Clanci Clemens

After reading the assignment I believe the impact is two fold, not only did the browser wars impact technology in that it drove companies to come up with new and innovative ideas but it caused more work for the developers trying to give access to the general public.  While the new ideas and technology is great it needed to be constrained into a set format.  Without some type of logic and reason eventually you lose the mass marketing capability that your in general striving for.  Web standards not only assist in decreasing the amount of versions web sites need to be created in but also allow users of all background types to access the web without any real knowledge.  In today’s society it important to be accessable to everyone even my 6 year old can type in a web site address and log in, but if she had to determine what version she needed to run and if she could access it or not she most likely would not be able to get on the web sites she wanted.

After reading through Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, I chose his Principle “Co-operate with the inevitable. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change or revise, say to yourself: “It is so; it cannot be otherwise.”  I look at this much like the old saying “Plan for the worst, but expect the best”.  Some things can not be changed no matter what you try.  But if you expect different possibilities and plan for them maybe you can gain some level of assurance.  I plan to start looking at the area’s of stress in my life and figure out the worst possible scenarios and how they can be dealt with.  My hope is that by having a plan it will ease my worries.

My favorite web site is http://www.snopes.com/, this web site is primarily just for fun, but is also helpful in determining fake articles and stories.   The URL is fairly easy to remember, and when you google urban legends it’s the first site to come up.  The browser comes up both in Internet Explorer and Mozilla with the same format.   The Structure of the web site is easily used and well laid out.  You can either choose the top row of area’s to view such as the Top 25, Random stories, or What’s New or you can choose a particular subject area such as cars, animals, horror, etc by icons easily displayed.  The Content of the site is very informative, you can browse through thousands of articles and legends, or you can search for a specific article.  Each area that you go to brings up a content bar as well so you can switch area’s quickly, going from Cars to Animals.  The site itself is designed well, the colors are basic colors, and the icons are fun and specific to each area.  The only thing I think they could improve on would be when looking at articles there is no specific place to click on to read the article itself, each one basically is a hyper link.  So you can’t easily tab through, you have to use the mouse to move quickly through.  If you use the tab key you can’t quite see where it is placed so if you click enter it could take you somewhere you didn’t want to be.  All in all this site is useful, desirable, credible, findable, valuable (if you like to dig to the truth), accessible, but not easily usable if you can’t use a mouse.

I believe that my results are very accurate, I showed my family the results and they were very vocal in stating that it fit me to a T.   I think that different personalities do sometimes add to conflict.  I have had conflicts prior with people who have different personalities than I and sometimes it’s not really the conflict so much as the difference in personalities that can make the conflict go further due to not understanding where the other person is coming from.   An example would be I tend to be very forceful about keeping to my schedules and/or plans, my family tends to be scatterbrained in those area’s.  I like to have everything planned out in advance, to the point even my coworkers make fun of me.  My family on the other hand enjoys doing things like “Lost” trips, where someone picks a direction and we drive aimlessly until we want to go home then we stop and ask directions.  The first few “Lost” trips we took frustrated me to no end.  There was no plan, timeline, schedule or expected time frame!!! I would ask where are we going, the reply would be “That Way!” , I would ask about where we would stop and the reply of course we be something along the lines of “Everywhere that looks neat”.  Let me say we have ended up in some very different places, occasionally crossing state lines in the process.  The first few trips I would argue about bringing maps, have a specific time period to drive in the designated direction, having spare money just in case, etc.  The normal response would be “That would take the fun out of it!”.  My Mom the inventor of our “Lost” trips was very spontaneous and would argue that the point of the trips was to NOT plan to just Go.  In the end I was the one that learned from the experience.  I learned compromise better from these trips than just about any other conflict.  Originally my Mom and I would end up arguing half the day, me accusing her of us being lost with no hope of finding home, her accusing me of being a spoil sport and needing to learn to loosen up.  The arguing of course meant that the trip was no fun at all and everyone was miserable.  My Mom finally agreed to me bringing maps each time we went on one of our trips, and I agreed not to look at the maps or write down what streets we were taking unless she asked me to.  I also agreed that no question with any type of future tense was to be asked. By not being able to ask about the future it meant I effectively had to be spontaneous, I couldn’t ask when we would stop, I had to wait until there was someplace right then to stop.  It was difficult the first few times, but I  learned how compromising on going hither thither and yon with no plan in sight could sometimes be fun even for someone who has to have a plan.  In the end we argued primarily not because we each believed we were right, but because our personalities themselves were different and caused us to not understand what the other person was feeling or wanting.

I actually have 2 sites that I use and enjoy very much.  The first site is http://www.books24×7.com .  This site requires a subscription but is extremly useful in my job (which thankfully pays for it).  This site allows you to search by subject ie Business, Databases, Applications, etc.  Once you know what area you need such as Databases, the site brings up a listing of books from which you can search your question or need.  I tend to use it for Access Databases, it allows me to search 100’s of books for query criteria or functions that can assist me with building databases.  The site brings up a listing of books with page numbers and a short description of what has brought up for you to review.  You can then either choose to read the entire book, or just the exerpts that pertain to what you need.  This saves time by allowing you to see, read, and use multiple books in a short period of time.  One of the things I dislike are that you have to pay for the subscription and sometimes the search function brings back more than you can cypher through easily.  It’s a basic search function so you can’t “specialize” it to break down into exactly what you want.  Also, if your not already familiar with what you need it’s sometimes hard to do the search since it has to be broad.  All in all the site does offer an easier and more convient service than going to a library or bookstore to search through and find what you need.

The second site that I enjoy is a free site http://tweako.com/  This site has multiple sections to choose from such as Business, Gadgets, Programming, etc.  It’s primarily articles, blogs and website links that you can go to by choosing your section and scanning through though you can find basic information such as ” What is a POS?” to what type of monitor to buy.  It allows for the basic non geek to be able to understand what is stated and make informed choices.  The search function is very well thought out since it uses Tags to be able to find what your looking for so you can be more specific in your searches.  This site is a user site so if you have knowledge of something or an article you can post to it easily.   It also has a Help and Chat section that you can get the user community involved with any questions you have or particular area’s that you need information for.  So far the only thing I think they could work on is their webpage.  Although it is fairly user friendly it is very basic.