Digital Design Journal by Jawad Rahman

     When the Internet was first developed it was used by computers to send and receive data over a network. With the progression of time, however, it became possible for more than computers to connect to the Internet. The term 'Internet of Things' was coined to describe everyday objects - such as cars, refrigerators, and coffeemakers - being interconnected by the Internet. This interconnectedness for the consumer could mean every time your phone or lock detects you're entering your house the lights will switch on but for businesses it could mean money saved by things, such as elevators, giving their own reports about their state and when they need maintenance, so a separate inspector is not needed.      An early instance of this interconnectedness can be traced back to 1982 when students at Amazon's smart assistant, Alexa Carnegie-Melon University inserted sensors in a Coca Cola vending machine and connected it to an early version of the Internet. Th...

     In the age of modern news the ways one can receive information about the news are very diverse. Not only is there a choice in the source (choosing if you want your news from CNN, Fox, ABC, etc.) but there is choice in the medium. You can receive news conventionally through TV, through news websites online, or through social media to name a few mediums. While news on TV news comes from trusted or established news sources on social media news is not regulated and it can come from any source. This may include fake sources which have become more prominent in recent times.      Fake news can be very damaging since people can be mislead into believing false information without realizing it and have a misconception on a topic for a long time. Fake news is especially effective when it caters to the political bias of the viewer. We have seen this in use on Twitter during the 2016 elections. Russia's Internet Research Agency is accused of interfering in the ele...

     Insects, whether you love them or hate them, are an important part of the ecosystem. An example is the bumblebee, an insect important in the pollination of plants. Without the bumblebee plants that reproduce through the spread of pollen would drop in population and animals that rely on these plants as a food source would also drop in population. Animals that rely on these plant eating animals would start dying and a chain reaction is set throughout the entire ecosystem. It is scary to think what could happen if bumblebees dyed out but it might become the sad reality due to climate change and harmful farming practices. The Delfly      So what do we do in the face of dying insect populations? A group of scientists from Delft University turn to robotics. Recently this group has developed the DelFly, bee-like drones meant to be used for pollination as their organic counterparts go extinct. Through the use of spacial sensors the DelFly knows where to f...

     Lab 7 was one of the more complex labs. In this lab we created a web page that has links to all previous labs we have done, essentially a home page for the labs. First off the directory of the folders needed to be fixed. On our computer is the DD folder, or root. This contains all files that we upload to the server. In the root are two folders, labs on projects. Up to now all work has been done in the Labs folder and in this lab we continue to work in this folder. In our Labs folder is a folder for each lab containing files relating to that lab. In Lab 7, however, we needed to duplicate all the other lab folders and put them into the lab 7 folder. The reason we did this was so that we can link to these files within the Lab 7 directory. Although we can use the links that already exist for our labs on the server to link from lab 7 to other labs this way of making a directory doesn't ensure that the links will continue to work since external links are more prone to chan...

     In lab 6 we created a banner and nameplate for our web page. A banner is a graphical image or art that identifies the website and usually spans across the top of the site. A nameplate identifies the author of the site; it can almost be seen as a digital signature. A namplate comes at the bottom of the content. The nameplate and banner were both designed in PhotoShop. Since we were making this for use on the web the specifications were specific. Fist we made sure in PhotoShop CC 2018 that we were in the web presets when creating a new document. The dimensions for both were 700px by 100px and resolution 72. These dimensions are to ensure that the banner is the correct size and won't appear too large in smaller windows but not too small in larger windows. After we were done designing both were saved as a JPEG and saved to the Lab 6 folder.      Then came inserting the banner and nameplate in the HTML document for Lab 6. To ensure the banner would always...

     Lab 5 involved a lot of grinding; we focused on making lists within tables. These lists varied on what they were about, ranging from our favorite foods to our grocery shopping list. One skill we used in this lab that carried over from the previous lab was making tables in HTML. We used this skill to make a table consisting of 2 rows and 6 columns. Each of these columns had a title relating to what the list was about. Then came making the actual lists in each cell. The way this was done was by simply using <ol> or <ul> in between <td> tags. An ordered list defaults to numbers in HTML while an unordered list defaults to solid bullets. The objective of the lab, however, was to create multilevel lists (lists within lists) with different style bullets or numbers.      The way we achieved this goal was to give lists a class. Based on what class the list is in and what is needed of them in the CSS we changed their style. This was done by se...

     When a species of animal is introduced to an environment or ecosystem in which they don't usually live a lot of devastation can be caused to the surrounding environment including animals and habitats and the devastation can be quite expensive to handle as well. These animals are called invasive species and reason why they are so devastating is that they lack a natural predator meaning they can multiply in great numbers and wreak havoc on the surrounding wildlife. However, recently technology has been implemented to control and erradicate invasive species from various ecosystems. Magna Carpa: The boat being used to handle Asian Carp in the Midwest      The first example is of the lionfish in the Atlantic Ocean. Lionfish posses venomous spikes, making it dangerous to contact, and devour many commercial fish in the Atlantic. The answer to this problem is the Guardian LF1. This robot delivers a small shock to the fish to paralyze it, after which a tub...

     In Lab 4 we practiced creating tables which included changing the background color of certain things only. To create a table we used the <table> tag. Within the table, however, there are more tags to use. After the table tag we used the <tr> tag. What this tag does is create a new row in the table. Between the <tr> tags can come <th> or <td> or both. <th> makes a table heading, meaning that the text between this tag will default to be bold so it looks like a heading. <td> is used for inputting information in the table other than headings, so if this is a data table <td> is used to put in numbers and they won't be bold like the heading. In this lab we were to create a table consisting of 3 columns and 16 rows. In each row the name of a color had to be stated along with its hex number in HTML and a display of the actual color (make the background of one cell the color being stated).      We started by cr...

     The third lab was about creating links on our HTML page to other web pages in addition to other small things. To make this lab we were back to using Dreamweaver. After creating a new HTML file we changed the background color of the page to any color of of choosing. The way we did this was creating the <styles> tag in between the <head> and using the CSS selector 'body' to edit the 'background-color'. After choosing the background color the proper heading for a lab was set but with an exception. Due to the background color being a non-white color the text color needed to be changed in order to be readable. The way we did this was similar to how the background color was changed, the CSS selector of the heading tags was used in <styles> and the 'text-color' was changed for all headings to be a readable color.      Now came the main event of the lab, making links out of text and images. The way we made links was by using the <a> ...

     Lab 2 still dealt with the basics of HTML but was different in the way we coded and the elements/look of the page. To edit the code of this lab we were introduced to another code editing software, TextEdit. TextEdit is a very simple code editor compared to Dreamweaver. It lack many feature such as auto compeleting, suggestions, and a live preview. Unlike Dreamweaver, however, it is free to use on Macs. Starting off we opened TextEdit and changed the text settings to plain text. Next we set up the tags required to make a document in HTML (such as the <!doctype>, <html>, <head>, etc.). After that we foucused on the visible content of the page.      The heading format used in the previous lab was carried over to this lab which means we used <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc. to make the heading(s). The content between the <p> was different; we described ourself like we would do in a short bio. The new thing we did in this ...

     Lab 1 of DD was about the most basic of HTML. In this lab we created a simple HTML and wrote about how to create an HTML file in the code of our page. The first thing we did was setup Adobe Dreamweaver. Adobe Dreamweaver is a code editing software which gives us a platform to write code. It also has a live preview and can upload files to a server. These features would be helpful later on in the lab since it allowed us to view the shanges made to our document as we edited the code and allowed us to host our file on a classroom server for the world to see. But as of right now there were a few things needed to be set right before we started coding. We needed to change background color of the software, which was done in preferences, to match the color we would use when taking the Dreamweaver CetiPort exam. We also set the size of the text to a larger size so we could see what we were doing and have an easier time coding. After that came actual coding.     ...

Appendix      There are many things in everyday life that seem very simple on the surface but are very complex underneath. You may see something but you may not know the explanation or context for how or why it is the way it is. This is known as abstraction, where important information is present without its background. An example of abstraction in my everyday life is transportation. Like millions of other New Yorkers I use the subway to get to where I want. On the surface all I have to do is go to a station, wait for my train, at get to where I need to be. The more one looks into it, however, there is more to how the MTA functions. Trains run on a very old signal system from the 30s. Tracks are broken up into sections. The absolute position of a train is unknown but since the tracks are electrified the section a train is occupying is known. Two trains are not allowed to occupy the same section, which may cause a train to slow or stop. When people complain about delays ...

     There are many protocols, or systems, for file transfer online. One of these protocols is called FTP, or File Transfer Protocol. The way that FTP works is users gain access to a directory from where they can access various different sub-directories. Users connected to a FTP sever with an FTP client will be able to download and upload files to the server. FTP is an important tool in web development because it allows developers to transfer files they're working on from their computer to a website hosted on a server.       FileZilla is free software that allows users to setup their own FTP server. It is an FTP client that can transfer files over to the Internet. FileZilla gives you direct access to files on your website, making it possible to make modifications to your site from your computer. FileZilla also creates a mirror site on your computer so in the case of file corruption files can be recovered. CoreFTP is another FTP client. CoreFTP encrypt...