HTML resources and editors

The W3school webpage is a site I always go to when I need a quick reference when it comes to mark-up or some other web development or web design issue, so this time I again went to this site first. I looked at some of the less familiar tags that I do not believe I have ever not used, like fieldset, but most of them were related to forms and I hardly ever deal with them. The page on HTML Events was interesting, but those are mostly tied to JavaScript and my knowledge thereof is, unfortunately, negligible.

However, what really piqued my interest was a table of HTTP messages. I have long wondered about them. True, I have not seen that many: maybe three or four in real life, but it was interesting how they are grouped - there are five groups 1xx: Information; 2xx: Successful; 3xx: Redirection; 4xx: Client Error; 5xx: Server Error. The MARC-like affinity is very appealing. I recall I have seen only error 403 - Forbidden access and 404 - Not found, which is not surprising as those are client errors. Other errors can be hidden or replaced by another customized page like 503 - Service Unavailable, so that user would read a meaningful message redirecting her to alternative resources.

I used to use Dreamweaver (but it was owned by Macromedia back then) and Notetab (a nifty shareware with a cute icon of Swiss coat of arms). Ironically, shortly after I bought my own copy of Dreamweaver I became aware of oXygen - a relatively inexpensive XML editor that also supports HTML and I have not touched Dreamweaver since.

Volatility of Learning Styles: On Footnotes and Hyperlinks

This course has been one big experiment for me. How does one study remotely without a fixed schedule, a dedicated space for learning and/or without the physical presence of the instructor/tutor/lecturer? I am  starting to understand that it is similar to remote work or work from home - that also sounds great in theory, but in practice one finds out that it requires much more discipline and concentration to work at home than at the work place. I do not mean to sound negative, it is great if somebody has the flexibility and can work from one's home, but the home environment can be very disruptive. Strangely enough, working or studying at home requires some learning and practicing. It does not come naturally. After all most people usually come home to rest after being at work the whole day, so some old habits need to be broken and one needs to learn how to work efficiently at home.

I find it similar with remote study. I normally study material one document at a time, one after another - if I do not find in one document what I am looking for I go to the next one. However, if I find the answer to my question I do not usually read the next document. On the other hand, every time I pick up the manual I always promise myself to read it methodically from beginning to end. It never happens - once the exercises start, I start practicing and playing with examples and as a result find myself skipping sections, pages, even chapters. I usually do not visit pages skipped. Hence, I am learning something, but something else is usually missed. Those may be the perils of learning through creativity and experimentation.

With this class it is different, I am trying to read everything which has been assigned, but it is a challenge, especially the lectures. They provide a rather dense summary of the subject matter with external links to more detailed material (I have no problem with Wikipedia entries - they are usually well structured and the content is very informative. They include external references, as well). I like to think of these links as a form of footnotes, which represent for me the same dilemma - will I read them all once I finish the page/chapter, or will I read them as they are marked in text. I am still not sure what's the best way, in the end it depends on the text and on the character of footnotes. If I am more familiar with the content I tend to check the footnotes (or hyperlinks) as they appear in the text, otherwise I focus on the text and leave the footnotes for later. However, sometime when the footnotes are too long or too detailed I skip them entirely and read them after I finish the chapter, similarly I usually leave out podcasts or links to video presentation and watch/listen to them last.

Videos often repeat a lot of information covered in the text of lecture or in the reading, so they function as a good summary and represent another way of looking at the issue at hand. However, the fact that they often repeat material covered in the lecture or in the assigned reading is very irritating, so I often watch videos impatiently waiting for something new. Videos and podcasts are difficult to quickly scan for content. Out of the learning tools presented so far, they work the least well for me. Yet, I still enjoyed the Warriors of the Net.

Permissions, Groups, and Users

The installation of all the perl components was not too difficult. It definitely helped that I used the completing filenames feature with the TAB key. That saved me some typing, but more importantly some unnecessary typos. I managed to create a new user group with a user account with all three applications. It was a relatively straightforward process in all three cases. The experience and knowledge I gained through each exercise, helped me in completing subsequent exercises. Reading, too, provided enough context that I was able to understand the steps I was taking. I went back to Arthur Griffith's Linux: Introduction to Linux, especially the chapter on Group and Shadow file, which helped my understanding of the assigned reading.

It was not too difficult to set up the new user groups and users in the CLI, but it would be too laborious and prone to error had the user permissions been set up on a larger scale. It seems also quite unnecessary as the GUI applications are very convenient to use and as far as I can tell they do their job well.

I needed to change file permissions occasionally in the past. I looked up the documentation and changed it. I still think I would use the command line for these ad hoc tasks. If, however, I would need to deal with permissions on a more regular bases I would choose a GUI application.

Computer Configuration and vi Text Editor

Every time I use a new computer I try to configure the computer so that it is as similar to the interface I am used to as it can be. Setting up a different view in the MS Windows Explorer is one of the first things I do, I set up the Explorer to the 'Details' view, then I enable the display of file extensions and hidden files. I am glad that I learned about the alias, or rather how surprisingly easy it is to create one and how powerful a short cut an alias can be.

When configuring a computer it is important to recognize whether the change happens on the level of a single user or on system level for all users. In Ubuntu this difference is reflected in using 'sudo' in combination with the regular Linux command. I modified a 'ls' command so that it would display by default the hidden files, as well. I created an alias for 'ls' to behave as 'ls -a', this should happen on the level of a single user, so I did not need to use 'sudo', while in the exercise that enabled a look-up for third-party supported applications for Ubuntu this change happens on the level of system for all users and 'sudo' had to be used. I forgot to use 'sudo' first when opening the appropriate file, and only the read copy thereof opened.

I did not use nano for the exercises this week. The interface resembled pico and since I have been using vi for some time, I stuck with it mainly because I find vi more responsive and faster. I usually learn by reading a book, and some material that makes sense and/or I use in my work I will remember, but most of what I learn I forget. However, I am glad I have to opportunity to work on all those tutorials, and the material makes more sense to me now.