This photo of Albert Einstein is seen everywhere these days. I have seen it on magnets, calendars, notebooks and posters. I have the picture on a poster at my house, hanging in my office. I’ve seen the poster so often, but I wondered about the history behind it. Where was it taken? What was happening to make Albert Einstein stick his tongue out so hilariously? Who took the photo?
I turned to the Internet, and found plenty of places where the picture had been placed online. I figured it would be simple to find a website that showed the picture and placed the history of the picture somewhere close beside it. On http://fusionanomaly.net/alberteinstein.html, I got just the opposite.
When I first saw the picture, I was a little disappointed in its size and placement. Personally, the photo is one of my favorites, and I think it should bigger because it’s great! The photo is small and surrounded by white space, with no caption, title, or background information. I think that this site has used the picture as more of a decoration than a subject for information.
The site itself is an unorganized assortment of facts, quotes, and resources. It is hard to navigate because of the excessive scrolling. Famous photos of Einstein, actual book covers, and even a chicken crossing the road are scattered throughout. The site relies on the reader to make connections between the images and the text around them.
The picture of Einstein sticking his tongue is below the quote “"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." I assume that Einstein said this, because the site is about him; however, there is no citation for the quote to confirm that assumption. It seems like the text was written beforehand, and the images were placed in an attempt to make the site more visually appealing.
So, I didn’t discover any background information for the picture on this site. I don’t think that was what the author intended to do when he placed the photo. I had to keep searching for the answers.

Is anyone else having a hard time grasping this whole website thing?

The one-page web and nonprofit assignments made me realize how extensive the internet really is...how in the world is all that nonsense possible? We're using one of the simplest site-making softwares available, so the actual creation of the site is easy. The posting of the sites is what gets me. The UNCW servers and student files and timmy and ftp this and save that...it's all confusing as hell.

Can't the UNCW staff figure out some easier way to organize how to use this website/storage spage/timmy nonsense? If not, teach a class on the stuff! The TAC center website has been absolutely no help to me, other than displaying(mostly hidden within other blocks of text) the URLs to access all these assorted servers. All the needed information is there, but for the website building virgins like myself...it's a foreign language. Ms. Shirley Mathews and I actually broke out the dry-erase markers in an attempt to organize these sites and decipher how to make use of them.

This leads me to believe that the usability of the TAC website could use some improvement. The contact information for the TAC office, just in case you "can't access your TIMMY folder is in bold. The URL for the ftp site that lets you access your TIMMY folder is not in bold, and is buried deep within a paragraph and bulleted list BELOW the contact information. That's a good thing...because you're definitely going to need that phone number when you can't make sense of it all.

So, UNCW, make your TAC website a little easier to understand. Please. Teach a class on how to use your e-mail, TIMMY, and web space at orientation. Do something, because it's not fair to students or professors to waste class time interpreting and teaching how to use your server system.