xhtml 1.0 vs html 4.01 - My Head Hurts

The hands down winner in my case is xhtml 1.0. I know there’s a lot of debate out there about what Doctype to use, but after running into error after error with html issues, I’m finally mading the switch to xhtml 1.0 and wow, it works! What a concept.

Oh here’s been my dilemma; most of my site was coded in html and I made an initial error on my pages which causes the entire site to be viewed as html 1.0 transitional and an encoding scheme of windows-1252. I found my error and started the massive conversion over to html 4.01 and also fixed the encoding issue to iso-8859-1.

My thought process was simple. If my site was already coded with html tags, why go through the hassle of adding closing forward slash tags, such as page breaks, etc. Simple enough I thought, a few header changes and all would be good. Turns out I was grossly mistaken. Once I made the switch from html 1.0 to html 4.01, all the paragraph segments on my pages lost their formatting. Some worked in Internet Explore while others worked in Firefox. The fundamental problem is, html does not require you to close smart tags, even if you try to force it, sometimes it just doesn’t work.

In my stylesheet, I had my paragraph statement setting the up, down, left, and right margins using the div statement. In IE one paragraph would be ok, followed by the next paragraph; but in Firefox, because there was no paragraph smart tag closure before then next opening p tag. The second paragraph would be shifted over twice; that is it would nest the two smart tags together. Gurrrr! Not want I had intended.

So, in light of these really annoying issues I’m finally making the switch to xhtml 1.0 which does allow me to close the tag when I want, rather then leave it up to the browser. My advice, make the switch! It just makes sense. You get to control when things are open and when they are closed, it’s that simple. And let’s face it, I’m not a true coder by no means. I’m a hardware and EM guy so all of my discoveries here have been extremely painful to include a lot of WTF moments.

Cheers all.

Revisiting and Revising html 4.01 Code

Errors, and invalid code mixing between html and xhtml has cause me to stop in place with any new content development and revisit all the current uploaded pages on the site to make any necessary corrections. One big issue I ran into was the Encoding error that I detected using the w3c validation service.

Such a minor mistake, but often catastrophic in the coding world was the content-type declaration, where I had the following: charset=ISO-8859-1. Turns out in both html 4.01 and xhtml 1.0, the ISO in this instance can not be capitalized, it must be: charset=iso-8859-1. If it is not, web browsers will default to using windows-1252 in my case. So any formatting items maybe lost for this silly mistake.

I also unfortunately mixed both html and xhtml code which has caused a lot of errors, event to the extent where some pages are defaulting to the doctype: -//W3C//DTD HTML 1.0 Transitional//EN rather then the html 4.01 or xhtml 1.0 versions I had intended.

AC Circuit Analysis Lab Graphics and PSpice Simulations

All three lab experiments for the Analysis Lab Course on the site, I added both the lab notes which provides measured results and hand calculations for the individual labs along with the Pspice simulation outputs and in most cases the PSPICE code. You will even see some of the errors I made during these labs such as running a .tran analysis rather then a .AC analysis in Pspice which did effect the output resultant. You can find all these added lab notes at:

Lab Write Up - Circuit Response to Time Varying Signals
Figure 1.1: 100Hz Triangle Wave
Figure 2.1: Squarewave R-L Circuit
Figure 3.1: Sinewave R-L Circuit
Figure 4.1: Simple R-C Circuit
Figure 1B: PSpice Part B, Section 1
Figure 2B: PSpice Part B, Section 2
Lab Notes Page 1 of 8
Lab Notes Page 2 of 8
Lab Notes Page 3 of 8
Lab Notes Page 4 of 8
Lab Notes Page 5 of 8
Lab Notes Page 6 of 8
Lab Notes Page 7 of 8
Lab Notes Page 8 of 8

RLC Series and Parallel Circuits Lab
Graph 1: Input Voltage vs. Output Voltage for 1kHz
Graph 2: Input Voltage vs. Output Voltage for 10kHz
Graph 3: Vo vs. Frequency
Graph 4: Io vs. Frequency
Graph 5: Output Current / Voltage vs. Phase
Graph 6: High Pass Filter Analysis
Lab Notes Page 1 of 5
Lab Notes Page 2 of 5
Lab Notes Page 3 of 5
Lab Notes Page 4 of 5
Lab Notes Page 5 of 5

Equivalent Circuits Lab
Graph 1: Series RLC Circuit
Graph 2: Series Equivalent Circuit
Graph 3: Parallel Equivalent Circuit
Graph 4: Parallel RLC Circuit
Graph 5: Parallel Equivalent Circuit
Graph 6: Series Equivalent Circuit
Lab Notes Page 1 of 5
Lab Notes Page 2 of 5
Lab Notes Page 3 of 5
Lab Notes Page 4 of 5
Lab Notes Page 5 of 5

RF and Telecommunication Student Experiments

Just Added; no I’m not a late night TV commercial. But seriously, I just added to ClassNotes123.com this evening three more student experiments dealing with radio frequency (RF) and telecom systems. I will be adding the solutions in the coming weeks but for now I have just posted the baseline experiments. They can be found at:

RF Transmit and Receive Link
Measuring Antenna Characteristics using a Network Analyzer
Characterizing a Voltage Controlled Oscillator

FET Capacitance Affects Notes Added

I uploaded several notes pertaining to Field Effect Transistor, Capacitance Affects and Frequency Response to ClassNotes123.com which is part of the Analog and Semiconductor Devices class; an undergraduate course that introduces the topic of nonlinear device. I also added another Satellite Communications homework assignment dealing with look angles. These pages can be located at:

Output Capacitance of a Source Follower Amplifier
Low Frequency Response of a FET Circuit
FET Capacitance Effects
Output Capacitance of a Drain Loaded Amplifier
Satellite Look Angle Problem

I am finishing up two digital logic laboratories which should be online in the next few days. Stay tune for this and more content from ClassNotes123.com

Satellite Communications Course Problems Added

For the graduate level Satellite Communications course, I’ve added seven homework problems and solutions dealing with topics as station keeping, orbital dynamics, data transmissions, shallow angle earth stations, and sat to sat data links. These pages can be found at the following links:

Satellite Data Relay
Satellite Propagation Time
Satellite Orbit Position
Satellite Orbit Variables
Satellite Orbit Characteristics
Satellite Earth Station
Satellite Elliptical Orbit

For more on these topics and other electrical engineering course topics, notes, exams, and laboratory experiments visit: ClassNotes123.com

New Technologies are Shifting Telephone Keypad Alphabetic Notation

Expedia.com, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Comcast Cable are three companies out of thousands whose telephone number is also the spelling of the company name when dialed from the keypad of your standard telephone. Most would agree this marketing technique is beneficial to the customer and provides a level of name recognition to the company. But are these companies ready for the technology shift this marketing strategy bases itself on?

We have seen in recent years many people, especially younger individuals, have been moving exclusively to cellular telephones and ditching the landlines of old. While this trend is very well known, a simple yet often overlooked factor is the technology shift from the standard keypad telephone to full text keyboards on many cellular telephone models. Take the Blackberry, or the iPhone; neither device has the standard number / letter combination companies use to denote their telephone number.

For example, on a standard keypad the number 2 is also associated with the letters A, B, and C. However, on a Blackberry with its full keyboard, the number 2 is associated with the letter E.

So what is the solution; simple! Many companies already employ the fix with or without knowing it. Just publish the number itself along with the company name and letter combination. On expedia.com customer support page; both 1-800-EXPEDIA and 1-800-397-3342 are posted. However, on Carnival Cruise Lines webpage, I have been unable to find anything but their 1-888-CARNIVAL number.

By: FreeClassNotesOnline.com

In Person Interview Tips

Thus far we have briefly covered a few resume and telephone interview, prescreen tips. Now let’s jump into a few in-person interview items. Most of the advice you often here is dress the part, be prompt, ask questions, yea, yea, yea. So how do you really pull this off and truly stand out.

The first tip I like to give is realize that you will always forget about half of the questions you intend to cover during the interview, so be prepared to jog your memory. I like to have a portfolio in hand, just a simple flip open with a pad of paper on one side and a place to put a pen or two on the other. You can pick up one rather cheaply so it’s a good investment. I always have at least two extra copies of my formatted and printed resume in the portfolio just in case you sit down with someone who doesn’t have a copy, you’re prepared. One trick I use is, before the interview write down or print out a copy of about 6 to 8 questions or items you wish to cover and slide this in-between the pad of paper with about a half inch of the edge sticking out. During the interview, have pen in hand, your portfolio open and pad ready to write on (note, your cheat sheets edge is poking out a bit). As your interview progresses, casually jot down notes, and casually flip up the pad when approaches to see your notes. This will jog your memory and keep you on point. Do what works for you, I personally like my approach. With pen and paper in hand it also presents the appearance you are actively engaged in the interview and not sitting on your hands expecting someone to ask all the questions.

I mentioned some closing comments in my last post, Telephone Interview Tips so do use these if they fit your situation. Another tip stems from the flow of most interviews. Most person to person interviews often start by discussing the company and/or a department overview, followed by the job description and a Q & A section. Your opportunity often comes next followed by specific compensation negotiations. Now here’s where my tip comes in. If they bring up compensation (i.e. how much do you want to be paid) too early in the discussion, side step it by saying that it is negotiable but to have a better understanding how to base the hourly or salary rate on, you would like to discuss more of the jobs responsibilities. By doing this, you put off any numbers and negations until you have a chance to wow them with your skills. Again you’re selling yourself so if you can avoid committing to any fixed number first do so. You can also use a range or better yet, one I often use is if I’m asked about my salary expectations, I often reply with; is there a salary range you’re trying to stay within for this position?

Let me put this another way. Let’s say for example you want to buy a television at the local store. You find one you like but it doesn’t have a price on it. First off, you’ll probably spend a little more time looking at the TV and searching for a price too. Then you’ll ask a sales person what the price is. What’s going on here is you are “investing time” into your decision, and when the sales person provides you the price you have one of two reactions. It’s either way too high, which will put you back a bit or you’ll consider it. If the price is too high, you may even ask the sales person what is in your price range. You see, if you saw the price without having to put any effort into it first, you may have quickly walked away and dismissed it. Because you now have a feeling of time invested, which includes now involving someone else, the sales person here, you find yourself in a state where you are more likely to buy something. My point here is, turn the tables on your interviewer and make them feel they have time invested in you so it’s harder for them to just simply move onto the next candidate.

Provided by: ClassNotes123.com

Microcontrollers and Series-Parallel Labs

And we have more lab updates on ClassNotes123. Yep, two more labs have been uploaded today, the last lab for the Intro Electronics Lab course and the second of three labs dealing with programming and logic analysis with the 68HC11 microcontroller. I should have the third lab in the introduction to microcontroller’s series up by week’s end (I hope, keep your fingers crossed).

Series-Parallel Circuits Lab
Programming the Motorola 68HC11 Lab

Analog Integrated Circuits Lab Added

Today on ClassNotes123.com, I just added the complete content for the Analog IC Lab, Phase Lock Loop design project which involved reverse engineering a National Semiconductor LM565 and reconstructing it with only discrete devices. The lab walks through the reverse engineering process, breaking down the circuit into each of its components such as the current sources and biasing, phase detector, amplifier stage, filters, Schmitt trigger, etc. This was followed by simulations, constructing the device and measurements. Granted, all the timing specifications were bound to be off given the discrete nature of the reverse engineered design, but a number of specifications were within a reasonable tolerance to the original spec. The lab pages are as follows:

Abstract & Project Overview
DC Current Bias
Phase Detector
Generation of Voltage Controlled Signal
Voltage Controlled Current Source
Schmitt Trigger
CA3046 & CA3096 Transistor Array Characterization
Experimental Verification & Conclusions

Added One More Electronics Lab Experiment This Evening...

I had some extra time to finish up one last lab for the evening on ClassNotes123. This lab is still part of the Linear Systems Analysis Lab course; dealing with a 2nd order voltage-controlled voltage-source Sallen Key filter in both a Butterworth’s and Chebyshev configuration.

Electrical Engineering Lab Experiments Added

This weekend I added the lab write ups for two different lab courses; Introduction to Electronics Lab and Linear Systems Analysis Lab. The intro labs focus on the basics, resistor measurements and tolerances, along with a lab on AC series circuits. The linear systems labs start out with an ideal op-amp experiment where a capacitance multiplier, virtual inductor, a power booster, and half-wave rectifier circuits are constructed and examined, along with Pspice simulations. The last lab in this weekends additions was a high-pass filter Chebyshev configuration with 2dB of ripple in the pass band. Links to each of the labs are listed below:

Resistance Measurements and Resistor Color Codes Lab
Series Circuits Lab
Ideal Operational Amplifier Lab
Sixth Order High Pass Chebyshev Filter Lab

ClassNotes123.com

Operational Amplifier Lab Experiments

Two more electrical engineering laboratory experiments have been completed and the page content has been optimized on each of the pages. These are the first two experiments for the Operational Amplifier Lab Course for http://www.classnotes123.com/

Ideal 741 Operational Amplifier
Operational Amplifier Applications

AC Circuit Analysis & Semiconductor Devices Lab Experiments

I finalized nine laboratory experiments to include all the hand calculation lab notes, Pspice simulations and page layouts for the AC Circuits Analysis Lab Course and Analog and Semiconductor Device Lab Course for www.classnotes123.com

The labs, titles and links are as follows:

Circuit Response to Time Varying Signals
Circuit Response to Time Varying Signals Lab Write Up
RLC Series and Parallel Circuits
Equivalent Circuits
Optimizing the 2N5458 JFET
JFET Characteristics and Biasing
JFET Small Signal Amplifier
Frequency Response of FET Common Source Amplifier
BJT h-Parameters and Amplifier Characteristics
Multistage Enhancement-Mode MOSFET Amplifier

Materials 1 - Course Updates

I’m working a bit backwards here on the Materials I course by getting up the last few chapter homework assignments posted first but it’s what I grabbed for this evenings work. I also made a few updates to the Materials I course page by adding a more detailed course topics list. Homework assignments I added include:

Assignment 6 - Carbon and Alloy Steels
Assignment 7 - Tool Steels
Assignment 8 - Stainless Steel

www.classnotes123.com

DC / AC Circuits Labs Now Online

Ok I just finished up the last of the three labs for the Circuits Analysis lab course, EE106. The first experiment, Circuit Response to Time Varying Signals was somewhat long that I split it over two pages; the lab objectives and procedure on one page followed by a second page of the actual Lab Write-Up and conclusions.

Over the next few weeks I will continue to get more of the electronic and electrical engineering lab courses uploaded. At this stage I’m more concerned about getting up as much useful content as possible for the readers; I’ll focus on page optimization and site rankings in the near future but I seem to be on a roll right now with the labs.

www.classnotes123.com