Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Week: 9

Comments:

To Lauren on XML:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4181925387762663697&postID=6088639436438282257&page=1

To Jenny on XML:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=61837130736160649&postID=6652831274209621358&page=1

An Intro to XML:

Interesting, but hard to understand... I wish it was worded better. Some links to examples also would've been a great help... "Enter a third-level heading without first entering a second-level heading..." What?! The components section should've definitely come first, and an XML cheat sheet would've been awesome.

A Survey of XML Standards, Part 1:

This reading provided some good history of XML along with some useful links to help you fully understand what XML is and how it works. The references the Uche Ogbuji provided were helpful as well. Before reading this article I didn't quite know what it meant when I checked the "XML" and the "XHTML" boxes in Dreamweaver... Now I know, and this is my new XML cheat sheet.

Andre Bergholz Tutorial:

This tutorial had excellent explanations. It explained the difference between XML, SGML, and HTML. It makes it clear that HTML actually tells nothing about data content. The figures were a big help with understanding and showed in written code the difference between HTML and XML. You can actually see all of the content contained in XML code just by looking at it. This was a good read for me because I never read up on anthing like this before. Especially when it came to DTD Element and such. The figures for making XML work with stylesheets was helpful as well...

XML Schema Tutorial:

After reading the introduction, I'm glad I read the other readings first... This tutorial gave great definitions of XML Schema and exactly what it does, supports, and how its used. It later gives examples of code and breaks down simple types, complex types, and data types. This makes for another good print out that I'm sure I'll end up referring to at some point.

Muddiest Point:

We still haven't used to codes we've been looking at to build any websites... I'm aware its coming but I'd like to do it now while all this code jargon is fresh on my brain. I also wish the readings weren't so much the same. But I guess that's good for memorization...

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Week 8:

Comments:

To Amanda on her thoughts on HTML:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=271112965323219834&postID=2641527911712725877&page=1

To SPK on his thoughts on HTML:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1129785935180596689&postID=6165812584986651423&page=1

Readings:

The "BEYOND HTML" article was fascinating, and it just so happens that we had a seminar at work about this very same subject matter. At GAI Consultants, there's about 600 of us... The seminar was about showing us how each employee is tracked on an online database system. It also showed us how to use this database to easily mail information to one another. This article did a great job of explaining content management in the way it was written, and the charts and graphs it used.

I've been building websites for a couple of years now. That's why this was the best week of readings for me so far. I use the most popular program out there from the Adobe Suite called Dreamweaver. It allows you to create websites from a design, code, or design/code point of view. The downside to making websites in the design point of view is that you don't really get a chance to learn the HTML or CSS coding. To be honest, I create my sites from a design point of view, but I check the code view every once in a while.

Although I've learned HTML before in my undergrad graphic design classes, the coding is something I've pushed back in my mind. These 4 readings went hand in hand with each other and were a GREAT refresher on the subject and it has made me think about designing my sites from a code point of view from now on. I even printed out the HTML cheatsheet.

CSS designing is really awesome! It allows you to change the appearance of your website simply by changing the "style" setting! My favorite website for CSS, and probably the best example of how it works is the CSS Zen Garden. Check it out and click away! http://www.csszengarden.com/

Muddiest Point:

I loved the readings. They were a huge help in a lot of ways... But I felt that even though I printed it out, the HTML cheat sheet was unnecessary for most people. All I mean is that I think it could've been subsituted for another reading that's a little bit different.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Week 7:

Comments:

Blogger:
To Nate on his Wi-Fi question
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=301150766198525940&postID=22716207993430543&page=1

To E. Griswold on her comments
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3799366651359702810&postID=1475439621040041093&page=1

How the Internet Infrastructure Works:

I know nobody owns the internet… That person would be a gazillionaire!! I just can’t imagine that something so important, something used by everyone in everyday life to do important tasks, has no owner. One thing we haven’t really seen yet was how the computer network hierarchy works. This isn’t new to me, but it’s always cool to see visual diagrams. Also, I’ve always seen acronyms like ‘POP’ and ‘NAP’, but never knew what they stood for. Well, now I know. Seeing how routers work was interesting as well.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems:

Interesting… I’m not sure about the real relevance though. This article was informative and definitely give me something to think about as far as ILS’s go, but it just seemed like a bunch of Jeopardy knowledge to me.

Inside the Google Machine:

This was an informative, well spoken, and funny at times video that managed to keep my attention for 20 minutes. If you knew me, that’s saying a lot! I had no idea what a big deal Google is. I knew it was a search engine for different sorts of things like web articles, images, video, etc. It was cool to see all the other Google projects I didn’t know about like. Services like Google Answers sounds like something that would be of great help for students doing research papers. They said that you could use it from $5 to $50… I wonder how the service would differ from price? This was a great video to watch with great media demonstrations. It’s amazing how humor and speaking in a down to earth, relaxed way can get through to audiences.

Muddiest Point:

I couldn’t get the article Dismantling Integrated Library Systems to load with the link provided, so I had to search for it. After finding it, which wasn’t hard, I didn’t see the relevance…