Reflection Post

This project was an incredible opportunity for me to explore a different aspect of computers that I had never really decided to go far with before. When presented with the option to do anything that I wanted for the next 7 weeks, I decided that what I really wanted to do was work on web development and HTML. I had already been interested in this field, and had never really gotten the opportunity to work on it because of the time constraint between school and the work required to learn a programming language. Now that I did have the time, however, I already knew what I wanted to make.

This was a great project for me because I felt as if I was the one who was actually in control of what I was doing in terms of absolutely everything. With every other project, there is a certain field that you have to look into, or a certain area that you need to work on, and everyone else had to work in the same field or concentrate on the same area. The individual aspect of this project ended up with a HUGE amount of diversity in terms of the end products from everybody, and also a wide range of different takes on the way people presented their products.

I feel like the TED talk was actually a good part of the process as well. It's important to share your ideas and what we've learned, and as a conclusion to the project that we have just done, I think that it's good to share our accomplishments and see people's reactions. This project was not only for ourselves, to gauge our own work ethic, dedication and passion, but for others to see it as well.

In the end, I guess I really liked this project, and I would probably give my TED talk something around a 25/30.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

My TED talk is tomorrow! I'm nervous, but also slightly excited. This is that final chance to show what I've learned and share my inspiration with everyone, but presenting in the audion is a bit daunting.

Oh well.

Since Sunday, I've chosen new colors for my code that will make it prettier, and also decided that I only want to show a section of my code. Only a few (if any) members of the audience will actually benefit from me scrolling through the .html file while the others simply wonder what the syntax on the screen means. This is why I've decided to cater more to my audience with my presentation, and take out a lot of the code-oriented talking and put in more of my inspiration, process and passion. I think that the speech will be equally good and more understandable. I've also translated a lot of the parts of code that I do need to keep in the speech to layman's terms so that it's much easier to understand, and I made analogies from the code to the real world so that people can get a sense of what it's actually doing.

Other than that, the code is pretty much done. Because I'm only going to be showing a small section of the code (which I've already taken a picture of for the TED talk) I'm free to continue working on the html file until I think that it is absolutely perfect. I got a lot accomplished in the 7 weeks that were given to work on this project, a new door has opened for me, and I want to keep expanding on what I already have until I feel that it's complete.

I'll see you at the TED talk tomorrow! :)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Summary of the past two weeks.

The past two weeks have been DIFFICULT by all means. First, I had to rewrite some of my HTML file because it was corrupted somehow and I only had a Time Machine backup to work off of. This, of course, was a minor setback, seeing as I had already written the code. The only problem was positioning things, which always takes time. As I talked about, there are wrappers, and you can have these wrappers be centered if you want them to be with a little bit of code. If, however, you want to position something, say, a few inches from the top and a few inches in from the left, you need to guess-timate and the block pixel-by-pixel. It's a tedious process, and I was not overjoyed to be doing it again.

Other than that, it looks good. I changed the theme from a dark green to a dark blue. You'll get to see it during my TED talk, of course, and you'll get to see what the code looks like. For now, it's just a bunch of tags, syntax and colors, like all programming, but I even changed the colors so that they would be more appealing to the eye when it is presented.

Anyway, looking forward to later this week... I hear the stage calling...

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Untitled from Sydney Hale on Vimeo.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Post #3~ WOoHoO!¡!¡!¡!¡!

This week I'm learning all of the semantics of writing the actual code. The File Transfer Protocol upload that I had planned out doesn't seem to be working, as I get multiple errors between my code in a simple html file and the code on an actual webpage. This is okay, however, because I can continue to work on the project in a file on its own. So far, I'm working on the background image, different fonts, and images to add to the website. I want it to look fun, cool and professional, and like something that I can be proud of at the end of the day.

To get into specifics about what I've been working on, I'll start with some of the actual code. In HTML,  there are lines of code in a different language that can actually be used to communicate with the web browser. There are tags around these lines of code that tell the computer what type of code it's actually reading. For example, if I were to make the title of my webpage "THE WEBSITE TRACKER", I simply type <h1>THE WEBSITE TRACKER</h1>. The '<h1>' tags denote a header, and are important because h means "header" and 1 means "most important header." If I were to need some kind of sub-headers for the website, I would use any other header from values of h2 to h6, with h6 being the smallest header possible. Also, notice how the first bracket is simply <h1> whereas the second bracket is </h1>. The forward slash directly after the opening bracket denotes the closing tag, which tells the browser that the header has ended. Every time you close a tag in HTML, a closing forward slash is necessary. This explanation will give further insight into the other things that I've accomplished with the language so far, like adding background images with <body background = "image.jpg">. Body tells the web browser in which part of the web page the image will be located, and background tells the webpage that the image will cover the entire background. In other words, you'll be able to see whichever fraction of the background image your browser window is centered on, and your browser window will not be able to stretch far enough that it will go outside the scope of the image. The "image.jpg" is calling to a file that you've uploaded to the server, with image being the name of the file and .jpg being the file type.

Speaking of servers, I thought I'd explain that part too. In order to have a functional website, three things need to function properly: A working host, a domain name, actual files that you have to write on your own. The host is the part that keeps the website online, and allows people to access it. Every website is hosted on a server, much like you're accessing the internet through WiFi . The domain is the actual name of the website, like blogger.com or google.com. Think about it as the address of the website, just like you have an address to your house. The files are the .html files or the .php files that I've talked about in my posts.

To make this clearer or more specific, I'll use blahblahblah.com/index.php as an example. The domain is blahblahblah.com, which had to be purchased, and hosting had to be purchased as well to keep the site online. Index.php is a file that was uploaded to the server, and it will look like a lot of lines of code in pretty colors if it's opened up. You can think about "the server" in the same exact way that you would think about your computer. The "home" directory of the server is a lot like your desktop in that you can drag files to and from that location. In very simple terms, the location (domain) is blahblahblah.com, it's connected to the internet, and blahblahblah.com/index.php leads you to the file that's stored there.

These are just a few of the things that I've done with webcode so far, and a bit of explanation of what I've actually learned about how a webpage works. There are plenty more intricate things that I've learned to do with the code, and also less or more complex ways of maintaining a website. Unfortunately, if I wanted to program the website myself, hosting costs money and so does a domain, so all I have available is the .html file that I've kept saved to my computer. I'll look for some good free hosting options (hard to find) and see if I can make one of those work for these purposes.

Thanks for reading!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Second Blog Post (woohoo!)

Now, I'm getting into the more complicated aspects of making the website. I've read books on HTML, XHTML, and CSS, (HTML, XHTML and CSS for Dummies) and I'm also reading a book on Wordpress now. I've already taken what I've learned and made a simple .html file using a text editor on my computer. What is interesting about HTML is that, like any programming language, it will run in its environment- and in this case, that would be the web browser. The .html file runs through Chrome even though it's not actually hosted online, which is interesting to me. The browser interprets all of my code and translates that into something that we can read and understand, just as with any other webpage. The book has taught me a few simple things that are true about every programming language: You need to be organized, you need to know what your code actually does, and, if you ever want to become good, you need to program a lot. The only way that I'll be able to accomplish my goal efficiently is if I know what each function does, and the only way I'll become that knowledgable about the syntax is if I program a lot. The book has also taught me some new things about HTML that I hadn't known before, like the idea that you don't really need to close brackets or tags. In any other programming language, the program wouldn't work if sections weren't separated and individually closed off. The other thing that I hadn't known about HTML was exactly how much it is capable of. Every single website uses HTML, and although more complicated ones do use languages like JavaScript or ASP, the framework is all in the HTML code.

What I'm going to focus on now is actually uploading my code to a website that is hosted so that I can post a link for everyone to see my progress. I the website to show exactly what I'm doing, when I'm doing it. As an example, if I add a header to the website, it will have a title and then say, "This is a header!" and explain how I put it there with code. I've also changed the theme of the blog.

Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to showing you what I've accomplished! :)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

First Blog Post! - Getting Started

So far, I believe that I'm off to a good start in regards to actually sitting down and learning the languages at hand, which are three different forms of webcode - HTML, XHTML and CSS. If all goes well, by February 23rd I'll be able to actually create something, make it viewable, and be able to post a link or screenshot in my next blog post. This depends on my level of understanding, however, and my ability to find a host that will let me post something online for free.

My goals by the end of this period will be to have created something that will be looked at as a template for building a website that clearly shows my progress and demonstrates what I've learned. I want to be able to create something on a webpage, point it out in my source code, and explain the syntax of it. If I can't do that, then I haven't really achieved a true understanding of what I'm learning, and will have to go back to the books and try to comprehend exactly what I've accomplished. How will I measure this? With how my finished product actually looks. If something ends up looking good, that means that what I've done is correct. If I can re-create that product so that someone can use it for their own purposes, this means that I understand what I'm doing and am comfortable handing my work off to someone else. If the product does not look good, then I'll know that I have to go back and continue to work on different parts of my code until the end result is pleasing to the eye. 

My first book so far has been "HTML, XHTML and CSS for Dummies," and has been immensely helpful. The way that they explain concepts makes it seem so easy to grasp without being lost in the symbols, colors, and odd words that many programming languages use to communicate with the computer. Because of this, I know that anything that I create will be understandable from both an amateur and a professional point of view, and that's what I'm trying to achieve.

Thanks for reading!

• 
• 
• 
• 
•