Resources for Web Development Students @ Robin’s Blog

Some students have asked me how I manage to keep up with everything in the classroom and how I find such a variety of sites for them to visit. First off, Google is my best friend. I use the Google toolbar to quickly perform general searches when I need to find info on something fast.

I used to always use a search program called Coppernic. Coppernic allows the user to search multiple search engines at the same time. I really liked it because you can save your searches for later viewing. There are a lot of great features in the program and to be honest with you and can’t really say why I stopped using it. I went and downloaded the "Basic" version, which is free, today so I can start using it again.

David introduced me to a Firefox extension called Sage which I love. Sage is an RSS Feed Aggregator (like a news reader). What the heck is that you say? Some blogs utilize what is called an RSS feed to “advertise” their site updates. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. These feeds make it easy for the visitor to see what sites have new content. If you visit a lot of sites (15-30) per day, a feed reader can save you a lot of time looking to see which sites have new content. If you have an RSS Feed Reader you can quickly see what bloggers have posted updates/new content on their web sites. Sage has already saved me hours of time "surfing" through sites that I often visit. You can learn more by reading this article by Dave Shea What is RSS/XML/Atom/Syndication?

After installing the Sage extension you can access the extension by clicking Tools > Sage. this will present you with the Sage sidebar (click here to see a screen capture of the sidebar). By default there will be a few feeds (BBC, Yahoo, Sage) that you can view by clicking on them in the sidebar. When you click on the feed, a summary page will display that lists the recent updates to the site. You can create folders to organize your feeds (right click the feed list and select New Folder).

So how do you tell when a site has an RSS Feed? After installing Sage, a site with an RSS feed will have an RSS Feed icon (this icon’s appearance may vary depending on the Firefox theme that you are using) on the right-hand side of the status bar (Note: In Firefox 1.5+ the feed icon is located in the address bar). Click this feed icon and select Subscribe to……. Bookmark the feed in the newly created "feed folder" and it should appear on your feed list. Just click the feed to view the recent updates to the site.

StopDesign has a good article on staying organized.

I was over reading the Web Standards Project and the March 4th entry was about a site called How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works was mentioned because there is an article on How Firefox works. This site is not just about computer stuff, you can find out about how computer dating works to how your car steering works. There is a lot of really good info on the site.