ABOUT THIS SITE

Does The Layout Look Odd?

The site is designed and coded to current Web standards using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS allows precise control of page layout. While page layout can be controlled in new and innovative ways browsers each render CSS differently. In particular IE 5 and 5.5 on Windows have several "bugs" which cause display errors IE on the MAC has similar problems. Standards compliant browsers like Opera and Mozilla display pages properly. Viewers are strongly encouraged to give the compliant browsers a try or use IE6x

How The Themes Are Switched

By using stylesheets to control page formatting changing page color, background images, fonts sizes, etc can be done simply by changing the stylesheet attached to the webpage. CSS stylesheets are "attached" in the header section of the HTML markup. We tell the browser which CSS style sheet to display using javascript. The default style is the 80s theme. Picking another theme by selecting a button loads the selected style and a "cookie" is set to remember the selection. If your browser is set to accept cookies then the next time you visit your desired style will be displayed, if not the 80s style loads.

Other Layout Facts

Before CSS the only way to control page layout was using HTML tables. Tables are still widely used in webdesign for several reasons: designers are familiar with them and they degrade well, that is older browsers still support them.
This site doesn't use any tables in the layout but only CSS styles in what is known as a "liquid" layout. In this type of layout page objects "flow" on the page based on style sheet specs. With this method we can come closer to print layout quality. We can do things like the "pull-quote" to the left of this which can't be done as nicely with tables. While a cool way of coding, non-compliant browser issues create problems as mentioned above. It can be maddening!

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Are You Experienced?

The subtitle for this site: "Are You Experienced?" comes from a Jimi Hendrix tune of the same name. For our purposes, it refers generally to the notion of experience and familiarity with the Internet and its many and varied resources. Most of us have a fairly routine way of going about using the Internet, we may check news at CNN or the NY Times websites, read our email, check out Ebay and so on. Looking around and searching out new resources is just not something most of have time for. In this respect our experience of what is available on the Internet is limited and routine.

Much has changed since the early days of the Internet. My initial "web experience" was back in the early 90's using the first PC webbrowser called "Cello". Developed at Cornell Law School of all places, Cello opened up the new cyberworld of the WWW to a mass audience. See what a webpage looked like at that time in Cello. You can even download a version of Cello here . Soon replaced by Mosaic and then Netscape, the early Web experience was very simple, lacking the flash and glitz of contemporary websites. See an Internet Timeline for more details.

Finding your way around the Web was a challenge. .. this is a "hotlist" that may perhaps make finding good educational material a bit easier for staff, students, and parents. We hope to expand and extend your "experience" of the Internet. The term "surfing the Net" literally involved snooping around to see what you could find. Before Google and the other big search engine sites came into being (Lycos and Webcrawler were early pioneers), the primary way to find information on the Web was via "hotlists' or "hotlinks". These were links to sites that the website owner thought important or significant. In many instances hotlists were put together based on one's areas of interest. While no guarantee of quality, their value at the time was that someone had looked a site over and thought it worthy enough to pass along.

This site follows in that Web tradition, our intent is to pull together material related to the educational goals of the District. In short, this is a "hotlist" that may perhaps make finding good educational material a bit easier for staff, students, and parents. We hope to expand and extend your "experience" of the Internet.

This is a work in progress and one that we hope will be a collaborative one. Take a look around the site and by all means if you find a site that you think is valuable please let us know so we can pass it on.

So what's the deal with the wacky layout and themes?

Rather than stick to a traditional layout I thought we'd have a little fun with the site and make it a bit off-beat. Each theme tries to capture some feel for the era. All themes have Michael Deblasi (from our Tech Dept) and myself in it.

The 60s
This theme draws from the Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced" album released in 1967. Read more about it. Bill Gates is also shown as the third person.

The 70s
The 70s theme takes the disco look and uses the movie "Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta as the main characters. The movie's soundtrack marked the comeback of the Bee Gees.

The 80s
The characters in this theme draw from the TV show "Miami Vice". This show was highly stylized in look and music and represents quite well the ethos of that time. The video game Pac Man is also featured.

The 90s
This theme concept was created by VHS student Yukio Egashira. Yukio drew the rapper images and faces were added digitally. The small image required for the graphic doesn't do justice to the wonderfully detailed drawing. The remainder of the theme, spray painting effects and fonts were added by Peter Serko

The 00s
With so much hardship and unfortunate events of this decade I decided to use an event that to me is quite remarkable: VHS teacher Jason Tanguay's climb of Everest. So for now we will celebrate his accomplishment with the 00s theme. The theme logo shows Jason at the summit holding the VHS Pirate mascot flag. Visit the Everest Website to see more about this climb.

Enjoy!

Peter Serko VISD Internet Experience Webmaster