TabletPC Blues

So last night was more of a morning than anything with my sleep time starting around 5am. Ironically, it seems I also fell asleep on the couch in the living room. Anyhow, the story about how I got to this scenario.

The new Tablet I just bought has been giving me some problems. First it would come out of sleep on its own. After messing around with the power management software, it seems to have gone away... weird. So since then it's been working fine and everything had been smooth up at CET... then I brought it to the house. Suddenly it could not connect to the wireless network. It would see it, but it coulnd't connect... it wouldn't tell me the error either. After reformating and reinstalling from the recovery disks twice, still no wireless. Alex helped take a look at the tablet and we still couldn't figure it out. Now keep in mind that up to this point, I had never tried the wireless at the house, only at CET and that was working. Now what got to me was that everyone elses tablet was working and we were all in the same room (living room), on top of that it's the same wireless card as everyones. Anyhow, I decided that it really felt like a hardware communication issue so I decided to uninstall and install the wireless with Intel's 8.0 wireless drivers instead of the 9.0 that was installed (hence, I rollbacked the drivers). And guess what, the wireless on the tablet works now. But when I woke up this morning, the tablet came out of sleep mode again on its own... must have reset something when I reinstalled everything... oh well... I'll figure this out sooner or later.

But anyhow, I looked around the internet and it seems that a lot of people have had to update and flash their wireless routers to support the new driver set for Intel's wireless card.

So far the new Intel drivers have the following advantage:
- IEEE 802.11i support
- WPA2 Support
- Single sign/on feature
- Latest support for Cisco Compatible Extensions 3
- Software interface improvements
- Improved speed/connection stability

So that's what I'm missing out on... well except the connection stability since I get none at Fletcher's house, but do at CET. Anyhow, I'll be messing around with my tablet a bit more and see if I can get the drives lined up properly.

Current TigerTV Sitemap

In reference to step 2 of my project goals, I've completed a structural sitemap of the current Trinity University closed-circuit TV station's (TigerTV) website. At first it took me awhile to decide what should and should not be included in the sitemap. I had to decide if I wanted to just include the basic directory/menu structure, or if I should also include direct links. Deciding on direct links also took some thinking if I should skip in-text links or if I should and how I would assign importance levels. I finally decided on the following description of the sitemap:

The sitemap focuses on the structure of the visible navigation system plus any additional links found on a page that changes the topic of information flow to that of something not related to the page being viewed. For example, if a "Hot News" item is speaking of a new management team and there's links to the manager's profile, this is not reflected on the sitemap since it is being provided in a context form. Overall, I'm not to sure if this is the correct way of analyzing the effectiveness of a site's structure. I'm open to suggestions on what should be included in the sitemap and what shouldn't be. Sitemap split into



Analysis of current sitemap:
Overall a bit confusing, yet it's only made of four levels, which contain about 45-50 links. I will develop a new sitemap based on my readings and study of information architecture in the next several days. At the moment, a quick rough idea for goal specifics would be to reduce the number of structural navigation links by 50% and reduce the number of levels by 1.

Project Status

I always find it easier to write about my project when I have a good base, which I'm still working on... I'm going to focus on my previous idea of creating an extremely more than average customizable website in which the visitor can customize it to their delight. The website project, which will benefit in killing two birds with one stone, would be my school's closed-circuit tv station's website which the current design can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/tigertv. I will focus on 5 goals:
1) Create a cross-browser compatible website (NS6, IE6, FF1)
2) Create a website with a somewhat flat but productive hierarchy
3) Allow user-specific customization such as main colors, font size, font type, background, etc.
4) Give the user theme options incase they don't want to nit pick all the customization
5) Provide efficient streaming of video content, perhaps maybe flash or through a codec such as WM9

Technology/Knowledge Requirements:
1) CSS
2) Javascript
3) Concept of Cookies
4) Basic to understanding of video in Flash
5) Streaming technology and implementation

At the moment, I'm in the process of opening discussion among the management group to discuss the best structure as far as content and sitemap for the website.

Reading Notes

My thoughts on the readings and notes that I would like to touch on tomorrow hopefully. That and my first time experimenting with getting notes from OneNote to the Web. Believe it or not, it took me a couple of hours to accomplish this. Click on thumbnails, then click again to zoom in completely.

Ah and the lightbulb turns on

So here we are again, it's 2:15am and I'm still awake even though I told myself I will be in bed by 11pm. I've been trying to figure out why this keeps happening... it's still a mystery but I have found out that I do a lot of my thinking at night. It might be something left over from my gene-splice during finals... or my nightly running routine from a year ago... but whichever the case, I've expanded on my project idea:

Although it is somewhat related to information architecture but not quite, but sort of :) (I'm still reading the book), the development, structural, and information flow design of the internet has been in the hands of coders for the longest time. Most websites have a distinct look and design; each webmaster developing on what he believes the website should look like. Sure we get really creative designs here and there, but ultimately the control and power still lies with the webmaster. What if the control and part of the creation is handed over to the users. I say, let the users decide how and which way they want to see things. This is somewhat along the lines of what Yahoo has done with their customizable home page, but imagine if this was applied to the majority of all websites. There's already several extensions to Firefox that allows the user-side manipulation of CSS scripts; hence a user is able to modify the current page he's looking at to his or her own tastes... something along the lines of Zen Garden. Some might argue that this is a bad idea, but look at the cases in which this has succeeded... for example: open source projects, where users are able to design and adjust as they see fit; automobiles, where users are able to install after-market equipment and change the look of their car to fit their personality. So I think I would like to look more in-depth into the personalization of the web. The type of personlization where each visitor can display your home page in the most customized fashion possible and in the flow they desire. For example, the user being able to choose what he or she wants to see when they load your home page, or which links to automatically show and not show. Overall, it's like the webmaster not only focusing on design, but even more importantly, on the personal flexibility of a website.

I dont know, this is just an idea... and it is getting late so I believe I'm starting to lose feel of what I'm writing, so I should stop :) Goal for tomorrow: sleep by midnight.

Ah the Photos !

Wow it's 5am and I'm still chugging along... heh what's wrong with me. I know I have to be up in 3-4 hours but in a way that I dont want to fall asleep because I dread the way I'm going to feel when I wake up. Anyways, my set of photos are up... well most of them. Looks like Flickr has a problem batch processing a large number of photos. I reduced them in size a lot so I'll be able to upload hopefully close to 200-300 photos before I leave. Flickr started complaining when I tried to add all the photos to the group pool... I think only some made it in. But anyhow, I have a total of 117, so visit the group pool and my set (which are also organized) :) www.flickr.com

CSS Website

Yay I'm becoming more frequent with this blogging... anyhow some of you have noticed how some nights I'm awake until 2am->3am... and only once it was because of a game :) But I've actually been reading up on this CSS and took a plunge into it to work on my general business website.

Anyhow, here's the link: http://www.jlrstudios.com

Things accomplished:
- Layout is complete CSS using mostly absolute positioning
- Side menu is complete CSS
- Main menu roll over effect is CSS (no image swapping)

Still need to do:
- Spice up front page... it's not all going to be text and definitely not that much text, that's just to test to make sure the text will go over the orange in case... but overall, the site's content will never extend beyond the bottom border.
- Implement IFrames for external scripts

I ran a Website Speed Report and so far the website is reporting:
Images: 34.89KB
HTML: 2.1KB
Download @ 56k: 7.39seconds
Download @ 128k: 2.2seconds

Once the site is completed, I'm estimating about a 10sec download on 56k and a 3sec download on 128k... of course that's only the first load without the browser doing any caching.

And for the first time, the website looked right the first time I loaded in IE after getting it looking right in Firefox.

PS. This is probably my first full CSS website.

I've also been working on my school's Latino Exchange organization's website. I've been their webmaster for the past two years and I just think my last design sucked, so here I go redesigning :) And for one of the few times in awhile, I'm actually somewhat happy with the logo I've put together for the temp page :) The temp page is also CSS :)

Update... with nice-guy/tough-guy phenomenon theory

I know I'm not that great at keeping up with these blogs, but here's a huge update. Every once in awhile, I would write up just pure thoughts that come from my mind directly to the screen. Sometimes this introduces a lot of spelling mistakes :) but overall they're readable. A friend of mine has fallen in love with some of the stuff I write and occasionally I would email him some stuff such as what I recently wrote below: Have Fun! PS. Read it in stages, it's a bit long :)

Nice-Guy/Though-Guy Phenomenon

Hi,

The way I see it, a nice guy is also someone who does not admit to being a nice guy since admitting that you're a nice guy, well that goes against what a nice guy is. When someone says they're a nice guy, they're trying to differentiate themselves from other guys and in a direct or indirect way try to bring the appeal from a woman back to them. From my point of view, it is not a nice guy's role to try and make someone like them or to attract them with things that they probably wouldnt say on a normal day. Instead, a nice guy should just be himself and be who he things he should be and do what he things is right within him and for that the woman should be attracted to and if not by natural choice, then no choice at all. In other words, a nice guy should be found, not a nice guy going out and finding... if that makes sense.

And as far as why women fall for the "tough" guys, I have a theory on that :) Like the average person, we all like challenges and at some point or another we also rebel against our parents either in ideology or on the rules they impose on us... and on top of that there's also the sense of excitement and the roller coaster of emotions that brings on surges of passion.

Let me start with challenges first... A nice guy wouldn't be a challenge to get to know, like, and date because usually they dont play hard to get. They may be shy or have low confidence when it comes to a woman actually liking them, but they will not deliberately play hard to get. On the other hand, a tough guy might ,so a girl sees it as a challenge. It's also a challenge because of the attention tough guys draw, it all falls under the popularity spell and a woman might be thinking, "Wow, so many girls like this guy, imagine if I would be the one he chooses or the one that ends up dating him" So it becomes more about the challenge and less about the actual compatibility or who the guy is.

Now about the parental/society tension. Everyone knows that during the teenage years there's the development part where a guy/girl becomes their own person and their ideas become more of their own instead of their environment and their parents. A lot of people see it fit that sometimes they must just develop ideologies that are different and sometimes opposite from their parents/community just to prove that they're their own person and independent thoughts but in irony, they're conforming to the ideology that they must do that. So of course most parents would want their children to meet nice people, someone who would be good for them in the long term and be a positive influence and have all these good qualities with a limit on "fun" of course. So to rebel and go against that, the children go off and find the total opposite... although once women do go through this phase, it's kind of ironic how they end up marrying someone who resembles in character their fathers; of course this is a whole other topic because it has it's own discrempancies and exceptions.

And finally the roller coaster of emotions... A nice guy will be just that, a nice guy and try and make every day the best day that it could be. He will be the same to you as he was the very first day because that's his nature. On the other hand with a tough guy, well there's ups and downs and of course a tough guy attempts to make up for his lack of likeable characteristics with a really great personality the first few days and sometimes weeks and rarely months, but afterwards the relationship goes sour because the gig is up and you can only be somebody who you're not for so long. But the development of a relationship causes a feeling of needing to work on the relationship and keep it alive although it's already diminishing. This causes a back and forth of good and bad days, good and bad weeks, and even you're occasional "we need a break". This causes a huge fluctuation in emotions between sad and happy that the surge that is experienced after a sad period seems to be much greater exponentially than what it really is because you experience it in a greater contrast to the day before. For example, let's say happiness and sadness had a scale of 1-10. In a nice guy relationship, that happiness would be at a nominal 7-9 and stay between 7 and 9. In a tough guy relationship, that would start out around 6 or 7, then fall down to about a 1 then back up to a 5, then down to a 2, then up to a 6 and on and on. In the nice guy relationship, the difference would never be more than 1-3 points, but in the tough guy relationship, sometimes the difference from one point to another could be as high as 5... which is a huge jump, and it is that jump that women tend to at-first be attracted to and form a connection to that rush... but keep in mind, their overall happiness is just not as high as what they would have experienced with the nice-guy. I'm not saying this is a phase, because some women prefer the rush... it is more about the woman finding this out and finding out what she really wants that makes the difference with age and why it seems the tide turns after awhile.

Anyhow, I'm surprised I've written so much but I've developed the habit of analyzing relationships and forming theories and describing behaviors. I have several other theories and thoughts, but that's another book :)

Hope you made it this far.

Take care.

~ Jorge L. Ramirez, business and communication major at Trinity.

Comparative Media Analysis

Site: http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/launch/

One of the most intriguing technlogies that is changing the world of the internet in my mind is Flash. Flash is narrowing the bridges of media and bringing on a whole new world of digital convergence. A web design group that I follow and leads the design in Flash websites is 2advanced.com. 2advanced.com has a large portfolio but for this exercise I focused on the Ford Mustang Website.

The website integrates through the use of Flash a commercial like feel. But unlike a commercial, content-wise, the user is able to select what information he or she wants to view and in what order. In the sense of a television commercial, the technical contraints limit the selectivity and order of content from the viewer but the flash presentation does not. The content selection extends to the sound and even the motion of the vehicle. As you hover your mouse over the car, an engine-start sound plays and if you click on the vehicle, it speeds away with a dust special effect left behind. The user has total control of what scenario he or she wants to create in conjunction with their imagination.

The medium of the internet also implies a more personal connection. Culture wise, and to a certain degree the design of a computer, limits how public a computer screen is. Many users who use a computer and might come by the Ford Mustang website might be doing so in private and in result, experience the website for themselves. On the other hand, a television commercial is more of a public event. Unlike television, the user who's experiencing the promotional piece online has the option of repeating the special effects to their desire... resulting in increased self-gratification.

Not sure exactly where I'm going with this, but overall I believe that Ford is hoping that this cross-mix of media, the level of content control provided, and the increase of self-gratification will result in increased sales.

Technobiography

Technology, from my existence to my future, has played a crucial part in my life. I was born one month premature and if it wasn't for the technology available at that time I might not have been here today, so I'm grateful for that. As far as what technology has made me today, well many people would assume that I'm completely made of technology. About a year ago I came by an old photo of me when I was about five years old or so in front of an Apple IIe typing away. That photo brought back so many memories; those that I remember and those that I didn't but was reminded of by my family. So in a way, technology has always played a part in my life and today I try to take advance of technology in all aspects of life. I quickly utilized a PDA in my freshmen year of high school. Since high school, I have gone through three PDA's due to unfortunate events such as dropping them or jumping over a wall with a PDA and a soda can in the same pocket; long story, ask later. Since early high school I've been involved in webmastering and collaborating in website teams online, more specifically for gaming web sites. In my early high school life I became addicted to this game called StarCraft. But the game triggered a gene in me that i knew would separate me from the other mainstream gamers. I began to focus more on the community and development of the fansites more than on the game.

I was fascinated how teams of people would come together and develop a resource for the community, and more importantly, for free. I landed a position at a major gaming website for Starcraft and from there began to experiment with administering dedicated linux servers over the internet and even had my own 1-800 24hr tech support line, working for free of course. As I think back, it's hard to imagine that all of my webmastering began in the early parts of high school. Since then, I've been married to technology for all aspects of my life. I'm always one of the first to try a new part of technology and even though some people would say that I should wait until prices drop on cutting edge technology... I understand that someone has to pay for the research and development costs and I'm more than happy to be one of those people. Where would the world be if we didn't push for the next more efficient and productive technology.

Overall, on the other half of the table, I have begun to see the social damage that technology has been inflicting. Sure, technology has brought the world closer, but it's spread the neighborhood farther. But then again, that's another story to tell later...

Fletcher's Ghost Part 1

One hazy dark night, the house was silent as an empty room. All the lights were on except for the third floor. No one understood why the lights on the third floor would not turn on. The fault with the lights did not reside on the user since everyone gave it a try at flipping the switches. The wires were checked, the bulbs replaced, even the constant banging on the switches did not work. The occupants on the third floor began to have double-thoughts of sleeping in their rooms. How could they sleep anyways without being able to see where they were walking? Everyone reassured them that it must just be a circuit breaker that had tripped and a quick call to Public Safety tomorrow morning would get it all fixed. In the mean time, a couple of flash lights will suffice. The habitants of the third floor stare at each other in question and did not move for some time, thinking about what if it wasn’t a circuit breaker and instead something else… something more terrifying. Finally, one of the girls that is staying on the third floor took the flash light and declared, “What’s the worse that can happen, I’ll just go straight to bed and that’s that”. Someone else replied, “I don’t know, this house just gives me that weird feeling and I thought on the way up to the door I saw something moving on the third floor”. One of the guys just wanted to call it a night since it was almost approaching midnight and everyone had to be up by 9:00am the next morning, so he reassured the girls that he’ll go up there and check things out with the flashlight first. The girls looked at each other almost as if in protest, but did not say anything and just nodded in agreement. The brave guy took the flashlight and headed up the stairs to the third floor. As he walked up the stairs, each step ended in a loud creak that vibrated throughout the walls. Slowly the guy’s form disappeared into the darkness and only his light could be seen. As he turns the corner to head into one of the rooms, the creaks faded and all becomes silent again. A couple of minutes pass and it had become as silent as before. More minutes pass and there was no sign of our brave hero… Everyone looks at each other and no words were said but the fright was seen in everybody’s eyes.


To be continued...