This website was originally dedicated to serving my high school students with information about the classes I was teaching. Since I have retired from teaching and from the technology work sector, the website is more of a vanity/hobby site. I keep adding to it, here and there, writing articles and lessons, more for my own amusement and to keep my mind awake.
If you don't know what Hello, world! is, click here.
The three main areas of my website, as shown below, are:
Blog
Although this website is mostly devoted to technology, the writings I post here are not
necessarily technical. I also post stuff I have done and written about, like building furniture or
teaching.
Articles
These articles are all related to areas of technology I like playing around with. Mostly
I like database tech (SQL), HTML (of course), CSS, and a smattering of other stuff.
Lessons
Although I only taught school for a short time, it was very important to me. Here are some
of the lessons for my class in computer science. They include several areas of CS in general
with a focus on programming in Python. Of course, they are created for high school students.
For my first attempt at building furniture, I thought I would try to find something simple and easy. After looking at a plethora of articles and videos, I narrowed it down to either an entryway sofa table or a blanket chest. I finally settled on trying to make a Shaker style chest. It turned out to be neither simple or easy.
Sometime during the past three months of Covid Quarantine, I got the crazy idea that I could build my own furniture. Although I was in the Carpenter’s Union for about 20 years, I was not a carpenter. I was a millwright. Millwrights work more with steel and not so with wood. So this is a new experience for me.
Creating lists with HTML alone is somewhat limited and requires CSS to get beautified. The options for bullet points or symbols within HTML for unordered <ul> and ordered <ol> lists is sparse. In this article I show how to make both types of lists more interesting using CSS and some free icon libraries.
The house I recently moved into has a very nice looking two car garage that is completely dry walled and had some storage shelves on one wall. Unfortunately, the shelves were only supported with lag screws and when they started pulling loose from the ceiling I decided to remove them and build shelves of my own.
Sometime around October of 2012, I decided my grandchildren needed to be able to do something when visiting Papa Kevin other than watch TV with the old man. I kept looking at my back yard and thinking maybe I could get a swing set or something for the kids...
Here are three methods of adding a Google search engine to your website. Two versions are homemade and one version uses a Google script. One is a general web search and two are site searches, which will allow users to search your website. Google does a search by using a search URL that looks like this . . .
I am honing a few of my lost skill sets that went unused over the past twenty years or so while in the work force. My schooling in robotics from way back when shows little resemblance to the plethora of educational opportunities in robotics available today. Here is a STEM resource . . .
On this trip I was kind of focused on the idea of what art is. Like the big rock behind the museum. In spite of its weight of several tons, Caitlin was able to hold it up with no effort. I wondered what it cost but I am not going to bother researching it. It's big. It's a rock. But is it art?
A PowerPoint presentation and cheat sheet, of sorts for teachers pursuing a credential, is based on my notes and abbreviated definitions of the main components and SIOP Features from the book, Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model.
It’s tough to find a good job in Information Technology. In fact, it’s tough to find a good job in any field. In IT, as in many fields, you as graduate job hunter are up against stiff competition from seasoned veterans with plenty of experience . . .
This is the second part of an article about how to display SQL data on an ASP.net website.
In this article we will take up where we left off and as promised, we'll use Visual Studio's
built-in tools to add formatting to the data we have retrieved and modify our gridview.
In a previous article I discussed using Unicode as icons for the numbers and bullets in ordered and unordered lists. I was going to do a follow up article on Glyphicons, but in doing the research, the icon topic in general led to an expansion of this article into discussing four free methods of obtaining and using icons for . . .
An abbreviated version of a walk-through from Microsoft at MSDN showing how to display XML data on a web page using ASP.net data controls. The XML data file can be copied from the MSDN web site or . . .
Often times when writing a technical article for the web that deals with HTML, it becomes necessary to show the actual markup elements that you are writing about. To do that, the HTML elements need to be escaped or replaced by a reference that renders them as they are. The most common method is by using . . .
For this article we will use the Microsoft Northwind database example, SQL Server and Visual Studio Community 2015 or 2017 to view data on a web page using a few out of the box ASP.net web server controls to display that data in an ASP Gridview.
For many years Microsoft has shipped example databases with its database products, SQL Server and MS Access. In this article I have listed five that are useful in training and testing. Also included are download links, some practical installation information and a quick tip on using Server Management Studio to restore a database.
This is a list of keywords, their meanings, and related resources for a course offered by Microsoft Virtual Academy on the fundamentals of databases. The course includes over 4 hours of video instruction by MS certified trainers. It's a great introduction to database . . .
Four lessons in a series on drawing with Python 3 using the web application, CodeSkulptor3. These lessons use
a module called "simplegui" for drawing and animations. Covered in these lessons
are; using CodeSkulptor, using functions, defining functions, using x and y coordinates, graphing objects, comparison operators,
and if, elif, and else statements.
This is the first lesson for a basic, introductory computer science class I previously taught to 9th through 11th graders. Intended for high or middle school, the lessons are designed to be understandable for students with little or no computer experience. The content consists of general CS principles and beginning Python 3 programming.
This is the first lesson in a class for high school computer science students in programming with Python 3. The lesson is designed to be an early lesson in a CTE course sequence for the career pathway in Information and Communication Technology, Software and Systems Development with the associated occupation of Programmer.
This is the first lesson in my class, Introduction to HTML & CSS. The lesson is designed to be an early lesson in a CTE course sequence for the career pathway in Information and Communication Technology, Software and Systems Development with the associated occupation of Web Developer. It could also be used in other courses.
This is the second lesson in my class, Introduction to HTML & CSS, intended to provide an introductory level of information covering core Web technologies, defining HTML, elements, tags, attributes, values and finally demonstrating the student's first web page, Hello World!
This partial lesson for my class, Introduction to HTML & CSS, but could be used for any introductory computer class. It covers the importance of Windows file management, the computer desktop metaphor, navigating the Windows File Explorer and the steps for various file management skills.
This introductory lesson explains what number systems are, has a review of decimal system, explains why computers love powers of 2. It covers binary, octal & hex and converting between systems and finally demonstrates the Windows programmers calculator.
An introduction to using color in CSS. Lesson objectives are to define the RGB color model, show various methods of adding color and the correct syntax to use, look at various color themes and harmonies and use an online color picker.