Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Today...Databases, the SQL!

We learned a little bit about representing data in an XML file, but now we need to address its limitations.

What happens when you have multiple items that have connections between them?  That's when you need a "relational database".

One of the most popular formats for a relational database is called SQL.  SQL is table based, and it lets you integrate large quantities of data into your web page creations using intermediate languages like PHP.

Let's take a look at my site, Thinkersmith, to see how databases can be used fo' reals.

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Where would computers be without sound?  Sound also requires a lot of space, but like with images, we can compress those images.  We're actually so used to the compression methods that we don't even question the .mp3 extension anymore!

All of this helps us see how incredibly important it is to have talented computer scientists.  As data continues to consume more and more space, it's going to be evermore important to store and transmit it efficiently.

For now, we can focus on manipulating the bits that we have.  Let's take out a piece of paper, and see where we stand.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Don't forget to comment about the course (good or bad) with the registrar!

This is our last day to cover the good stuff, so let's get to it!

We talked about ones and zeros, as well as the way those numbers are stored.  Now, let's talk about how they represent the things we care about...from letters, to music, to pictures from home.

With images, there is a lot to take in to consideration.  We can use black and white images to talk a little about image compression, but there is so much more to think about.  Remember hex?  Let's revisit it and start talking megapixels!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Today, you need to pay *really* close attention...or else the assignment is going to feel very difficult!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Please don't copy code straight across. Use your own abilities to take what you see and make it your own.

We're getting down to the wire.  Any questions?

This is going to be a day to play with our pages...JavaScript and CSS.  Let's look at some reference material, then work together!

What about Recursion??

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

XML is all well and good, but what use can it really be when it looks that ugly?!?!  Well, there's good news!  Just as we can style HTML with CSS, we can style XML with XSLT.  It can seem confusing at first, but fortunately, there's a handy XSLT reference. This is a video that explains the transform template.  Chapter 17 explains it in more detail.

Okay, so *that* was a ton of fun.  Let's look at databases in a different way.  Nowadays, the world is all about SQL.  SQL lets you do things like insert, delete, join and drop cells and tables. Here's a quick crash course...

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Well, I think I scared you enough yesterday, so let's keep things more or less logical today!

It's time to make our pages even smarter!  Let's include some XML.  XML is a lot like HTML, except that instead of using pre-determined tags, you get to make the tags up yourself!

One of the great things about XML is the ability to present metadata.

Let's take a look at how XML works.

There are several reasons to use XML, it's standardization is only one of them.

It's highly unlikely that we'll remember all of this unless we put it to the test, so let's head out to take inventory of the courtyard and store our data in an XML file.  What did you collect?  How would you recall that info?