Meta - tags (Lab 2 , Part 1)

To facilitate HTML's use of metadata,  particular <meta> tags have been created with specific attributes to help describe the data content of your webpage.
Four <meta> tags are:

•  <meta name> : Used to describe document level metadata.
• <meta default-style> : This attribute is used to identify particular style sheets on a webpage.
• <meta refresh> : This specifies the number of seconds until a page reloads.
• <meta set-cookie> : This does exactly what it says. It defines a cookie for the page.

Software & IT on the Twittisphere (Lab 1, Part 1, Question 4)

From reading both articles, my chosen 'buzz' word that I found rather interesting was 'Hallway Testing'. Coming from a statistical background the word test jumps out from the page. So I did what anyone would do when they are unfamiliar with a word or topic. I googled it! According to Wikipedia, Hallway testing is a "quick and cheap method of usability testing ... in which randomly selected people are asked to try using a product or service". Your sample base for this type of test are people you can find "in the hallway", hence the name, Hallway testing. I found this interesting as generally when making a sample space to collect the data you are interested in, it tends to be a long and difficult process, particularly if one wishes to make the sample space random, (its harder then you think when you start to think of all the possible variables that may influence your sample).

I was asked to follow three people on twitter who may provide valid information for my course, (Higher Diploma in Computing in Dublin Institute of Technology for those who want to know).
Any-ways, I started to think who may be important or who can provide help or tips in a tweet? The first person I have followed on the Twittisphere is Python creator, Guido Van Rossum @gvanrossum. As I am studying Python as part of my OO software developing module, it only seems appropriate to follow the creator. Maybe I can tweet him for help in my assignments ..

The second person I followed is Ray Wenderlick @rwenderlick. Ray is a software developer for Apple, in particular the iPhone. Why not follow someone who develops software for one the leading if not the leading phone manufacturers in the world?. Also fun fact, Apples total revenue for the iPhone along in the last quarter alone for 2015 was 51.2 BILLION!

Finally, I followed John Resig @jeresig. Creator of Javascript and jquery it only seems approperiate to follow him as again I will be learing Javascript this semester. I hope that he will Tweet some helpful material related to my course but I am sure whatever he tweets, with over 203K followers, its ought to be interesting at least.

Article Observation on HTML and more .. (Lab 1 , Part 1, Question 3)

Turning Ideas to Reality: Brainstorming, Wireframing, Prototyping, by Jerry Cao

My first observation from the article by Jerry Cao 'Turning Ideas to Reality: Brainstorming, Wireframing, Prototyping' is its discussion on 'Informal user tests'. Cao describes how testing with 'as few as five people' can help you ascertain approximately 95% of potential design issues. I thought this was interesting because of the manner in which one can test a idea quickly with a very small sample space and learn almost all design issues about the product or idea being tested with that one single test! Pretty cool!

My second second observation on the article was about how Cao describes the breakdown on how to successfully and efficiently brainstorm. He decomposes brainstorming into six stages in which he then describes in detail. The process takes approximately one hour to complete but will help generate good solid ideas that can be (hopefully) processed and turned into reality.

10 Common Web Developer Mistakes,  by J. Michael Palermo IV


Analysing the second article by J.M.P IV, what struck me initially was how "some" web developers favour particular web browser for example, Google Chrome & Firefox, and do not write sufficient code to facilitate users of all browsers. I wanted to see the breakdown of browser usage across the internet. In the article by Craig Buckler entitled 'Browser Trends January 2015', it is clear that not everyone uses Google. In the article is shows a table displaying the statistic breakdown of the browser usage. 19.6% of people use Internet Explorer .. STILL! So if you are making a website, make sure you can facilitate all users!

My second comment on the article is on 'Old HTML'. Even today as I was coding in Python using Pycharm version 4.5.4 and then later on Codecademy ,(which any eager coding enthusiast wanting to learn and improve their own coding skills should check out!) , I found I was coming under fire from syntax errors in my code. So sure, I understand why people want to use the old and familiar coding syntax when it comes to HTML, but, to be fair, it gets updates for a reason people! Learn the new stuff! IT is an area that is always changing and as software developers, we need to also change in parallel with the industry.

Sources: http://webdesignledger.com/turning-design-ideas-into-reality-brainstorming-wireframing-prototyping?utm_content=bufferd72bd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/10-common-web-developer-mistakes--cms-24791