HTML

My previous exposure to learning HTML was in the IRLS 504 class in which I created my first website. The first website was quite plain but it included the necessary components. I skimmed through the PowerPoint to reacquaint myself with the declaration and the process of how to post the page to the U-System website. I had always wondered how to add another website to the system without disturbing the previous one and the assignment notes were helpful in explaining that a subdirectory should be added. For this website I wanted to make it more visually pleasing so I decided to add a little color. I used the HTML tutorials at w3schools.com to refresh my memory on the standard elements and attributes. The tutorials proved to be helpful. I then did a Google search for “html tags” to find out more about other tags that I could include. I decided to experiment with indenting the text on the sides and adding a horizontal rule. When experimenting with HTML tags, I found that websites with a table providing the tag, explanation and an image of what the tag does were the most helpful.

Learning Styles

The lecture for this week was a bit hard to follow as there were so many terms in the lecture notes that were linked to the Wikipedia or Webopedia. The lecture was interesting but I am not sure how many of those terms actually stayed in my memory. I was interested in that the “Learning Styles and Strategies” website was part of the reading assignment and as the site stated, most people are visual learners. I am a visual learner and feel that the videos and podcasts are very helpful. The "Warriors of the Net" video was interesting, easy to understand and a nice addition to the lecture. Nonetheless, the combination of both visual and verbal learning seems to be the most effective. I appreciated it when the lecture provides a video after the reading to provide a better understanding of the material. I feel that I understand the concept more after watching a video or podcast and reading improves my vocabulary and reading skills.

Users, Groups, Commands and More

For the first assignment, I mistakenly began to input the commands in the remote desktop versus VNWare when I came to an issue and posted it in the discussion forum. Luckily a classmate pointed this out. I don’t know what I was thinking and became very frustrated. I started up the VNWare software, remembering that the VPN Client should be disconnected; however, I was frustrated once again because nothing would show up on the screen. I would load it again then I realized that my connection was slow and so I had to be patient. Once logged into VNWare, I began to input the commands and I successfully downloaded the Webmin commands. I was so relieved with I confirmed the IP address of the server VM and got to the Webmin screen. Installing the components required me to look very carefully at the screen and keyboard. We are so used to typing and letting Word catch our errors, but that is no longer the case. Switching back to the remote desktop for Assignment 3 made me a bit uneasy as I was unsure if the commands I downloaded at the beginning would affect anything and luckily it didn’t. Assignment 4 required us to return to VNWare and I started to feel more comfortable. Hopefully I completed the assignments correctly.

Hands-On Assignments and Configurations

Connecting to the UA VPN Client and Ubuntu Server was successful on the first try. When I tried to test for connectivity I was unsuccessful the first time because I did a typo so I then realized I have to be very careful. Luckily I was able to have connectivity between the host browser and the server VM without any issues. Switching from mouse to keyboard mode inside the virtual machine would catch me off guard since I am so used to just being able to see my mouse cursor at all times. Having the opportunity to work through the hands-on tutorial (vim tutor) was an extreme help. For the most part I had no issues with the commands, some of which included deleting a line (dd), changing characters until the end of a word (ce), moving to the bottom of file (G), searching for a “phrase” (/phrase), substituting text, and deleting characters (x). I did experience an issue with saving a file and then exiting. I attempted to do “:wq” which exited the file but when I returned to the file the changes I had made did not save. I think I may have to look into this a bit further. During the tutorial I would use “o” a lot to get to the beginning of the line and CTRL-G to show me my location in the file. I am so accustomed to having a scroll bar on the right side to see where I am in the file but this is definitely not the case with Linux.

The configuration process in Linux files involves commands (sometimes several) which may require searching for the proper command. Configuring something on my primary computer such as changing the parameters on when my computer sleeps on battery or plugged in also involves some searching. It involves going to the control panel and trying to remember which category I must choose to find where to change the parameters. The configuration process in both the Linux and primary computer may involve searching but the difference seems to be that the process can be done on one screen in Linux versus the PC which takes the user to several screens.