July 28, 2001

Status Check

During the blog-a-thon, I'm using the following:

  • Web Log: Blogger (of course)

  • HTML Editor: HTML-Kit

  • IM Chat: AIM, nickname HDDarrell

  • IRC: DALnet, #virginia and irc.vavalleyirc.com, #blog

  • Food: Dreamery Ice Cream

  • Liquids: Water and Beer

  • Photos: Olympus D-220L Digi-cam

  • Graphics: Paint Shop Pro


Too much information?

It's all relative...

Some what related to the previous post, you have to be aware of your links and how everything fits together. What am I talking about, you ask?

Well, anchor links can be either relative or absolute. Let's say all your web pages and images are in one big happy directory (ie. folder, sub-directory - ya know what I mean). You can link to them, relative to your present position (ok, the location of the file from where you are linking): src="./filename.jpg" - or just src="filename.jpg" - ./ being the same directory you're in. Say the file is in a sub-directory under your current directory. Then use src="./subdirectoryname/filename.jpg" - or of course, src="subdirectoryname/filename.jpg"

What if the file is in a directory "above" your current directory? Still possible, just use src="../filename.jpg" - where then ../ is referering to the upwards directory.

Ok, what if the file is no where in your directory tree? Oh my gosh, you're out of luck! No, just kidding. That's where absolute links come into play.

For example, you want to display a picture that is located on a friends web site. You would then use the full URL in your anchor: src="http://anyothersite.com/images/filename.jpg" - depending on the location of location of the file at the other server, of course.

Ok, so I'm sure I made that as clear as mud.

I've got a web page, now what do I do?

Ok, you've learned a little HTML, you have put together 5 or 6 web pages for your site. How do I get it on the Internet? That's got to be the second most asked question that I get.

If you've got an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you probably got some free web space with your account. Check with your ISP for specifics, but you'll need to use the infamous "File Transfer Protocol" (FTP for short) to send the web pages to a server.

For personal use at home, I've grown to like WS_FTP. There is a free version for non-commercial use:

Free Stuff

Quite a few HTML editing programs have some type of FTP tool built in. Front Page, for example, has a "web publishing tool" which is just another way of saying that you're sending the files to the server via FTP.

Welcome to the Blog-a-thon, random-style!

Well, I've got on my official t-shirt, taken a short nap and now we're ready to roll.

How basic to start out? To be fair, let's start with a link to some HTML 101:

Yale Style Manual

Particularily, look over the sections on site design and structure. Quite a few questions that I get are at that level. Issues like "how do you link the whole site together?" and "how do you get around from one page to another?" require some forethought. Take a moment and sketch out your site, before you even start writing the first page of HTML. Any planning you put into your design beforehand will pay off big later.

July 27, 2001

Tomorrow is the big day!

The 24-hour Blog-a-thon starts at noon pacific time, so that translates to 3 p.m. here on the east coast. I *thought* that I'd be all prepared and have some tutorials already worked out and ready to go, but no. So, be sure and visit several times this weekend and see how incoherent I can be!

And to make things even more fun, I've added a chat link over in the right hand column. Pop in and visit for a spell. I'll be glad to take any suggestions or requests about topics that could be posted here.

Tutorials that I'm working on for the event:

  • Pop-up windows

  • Customizing the browser scroll bar

  • Opening links in a new window

  • Cascading Style Sheet two column page layout



July 24, 2001

Vector Fun!
I saw a website not too long ago that i thought was really cool. This guy takes Flash vector graphics to a whole new level and he shows you how to do it too! Never thought you could draw a photorealistic tomato in Flash? Now you can.

Vector Kid

July 23, 2001

On a side note, I ran across this little tidbit while reading through the previous stories. Everything you would ever want to know about web server packages, but were afraid to ask.

ZDNet: Enterprise: Servers Homepage

From the "for what it's worth" department...

I've gotten into many a discussion over Unix vs. NT web servers. The truth is, the track record for Internet Information Server (IIS) hasn't been great.

News: IT bugs out over IIS security

And add this to the list of reported bugs:

News: Web at risk from new MS flaw

Not to forget the patch you need to fix the problem:

Microsoft Bulletins

July 14, 2001

MORE... on 508 compliance

508 compliance... ewww, did I just say that?? eGov was in Washington DC early last week (July 9, 10, 11) and aside from some interesting words from Larry Ellison (CEO Oracle), Macromedia was showing off their set of Dreamweaver and UltraDev extensions for 508 compliance.

Of all of the tips and tricks I received from them the most important and most valuable was that there is a huge difference between compliance and accessibility. As of this time only government sites will be held accountable for compliance of 508. Being in compliance will almost assure your site is accessible to those impaired, but it is not neccessary and should not be!

The goal of good web design should be the accessibility part. I personally do not see any other reason for 508 besides for the lawyers to make a huge lump of money as people start suing sites for non-compliance. BLAH!!! If the site is accessible in the first place then compliance will never come up! I am more than guilty on many, many occassions of not creating accessible sites. www.redcross.org is the prime example but steps are being made to change this and I suggest Macromedia extensions!! They are great, and there are 11 or so of them that can be found at http://www.macromedia.com/exchange.

The UseableNet suite is the best one so sign up, become a responsible web designer and make your content engineers and web masters happy !!

July 13, 2001

Enhance your chi...

Maybe you've heard of feng shui or maybe not. Either way, this is a new perspective on web design worth a look. Maybe it will help provide a new balance and harmony to your new project.

Borrowed brilliance - Web Shui

July 11, 2001

It's official now...

Yes, I've thrown my hat in the ring and signed up for the 24-hour Blogathon. Give me a shout if you'd like to be a sponsor. So far, four kind people have agreed to do so.

Charity of choice, RAINN - the national sexual assault hotline. They have local centers where I live, including New Directions and Citizens Against Sexual Assault (CASA).

Of course, I'll be posting comments, tips and tutorials on web design. Probably toss in a few web server tricks too. Stay tuned!

July 09, 2001

It's for a good cause...

Stay up late and write in your blog every 30 minutes. Get friends to sponsor you and make a donation to your favorite charity.

24-Hour BLOGATHON!

July 06, 2001

hey everyone... my new site is up at www.richardfelixjr.com. go visit! sign the guestbook! say hi!

July 05, 2001

Ok, I'm a little on the slow side, but better late than never. Greetings to our newest team member, Richard !!! He's already posted on the daily log and will soon be putting up a new web site right here on randompsycho.org!

More Flash info than you can shake a stick at...

Welcome to FlashPlanet.com

July 03, 2001

According to this site, 53 Internet companies shutdown last month. Interesting read, for those involved in web design professionally.

Webmergers.com


I'm sure someone has already thought of this in the real world. [smile]

What will they think of next?

News: Hackers learning to can spam

Anyone want good Photoshop and Illustrator Tutorials?


For the best tutorials I've seen in a long time, (they're even downloadable in .pdf format), go here:


thinkdan.com

July 02, 2001

The future of web publishing?

Competition is a good thing. For those interested in the "big picture" and web based publishing, read on:

ZDNet: Enterprise: What's the Net worth of Adobe's cross-media scheme?

P.S. Speaking of Adobe, I recently purchased their GoLive editing software. More comments and reviews to follow. Stay tuned!

Looking for free web hosting? Check out this list. Happy hunting!

ZDNet: d e v e l o p e r: Personal Web Hosts