admin December 10th, 2007
00:41 - Monday 10th December 2007. I have just submitted my End of Course Assessment with the Open University on the day of the deadline. Finally, my first submisson of many! Now a little lesson has been learned, from which I will not forget - the only way I can describe it to you, is to compare it with Aesops tale of The Hare and the Tortoise. Need I say more…
admin November 29th, 2007
And so it happened - I crashed and burned, I peaked too soon and couldn’t go the distance. This month was my ‘Black November’, where all enthusiasm ebbed from my soul. I had gotten myself caught in a destructive emotion, of wallowing in my own self pity - a familiar place for anyone to recognise, who too has ever experienced sudden ‘unemployment’.
I lost all interest in blogging, I lost all interest in my fitness (which was a religion), but even more unfortunate, I lost interest in my studies - I just didn’t want to do anything. While it was only just a brief period of say, 4 weeks - it was just enough to touch the void and undo all the hard work I had previously done. Luckily I had studied enough to keep me well ahead, but instead of completing my course 4 weeks ago, I am now having to finish within the time allowed.
Thankfully once again, I’ve landed on my feet and am part of a fantastic company, I’ve changed gyms, so I am closer to home and I will be completing my end of course assignment in time. It’s amazing how one thing can affect everything in your life and completely screw-up your aurora.
…but isn’t that what life is about, rolling with the punches and growing from your lessons? As the saying goes, ‘God doesn’t dish out anything that you can never get through.’
admin October 23rd, 2007
I’ve spent the last few days surfing the web like crazy for blog forums and general sites for newbie bloggers alike and, have come across a couple which I have found quite helpful. Whether I still feel the same enthusiasm for these sites, once I’ve shed my title of ‘cub fish’ is another story. But in the meantime, I will use these as a platform for my progression into blogging.
I first happened across the site Lost Art of Blogging and in particular, this post which gives a documented description of the most common faux pas, most wet-behind-the-ears bloggers tend to make. It also hosts plenty of useful blogging tips to ensure blogger pro-activity.
The second site I found was Blogger Forum. This is one of many blogging forums which enables total interaction with other bloggers, who in turn offer useful critiques on your blogging technique. Registering with a forum is extremely beneficial if you want to get internet status, by getting out there and getting your name known. Lets face it, just how long do you expect to post to yourself and not get any feedback for your efforts!
Of course there were other sites like Link Beetle, Stumble Upon and BlogHer - but I think the best thing is to browse as many sites as possible and see what everyone else is doing, sooner or later you’ll get a feel for what’s best for you…
admin October 19th, 2007
Over the last week, I’ve noticed something stewing deep within my OU forums. A thread would be created, whereby a ‘particular type’ of pupil would post a comment on a topic which they were sagaciously adamant was fact, or so they thought...
This would then proceed with a barrage of ‘know-it-all’ replies fired from all directions and, before you know it, it’s full blown cyber warfare. Lengthy retorts are penned, quoting points from the thread with a tech-y manuscript of what the true answer, should be depicted as. A sort of pissing contest, in which even some of the women have mastered the art!
While those are heavily engulfed in the onslaught - little thought is spared for the humble bods who cower on the sidelines, waiting for a simple response to their oh-so! mediocre post, while thread upon thread is churned out. This common form of contentious arguing has been graciously awarded its own name, behold!…‘Flaming’.
In my case it’s regular attacks on the course moderators, who unfortunately have the laborious task, of ploughing through hundreds of poisonous posts from pupils who, are far too opinionated and passionate about issues not relating to the course and are far more qualified than the course requires…! - oh gosh, did you see what happened there?
It’s off to my box room and five ‘hail marys…”
admin October 15th, 2007
So I’m wading through my OU lessons with great aplomb and am enjoying learning about the design cycle and, the principles of web design. Today’s lesson however, brought to my attention just how much I took my eye-sight for granted!
I’ve managed to glide through life with the smug knowledge that I have outstanding eye-sight, no really - I have been known for my superhero-esque, x-ray vision and being able to read the smallest of font sizes from a distance of 200 yards! But I had never for a moment, imagined that I would have deficiencies with my S-Cones!
What are these S, M and L-Cones I hear you say? Well, for those of you wondering whether I’m referring to portion sizes for ice-creams, you’d be mistaken - I am in fact referring to the Cones found smack bang in your eye-ball. These cones are receptors to the different ranges of light that beam through your mince-pies, which in turn stimulate the brain cells and give different perceptions to the light received.
Now it would help to know which Cones are more receptive to what colour, so in brief; S is more receptive to blue, while M picks up on green wavelengths and L soaks in all that is red.
A quick course test required me to pick out rows (out of 10) where the variation of colour changed across that row. My score was calculated as follows;
* 6 /10 S-Cones
* 8/10 M-Cones
* 10/10 L-Cones
If you have ‘normal’ colour vision, you will get a score of around 8-9 with 10 being fantastic! On the other hand, if you do not have a cone type you will only reach around 5, showing that you are ‘abnormal’ and not as fantastic as you may have thought.
Here’s the test, please feel free to leave your scores and any comments.
So, what has this taught me to remember when designing web-pages? Well, having 20/20 vision alone, certainly doesn’t account for the way colours are perceived via a monitor. I mean take Monet for instance. By unfortunately developing cataracts, his paintings were greatly affected and where once his colours were vibrant and glorious, instead changed to misty-grey and less exuberant creations.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, I must become one with the web-safe colour palette and be constantly aware of how text is displayed - ensuring it’s legible. I must also remember that sometimes what I create will not necessarily be perceived as intended by all viewers…
admin October 9th, 2007
I have just played witness to a rather fervent discussion in my OU forum. The topic in question ‘..which is better for viewing web pages, Firefox or Internet Explorer?’ Now, being only a young whipper-snapper to the world of web design, I can only comment from my own experiences.
It is well known that IE once held the monopoly before the Mozilla Foundation created Firefox. However, its flaws within its security, left little to be desired - you couldn’t so much sniff at a web page, without some bug nestling into your hard drive (parent control was often installed on my laptop by my partner). The good thing about Firefox is its anti ‘pop-up’ feature, that immediately warns of any impending ad’s, eager to start flashing their way round your screen.
Firefox created ‘tab browsing’, another feature enabling you to have lots of different tabs open, showing all the web pages you desire from just one browser window. From a Designers perspective, Fx is a good developing platform, as it offers great support to basic standards and to XHTML, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It supports PNG’s which are of a better quality to view, than the commonly used GIF - which IE fail to beat, yet.
As IE comes standard with all pc’s and laptops, in the case of Mac, Safari - which like Fx, offers the tab-browsing, pop-ups and is also supportive to CSS. Its usually boils down to a preference of taste by the user, as to whether they install Firefox, Opera or any other browser that is commonly used.
Back to the question. As part of the learning, we are building web pages using the OU’s preferred editor - Nvu. As our course work is marked through Firefox, it is necessary that pages are rendered correctly. If we use IE to view our pages we will ‘apparently’ get in a muddle, as the course material assumes that we are all using Fx. Therefore, as most browsers are split between IE and Fx - it makes sense to build your web pages little by little using your preferred editor and constantly check throughout, that the pages are rendered well in both browsers.
…even so, I am open to suggestion!
admin October 4th, 2007
I completed my first two lessons from my OU course yesterday evening. After receiving my pack with cd-rom and course material, I was scuppered in my attempts to download them onto my Macbook, due to incompatibility. I scoured the web for answers and found a really cool application called Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac
This nifty investment allows you to run Windows, Linux and much more alongside your Mac - you don’t even have to restart your pc (got to get out of that habit!) Mac, each time to use it. After downloading, I was able to run First Class (course forum) easily and whizzed through my practical.
If you are still deciding which application to use, personally I would opt for Parallels. As Apple doesn’t support Windows, Boot Camp will burn a CD for you. But if you, like many others, don’t have the original Microsoft Windows CD coz your mate at work made a copy for you - this could be a costly option.
Another poo-poo of Boot Camp, unlike Parallels (the name gives it away really!) you can’t run both applications at the same time, meaning you have to restart your computer, switching from one to the other each time…...boring!!!
admin October 2nd, 2007
It’s all in the title – after spending my ‘20somethings’ in turmoil and regretting not listening to my mothers’ pleas, to remain in education studying Art & Design. I still cringe at my words to her ‘…and how exactly am I to pay my bills… by painting pictures?’
In my life so far, I’ve had two opportunities to progress into further education as a full-time student, both of which have been floundered due to silly circumstances. This time round I have enrolled with The Open University (Design and the Web), working towards a Certificate in Web Applications Development.
I’ve never forgotten where my creative roots lie - still deeply planted, dormant and waiting to be nurtured. I do not like to say that I have wasted good years, rather I am even more determined to succeed. Yes, it will be hard juggling a full time job, a gym membership, belly dancing lessons and, being one half of a supportive relationship - but isn’t that what makes reaching my goal even more fruitful?
…as the saying goes, third time lucky!
admin September 30th, 2007
Writing your first blog entry can be a very daunting process for some people, myself included. Coming up with a unique and clever title for example, is like writing an executive summary! Why I’ve already written six different beginnings, only to backspace them off the page with an air of discomfiture towards the content.
While researching I have noticed, there is a certain rule of thumb to writing a successful blog. A formulated list of Mantra’s chanted across the blogosphere, making my task an even more lily-livered one. Problogger plays host to one of my more favourable accounts, citing a list of do’s and don’ts that ensure I will never endeavour not to fall foul of.
A List Apart and Webpages that Suck equally give me a warm, fuzzy feeling of impendence, making my venture into unknown territory an even more pleasurable one. So with macbook in hand and the trusty dictionary.com in the other, I write…