- Prior to the mass use of the Internet by the general population, who principally used the Internet and for what purpose?
- What was the first WYSIWYG web browser? Made by whom?
- Why was Netscape perceived as a threat by Microsoft?
- Describe the meeting between the developers of Netscape and Microsoft. How did Microsoft go about bringing down Netscape?
- Why was an anti-trust lawsuit brought against Microsoft?
- What were the long term effects of the anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Download - Episode 1 - Browser Wars
Based on "Browser Wars," Episode 1 of the series Download: The True Story of the Internet, answer the following questions:
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Web Design Pro Tips
Based on the article below and additional research on your part on the Internet, what most one consider in planning a website? As someone just learning about web design, what suprises you the most? What questions do you have as we begin to learn HTML and/or what do you want to be able to do/create?
Adapted from 20 Pro Tips by .net Magazine:
The difference between a good web designer and a great one is the ability to know how to take short cuts and save time without compromising the quality of work. Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber has put together 20 top tips and tricks you should be using to give your work that all-important professional edge
1. Planning
When you’re itching to get started, it’s easy to overlook the most obvious step: planning. Whether it’s drawing wireframes and site diagrams in OmniGraffle or Visio, or even on a scrap of paper, you’ll save time by having an overview of your design at the site and page level before you start building. Obvious errors can be detected and solved before it’s too late to go back and it makes explaining your ideas to clients and colleagues a lot simpler than waving your hands in the air.
2. Do it by hand
Although there are some excellent tools around for building web sites, such as Adobe GoLive and Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver, professional code monkeys prefer to code by hand. Are they crazy masochists? Quite possibly.
There’s only one way to learn HTML, and that’s to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with some actual code. But fear not: HTML has one of the easiest learning curves you’ll ever come across and you can create a basic web page with only a couple of lines. Writing code by hand also ensures that you write the leanest code possible, which is the ultimate aim of all HTML geeks.
Don’t throw out that copy of GoLive or Dreamweaver just yet. Both applications have excellent code writing environments, and have useful features, such as collapsable blocks of code and split views so you can code and see the results at the same time. If you want to try the code-only route, then any text editor that can save in the basic .txt format should do, but Mac users might want to check out Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit, and Windows users should give the freeware AceHTML editor from Visicome Media a whirl.
5. Commenting
When you come back to a site that you designed months ago, there’s nothing worse than trying to figure out what you did and attempting to untangle a spaghetti of code. Do yourself (and anyone else who wants to check out your code) a favour by putting comments in your HTML. Comments might add anything from a few bytes to a kilobyte or two to your page, but the time savings are invaluable.
Commenting also encourages you to keep your code tidy by breaking it into logical chunks. Some coders even use comments to create a table of contents for the page, which is only visible in code view.
Be aware that HTML and CSS use two different kinds of commenting, so you may want to learn the difference.
/* CSS comments are enclosed by a forward slash and an asterisk. */
10. Test, test and test again
While Internet Explorer still dominates the browser market by a huge percentage, its lead is being gradually eroded by other browsers such as Firefox and Opera. There are also plenty of people out there still using archaic browsers like pre-Mozilla versions of Netscape.
It’s virtually impossible to design great-looking web sites that work in all browser versions, so it’s best to decide which browsers you’ll support. Mozilla-based browsers, WebKit-based browsers (such as Apple’s Safari), KHTML-based browsers (such as Konqueror), Opera and Internet Explorer versions four and higher are generally considered a safe benchmark. However, you should still be a good net citizen by ensuring that your code degrades gracefully, so that even unsupported browsers can experience your site – even in a limited form (see tip 14).
17. Wrapping text around images
For a quick and dirty way of wrapping text around images, use the image’s align attribute to push it to the left or right. Rather than jump below the image, text should now flow along the edge.
18. Universal character sets
Character sets are an important part of a web page’s definition, but they’re probably the least understood component. Character sets, which are defined in a web page’s invisible head section, tell the browser what method is being used to encode the characters. A charset ISO Latin 1 (also known as ISO 8859-1) will render the code it finds using a basic Western alphabet, but a charset of Shift JIS will attempt to render any characters it finds as Japanese.
19. Print styles
When people print web pages, often they’re not interested in your flashy graphics: they just want a simplified version of the page.
20. Learn from others
Finally, a quick and simple tip: learn from great sites built by others. Any site’s HTML is easily accessible by viewing a page’s source code. See how others have done things and apply their methods to your own work.
Adapted from 20 Pro Tips by .net Magazine:
The difference between a good web designer and a great one is the ability to know how to take short cuts and save time without compromising the quality of work. Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber has put together 20 top tips and tricks you should be using to give your work that all-important professional edge
1. Planning
When you’re itching to get started, it’s easy to overlook the most obvious step: planning. Whether it’s drawing wireframes and site diagrams in OmniGraffle or Visio, or even on a scrap of paper, you’ll save time by having an overview of your design at the site and page level before you start building. Obvious errors can be detected and solved before it’s too late to go back and it makes explaining your ideas to clients and colleagues a lot simpler than waving your hands in the air.
2. Do it by hand
Although there are some excellent tools around for building web sites, such as Adobe GoLive and Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver, professional code monkeys prefer to code by hand. Are they crazy masochists? Quite possibly.
There’s only one way to learn HTML, and that’s to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with some actual code. But fear not: HTML has one of the easiest learning curves you’ll ever come across and you can create a basic web page with only a couple of lines. Writing code by hand also ensures that you write the leanest code possible, which is the ultimate aim of all HTML geeks.
Don’t throw out that copy of GoLive or Dreamweaver just yet. Both applications have excellent code writing environments, and have useful features, such as collapsable blocks of code and split views so you can code and see the results at the same time. If you want to try the code-only route, then any text editor that can save in the basic .txt format should do, but Mac users might want to check out Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit, and Windows users should give the freeware AceHTML editor from Visicome Media a whirl.
5. Commenting
When you come back to a site that you designed months ago, there’s nothing worse than trying to figure out what you did and attempting to untangle a spaghetti of code. Do yourself (and anyone else who wants to check out your code) a favour by putting comments in your HTML. Comments might add anything from a few bytes to a kilobyte or two to your page, but the time savings are invaluable.
Commenting also encourages you to keep your code tidy by breaking it into logical chunks. Some coders even use comments to create a table of contents for the page, which is only visible in code view.
Be aware that HTML and CSS use two different kinds of commenting, so you may want to learn the difference.
/* CSS comments are enclosed by a forward slash and an asterisk. */
10. Test, test and test again
While Internet Explorer still dominates the browser market by a huge percentage, its lead is being gradually eroded by other browsers such as Firefox and Opera. There are also plenty of people out there still using archaic browsers like pre-Mozilla versions of Netscape.
It’s virtually impossible to design great-looking web sites that work in all browser versions, so it’s best to decide which browsers you’ll support. Mozilla-based browsers, WebKit-based browsers (such as Apple’s Safari), KHTML-based browsers (such as Konqueror), Opera and Internet Explorer versions four and higher are generally considered a safe benchmark. However, you should still be a good net citizen by ensuring that your code degrades gracefully, so that even unsupported browsers can experience your site – even in a limited form (see tip 14).
17. Wrapping text around images
For a quick and dirty way of wrapping text around images, use the image’s align attribute to push it to the left or right. Rather than jump below the image, text should now flow along the edge.
18. Universal character sets
Character sets are an important part of a web page’s definition, but they’re probably the least understood component. Character sets, which are defined in a web page’s invisible head section, tell the browser what method is being used to encode the characters. A charset ISO Latin 1 (also known as ISO 8859-1) will render the code it finds using a basic Western alphabet, but a charset of Shift JIS will attempt to render any characters it finds as Japanese.
19. Print styles
When people print web pages, often they’re not interested in your flashy graphics: they just want a simplified version of the page.
20. Learn from others
Finally, a quick and simple tip: learn from great sites built by others. Any site’s HTML is easily accessible by viewing a page’s source code. See how others have done things and apply their methods to your own work.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Firefox is 5 Years Old
Throught the history of the Internet, wars between Web Browsers has been a constant theme. Each browser has its own positives and negatives. The two most widely used today are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, though there are a number of other browser options out there including Apple's Safari, Google Chrome and Opera.
With the five year aniversary of Opera, read this article on Firefox, and do each of the following tasks:
With the five year aniversary of Opera, read this article on Firefox, and do each of the following tasks:
- Based on the article and your outside information, construct a double-bubble map comparing and contrasting Internet Explorer and Firefox.
- Write one paragraph: Which browser do you use/prefer? Why?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Reflection - Future of the Operationg System
After reading the article, Win 7: The Last Major Windows Release, by Tim Bajarin, what impact will Windows 7 have on the PC Market? What predictions are made for the future of Windows and the larger operating system market? How will this change how people use/think about computers?
Your response must be 1-2 paragraphs (minimum) and proofread. You may post your response on the blog.
Your response must be 1-2 paragraphs (minimum) and proofread. You may post your response on the blog.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Windows 7
Go to this link and read the following article:
What positives and negatives for the PC market's consumers and retailers does this article describe?
Post your answer in the blog comments or write the answer on paper. Minimum: one paragraph, complete sentences, proofread.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Computer Components Quiz
Their will be a quiz on computer components on Friday. Besides your power point and the links in the last post, here is another link to help prepare you:
Friday, October 16, 2009
Building a PC
Visit this Google Docs Presentation. Save it to your Google Docs account and fill out each pre-made slide with a definition for that computer component and paste in a picture of that component. Below are some helpful links. You are not limited to these links.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Apple vs. PC
Below is the classic 1984 Apple Computer commercial and a current Mac commercial. Watch them and answer the questions below.
- What is the common theme?
- How is the "IBM/Windows" based PC portrayed?
- According to the commercials, what type of person would buy an Apple? Who would buy a PC?
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Triumph of the Nerds - Part III
Part III: Segment 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Answer these questions via the class blog:
- Why do you suppose this segment is entitled "Great Artists Steal."
- What is a GUI? Examples?
- What was the significance of Windows 3?
- Why did Apple sue Microsoft?
- What did Bill Gates hope to accomplish with Windows 95?
- What impact did the Internet have on the software and hardware industries?
Triumph of the Nerds Review
The Quiz on Triumph of the Nerds will be on Thursday, October 8, 2009. The quiz will be composed of multiple choice, matching, Thinking Map/written piece. As seniors (and one junior), it is your responsibility to self-advocate for assistance studying for this exam.
- Triumph of the Nerds Smart Board Review (7 mb, so give it a moment to load)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Triumph of the Nerds - Reflection
After watching Triumph of the Nerds, reflect on what you saw. Write a one to two page essay, complete with an introduction and conclusion, in which you discuss:
- The individual qualities of the early computer innovators.
- What ethical dilemmas/problems arose in the early PC market.
- How these problems were resolved/not resolved.
- What lessons can modern hardware/software makers learn from them?
-- or --
- Develop a business plan for a new computer "killer application."
- What will the application do?
- What resources will you need? Where? Working environment?
- How will you test it?
- How will you market it?
- What expectations do you have for the application's performance? Problems? Successes?
Due: Tuesday, October 13, 2009. Late assignments = zero credit.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Computer Ethics
The Internet has been around for nearly twenty years now, and since its creation, new issues have been developing rapidly that have been a challenge both to the government, law enforcement and the legal community. Simply put, the World Wide Web is evolving so quickly that old laws dealing with copyrighted material, and media (print and broadcast) are outdated and do not apply.
An emerging field of study to examine these issues is computer ethics. Ethics, in the classical sense, refers to the rules and standards governing the conduct of an individual with others. Computer ethics is concerned with standards of conduct as they pertain to computers (Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/cgi-bin/1-1.cgi).
Some of the specific issues being examined within the field of computer ethics are:
Defines the problem in easy to understand language and graphics. Provides examples of the ethical issues that the problem poses. Identifies possible solutions to the problem. Upload the slide show to an online website (provided later).
An emerging field of study to examine these issues is computer ethics. Ethics, in the classical sense, refers to the rules and standards governing the conduct of an individual with others. Computer ethics is concerned with standards of conduct as they pertain to computers (Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/cgi-bin/1-1.cgi).
Some of the specific issues being examined within the field of computer ethics are:
- Internet Censorship (Brian)
- Email scams/spamming (Kailen)
- Net Neutrality (Sam)
- Intellectual Property/Copyright violations (Dustin)
- Cyber predators (Josh)
- Cyber bullying (Ti'quanne)
- Internet user privacy (Billy)
Your assignment is to create a minimum five slide children's book/Powerpoint that:
Afterwards we will be recording your presentation as a podcast and posting to the class blog. We will be presenting your presentations to the fifth and sixth graders at a later date.
Use the link on computer ethics as a starting point.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
How do you use Technology?
So the whole point of technology is to provide us with hours of entertainment via video games, movies, miscellaneous web video clips and instant messaging friends, right? It simply can't be used for anything else, certainly nothing productive.
Lets think about this. Really, what role does technology play in your life. Is it simply for entertainment, or does it have other uses? Consider all the ways you use technology, whether it be your video game system, computer, mp3 device, cell phone or some other personal electronic device. How do you use each of these devices you own? Do you get the most out of all of its features? Could you live with out one, some or all of these devices?
Lets take it a step farther: What impact do these devices have on other people and society as a whole? How does the use of these devices facilitate or hinder your interaction and collaboration with other people?
Lets think about this. Really, what role does technology play in your life. Is it simply for entertainment, or does it have other uses? Consider all the ways you use technology, whether it be your video game system, computer, mp3 device, cell phone or some other personal electronic device. How do you use each of these devices you own? Do you get the most out of all of its features? Could you live with out one, some or all of these devices?
Lets take it a step farther: What impact do these devices have on other people and society as a whole? How does the use of these devices facilitate or hinder your interaction and collaboration with other people?
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