I have some experience with html and css, but mostly I've taught myself. This is not good. I am a somewhat restless student, and I am a very impatient teacher. So. Decided to start my first official CSS and html training with a quiz in CSS (http://www.w3schools.com/quiztest/quiztest.asp?qtest=CSS). Why? Humility, I guess. I got a 55, with the admonishment, "You must study harder!"
In my defense, however, I don't make these mistakes when I make websites. I copy things when I make websites. Type it into Google, see what the correct tag is, test it out on a WAMP server or dummy page, and work it out through trial and error. So who cares if I got a 55?
(See? Bad student, terrible teacher. That's me.)
On the other hand, here's a test I would do equally badly on but respect more: Lay out some HTML and CSS that works well and looks good in less than an hour. That's the test I need. I would fail, then I would study my butt off, and then I would pass.
Anyway, back to the WC3 quizzes - the HTML this time. And some studying.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Choosing the info I'm in fo'
In order to see my response to this assignment, I've attached an exciting video that includes a step-by-step guide on how to open the multimedia presentation I've used to answer this question. Here's the link:
Just Kidding.
If this is the only page you are reading today on this leisurely surf through the gentle waves of the internet, you may have been "stoked" to have a multimedia extravaganza to click on here. Bro. But if you are checking out this blog after another 50 like it, plus checking email and reserving that book, you might - like me - prefer something shorter and more to the point. I mean, OK, I'm a long sentence user. Sorry. But at least you can see that without committing. If this were a video you'd be noticing with annoyance right now that 3 and a half minutes had passed and I still hadn't really said anything useful.
So. Here's a quick guide to the info I'd request to be in fo':
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
Best format for these is graphics and/or text.
DEMONSTRATIONS:
Screencasts.
LIGHTER FARE FOR WHEN YOU FEEL STUDENTS NEED A BREAK:
Forego this type of resource altogether unless it's accompanied by less work than usual.
So there you are. A quick guide because the baby's crying and the discussion question is due at midnight. Post-literate? perhaps. But Pre-deadline is more apt, generally.
Just Kidding.
If this is the only page you are reading today on this leisurely surf through the gentle waves of the internet, you may have been "stoked" to have a multimedia extravaganza to click on here. Bro. But if you are checking out this blog after another 50 like it, plus checking email and reserving that book, you might - like me - prefer something shorter and more to the point. I mean, OK, I'm a long sentence user. Sorry. But at least you can see that without committing. If this were a video you'd be noticing with annoyance right now that 3 and a half minutes had passed and I still hadn't really said anything useful.
So. Here's a quick guide to the info I'd request to be in fo':
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
Best format for these is graphics and/or text.
DEMONSTRATIONS:
Screencasts.
LIGHTER FARE FOR WHEN YOU FEEL STUDENTS NEED A BREAK:
Forego this type of resource altogether unless it's accompanied by less work than usual.
So there you are. A quick guide because the baby's crying and the discussion question is due at midnight. Post-literate? perhaps. But Pre-deadline is more apt, generally.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
And YOU may be a user. And YOU. But not YOU. YOU...and YOU...and...
Adding users and groups in three different ways allowed me to pretend to involve my family in my schoolwork, without their even knowing. The experience per instance was as follows:
At command prompt, I entered Bruno. It was fast, but being comfortable at it will require a lot of practice.
In sandbox/Gnome, I entered Stella. It was slow, counterintuitive, and awful.
In webmin, I entered Eric, and it was addictively, dangerously easy. The kind of easy that makes you wonder why you're messing with CLI. Or, um, makes other, less, technologically inclined people wonder that sort of thing. I guess.
At command prompt, I entered Bruno. It was fast, but being comfortable at it will require a lot of practice.
In sandbox/Gnome, I entered Stella. It was slow, counterintuitive, and awful.
In webmin, I entered Eric, and it was addictively, dangerously easy. The kind of easy that makes you wonder why you're messing with CLI. Or, um, makes other, less, technologically inclined people wonder that sort of thing. I guess.
Adventures in panic mode
Today when I start my virtual machine in vmware it doesn't work as expected. My virtual
machine does not load or give a command prompt and is not allowing me to enter any text. It just babbles the following:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
/dev/sda1: clean, 48333/153376 files, 308817/5012992 blocks
I press ESC and get a different screen saying Ubuntu 10.04 that appears to be loading but never stops. I press ESC again and it goes back to the other screen, and will alternate back and forth if I keep pressing escape, or F3.
I log out and log back in again. Then it works fine. But it's amazing how I panic in the few minutes before I try that simple troubleshooting step!
In other news, I am still grasping the concept of the sandbox / remote desktop / virtual network environment as distinct from the virtual machine. Why can't the virtual machine also run the sandbox / remote desktop / virtual network environment? Having both is like having two computers, one to network and one to do everything else. And since they are both virtual and I have one actual computer, it's like having 3 computers. Why 3? Because the OS's can't all run on one machine? Or because that's 2 to ruin while still having a 3rd to spare?
One thing that was cool was that the virtual machine offered to hook up with the printer when I plugged it in while using the vm. It made it seem a little less...virtual. Not that there's anything wrong with virtual, I mean, some of my best friends....
OTHER ACTIVITY NOTES
I tried each of the prompts below:
$ less /etc/passwd
$ less /etc/group
$ sudo less /etc/shadow
Each time, it performed the task but then ended with (END) and no command prompt. I had to click out of the vm and reset my machine to get a command prompt again. What's that about? I feel like I'm missing something very rudimentary here...
Solution: press q. I guess it's simple. NOW, anyway.
Also, I learned that shift+pg up / pg dn scrolls up and down, and the up arrow repeats a command. (Probably skipped that accidentally in the work I sailed too quickly through on my camping trip, trying to focus on commands while hotelgoers babbled in the lobby and squirrels ran under my bench. Hotel lobbies are not ideal hotspots for students.)
machine does not load or give a command prompt and is not allowing me to enter any text. It just babbles the following:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
/dev/sda1: clean, 48333/153376 files, 308817/5012992 blocks
I press ESC and get a different screen saying Ubuntu 10.04 that appears to be loading but never stops. I press ESC again and it goes back to the other screen, and will alternate back and forth if I keep pressing escape, or F3.
I log out and log back in again. Then it works fine. But it's amazing how I panic in the few minutes before I try that simple troubleshooting step!
In other news, I am still grasping the concept of the sandbox / remote desktop / virtual network environment as distinct from the virtual machine. Why can't the virtual machine also run the sandbox / remote desktop / virtual network environment? Having both is like having two computers, one to network and one to do everything else. And since they are both virtual and I have one actual computer, it's like having 3 computers. Why 3? Because the OS's can't all run on one machine? Or because that's 2 to ruin while still having a 3rd to spare?
One thing that was cool was that the virtual machine offered to hook up with the printer when I plugged it in while using the vm. It made it seem a little less...virtual. Not that there's anything wrong with virtual, I mean, some of my best friends....
OTHER ACTIVITY NOTES
I tried each of the prompts below:
$ less /etc/passwd
$ less /etc/group
$ sudo less /etc/shadow
Each time, it performed the task but then ended with (END) and no command prompt. I had to click out of the vm and reset my machine to get a command prompt again. What's that about? I feel like I'm missing something very rudimentary here...
Solution: press q. I guess it's simple. NOW, anyway.
Also, I learned that shift+pg up / pg dn scrolls up and down, and the up arrow repeats a command. (Probably skipped that accidentally in the work I sailed too quickly through on my camping trip, trying to focus on commands while hotelgoers babbled in the lobby and squirrels ran under my bench. Hotel lobbies are not ideal hotspots for students.)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Hello again from the CLI novice!
Vimtutor is fun, if confusing on one section. I was unclear on the directions about editing a file. Were we supposed to input our own file to edit? I rather dumbly tried it with a file called shutdown (not a good choice, in hindsight) that I had just created to remind me of how to shut down. I pressed enter ended up with no command prompt and little more than the word VISUAL on the screen. I had to restart my virtual machine.
Now some questions: Is there a comprehensive list of commands. Or are they being added to all the time and thus make it impossible to include all of them in one place?
More command questions: How is it that Linux responds to these commands? Are the commands designated in a list, in a text file preloaded into all Linux systems, that can be added to at any time by accessing and resaving that text file?
From a LIS perspective it seems problematic that Linux stores everything in one great directory. Can subdirectories exist to at least group files/directories together temporarily?
Finally, I'm a little shocked by the Linux vocabulary, when you have to "mount" before you "insert" and "unmount" before you remove. To be at this climbing level of technology and then stumble over cro-magnon terminology is disturbing. Of course, if there is an alternative metaphorical scheme behind the mounting thing, please enlighten me, and I will duly retract.
Vimtutor is fun, if confusing on one section. I was unclear on the directions about editing a file. Were we supposed to input our own file to edit? I rather dumbly tried it with a file called shutdown (not a good choice, in hindsight) that I had just created to remind me of how to shut down. I pressed enter ended up with no command prompt and little more than the word VISUAL on the screen. I had to restart my virtual machine.
Now some questions: Is there a comprehensive list of commands. Or are they being added to all the time and thus make it impossible to include all of them in one place?
More command questions: How is it that Linux responds to these commands? Are the commands designated in a list, in a text file preloaded into all Linux systems, that can be added to at any time by accessing and resaving that text file?
From a LIS perspective it seems problematic that Linux stores everything in one great directory. Can subdirectories exist to at least group files/directories together temporarily?
Finally, I'm a little shocked by the Linux vocabulary, when you have to "mount" before you "insert" and "unmount" before you remove. To be at this climbing level of technology and then stumble over cro-magnon terminology is disturbing. Of course, if there is an alternative metaphorical scheme behind the mounting thing, please enlighten me, and I will duly retract.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)