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@Arefino.....Because Your Disqus Wasn't Working, But I Liked Your Topic

1) You mentioned Twitter multiple times and how we are so used to reading news in minimal characters. Would you say Twitter started this change in how we read media news?

2) We talked about digital natives earlier this year, do you think that this is happening to just our generation or is happening to older ones too?

3) You suggest that new digital media writers need to make things short, and sweet. Can we fit all the important facts and content into less words and still have it have the same impact?

Are Splash Pages Good For Usability?

What are splash pages? They are an introduction to your web page that contains flashy elements like links, images, animation, and movies. They allow you the choice of how to enter the site, or sites, that you have on your website. They can also be used to show off a web designers skills.

My Personal Opinion: Splash Pages give you a new, unique look to your site. Unless you are an avid web surfer, you do not see splash pages all that often so it a good change up from the normal website. I like that it gives you options on what to find. What if you looking into going to another college? You log onto their page and it'll give you options like "About Us", "Classes", "Offices", etc etc. Splash pages are good for the users who aren't sure what they're looking for, until they see it.

http://webdesign.about.com/od/navigation/a/aa020303a.htm brought up the topic of Pros and Cons of splash pages.

Some Pros are: -They are fast loading, and eliminates the time it takes to scroll down a page because all the information is up.

-It guarantees the user to see your flashy element design at least once (this pertains to showing off your skills).

-It gives the user options, it allows them to pick which site they want to read about instead of being forced to read through some they don’t care about in order to get to the one they do.

Some Cons are: -If a user is just trying to open up your page, a splash page is an annoying page that prevents them getting directly to your page.

-Some studies have shown up to 25% of users left a site right after they saw there was a splash page

-Splash pages that contain a lot of images offer no context for a search engine to optimize on. When people type in key words for your search, your splash page will not be one of the first sites that come up. Many search engines can not effectively navigate through flash index.

Most definitions of splash pages begin with saying that it is an introduction to your page. It continues to say that it contains flash images or videos, which is what most critics pick out on why they are no good for usability. But what if you don’t involve flash? For my page I am strictly going to use it as an introduction. I’ll have a header and possibly some images, but no annoying flash videos because frankly I do not know how to incorporate them.

I believe that splash pages, without flash, are good for usability. If you do it right, it gives the user options to what site or link they want to click on. I am going to set up my page that has links to my about me page, my goals, and a page that has shows off some of my photoshop skills. This will not overwhelm the user, but give them an easy option.

http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/02/05/the-creative-examples-of-colorful-splash-pages.html have some good examples of different splash pages that don’t use flash.

Not Sure Whats Going On Down There?

The link to my site showed up fine as I was typing this, then when I posted it all that jibberish came up

Not sure how to fix it. Sorry to those who can't read user malfunction

USAbility and AcessiBILITY

http://www.usabilityfirst.com/ is a good site to see the definition of usability as well as be able to click on different options such as “user-centered design”, which is one of the main components to a web page

http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/policy/access.html is a good site for accessibility because it gives you 12 guidelines to follow such as "Dont overuse your colors" and "Use understandable language"

CSS Finally

If you are like me and need to see a design that you like before you create your own, this site is for you

http://www.free-css.com/

It allows you to download a free CSS template and look at the code of both the html and css, so if you like the design you can look at the code then copy and paste it over to your code. Just make sure you change it to the content you want on your page

What We Didnt Really Cover

One of the requirements for our projects was to pick a color to make our background and and border. We haven't talked what colors we should make our fonts though, at least not in regards to what colors would have the most affect to the viewer.

Don't use wacky fonts with wacky colors just because it looks cool to you, its all about readability

But if you are trying to make your context interesting, don't use plain and boring colors.

Pick colors that relate to your page. If you are trying to create a page that involves nature, don't use red because that symbolizes blood or violence. Use green for grass, and blue for sky.

If you want the site to be "hip" and in style, I wouldn't recommend using a black background with red text because that symbolizes more of a goth scene

Its all about picking colors that best match the tone you are trying represent. This can be a difficult task that involves your creativity, but keep in mind your sense creativity might not be best for the viewer. It involves a lot of trial and error, so stay patient!

http://writingspaces.org/wwsg/color-blind

The Day My Son Dunked on a Black and White Hoop in a Black and White Park #Proud

That Was Easy

For color matching I found http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html to be a good site because I got to see all the different variations of colors.

For topography I liked http://ilovetypography.com/2007/09/19/15-excellent-examples-of-web-typography/. (which when you first glance at it, it looks like a naughty site)

For web design I found the tutorials on http://www.quackit.com/web_graphics/tutorial/ to be easy and helpful

Lastly, this site for web streaming was extremely easy because the first thing I saw when I got on the site was "Enter video or url here" and download. Bam..just like that. http://keepvid.com

Project 4 is Done :)...But Not The End :(

CSS a.k.a Cascading Style Sheets is used for the design of a webpage. It enables the visual design of a web page. It is i charge of the color, the border, fonts, and sizes of all the information in the HTML.

If I was to explain this to someone who didn't know what it was I would describe it as the music video to a song (Ive mentioned this before in an earlier post). The song and HTML go together because they are the body, it contains the information of a topic. The music video and CSS go together because its what presents the information in an artistic manner.

HTML by itself is just code, but CSS is what makes up the visual design of this code

HTML governs the body or the information on this site, CSS governs how that information is portrayed.

CSS is to XHTML as a Music Video is to a Song

After many hours of reading and trying out CSS, I feel like i have kinda sorta almost there handle on it. I found out that CSS is the design that goes along with the wirtten code of XHTML. Some Sources that helped with this and could help me more in the future are:

http://www.htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/.

This site is the one we used in class and it allows you to copy and paste what tags you might want to use

http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-colors.html

I used this site today to help pick out what colors I wanted. It allows you to choose and preview essentially every color and shade imaginable

http://css.maxdesign.com.au/

This is the site I could use in the future because it gives tutorials on how to incorporate different aspects of CSS

The XHTML Project Was A Successfully Confusing One

Thank God for having patient peers or else my fist would've went through the computer already. The project seemed easy for most in the class, but for me it was a confusing one because of all the lingo used in trying to explain the project and all the codes that needed to be altered. So I had no confidence in myself and then all of a sudden it was done. Easy right? Ha..no..just the beginning of a long road ahead for me.

But what I did 'learn' (term used very loosely) is that XHTML is the new HTML except now it can be used for wider audiences, because its original purpose was to be only used for a specific audience. It is a markup language that closely relates to the original HTMl but now it can be used to write codes for documents and pictures that can be accessed from all different types of platforms.The acronym XHTML stands for Extensive HyperText Markup Language. The most simple way to describe what XHTML can do for a website is that it allows anyone who either has the knowledge, or is getting help from someone, that knows how to create a website. In order to create a website you must have a code. Codes are not copyrighted, so if you go on a site and like the layout of it you are allowed to access the code for it and copy and paste. Then you can add other headings, paragraphs, and pictures to the site as long as you know how to create new tags within the code.

XHTML is just an updated version of HTML. In literal terms, the only difference between the two is that the 'X" in XHTML stands for eXtensive, or simply the ability to add on to. That is essentially what the difference between them is, that in XHTML you can add more things like pictures and longer texts that can now be accessed by more non-computer devices such as cell phones. Also in XHTML everything must be lower cased compared to HTML where everything was in CAPS. And another subtle difference in XHTML is that all tags must be <closed>, where as in HTML most tags were left open.

Hopefully all this begins to click (no pun) for me or else I'll be thinkin FML instead of XHTML

(Moving My Finger Across My Lips And Making The Cartoon Sound For Confusion)

XHTML....why? Why are you so difficult to understand? Why can't you just be simplified for web dummies like me. I found some sites that made the understanding of XHTML a little less painful

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/html-xhtml-css-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html. This is XHTML for Dummies and it breaks down the elements of HTML and XHTML as well as giving other sites which might help simplify the process.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp. This site offers tutorials on learning the XHTML system. It should help me if I am able to practice it.

http://www.htmlhelp.com/. This acts as almost a homepage for beginners in web design because it has multiple links on where to go for topics such as CSS Guide and Standards for HTML Authoring

#XHTML help #Confused about XHTML

Home Is Where..A Place To Not Get Your Work Done

I came back home this weekend for a couple of reason. I havent seen my family and friends since I left for college, I had to conduct my interview with my old english teacher, and also because it was Homecoming weekend.

I come from a small town so when Homecoming comes around, it's kinda of a big deal. Everyone knows everyone, alumni of all ages come back to watch the game while everyone else is busy working the booths for fundraisers and what not.

I got to see little kids playing backyard football, just like I use

I got to watch high school boys play their homecoming football game, just like I use to

And now i was in the position of the alumni, it was a humbling/sad/happy moment.

But back to reality, I have a bunch of HW that is due Monday and Tuesday and I needed to put a dent in it this weekend in order to make any progress and not get stressed out. So I put it in my bookbag and headed back to Haprursville on Friday...anddd I just opened my bag today, Sunday, at 12;30. Shit

The last two days have been packed! Seeing everybody, trying to spread quality time with parents but at the same time getting text from your friends saying "Your home! lets do something!".

So to wrap up, I felt responsible for putting my Hw in my bookbag to bring back and complete this weekend. But I was just kidding myself, I cant believe I honestly thought I could get this all done at home. But ya know what, like me and and this older guy I work for always say: "Its not fun if its easy".

#stress

10 Sites That I'll Use For My Online Portfolio

1) Having good time management skills can make the difference between being stressed and not. The tips on this site should help http://collegelife.about.com/od/academiclife/a/Skills-For-Time-Management-For-Students.htm

2) This article is titled "Damnit Jim, Im a Writer, Not A Graphic Designer" which in a nutshell explains my situation, but brings up helpful tips http://writingspaces.org/wwsg/graphic-design-crap

3) The article above was talking about up an interesting concept called CRAP (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) and this is the site http://thinkvitamin.com/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design/. It breaks down each term for a rookie like myself

4) I want my webpage to be attractive to the eye, so http://writingspaces.org/wwsg/-so-many-fonts talks about which fonts make it look good and which make it look sloppy

5) Headlines are the first, or maybe last impression, readers will get when they click on your site. I obviously want mine to look good. http://writingspaces.org/wwsg/page-titles-headlines-subheaders

6) I want my headlines to be catchy though, and this guy has 23 useful tools including 'awesome adjectives' http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/6771-how-to-write-for-the-web-23-useful-rules

7) This one talks about style versus design and brings up important criteria for each.

http://www.ianchadwick.com/ordovician/design.html

8) I find sometimes tht I stumble upon writers block when I try to start a project, this site gives 7 tips on how to avoid that. http://www.iwu.edu/~writcent/invention_strategies.htm

9) Im creating this online portfolio in hopes that a future hirer from a school sees it and becomes interested. One of the main components of teaching is creating lesson plans, and I might give an example of how i would write my own. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/writing-lesson-plans.html

10) Lastly, this site gives you 8 tips on how to create a web design page and also offers sites that you can use for a template, or gives examples of what color scheme to use. Very helpful. http://www.cyberindian.com/web-designing/8-tips-for-great-website.php

#Web Design. Helpful tips for webpages

Now You Know

Ever sit at your laptop with the pressure of an assignment due hanging over your head? Not knowing what you're suppose to be writing about, but you have to, so you go to google and type in the topic. Well http://www.squidoo.com/researchonline breaks the process of searching good, useful topics into three main parts.

After reading these 3 tools, you wont 2nd guess yourself, on finding that 1 good article

#internet Searching tools for searching

Like They Say In Golf: Thats Useful

Ever stop and think about how the information you just typed into a search bar turns into hundreds of pages of sites falling under that category? Probably not because it happens too damn quick! Things such as spiders, meta tags, and indexes are not words thrown around everyday, but it is how this beautiful process of searching things online works. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/web-page6.htm is the site that lists clearly the strategies and tools that I never even heard of but they give you a behind-the-scenes look at how search engines work.

Meta-Tags have the same concept as regular tags, except meta? You all know what tagging is, you tag something and then when people are looking up that word you just tagged, you're article comes up. Well when you have millions of tags for millions of sites, it would be all clustered up if all them showed up under your search bar. Meta-Tags allows the owner of the site to specify which and key terms that will be indexed, so this lessens the amount of possible results for you when you search.

The 'index' is what the owner puts his tagging into. You can tag your article in different ways, such as tagging the general topic of what the site is or tagging how many time a word is used that people might search. The purpose of the index is so that its easier and faster to find what is being searched .

And then finally, what searching of the web is all based on upon, the web-crawling. These computer 'spiders' scroll through each possible page that you searched and finds and puts in order all the indexes it came across. One spider can search 100 pages in a second, and sites such as google have 3 or 4 spiders working at the same time.

#Meta-Tags #Index #Web Crawling #Internet Searching

Tweetie Bird

I created a twitter http://twitter.com/#!/DalpDoinWork

Check out my lists and tweets and see what you think

#twitter

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