Toby's Log page 106

Questions to ask the client

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In this class, we will be working on updating the site for a historical farm in the area.  We are coming up with questions to ask them about the site we will build for them. We must use these questions to find out their needs effectively. To do se we need to be good communicators.

Questions should uncover:

  • Target Audience
  • Style
    • Examples: Get examples of 3 sites they like or would be what they are going for
    • Branding: logo, colors, etc that the organization uses to identify itself
  • Content
    • Priorities for content, functionality
    • Objectives
    • who will provide writing, images
  • Technology and hosting
    • Cost
    • Database
    • Scripting
    • other features
  • Target audience
  • Dollars
  • Timeline
  • Peers & Competition

Historic Sites

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I am taking a look at some historic sites and deciding what I like and dislike about them.  The sites are:

Hale Farm

Hale Farm and Village was the first historic place I thought of.  I’ve been there before and it is fairly nearby where I live.

The site is a sub-site of the Western Reserve Historical Society.  This makes it more easy to find other historical places in the area, but gives Hale Farm less emphasis.  Some of the content bleeds together.  I think it could have a lot more information about what is at the farm.  The site is kept very up to date.  It has a fair amount of event and news related content.  There is an online donation function, though it doesn’t seem as extensive as many other non-profits:  I’m not sure if this is because they are less dependent on donations or get enough from other methods or what.  There is perhaps what is going to become on online store, but it is not functional currently:  It has a shopping cart, but no way to add anything to it.

Peninsula Historic Museum

A single page on the Peninsula Library site discusses the museum.  The museum is relatively small and new, so I suppose this is to be expected.  A basic description, location, hours, and basic exhibit descriptions are all the content.  I like that there are descriptions of the exhibits, though there could certainly be a more in-depth description of the museum itself, including perhaps a history.  A link on the page goes to another site where you can view some of the museums images, but the link only goes to the root URL of that site, and it tells you to search for the images:  it would be nice if they could have a link to their stuff straight off.  It’d also be nice if they actually seemed to have images there.

There is no dynamic content on this page, though the main site has a lot more happening, such as events, donations, and a good bit of information about the other stuff the library does (including all that book stuff).  The menu is somewhat annoying to use.  It has a top level set of items that don’t go anywhere, but open up a set of other links to click.  The links aren’t actual links, probably flash buttons, so they give no tells of the underlying URL or whether they are to an external site.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad

This site is not a sub-site of others, giving the item of interest a lot of emphasis.  There are advanced data driven features such as event listings, news, a calendar, and even a membership section.  Some of the stuff that is nested in sub-sections of the site can be hard to find perhaps, especially with no search available.

Hello there

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I am Toby Mackenzie, a student at Tri-C in northeast Ohio.  I am taking class called Web Design II there, for which this blog will be used.

Teacher spot reports for knowledge check

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School administration would on occasion randomly choose some teachers to write a report. The report would be either a short (1-2 page) paper that must be written on the spot with little or no resources, or a longer (perhaps 10 pages) research paper which they will have a specified period to complete and can use any resources they want.

The topic of the paper would be randomly assigned, asking how they apply or could use certain educational principles in the classroom. Some possible topics might include how the teacher uses or could use Piaget’s or Vygotsky’s theories, positive reinforcement, levels-of-processing theory; how do they handle the different learning styles of students; what implications a recent educational news story might have for them; how do they apply technology in the classroom; or a more general question like how new educational theories have shaped their teaching styles.

The check would help ensure that teachers are paying attention to and using both well established and new educational theories to hopefully provide the best education they can to their children. Educational theories often are adopted slowly or aren’t translated well into teaching styles. There is a whole lot that can be done to improve the education system just by fully implementing the recommendations of the vast available knowledge pool of educational learning theory.

Dwight moved out

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After a year and a half of living with me, my roommate Dwight finally moved out. His girlfriend got a “real” job in Texas, so he moved down there with her. His stay here was supposed to be temporary, but he liked the low living expenses so much he decided to stay.

This has been quite a change for me. The change in my cost of living is quite significant: My basic expenses will increase by an estimated 34%, not a small number. This is at a time when I’m about to lose my job. I have money saved, and could easily get a job at a restaurant in no time I’m sure, but it still could be rough, especially on some of my planned extra type expenditures.

Living alone is quite different from living with someone. There was someone there most of the time to do stuff with before, but now I have to put effort into finding someone to do stuff with, especially since I no longer have any real friends (he was the only one that I actually did stuff with excluding family). He had a good collection of movies and frequently rented some, so we often watched them. We also played card and other games. It was nice to have an additional person to help with some stuff: It meant I didn’t have to always be there to look for and deal with everything. It can be very lonely sitting at home alone.

Of course, it can be nice as well. I can have lots of alone time without worrying about someone popping in. Dwight could be quite the talker and sometimes would talk for hours, sometimes about things I wasn’t especially interested in. The dishes were a shared duty and they ended up being quite a mess as well as a lot of work. My house is much cleaner now and I plan to keep it that way.

On the cleaner note, I have moved some of the stuff from my front room into his old bedroom. The front room had been piled with stuff and virtually unusable, but now it is rather clean. It will be an entertainment room (video, board, and card games, chairs to chat, etc). His old room is rather clean still as well, and may become an office. I hope to get rid of a lot of stuff and make the house cleaner still.

We’ll see how this works out.

Oil change trouble

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After running through a few tanks to see the pre-change MPG of my Saturn, I changed the oil to a synthetic high MPG formulation. I had used the same oil in my Corolla and had noticed a definite increase, and wanted to verify that this increase was indeed happening. I haven’t verified the increase yet.

Unfortunately, the oil change itself was the worst I’ve ever done. It probably took me at least three hours. I had to clean some oil spilled from my leaky oil catcher pan. The biggest time consumer, though, was the filter: It was on there ridiculously tight and the Saturn has almost no space around it. I ended up stabbing it in numerous places with a screwdriver, hurting my hand, and getting soaked in oil. A filter wrench finally did it.

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Appropriate living place service

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To help ensure people can easily move to the country best suited to them, there would be a program which all countries could choose to join. Joined countries would have buildings that citizens interested in moving away or even just seeing if there is something better could visit.

A counselor would be provided. The citizen would discuss their political, social, religious, and other wants and views, and the counselor would talk to them about the countries seeming most appropriate. The counselor would then give them guidance in how to research and choose a country as well as how the country moving procedures work.

The citizen would be given access to a computer database with political and social characteristics, news, geography, and all sorts of information about all of the participating countries, with advanced searches available.

After researching the countries, the citizen would talk to the counselor to make a final decision. If the citizen decides to go through with the move, the counselor would tell the citizen everything they need to do to proceed with the move.

The counselor would meet with a counselor from the other country to start the process toward citizenship for the citizen. This process should be an agreement between the two countries plus the citizen that would help ensure both success and safety for both the citizen and the new country. The process should be relatively quick and easy, with important records provided from the originating country so the destination country can more easily do background checks.

Some countries might only do exchanges, have number limits, or have certain stipulations on the citizens they will take, though the movement of citizens must be generally relatively free and easy.

A similar but simpler version of this service could be provided for intra-country moves, helping citizens find the best city or place within a country for them to live.

My new car

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After my car died, I went looking for a car. I had to borrow my roommate’s car many times and my dad’s car while he was on vacation. I even rode my bicycle 20+ miles to work one day, though my roommate picked me up for the trip home. It took me over a month to make my decision.

Search

I had wanted to get a small stickshift hatchback a little smaller than my Corolla that would be able to get a little better gas mileage. Unfortunately, it was hard to find a model within my price range that actually fit my requirements. I spent a lot of time looking at craigslist, cars.com, autotrader.com, and others.

I called and emailed a number of private sellers, but never ended up going to see one. They seem harder to deal with, as you have to set up a time to meet and all, and then can’t take the car unless the title place is opened or they’ve already got their title notarized. I also visited a great many lots and test drove a number of cars.

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My corolla finally died

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Due to its rust and general shape, my Corolla has looked liked it was on its way out since I bought it from my brother. Five years later, it finally went out. It could perhaps have been fixed, but I didn’t think it was worth it.

The death

On my last day of school for the Spring semester, on the way home from class (in the campus parking lot in fact), I ran over a curb (I was tired). I drove all the way home with no problems. Later that day I headed toward my parents’ house, but soon after I made a turn (Akron Cleveland onto 303) my car started sliding on the front right tire. Due to a warning that the tie-rod ends were in bad shape, I was expecting something would happen. I slid over to the side of the road (digging a deep tire mark and gathering some asphalt on my tire).

I discovered my tire at quite an angle, and found the driveshaft to be disconnected from the transmission. I called my Dad, and he headed over to take a look. I called the tow truck right after that. A cop showed up and asked me about what happened. He attempted to help me push the car over fully off the road, but it didn’t move, even when he used his car. So he decided to park behind me with his flashers so no one would hit me. My dad showed up and took a look, and determined that it probably wasn’t salvageable.

After a lot of waiting, the tow truck guy finally showed up. He drove me and my car back home. He said a lot of cars had had an axle problem that week. We dropped my car off in front of my house, where it stayed for over a month (until after I got my new car). Parking was a little difficult with it there.

The problem

I jacked it up and looked closely underneath it after several weeks. I finally determined what had happened. The frame had cracked where one of the arms connects that holds the wheel in place. The wheel twisted out a bit without its support, pulling the axle out of the transmission. The support could have been welded, but the frame was pretty rusted at that point, and a new frame piece almost would have been needed. The whole car was too rusted anyway, and I had been planning to get a new car after my issues in the winter. That car had a lot of issues in its time, though I suppose they weren’t so bad to deal with (the most difficult problems were probably the numerous busted brake lines).

Gone

She sold for $75 to a tow truck company, with extra door trim bits and haynes and chiltons guides included. She has been replaced by my new car.

A real hair cut

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After at least three years of letting my hair grow out, I’ve cut it. It was down to my shoulders, but now it’s probably three inches at its longest point, much shorter on the back and sides. I wanted it to be a little longer than it is, and will have to let it grow out to get where I want it.

I started by cutting it myself, and got it just about to where I wanted it in general appearance. Unfortunately it was a bit uneven. After much effort, my roommate convinced me to get it cut professionally the rest of the way. $13 for just the last bit of a haircut. Oh well, it certainly got cleaned up. The girl there quickly recognized it as a home cut, and did her best to preserve the look I was going for. Unfortunately, she cut a bit much off in the back and on the sides, especially around the ears.

It’s sometimes strange having the short hair, but sometimes I don’t even notice it. When I put on a hat or lean back in a chair, I often attempt to take into account my pony tail, but it’s not there. Unfortunately, without the pony tail, my bangs now frequently end up in my eyes. My hair is quite unruly and won’t stay combed back. It poofs up, especially at the top back, very easily. I’m going to need to find a solution for the eye issue, perhaps I’ll be forced to use some gel or something on occasion. At least my hair doesn’t get caught in things, blow in my face with the wind, or end up in my mouth when I’m eating.