it by making a video diary of her last month hearing things and learned sign language. Even her family pitched in.

On the other side of the globe, a deaf African who also cannot speak, was noted for his achievements after he was brought to US and given an interpreter.

Barksdale Theatre is incorporating ASL into every show of the 2008-09 season to make their plays accessible to the deaf.

Hope you enjoyed today’s trip around Cyberspace!

New Blogger

August 13th, 2008, 2:55 pm by Hana

We have a new staff blogger:

80lbsbanner.jpg

Appeal-Democrat’s Automotive Accounts Executive, Herb Barber is a new blogger joining us in Cyberspace.  Read his blog here.

He was matched as a donor to his daughter who needs a kidney, but he must lose at least 80 lbs and be healthy before he can donate his kidney.  His blog will chronicle his and Teniya’s experiences as he works towards his goal.

Let’s cheer them on!

EDIT: The 80 lbs of Heart blog will be publicized hopefully, next Monday, August 18.

The Missing 11th Commandment

August 7th, 2008, 12:24 pm by Hana

Probably something that should have been in the commandments…

internet_comic.jpg

My professor for Introduction to Computer Systems, had this in his presentation on Internet basics.  :)

Learning Online

July 30th, 2008, 4:56 pm by Hana

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy with my online classes.  It’s been an interesting experience for me because I’ve never done online distance learning.

It was not an easy decision for me.  Ultimately, I chose distance learning because I couldn’t leave my employment and didn’t want to, yet needed to continue learning.  It took a year and half of searching and researching before I chose a school out of a long list of schools, both local and those that offered distance learning. Then I went through the process of applying, getting financial aid, and communicating with the school’s people and my Department of Rehabilitation counselor.  I did have to turn in some forms documenting my deafness and my need to have transcripted lectures/videos, which was really a formality.

The class meets twice a week via a Live Chat.  The teacher lectures with a PowerPoint presentation with a green pointer pointing as he speaks. All questions and discussions are done by text.  There’s an option to view the professor via webcam, but it’s really not necessary to be viewing the professor who is just looking at the computer screen and talking.

I like that the playing field is “level” and nobody notices I’m deaf.  There’s no interpreter sitting in front of the class.  I don’t have to worry about missing the interpreter, the quality of the interpreter, or the interpreter being late.  Nobody notices each others’ skin color, age, or handicap.  Communication is primarily by e-mailing if not in Live Chats or designated Discussion Boards.  Class assignments are uploaded directly to the posted assignment.

Even though people appear to be without a physical entity, we know each other by our real names and pictures because that’s how the system works — we are identified by our real names as entered on the application papers, school transcriptions and payments.  Once in a while, we will be put together into a small group to do a group project.  I just had my first experience with doing a group project with three other classmates.  We had our own little area for discussing, live chatting, e-mailing all members, and uploading our assignments.

From the start, I was intrigued by how the distance learning experience would be for me.   I was worried about getting lost, missing an assignment, or not understanding the discussions, but it was all unfounded.

Assignments are posted with their possible scores and kept up for the entirety of the term, and is immediately viewed when you log in to view your account so you can’t ever miss an assignment that’s right in front of you.  Teacher comments are also posted under the week’s agenda.  Each assignment has a field for teacher/student comments, grading, and due date with deadline time.  E-mailing is done within the account, and there is an area where you can see your own classmates, the professor, and school facility.  Clicking on their names gives you the option to e-mail, message, or a number to call a school facility member at, which is handy.  Everything is clearly arranged in the virtual campus.

I also felt that the teacher and classmates were much more approachable through the Live Chats, discussion boards and e-mailing. When a Live Chat is happening, you can see who is typing so it doesn’t get too crazy in there.  Keeping with the tradition of schools being the hub for clubs, there are even online clubs for registered students to join and share their interests.  Since my online school is a school for designers and web developers, the virtual campus is highly interactive and visually pleasing, I enjoy being logged on and working inside the virtual campus.

Of course, I have a year and half to go so anything could happen.  But I think this is turning into a positive experience.

Scams hitting Y-S

April 10th, 2008, 7:19 pm by Hana

After hearing and reading about scams targeting the Deaf on Deafread.com and elsewhere, it has finally hit the Yuba-Sutter area.

In the span of one week, I got two text messages from friends who reported getting the scam Instant Message offering money if they would give their information. The name (surprise) was Deafagent06, aka Walter Morgan, johnsmith, and probably dozen other aliases.

Do yourself a favor and educate yourself. Google for ‘deaf world lottery scam’ and you will see records of scammers going after Deaf people.

How do they get your E-mail or Instant Message information?

From the chat groups, forums anywhere you are in where your instant message name and e-mail is shown publicly.

If you get an instant message or e-mail from them –  block, delete, and report them. Document it so that you can report to the police.

This site describes how to recognize Lottery Scams and what to do.

Key Tips:

  1. You can’t win a prize in a lottery you haven’t bought or been given a ticket for.
  2. Legitimate lotteries don’t ask for funds in advance of paying out prize money.
  3. Never provide personal identity information to a company or person you do not know.

And most importantly: Legitimate lotteries do not use email to notify their winners.

Drive a Co-Worker Crazy Tip #1

April 9th, 2008, 6:50 pm by Hana

So Len La Barth, the Appeal-Democrat Editor, is telling me about how he gets requests to connect on this social networking site for professionals once a week. I tell him I don’t get that many requests.

Then I go and find him on the social network and send him requests to connect. One, two clicks and I sit back to wait.

A day later, Len is IM’ing me on Bonjour: “Thanks a lot for the multiple requests! I had to answer three last night!”

I just walked over and grinned at him from his office’s doorway.  :-D

Why the heck did I click that play button?!

April 9th, 2008, 5:24 pm by Hana

I frequently buy books from Amazon.com and have a newsletter from them. Today I got an e-mail on new books in the Amazon.com store so I clicked on it to go and visit. While on the page I noticed Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. I had read Eragon and Eldest so I clicked on it to view the book. It’s the third book coming in September 2008. There was a video of the young author on the book’s web page titled A message to fans of Inheritance from author Christopher Paolini.

I just have this need to click on videos, so I clicked.

And it’s not captioned.

I should be used to this — videos online aren’t always captioned. I have no idea if what Christopher Paolini said was interesting or not.

Why do I bother clicking? Curiosity. I love books and if an author wants to talk about his/her book, I want to hear it. It’s the same as my need to click on the Extra Features on DVDs. I want to know what possessed the director to take on the insane task of turning an idea into a film. I watched the commentary on the Final Fantasy Advent Children DVD in subtitled English three times — all because I could hear the thoughts from the director and others that worked on the computer generated animation project and it was fascinating.

Anyway, back to online videos. I keep clicking ‘play’ on videos even though I know they’re not captioned — like our videos on the appeal-democrat.com. (I’m sure I’m not the only one that clicks on the videos there and wishes they were captioned.) After clicking on Christopher Paolini’s video and losing interest within the first few seconds of its play time, I wondered for the umpteenth time why I keep clicking. I’m not an idiot. I already know they’re not captioned. I guess I keep clicking because I hope to see something interesting.

Maybe it’s because I’m a Gemini. Curious and somewhat flighty — bouncing from one thing to another thing. Much like one of my cats, Tiny. He’s always in everything. Literally. He bounces from one curious thing to another and is frequently underfoot.

So, anyone know what Christopher Paolini said???

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