confession: i have no idea how websites happen.

[Deleted]

like, if someone with a glock came into my office right now and was like "make a cville lifestyle blog now, or i'll kill you," i'd be dead.

literally. no idea.

i'm a half step away from "series of tubes" in my understanding of the internet. i have to think of websites as physical locations or i begin to lose my mind. it's like staring into the sun or contemplating the real meaning of infinity.

[jane6672]

Hehehe.

[Deleted]

This is making me laugh way too hard

[Deleted]

well, i know TWO people i'm not going to hire to create my awesome lifestyle blog.

[Deleted]

lol. on the plus side, this makes me feel smart!

[Deleted]

I know how to blog, but I don't understand how anything actually works.

[iamgrace]

Blogger is my best friend. I don't actually understand how it all works.

[Bernadine]

I don't understand any of it. I still don't understand cell phones.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:20:17 GMT -5 cville said:

well, i know TWO people i'm not going to hire to create my awesome lifestyle blog.

:-(

It's ok, at least you know that your physcial places thing is only an image you use to understand.

To make you feel better: I moved pictures off of a DVD on to my mom's laptop and from there to an external HD and she got freaked out. She honestly thought the quality of the data would degrade because I was making a "copy of a copy". You know? Like on a copy machine with physical paper?

You're light years ahead of some people!

[mamasaurus]

I know some HTML and I STILL don't get it all. I tried talking to my husband about it because he's super techy and does internet stuff for his job, and he was like, "Um duh, you blah blah blah," and I was like, "I know that, but how does electricity turn into a web site?" and he gave me crazy eye.

This is why that Revolutions show is so scary. We rely so much on things that probably 90% of us have no idea about on pretty much anything beyond a basic level.

[thebuddhagouda]

cville is always so intelligent and well spoken, I'm now feeling a perverse pride that I could beat her at something but probably only that one thing.

[Bernadine]

The other night, my mom asked if uploading pictures to facebook took up too much memory on her computer, lol.

[spitforspat]

My mom signed up for some monthly tech support when she couldn't figure out how to burn a cd.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:35:24 GMT -5 spitforspat said:

My mom signed up for some monthly tech support when she couldn't figure out how to burn a cd.

This reminds me! I had a girl on my dorm hall ask me to help her burn a CD. She was just putting the CD in the E drive and saving documents to it like it was a floppy. She had NO idea you actually had to use burning software.

She was 20.

[Mrs.Beagle]

This makes me feel slightly better abut myself.

But not much, because my understanding of website development is only a little bit farther along than yours.

[eightangryreindeer]

lol, it's ok cville you're just like everyone's mom.

[Deleted]

i can do stuff like upload pictures and burn things to flash drives! so there!

but like, how do you make it blue in the background? are there 0s and 1s?

and, like, what IS font, man? deep.

and where does the information live? on a server? in idaho? what happens if that server is physically damaged?

[Mrs.Beagle]

Oh, code.

I know what it is.

But I don't know how to use it.

[thebuddhagouda]

You use HTML and CSS generally to make it look like you want it to look. Colors are called with a hex code. Black is #000000. White is #FFFFFF.

The code is stored on a server. The URL points to the server, and the browser interprets the code as what you see.

[Deleted]

If the server is physically damaged then it all needs to be rebuilt, unless there's a back up somewhere and then you would just have the URL point there.

There are tons and tons of server farms all over the country storing the data. Companies that host websites are really just renting out space on one of those servers.

[spitforspat]

Dude. Ashbride has a blog. You could do it. I believe in you.

[Mrs.Beagle]

Jul 17, 2012 12:46:49 GMT -5 spitforspat said:

Dude. Ashbride has a blog. You could do it. I believe in you.

And I believe in miracles.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:44:27 GMT -5 thebuddhagouda said:

You use HTML and CSS generally to make it look like you want it to look. Colors are called with a hex code. Black is #000000. White is #FFFFFF.

The code is stored on a server. The URL points to the server, and the browser interprets the code as what you see.

aha!

okay. so servers really do do what i thought they do.

if i update something, it goes from my physical comptuer over the series of tubes to the server where the changes are actually kept? right?

what would a backup to a server be? like a DVD ROM or something? it wouldn't be updated as frequently because you'd have to do it physically (like, insert a disc), right?

and why do some people need so much hard drive (?) space for their personal computers if we have servers? is that just what people do who don't do that cloud storage? or does having hard drive (?) space help with updating and making changes to internet stuff too somehow?


AND let's just say i wanted to make a blog (i don't, espousing my opinions here is sufficient for me). are there services such that i don't have to know #FFFFFF means white and i can just chose things from a drop down or something?

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:46:10 GMT -5 @feinicstine said:

If the server is physically damaged then it all needs to be rebuilt, unless there's a back up somewhere and then you would just have the URL point there.

There are tons and tons of server farms all over the country storing the data. Companies that host websites are really just renting out space on one of those servers.

are they in bunkers? do massive quantities of telephone wires connect to them? does the internet go over telephone wires or through the air via satellites? and how does shit go through the air? in code?

they have to be air conditioned, right? the servers?

[thebuddhagouda]

Yeah, a lot of bloggers just buy a template or use one built into their blog program.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:50:52 GMT -5 cville said:

Jul 17, 2012 12:44:27 GMT -5 thebuddhagouda said:

You use HTML and CSS generally to make it look like you want it to look. Colors are called with a hex code. Black is #000000. White is #FFFFFF.

The code is stored on a server. The URL points to the server, and the browser interprets the code as what you see.

aha!

okay. so servers really do do what i thought they do.

if i update something, it goes from my physical comptuer over the series of tubes to the server where the changes are actually kept? right? If you're working on a website, it's more likely that you're making changes directly on the server. But yes, it uses the tubes to get there.

what would a backup to a server be? like a DVD ROM or something? it wouldn't be updated as frequently because you'd have to do it physically (like, insert a disc), right? There are a few types. Most commonly, it's another identical server that regularly copies the one that's being used.

and why do some people need so much hard drive (?) space for their personal computers if we have servers? is that just what people do who don't do that cloud storage? or does having hard drive (?) space help with updating and making changes to internet stuff too somehow? Hard drive is local memory. Anything stored on it is not on the Internet. For example, the word document you saved to your desktop isn't living on a server, it lives on your hard drive.

AND let's just say i wanted to make a blog (i don't, espousing my opinions here is sufficient for me). are there services such that i don't have to know #FFFFFF means white and i can just chose things from a drop down or something? Yes, I don't know if you remember Angelfire, but a site like that offers that service. It's the basic editor instead of the HTML editor. Basically, you pick a bunch of options and it auto-generates a code.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 12:54:15 GMT -5 cville said:

Jul 17, 2012 12:46:10 GMT -5 @feinicstine said:

If the server is physically damaged then it all needs to be rebuilt, unless there's a back up somewhere and then you would just have the URL point there.

There are tons and tons of server farms all over the country storing the data. Companies that host websites are really just renting out space on one of those servers.

are they in bunkers? do massive quantities of telephone wires connect to them? does the internet go over telephone wires or through the air via satellites? and how does shit go through the air? in code? There are differnet types of cables, but it's more or less ethernet cables connecting them. Basically the same kind of thing as you have running from the wall to your computer.

they have to be air conditioned, right? the servers? They need to be kept cool. It used to be that data centers (where the servers live) were built on raised floors with air flow below them. There's an industry move to open topped servers instead since cooling has become so much more efficient. They need to be kept in the mid-60s to 70s and even that is getting less important. The main problem now is keeping the humidity at 0% in the data center.

In case it isn't obvious, this has a lot to do with my job. I have a meeting now though, so I'll answer what I can when I get back if there's anything else.

[thebuddhagouda]

You don't connect to the server physically. You generally use a ftp (file tranfer protocol) program to connect to the server. I can connect to my server through the internet from anywhere in the world as long as I have my login info. Then, you can upload anything you want directly from your computer.

[Deleted]

thank you all very much. i feel much better now.

i'd survive a glock blog attack!

[jane6672]

Jul 17, 2012 12:54:15 GMT -5 cville said:

Jul 17, 2012 12:46:10 GMT -5 @feinicstine said:

If the server is physically damaged then it all needs to be rebuilt, unless there's a back up somewhere and then you would just have the URL point there.

There are tons and tons of server farms all over the country storing the data. Companies that host websites are really just renting out space on one of those servers.

are they in bunkers? do massive quantities of telephone wires connect to them? does the internet go over telephone wires or through the air via satellites? and how does shit go through the air? in code?

they have to be air conditioned, right? the servers?

Yes. That shit gets hot.