Lesson 2

Four weeks into the semester and I'm already 3 weeks behind with the blog.  Research Methods is kicking my butt; I had no idea the workload was so heavy in that class.  If I had deadlines for this class I would really be in bad shape.  Still, I don't want to fall too behind.  So, this is a weekend to catch up.  I still have no idea about what kind of website I want to design.  I'm torn between doing something personal, which would be a really valuable tool to show to prospective employers, most of whom seem to want some minimal level of website developing skills, and doing something a little more interesting (at least to me).  Maybe a hybrid kind of site where I can showcase my projects, but with several pages of something that is of more interest to me, such as something highlighting social software and how it is being used in libraries.  That should not be too overwhelmingly difficult.  

What's really frustrating me is I can't get my wireless Internet to work.  I've been in my new condo since January 1st and I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, especially since I've set up my wireless twice before.  Working in a chair tethered to the modum is not really the best environment for doing the work for this class.  I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the wireless before I can really move ahead comfortably here.  Anyway, I started this weekend by reviewing Chapters 1 and 2 in the Missing Manual book.  This was pretty much a refresher for me anyway, since I took Dianne Austin's class last semester.  Except that I never did get my links to hyperlink properly!  So I feel like I want to go back to the Portfolio Page I did and get that to work right.  Once I get caught up with the reading, I'll do that.

But anyway, as far as the reading is concerned, I found the part about View Source very enlightening.  As far as HTML is concerned, I'm wondering when it will feel natural to me.  I found Table 2-1  with the basic HTML tags VERY helpful.  I feel like I want to copy these pages and post them right next to where I'm sitting.  The Common Mistakes section was very helpful also.  I need to remember to refer back to this section if I have problems.

W3 Consortium:  For a website that states that it's leading the web to its full potential, it looks so "low-tech".  I'm kind of surprised.  I don't want to misjudge it.  Honestly, the content looks a bit over my head.  I'm not sure how I would use this website.

W3 Schools:  Wow.  Overwhelming with all the tutorials, but it looks like it might be helpful.  Once I start to really get into the website (and once I've caught up on the reading) I will come back here.

Since I already uploaded a Portfolio Page and some other files onto my USF website last semsester, Ch. 3 was a good refresher.   I found the commentary about web editors very interesting.  I've downloaded both Dreamweaver and Nvu.  Interestingly, my free trial of Dreamweaver took forever to download.  I had to do it about 3 times before it worked.  Nvu took about 15 seconds.  Is there a reason for this?  I found the process with Dreamweaver very frustrating.  I don't want to start off biased about Dreamweaver, especially since Dr. Simon likes it so much, but that kind of frustration can really bias one's view of something.  As I said before, I plan to experiment with both and then decide, which I will do as soon as I get caught up on blogging about the lessons.