Phil Benwell - Internet Student

No post on Sunday

Phil Benwell — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:51:41 +0000

That was the end of the consecutive run of daily postings, 19 days and a lot more posts. Sunday was a difficult day, first the laptop was still playing up. Its sort of sorted itself now but I don’t want to turn it off before backing up all of my data. The browser bookmarks are still missing but I can live without those. I know the sites I visit on a regular basis and my faves from Digg and Stumble should be saved on the respective sites.

Well with that slight dip in posting daily I hope to put that behind me and carry on the rest of the 31 day challenge by posting every day from now til the end of the month.

Whats in your certificate wallet?

Phil Benwell — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:51:16 +0000

With me studying for both a Honors Degree in IT & Organisations and a Master CIW Designer Certificate I wondered which would be more worthwhile on my CV when applying for a job. Now I’d take a wild guess and say for any regular job the degree would be the winner hands down every time, but if I was applying for a web design job would the CIW beat it or at least stand up to it?

From what I can tell the CIW isn’t that well known in the UK industry. I hadn’t heard much about it before joining computeach so I’m sure there are design agencies out there that are still in the dark. What I hope that this turns into is something similar to the Cisco certification. Cisco is a well known and well branded name in the IT and commercial industries. I once worked at a college where all the IT technicians had to be Cicso certified and looking at the courses they offer are definitely worth the effort and would benefit anyone wanting to progress down that career path.

As the web is linked by many networks I’m considering looking down this route myself once I get the other things out of the way. Looking at the Cisco site the Security courses look very interesting and could possibly be a route to take. Looking deeper into the site makes you realize how few and far between the qualified experts are. One day I’ll get there, one day!

Its competition time again!

Phil Benwell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:20:33 +0000

I’ve not had bad luck with competitions in the past, I think I’ve won at least something in 3 out of the last 4 I’ve entered and this one looks great. The competition is over at Cyrmu66’s blog and is offering the following prizes:

1st place - advertising worth $80 at I want a volkswagen bus.com
2nd place - $50 amazon.com gift card
3rd place - $25 itunes voucher

The competition is open until the end of July so there’s still loads of chance to get involved.

Just made it!

Phil Benwell — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:07:29 +0000

Well talk about a day. Day 19 of my 31 day challenge to post consecutively everyday and today it takes me til after 11pm to post. Computer problems - thats all I’ve gotta say.

Its good to be back up and running, so I’ve got a lot of stuff to check out and catch up on so for now, this is it.

By the way does anyone know hoe to fix a laptop running Vista that doesn’t boot up. You get teh windows screen and then a black screen with the mouse pointer and ……nothing?!

Distracted!

Phil Benwell — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:25:36 +0000

I logged in just now to blog about something else but the feedburner subscription counter caught my eye.

49 readers, at the start of this month I only just had more than 10 and my target was to initially add another 10. Fifty or there about is great, so thank you to everyone who has subscribed, everyone who reads and everyone who comments. Things for my blog are looking up, more readers, more traffic and more comments. Hopefully some PageRank will follow.

On another note it looks like Golf is out of the window for today, its been raining heavy all day and doesn’t look like it will dry out enough before it gets dark. Hoping for a better day next Friday.

Friday’s Golf Day

Phil Benwell — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:14:01 +0000

Well with these British summers as they are golfing has taken a back seat this year. I’m no great golfer by any stretch of the imagination but tomorrow might be the first game in a long time. The course is 18 holes but when you play like I do it really takes it out of you. I like to think that my design side makes me take a “creative” path to the green before sinking a lucky long distance put that I will not be quiet about for some time.

Fingers crossed that the weather keeps good else I will have to start seriously looking into a trip abroad. I found this site that was amazing, LasVegasGolfing.com, no prizes for guessing they offer discount Vegas golf trips. Not only that they have some of the very best courses available for you to play on. I checked out a few and the pictures on the web site were to die for, to top that off where are you, Vegas - there’s plenty to keep you occupied once you’ve finished up on the course. The golfing and room rates are cheaper than I even imagined, so if golf’s your game you know where to start looking.

Google Doc’s

Phil Benwell — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:31:24 +0000

I’m not sure how long the above service has been around, probably a while and I’m just catching up. I saw a blog post on how to improve your Google docs and though I’d take a look at what the fuss was about. I’m a big fan of OpenOffice and any other free solution to expensive software so here are the basics to Google Doc’s:

You can create either a text document (like word), spreadsheet or presentation online in your browser.

You can save, print and edit this as you would be able to in a stand alone piece of software.

Here’s where it gets better:

You can share the document with people in your Gmail contact list or invite others to view or edit the document (inviting them via email).

You can alter and save the document anywhere with an Internet connection.

So has anyone used this service? My only concern would be security so will probably play around with it for a bit longer with non-sensitive information until I find my answer. Great idea Google, it looks very impressive and will no doubt save a few people buying Microsoft Office.

I’m being watched!

Phil Benwell — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:19:48 +0000

Just another little update to say that Computeach have just got back in touch with me regarding what I need to review before taking the mock exam again, its strange that the email came just after I’d ranted about the situation in this post. Now to think that they’re actually reading my blog might be a little too much to expect, anyway - here’s what I’ll be reading up on this evening:

• Comparing and understanding the use of the window and navigator objects in JavaScript.

• Designing web pages that are cross browser compatible.

• Incorporating applets into web pages.

• Incorporating fonts into web pages

• Incorporating frames into web pages

• Purpose of the following technologies: DHTML, XML, SQL and CGI.

• Recognising job roles and who is responsible in the development of a web site

• Understanding and inserting JavaScript functions into a web page

• Understanding cookies.

• Understanding the Project Management Phases

• Understanding the Web Development Phases

Web Sci Fi

Phil Benwell — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:50:27 +0000

Whilst searching the web, as I often do, I came across the Leviathan Chronicles. The site got me interested straight away with a great flash intro but what really got me hooked is the first episode. OK let me back up a little, the Leviathan Chronicles in an online sci fi podcast that offers a great sci-fi adventure story line that is released in episodes and its a different way to enjoy the web.

The first episode is online at the minute and I was hooked after the first chapter, the introduction of CIA agent Whitt Roberts and the Blackdoor Group’s Jason Sterling make it right up my ally. I’ll not spoil the story line for anyone who hasn’t had the chance to head over there yet but like I said, I highly recommend it. The web site really sets the scene for the story and I would love for it to add more engaging factors as the story progresses. There are great sections that give you in depth character information, a forum to discuss the on goings with fellow followers and even the chance to sign up to get the latest news. Its given me lots of idea for web design ideas and new ways to interact with the audience. There are currently 8 chapters available, turn up the speakers and head on over.

Study Update

Phil Benwell — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:13:50 +0000

Just a short update this morning to say that Computeach are driving me crazy. They have finally sorted some of the issues out with the online learning material but there are still some issues that need resolving and some students are in a worse position than me. The thing that is driving me crazy is the waiting for a reply form the tutors. I asked for feedback on Friday on my mock exam and its now Wednesday and still no answer. On top of that you have to give them 5 working days before chasing it up. Its not the sort of experience I expected from a course that cost over £5,000.

In the meantime and to release the stress a little I’ve been working on using thickbox to display images. It’s a very handy tool that can make image galleries look very professional. I’ll add up my examples later this week.