Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Preformatted text, Cross-browsing, HTML Text & SEO
I've not written an entry for a bit because I've been caught up in ... stuff, heh. In my absence I've discovered a few new things:
PREFORMATTED TEXT
Late last month I posted a blog that required me to show you code that I used in another website. Through a little creative trickery I think I got the point across, but it was definitely hard to follow, I'm sure. Since that time I've learned about Preformatted Text.
The issue in the entry that required showing the viewer the HTML code that I used for a website was that when I tried to write the code in this blogger window, the blogger window wanted to read the code instead of show it. To fix this, what you have to do is use < in place of the < and > in place of the >.
The following text is code that I've enclosed in < and > so that you can see it as written code:
<head>This is a sentence.</head>
Another way to display your code for viewers is to use a textbox like the following one:
CROSS-BROWSING
In my last entry I was concerned with the fact that sometimes my coding shows up fine in Opera but Firefox makes it look slightly different. I have found these two websites that help you see what a webpage will look like on different browsers (again, the a href tag doesn't work for me on blogger and I have no idea why so you'll have to copy and paste the link into your address bar until I can figure out why it doesn't work):
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
http://browsershots.org/
In addition, I also found these two websites that will tell you if there are any errors in your (X)HTML code or your CSS, respectively:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
HTML TEXT
Also in my last entry I wrote about my dismay when I discovered that when I visited the website from another computer the font defaulted to verdana and would not show up as the font I had used when designing the site, which was Boopee.
The reason other computers wouldn't show my chosen font is because the fonts are not embedded in the code but rather the code tells the computer system to search within itself to find the font. If the font is not installed on that particular computer system, the code tells it to resort to default fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman.
Unfortunately the only way I can come up with to avoid this is to use images as the font instead of the font itself if you choose to use an off-the-wall font (like Boopee). However, if you use something like Verdana or Arial or Times New Roman it's highly unlikely you'll have this issue because most computers have these fonts installed.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. According to wikipedia (such a fun word to say!), meta tags used to be the way to go for getting your website to come up as the #1 site when using an internet browser.
Because web developers have misused this system a new system using new calculus algorithms has been established. Now I get to research algorithms because I have no idea what the crap that is...although I suspect it's got a lot to do with patterns in numbers and such. We'll see.
PREFORMATTED TEXT
Late last month I posted a blog that required me to show you code that I used in another website. Through a little creative trickery I think I got the point across, but it was definitely hard to follow, I'm sure. Since that time I've learned about Preformatted Text.
The issue in the entry that required showing the viewer the HTML code that I used for a website was that when I tried to write the code in this blogger window, the blogger window wanted to read the code instead of show it. To fix this, what you have to do is use < in place of the < and > in place of the >.
The following text is code that I've enclosed in < and > so that you can see it as written code:
<head>This is a sentence.</head>
Another way to display your code for viewers is to use a textbox like the following one:
CROSS-BROWSING
In my last entry I was concerned with the fact that sometimes my coding shows up fine in Opera but Firefox makes it look slightly different. I have found these two websites that help you see what a webpage will look like on different browsers (again, the a href tag doesn't work for me on blogger and I have no idea why so you'll have to copy and paste the link into your address bar until I can figure out why it doesn't work):
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
http://browsershots.org/
In addition, I also found these two websites that will tell you if there are any errors in your (X)HTML code or your CSS, respectively:
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
HTML TEXT
Also in my last entry I wrote about my dismay when I discovered that when I visited the website from another computer the font defaulted to verdana and would not show up as the font I had used when designing the site, which was Boopee.
The reason other computers wouldn't show my chosen font is because the fonts are not embedded in the code but rather the code tells the computer system to search within itself to find the font. If the font is not installed on that particular computer system, the code tells it to resort to default fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman.
Unfortunately the only way I can come up with to avoid this is to use images as the font instead of the font itself if you choose to use an off-the-wall font (like Boopee). However, if you use something like Verdana or Arial or Times New Roman it's highly unlikely you'll have this issue because most computers have these fonts installed.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. According to wikipedia (such a fun word to say!), meta tags used to be the way to go for getting your website to come up as the #1 site when using an internet browser.
Because web developers have misused this system a new system using new calculus algorithms has been established. Now I get to research algorithms because I have no idea what the crap that is...although I suspect it's got a lot to do with patterns in numbers and such. We'll see.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Webby's To Do List
DESIGN ISSUE
My resume website found at http://www.wku.edu/~tabitha.holmes969 shows up perfectly fine in my Opera browser, however problems occur when viewed in the Firefox browser.
In Firefox my scrolling gallery does not show up. Also, when I visit the site on my parent's Gateway computer that has a 14'' screen I find that my content does not conform to that size but rather you have to scroll left and right and up and down more to see the whole page. The browser I use on that computer is IE, but the IE on my laptop shows the website fine as well.
So my current battle is a battle of the browsers and making my site look good on all browsers.
TO DO LIST
1. Find out how to make my website look good on all browsers.
2. Add a way for viewers to know when the website was last updated.
3. Edit video of Colby's parents.
4. Finish CF website design: Add contact form using php, Design a links page and a What is CF page as well as a CF Patients page. Add the rss feed into the new design.
5. Use CSS to make this blog match the Resume Website.
Building a Contact Form Using PHP in Dreamweaver CS3
I wanted to build a contact form to serve as a feedback and guestbook. I googled "contact form using php in Dreamweaver CS3" and found a great tutorial at the following website:
http://www.kirupa.com/web/php_contact_form.htm
A few things I found difficult and not dummy proof with this tutorial was:
1. When it prompts you to copy and paste the code to go into the html page it doesn't specify where in the code to put it. Paste it into the body section.
2. On page 2 you find the code for the php page. To create the php page open an html page, go to code view, delete all the code and replace it with the code you copied.
Other than that, the tutorial rox out. Happy contact page-making!
AutoRun
I was applying for an internship at ImageWest at Western Kentucky University and I wanted to copy my entire website onto a cd and turn it in that way.
I wanted it so that when the cd was inserted into a computer, the index.html page opened automatically instead of the viewer having to navigate through my folder that contained my entire website.
I googled, "copying a website to a cd" and eventually came across something that resembled what I wanted. The answer was to put an autorun code onto the cd.
After many failed attempts I discovered this website (let's see if the hyperlink function is working today...by the way I'm using Firefox today and it didn't change my Title into some funky language, yay!):
Boo...it didn't work. So it's obviously not a Opera browser thing, must be a blogger.com thing. Copy and Paste:
http://www.longtion.com/autorunpro/autorunpro.htm
Anywho who, I downloaded the trial version of autorunpro. Autorunpro is fairly simple to use.
Go to file-wizard and the autopro wizard walks you through the process step by step. A feature that I found very neat was that you can create a logo (the program calls it a splash page) and when you insert the cd the image is shown for a brief moment before proceeding onward to open your html page that you specified by the computer's default browser. However, the autorunpro program does not recognize .png so if your image is saved as a .png you gotta change it! Here's mine:
Testing the autorun feature on Vista proved difficult as you had to visit the settings for Vista's autorun and pretty much turn everything off...still not a big fan of Vista, although I do understand the idea behind this is to add security, but it's still a painus in my anus.
Moving forward...now if you're using Dreamweaver to create your html pages, you'll discover the four documents that autorunpro creates when you open your website in dreamweaver again. From that point forward when you copy the entire site to a cd it will contain code for autorun. Sweet, huh?
I wanted it so that when the cd was inserted into a computer, the index.html page opened automatically instead of the viewer having to navigate through my folder that contained my entire website.
I googled, "copying a website to a cd" and eventually came across something that resembled what I wanted. The answer was to put an autorun code onto the cd.
After many failed attempts I discovered this website (let's see if the hyperlink function is working today...by the way I'm using Firefox today and it didn't change my Title into some funky language, yay!):
Boo...it didn't work. So it's obviously not a Opera browser thing, must be a blogger.com thing. Copy and Paste:
http://www.longtion.com/autorunpro/autorunpro.htm
Anywho who, I downloaded the trial version of autorunpro. Autorunpro is fairly simple to use.
Go to file-wizard and the autopro wizard walks you through the process step by step. A feature that I found very neat was that you can create a logo (the program calls it a splash page) and when you insert the cd the image is shown for a brief moment before proceeding onward to open your html page that you specified by the computer's default browser. However, the autorunpro program does not recognize .png so if your image is saved as a .png you gotta change it! Here's mine:
Testing the autorun feature on Vista proved difficult as you had to visit the settings for Vista's autorun and pretty much turn everything off...still not a big fan of Vista, although I do understand the idea behind this is to add security, but it's still a painus in my anus.
Moving forward...now if you're using Dreamweaver to create your html pages, you'll discover the four documents that autorunpro creates when you open your website in dreamweaver again. From that point forward when you copy the entire site to a cd it will contain code for autorun. Sweet, huh?
Friday, October 31, 2008
Portfolio Resume Update
INTRO PAGE
Because my portfolio website is currently a project for a course I'm taking I have to include an intro page because it is on the check list of things to include on the site in order to get a good grade. Currently my intro page is horrid:
http://www.wku.edu/~tabitha.holmes969
(The 'create hyperlink' button on this interface is currently not working. Please copy and paste the link into your address bar to view the page. Sorry for the inconvenience. Is this an Opera browser bug like the Firefox browser bug I found?)
I am thinking of designing a splash page in Flash. This would suffice the "include a flash element of some sort" requirement as well. Killing two birds with one stone is never a bad idea, right?
HOMEPAGE
I'm in love with my homepage, however. It showcases a scrolling gallery and a fun font as well as my favorite choice of colors: black with gray and PINK.
CSS
CSS was used in the scrolling gallery to make it functional but it was also used for tables, background and links to pull the site together. A good, apparent, example of this is that all pages include the same background piece.
BACKGROUND IMAGE
This background image was also a product of a class assignment. The project was to take the conceptualized idea of "takeaway" and produce a visual image. A "takeaway" in short is the one thing you'd take with you if you were to die today. It could be an idea, a memory, a feeling or even something material. Being a girl and quite prone to girly ideas and girly thoughts, I chose feeling love...imagine that...awww.
CONTACT FORM
I found a tutorial on a website that I can't remember now and copied the .php from it. I built the page and made sure to put in my own email address to send it to upon hitting the 'submit' button. However, when I tested the form about 2 minutes after uploading it either A. did not work or B. takes a bit to send the emails to the email account. While I'm hoping for B I'm guessing the answer is A so I'll have to consult my professor to see if he would know why it might not be working...or I can do the smarter thing and figure it out on my own. I think I'll go that route...won't always have professors to answer your questions, you know!
CHANGES TO BE MADE
I had a few friends view and critique the site. One person commented on the different fonts that were used. On the homepage I used boopee and times new roman, whereas on the resume I used a different set of fonts that I can't even remember the name of now. So later today or perhaps tomorrow I plan on editing the resume and incorporating boopee and times new roman fonts instead. The problem here is that boopee is not a very professional font and while it works well on my homepage, I don't feel it would be appropriate for a resume.
RESUME IDEA
I have this ingenius idea to make a folder-type resume. For example, if you go into a nice restaurant the waiter/waitress will hand you a menu that opens up like a book. It contains a front cover, inside left face, inside right face and back cover. This is the way I would like to have my print resume be, however I'm sure this type of printing costs a pretty penny. We'll see what I come with!
Because my portfolio website is currently a project for a course I'm taking I have to include an intro page because it is on the check list of things to include on the site in order to get a good grade. Currently my intro page is horrid:
http://www.wku.edu/~tabitha.holmes969
(The 'create hyperlink' button on this interface is currently not working. Please copy and paste the link into your address bar to view the page. Sorry for the inconvenience. Is this an Opera browser bug like the Firefox browser bug I found?)
I am thinking of designing a splash page in Flash. This would suffice the "include a flash element of some sort" requirement as well. Killing two birds with one stone is never a bad idea, right?
HOMEPAGE
I'm in love with my homepage, however. It showcases a scrolling gallery and a fun font as well as my favorite choice of colors: black with gray and PINK.
CSS
CSS was used in the scrolling gallery to make it functional but it was also used for tables, background and links to pull the site together. A good, apparent, example of this is that all pages include the same background piece.
BACKGROUND IMAGE
This background image was also a product of a class assignment. The project was to take the conceptualized idea of "takeaway" and produce a visual image. A "takeaway" in short is the one thing you'd take with you if you were to die today. It could be an idea, a memory, a feeling or even something material. Being a girl and quite prone to girly ideas and girly thoughts, I chose feeling love...imagine that...awww.
CONTACT FORM
I found a tutorial on a website that I can't remember now and copied the .php from it. I built the page and made sure to put in my own email address to send it to upon hitting the 'submit' button. However, when I tested the form about 2 minutes after uploading it either A. did not work or B. takes a bit to send the emails to the email account. While I'm hoping for B I'm guessing the answer is A so I'll have to consult my professor to see if he would know why it might not be working...or I can do the smarter thing and figure it out on my own. I think I'll go that route...won't always have professors to answer your questions, you know!
CHANGES TO BE MADE
I had a few friends view and critique the site. One person commented on the different fonts that were used. On the homepage I used boopee and times new roman, whereas on the resume I used a different set of fonts that I can't even remember the name of now. So later today or perhaps tomorrow I plan on editing the resume and incorporating boopee and times new roman fonts instead. The problem here is that boopee is not a very professional font and while it works well on my homepage, I don't feel it would be appropriate for a resume.
RESUME IDEA
I have this ingenius idea to make a folder-type resume. For example, if you go into a nice restaurant the waiter/waitress will hand you a menu that opens up like a book. It contains a front cover, inside left face, inside right face and back cover. This is the way I would like to have my print resume be, however I'm sure this type of printing costs a pretty penny. We'll see what I come with!
CF Website Update
CF WEBSITE
Originally the objective was to produce a small, informational website. Initially the purpose was to provide the community with up-to-date information and news. True to my rural community spirit and upbringing the website has developed into a "home" for my viewers due to the videos.
VIDEOS
I had another video shoot with Mr. and Mrs. David & Lori Lear. They are the parents of Colby Lear who is seven years old. I just shot the video last night and have not made it digital nor edited the content. This time I got over 40 minutes of video, which is twice as much as I had for Brandi. Brandi's information was concise and compact, to the point, whereas the information I gathered from David and Lori was expansive, covering a lot of aspects all at once. This was, somehow, a more difficult shoot.
DESIGN
Originally I planned to use div tags and javascript as the basis for the whole website, however it got pretty complicated when I started adding more content and expanding on my initial ideas. Because javascript is new to me and I'm concerned with the amount of time it will take me to produce the website in a condition that can be published, I rerouted my design application decision.
I have decided to drop the div tag and javascript idea and instead use CSS. I did keep the original color scheme. At some point I hope to incorporate a flash element of some sort as the website is not as interactive as I hoped it to be.
With the progression of my knowledge of CSS, XHTML, Javascript, Flash and the like, I hope to see the website grow and expand in terms of design and content.
CF PATIENTS PAGE
I really did not enjoy the CF Patients page of the site so I'm currently working toward a new design idea. I did, however, generate a Great Strides page that I am somewhat proud of and you can see it below:
Originally the objective was to produce a small, informational website. Initially the purpose was to provide the community with up-to-date information and news. True to my rural community spirit and upbringing the website has developed into a "home" for my viewers due to the videos.
VIDEOS
I had another video shoot with Mr. and Mrs. David & Lori Lear. They are the parents of Colby Lear who is seven years old. I just shot the video last night and have not made it digital nor edited the content. This time I got over 40 minutes of video, which is twice as much as I had for Brandi. Brandi's information was concise and compact, to the point, whereas the information I gathered from David and Lori was expansive, covering a lot of aspects all at once. This was, somehow, a more difficult shoot.
DESIGN
Originally I planned to use div tags and javascript as the basis for the whole website, however it got pretty complicated when I started adding more content and expanding on my initial ideas. Because javascript is new to me and I'm concerned with the amount of time it will take me to produce the website in a condition that can be published, I rerouted my design application decision.
I have decided to drop the div tag and javascript idea and instead use CSS. I did keep the original color scheme. At some point I hope to incorporate a flash element of some sort as the website is not as interactive as I hoped it to be.
With the progression of my knowledge of CSS, XHTML, Javascript, Flash and the like, I hope to see the website grow and expand in terms of design and content.
CF PATIENTS PAGE
I really did not enjoy the CF Patients page of the site so I'm currently working toward a new design idea. I did, however, generate a Great Strides page that I am somewhat proud of and you can see it below:
Sunday, October 26, 2008
CF Website Update
CF Website
I received pictures today of Brandi to build her portion of the collage. I made contact with Lori, mother of Colby, and scheduled an evening to do a video shoot with her and David, her husband. She will also bring 4+ photos of Colby to the shoot for his collage as well. Below you'll find a photo of the CF Patients page so far:
An Idea
When I am finished with this website I might find something creative to build to showcase these snapshots of my work as it progresses.
I received pictures today of Brandi to build her portion of the collage. I made contact with Lori, mother of Colby, and scheduled an evening to do a video shoot with her and David, her husband. She will also bring 4+ photos of Colby to the shoot for his collage as well. Below you'll find a photo of the CF Patients page so far:
An Idea
When I am finished with this website I might find something creative to build to showcase these snapshots of my work as it progresses.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Webby's To Do List
1. Quit using a template for this blog.
The idea is to create different CSS versions of this blog so that if a viewer is directed to this blog from my website resume/portfolio then the blog will retain the look and feel of said website. If a viewer is directed to my blog from myspace, it'll retain the same look and feel of my myspace. If a viewer is directed to my blog from some freaky ad I design, then it'll have the same freaky design as the ad. Ahh...the joys of CSS!
2. Finish the CF Website
I still have to finish this site which includes more videos (perhaps) and more photos (definitely). It also requires a contact page, links page, Great Strides Walkathon page and a New Parents page.
3. Finish Website Resume/Portfolio
All that is left to do is connect the scrolling gallery elements to websites that I've built. The problem is that I currently have no published websites. When the CF Website is finished and published I'll have one down.
4. Find, Design & Build another community service website.
I might build a site for my friend Adam to showcase his photography artwork or I might attempt to find another charity case.
The idea is to create different CSS versions of this blog so that if a viewer is directed to this blog from my website resume/portfolio then the blog will retain the look and feel of said website. If a viewer is directed to my blog from myspace, it'll retain the same look and feel of my myspace. If a viewer is directed to my blog from some freaky ad I design, then it'll have the same freaky design as the ad. Ahh...the joys of CSS!
2. Finish the CF Website
I still have to finish this site which includes more videos (perhaps) and more photos (definitely). It also requires a contact page, links page, Great Strides Walkathon page and a New Parents page.
3. Finish Website Resume/Portfolio
All that is left to do is connect the scrolling gallery elements to websites that I've built. The problem is that I currently have no published websites. When the CF Website is finished and published I'll have one down.
4. Find, Design & Build another community service website.
I might build a site for my friend Adam to showcase his photography artwork or I might attempt to find another charity case.
Firefox Glitch with Blogger.com
FIREFOX GLITCH
Normally I use the Opera browser, but myspace.com doesn't support the Opera browser (it thinks you're trying to view the page from a mobile device). So today I used firefox to check my myspace account and then directed it to blogger.com to post. I typed in the "title" bar and noticed that whenever I typed a word as soon as I moved onto the next word it changed the language from English Roman Numeral characters to...I don't know what language that was, but I'll call it webdingish, even though it looked quite a bit like Indian or something.
First I thought maybe it was because of some coding error in the template I was using so I switched templates. Then I switched templates again. And again. And once more for good measure (and because it was in pink!). Every template did the same funky webdingish language.
Then I opened the page in Opera and ta-da, everything works fine. I wonder if it's just me or if all firefox users have experienced the webdingish phenomena.
Normally I use the Opera browser, but myspace.com doesn't support the Opera browser (it thinks you're trying to view the page from a mobile device). So today I used firefox to check my myspace account and then directed it to blogger.com to post. I typed in the "title" bar and noticed that whenever I typed a word as soon as I moved onto the next word it changed the language from English Roman Numeral characters to...I don't know what language that was, but I'll call it webdingish, even though it looked quite a bit like Indian or something.
First I thought maybe it was because of some coding error in the template I was using so I switched templates. Then I switched templates again. And again. And once more for good measure (and because it was in pink!). Every template did the same funky webdingish language.
Then I opened the page in Opera and ta-da, everything works fine. I wonder if it's just me or if all firefox users have experienced the webdingish phenomena.
PortfolioWebsite
Portfolio Website
It is 4 AM. Another sleepless night, but a really productive one. I have finally finished my portfolio website save for linking my scrolling slideshow elements to my websites. Unfortunately I really feel as though it is very plain and quite primitive. But we all have to start somewhere and I'm sure I'll be perfecting it as time goes on.
Currently I have no published websites. As soon as I have completed the Madisonville Community CF Website I'll have one to put up, but finding the $60-100 to publish it is going to be a real challenge.
AdSense
I made my first penny with AdSense on October 22, 2008. I have almost 250 impressions in three weeks. I was pretty excited about my penny, though no one else seems to share in the excitement.
CF Website
I finished the video of Brandi and I finished making the Madisonville's CF Patients link on the CF Website. I have four pages left to create and they are New Parents, Great Strides Walkathon, Links, Contact Us and Site Map. Below is a snapshot of the CF Patients Link so far, although only 1/4 of it finished. I still have to add collages of the other people (as I only have access to pictures of my little brother at the moment):
Video
I also figured out why my video wouldn't upload here at blogger or at youtube. Because my video wasn't compressed it was about 1.8 Gigabytes in size. Wowsa. After compression I was able to easily incorporate it into my website. I was going to upload it here just now but I realized it'd take about 40 minutes to do so and it is almost 4:30 AM now so I suppose I ought to try that sleep thing.
It is 4 AM. Another sleepless night, but a really productive one. I have finally finished my portfolio website save for linking my scrolling slideshow elements to my websites. Unfortunately I really feel as though it is very plain and quite primitive. But we all have to start somewhere and I'm sure I'll be perfecting it as time goes on.
Currently I have no published websites. As soon as I have completed the Madisonville Community CF Website I'll have one to put up, but finding the $60-100 to publish it is going to be a real challenge.
AdSense
I made my first penny with AdSense on October 22, 2008. I have almost 250 impressions in three weeks. I was pretty excited about my penny, though no one else seems to share in the excitement.
CF Website
I finished the video of Brandi and I finished making the Madisonville's CF Patients link on the CF Website. I have four pages left to create and they are New Parents, Great Strides Walkathon, Links, Contact Us and Site Map. Below is a snapshot of the CF Patients Link so far, although only 1/4 of it finished. I still have to add collages of the other people (as I only have access to pictures of my little brother at the moment):
Video
I also figured out why my video wouldn't upload here at blogger or at youtube. Because my video wasn't compressed it was about 1.8 Gigabytes in size. Wowsa. After compression I was able to easily incorporate it into my website. I was going to upload it here just now but I realized it'd take about 40 minutes to do so and it is almost 4:30 AM now so I suppose I ought to try that sleep thing.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Video Editing
VIDEO
Right now I've just finished working in Final Cut Pro to produce the video of Brandi Jessup.
I was very impressed with how easy it was to use Final Cut Pro. My professor let me use his camera to play my DV mini and capture it using FCP. Afterwards a fellow student who has done a lot of video editing showed me how to use the Razor Blade to cut segments out of my video.
Adding transitions is as easy as choosing which transitions you want from a drop down list under the "effects" tab then dragging and dropping them onto the segment you on which you want them.
So after chopping out all the frames that included me asking Brandi the questions and adding in transitions to make a smooth...well...transition from one segment to another I had a final product.
Now onto putting the video in my website.
I use Dreamweaver, so what I did was open the page I wanted the video on (in my case index.html). Now I am using div tags and javascript to move one screen while hiding the others when a button is clicked (that wasn't very clear, was it?) so you need to know that I drew my absolute positioned div in the place I needed it to be.
Next I clicked on the Common set of tools and chose the icon with the three shapes compiled together. It is the Media icon.
From this icon list I chose "Plugin" and then navigated to my video. The video uploaded and test fine.
THE PROBLEM
The Problem I am facing now is that I need a play/pause, stop, rewind, and fast forward button for the viewers to maneuver through the video. I got the grand idea of uploading the video to YouTube and then using the embed code from there to my video into Dreamweaver so that it'd automatically have the buttons.
The issue with doing this is that it is taking forever for my video to upload to YouTube and I have no idea why. I will report more later.
I'm going to try to upload the video here and see what happens...it is taking forever as well.
From reading a few articles I've discovered uploading video to YouTube.com (and Blogger.com) can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes and up to one hour.
And apparently I can't upload my video to blogger. I wonder why? We'll see how YouTube fares out...by the way, my video is a Quicktime .mov file.
Right now I've just finished working in Final Cut Pro to produce the video of Brandi Jessup.
I was very impressed with how easy it was to use Final Cut Pro. My professor let me use his camera to play my DV mini and capture it using FCP. Afterwards a fellow student who has done a lot of video editing showed me how to use the Razor Blade to cut segments out of my video.
Adding transitions is as easy as choosing which transitions you want from a drop down list under the "effects" tab then dragging and dropping them onto the segment you on which you want them.
So after chopping out all the frames that included me asking Brandi the questions and adding in transitions to make a smooth...well...transition from one segment to another I had a final product.
Now onto putting the video in my website.
I use Dreamweaver, so what I did was open the page I wanted the video on (in my case index.html). Now I am using div tags and javascript to move one screen while hiding the others when a button is clicked (that wasn't very clear, was it?) so you need to know that I drew my absolute positioned div in the place I needed it to be.
Next I clicked on the Common set of tools and chose the icon with the three shapes compiled together. It is the Media icon.
From this icon list I chose "Plugin" and then navigated to my video. The video uploaded and test fine.
THE PROBLEM
The Problem I am facing now is that I need a play/pause, stop, rewind, and fast forward button for the viewers to maneuver through the video. I got the grand idea of uploading the video to YouTube and then using the embed code from there to my video into Dreamweaver so that it'd automatically have the buttons.
The issue with doing this is that it is taking forever for my video to upload to YouTube and I have no idea why. I will report more later.
I'm going to try to upload the video here and see what happens...it is taking forever as well.
From reading a few articles I've discovered uploading video to YouTube.com (and Blogger.com) can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes and up to one hour.
And apparently I can't upload my video to blogger. I wonder why? We'll see how YouTube fares out...by the way, my video is a Quicktime .mov file.
Update on WKU Fighting
There were no guns except those in the holsters of the WKU and Bowling Green Police. No one shot anybody. There were no shots fired.
There was a fight on the South Campus of Western Kentucky University. South Campus is Western's Community College and is about 5 minutes down the way from the main campus.
About 30 minutes later there was also a fight at the Pierce Ford Tower Residence Hall on the main campus.
I was locked in a classroom for 3.5 hours because boys were fighting.
However perturbed I am, I see that the situation could have been worse. And as a professor of mine put it, "it's best to over prepare, than to under prepare," and she'd be correct. Something that could have been tragic turned out to be not so bad.
I am thoroughly impressed with Western's ability to warn students of danger and with the professors who took on the responsibilities of protecting the students. I can honestly say that I feel entirely safe at WKU. If a situation ever did arise like that of Virginia Tech and Columbine High, I know that there are systems put into effect to warn all of us about the dangerous situation and there are safety protocols to protect the students. I never felt so cared for by an institution in my entire life.
Kudos to WKU!
There was a fight on the South Campus of Western Kentucky University. South Campus is Western's Community College and is about 5 minutes down the way from the main campus.
About 30 minutes later there was also a fight at the Pierce Ford Tower Residence Hall on the main campus.
I was locked in a classroom for 3.5 hours because boys were fighting.
However perturbed I am, I see that the situation could have been worse. And as a professor of mine put it, "it's best to over prepare, than to under prepare," and she'd be correct. Something that could have been tragic turned out to be not so bad.
I am thoroughly impressed with Western's ability to warn students of danger and with the professors who took on the responsibilities of protecting the students. I can honestly say that I feel entirely safe at WKU. If a situation ever did arise like that of Virginia Tech and Columbine High, I know that there are systems put into effect to warn all of us about the dangerous situation and there are safety protocols to protect the students. I never felt so cared for by an institution in my entire life.
Kudos to WKU!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Western Kentucky University Shootings
It's one of those things, you think, "that will never happen at my school." I was wrong.
I'm locked in a classroom inside Western's Mass Media and Technology Hall. Fortunately, I ran into my little brother's girlfriend and she's here with me so I know she's OK.
I always park at the Walgreen's adjacent to the South Campus (Western's Community College) parking lot, walk over to the parking lot, catch the bus and ride it to main campus. That bus will drop me off right in front of Mass Media Technology Hall.
Normally I'm not on campus on Wednesdays but I wanted to meet with my professor so he could show me how to put my DVC onto a DVD or CD and a couple of tricks when working with Final Cut Pro.
I parked at Walgreen's like always and walked over. Britney Spears was belting her, "Pieces of Me" into my ears as I was walking across the Walgreen's parking lot. There was a white vehicle coming toward me rather fast and I was annoyed at their need for speed in a freaking parking lot.
I kept walking and when I got into the South Campus Commuter Lot I saw two African American girls texting like mad on their phones as they were scrambling to their cars. That's when I suspected something was going on. I then remembered that when I was sitting in my car putting on my makeup I heard sirens.
I got on the bus. There were three other students on the bus as well. The driver locked the doors and told us that we weren't going to be going anywhere. I asked her why and she said there were four African American males inside the South Campus building with guns so no one was permitted to leave. I got off the bus and walked back to my car.
Like the genius I am I decided to drive to main campus, park off campus and walk to the Mass Media and Technology Hall. I called the Herald (our campus newspaper) and told the reporters what was going on. I got 3/4 the way to the building when I saw Elizabeth, my little brother's girlfriend, walking toward me. We were talking when, for the first time in my entire existence at Western, I heard the complete alarm system go off.
A blaring voice that could be heard all over campus saying there was immediate danger and to take shelter immediately. Elizabeth and I ran the rest of the way to Mass Media and when we got inside there were a ton of people already there. I led her to the elevator and we went up to the third floor because I wasn't quite in terror mode yet and I wanted to get my freaking video done.
When we got up to the third floor and down to my professor's office there were people hoarding into the classrooms saying we were on lock down. Elizabeth and I went into the broadcasting newsroom with two other girls and locked the door. Someone called and said there were shootings in the Pierce Ford Tower and hostages were taken in both locations. Wowsa.
So I walked down the hall to see where my professor was and he was hoarding students into ImageWest, the student-run Advertising and PR Firm. I got Elizabeth and we went into ImageWest and so I'm sitting here blogging about it, listening to the guys on the radio saying, "We're trying to gather information from Bowling Green Police..." blah.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Yamelo.com
I was trying to think of the name of a song the other day and, for the life of me, I couldn't remember it. I couldn't even remember the name of the band who performed it. I went to youtube.com hoping I could type in the three words of the lyrics I recalled, but I got nowhere.
Then I remembered a site my friend William made a bit back. It's really gotten some great reviews and everyone I've ever shown it to instantly loves it.
http://www.yamelo.com
I went there and found the era the song was in (90s of course!). I started scrolling down the page looking at the names of bands on the side and the links to the videos and there it was! Sleepwalker by the Wallflowers. Sweet!
Then I remembered a site my friend William made a bit back. It's really gotten some great reviews and everyone I've ever shown it to instantly loves it.
http://www.yamelo.com
I went there and found the era the song was in (90s of course!). I started scrolling down the page looking at the names of bands on the side and the links to the videos and there it was! Sleepwalker by the Wallflowers. Sweet!
Update
GLITCH
Uhm...for some reason when I type the word Website into my title bar it shows it in like Webdingish or something. I speak fluent English and Webbish and I can hold a polite conversation in Spanish, but I don't know a lick of Webdingish.
CF WEBSITE UPDATE
It's 3:30 AM, I'm really tired, so here is what the website looks like with the What is CF? button highlighted. G'nite to all...maybe I will dream in webdingish tonight.
Uhm...for some reason when I type the word Website into my title bar it shows it in like Webdingish or something. I speak fluent English and Webbish and I can hold a polite conversation in Spanish, but I don't know a lick of Webdingish.
CF WEBSITE UPDATE
It's 3:30 AM, I'm really tired, so here is what the website looks like with the What is CF? button highlighted. G'nite to all...maybe I will dream in webdingish tonight.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
CF Website
CF WEBSITE
So I feel a little better now that I got some things on my checklist checked off:
Video Shoot with Brandi, check.
Colors for the site, check.
Page Design, check.
RSS News Feed, check.
Below you'll find a snapshot of the website with the What is CF? link activated. Next on my check list is to create content for each of the links. This site seems to have the most javascript I've ever used in my life in it, which is great by me, I get to have fun with java. However, I'm really wanting to do a lot with CSS soon. My next site will be CSS-based so I can learn more with that.
So I feel a little better now that I got some things on my checklist checked off:
Video Shoot with Brandi, check.
Colors for the site, check.
Page Design, check.
RSS News Feed, check.
Below you'll find a snapshot of the website with the What is CF? link activated. Next on my check list is to create content for each of the links. This site seems to have the most javascript I've ever used in my life in it, which is great by me, I get to have fun with java. However, I'm really wanting to do a lot with CSS soon. My next site will be CSS-based so I can learn more with that.
RSS Feeds
We love 'em. We gotta have 'em. They just look so professional on our site and we have to do nothing more than copy and paste a code. OMG, I'm so freaking in love with some RSS Feeds!
CF WEBSITE
I wrote down a list of a content ideas for the CF website a while ago (my boyfriend from up north thinks 'a while ago' is an animal similar to a wild dingo *rolls eyes*) and one content idea was to include news articles. With a stroke of genius I decided an RSS Feed from a Cystic Fibrosis website would suffice. It would also give me giblets for those wonda-ful crawlers to munch on and spit out at you when you go googling.
RSS FEEDS
So how do you get an RSS Feed to feed it's wonderful giblets to your website? OMG, you're gonna freak out at how easy it is! Alls you gots to do is go to this website:
http://www.rss-info.com/en_rssinclude-simple.html
Next you gotta type in the address from which you want the feed to come from. I went to google.com, searched for "Cystic Fibrosis RSS Feed" and I chose this website:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/rss/cystic_fibrosis.xml
So what I did was copy this website's address and paste it into the box labled: RSS URL.
Next you type in the hex codes for the colors you want to use as the background, border and cell background. You can also leave these hex codes as the default and you'll get a really professional looking feed box too. I opted to change mine to match the color scheme of my CF Website.
Afterwards you then decide if you want JavaScript coding, IFrame coding or PHP Coding. Because the page I'm building is in essence nothing more than div tags & containers with javascript I opted to use the JavaScript coding so everything kinda matched. You can use whichever, altough I'm not certain what IFrame is exactly, but I'm sure I'll come across it in my daily adventures with Web Design.
Next you click Create HTML and when the page loads scroll down. Under the Create HTML button you'll now see a box with coding in it. Copy the code. Now just paste the code into the source code of your website wherever you need it to be. How freaking cool is that, right?
Here's a snapshot of what my CF website looks like so far with the RSS feed in it. Remember...it's a work in progress.
CF WEBSITE
I wrote down a list of a content ideas for the CF website a while ago (my boyfriend from up north thinks 'a while ago' is an animal similar to a wild dingo *rolls eyes*) and one content idea was to include news articles. With a stroke of genius I decided an RSS Feed from a Cystic Fibrosis website would suffice. It would also give me giblets for those wonda-ful crawlers to munch on and spit out at you when you go googling.
RSS FEEDS
So how do you get an RSS Feed to feed it's wonderful giblets to your website? OMG, you're gonna freak out at how easy it is! Alls you gots to do is go to this website:
http://www.rss-info.com/en_rssinclude-simple.html
Next you gotta type in the address from which you want the feed to come from. I went to google.com, searched for "Cystic Fibrosis RSS Feed" and I chose this website:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/rss/cystic_fibrosis.xml
So what I did was copy this website's address and paste it into the box labled: RSS URL.
Next you type in the hex codes for the colors you want to use as the background, border and cell background. You can also leave these hex codes as the default and you'll get a really professional looking feed box too. I opted to change mine to match the color scheme of my CF Website.
Afterwards you then decide if you want JavaScript coding, IFrame coding or PHP Coding. Because the page I'm building is in essence nothing more than div tags & containers with javascript I opted to use the JavaScript coding so everything kinda matched. You can use whichever, altough I'm not certain what IFrame is exactly, but I'm sure I'll come across it in my daily adventures with Web Design.
Next you click Create HTML and when the page loads scroll down. Under the Create HTML button you'll now see a box with coding in it. Copy the code. Now just paste the code into the source code of your website wherever you need it to be. How freaking cool is that, right?
Here's a snapshot of what my CF website looks like so far with the RSS feed in it. Remember...it's a work in progress.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Video Shoot
Brandi Jessup
Brandi was totally awesome at the video shoot today. She did exactly what I wanted her to do. She answered all the questions with lengthly, in-depth answers and really delved into the true emotion of sometimes feeling like she doesn't fit in with her peers because of her disease. I asked a ton of questions and immediately fell back into my old reporter role. It was a nice visit and I felt pretty comfortable in it.
Digital Recording
I recorded the video on a miniDVC and now I'm faced with the task of transferring it onto my hard drive or preferably onto a DVD or a CD. I am blessed with the fact that I go to Western Kentucky University and am supplied with an unimaginable amount of very expensive, professional equipment. I'm sure I'll be able to locate the resources needed in order to produce the material I want.
Video Editing
This is a new journey for me. I have never worked with video editing. Perhaps now is a great time to really look for an awesome Broadcasting major student to make friends with, huh? Or perhaps there are any of you out there who would be willing and able to devote time to the charity known as Tabitha Can't Work the Video Editing Equipment? More on this situation as it happens...holy canole, batman, I really wasn't kidding about falling back into that reporter role, was I?
Brandi was totally awesome at the video shoot today. She did exactly what I wanted her to do. She answered all the questions with lengthly, in-depth answers and really delved into the true emotion of sometimes feeling like she doesn't fit in with her peers because of her disease. I asked a ton of questions and immediately fell back into my old reporter role. It was a nice visit and I felt pretty comfortable in it.
Digital Recording
I recorded the video on a miniDVC and now I'm faced with the task of transferring it onto my hard drive or preferably onto a DVD or a CD. I am blessed with the fact that I go to Western Kentucky University and am supplied with an unimaginable amount of very expensive, professional equipment. I'm sure I'll be able to locate the resources needed in order to produce the material I want.
Video Editing
This is a new journey for me. I have never worked with video editing. Perhaps now is a great time to really look for an awesome Broadcasting major student to make friends with, huh? Or perhaps there are any of you out there who would be willing and able to devote time to the charity known as Tabitha Can't Work the Video Editing Equipment? More on this situation as it happens...holy canole, batman, I really wasn't kidding about falling back into that reporter role, was I?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Color Theory
In Marketing you're told that packaging is very crucial. The look of the product must emanate the emotion or feeling you want the consumer to have from the product. If you're designing something for men who like techy type stuff you're going to use a lot of sleek blacks, glass-looking LED screen type of things and some grays and silvers, right? That makes sense. It also makes sense in web design. Choosing the color combinations for a website is very important. The following websites are great tools for helping you find your color schemes.
www.kuler.adobe.com
www.colorblender.com
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
www.kuler.adobe.com
www.colorblender.com
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
CF Website Update
Research
In my community there are five individuals with CF: Chris Holmes (20--and my lil bubby), Brandy Jessup (15), Michelle (28) and Colby (4). As you can see they are spread across the spectrum in ages. This causes an issue with the previous concept of finding the target audience determined by age. The difficulty is that I'm going to have to come up with a design that will appeal to all ages. Another difficulty is that instead of targeting little Colby I'll be apt to target his parents, meaning that the website will not only be directed at CF Patients but also at their families.
Additional Ideas
To keep the website available to updates it would also be wise to include material for parents who have just found out their child has been born with CF. I wanted to keep the website extremely upbeat, showcasing how much technology has advanced and how patients are living longer and longer. However, including the material for new parents will add a dismal feel. There is just no good in finding out your child has CF and tears are welling in my eyes remembering all the things my family went through when my little brother was diagnosed. It is never fun when they are sick.
In my community there are five individuals with CF: Chris Holmes (20--and my lil bubby), Brandy Jessup (15), Michelle (28) and Colby (4). As you can see they are spread across the spectrum in ages. This causes an issue with the previous concept of finding the target audience determined by age. The difficulty is that I'm going to have to come up with a design that will appeal to all ages. Another difficulty is that instead of targeting little Colby I'll be apt to target his parents, meaning that the website will not only be directed at CF Patients but also at their families.
Additional Ideas
To keep the website available to updates it would also be wise to include material for parents who have just found out their child has been born with CF. I wanted to keep the website extremely upbeat, showcasing how much technology has advanced and how patients are living longer and longer. However, including the material for new parents will add a dismal feel. There is just no good in finding out your child has CF and tears are welling in my eyes remembering all the things my family went through when my little brother was diagnosed. It is never fun when they are sick.
Where'd the 18 inch go?!
New Apple Products
After finally getting around to see what's new on the product line at apple I discovered...omg, where'd the 18 inch go? In it's place there is a 13" MacBook and a 15" MacBook Pro. Earlier this year the MacBook Air was introduced. I've not gotten a chance to get my paws on these machines quite yet.
From what I'm reading and seeing the new MacBooks have juiced up their graphics capability and used LED screens, making the images more crisp, clear and vibrant. This was a good idea on the part of Apple because, traditionally, the majority of Mac users are design and graphics oriented individuals...like me. :)
Another neato innovation I recognized was the track pad. The track pad on these new lappy tops does not have buttons. It IS the button. You can also navigate using it much like an iPod if you so choose to do so.
You would think that since the new macs are made from aluminum it would be great. And yes, they are lightweight, but, uh...wouldn't aluminum cause an issue with overheating? And wouldn't it be very scratch prone? Alas, compromises.
Speculation has arisen about the new books being not as fast as reported, however benchmarks repute this. I've included a youtube video of a song that kept running through my head the entire time I was reading about all the new products:
After finally getting around to see what's new on the product line at apple I discovered...omg, where'd the 18 inch go? In it's place there is a 13" MacBook and a 15" MacBook Pro. Earlier this year the MacBook Air was introduced. I've not gotten a chance to get my paws on these machines quite yet.
From what I'm reading and seeing the new MacBooks have juiced up their graphics capability and used LED screens, making the images more crisp, clear and vibrant. This was a good idea on the part of Apple because, traditionally, the majority of Mac users are design and graphics oriented individuals...like me. :)
Another neato innovation I recognized was the track pad. The track pad on these new lappy tops does not have buttons. It IS the button. You can also navigate using it much like an iPod if you so choose to do so.
You would think that since the new macs are made from aluminum it would be great. And yes, they are lightweight, but, uh...wouldn't aluminum cause an issue with overheating? And wouldn't it be very scratch prone? Alas, compromises.
Speculation has arisen about the new books being not as fast as reported, however benchmarks repute this. I've included a youtube video of a song that kept running through my head the entire time I was reading about all the new products:
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Watermarks
Previously I posted an entry that included javascript code for disabling the right click function on a webpage. I thought it was a genius idea for protecting copyrights on photography and graphic design elements.
For those who want the traditional watermarks (as they seem to reflect some element of professionalism for photography) you should check out http://www.uconomix.com/Products/uMark/Default.aspx
At this website you can download a program for $19.99 that will enable you to put image watermarks on your photography or graphic design elements. Image watermarks are preferable to worded watermarks because, as we know, people with lots of time on their hands, who can't otherwise get stock photos and who have a blatant disregard for the law, can essentially take those watermarks off via Photoshop and that great stamp tool.
What is an image watermark? Below is an image that has an image watermark.
For those who want the traditional watermarks (as they seem to reflect some element of professionalism for photography) you should check out http://www.uconomix.com/Products/uMark/Default.aspx
At this website you can download a program for $19.99 that will enable you to put image watermarks on your photography or graphic design elements. Image watermarks are preferable to worded watermarks because, as we know, people with lots of time on their hands, who can't otherwise get stock photos and who have a blatant disregard for the law, can essentially take those watermarks off via Photoshop and that great stamp tool.
What is an image watermark? Below is an image that has an image watermark.
Side Project
Video Shoot
The video shoot was a no go, my little brother cancelled. I did secure a shooting with Brandi for next weekend. I have zilch video experience so this will be interesting.
Side Project
Western Kentucky University has their own student-run advertising and PR agency. Internships are given each semester. I plan on applying for it this year as it'd be fantastic experience. It requires three samples of a student's work. I have one, a poster for a made-up company for a production of Rapunzel that never actually happened. And I have a business card that I made for myself a bit back. I also made an ad for this blog site. Here they are:
The video shoot was a no go, my little brother cancelled. I did secure a shooting with Brandi for next weekend. I have zilch video experience so this will be interesting.
Side Project
Western Kentucky University has their own student-run advertising and PR agency. Internships are given each semester. I plan on applying for it this year as it'd be fantastic experience. It requires three samples of a student's work. I have one, a poster for a made-up company for a production of Rapunzel that never actually happened. And I have a business card that I made for myself a bit back. I also made an ad for this blog site. Here they are:
Monday, October 13, 2008
Making Sense of AdSense
I set up my AdSense for this blog a few days ago. So far I've made $0.00 :) Woohoo! I have had 88 impressions...is that good?
One feature I had a little trouble understanding at first was the eCPM. The eCPM is the amount of money made divided by the number of impressions in thousands and is used primarily by advertisers who might want to put their ad on your page or for a publisher (me) to compare channels.
Channels, I have discovered, are basically the medium through it is advertised which is either a Leaderboard, a box or a type of footer that showcases the ads. So you can set up a channel to tell you how well your combination of a leaderboard and a side box does compared to a leaderboard on it's own. Pretty neat function, AdSense!
So right now my eCPM is $0.04 and I have made $0.00 on the ads that are on my website. I think I'll add more ads.
One feature I had a little trouble understanding at first was the eCPM. The eCPM is the amount of money made divided by the number of impressions in thousands and is used primarily by advertisers who might want to put their ad on your page or for a publisher (me) to compare channels.
Channels, I have discovered, are basically the medium through it is advertised which is either a Leaderboard, a box or a type of footer that showcases the ads. So you can set up a channel to tell you how well your combination of a leaderboard and a side box does compared to a leaderboard on it's own. Pretty neat function, AdSense!
So right now my eCPM is $0.04 and I have made $0.00 on the ads that are on my website. I think I'll add more ads.
Disable Right Click
I was rummaging through Photography Portfolio Websites and found a site build by a girl who disabled the right click function instead of ruining her beautiful photography with horrible watermarks. Watermarks are super easy to get rid of anyways using the stamp tool in Photoshop or Fireworks.
Apparently you can't just paste javascript code for individuals to copy and paste in this box. I'm working on a way to figure this out...
OK, so copy the code below. After you paste it, type in the left carat character (<) before the word SCRIPT and type in the right carat character (>) after language=JavaScript.
Finally, at the end of the code, type in < / script > with no spaces in between the characters.
SCRIPT language=JavaScript
var message = "function disabled";
function rtclickcheck(keyp){ if (navigator.appName == "Netscape" && keyp.which == 3){ alert(message); return false; }
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE") != -1 && event.button == 2) { alert(message); return false; } }
document.onmousedown = rtclickcheck;
I got this code from searching google with "disable right click tutorial". I found this website, which is where I found the code. The website is also an example of the code in use...go ahead, try to right click on this site: http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/html-tutorial/rclick.htm
CF Website Update
Video
Today I'm shooting a test video to put onto the website. I've never done any video editing or attempted to put any videos on a website. I've never even uploaded a video to youtube. Maybe I ought to start there first? I don't know, but I guess I'm about to find out.
Today I'm shooting a test video to put onto the website. I've never done any video editing or attempted to put any videos on a website. I've never even uploaded a video to youtube. Maybe I ought to start there first? I don't know, but I guess I'm about to find out.
Design
Last night I delved into old rock bands I loved in high school, especially Switchfoot, as you can tell from the video I posted. I did some sketches and worked with colored pencils for effects. I'll be scanning them in, saving them as .jpg or perhaps .gif images and posting them on a site such as flickr. I need some way to be able to code the images so that I can post them on this blog like I did the switchfoot video, so that's something else I'm working on figuring out how to do.
Research
Stayed up until 4 AM this morning drawing, sketching and doing the general probe of the mind folds attempting to squeeze out the black juicy creativity. That's the real black gold, in case you didn't know.
Embedding Youtube Videos Into Your Blog
Embedding youtube videos into your blog (like the totally kickass Switchfoot video below) is very easy. Visit youtube.com and find your video.
To the right of the video there should be an advertisement of some kind. Just below that you'll find where you can copy the URL link and then below that you can copy code from EMBED.
Next go to your blog and sign in. Start a new blog and paste the code into the compose area. Publish the blog posting.
Ta da! Youtube video right in your blog. Simple. Genius. Lovely. Now click play on the video below and rock out to some Switchfoot! Woot!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Research Continued
Content
A list of content ideas has been constructed. The main categories include Videos, Games, Information, Music & Music Videos (by Famous CF musicians), News,and Message Boards/Forums. Ideas continue to accumulate.
Design
Nothing new to report.
Audience
In the beginning the audience chosen was middle school and high school kids. After reviewing other sites as well as informational DVDs and with the realization that more and more CF patients are living longer and longer, I've decided to expand my audience ages and inside of the site itself make pages for New Parents, 9-12, 13-17, 17-21 and adults. Each page will have it's own look and feel. No attempts at designing the pages have been made.
Personal Note
I dyed my hair. Check out myspace: www.myspace.com/tabythalynne
There's a poll to the right asking if you dig it. Take the poll, please :)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
CF Website
Audience
After a full day of research I have decided I am most interested in building an informational website for young teens with CF. I want to include videos of kids with CF, loads of interactivity and some games. The site will be directed at middle and high school kids with information about dealing with CF and friends, school, family, eating, treatments and the like. Older teens get upset when they realize there is a high percentage of a chance they cannot have children.
Design
Bright colors and no white space seem to be prevalent among websites for middle school and young teens. A rockband feel is prominent for the older teens. To incorporate both I'm going to use elements from Phineas and Ferb, the rockband elements from Hannah Montana and bands like Lifehouse and Switchfoot and the interactivity and connectedness of websites like nick.com and disneychannel.com.
Content
I want to incorporate the use of video into this project. I've never used video in a website before so it will take some time for me to learn the basics. I also plan to build the site using div tags in dreamweaver cs3 and giving them interactivity using javascript.
Next Step
The next step is to further develop the content and then later build the design around the content. I've decided that in order to get great content that users find helpful and that will keep them coming back to the website I need to 1. Find other CF websites for teens and see what kind of content they have and 2. Ask CF patients what they would like to see on a website and 3. Make a list of content ideas.
A New Website in the Works
So I am currently building a new website that will serve as an informational website for Cystic Fibrosis. My little brother has CF and I took a ton of great pictures at the Great Strides Walkathon 2008 in Madisonville, KY (my hometown) this year. I'm having some trouble thinking of content ideas and wondering which audience I should direct the site toward. Do I want to target adults, teens, or children. Who views websites for Cystic Fibrosis? Teens are interested in scholarship opportunities and places to meet other kids with CF. Parents of CF kids are worried, anxious and scared and are probably looking for ways to cope with their child having a terminal illness as well as looking for other parents of children with CF. Parents are probably also looking for information regarding the cause of the disease, good doctors and specialists in their areas and maybe even support groups. They are also looking for innovative medication and treatments in addition to news articles pertaining to advancements in the areas of CF Research. Parents want to help and look for ways to get invovled. Children with CF might also be curious abou their disease and might also want to find other children who have the disease. But I think mostly children will be looking for games and fun activities.
Research is in order I think. My ideas: Research what adults want out of a CF site. Research what teens want out of a CF site. Research what children want out of a CF site.
First order of research is to look at the "competition." So I'm off to search the web for CF websites and see who they target and check out their content. Next I will then look at websites for adults about other diseases such as muscular dystrophy, leukemia, etc. I'll report results.
Gaining some AdSense
Let’s get some AdSense...and probably even some cents if we're lucky!
I started this blog on September 6, 2008 and found an interesting system called AdSense.
What is AdSense?
Apparently, it’s a way to make your site make money. Google puts ads on your website or blog and you generate revenue from it. I don’t know where they get the ads from, who sells them or who purchases them. I am currently learning how to choose what kind of ad box I want on my page and how to optimize performance and increase revenues. Woohoo!
The first thing you do is apply for AdSense. After being approved to use AdSense on your website or blog you’ll receive an email telling you so and giving you a link to your dashboard. Click on the tab AdSense and then Get Ads to find AdSense for Content.
Next step is to decide how you want your ad to appear. Using Opera’s color picker widget I found the colors that are used here at my blog. I decided to use the great orange you see in the top left hand corner as my background for the ads. I figured it’s an eye-popping orange and sure to get attention. Next I chose white for the text and title and attempted to choose a gray for the link but, alas, my skills are deemed dismal because I couldn’t get that to work. Settling for black links works by me. I’ll try again later I think.
Anywho who, moving on.
Channels.
Apparently channels are something to help you see how well your ads are doing. My brain has not quite wrapped itself around how this happens but I bet you $50 I’m about to find out in T minus five minutes.
*Five minutes later*
You owe me $50 and I don’t accept Paypal payments. Visa or Mastercard only, 0.01% discount if you pay in cash.
Channels
Channels are used to compare how one ad style compares to other ad styles. You can create a channel to tell you how much more or less revenue your leader board ad is generating than your box style ad, which enables you to make an informed decision of whether or not to keep both types, get rid of one, or ad another of the kind that is doing well. I love how I’m so vague…bah on the English language.
I have decided to not create any channels at this moment in time, it is definitely something I will revisit. Moving forward…
So I name the ad box and now I get a code.
AdSense does not just publish ads to your website. You have to go to Setup and get coding to place into the HTML of the document. But wait…I didn’t write the html code for this blog, I used a template through blogger.com and chose some colors. Do I rip the code and put it into Dreamweaver to add code to the html? That sounds kind of illegal, isn’t it? How would I reload that anyways? Bah, what do I do?! I bet I can find out in four minutes, double or nothing?
Boo, I just lost money, its definitely taking me longer than four minutes. Sad Day. I think I ought to search blogger.com website instead of looking for the answer through AdSense website.
All of this to discover that blogger.com has already set all this up for me. I wish I could have used the orange background though. I wonder if I create my own code instead of using a template would I be able to have more options in deciding exactly how my ads would look. I’m certain that is true.
But for all other html websites you just copy the code and paste into your document.
Yes, I’m feeling pretty stupid. But it’s all part of learning, which is what I’m here for!
I started this blog on September 6, 2008 and found an interesting system called AdSense.
What is AdSense?
Apparently, it’s a way to make your site make money. Google puts ads on your website or blog and you generate revenue from it. I don’t know where they get the ads from, who sells them or who purchases them. I am currently learning how to choose what kind of ad box I want on my page and how to optimize performance and increase revenues. Woohoo!
The first thing you do is apply for AdSense. After being approved to use AdSense on your website or blog you’ll receive an email telling you so and giving you a link to your dashboard. Click on the tab AdSense and then Get Ads to find AdSense for Content.
Next step is to decide how you want your ad to appear. Using Opera’s color picker widget I found the colors that are used here at my blog. I decided to use the great orange you see in the top left hand corner as my background for the ads. I figured it’s an eye-popping orange and sure to get attention. Next I chose white for the text and title and attempted to choose a gray for the link but, alas, my skills are deemed dismal because I couldn’t get that to work. Settling for black links works by me. I’ll try again later I think.
Anywho who, moving on.
Channels.
Apparently channels are something to help you see how well your ads are doing. My brain has not quite wrapped itself around how this happens but I bet you $50 I’m about to find out in T minus five minutes.
*Five minutes later*
You owe me $50 and I don’t accept Paypal payments. Visa or Mastercard only, 0.01% discount if you pay in cash.
Channels
Channels are used to compare how one ad style compares to other ad styles. You can create a channel to tell you how much more or less revenue your leader board ad is generating than your box style ad, which enables you to make an informed decision of whether or not to keep both types, get rid of one, or ad another of the kind that is doing well. I love how I’m so vague…bah on the English language.
I have decided to not create any channels at this moment in time, it is definitely something I will revisit. Moving forward…
So I name the ad box and now I get a code.
AdSense does not just publish ads to your website. You have to go to Setup and get coding to place into the HTML of the document. But wait…I didn’t write the html code for this blog, I used a template through blogger.com and chose some colors. Do I rip the code and put it into Dreamweaver to add code to the html? That sounds kind of illegal, isn’t it? How would I reload that anyways? Bah, what do I do?! I bet I can find out in four minutes, double or nothing?
Boo, I just lost money, its definitely taking me longer than four minutes. Sad Day. I think I ought to search blogger.com website instead of looking for the answer through AdSense website.
All of this to discover that blogger.com has already set all this up for me. I wish I could have used the orange background though. I wonder if I create my own code instead of using a template would I be able to have more options in deciding exactly how my ads would look. I’m certain that is true.
But for all other html websites you just copy the code and paste into your document.
Yes, I’m feeling pretty stupid. But it’s all part of learning, which is what I’m here for!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Scrolling Photo Gallery Tutorial
After visiting a few websites, especially those that serve as Photography Portfolios I discovered the scrolling photo gallery and decided that I MUST have one for my own resume website (which is under construction and can be found at www.wku.edu/~tabitha.holmes969).
So off I went to find a great tutorial that would help me with the javascript since I know virtually zilch about such. With the help of The Resource Man (Professor Mark Simpson at Western Kentucky University) I found this fantastic tutorial: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/cmotiongallery.htm
You'll notice I used the .js and .css from this tutorial to build my own scrolling photo gallery with the images linking to websites that I've designed. OK, so at the moment they're not exactly linked to anything, but by tomorrow evening, or at least by Friday they will be linked to my websites. Anyhow, I thought I'd pass on the tutorial to any readers who might be interested in it.
On my site I made one modification to it and it is simply that I placed the scrolling photo gallery inside of a table so I had to put the code linking the photos to the .js also in the table. It seriously took me a whole day to figure that out *rolls eyes*. So if anybody wants the scrolling photo gallery inside of a table instead of just hanging out on the page, what you do is post the .js call code into the table with the code for the photos and it works. It's a small accomplishment, but I was so proud of myself when I figured it out!
Happy Tuting.
DAZ 3-D
So everybody likes some 3-D animations right? I think it's totally hot and definitely pretty trendy. I dig the video games and the fantastic sense of art put into those intricately designed characters. So I decided to download DAZ 3-D. I had never heard of the company before and never tried any of their products.
I downloaded the program and made an attempt at finding tutorials on that interweb thingie. My end result was the realization that I was playing with a virtual Barbie Doll. You dress her choosing from a couple outfits, give her a pose chosen from a list of about eight and define a backdrop from the list of about four and ta da...I was reminded of playing with paper dolls when I was a little girl.
I wonder if DAZ 3-D is on to something however with the idea of creating an application where people can create their own 3-D characters and use them in their, say blogs, web design, etc.
Perhaps there are already applications out there that offer this kind of service, but I'm sure they are not open-source products. I'd like to give one a try, so I'm off to go in search of a 3-D 30-day trial application. Wish me luck!
Google Chrome
I love the google search engine. My preferred browser of choice was once Firefox because of it's innovative multi-tab user interface. However, I am completely won over by Opera with it's numerous widgets and skins. It makes web browsing a very personal experience.
Google Chrome...I expected more. September 2, 2008 was the date Google Chrome was released to the masses in a non-beta form. It reminds me of the early day Internet Explorer browser. I've not tested css websites or table websites on this browser as of yet. But upon opening Chrome I found nothing but a barren, plain web browser. I felt like I was looking at a blank canvas and wasn't allowed to have any materials by which to paint on it with. It hit a dark spot in my heart.
Sad Day. Further investigation is in order. I'll continue to report my discoveries with Google Chrome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
