What's New #2

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 1
12-3-12

What's New #2

In an article by Engadget, they talk about a new and innovative iphone case. It is now launching soon on the market for $79 in two different colors. It is called Popslate, a four-inch iphone case with a e-ink screen on the back. This means that notifications, pictures, and movies can go directly on the back of your iphone once you open and share them. Third- party developers can create apps especially for the Popslate. These apps includes ways to control whether you want to use your main screen or popslate to save your battery and many others are sure to come. Popslate is still in it's early development stages but are hoping to create a prototype and soon make Popslate cases a reality. They have recently hired a team of scientists, designers, and engineers and they are working constantly now to make this new invention available to everyday people.

I think if Popslate was able to make this innovative iPhone case people would be able to make their iPhone batteries last longer and they could easily display any picture they wanted to show friends and family easily and for their own enjoyment. Although this is good, this still makes people more reliable on technology for entertainment and throughout their daily lives. Technology is innovative, fun, and useful but it shouldn't be used as much  as most people do use it today. I hope though that Popslate gets a chance to make this case available to all everyday people. Technology keeps improving and with it comes good and bad consequences. I hope that Popslate will be a fun, cool, and innovative use of new technology that everyday people can use.

My Screensaver

This is my final screensaver project.

Learn more about this project

My Privacy Concerns

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 1
ICS Blog

My Privacy Concerns

We find security cameras everywhere. Schools, Stores, Companies and just about every you go has security cameras. Even though these cameras are put in place to protect us it is still unnerving to be walking through a know people are watching your every move. I believe that security cameras should be more limited and used in places like the Statue of Liberty or the White House and not as much in stores and restaurants. This way important landmarks would still be protected and we would catch anyone trying to launch a large-scale attack. Although, less security cameras in stores would lead to more shoplifters and a solution to this is a few cameras in the front of a store to watch customers as they leave. 

Insurance companies like Progressive are offering a 30% discount for safe divers who install a monitoring device in their cars to insure that the drivers are indeed safe. I think that this is a good idea because it could save people lots of money but is still unnerving because these companies would know where you were all the time. As a high school student this doesn't concern me much but I could see myself being concerned when I am older. 

We see everyone on cell phones today. Cell phones are great because they help people stay safe and make contact much easier. But you would be astonished if you knew how much of this information data providers like Verizon and AT&T have about you. Is having a cell phone worth the cost of your privacy? In an article by Ars Technica, they say that 60% of people think that their phones are just as private as their home computes. This is not true, phone companies know what you search for, what apps you use, and what you download each and every day. They also know where your phone is. Most people have their phone with them most of the day so this means that they know where you are most of the day!
 Google is also able to track what you search for, what sites you go to, and what you do on their site. This isn't too concerning to me because I have nothing to hide from Google but it is still concerning that more people don't know that Google is tracking them and what they do online. In conclusion I don't have a huge problem with the current privacy policies of car insurance, google, security cameras, and cellphones but I think that when I grow up this can become an increasing problem that will not only affect me but everyone around the globe.

Walking Animation

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 1
10-24-12

Walking Animation Blog

Doing a walking animation was very challenging. My animation was of Winnie the Pooh walking through the forest.  Up above is my spritesheet, and I used the images of Pooh walking from left to right. What I learned in this project was about how to create animations. I had never known how to originally do this, and now I have a small of idea of what kind of work it would take to create an animated tv show or movie. Now I know why it takes years to complete movies and all the work that goes into a few seconds of animation. Before we started this project, I knew how to make a stick figure animation on Pivot, and that was it. Now, I know how animation programs work and have a small idea of the magnitude and complexity of animated movies.

Even though this project was fun there were many challenges as well. The most challenging was probably sizing the image in Paint Shop Pro with the previous image, making it in the same place and same size as the other one and sucessfully copying it to the Animation Program. If you didn't size the image right, then it would come up small and blurry on the animation, and had to be redone. I had to have Mr. Clifford help me fix this issue, and I also figured it out with trial and error. Once I knew how to correctly size my image and move it, the rest of the project was very easy.

I am very proud of my project. Overall, it was alot of work for a small animation with a simple background, but I have never done an animation like that before so I am proud of my accomplishment. I think under that amount of time, the animation should have been more complex, but I know it was my first time. I think if I did the project again I would add more characters or Pooh doing something more exciting than walking. I would make him skip, jump, or play in the woods. Overall, this was a very fun project that I am proud of.

What's New #1

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 1
September 5, 2012

What’s New Number 1

The MTV music awards are coming, and six-time grammy winner Taylor Swift will be performing Live at 8.00. She will be premiering her new music video to her hit new singles, We Are Never Ever GEtting Back Together. She will also perform in Staples center in Los Angeles, September 6. Her  new song has had 623,000 downloads and became the second-largest downloaded song on iTunes. It is currently number 1 on the top 100 billboard. She is #1 on iTunes in 32 countries. This song is the lead song in her album Red, which will be released October 22. After premiering her music video on MTV she will stay afterwards for a 15 min. interview. She will also show on CMT and ET/PT. The video will premeire on early morning talk shows, throughout labor day weekend and on the top 20 countdown. Taylor will also premiere Taylor’s VH1 Storytellers concert: a contest with a concert for a winning college or school.

Taylor Swift has become a revolutionary star and inspiration for young adults all over the world. She started off just like any other normal american teenager and worked for her dreams to become a country singer. It’s hard to believe that in only four or five years, she is considered of the most famous singers in the world. Her work has been an inspiration to me and tells me how to stand up for myself and follow my dreams.  Taylor Swift has four or five albums in a very short-time span, showing how hard she works on her music. Taylor’s new contest shows how much she cares for kids and how she wants to make people’s lives better through her music.

Link to Picture

ICS About Me Blog

About Me

Hi, my name is Mary Ann. I am 15 years old and a Sophomore at Carmel High School. I live with my dad and stepmom in Carmel Valley half the time and I live with my mom in Carmel the other half of the time. I have a stepbrother who is in the same grade as me, his name is JP, and a stepsister named Jessica who is a 7th grader at Carmel Middle School. They stay most of the week at my dad's house. I also have a sister named Kaley who is an 8th grader at Carmel Middle School. At school, my electives are chamber choir and photography, two things that I love to do. I also love Science and English. After school, I volunteer and in the spring, I participate in the CHS Swim Team. This year I expect it to be hard but fun. I am going to push myself to be a straight A student. My favorite animal is a pig.

I went and participated this summer that most teenagers don't get to do. In 8th grade, my choir teacher Mrs.Boulware told us her husband, (a famous choir conductor) and his choir, Monterey Peninsula Choral Society, had talked to some people and were invited to the Olympics! A few monthes later, Mrs.Boulware told us that we could go with the group and sing with them. I was so excited, I had always dreamed of going to the Olympics. When I started 9th grade I found out we would be going for sure and at the end of that year we started practicing each week. Over the summer, we had local concerts and kept practicing. At the end of July we left the U.S.A., to travel to Paris. One in Paris, we went sightseeing and sang in a few churches. After a couple of days in Paris, we took the ferry to London to sing in the Olympics! Once in London, we sang at London Live, Exhibition Road, Olympic Park, Wesminister Abbey, and a few other churches. This trip was the best and most amazing trip of my whole life and I am so glad I was lucky enough to get the experience of a life-time.

.Link to picture.

Link to Blog about London and the Olympics