Muddiest Point Week 10

What is it about HTML that makes it the popular markup language of choice for people to use for webpage design compared to other markup languages such as Pagemill?

Muddiest Point Week 9

My muddiest point involves something I learned last week. If one searches for inurl:/view/index.shtml on a search engine, one can get access to a variety of cameras that are connected to some form of computer network. For instance, at http://soewebcam.cs.unm.edu/view/index.shtml one can view a security camera on the University of New Mexico. What I wondered was if changing the HTML code with the website could impact the results of the video feed. Can it and if so what would the effects be?

Week Eight Readings

I loved the HTML editor featured in the W3schools tutorial. It gave me a better sense of how to use HTML to design Web pages. I wanted to enter some of the HTML code into this post. Unfortunately by doing that, it caused blogger to crash and I lost everything I planned do post here. Regardless, the HTML tutorial was very useful and it answered a lot of questions I had regarding HTML Web page design

The HTML cheatsheet contained more HTML attributes that would cause blogger to crash if I posted them here. However, I may go search some websites on Google and see if i can type in different HTML into the URLs and change the websites according to the options described on the cheatsheet.

From looking at the CSS tutorial, I gathered that CSS is very similar to HTML. It said that I can change the text, layout, background, and margins all in one file. Does this mean that to change all those things in HTML I must save them in separate files? I am curious to try this out, though for the sake of not having my browser crash now I'll old off on it until I am doing something less important.

The Beyond HTML article helped me understand the importance of knowing HTML in case something goes awry with the website for any prospective institution I may work for. I also liked the description the article gave for an HTML template. I don't know a lot about content management systems though I plan to do some independent research on them to see how they work. I now am curious regarding how a content management system relates to HTML and how I can utilize them both with designing and maintaining a website.

Muddiest Point Week 8

The articles and video explained everything I needed to know. Thus I have no muddiest point this week.

Reading Notes for October 20

Tyson explains how computers connect in very clear terms. I also had no idea that routers must handle so much from large networks. This explains why whenever I used my computer with a large wireless network such as in a hotel the connection speed is very poor. With a network that features fewer computers, the processing speed for Internet work goes quickly. I also learned that URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and that http at the beginning of URLs stands for hypertext transfer protocol. His article was informative and I plan to use it in the future if I have basic questions about how website design and function go.

I had no idea the internet led to the demise of Integrated Library Systems. I also did not expect integrated library systems would be nearly impossible to reestablish. The interoperability of computer systems in libraries though sounds like it will supersede and outperform integrated library systems. I also agree with Pace's closing statement that to rebuild the ILS we may need to dismantle it first.

I found Brin and Page's Google usage display fascinating. I also found it interesting that they could track the individual languages being used on Google. Also, parts of the world considered "developing regions" had less Google activity. I had no idea Google activity could be tracked so closely by anyone. In some ways that is good because it helps the programmers determine the order of search results. I also never really thought in depth about the Google toolbar on the Firefox browser. I plan to use it much more now. In addition, even though the ads may be relevant to the search topic, I can't say that I plan to click on the ad links. Google has the right idea by doing constant vigilance over search results plus not accepting money from the results themselves but from advertisers helps Google's integrity that it will help people find exactly what they search for.

Whoops, accidentally misread the flickr instructions

In my previous post I only included the central link to the flickr photos rather than links to the individual photos. Here are the links to each individual photograph. Each photo has a caption explaining what the image is.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/4017256306/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/4017256288/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/4017256232/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/4016491851/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/4017256138/

This should make everything better. Enjoy!

Here's the Jing Assignment

I meant to have this up sooner but I ran into some snags with other work I needed to take care of. Regardless, better late than never for this Jing assignment.

http://www.screencast.com/users/Iceman0427

My screencast feed focuses on http://imacomputa.org/sax/, a website devoted to saxophone solos in popular 1980's music. I was impressed that Jing captured the audio from the website, though I expected Jing to have better editing options for the video program. Regardless, it seems good for presentations and podcasts.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42302833@N04/sets/72157622598053942/

The screens I captured for flickr include my flickr page, garfieldminusgarfield.net, www.fark.com, the quotes page of a friend, and my personal information on my band Skallys' website.

Muddiest Point Week 7

I have a pretty good understanding of the different networks so I have no muddy points right now. If any come up I will post them later.

Zotero Results

file:///Users/Iceman/Documents/Grad%20School%20Work/My%20Library.rdf

When I first read the findings of my Zotero export, I found them difficult to comprehend. That said, when I reopened the Zotero box opened up in my browser, I could read everything just fine. What I gathered from this is that the results of Zotero are only as good as what one enters into it. I must make sure I copy down every bit of useful bibliographic information and use it with a specific style guide when establishing a bibliography. While it is not as convenient as just exporting the results into a Word document, it still makes organizing bibliographic content fairly painless. I am pleased with Zotero now that it works in my browser and I plan to use it in the future.

Muddiest Point Week 6

Having resolved my issues with Zotero, I have no muddy points for this week.

Week Six Readings

When I first heard the term Local Area Network, I thought of it in terms of multiplayer online PC games such as Quake and World of Warcraft. A number of my friends were very into playing games like that. When I found that LANs existed as far back as the 1960's, I was very surprised. I also did not know that larger LANs used redundant links with switches to manage their wide volume of users. I know that whenever I use a computer in a lab I sign on to a LAN though I never knew about the complexity of the network until reading about it.

I never really thought about a computer network being larger than a LAN, though after reading the article I see just how large the scope is of the Computer Network. I also did not consider how much the technology with the connections has advanced in just the past few years. I also never knew about the complexity of the switches that power the networks. Routers also apparently serve as packet facilitators with internet-linked computers. I know from personal experience that recieving packets is a sign that my internet connection is working and that if I do not recieve packets, something is wrong. Personally, I do not think most libraries do not seem huge enough to warrant something beyond a LAN, though given the advancement of technology along with the increased use of eBooks, I see libraries having their computer networks take a more prominant role with libraries.

I thought Frank Klein's video was very informative. He acknowledged that is audience might not know a lot about computer networks and he explained them in very easy to understand terms. I did not know about metropolitan area networks prior to this video and I wonder if the city of Pittsburgh has anything like that. Despite not containing anything flashy, the video got the point across.

Coyle's article makes me equate Radio Frequency IDentifier to what makes the E-Zpass transponder work on toll roads. If it works for E-Zpass I definitely see it working well for the library. While it might eliminate most of the human interaction one encounters from signing out a book it certainly seems that it would make signing out books much easier. That said, given the few occasions where my transponder did not get read on the turnpike, I feel that there needs to be more certainty with the RFID technology before libraries implement it. That said, RFID seems to be the way to go with signing books out in the future as it is fast and painless.