Week 10

XML is a variant of SGML, or Standardized markup language. I'm not certain if I'm quite understanding it correctly, but I'll try to explain what I think it does. XML facilitates the transmission of data online. It can use DTD's(document type definitions) to ensure that there are no errors in the document formatting. However, XML does not have to use DTD's. It can assign a kind of default DTD of its own to components of a document that have not been labeled. I'm not really sure what that means at all. Does that mean it just tags it as unlabeled, or does it have the ability to discern to some extent what part of a document something was meant to be? I'm very confused about this. It seems to be saying that XML is not a markup language but that it is a formal language that can break down components of a document into different elements based on certain logical queues. I don't understand how that's different from HTML coding that breaks a document up into headings and paragraphs. It might be that XML is just far more specific and has a wider variety of elements. I think I'm going to be relying a lot on Dr. He's lecture to help me to understand this. I'm really not seeing what the difference between XML and other languages that we've looked at is. The readings seem to be saying that XML helps to link digital documents together and to define them in a more detailed manner but I don't understand how or what it means. I may end up with quite a few Muddy Points after class this Thursday.

Muddy Point: No muddy point from last week. Dr. He did a great job of explaining CSS. Hopefully, XML will make much more sense after this coming week's lecture as well.

Week 9

I have never used CSS before at all. I do not really understand it. It seems like the idea is that it changes the way what you have written in HTML is displayed on the final web document. This saves time and space when coding in HTML because the CSS coding eliminates the need to do some of the style and font changes in the HTML itself. CSS sheets are a list of rules that describe how HTML should format and display content on a webpage for various circumstances. The way I understand it, it would enable you to say something like "all text in a paragraph that is above a certain font size should be bold and red." Then you wouldn't have to code the text as bold and red for every sized 20 font phrase in a document because the CSS would do that work for you.

As with the HTML tutorials last week, the CSS tutorials will be useful to look back to when actually using CSS but aren't really hugely helpful now aside from helping me(hopefully) to correctly understand what exactly CSS does. I have trouble understanding what the tutorials are getting at sometimes but class last week clarified all of my HTML questions, so I'm assuming that this will most likely also be the case with regards to CSS.


Muddy Point: No muddy point from last week's class :)

Week 8

The HTML tutorial and cheat sheet provide a quick introduction to some HTML functions. The cheat sheet should prove useful. I haven't really ever done very much with HTML personally. I've used very basic tags before on forums and blogs to change text font or italicize something but only really small things like that.

The other article seems to be saying that a Content Management System or CMS allows users who are less familiar with HTML to create content through use of and HTML editing program. I'm not certain that I'm understanding everything that the article is trying to say, but I'm sure that it will be clarified in class.


Muddiest Point: I have no Muddiest Point from what we went over last week.

Week 7

The Internet is a network of smaller networks. It is a massive group of corporate networks which have agreed to work together through Network Access Points(NAP's). A Point of Presence(POP) is a place for local users to access a network. Those networks are interconnected through NAP's. Routers facilitate the transfer of data traffic over network lines and ensure both that the system does not become clogged with data and that the data reaches its intended destination. Huge fiber optic lines called backbones are used to link the larger networks together. The first backbone, called NSFNET, was created in 1987. IP addresses are used to identify computers on the various interconnected networks that make up the Internet. The four numbers in an IP address are called octets because they require 8 digits to be expressed in binary. These octets are categorized as Net or Host. the Net octets identify what network a computer belongs to and the Host octets identify the specific computer.

Muddiest Point: I am not certain that I fully understand what a dynamic IP protocol is.

Week 6

Local Area Network(LAN) - interconnects computers in a limited area(home, school, a particular building, etc.).

• Higher data transfer rates than Wide Area Networks(WAN).
• Smaller area of operation than WANs.
• No need to lease telecommunications lines.
• Ethernet and WiFi are the two most common LAN technologies currently in use.
• Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1975.

Computer Networks - computers connected by channels that allow the sharing of resources.

• Classified according to the medium used for data transport, scale of the network, and type of communications protocol.
• Scale: WAN or LAN
• Wired technologies:

1. Twisted Pair Wiring - Ethernet fits into this category. It is the most common variety of wired networking technology. It has a transmission speed of between 2 million bits per second(bps) and 10 billion bps.
2. Coaxial Cable - It is used for cable television. It has a transmission speed of 200 to 500 million bps.
3. Optical Fiber - It has a transmission speed of trillions of bps.

• Wireless Technologies:

1. Terrestrial Microwave: Earth-based transmitters and receivers that look like satellite dishes.
2. Wireless LAN: what most people have at home

RFID(Radio Frequency Identifier) - similar to a bar code but it does not have to be visible in order to be read and it can carry far more data.

• Used in access "swipe" cards
• Many privacy issues due to increased read range and information capacity.

MUDDIEST POINT: No muddiest point this week.