Terms and concepts to know
Browser
Hypertext
xHTML
HTTP
Server
World-Wide Web
TCP/IP
URL
Protocol
IP Numbers
WHOIS
Domain Name
What's that stuff that goes at the top of the page?
Put these three items on all your HTML pages:
Very first lines:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Somewhere within <head>... </head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />Huh?
This information helps the browser know what to do with the HTML--how to interpret the page. They're not absolutely necessary when doing pages for fellow native-English speaking Americans with standard software configurations, but since we're dealing with a World-Wide Web and an environment in which users can change the settings that determine how their computers deal with documents, these tags help ensure uniform behavior on the part of the Web browser software. The DOCTYPE tag tells the browser software that this will be an XHTML document using the World-Wide Web Coalition (W3C) Document Type Definition (DTD) for XHTML version 1, English. The META tag further specifies that the content will be text (HTML), using the International Standards Organization (ISO) character set for English/transitional alphabetic letters, numbers, etc.
Readings
The Roads and Crossroads of Internet History
How to build a web page in 25 easy steps
Technology indicators
http://www.neweconomyindex.org/states/2002/, see how they measure what makes an area "technologically strong"A List Apart
http://www.alistapart.com/, newsletter for Web developers. No specific reading assignment here, but have a glance to see what's hot this week.
More information
History
The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less
Find a Favorite Site
Communication Arts Magazine Website awards, 2003.
Who are these guys?
All Whois http://www.allwhois.com
UWhois http://www.uwhois.com
Network Solutions http://www.networksolutions.com
Copyright
Copyright Website
http://www.benedict.com/, "practical and relevant copyright information for anyone navigating the net."
Mentioned in the classroom this week
File extensions: Microsoft Windows, by default, hides "File extensions" (the period and letters following it) from the user. A Word document called "Letter.doc" will show up as "Letter", a Web page called "mypage.html" will show up as "mypage", etc. There are many reasons why it's better to be able to see the whole file name. If you choose to do so, launch Windows Explorer, and from the "View" menu, choose "Folder Options", then click on the tab that says "View". Un-check the box that says "Hide file extensions for known file types".
Antivirus software: http://www.symantec.com/ (Norton Antivirus), http://www.mcafee.com/ (McAfee VirusScan), http://www.grisoft.com (look under "products" for AVG Free Edition for Windows), http://www.markallan.co.uk/clamXav/ (ClamXav, a free antivirus scanner for Mac OS X).
Firewall software: http://www.zonealarm.com (ZoneAlarm), http://www.sygate.com/ (Sygate Personal Firewall)
Urban Legends: purportal.com: search five of the most well-known sites dedicated to setting the record straight: Snopes Urban Legends Archive, About.com Urban Legends search, CIAC Hoax Database, CERT Computer Security Database, and Symantec (Real) Virus Encyclopedia
Pirated Sites: http://www.pirated-sites.com/, "side-by-side comparisons of web sites that are suspected of borrowing, copying or stealing copyright-protected content, design or code without permission."
Opera, currently the most standards-compliant Web browser (and considerably smaller and faster than either Internet Explorer or Netscape): http://www.opera.com/
Mozilla, the open-source "guts" of the Netscape browser; more up-to-date and a considerably smaller download, http://www.mozilla.org/
Firefox, the Mozilla browser without the email client etc., also at http://www.mozilla.org/
Usability: http://www.humanfactors.com/library/10tips.asp, http://www.uie.com/
Dihydrogen monoxide--learn the facts about this dangerous substance: http://www.dhmo.org/