What’s in your feed?
Although my feed reader has multiple feeds in it, only a few priority reads every day:
- A List Apart helps me learn about and keep pace with web standards.
- Blue Flavor’s blog is where I observe the trail blazers.
- Lifehack.org- Adrian Savage’s reminders that society needs to slow down is refreshing.
- Lifehacker has excellent tech-related info.
- Steve Olson offers topics in philosophy.
- and Generation X Finance for a practical, yet intelligent guide to finances.
Who do you read?
Mac vs. PC
It’s my observation that PCs are great for business types. Windows and Microsoft Office have really dominated the office productivity area and done it well. There is a set formula and structure behind the Windows and its office software- something an analytical mind can appreciate. Macs are great for the creative types. It can keep pace with their thought processes (which are often unstructured and/or chaotic) and OS X performs nicely despite unusual or unreasonable demands (I want to drag ‘n’ drop my beautiful photo into this application and have it magically appear- all without having to open it, copy it and paste it first).
I use a Mac at work and a PC at home. My PC was built for gaming, watching DVDs and surfing the Web (so many games and parts of the Web are still configured only for PCs!). And yes, I stuck with Windows XP Pro at home…I don’t plan on switching to Vista just yet.
My Mac lets me do anything task I imagine a computer should let me do. Yes, I do drag and drop photos into applications and they magically appear (sans the fairy dust sound effect). I also search my entire hard drive through Quicksilver because the finder can’t keep up with my thoughts when I’m in the flow.
What about you? Are you into Mac, PC, both or neither? [What exactly is a Sparkstation classified as, anyway?] What flavor OS?
Thursday Finds
Today’s theme is a Drupal crash course.
First, demo Drupal. It has a lot of possibilities, and the scalability is impressive.
The multisite functionality looks tempting. Here are a few links I found helpful, before trying to install and configure Drupal:
- Linux Command Line – Learning to write shell scripts
- A More Secure Drupal [multisite] Install – You did read the shell scripts tutorial, right?
- Setting up Drupal in 10 minutes
For the rest of us who don’t have shell access, I found PHPsh is a limited (but good) workaround.
Drupal Testing
I’m working with Drupal right now. I am taking Drupal 6.1 out for a test drive. So far it looks pretty good. Skinning 6.1 looks like it will be easier than 5.5.
Since Monday, I have had a crash course in:
- PHP5 and why it’s better than PHP4;
- Reading PHP and knowing what the functions do
- mySQL5 and why I want it instead of mySQL4;
- executing a few commands for basic mySQL tasks
- Shell access and using the command line
- Symlinks and what makes them so useful
I also discovered the woeful restrictions on shell access by our hosting company.
My philosophy is, the best way to learn how something works is to break it and then attempt to fix it again. Besides, it’s better that I break it first. That way I know what to expect when turning it loose for our customers to use.
I have so many burning questions about how Drupal works, and so little time to break it. What happens if I rename a theme folder while it’s in use by a site? How do I arrange a “test site” or pre-production version of the site, and set up a live site at the same time? Can I have to completely separate Drupal installations on subdomains? I want to reserve ‘test.clientwebsite.com’ as a subdomain for every site that has Drupal, so I can install and review modules without worry. Is that possible? How do you set up a new instance of Drupal without a domain to hook it to? Will it break my symlinks if I rename the site folders? The multi-site install that I have set up looks pretty good, but where can I find some high-level Drupal vets who can critique it and tell me what a better practice might be? Why isn’t the FCK Editor module installed in the default version of Drupal? Is it really a security risk to allow your clients to upload files? If they do it on Facebook, why not elsewhere?
Perhaps when I look back, some of these questions will seem stupid or silly. At least it will give me a perspective on where I started from, and where I plan on going.
My CSS skills are certainly being put to the test. It’s easy to build your own code, difficult to read and understand the thinking behind everyone else’s code. I have had plenty of practice with CSS 2, but some of the concepts behind the Garland theme are astounding. Just trying to track down where all the hooks are located within the various php pages is a monumental task.
Despite the sink-or-swim situation, I am really enjoying the challenge. I have learned the rudiments of Drupal’s admin interface and the structure/vocabulary that powers it; I have successfully managed to make a multi-site installation with a single Drupal core; I have installed a few modules without trouble; I have skinned Drupal with one of our custom designs (and based it on the Garland theme – no time for custom PHPTemplating right now!);
If our test client likes it, then demand for a content management system by the rest of our state associations is going to spread like wildfire. We get 3-5 new web sites a week during busy season, just through word of mouth.
While the state associations are slow to pick up a web site, I imagine this will be just what they need to get excited about one. Remember, they still don’t know how powerful the web can be, as a service. Online forms instead of paper forms for membership applications, junior membership applications, scholarship applications, show entries and signing up to receive catalogs by mail. Just those normal demands would save them tons in paper and mailing costs a year. Add to that the ability to pay membership dues, show entry fees, and make donations to junior events, and we’re working miracles for them in terms of personnel.
That doesn’t even count the news traveling faster- state association newsletters, show results, president messages, general announcements, and organizing subcommittee communications would be convenient, since it’s broadcast on the web site, subscribed to via an RSS feed, or pushed through as a direct e-mail.
Yep, now that the updates have slowed down and busy season is cooling off, we’re dreaming big dreams here. 
Why the IDM-NM major is the Next Big Thing
While talking to the Interactive Digital Media Senior Seminar class, I saw an unusual phenomenon. Most of the IDM students were choosing the New Media concentration. If I had been asked to predict the trends of the IDM major just before graduating two years ago, I would have said I expected the students would diffuse across the concentrations at an even split between the three- Computer Science, Visual Imaging and New Media- thanks to diverse interests among the student body.
During the networking lunch for the Off Broadway Tour I met and spoke with Broadcasting, Journalism, Graphic Arts and IDM majors. Not surprising, since these are the majors most interested in touring advertising agencies. Again, I noted that the IDM majors were overwhelmingly New Media concentrations. If I had to order them by popularity (by the non-scientific number of students I met with this concentration), it would be 1) New Media; 2) Computer Science; and 3) Visual Imaging.
The question begging to be answered was, Why? What caused the disparity in interest?
After talking to the students I started to see a trend. Some of the Visual Imaging students were defecting from IDM-VI and switching to Graphic Arts. Also, the IDM-VI major is dying because the Art department prefers to die a slow death through irrelevancy. That explains some of the waning interest in Visual Imaging. (That is sad. The web needs new designers. Too many ugly web sites exist already.)
The best perk from two years of work experience is the way I am viewed by the current students. I do not represent a possible employer (not far enough up the ladder for that!), so I’m not intimidating. Also, I am seen as a recent graduate and therefore relevant to the concerns and experience others want addressed. The last part is important because students talk. And they talk without reserve to their peers.
How does this relate to the shift in attention to the New Media concentration? What did they say? Students are flocking to this concentration because it’s deemed the most useful and the most flexible. They graduate with the largest variety of skills so they aren’t labeled and categorized in a job description too early. Prospective employers appear to think along these lines: “IDM-CS? Oh, you must be a web programmer. (Even if you really wanted to try a career as an Accessibility Expert.) IDM-VI? Oh, you must want to be a web designer. (Even if you really wanted to do Front-End Development.) IDM-NM? (Pause) Please explain what that entails.”
They told me point-blank which professors they most respected and why they were the most influential. These are the ones whom the students would recommend to each other by name, saying “Oh, you should take [this extra class] with [this instructor] if you get the chance. It’s worth it.” The ones gaining time and attention are the same ones who offered “real skills to take away from a class,” “treat us with professionalism and respect,” are “in touch with the real world” and “[they] listen when we are worried.”
To Jody Strauch, Jacquie Lamer, Carol Spradling and Nancy Bernardo: just thought you should know, several students commented on your classes and the help you offered. They are sincere when they say they are taking your advice.
