Various Built-in JavaScript Functions We Covered

• alert("Help Me!!! I'm trapped in an alert box!");

  • Alert rings the bell and pops up a window of information

• prompt("What's Your Sign?", "Neon");

  • Prompt asks a question (“What’s your sign?”), and then adds a prompt (“Neon”) as a possible answer or hint as to how to enter the box
  • Prompt will return what the user types in the input box

• confirm("Can I move on now?");

  • Confirm asks a question (“Can I move on now?”), and returns either  a
    • true (if ‘okay’ was pressed)
      OR
    • false (if ‘cancel’ was pressed)

Objects in JavaScript

JavaScript is like PHP, ActionScript, or Python in that it can be coded as a top-down, procedural language (run one statement at a time, working your way from top to bottom) or it can be coded using the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm. This makes JavaScript one way for a teacher to introduce Object-Oriented Programming in small chunks. When it comes to browsers, JavaScript has some built-in objects that make working with web pages very handy.

The three objects introduced yesterday were:

• document – The document class refers to web pages. Every web page has properties and methods.
• navigator
• date

Anatomy of a Function & Function Calls

Let’s just cut to the chase. One Word: Desmond-centric!

Oh, that and “Bring on the bagpipes, brutha!”

Watch LOST Live Blog: Happily Ever After

According to Darlton (the producers: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse), this week’s episode of LOST, titled “Sundown” is about the time given for the folks in the temple to surrender. Up until now, most genres have been played out in this wonderful show: the mystery, action, romance, horror, sci-fi, and now…the western. It seems the idea might be taken from the ’57 film, Decision at Sundown; either that or other similar westerns (High Noon, etc.)

It looks like MIB (Man in Black, aka Flocke: Faux Locke, aka the Lockeness Monster) and a wigged out Claire are heading for a showdown at the temple, and the other others (including Sayid, Miles, Dogan, and the rest) have until Sundown to surrender the fort.

Watch LOST: Sundown live blog here (Tuesday, 9:00pm PST)

Join LOST: Live – The Lighthouse

As we rush headlong into the finale for the best television show of all time (and I will gladly defend the honor of LOST to anyone), let’s pause and cherish the last few episodes. Let’s not be in such a hurry to get answers that we fail to enjoy the mystery. 

Let’s not forget to savor the character development. When was the last show to have such richly drawn characters as the hotpocket toting, lottery-winning, dharma van jump-starting, I see dead people Hugo Reyes?

Some day–not far from now–we’ll miss the eager anticipation we had each week to find out if we’ll hear the godzilla-like rumblings of the smoke monster, or debate over the water cooler if Henry Gale is really an other, or ponder the meaning of Jack’s tatoo, or even choose sides as to who Kate will end up with (come on, you know you did that once upon a time). In under half a year, we’ll no longer share Charley’s (excuse me, Cholly’s) interogative: “where are we?” You’ll be sad; you’ll compare every other show to LOST only to find them sorely lacking. You’ll watch seasons of shows with some kind of twist languish on because their writers won’t have the guts to end the show .

No, you’ll wish you could go back to that time of wonder, but it will be tougher than convincing the Oceanic six to return. Then, you’ll fondly recall this moment.

Click Here to view The Substitute live blog

Before I post all the files, I want to thank all who attended my workshop. We gathered quite the range of experience. I had so much fun, and I appreciated the input you gave. I hope you take more SuperQuest courses in the future.

Here you go folks!

Flash Files

These are the source files (.fla), shockwave movies (.swf), web pages (.html), & necessary JavaScript (.js) to both edit and post animations. They are all zipped, so you will need to save them (right-click > Save Target As…) and then extract the zipped files.

• Flash-driven Website Files – here are all the files I used to create the flash-driven website:
  • the Flash CS3 source file (lost.fla)
  • the style sheet (styles.css)
  • the xml files
  • the graphics (you’ll note I added extra images since the class ended). Note: I used the <img> tag in the xml files to show them
• Image Scroller Files - Image Gallery
• Simple Frame by Frame Animation - me, talking to myself
• Simple Motion Guide Animation - just a box moving on a loop
• Simple Spotlight Mask - this was the spotlight of the image of the Golden Gate Bridge
• Spotlight Mask - this was the night-time forest spotlight

PowerPoints

• Flash-driven Websites Saved My Life
• Flash Animations in a Nutshell
• XHTML Tags

This is as close as I can get from the South Park Character Generator (my Mii looks much more like me):

Some US intelligence agents think the Chinese were able to influence the blackouts in the Northeast back in 2003.

There has never been an official U.S. government assertion of Chinese involvement in the outage, but intelligence and other government officials contacted for this story did not explicitly rule out a Chinese role. One security analyst in the private sector with close ties to the intelligence community said that some senior intelligence officials believe that China played a role in the 2003 blackout that is still not fully understood.

According to the article, the Chinese have been working on mapping our power-grid structure, and possibly was in the process of mapping Florida’s power-grid when a hacker inadvertantly triggered a power outtage in February.

Apparently, the attacks on our corporate and government agencies are “relentless.” So, if you are a corporate big wig about to meet with the Chinese, you may want to check your computer when you get back. I recommend bring hard copies only.

Stay tuned…

I was running a student’s code through the w3c validator and I got such a good feeling when I saw the green message stating, “This Page Is Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict!”

In my class, only the best XHTML code will do. There’s nothing quite like yummy semantic markup—teacher tested, W3C approved. It’s fortified with 9 essential tags and attributes. In fact, 9 out of 10 doctors prefer XHTML 1.0 Strict for their patients who code in Notepad.

By the way, I’m using Word Press for the blog, so I don’t recommend judging my blog entry’s value based on how this page fares in the validator.

Hey there, Web Design students. It’s teaching you guys that has inspired me to create this blog. I’m asking you guys to blog every day, so I’m challenging myself to blog whenever you guys blog.

I’m at Sunriver at a great conference, and I’m learning to make use of brain research to enhance my classes. I also plan to make even more use of NetSupport (the polling function). Please, remind me to bring more music, moving, ideas, and use of the polling function.