Fourth Post on Fourth Lesson - CSS

This post is about CSS, a type of document used to edit web pages. CSS is basically a acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. They are used to make websites look more aesthetically appealing. With CSS, borders, background colours and font can all be edited. There are embedded style sheets and external style sheets. Embedded sheets allow the customization of each page, while external sheets allow customization of all pages with one sheet. CSS, like HTML and HTM pages, can be edited in notepad, and saved in the required format, *.css.

Colours are added with different codes, such as #000000 for black. There are many colours ranging from Aqua to Teal. Apart from adding these colours, borders can be formatted, all with CSS. Different backgrounds with different textures can also be used to create a different look and feel of the website.

For example, a website could change from -

• Plain text - Black Color
• Times New Roman (Font size 12)
• Plain white background

To:

• Formatted text - Red
• Comic Sans MS (Font Size 10)
• Coloured and textured background

Thus, CSS is very important for websites!

Sources:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_colornames.asp

http://is-wnm.ning.com/profiles/blogs/w4l4-intro-to-css-and-css

http://www.w3schools.com/css/

Third Post on Second Lesson - WNM Discussion

This Post is about a discussion conducted on the ning network forum. The discussion was about Copyright Infringement, Social Impact of New Media, as well as Websites VS Blogs. I took part in the Websites VS Blogs discussion, as well as the Copyright Infringement discussion.

Websites VS Blogs

This discussion was about the uses of Websites and Blogs, and whether to use a website or blog. My personal view was that it is actually a personal decision, since both fit different purposes.

Blogs:

1. Need to be frequently updated
2. Are more fitting to people who do not want to do programming - more fuss free
3. Less customizable

Websites:

1. Can be customized by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
2. Are less fuss free- requires software or knowledge of HTML programming
3. Do not need to be frequently updated.

However, I think most people would create a blog to update friends and family on any developments, rather than creating a website. Imagine, if you had some news which you wanted to share with all your friends on your blog or website, wouldn't it be easier to create a new post on your blog compared to your website?

Another note: With Web 2.0 Technology like Twitter and Facebook, blogs are also becoming less used, as well as personal websites. The convenience of Social Networking Sites outweigh the advantages of Blogs and Websites. Also, with Social Networking sites, the user can play games, post pictures and chat to their friends directly, instead of creating a blog or a website which is less personal.

Sources:http://is-wnm.ning.com/forum/topics/1i3-index-17-24-decide-blog and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq1wqtteb3I&feature=player_embedded#!

Copyright Infringement

This discussion was about Copyright Infringement. As most students and working adults would know, Copyright Infringement is a very serious matter. It could result in disqualification from a competition to even losing your job (only for working adults)!

As with the other discussions, a video was shown to clarify the main point. The video was "Copy Not Right" By Hossan Leong. (Link below)

Copyright is the exclusive right which belongs to the maker or creator of any work. (Images, Videos, etc.) Only the owner of the copyright can reproduce or sell any of the work. To use the work, permission has to be sought in writing, and the source has to be acknowledged. (Except in Special Cases- Like Wikipedia, which allows its work to be freely reproduced)

(When work can be used, text like this will be seen: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.)

The main learning point was a reminder that Copyright Infringement is very serious. It could result in a jail term and/or fine.

Sources: http://is-wnm.ning.com/forum/topics/1i3-index-9-16-intellectual

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByukxrccQf8&feature=player_embedded

Second Post for Infocomm Studies -- HTML

This is my Second Post for Infocomm Studies. (I missed the Second lesson because I was ill) For the lesson, we learnt about HTML. We had the lesson in class because the Computer labs were all being used.

During the lesson, we learnt how to make a website from scratch, without (Adobe) Dreamweaver or any other software. We did so with Notepad. The resulting website would be displayed with any Browser. However, the website could only be viewed if the file was stored on a computer. Since our website was not published, it would not be able to be viewed by anyone but us.

First, we learnt about the structure of HTML. The webpage starts out with (html) and ends with (/html). The start of a command is enclosed in chevrons <>, and the end of the command is enclosed in a slash and chevrons .

After that, there is the (head) and (body) , which make up the website.

The other HTML tags include:

• (b) and (/b) for Bold
• (u) and (/u) for Underline
• (em) and (/em) for Italics
• (hr) for Horizontal Rule (A straight Line)
• (br) for Line Break (Like pressing "Enter", but Notepad does not recognize spaces)
• (!--Insert comment here--) for comments (Comments do not show up in the website)

Pictures and links could also be inserted with URL links. After the body of the website is completed in Notepad, the file is saved as *.html or *.htm. After which, the file will be automatically opened by the default browser when clicked.

(Also, Notepad can be used to save *.txt, *.htm, *.html, and *.vbs (Visual Basic Scripting) files.)

Note: I replaced all the chevrons with brackets, as Blogger does not allow HTML tags in the Post.

P.s The second lesson was about IS discussions online. The Lesson included a web discussion. The discussion talked about Copyright Infringement, Social Impact of New Media, as well as Websites VS Blogs.