Website Reviews: Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website that offers many free online lessons. Lessons are interactive, and usually feature someone talking while an animation or video plays.

The format of Khan Academy is simple and easy-to-use. The website can be translated into a variety of languages.

Subjects taught include math, science, economics and finance, arts and humanities, computer programming and science, test preparation, and some third-party related content.

Personally, I have not tried learning with all of the subjects. I have done a ton of computer programming, in fact I've completed nearly all of their computer programming courses, and I must say that, for me, anyway, it is very easy to understand. If you don't get it, you can always go back and watch the interactive video again. You can't do that with a real life lecture.

Their math courses are less impressive, but still helpful.

I only did one lesson in their science courses. They are interesting, but heavily biased towards the theory of evolution being true -- not too appealing if you have a Creationist viewpoint.

Khan Academy is a helpful resource, especially in the area of computer programming and computer science. However, in some cases, it's a lot like trying to learn in the public schools -- all of the content is taught the same way to everyone. Happily, with Khan Academy, you can opt out of taking any courses.

Website Design: Rule of Thirds

In photography, there's this thing called the Rule of Thirds.

Wikipedia defines the Rule of Thirds as:

The rule of thirds is a principle of the Golden ratio with broad application as a "rule of thumb" or guideline which applies to the process of composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and photographs.^[1] The guideline proposes according to the principle of the Golden section search that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.^[2] Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject.

This rule also applies to web design!

For example, if you're designing a web layout, you could place the focal point (the thing on the layout that you want the visitor's eye to be immediately drawn to) on one of the intersections of the Rule of Thirds for maximum effect. Similarly, instead of centering a background image, you could place the center of the image on one of the Rule of Thirds lines or intersections.

Incorporating the Rule of Thirds into your web designs will make your designs more visually interesting, as opposed to simply centering everything.

HTML: Deprecated HTML5 Tags

A deprecated tag is a tag that is no longer in standard HTML use. Although deprecated tags may still be recognized by certain browsers, newer browsers will probably not accept such tags and will display them incorrectly, so it's better to avoid using them if you can.

These tags are deprecated in HTML5 only, as far as I know. You may want to do your own research if you are looking for XHTML or HTML4 tags.

All of these tags' functions are better handled with CSS:

• <acronym>
• <applet>
• <b> (Replaced by <strong>)
• <basefont>
• <big>
• <center>
• <dir>
• <font>
• <frame>
• <frameset>
• <i> (Replaced by <em>)
• <isindex>
• <noframes>
• <tt>

As stated earlier, some of these tags, such as <b> or <i>, will still be recognized in modern browsers. Others, like <frameset> <noframes> and <frame> are totally deprecated and, as far as I know, do not work in any modern browsers.

Regardless of the state of the tag, totally deprecated or still being phased out, it's best to avoid using inferior tags and use their modern counterparts instead, which are often CSS attributes.

Software Review: Microsoft Expression Web 4

I've been reading up on web design and programming lately. One of the books that my mom checked out of the library for me (thanks, Mom) was a fairly old book (written in 2007, to be precise) that talked about creating web pages.

The book was written for complete beginners with no coding experience, so instead of teaching the reader how to code with HTML, the book recommended one of two popular WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get", a type of webpage creating software) editors, Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web.

I'd already looked into Adobe Dreamweaver, and, well... let's just say that its price was way too expensive for my limited teenage budget. I expected that Microsoft Expression Web would be similarly priced, but I decided to check it out anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Microsoft stopped producing updates for the Expression software in 2010, and they now release Expression Web 4 to anyone -- for free!

So I went and downloaded the software, and spent some time playing around with it.

Sadly, it's not very good.

On one hand, it will save you a lot of hand-coding time by creating the elements for you. On the other hand, it's really difficult to use.

Trying to move around the elements on the screen is difficult. At first, they refuse to move, then they zip to the other side of the page. Dropping an element in the wrong place will cause it to disappear. Worse, the CSS seems to be faulty. Fixed elements move around in the preview webpage.

I'll give it this, the interface is simple enough, and it has the capacity to create a lot of different elements. But, what with the glitches and problems, I can see why it was discontinued.

It's possible that I just didn't spend enough time trying to learn this software, and I might mess around with it some more. But unless I find out otherwise, I'll have to give this software a mediocre rating.

If you wish to download the software anyway, you can download it for free here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36179

Disclaimer: I am not being paid to write this review.