Extreme Makeover: Homepage Edition End Result

Hello everyone,

Remember when I said I was making a website that looked like a company site but would have the content of a high school website. Well that remodeling of the school site is complete and it looks very good. As you can recall, I took the Morgantown High School website and tried to remake it so that it looked a lot more like the Android company website.

I first tried to focus on the layout of the Android site and how I could make that similar site in Dreamweaver. I didn't use tables like most sites are set up but rather divs. These divs were probably the hardest thing that I had to do on this site because it required me to go into the code and find small details that I usually don't look for. It was a good experience though because it prepared me to mess with divs again in the future. After I set up the basic layout, all that was left was the easy part and that was putting in the content.

Below you will see the old high school website, the Android website, my new school logo, and the new high school website that I made:

New School Logo

Old School Website

Android(Company) Website

New School Website

How to find it in on the Web Server: Kincaid Alex > Quarter 4 > Xtreme Homepage Makeover > Xtreme Homepage Makeover.html

Extreme Makeover: Home Page Edition

Hello!

I am getting ready to start out a new project that involves taking a poorly designed website and redesigning it based off of a well-known website. I will be doing this to a school in West Virginia and making it look like the Android website. You can find the links and screen shots of each site below and make sure to check back to see the finished project!

Thanks,

Alex K.

Morgantown High School: http://www.edline.net/pages/Morgantown_High_School

Android: http://www.android.com/

Parallax

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I know it has been awhile since I have posted something on this blog but I have been pretty busy with my eMagine project. With senior year winding down, we are learning a few last web design techniques that can be helpful in the future. Today, I want to talk you you guys about a concept called parallax. I will be dividing my input into certain categories, and these can be seen below.

Parallax in Web Design

Parallax in web design is used to give the background of a website an interesting effect when the user scrolls in a certain direction on the site. The background of the site moves at a different speed compared to the rest of the page to create a visual effect that allows for creative storytelling in a variety of ways. Web designers can use parallax in their website to tell a visual story and create a site that has depth using the layering factor.

What You Need to Create a Parallax Site  

The software that you need in order to build a parallax site is the right kind of HTML and jQuery. There are also ways to create a variety of different versions of a parallax site. One of the most important factors to have in creating one of these sites is creativity!

Issues With Parallax Sites

Like a lot of great website designs, there is always something that is wrong with the site. It may not have to do with the design or content but rather, as seen in parallax sites, the behind the scenes work. They are not compatible with responsive or mobile design and their is no internal page linking throughout the website. Also, when the page has a bunch of information and pictures on it, the page can slow down and cause impatient users to leave.

Like any great website design, the site only works if the functionality works well and the content is presented in a manner that is easily understandable. Parallax sites are great and present information in a fun, creative way. I will leave you with some great examples of parallax websites and keep checking back for more great stuff.

Alex K.

Some Great Examples of Parallax Sites

Mario Kart History

Talks about the history of Mario Kart in a cool, creative track style.

Ben the Bodyguard

A man that is supposed to "protect you iPhone" to keep important info safe

Mr. Alan Turing

Some of you may or may not know who Alan Turing is but he is important all the same. Being a mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist, Turing used this knowledge to develop the Turing machine, which is assumed to be the model of general purpose computers. He is considered as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence and set the premise for the future of a computers. He recently came up in the news, after the House of Commons opted for a posthumous pardon which was signed on December 24, 2013; 59 years later after his death.

Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in London, England. From the day he enrolled at St. Michael's, his headmistress and parents knew that he was incredibly intelligent. He enjoyed more of the mathematics and science, which upset his teachers as they wanted him to put his emphasis more on the classics. Turing headed off to King's College to continue his education and he had a great impact on the school; becoming a "fellow" at the college. His great career all started when he started making Turing machines to reformulate Kurt Godel's limits of proof. The machine can be used to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer.

After the Turing machine, Alan Turing's career skyrocketed because of World War II. He worked at Bletchley Park where he helped to break German ciphers throughout the war and eventually had to created the Turing-Welchman bombe. A bombe was a electromechanical machine that made it easier to break Enigma and was enhanced by Gordon Welchman. The only problem with the bombe was that there was too much code to break and not enough bombe around to break the code. His group wrote to Churchill and soon enough over 200 bombe were in operation at the end of the war.

After the war, Turing went to work on the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine). He had to go through various obstacles that included where to build the ACE because Bletchley Park was not secret enough after the war for Turing to build such a secretive project. But in 1948, Turing worked with his former undergraduate colleague, D. G. Champernowne to began writing a chess program for a computer that did not yet exist. The program faced off against Turing's colleague and lost but the program trumped the old program known as TurboChamp. The "Turing Test" was a huge contribution in the artificial intelligent department and still is used even though it's been around for over half a century.

However, the main reason why Alan Turing was recently brought up in the news was because of what happened in his personal life. Turing had an affair with another man, Arnold Murray, which was illegal in the United Kingdom at that time. The relationship could have been kept a secret if Turing hadn't gone to the police after a burglar robbed his house. After going on trial and being convicted, he chose to go on hormonal treatment instead of going to jail and stayed on that treatment for about 2 years. On June 8, 1954, Turing was found dead by apparent suicide caused by cyanide poisoning. While he died almost 59 years ago, the House of Commons in England opted for posthumous pardon which got put into play December 24, 2013. But before that, Prime Minister Gordon Brown posthumously apologized for the prosecution of Alan Turing for just being a homosexual. This was a big deal because homosexuality is still a big controversy today; 59 years later than that tragic event.

Social Media and College Admission

Hey guys, I hope you are having a great day wherever you may be in the world. I recently read an article that had to do with social media and how it can affect the chance of getting into college. It was interesting to hear about different scenarios where kids weren't admitted because of what they said on Facebook and Twitter. It really made me sit back and reassess what I have posted on Twitter and Facebook in the past couple years.

After I have looked back on the social media sites and the video games I play, there isn't much that I can change about what I post because nothing is bad. My parents both monitor my Facebook and Twitter accounts, so I always have to ask myself, "Would my parents like it if they were to see this post?" I have been asked on a view occasions why I post some of the things that I do and once I realize how something could be taken the wrong way, then I take it down so it doesn't hurt my chance of getting into college.

As far as playing video games goes and interacting that way, it's hard to sometimes control what we say because most of the time it comes out of anger. Now just because colleges don't monitor video games as tightly as they do social media, it doesn't mean that people, myself included, should use abusive and hurtful remarks. This usually happens without us thinking and it can start to intertwine with social media and even real world interactions. I've always lived by the saying, "You can't hide behind the words," because eventually those harsh words are going to turn around and bite you.

After reading this article, I had two great discussion questions that popped into my mind and maybe it will give you something to thing about:

1. Could people fight this (colleges looking at your social media) as a violation of privacy?

2. Is there a trend of not admitting students because of offensive material? For example, does it happen more at public colleges or private schools?

I hope my insight was helpful and gave you guys something to think about. I challenge you to go and check your Facebook and Twitter because who knows, one post can be the difference between being admitted and not being admitted.

Thanks,

Alex K.

Click here to view the article

Opinion on the new Kansas City Logo

Happy Friday everybody! We made it through another busy week and I'm here to make your Friday even better. In this post, I will be talking about how I feel about the new Kansas City logo that was just recently created by Emily Elmore of Single Wing Creative.

First off, the reason that the city of Kansas City decided to change its logo was because some city officials thought that the logo before was a little complex and won't reduce that well when put on a smart phone screen. This new logo allows for a simpler design that will look good on a big screen as well as a small one.

The colors are a little interesting and I am still curious why she picked this color scheme. Kansas City is known for being very vibrant at night, with place like the Plaza and Crown Center displaying huge arrays of lights around the holidays. The city is also known for having a bunch of fountains, which could explain the teal color of the C. The grey is a nice contrast to the teal but I feel like more blue should be involved or at least one that includes one of the sports teams' colors. As far as the typeface goes, I like it a lot. It seems to capture a little more "Midwestern feel" with the C kind of looking like a horseshoe.

Overall, I like the idea of the logo, but it just needs to be executed a little better. I feel like the logo needs to reflect more of our city as a whole rather than just two letters. This can be accomplished in multiple ways, whether that's by changing the color scheme or changing the design completely. If I had to add something, I would add something to do with the fountains. It is one of our best features and it needs to be exemplified.

Hope you have a wonderful Friday and I'll leave you with the new logo for Kansas City. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Love it? Hate it?

Thanks,

Alex K.

Link to an article about the logo and designer: Here

My Personality Type

After taking Myers-Briggs personality test, I was told that my personality was ESFJ; which stands for Extrovert Sensing Feeling and Judging. Being an extrovert means that I love to be around people and I get joy from interacting in large groups. Sensing has to do with how I do things, which is very hands-on and practical. I like to follow the rules and just go with the flow. When I was given Feeling, it meant that I am very caring and that I can see when people are down and I try my best to help them get back up. The last one, judging, isn't what people would associate it to be. It has to do with me being loyal to people and  trusting, but also being very organized in the work I do. Some famous people that have the same personality as me include Harry S. Truman, Colin Powell, Selena Gomez, Larry King, Elton John and Jessica Alba.

The scary part about this assignment is that it is very true! I feel like I do my best to go out of the way and care for people when they are down. This was one of the "right on" moments that I noticed was a part of my evaluation. I notice when people seem upset and these people really love it when I notice that and try to help them out. The thing that was more of a "not so much" was how high I was on the extrovert scale. I love to be around people and interact with them, but I also love to have my alone team and this really helps me reflect on the day's events.

Seeing that I am more of a caring person that goes out of my way to help people, I start to appreciate why I gravitate more towards people who are similar to me. If I am willing to go out of my way to help people, then I honestly except the same in return. That is why I rely on sports to guide me and baseball especially. When I am struggling and it's not my day, I know that my teammates have my back and will do anything to help me get through the tough situation. My personality also allows me to fill in for a lot of different spots because of how open I am to people's feelings. Like I said before, I have a great ability to work on a team.

I feel like when some one saw the word "Judging" they would immediately turn away from me. They need to understand that it really means that I will be loyal to you if I can trust you. I am definitely willing to open up to a different personality type because of my personality but they would have to be able to open up to me as well. For the most part, however, different personalities like to be around me.

As a conclusion, I have learned that I am a good person, not only to myself but to others as well. I understand that I care about people and I am willing to stop and talk things through in order to figure them out. Along with my extrovert attitude, I can fully acknowledge how things need to get done and I am willing to go out of my way to make things happen.