Making the site 'live'...

We didn't have a lesson today, as such, but I did find out some interesting things, thanks largely to the help of Adam Procter...and a fortuitous discovery of a document that my colleague picked up in a class that I was not able to attend...this was the first time I had seen this document...this is slightly disconcerting, as the information on the sheet about the criteria of the assignment is not available (as far as I can see) on BREO, or on the MADWiki site...am I wrong?! Is the assignment information available? If so, please let me know...

I found out that the blog is worth 50% of our grade! I don't think that the blog should be given so much weight...I have been consistent with my blogging, but I still think that the website production is much more important...I can understand that there is the need for a 'production log', hence the blogs, but I still think that 50% is a very high percentage...

Anyway, I was advised that we should be producing some imitation letters to show that we are aware of the need to clear copywritten material, after the discovery of the before-unseen criteria, and Adam also explained how we could make our sites 'live' online, via the tutorial on the 'MAD Support' page...

I discussed some of the things I had been working on in HTML with Adam, and he re-assured me that I wasn't wasting my time (always a good thing!!), and he told me that one of the major things to remember in 'web development' was that it's a good idea to keep your 'styles' (CSS), and your 'content' (HTML) seperate, so that your site is easily maintainable...apparently 'J-Edit' is a useful cross-platform HTML program that works on PC and Mac, so I'll be looking that up...

Again, 'W3 Schools' came up in discussion of useful sites for 'web development'...there are some really useful definitions of HTML functions here...apparently we've got some new books on CSS in the library too, so that's my next port of call!

My group and I meet tomorrow to plan out our 'mini-presentation' for next week...think we should be ok...

Loads of work to do, so gotta run...

Later, people...

Wrestling with HTML...

Tonight I have been tackling the basics of HTML in order to have a better understanding of how programs like Flash and Dreamweaver work...the way I look at it, you have to work from the bottom up, so I thought looking closer at the foundations of these tools would be beneficial...

I've also just signed up to 'del.icio.us', so I've achieved some of the stuff that I proposed to do in the last entry!! I'm getting there, slowly but surely!...

Anyway, I now know how to create a page with text and images, which is fabulous ;-) This means that (hopefully) we will have a better understanding of how to construct our website, and how to join our individual pages and images together...

Adrian tells me that we have to pay for the use of URL's, but I'm sure there's some way that the University server can let us on there without payment...if anyone can fill me in on this, please do...

I drew up a small file containing some screenshots of the HTML files I've been playing around with, as well as some notes on HTML basics, and sent it to the members of my group for their perusal!...I didn't realise you could do so much with 'Notepad' on the PC!! I'm pleasantly surprised at the results I got tonight, although there were a few hairy moments when I couldn't get the images to appear and I was getting frustrated!! Then I realised I had to enter the exact location of the image and not just the name of the JPEG...D'uh!!

Anyway, that's what I've been doing all day...getting a piece of blue-coloured text to say 'This page is amazing' on a marble background with a dodgy close-up picture of my crows-feet-plagued eyes...lovely...

Ok, so, I shall continue to explore HTML, and figure out how to link our pages in a seamless, slick, professional manner...it'll be beautiful, people...

Thank you, and goodnight...

Working it out...

So I've just been trying to get to grips with what I should be doing now as a 'Project Manager' for the project...

The past two classes that we had were a lot more constructive in terms of actually being introduced to new software and helping us to see different ways in which we can use the online collaboration tools.

I particularly like "Thinkature.com", and see it as a very useful piece of software for our group. It will hopefully help us plot out our sketchings of the website structure. This is great for us, given the length of the Easter break, the University closure for a week (which I think is unnecessary...surely some kind of shift rota should be implemented?!), and Eranta being at home in Latvia!! I'm jealous...

Anyway, back to the issue of learning!

The discussion about " multimedia buzzwords" was quite stimulating too...I had heard of "Second Life", but didn't realise the scope of it as a vast virtual world...its kind of frightening to think that things are going towards "virtual reality" in such a big way, and kind of sad too...I enjoy human contact!! I would be miserable if my job AND my social life were contained within the virtual world...at the same time, it raises really interesting possibilities, such as "virtual lectures", and "virtual property developments"...

I'm conflicted on how I feel about these developments, and I'm aware that I'm raising issues that have already been discussed for years (people would have been afraid of "social networks" like Myspace and Bebo a few years ago!...Some still are!!)...it just seems a lot more possible to me that people will lose that human element now that I'm aware of these upcoming progressions!...But then there will always be people who embrace technology more than others, huh?...

...Is ignorance bliss?!!...I don't think so, but I do believe in the philosophy of "simplify,simplify"...when technology does this, it's at it's best, in my opinion...

People still use the phrases "slaves" and "servers" in the machine network, don't they?...What happens when AI begins to understand what these phrases mean, and decides it doesn't want to be subservient any more?!

Guess I'll just have to hope that an Arnie-like droid will come and save me if necessary...

Ok...so, the things I've been thinking about...

1. Learning how to create nice buttons in Flash to put on the webpages that Adrian is developing...

2. Becoming more familiar with Dreamweaver that the buttons will take the user to the appropriate page (Numbers 1+2 are severely hindered by the closure of the University this week)...

3. Making a 'Gantt Chart' to monitor the groups progress and help our development...

4. Different connotations of the criteria of the brief (i.e. definition of a 'web presence')...hmmm...

5. Signing up to 'del.icio.us' and getting my group members to do likewise, so that we can share information from sites that we have researched...

6. The structure of the presentation (is it on the 16th or 17th of May?...I'll have to check that out...)...

7. Things that could make our site different...

8. Things to write about in the 'Production File' (relevant research, why choices were made etc.)...

I'm off to bed now, people...feel free to 'comment' me!

...as Arnie said, "I'll be back..."!!