Ok, today is part of the holiday break that we got. It'll be lasting two weeks as usual. As a result, I'll only be updatting my blog twice every week or so.

Today John came over to my house and we recorded TWO book review podcasts. The first podcast was about the book The Quantum Prophecy, in the New Heroes series. The second podcast was about Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. We recorded two because since John'll be away at Cuba, we won't get the chance to record a podcast during the break. Also today in class, we split into 6 groups and read a section of the podcast legal guide. The section our group was assigned was section 2. I also created an Excel page about Microsoft Excel Functions on the wiki, so feel free to check it out.

On Wednesday was our test. It was not that hard, and one of the questions was about what the Weibull function does. Hopefully I did much better than my last Excel test.

Today I woke up extra early in the morning to study for the excel test tomorrow. The Weibull function in Excel is all about realiability analysis: what this means is that this formula will calculate the life expectancy of a product or when something will hit (earthquake). The formula is like this =weibull(x, beta, alpha, cumalative).

Today we also reviewed what the admin features in the woodbine jhs website can do. The difference between a Tiki and a Wiki is that a Tiki is your own personal space where you can do anything you like (self-description, calendars, etc). A Wiki is a community network that anybody in that community can add to or edit. We also looked at some of the extra features that an admininstrator can add to the website such as voting polls (where people vote for their favorites among the choices given>a poll for favorite fruits), games, and some other stuff. Finally, we looked at how students can become partially-admin by showing acts of responsibility and leadership on the Wiki.

Tomorrow, we'll be recording our podcast book review. Unfortunately John is going back to Columbia for the winter break. He won't be back until three days after the break. Therefore we'll be recording two of our podcasts. Some possible books to be reviewed include The Quantum Prophecy, Darth Bane: Path Of Destruction, and Harry Potter And Half-Blood Prince.

Today, we got our old Excel test back. I would say I did fair in it, but I thought that some of the questions were a bit unclear. Oh well, now that I know what's what, I will probably fare much better on the Excel test next Wednesday.

Today we reviewed for the Excel test next wednesday. We reviewed almost all of the things in excel. A function is something like average, sum, count, or anything that you use in a formula to do math. A formula is something that you can type into excel to do math (you need functions in order for the formulas to work) and something that always starts with an equal sign. To sort data, highlight the data and then go to Data and Sort. You can then choose which column to sort.

Today was Eid and as such I did not got to school today. Every Day 1s, we have BTT so I missed today's class. But all is well since I went on the woodbine jhs website and read what we did today. Apparently Mr.Case was away today. I made my raw data excel worksheet, and watched the six episodes from the atomic learning website. I will have to ask someone when the test will be though.

Today I uploaded the second episode of The Moh Joh Show. In this episode, we reviewed the book Son of the Mob. Listen to it on the woddbine wiki if you have some spare time. To avoid the issue of copyright/legal actions in adding music to our podcasts, I had my sister create beats for our podcast using her keyboard. I think I improved it this time, because now there isn't much distracting music.

Today in BTT01 class, we got to read an adobe file on legal files to use on our podcasts. There are a couple of things that you can get in trouble for, especially using work that someone made without their permission. I'm going to read some of the adobe file right now, and the rest at home.

Using the marks that we got on our report cards, we creted another spreadsheet on Excel. This one was all about seeing waht you have to get in term two and term three, in order to achieve the goal of your year-end average. Although it was a bit complicated, I understood the formulas. Tomorrow will be short-and-period day, and Friday will be a PA day so I'm positive that we will get some BTT homework.

Today, we got our report cards back. I got really good, and got on the honor roll with an average of 87.1. I hope to keep this average up until the end of the year.

Today I went to the library to get some books for our podcast, The Moh Joh Show! Some of the books I got include Son of the Mob, an Artemis Fowl book, and a book called Quantum Profecy. If you're reading this and have some books you'd like to recommend to us for our book review, please feel free to do so!!

Yesterday, we had the computers test for Excel. Unfortunately, I studied all of the complicated formulas and did not focus much on the simple ones. I hope I did alright!

Today, I studied for our Excel test tomorrow. There are a couple of things you should know abut Excel: First of all, Excel is created byBill Gates. The worksheet is sorted out by columns which use letters/roman numerals (vertical) and rows (horizontal) whihc use numbers. The cells are designated by the letter first, and then the number (for example cell A2). There are three types of information you can put into a cell: a number valule (contsant), a text string (to help us remember things), and formulas (whihc do the math for us). There are four basic equations you can do with Excel: multiplication (*), division (/), addition (+), subtraction (-), as well as others. Remeber that all equations must begin with an equal sign. Some of the other mathematical formulas include sum, average, count, payment, countA, minimum, maximum, and IF. If is used to compare certain number values with others, suach as if the value in A5 was greater than 100, the answer would either be "yes" or "no". This is especially usefull when you want to find out say the students how goton the honor roll for term 1. Another thing you should know is the fill option. Click on a cell's right, bottom corner until you see the cross and drag it down or across. You can edit what happens here by pressing fill series to get the next logical balue in the next cell, or copy cells for the same cell over and over again.

Yesterday, I made my formula workbook. The things I covered included addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, average, sum, minimum, maximum, and count. I'm positive I know more about Excel now after completing this assignment.

Phew!! Boy am I tired! Today I finished editting the Moh Joh Show podcast episode one. It was really hard tring find music and special effects that were laegal to use, but I did find them in the end. It took a good two or more hours of my time going back and forth, and perfecting it. Still I think that the music is a bit too loud. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait for the comments/crictism to come in.

Yesterday, John came to my house. We made our podcast, and it took us roughly 2 hours. I think it was pretty funny and good for our first one. John was the happy-go-lucky host, while I was the criticizing type. We reviewed the book the Da Vinci Code. It will be up pretty soon;we just have to edit it. If you're interested in listening to it, or any other podcasts, go to the woodbine wiki and look for The Moh Joh show.

Last class, we talked about microsoft excel. You can do a lot of neat things with excel. You can input formulas (which you can later apply to other boxes in your document), so that you do not have todo a lot of math. You can put in values (numbers) or you can put in words. We're still learning more about Excel, so I'm sure I'll get to know more tomorrow.

Today I also put advertisements on all of the pages I created on our woodbine wiki. Hopefully, it will get more people informed about our podcast-to-be. The first book we'll be reviewing will be called Da Vainchi Code.

I downloaded Audacity and the Lame file that goes with it. I also downloaded Audacity extra to put in more special features on the software. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put a drum roll on the beginning of the podcast.

We also learned about closed and open sources. Closed sources, such as Microsoft, have their encoding closed so we cannot dupplicate their software without purchasing it. Open sources have their encoding available and thus you can change the program itself. Sourceforget.net is a great place to get open sourced programs/software.

Today, I worked on advertisments to put on our class wiki for our podcasts. I worked for two hours straight and I finally completed 5 advertisements. I also downloaded Audacity and the Lame file from Sourceforge.net. Tomorrow, I will go early to the library and work on our podcasts with John. I can't wait to make my first podcast episode!!!

Last BTT01 class, we talked about podcasts and how their are different from recorded videos. A podcast is something that is episodic and gets updates every one or two weeks. I watched The Minute on CricInfo, and me and John chose a book review theme for our own podcast. I got some great ideas and I think that this will be a fun project.

Today was Take Our Kids To Work Day!!! I got to go to George Brown college and had a great time there. I got to shadow around the Adminstrative Assistant in the morning, who was very nice and welcoming. She provided me with candy and a variety of drinks, and gave me a brief tour of the campus building. Afterwards, we had a pizza lunch (free thanks to George Brown) and a presentation not much afterwards. After that, we got started on our scavenger hunt and our team won!!! Next, we played a changed form of bingo and jeopardy, and got to play basketball of the rest of the time. I loved this trip because I had a great time, everyone was really helpful and nice, and because I recieved a lot of free stuff from everyone (gummy candy, a calendar, a USB key, a pen, a thermus, a strap bag, and lots more). Overall, I think it was a great trip and George Brown for me has really impressed me.

Today we didn't get to do much in BTT. We had an assembly, and lost about a good 30 minutes of our work period. Anyway, I handed in my scary story powerpoint. Before handing it in, I added some sound into the slides to liven them up a little. Even though I didn't get much time to put in sounds, I managed to. My only concern is if they will go with my slides and if everything flow.

Last BTT01 class, we learned how to hyperlink pages in our own powerpoint presentation to create a scary story presentation for Halloween. I decided to choose an Egyptian/Mummy theme for my presentation. I worked on it for a few days, and it is now complete. I can't wait to see the other spooky storys, because they all look very interesting.

Last class, we learned how to create a links page using powerpoint. I created my own links page today, but I still have not figured out how to add a search box into my website. I found the html text to add it in, but there is no page to edit the powerpoint web page. Powerpoint itself does not seem to have html additives. I even downloaded an addition to powerpoint to help: powerpoint web scipter or something like that. However, I still could not figure out how to add it in.

Today, I studied for the powerpoint test tomorrow. After I finish this blog post, I'll begin making or adding onto a page on powerpoint so that I can study from it. This way, I'll be prepared for the test, as will everyone who reads it.

Today our teacher Mr.Case told us how to create pages in our wiki more extensively. I'll be creating a page on powerpoint too and I'm just about to start it.

Yesterday we presented our powerpoint presentations on branding. Some people got caught for plaigiarising and they got a zero. Besides that, I liked the presentations because they were very creative and original.

During the long weeked, I worked on my branding powerpoint project. I broke down why branding is effective and how Rooots delivers its message into 6-7 slides. It should be completed by Wednesday. I'm also working on slide cues for my presentation so that everything will run more smoothly.

Today, we talked about all the different types of brands. Branding sells you an image, emotions, confidence, and other things that we all want but don't need. We can all obtain these things with effort and without the products.

Today we reviewed some of the things you can do with PowerPoint. Although I am very familiar with PowerPoint, I learned how to make a PowerPoint template.

On Monday, we got our tests back. I didn't do well in the binary codes becasue I forgot the 1's column. Still, i got an okay mark and I'll work hard to bring my marks up.

Last class, I created a page on our class wiki on basic computer definitions. I hope it will continue to grow, and that others will contribute to it.

Since I finished my blog summaries at home, I got a free work period today. I got a chance to work on our class wiki.

This blog post is a summary on the article that we got to choose, in this case "Powerpoint 2008 versus Keynote 2008". The article begins with the layouts of both programs. Keynote has a quicker boot-up if you want to create a slideshow quickly. You can choose different preset themes for your presentation and the toolbox for Keynote is "less cluttered". PowerPoint on the other hand has more flexibility, with you being able to make "countless combinations" of layouts, but the toolboxes are more cluttered. According to the article, Powerpoint offers more transition effects, but Keynote's run more smoothly. When dealing with multimedia, PowerPoint has more effects that you can customize your pictures with (shadowing, transparency, etc). Both applications allow the user to insert video clips, but the author mentions that Keynote has more features that you can manipulate the video with (like looping videos). Similarly, Keynote also has better animation features (being able to plan where to move an object or being able to put multiple pictures on one page by rotating them around). However, Keynote isn't available for Windows while PowerPoint is. To conclude, the author states that "neither is entirely effective". In my opinion this is true because PowerPoint is for those who want a bold, serious feel while Keynote is for those who want a presentation that flows.

This blog post is about the article “Death by PowerPoint”. It talks about how many people fail at making their statement using the PowerPoint system, and how ineffective their presentations can get. Some other ways you can improve your slideshow presentation is to not have too many slides; be precise and get to the point. Similarly, don’t just read off the screen; know your stuff ahead of time. It also states that when the presentation does not make a good impression, the presenter doesn’t look good either. Nevertheless, the article seems to focus on the visual aspect of the presentation. People are more interested in something when it looks appealing. However, as the article states, you should not overload your PowerPoint presentation with multimedia. Another important part of avoiding “death by powerpoint” is to be familiar with the technology that you will be using in your presentation (don’t fuss with it at the last minute). Some other parts the article focused on included the “b” key (which you can use to blacken the screens of presentation so that the audience will focus on you), and the physical motions of the presenter. To conclude, know what you’re talking about and be confident.

Our assignment today was to summarize an article on "death by powerpoint". The url for it is http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rch&AN=6FP1191730069&site=src-live. We also got to choose an article to summarize and I chose a "powerpoint 2008 versus keynote 2008" article. The url for it is http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=voh&AN=31799381&site=src-live.

Today we learned about EBSCO. It is a reliabale resource that the TDSB paid for so that their students could utilise it's resources. If you read an article on say Monday, it would be on EBSCO by Wednesday. The url for EBSCO is http://web.ebscohost.com/src/search?vid=1&hid=101&sid=e018611f-3c96-4524-a32b-b08e21eb3a90%40sessionmgr108.

Today I reviewed all the computer parts and the basic details of how they work. I also reviewed the binary code table, and how to convert numbers to and from it. Finally I reviewed the three rules of powerpoint.

Today I reviewed all the computer parts and the basic details of how they work. I also reviewed the binary code table, and how to convert numbers to and from it. Finally I reviewed the three rules of powerpoint.

We will have a test on Monday on all of the basic computer parts. It will also be on powerpoint and the 3 rules, as well as converting numbers to and from binary.

Last class at BTT01, Mr.Case reviewed with us the different parts of a computer. Today I think he will finish reviewing all the other parts, and the we will have a test on all of the parts next week.

I learned a lot about other parts of the computer due to the presentations I saw at thursday. I did not know how the graphics card worked, so I learned something new. It seems that we will be having a test on all of the computer parts in the near future.

On thursday I presented my powerpoint presentation on the motherboard in front of our class. Unfortunately Mr.Case let us only use a small computer screen to show the presentation. But I felt like I knew my stuff and pretty much excelled in my presentation, as did most of the others in our class.

Today I started gathering ideas on what my powerpoint should be like. I chose what type of title, background, and font I would use in my presentation. Mr.Case says that more attention is given to the information when the presentation itself isn't "flashy flashy".

The three most importatnt rules about powerpoint is that 1.The most important thing in the powerpoint presentation is the presenter 2.The powerpoint presntation should only assist the presenter, not the presenter assisting the powerpoint 3.Nothing on the presentation should be there that takes attention away from your presentation.

Today we learned how to make a proper powerpoint presentation. We're supposed to do a 2-3 min short presentation on the computer part that we were assigned. I stored my presentation on motherboards on my usb key and I'll probably be done by tomorrow.

Today we started our power point presentations for the computer part that we were assinged. I stored my presentation on the usb key that I had. I'll probably be done by tomorrow.

Yesterday, I ceated a banner for the wiki woodbine jhs page. I also updated my user profile.

Today we learned more about how to create a wiki. When I go home today, I'll create one or two wiki pages.

Today in BTT01, we learned about the binary code/language. I already knew a couple of things about it because my dad taught me. The binary language is a series of 1s and 0s. Although is may seem very complicated, it was easy for me to understand.

At home today I finished my poster by combining my paragraph and some pictures on Word. It took approxametly 45 minutes to add the finishing touches. On top of that it took me about 15 minutes to review everything I know about motherboards.

It seems like our posters will be due tomorrow. That means I'll have to finish the rest of the project at home. It should take me about 1-2 hours.

Today was our last day to research the motherboard. I wrapped together all of jotnotes into a paragraph. Tommorrow we'll be working on creating our posters. This time I remembered to bring my 2 GB USB.

Last Monday we continued our research for motherboards, and i bought a 2 Gb USB to keep all my school work in. Unfortunetly, I left it at home and had to email my self what i did in class.

Today we picked groups for our research half of our posters. In my group was Michael and John. We're researching the motherboard.

We also started our woodbine wiki at http://woodbinejhs.ca/wiki08. A wiki is something that anyone can edit and is made up by many differnet authors.

Computers BTTO1 Blog

My name is Mohammad. Today we learned how to make/start your blog by Mr.Case, our computer teacher.