Born February 10, 2010 @ 2:45 p.m.

7.9 lbs and 19″ long

Mom and baby are both doing great! Congrats to the family from all of us at ROP

A common question in class is “how do I overlap images and still see the background?” The answer, you use some type of transparent image. Traditionally we used a transparent GIF, but the quality isn’t so great. PNG has really become the preferred image format for transparency. PNG 8 gives you a transparent image, but you may see some white pixels around the edges of the image. PNG 24 transparent images are crisp and clean, but sometimes a bit bloated. Still PNG 24 now being widely used.

Unfortunately, it is well documented that transparent PNG 24 images will not display properly in Internet Explorer 6 without applying some type of fix. Instead of getting a truly transparent image you will see a blue background around the image like the image above. I’m not going to go into the technical reasoning for this problem, this is an article for beginners and there are numerous fixes and articles for this issue, Perishable Press has a great write up on the subject.

I’ve prepared a page that shows both of these problems; this page was created from the Six Revisions’ tutorials How to Create a Grunge Web Design Using Photoshop and How to Code a Grunge Web Design from Scratch – great tutorials, but I’ll write about that later. If you open my PNG transparency example page in Internet Explorer 6 you should see that the header image “Get Your Hands Dirty” has a blue background – not good. If you look at the heading “Featured Work”, a PNG 8 image, you should notice, albeit subtle, little white dots around the edges of the image – not good either. If you look at the heading “About this Website”, a transparent GIF, you will also see the little white dots around the edges of the image.

Now if you look at my example with PNG 24 images and a JavaScript fix applied in Internet Explorer 6 you will see that all of the images look great.

So how did I fix this? If you read the article PNG Fix for Internet Explorer from Perishable Press you will see that there is a general method for fixing PNG 24 images in IE 6. You’re going to need to create an IE specific CSS file, this file is linked in the head section of your HTML document after your regular CSS link within conditional comments.

<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

<!--[if lt IE 7]> 

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="ie-specific.css" /> 

< ![endif]-->

The conditional comment starts with

<!--[if lt IE 7]>

This tells the browser that if the visitor is using a browser version older than IE 7 then use this special CSS file in addition to the styles.css file. It doesn’t replace the styles.css file, it just allows you to send specific CSS rules to IE 6.

In the ie-specific.css file you will need one declaration for the transparency fix.

.png { behavior: url(png.htc); }

You created a class called png. Behavior is a CSS property that allows you to attach a script to an element, class, or id. The png.htc file contains a JavaScript that will fix the PNG 24 display issues in IE 6 and earlier versions. You can learn more about this property and htc files in the SitePoint Reference.

You also need a special JavaScript file, the htc file. You will find this file all over the Internet, but here is a zip of the png.htc file that I used. You will also need a transparent GIF file, this is a 1px x 1px transparent GIF that the HTC file uses.

To make this fix easier to use, the files ie-specific.css, png.htc, and transparent.gif should be placed in the same folder. If you place them in different folders you will need to edit the paths in the CSS file and the HTC file. This isn’t really a big deal, but sometimes it can cause problems for the beginner.

Ok, you have got your CSS file created and linked using conditional comments, your HTC file and transparent GIF files are in the same folder as your CSS and you preview your page in IE 6 and it still looks like crap, oh I mean bad. We’ve got a little more editing to do – remember that class we created in the ie-specific.css file? Ok, in case you forgot, this one

.png { behavior: url(png.htc); }

You now have to apply this class in your HTML file whenever you use a PNG 24 image. For example the “Get Your Hands Dirty” PNG 24 logo was applied as a background image in the main styles.css file with this code

h1 a {
display: block;
background: url(images/title.png) no-repeat left top;
float: left;
height: 92px;
width: 426px;
}

so the png class from the ie-specific.css file needed to be added to the HTML

<h1><a href="#" class="png">Get Your Hands Dirty</a></h1>

Here is another example of how it was added to the featured work image

<h2 class="featured-work png">Featured Work</h2>

In the above example two classes have been applied – featured-work is from the main styles.css file and png is from the ie-specific.css file.

The ie-specific.css file can also contain other declarations that are for Internet Explorer 6 only; you are not limited to using this file just for fixing transparent PNG files. Anytime you think about putting * html in your regular CSS file to fix an IE 6 issue you can put the declaration in the ie-specific.css file instead.

Again, there are numerous fixes for this issue and this may not be the perfect fix for you. Check out the great article at Perishable Press on the subject or remember that Google is your friend.

Many of you will need to have your unemployment forms signed during the vacation. Christine Orozco will be available to sign EDD forms at the County Office of Education. From August 14 – August 31 you can go to the County Office to have your forms signed on Fridays from 10:00-12:00 p.m. and Mondays from 1:30-3:30 p.m. The County Office is at 77 Santa Barbara Road, Pleasant Hill. The directions below are from the classroom to the County Office. You can reach Christine at 925-942-3436.

View Larger Map

1. Head east on Taylor Blvd toward Contra Costa Blvd.
2. Turn right at Contra Costa Blvd.
3. Turn right at Pleasant Valley Dr.
4. Turn right at Oak Park Blvd.
5. Turn right at Monte Cresta Ave.

The County Office of Education is at the corner of Monte Cresta and Santa Barbara Road.

HIPAA Guaranteed-Issue Health Insurance Plans For Individuals & Families in California – Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield CA, Health Net, Aetna

Kaiser Permanente HIPAA Plan – What is HIPAA, Eligibility Requirements, How to Apply

What HIPAA Does and Does Not Do – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) includes important – but limited – protections for millions of working Americans and their families.

California Office of Health Information Integrity – Health Insurance Coverage Questions, HIPAA Portability, Title I – Health Care Access, Portability, and Renewability, Other HIPAA Law

I am not an expert on this program. You should contact your current or former health care provider to determine eligibility. From what I understand this may be a much more affordable solution for many of you.

During these terrible economic times it can be extremely difficult for the unemployed and underemployed to find supportive services. The 211 Database is a free service from the Contra Costa Crisis Center.

Users can find extensive, up-to-date information about hundreds of health and social services that are available to residents of Contra Costa County, California. Intake requirements, eligibility, hours of operation, languages spoken, and other information can be found about each service.

The 211 Database also has PDF guides with important resources.

Help in Hard Times (PDF) – includes resources for abuse, rape, substance abuse, animals left behind, child care, job training, employment, evictions, foreclosures, financial assistance, food, health and dental care, health insurance, homeless and drop-in shelters, housing, legal and mediation services, mental health/counseling, senior services, suicide, utility assistance, and veterans.

Contra Costa County Low Cost Medical Resources Guide (PDF) – includes resources for dental, eye exams/glasses, hearing aids, medical care, medical equipment, healthcare option assistance, medical insurance for adults and children, and prescription payment help.

There are also regional guides for Central, West and East County.

Central Contra Costa Quick Resource Guide (PDF) – includes resources for abuse, AIDS/HIV, alcohol & drug abuse, animals, child care, death & dying, dental care, disability services, education & literacy, emergency services, job training, evictions/foreclosures, financial assistance, food, gay & lesbian, health care, health insurance, homeless, housing, immigrant & refugee services, information & referral, legal & mediation services, mental health, multiservice centers, parenting, pregnancy, rape, senior services, suicide, teen services, transportation, utility assistance, veterans, and volunteers. The East and West County Guides are similar in content.

In addition to these useful guides there is a searchable database of services.

The book is divided into six chapters:

Interfaces – Gives an overview of the design process. Essentially this is a nice overview of what the book will cover in the remaining chapters.

Research – Discusses the importance of creating a design brief which explains what the client expects from the design. It includes questions to ask when developing the brief. Essentially the brief will give you the goals of the site and act as the guide for the rest of the site’s development. It also discusses branding, inspiration galleries, and useful tools.

Structure – This chapter delves into creating sitemaps, sketches, diagrams, and wireframing.

Navigation and Interaction – Different types of navigation (global, local, pagination, and breadcrumbs) are discussed in this chapter, as are different styles (horizontal, vertical, drop-downs, tabs, and collapsible/expandable). It also discusses forms, ecommerce, and multimedia content.

Aesthetics – There is a short introduction to layout and composition, but the author recommends that the audience read The Principles of Beautiful Web Design which is already required reading for our course. This chapter focuses on the type of layout to select (fixed, fluid, or elastic), using grids in design, specifically the 960 Grid System, color basics and tools, consistency, volume and depth, pattern and texture, imagery, illustration, iconography, and typography. It then discusses pulling it all together to create a “Sexy Web Design”.

Deliverables – This chapter discusses the best way to show your clients the mockups, how to organize the design comps, exporting images, creating functional mockups and the development of style guides.

This book does not cover HTML, CSS, or Photoshop – it’s about planning and design. The author uses great visual examples and has links to terrific articles on the Web. It’s a clear and concise guide to creating modern Web sites.

Sexy Web Design Create Your Own Stunning Web Interfaces That Just Work will be required reading for the course. This book should be read in conjunction with the Photoshop unit. The book is available at Amazon for $26.37 (new) and for about $22.00 used.

This letter will give you information about swine flu in Contra Costa County. Some cases of swine flu have been identified in children at Highlands Elementary, an elementary school in Pittsburg, CA. These children have been mild to moderately ill. The school will be closed until May 7th as a precaution. We hope they will all get better quickly.

At this time, the county health department tells us that students who are not ill can safely come to school. The schools will remain open. We will keep you updated with any important information.

To keep the flu from spreading to more people, we ask you to stay home if you are sick. Any student who is sick in class will be sent home.

Public health officials want you to protect yourself and your family against swine flu. Here are some ways to stop the spread of germs and sickness:

• Stay home if you are sick at home. Don’t come to class and contact your health care provider.
• Wash your hands a lot with soap and water for 20 seconds.
• Cover coughs and sneezes with tissues or by coughing into the inside of the elbow.
• Stay at least six feet away from people who are sick.

People who are sick should stay home from work or school and stay away from other people until they are better, and contact their health care provider

If you have questions, please contact your healthcare provider. You can get more information from Contra Costa Health Services: Visit online at http://cchealth.org or call the Health Emergency Information Line: 1 888-959-9911.

Sincerely,

Sally Savage
Principal, Student Programs

Source: KSBY 6 Action News

Reported by: Bethany Tucker

The state is working to make things a bit easier for the unemployed. Twenty-five employment offices will open on Saturdays to help thousands of Californians file for unemployment benefits.

The state’s unemployment rate hit 10.5 percent last month, and more than a half million claims were filed in January alone.

To further help those without jobs, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday that will extend unemployment benefits by twenty weeks.

This Friday we’ll get a look at the state of the U.S. job market when the Labor Department releases unemployment numbers for March.

Unemployment services available on Saturdays

At some point on April 1, the Conficker virus, which has quietly infected millions of PCs worldwide to herd them into a “botnet” of linked machines, will phone home for new instructions.

What it’ll do next is anyone’s guess. It could muster enough silicon firepower to take down any Web site on the planet, or send out enough spam to fill the inboxes of every e-mail user on Earth.

Who Is at Risk?
• Only PC users — not Mac users.
• The virus attacks a vulnerability in PCs that are connected to a Microsoft server. Microsoft released a patch in October to prevent this, but if you never upgraded your computer and don’t have the patch then you are at risk.
• Bottom line: It’s mostly for businesses because it’s designed to target networks, not individuals. That doesn’t mean you are not at risk though.

Why This Worm Is Tricky
• It tricks your computer into thinking it already has the patch. That’s why it’s so hard to know if you have the worm or not.

How Do You Know If You Have the Worm?
• Click here to get a free PC safety scan

If You Don’t Have the Worm
• Download the free Microsoft patch
• Go to microsoft.com
• Decide which operating system you use
• Download, install and run the security patch
• Note: This is to protect you before you get the worm. This was made available in October so many people who are diligent about keeping up with their upgrades already have this installed.

How to Remove the Worm
• Go to microsoft.com
• Download Malicious Software Removal Tool

Tips to Avoid Getting the Worm
• Don’t open attachments that you don’t recognize
• Don’t open file that have .EXE or .COM at end of it
• Don’t plug personal laptop into your office computer
• Keep computer upgraded; stop ignoring software updates

If you don’t have virus and spyware protection check out Useful Spyware and Antivirus Tools ( Word 2007 format) for some free and commercial solutions.

You may also want to read this article from the Washington Post.