Jamie Vince

For a project at work, I have to update my departments intranet site and wanted to update the look by using a template. I downloaded the webpage template from freewebtemplates.com, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. The page had tabs on the top, a navigation bar on the left side, and the funkiest colors I've ever seen on a web page. I've used FrontPage a little to move information around and add text, but not to make the kind of changes that this template needed. Because of the information we've learned in this class, I've been able to go into the code, change the information in the css style sheet for the colors, and change the code on the main page for the tabs and the navigation bar. This stuff has already come in handy!

I just read a blog that Justin wrote about the new wireless memory card for digital cameras. I am amazed at the technology that is coming out! The card is 2GB and is priced around $100. The fact that you can take pictures, download them to a computer without having to mess with wires and all that crap is great. This would be the last memory card you would ever have to buy for your digital camera ever again!

For the first iteration, the members of our group had to continuously submit their webpages to one key person in our group to manage the group site. For the second iteration, we used the yipe.emich.edu site to access our group pages, which made things so much easier on all of us. It took the responsibility off the key person who had to upload the files before, plus gave us the ability to work on the pages at our leisure. We were able to make changes to our pages, uploaded them, see the refreshed pages on the internet immediately, and make additional changes if needed. It made working on the second iteration a lot easier and made the project run smoother.

Nokia just introduced its latest version of the internet tablet, the N810. The new tablet is similar to a version Nokia previously launched, the N800, but has added features like a slide-out keyboard and built-in GPS tracking. The tablet measures an impressive 4 inches and has a touchscreen for easy use. For more information on this cool little gadget, visit nokiausa.com.

I slacked on my blogging for quite a while and am trying to play catch-up on my work. Even though the five blogs per week seems like a lot when you are trying to juggle a full-time job and two classes, it really isn't. What makes you realize that the five blogs per week isn't that bad is when you try to do twenty-five in two days. The lesson I am trying to share is DON'T PROCRASTINATE! It is a lot easier to fit the five in over a seven day period than it is to do a ton of them in two days at the last minute. Learn from my mistake.

Back in March of 2006, Apple users experienced e-mail issues when a bug was sent out in the form of a jpeg image. The issue was corrected, but has recently arisen and is affecting Apple owners who use the latest version of the operating system known as Leopard. There is supposed to be a security warning that flags the suspicious e-mail, but the file works around the validation program. Security updates were released last week for several of Macs operating systems. For more information, check out the story in Information Week.

Mozilla is currently in the testing stage of a new version of Firefox. The latest version, known as Firefox 3.0, is in it's first beta test and is receiving good reviews from developers. The new version addresses memory issues that the last version has and has added security features. The only issue that some see is the inability for the new version to work with Firefox add-ons. Check out the New York Times site for the full article.

It is strange when looking at the changes from my groups website WCE from the first iteration to the second. When I look at the original website, it looks dull and drab, the second looks more professional and pulled together. Even though the changes are not that drastic, the work that went into making these changes was great. I am pleased with the progress and am happy with the results our group has accomplished for this second iteration.

For iteration two we had to validate our pages in xhtml 1.0, and it was interesting, to say the least. I was surprised by the number of errors that were generated when I ran my first page of code through the validator (I think I had 167 errors!). What surprised me was how hard it was to figure out the correct tag to use in place of the one that had the error. What was even more surprising was the fun I had watching the number of errors go down as I made the changes, it was like a game. Even though it was frustrating at times trying to figure out what to correct, in the end, the process of validating was surprisingly fun.

I was searching through the different css tags and came across the coolest image tag that can make an image transparent. I think this option would be great for using an image in the background of a webpage and would even use it for the pages I am working on right now if I thought it would match with the rest of the look of my group site. To get the css coding, check out w3schools.com.