Lab 9
I fell lab 9 was hard only because the assignments haven’t been this tedious since the first few labs. There is no room for error i found out, because one little mistake will you send you back to the drawing board trying to figure out what went wrong. I also never realized how easy making Gif files could be. I also understand why people who work with software and put up websites get paid an substantial amount of money because this is a very time consuming process. After fixing my mistakes exporting the Gif file into a KMZ was pretty easy. I am amazed at how much I’ve learned about computers and maps in this class which i feel will eventually help me in the feature to either work on a software or be able to better comprehend and even make maps. Redoing the animated page was a longer process then i expected but after working on it slowly things started coming back to me that i didn’t think i would remember.
Lab 5
Lab 5 was a lot easier only because i feel I’m becoming a little more familiar with the software. Once i got the right information in to the data i didn’t have many problems cleaning it up. I did make many small errors from not paying attention and had to go back and correct these but other then these minor inconveniences i didn’t have any major problems. The calculations was probably the hardest thing that i had to deal with and i just waited to class and after talking to Professor Krygier about the situation i learned how to use the field calculator which turned something i was doing that was hard into something which took five minuets. Even after making a few mistakes i was still able to go back in and change things in a minimal amount of time and effort. For the first time in this class i don’t feel so far behind and I’m actually becoming a lot more comfortable using the programs and software and even thinking like a computer sometimes in order to figure out problems.
Word to look up
1.) .DBF file- A .DBF file is a file form that is used for processing data in ArcGIS..
2.) Select by Attributes- When you select attributes while using ArcGIS, you are telling the program to pick a certain part of the data that is present for the map you are using. An example would be, to tell ArcGIS to select only major streets or highways or even rivers in the state of Ohio.
3.) Query- Allows you to give commands in the software. A great example of this would be in this lab where we had to get the change in population from year to year.
4.) Fields- The fields in the table represents the different columns of the attributes table.
5.) Records- The records in the table represent the different rows of the attributes table.
6.) Attributes- In ArcGIS attributes are the different bits of information that are begin use to create the image of the map.
7.) Relational Database- is a way to group different sets of data together by using common attributes or characteristics. This is accentually what makes ArcGIS functional. .
8.) Join Function- This is used to link two different sets of data together.
9.) Monitor Fire- A fire of the monitor which can occur when trying to link the use of join function in ArcGIS. Many things can go wrong causing a fire to the monitor!
10.) Calculate/ Field Calculator- This calculator in ArcGIS is used to query and help calculate certain values. We also used this in Lab 5 where we used the field calculator to calculate the population changes between the different decades.
Lab 4
Its getting easier and easier to get through but these tasks are taking me so long by myself and it becomes so frustrating. What i have been doing is a little mental imaging because when Im not able to come over here i try to read over the material and try to do it in my head the best way i can this way when i do get to the lab things run a lot more smoothly. Learning this ArcMap program has been kind of fun and none the less very different for me and any of my experience at this school! I feel i had the most tyrouble corrilating the maps together and making sure they would come up visable on this blog page which took me some time but i think i finally got.
Map Document- Document that allow maps to be linked or grouped together.
Table of Contents- Is a window that lists map layers you can also add them in this area.
Data Frame- Is where you can receive information from ArcGIS such as county or country and popluations and squar miles even.
Map Layer- Is the layer you can check or uncheck the map on the side of the layer inside the table of contents.
Attribute Table- Is where the data is graphed in order to be matched up or correlated in any way.
Lab 3
Wow i was not ready for this at all. I have been so far behind i feel like, that i am lost almost to the point of no return. I have been coming in at night trying to figure out my problems with these assignments. I believe the hardest thing is just keeping up and making sure everything is done when it needs to be. Without resources like a computer in my room with internet access the lab I feel is the only place that i can come to get this type of work done. Just a few days ago was the first day that my access code actually worked. I stayed in the lab for several hours to only get a little closer to being back on task. I still have a lot left to do in this lab before i’m done but one thing that is confusing me besides the computer language sometimes is the attention and tediousness these tasks take. I have spent many hours trying to figure out whats going wrong before I figured out that most of the data that I collected was wrong so I had to go back in and reset up my data in order for it to fit in to the format of the ArcGIS. I have not worked this hard on the last few labs and this is really a lot more demanding then I ever thought it would be!
Lab 2 Blog
If i thought that first lad was hard or time consuming i wasn’t ready for lab 2 at all. I had planned to most of my work after hours during class because i have been having trouble finding computers with the software for class and i don’t have internet access in my room so i feel like the lab is my best bet in getting this work done. This is no exsuse but i’m having trouble keeping up with quility of work that needed. I feel like i do better plus i want my project to be of good quality. Everyday is a learning process because everything feels so forgine to me! I feel like my project has a long way to come and i’m trying my best to figure out what way i can make it better and get it to the standards of the rest of the classes.
Lab 1 Blog
I am the kind of person thats into computers but not into computers on the level that we are working with them. Setting up an HTML page was one of the most difficult things i have had to do in a while. After viewing others cites i feel like i’m very behind and i feel like i don’t know where to start. I got help from a few classmates and this really began to show me what i was doing wrong and way to fix my mistakes. Most of my problems have been getting the images to show up on my page. Also many of my links don’t seem to want to work either!
