1.) W3Schools HTML Tutorial
I'm pretty experienced in writing HTML, so there was not much new in this article for me. It was a good refresher for me though, since I haven't written in HTML in a few years and had forgotten some of the basics to it. For somebody inexperienced in HTML though this would be an amazingly informative tutorial. The tutorial provides a beginner with everything they need to make a simple web page - and with a little practice even an advanced one.
HTML stands for hypertext markup language; it is not a programming language. HTML tag keywords are surrounded by brackets. Most browsers will recognize HTML even without an end tag, but future browsers will not do this. HTML attributes provide additional information. Text formatting allows HTML to change the format of the text, i.e. bold, italics, etc.. One thing I didn't know about HTML was how/or that you could make forms, it was interesting and surprisingly easy. The newest version of HTML is HTML 4.0 - it separates presentation from the document structure. You now use style sheets to change the presentation of the web page, which are much easier and faster.
2.) HTML Cheatsheet
This was a good reference for somebody writing in HTML. This would be especially good for somebody that has a good handle on HTML but is still beginner enough to not remember all the tags. It would also be good for somebody in my position who used HTML a lot in the past, but hasn't used it in a while - as a good refresher for tags.
3.) W3Schools Cascading Style Sheet
This tutorial was very interesting and informative for me, as I have never used a style sheet before. Even though I have used HTML a lot; I always included tags for format and style into the HTML and never used a style sheet. I really liked the tutorial, and is definitely something I would refer to if I ever was to use HTML again.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet, which defines the display of HTML elements. CSS's purpose is to control style and layout - and can be used to control style for many web pages all at once. HTML never intended to contain tags for formatting. CSS syntax is made up of 3 parts: selector, the HTML element or tag you want to define; property, attribute you wish to change; and property value. When a browser reads a style sheet it will automatically format the document according to the style sheet. There are three ways of inserting a style sheet: external, when applied to many pages; internal, applied to a single document; and inline, where you lose advantages of style sheet by mixing content and presentation. There are two different font types: generic family, which all have a similar look; and font family, which are specific fonts.
4.)Goans - Beyond HTML Article
This article is about the new Georgia State University library website. Their previous website was inconsistent, and had to many people doing to many different things (many with no website experience), and had no security. GSU decided to go with a database driven system, which is more flexible and efficient.
Content Management (CM) is a process of collecting, managing, and publishing content. Content Management Systems (CMS) is content disconnected from layout and design. You do not need to know HTML to run their CMS. This was very helpful to GSU, as most of their users were not very familiar with HMTL. Lots of different people have access as content creators yet their CMS still acts as a limited gatekeeper. This system allows the creators the freedom to tag, and organize the content as they want. The CMS system allowed the GSU library to do many more things that their previous file/folder system couldn't do.
GSU chose to go with a CMS system. They looked at other types of systems before they chose this. They looked at programs like Dreamweaver and other HTML programs. They couldn't justify doing this because their current software was free through the university and the library would have still had the same problem. They also couldn't justify spending money on a commercial CMS, because they had other free software. They looked at open source CMS, the problem with this is what the library needed was to big. They would have had to piece together a bunch of different open source software to make it work. They ultimately ended up building their own system.
The heart of the CMS technology that GSU built is a MySqul database on a Windows server. It was made up of: resource tables, which stores content; metadata tables, which assign content to templates; and personal metadata tables, which houses data for logging in and contact info. The CMS is basically a digital repository for a digital library system.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Week 7 Muddiest Point
Can anybody have access to Internet 2, or is it closed purely for researchers and universities? Is the main goal of Internet 2 to test standards and different things before they are introduced into the mainstream internet?
Monday, October 12, 2009
Week 7 Comments
http://mdelielis2600response.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-7-reading-responses.html?showComment=1255404581125#c9144006567009363903
http://lis2600infotechnology.blogspot.com/2009/10/jing-assignment.html?showComment=1255402991268#c4371057323831862153
http://lis2600infotechnology.blogspot.com/2009/10/jing-assignment.html?showComment=1255402991268#c4371057323831862153
Assignment #4 - Jing
Assignment #4 - Jing
I did my Jing assignment on how to send and open an E-mail attachment.
Screencast Video
Flickr photos - as a set with all 5 photos
And individually, photos 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
I did my Jing assignment on how to send and open an E-mail attachment.
Screencast Video
Flickr photos - as a set with all 5 photos
And individually, photos 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Week 7 Readings
1.) Tyson - Internet Infrastructure
This was a good article but it seems that it may have been more useful to read it last week. It didn't really repeat anything from the articles last week but it did repeat what was said in class. The information in this article was already talked about by Dr. He in class last Tuesday.
The article talks about networks and the internet infrastructure. Nobody technically owns the internet - it is just a global connection of networks. Many different ISPs are interconnected at NAPs (network access points) and they agree to communicate with each other. Networks rely on NAPs, backbones, and routers to communicate with each other. Routers determine where to send the information from computer to computer. Backbones are fiberoptic trunk lines.
IP (internet protocol) addresses are a unique identifying number for every machine on the internet. The numbers in IP addresses are called octets and there are a total of 32 numbers. DNS's convert the IP address into human readable words. Caching will essentially "save" the IP address from the DNS root server so that it doesn't have to contact the root server each time.
2.) Pace - Dismantling ILS
I'm not exactly sure what the argument in this article was. It was talking about ILS and problems with interoperability in regards to ILS, but I'm not sure what the author was trying to convey exactly.
ILS was essentially changed in the early 90's when libraries began embracing the web. Interoperability in library systems is a problem. Many people believe that the technology in libraries is interoperable, but it really isn't. Current ILS's are not doing the job libraries need them to, and libraries often have to find their own solutions or buy standalone products. Some libraries are exploring open source software to solve some of their problems - but these also create interoperability problems.
I think the article was implying that vendors need to be making a better product with better interoperability between not only their own products but other brands products as well, but I'm not really sure if that was the gist of it or not.
3.)Inside the Google Machine Video.
This was an interesting video, and cool to hear about Google as a company from the founders. I'm not really sure what the relevance of it was to our class though. It was intersting and informative, but didn't really have that much to do with information technology as far as I could see.
The most intersting part of the video in my opinion was the 20% rule. Google alows their employees to spend 20% of their time doing and working things they feel are useful or important. This is a really cool and interesting idea and they say it is how they keep new and innovative ideas coming. This is an idea that other companies may want to try to implement in one way or another. I know all companies can't afford to do something like this, or may be in an industry where it wouldn't be advantageous too, but for somebody like Google this is a great idea to keep the creative juices flowing in their employees.
This was a good article but it seems that it may have been more useful to read it last week. It didn't really repeat anything from the articles last week but it did repeat what was said in class. The information in this article was already talked about by Dr. He in class last Tuesday.
The article talks about networks and the internet infrastructure. Nobody technically owns the internet - it is just a global connection of networks. Many different ISPs are interconnected at NAPs (network access points) and they agree to communicate with each other. Networks rely on NAPs, backbones, and routers to communicate with each other. Routers determine where to send the information from computer to computer. Backbones are fiberoptic trunk lines.
IP (internet protocol) addresses are a unique identifying number for every machine on the internet. The numbers in IP addresses are called octets and there are a total of 32 numbers. DNS's convert the IP address into human readable words. Caching will essentially "save" the IP address from the DNS root server so that it doesn't have to contact the root server each time.
2.) Pace - Dismantling ILS
I'm not exactly sure what the argument in this article was. It was talking about ILS and problems with interoperability in regards to ILS, but I'm not sure what the author was trying to convey exactly.
ILS was essentially changed in the early 90's when libraries began embracing the web. Interoperability in library systems is a problem. Many people believe that the technology in libraries is interoperable, but it really isn't. Current ILS's are not doing the job libraries need them to, and libraries often have to find their own solutions or buy standalone products. Some libraries are exploring open source software to solve some of their problems - but these also create interoperability problems.
I think the article was implying that vendors need to be making a better product with better interoperability between not only their own products but other brands products as well, but I'm not really sure if that was the gist of it or not.
3.)Inside the Google Machine Video.
This was an interesting video, and cool to hear about Google as a company from the founders. I'm not really sure what the relevance of it was to our class though. It was intersting and informative, but didn't really have that much to do with information technology as far as I could see.
The most intersting part of the video in my opinion was the 20% rule. Google alows their employees to spend 20% of their time doing and working things they feel are useful or important. This is a really cool and interesting idea and they say it is how they keep new and innovative ideas coming. This is an idea that other companies may want to try to implement in one way or another. I know all companies can't afford to do something like this, or may be in an industry where it wouldn't be advantageous too, but for somebody like Google this is a great idea to keep the creative juices flowing in their employees.
Week 6 Muddiest Point
What are the advantages of a ring network? It seems that bus and star networks are much more robust and useful, so why would anybody set up a ring network?
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Week 6 Comments
http://brandonlocke.blogspot.com/2009/10/readings-week-five.html?showComment=1254625692755#c2429541382742443838
http://djd2600it.blogspot.com/2009/10/weekend-update-comments-take-6.html?showComment=1254626172628#c3986758631378457901
http://djd2600it.blogspot.com/2009/10/weekend-update-comments-take-6.html?showComment=1254626172628#c3986758631378457901
Week 6 Readings
1.) Wikipedia - LAN's
A good, but brief, article on LAN's. LAN's (Local Area Network) are computer networks for small physical areas. They usually use either WiFi or Ethernet to connect. They were developed out of necessity by larger universities and research labs for high speed interconnectivity and to share expensive disk space and laser printers.
I've had a good deal of experience working with LAN's. I've setup both wireless and wired LAN's. I've used Cat5 and Cat5e cables as well as wireless b/g to set up LAN's before. They are fairly simplistic to setup if you have a little bit of experience and are very useful for personal home use or to play computer games with your friends.
2.) Wikipedia - Computer Networks
An article with a general overview of computer networks. Computer networks are basically a group of interconnected computers. The connect to each other with either wires (ethernet, coax, etc.) or wirelessly (Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.). There are many different types of computer networks - depending upon what they are going to be used for - personal, local, campus, metropolitan. Wide Area Networks are a broad geographic area and the most popular one is what we call the Internet. You need some specific hardware in order to use computer networks. You will need your computer to have a network card, as well as hubs, switches (a more general term) and routers.
I've had a little bit of experience working with computer networks also; most of it was working specifically with LAN's as explained above. I've also worked with Personal Area Networks and a little bit with Campus Area Networks.
3.) Coyle - Management of RFID in Libraries
I had actually never heard of RFID before reading this article, so the article was very informative to me. After reading the article I realized I have used and been around RFID's for some time, I just didnt' know it. RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier) is similar to a barcode in what it does - but not how it does it. RFID uses electromagnetics as opposed to laser beams. It can also carry a lot more infromation than barcodes. RFID is very good for inventory functions. RFID in libraries could be even more useful than in retailbecause it will not be used as a "throw out." In libraries the RFID would be reused because books leave and then comeback as oppossed to in retail where something is sold and never returns.
RFID could also be useful for security measures in the library. It has a lot of problems in regards to security but it is no worse than what is already in place. It could also cut down on time and money in regards to security because you would not have to install two different systems.
Some problems libraries might experience with RFID is whether or not they would be able to be installed in magazines, pamphlests, sheet music, or other less sturdy items.
RFID is a fairly new technology and seems like it could be used well in libraries. There are a lot of advantages to it that libraries could take care off to save time and money. There are some problems with it though that libraries need to look into before deciding to switch over to it.
A good, but brief, article on LAN's. LAN's (Local Area Network) are computer networks for small physical areas. They usually use either WiFi or Ethernet to connect. They were developed out of necessity by larger universities and research labs for high speed interconnectivity and to share expensive disk space and laser printers.
I've had a good deal of experience working with LAN's. I've setup both wireless and wired LAN's. I've used Cat5 and Cat5e cables as well as wireless b/g to set up LAN's before. They are fairly simplistic to setup if you have a little bit of experience and are very useful for personal home use or to play computer games with your friends.
2.) Wikipedia - Computer Networks
An article with a general overview of computer networks. Computer networks are basically a group of interconnected computers. The connect to each other with either wires (ethernet, coax, etc.) or wirelessly (Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.). There are many different types of computer networks - depending upon what they are going to be used for - personal, local, campus, metropolitan. Wide Area Networks are a broad geographic area and the most popular one is what we call the Internet. You need some specific hardware in order to use computer networks. You will need your computer to have a network card, as well as hubs, switches (a more general term) and routers.
I've had a little bit of experience working with computer networks also; most of it was working specifically with LAN's as explained above. I've also worked with Personal Area Networks and a little bit with Campus Area Networks.
3.) Coyle - Management of RFID in Libraries
I had actually never heard of RFID before reading this article, so the article was very informative to me. After reading the article I realized I have used and been around RFID's for some time, I just didnt' know it. RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier) is similar to a barcode in what it does - but not how it does it. RFID uses electromagnetics as opposed to laser beams. It can also carry a lot more infromation than barcodes. RFID is very good for inventory functions. RFID in libraries could be even more useful than in retailbecause it will not be used as a "throw out." In libraries the RFID would be reused because books leave and then comeback as oppossed to in retail where something is sold and never returns.
RFID could also be useful for security measures in the library. It has a lot of problems in regards to security but it is no worse than what is already in place. It could also cut down on time and money in regards to security because you would not have to install two different systems.
Some problems libraries might experience with RFID is whether or not they would be able to be installed in magazines, pamphlests, sheet music, or other less sturdy items.
RFID is a fairly new technology and seems like it could be used well in libraries. There are a lot of advantages to it that libraries could take care off to save time and money. There are some problems with it though that libraries need to look into before deciding to switch over to it.
Week 5 Muddiest Point
Why are .AVI files still popular? I've never come across a player that is expressly used for a avi extension. Most popular extensions have their only players (Windows Media, Quicktime, RealPlayer, etc.) and even though you can download plugins to play other files in it they are expressly made for one file extension. I know you can play .AVI files in most/all of these players by downloading the right plugins and codecs but with the ease of playing other file extensions in their own players why are .AVI files still so popular. Do they provide something other file extensions don't?
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