Week 9 Reading Notes

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial

*CSS is used to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once.

Very interesting! I’m excited to see how this works, but a little nervous since HTML and website authoring are totally new to me.

*It is amazing how CSS is used to control so many elements of a webpage – background colors, images, fonts, links, etc.

*This is a very cool tool to use to practice HTML and CSS. It's easy to see your changes since they are displayed immediately!

CSS tutorial: starting with HTML + CSS

*I’m still so amazing that you can save a plain text document with the extension .html, then click on it and view it as a Webpage. To someone who is totally new to HTML, this is pretty cool.

*Important to use separate files for HTML and CSS – this makes it easier to use the same style in multiple webpages.

In HTML, hyperlinks are created with <a> elements, so to specify the color, we need to add a style rule for “a”. To differentiate between visited and unvisited links, CSS provides two “pseudo-classes” (:link and :visited).

* This stands out to me since we discussed the <a> tag for hyperlinks in class.

To put the CSS into a separate file: Cut and paste everything that is inside the <style> element from the HTML file into the new window. Don't copy the <style> and </style> themselves. They belong to HTML, not to CSS.

* Very important thing to remember!

 Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web, by Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos

*CSS gives the web designer more control over how the page appears that HTML can; however, CSS and HTML work together to display the page.

*You can make a CSS style sheet using a dedicated editor, but you would often want to go back in and tweak it by hand to give the page individual style.

A rule is a statement about one stylistic aspect of one or more elements. A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document.

·      So CSS helps to bring further detail to HTML elements!

A rule consists of two parts:

• Selector - the part before the left curly brace
• Declaration - the part within the curly braces

The selector is the link between the HTML document and the style. It specifies what elements are affected by the declaration. The declaration is that part of the rule that sets forth what the effect will be.

A declaration has two parts separated by a colon:

• Property - that part before the colon
• Value - that part after the colon

The property is a quality or characteristic that something possesses. In the previous example, it is color. The value is a precise specification of the property. In the example, it is "green," but it could just as easily be blue, red, yellow, or some other color.

*I like the way CSS style sheets are designed with brevity in mind – this allows them to load faster and cuts down on the time required to write one by hand!

*In the previous CSS tutorial, we glued the style sheet into the HTML document by using the style element. It is interesting that are several ways to link the CSS and the HTML document!

CSS was carefully designed so that all content should remain visible even if the browser knows nothing about CSS.

*Very useful thing to incorporate into a webpage, since not everyone’s computer/browser behaves in the same way.

*Interesting how CSS is even used to manage the space in the margins/around text. I wouldn’t have thought about this as being a controllable element.

A fundamental feature of CSS is that more than one style sheet can influence the presentation of a document. This feature is known as cascading because the different style sheets are thought of as coming in a series.

Week 8 Muddiest Point

I don't have a Muddiest Point from the lecture this week - the TA's helped me quite a bit in class!

Week 7 Muddiest Point

I don't have a Muddiest Point from the lecture this week.

Week 7 Reading Notes

How Internet Infrastructure Works

The Internet Society, a non-profit group established in 1992, oversees the formation of the policies and protocols that define how we use and interact with the Internet.

• I never knew this existed, but I suppose the policies must be generated by someone and if the Internet isn’t owned by anyone, I think a nonprofit is a great model. I hope the nonprofit is international so that it incorporates multiple and diverse viewpoints.

• The graphic displaying the function of an Internet router is very informative. This allows me to visualize the information I’m reading.

A router has two separate, but related, jobs:

•   It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the connections of "innocent bystanders."

•   It makes sure that information does make it to the intended destination.

•  The router sounds like an important tool in keeping users from being overwhelmed by the “information flood”.

One of the keys to making this work is redundancy. There are multiple DNS servers at every level, so that if one fails, there are others to handle the requests. The other key is caching. Once a DNS server resolves a request, it caches the IP address it receives. 

• It seems like caching keeps the whole query process running smoothly.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems

Librarians are dismantling systems, and creating new modules, out of frustration with the inflexible and nonextensible technology of their proprietary systems. Vendors are also creating standalone products both to harness newer technologies and capture or invent new market shares.

• Technology and information systems change so quickly, it’s amazing that this hadn’t happened sooner.

Other librarians have decided that these systems don’t satisfy Internet-savvy end users, while other vendors have decided that reliance on maintenance revenue alone is a short-sighted business model.

• This sounds like ILS software companies are looking to make more money through the entire use of their product. Would this entail higher prices? Monthly subscriptions?

Librarians are also motivated to seek solutions because of healthy competition with peers and disparate information resources.

• Libraries must provide easy search tools comparable to search engines like Google. This is what modern information seekers expect.

Library vendors have two choices. They can continue to maintain large systems that use proprietary methods of interoperability and promise tight integration of services for their customers. Or, they can choose to dismantle their modules in such a way that librarians can reintegrate their systems through web services and standards, combining new with the old modules as well as the new with each other.

•  This choice needs to be made soon to keep up with quickly-innovating information competitors such as Google.

Several librarians have prototyped MARCtoXML conversion and search engine solutions, but perhaps no one has done it better than Mark Ludwig, library systems manager, University at Buffalo, NY. Using a simple MARC converter and the TextML indexer, Ludwig indexed the entire collection of two million records in a day and now offers relevance ranking and sort options that are unmatched by most ILS products.

The Genesis of Google TED Presentation

• Really cool demonstration of where Google queries are made around the globe. This technique is very enlightening and points to areas with less access, such as throughout Africa.
• Google wants to improve the world, such as through Google Grants. Connection to this through Google Ads?
• Orkut sounds interesting, but like a Google-exclusive Facebook. Also interesting that Google lets its employees pursue their interests in Google. This is modeled after the Montessori school model – allowing employees to follow their interests. Very creative way to continue innovating, as they grow larger and larger. I think more companies should follow this business model. People work harder on interest-driven projects and could make great innovations when given the freedom to pursue them.
• Google Deskbar and Google News – projects that were initiated by inspired Google employees.
• AdSense – trying to make ads useful, not just annoying.
• The ultimate search engine would be smart – artificial intelligence.
• I get an eerie feeling when we start talking about AI in relation to the Internet!
• Able to serve everyone in the world without regard to how much money those places make. Through ads that generate money,  they can offer google to everyone throughout the world.
• Goal is to provide people with the best information possible – only accept money for ads, not for searches.

My overall impression after reading/watching the documents for week 7:

It seems that search engines like Google will continue innovating and expanding, providing users with better search tools. While they still aren’t “smart”, their business model allows them to innovate quickly and in ways that meet the public’s expectations. This makes them stiff competition for libraries, especially as ILS has a more difficult road ahead in terms of interoperability and innovation. Libraries and ILS creators/vendors must reach an operable and user-friendly solution to keep up with other information providers such as Google. 

Week 6 Muddiest Point

I don't have a muddiest point this week. I feel as though I have a good grasp of the material covered in the lecture.

Week 6 Reading Notes

Local Area Network (Wikipedia article)

•  I have often heard my “gamer” friends talk about “LAN Parties” when they would bring their computers, link to a LAN, and play online games.

“There was much enthusiasm for the concept and for several years, from about 1983 onward, computer industry pundits would regularly declare the coming year to be “the year of the LAN”.”

•   Was 1984 indeed the year of the LAN?

•  The article talks about Windows and Linux systems having their own network operating systems. Can a PC and an Apple computer connect/share information on the same LAN? Is there a way that the LAN makes the different systems compatible?

•  LANs are interesting to think about; I never really consider how it’s possible that my computer is connected to other people in my home.

Computer Network (Wikipedia article)

 “The best-known computer network is the Internet.”

•       I find this very funny – but I bet a lot of people don’t consider how the Internet is actually a data network – I know I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.

“This boom in communications would not have been possible without the progressively advancing computer network.”

•         The information explosion was made possible by the data network that is the Internet.

“The expansion of related industries is mirrored by growth in the numbers and types of people using networks, from the researcher to the home user.”

•          Interesting fact to point out. Is it a symbiotic relationship – the number of users grows causing the network to grow causing the number of users to grow, etc.
•        Is the Internet a global LAN?

“A network interface controller (NIC) is a hardware accessory that provides a computer with both a physical interface for accepting a network cable connector and the ability to process low-level network information.”

•        Is an example of this a modem or router?
•     What is the layout of the Internet? Star, bus, ring, mesh, fully connected, or tree network? Or does it have a different layout entirely?

“An intranet is a set of networks that are under the control of a single administrative entity.”

•        I’ve always wondered what “intranet” meant. I thought that it was the inside of the Internet!

Management of RFID in libraries.

·      RFID – radio frequency identifier

•           Is an RFID embedded into eBooks to track how many times it has veen downloaded?

“A key thing to understand about RFID is that it isn’t a single technology; there are hundreds of different RFID products on the market today, and new ones appearing constantly.”

•        I initially thought it was a single form of technology.

“There are the RFID tags that are used for automated toll-taking for cars that can be read from many feet away as cars speed along highways. There are those that are in the card keys that many of us use to gain entry to our office buildings by swiping the card within a few inches of a pad by the office door. There are chips that are used to track animals on farms or identify lost pets, and others that help warehouses manage the inventory of pallets of goods. [7] The Food Drug Administration is considering the use of RFID to identify drugs and prevent counterfeiting,[8] and there may be a use for RFID in DVD’s to prevent movie piracy.”

•        I never realized RFID was used so prolifically! I would be interested to learn how it could be used to prevent movie piracy – much the same way it is used in eBooks?

“Because of the privacy issues, some librarians and library users question whether libraries should consider using RFID at all. While we can ask this question today, we may be facing RFID in our future regardless, especially if RFID becomes the successor technology to barcodes.”

•        As we see how RFID develops, privacy concerns about its use in libraries will no doubt develop as well.

“It is also coming into its own for payment systems, including the ever-elusive "micro-payment," the holy grail of non-cash transactions.”

•       What are some examples of RFID being used in this way? I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it before.

“As well as being an inventory technology, barcodes also serve the point of sale (or lending).”

•        I think I encountered RFID used this way in the Seattle Public Library. Self-checkout at SPL doesn’t require the scanning of a barcode – one merely places the book on the checkout surface (not sure what it’s called – RFID reader?) and the information is displayed on the computer screen.

“Libraries need tags that are durable, since they be placed on an item that will be used repeatedly. The library function will probably have the longest-lived tags of any other sector, since books can remain on shelves and circulate over decades, while retail products have a short shelf life and even debit cards rarely are issued for more than four or five years. Libraries may also need tags that, although inexpensive, can be reprogrammed and may even need to have more than one "lifetime," for example in the case of an item that is moved into storage or is sent to another library through interlibrary loan.”

• These are interesting distinction between the way RFID tags are used in the retail industry and how they would be used in libraries.