Class Notes and Agenda Collin County Community College Applied Graphics & Design Technology Dept. Saturdays 10:00am - 4:00pm Room K-122 Spring Creek Campus, Plano, TX Professor : Darren Dittrich (B.S. and M.S. Computer Science, Virginia Tech) Founder: Emphasys.com and sell.com classifieds
	September 4
	Syllabus Books & Publications Software & Machines Final Project Overview Browser Overview Communicator/Navigator 4.x Navigator 3 HTML 101
	Assignments Email Darren Dittrich Start thinking about your personal page, gather information Check out John Maeda's page Bored? Get a head start on Project 1 Read Introduction & Chapters 1, 2, 4 in HTML Need books?

	September 11
	News: NSI, Commerce Dept. extend domain test Excite Mail problems persist for 48 hours Darren's tip o' the week: c|net's browsers.com & BrowserWatch Darren's pick o' the week: versiontracker.com Shareware sites (download.com, and TuCows)
	Email Etiquette Reply-to Address Email name How it looks... Mail headers... A good guide to email etiquette Emoticons :-) _emphasizing_ Spam Signatures Enclosures Email virus hoaxes, such as the Bill Gates/Disney hoax More HTML Text Formatting Using Images Width/Height ALT Border Links To local files To remote files To remote services (ftp, nntp) Page Layout Margins SPACERs Pixel Shims (aka the Single-pixel GIF trick) Transparent shim Black shim BG Images BLOCKQUOTE Lists Ordered Lists Unordered Lists Definition Lists Nested Lists Tables Introduction Headers, Rows, and Columns ROWSPAN & COLSPAN Height and Width Review Project 1 Requirements
	Assignments Review HTML Chapters 1,2,3,5,7 Work on Project 1 Another nice example site for ideas Don't worry about graphics... use any image from the web Don't worry about tables & lists until next wee

	September 18
	Campus Closed : Plano Balloon Festival
	Assignments Near Final Project 1 due next week in class Don't fall behind! Review HTML Chapters 1,2,3,5,7

	September 25
	News: MindExpander available for PC & Mac PC and Mac versions of Stuffit Expander Darren's tip o' the week: HTML 4 companion book site mailto subject trick Darren's picks o' the week: HTML References Sites c|net's builder.com and their HTML reference list... Another good HTML reference page: Bare Bones Guide to HTML the HTML Compendium HTML Help irt.org NCSA's Beginner's Guide to HTML Yahoo's listings...
	Review Everyone's Near-Final Project 1 Assignments Even More HTML Lists Ordered Lists Unordered Lists Definition Lists Nested Lists Tables Introduction Headers, Rows, and Columns ROWSPAN & COLSPAN Height and Width
	Assignments Convert Project 1 to tables Complete table assignment

	October 2
	News: Photoshop 5.5.1 Anarchie 3.6.1 Our upcoming schedule... Darren's tip o' the week: HTML 4 companion book site Darren's pick o' the week: hotwired's webmonkey
	FTP Tutorial (Anarchie) Overview of the program Alternatives How the protocol really works Issues and common problems Project 1 Final Review Yes! More HTML Tables Review and more... The Table Asssignment Headers, Rows, and Columns ROWSPAN & COLSPAN Height and Width bg images (example: CDW) making them fast specify pixel widths break it up making them stick maximally divided row pixel shims Killersites Table Tutorial and the hard return table bug
	Assignments Review HTML Chapters

	October 9
	News: Netscape 4.7 FileMaker Pro 5.0 Darren's pick o' the week: Netcraft's What's that site running?
	Eine kleine Web History How the Internet Works (and all those terrific acronyms) Basic Protocols TCP/IP addressing format: aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd routers: truck stops of the internet Layered Protocols (PPP) Basic Services DNS SMTP & sendmail FTP Telnet Web Servers HTTP truly asynchronous weblogs cookies sessions HTTPS SSL Review for Midterm The Netscape Broken Images and what they mean:
	Assignments Study

	October 16
	Midterm Starting up a new client website Step 1: Get that domain name! Check the Internic Registry Check for your own last name at netsol.com or register.com The whois database Top Level Domains, foreign countries, and the Internic New registrars and costs Domain name disputes and trademark issues Step 2: Look for similar sites Collin County Volunteer site Wylie Library Step 3: Create a potential site feature list (Information Architecture) Complete a site and customer profile Get client approval Step 4: Create a asset list Keep the client apprised of what you need Step 5: Create and update a project site Contacts Documentation Site Development Resources Schedule/Calendar Step 6: Create site comps Front page/secondary page Place on site and email for comments Graphics Workflow (Illustrator <-> Photoshop) and Fireworks Step 7: Create a working template Confirm Logo Color choices (overall colors, link colors) Type Selection
	Assignments None

	October 23
	News: MacOS 9 and various patches Outlook Express 5.0 for Mac Darren's picks o' the week: Royalty-free Stock Photography Eyewire Photodisc Corbis Yahoo listing... Discussed in class: MacOS X and QuickTime Streaming Media Server
	Review Midterm Results Final Project Discussions DreamWeaver Overview Introduction to Web Graphics/Fireworks/ImageReady GIF vs. JPEG GIF uses color reduction and LZW to compress JPEG maintains color information at the expense of image fidelity GIF-only capabilities Transparency Animation Some examples...here, and here. Working with Photoshop Modes: RGB & Indexed Color Type-based logos Image Previews Transparency Photographs Careful! Keep originals in a safe place. Cropping More HTML... Forms GET vs PUT methods (forms, CGIs) Yahoo! search vs Wall Street Journal login
	Assignments Create a web-ready personal logo (GIF/JPEG combo)

	October 30
	Darren's tip o' the week: internet.com Darren's picks o' the week (user interface): Jakob Nielsen's useit.com User Interface Engineering Darren's picks o' the week (design): Quokka Sports Kasparov vs. DeepBlue Monona Terrace
	Discuss logo graphic assignment Final Project Discussions Meet Alan of thePIE at Noon Discussed in class: Charlotte's Web Association For Community Networking (AFCN) Site Teams/Assignments Liaison Team Content/Editor Team Design Team Template Team Production Team Architecture Team
	Assignments Create as many logo/branding concept thumbnails for thePIE as possible for review next week Review other community network sites (see the AFCN member list) Start thinking about basic page layouts for the site

	November 6
	Darren's tip o' the week: Darren's picks o' the week: Darren's picks o' the week:
	Review/Select PIE logo graphics Review logo selections and website ideas with Alan DreamWeaver Overview More HTML... Forms <FORM> Method & Action Form Elements
	Assignments Create a feedback form with one of each type of form element

	November 13
	Darren's tip o' the week: Darren's picks o' the week: Third Voice: Internet Hijacking? Review Design Picks
	Review Forms Review refined logo selections and page comps with Alan Jeffrey Veen: Library (function) vs. Gallery (form) DreamWeaver Tables More HTML... Forms Review GET vs PUT methods (forms, CGIs) Yahoo! search vs Wall Street Journal login
	Assignments Create a trifold page table template Work on Final Comps for thepie.org

	December 4
	Review Forms Review Project Status Seven Deadly Sins Blank Line Typography Horizontal Rules Background images that interfere The Slow Load Illegal use of the third dimension Alias, Dithering, and Halos Paralysis Review Common web file types and MIME Types, helper applications, plug-ins and servers A Primer on MIME Types (how HTTP servers and web browsers interact) How GIF and JPEG compresses pictures Cookies (the good and the bad) Top Level Domains and the Internic JavaScript vs Java Seven Deadly Sins GET vs PUT methods (forms, CGIs) Yahoo! search vs Wall Street Journal login
	Assignments Complete your part of the project Review for Final Exam Doc root: thepie.emphasys.net

	December 11
	News: DreamWeaver/Fireworks 3.0 Anarchie 3.7 OS 9.1 upgrade soon... Darren's picks o' the week: Evolt : the best source for old browsers irt.org : terrific searchable site for javascript and HTML problems
	Final Exam www.thepie.org : build it! Finalize page template Establish naming convention Set up site hierarchy on thepie.emphasys.net Finalize web-ready graphics Review assets and current content Review at new content
	Assignments Review and test your part of the project Run BBEdit Syntax Check Netscape 3/4 and IE 3/4 Make Corrections and upload by Friday morning Dec 17th Enjoy Christmas Show everyone thepie.emphasys.net