Mobile content

A number of people (my self included) seem to be interested in mobile devices. I stumbled across Stanford University publication “Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behaviour Change”. Its not a book about the Technology, but “explores how mobile devices can be designed to motivate and influence people—and how this emerging trend will change the way you live, work, and play.”
The chapters / essays cover everything from mobile design and content with an emphasis on the persuasive power of the mobile technologies. Looks like a good read.

IE and Firefox

The problem of browsers rendering HTML and CSS differently was highlighted when I tried my project in IE. What was a perfect lay out in Firefox was a complete mess in IE even though it had validated. It made me realise what a nightmare it must be for developers to write code that validates and works across the various browsers. There are plenty sites that provide guides for CSS “hacks” I will have to try and look at how to fix things up when the semester finishes.

QuickTime and Validation

The issues of proprietary technology, open source standards and compliance have been highlighted over the past few days. My projected contains video and I have chosen to use QuickTime as the technology to deliver this.

I thought I had everything under control I had gone to the QuickTime site and found the code for embedding a QuickTime player in an HTML page. I tested the code and all seemed fine, however when I incorporated the code into the project I found it would not validate. It took quit a bit of tweaking to get the code working and validating.

Further reading revealed that embedding multimedia in XHTML pages is fraught with problems as a result of browser incompatibility, luckily we only have to get it working in Firefox.

Black Hat Penalties

Tim’s warning in this weeks lecture against using “black hat” methods to improve your Google ranking where illustrated this week with the “Found Agency” being penalised by Google for its alleged use of such methods. Google’s action saw the companies ranking drop from top of the listings to Fifty Second according to the Australian. Full Article.

As for my project, because I am running behind on it . I have decided I am going to create a number of test pages to test the code I m using and only when I have it working apply it to the project. Hopefully that way I will only be using code I know works to the final project. I would be interested to hear how other people are approaching the build.

Future of the Web and DMT Frustration

An interesting article on web technologies I'v stumbled across in my readings this week. “HTML5. XHTML2, and The future of the Web” is as exactly as the title suggests a look HTML5 and XHTML2 and the pros and cons of each technology and what they will mean to the development of the Web.

A busy week at work has meant not but much time spent on my DMT project. Very frustrating especially as the Macro Micro report felt like it was the starting point for the hands on work. Completing the report gave me a much clearer idea of what I needed to learn. Also it made me realise how I have no idea how long the project will take me, as I have never attempted anything like this before.

The solution I came up with was to divide the project into modules that can be completed in three stages. This way I can complete as many stages as I can in the time available and not be left with a half completed project if I run out of time.

PHP RESOURCES

Last week I mentioned some online tutorials for PHP beginners KillerPHP, I had a chance to go through the tutorials this weekend, I found them to be very helpful. As well introducing the basics of PHP they cover a couple of programs that allow you test PHP and MySQL scripts on your computer without having to upload them to the server. They are XAMPP and WAMP , take a look and decide which one would best suite you.

Rendering Typeface with CSS

One question I had about CSS is there any way of including Fonts in a Style sheet on a HTML page that the user does not have on their computer?

By coincidence I stumbled on a post on the WSG mailing list on this very topic. In can be achieved with the use of sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Relpacement). It works using a “combination of javascript, CSS and Flash. A great starting point is an article by Mike Davison, which gives a comprehensive guide to sIFR. Below is his summary of how it works:

How it Works

“sIFR is meant to replace short passages of plain browser text with text rendered in your typeface of choice, regardless of whether or not your users have that font installed on their systems. It accomplishes this by using a combination of javascript, CSS, and Flash. Here is the entire process:

1. A normal (X)HTML page is loaded into the browser.
2. A javascript function is run which first checks that Flash is installed and then looks for whatever tags, ids, or classes you designate.
3. If Flash isn't installed (or obviously if javascript is turned off), the (X)HTML page displays as normal and nothing further occurs. If Flash is installed, javascript traverses through the source of your page measuring each element you've designated as something you'd like "sIFRed".
4. Once measured, the script creates Flash movies of the same dimensions and overlays them on top of the original elements, pumping the original browser text in as a Flash variable.
5. Actionscript inside of each Flash file then draws that text in your chosen typeface at a 6 point size and scales it up until it fits snugly inside the Flash movie.

This all happens in a split-second, so all of the checking, replacing, and scaling is not visible to the user. It is not uncommon to notice a very short delay as the Flash loads, but to the user, none of the internals of this process are exposed.”

Has anyone else used sIFR or come across it before?

References: Davidson Mike , April 27, 2005, “sIFR: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses.” Mike Industries 30 March 2007, http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/

Quick Time and XHMTL

Ok I'm impressed , the whole idea of roaming the web, and finding other peoples code and grabbing it for your own project seemed a bit strange to me. However for my project I neeed to understand how to embed Quicktime movies into a page. So I google "XHMTL Quick time" and within ten minutes I have the code I need and have a working test page playing the video. While I don't claim to fully understand all the code involved a can follow most of it. I need to read more on how object classes function.
If anyone else is interested the code can be found at:

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/courses/geosc010/videos/ducky1.html

<div id="container">

<object classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
  width="352" height="280" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="qtsrc" value="rtsp://streaming.ems.psu.edu:554/geosc10/duckMountain1.mov" />
<param name="autoplay" value="true" />
<param name="controller" value="true" />

   <embed src="http://streaming.ems.psu.edu/geosc10/duckMountain1.mov"
       target="quicktimeplayer"
       type="video/quicktime"
       width="352"
       height="280"
       autoplay="true"
       controller="true"
       pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">

PHP For Beginners

This week's lecture on server side technologies and PHP / MySQL was new territory for me, but thanks to Tim’s informative introduction, I m not feeling as overawed as I was expecting.

A useful resource I found is a series of Flash Tutorials on PHP which I as a newcomer to the subject found very helpful, “Killer PHP” seems to cover the basics well.

I got the link through the WSG (Sydney) mailing list, be warned you will receive a lot of mail through this list, but it does have some interesting discussion on web standards and industry issues as well as offering help to anyone having problems with HTML and CSS.The WSG home page is worth a look there are transcripts of talks and podcasts available.

Learning Contract

My learning contract url is http://students.mim.iml.uts.edu.au/users/10125211/learning_draft/learn.html

A very interesting weekend spent playing with XHTML and CSS , followed by a frustrating couple of days trying to upload the file (the problem was my firewall settings). Can highly recommend the book "Headfirst HTML with CSS and XHTML" by Freeman and Freeman Published by O Rielly.

WEEK 2 : Networks

Being a novice to web technologies, I have found this week’s topic fascinating.
I’m not sure what I find more impressive; how the web functions around interconnected networks or the fact that it does run so well using these technologies. As Brian Marshall says while explaining the role of DNS in the system “This is one of the most amazing parts of the DNS system -- it is completely distributed throughout the world on millions of machines administered by millions of people, yet it behaves like a single, integrated database!” (Marshall,para.21)

In my browsing on this topic I stumbled across a blog by Ben Worthen of CIO magazine, titled “Who owns the Internet? We have a map that shows you”. While I m not sure the article delivers the headline, it does contain an interesting map showing “just about all the routers in

” (Worthen, 2006, para.1) and who owns them. If you're interested the map can be downloaded as a PDF.

The other thing that has struck me coming from a background of traditional media (Print, Television and Film), is the speed the internet has developed and continues to develop (Howe 2007) .It seems inevitable that with increased technical efficiencies and the resulting increase in consumer uptake that “the Internet will subsume all digital broadcast mediums”. (Search and Go, 2007,para1) A prediction that makes the need to understand the technologies the internet uses all the more important for some one such as myself.

References:

Marshall, B. , How Domain Servers Work, howstuffworks , viewed 11 March 2007, <>

Worthen, B. March 2006, Who owns the Internet? We have a map that shows you. CIO Magazine , viewed 11 March 2007.

Howe, W. January 2007, A Brief History of the Internet , Walt Howes Internet Learning Center, viewed 11 March 2007,

searchand go, Internet Explained, searchandgo , viewed 11 March 2007