Frequently Asked Questions

Credits

Helping Hands Michael (education technology inspiration, in a Googley way), The Mighty Yen (running partner, tech direction & support); Gillian (office mate, partner in crime); Cindy (artistic inspirations, ice cream sandwiches), Chris (website design, earthquake recovery); Dee (who never makes enough for dinner); Mark & Sharon (movies and workouts); former student Eric (scripting advice, bulletin board inspiration, overclocked calculator mods); Aaron (geek complicity, usability, website competition, and dog hairs); Lydia (cable modem, bouldering inspiration, and France); former student Danny (babysitting and thoughtful criticism); former student Paul (rollover advice and late night climbing epics); Rodney (Teton trips, the voice of sanity in an insane Berkeley); Diane (shelter from the storm); Brian (domain donations, climbing fun, and infinitely strange and wonderful Christmas parties); Barry (at Norcov, for scripting help and file permissions); and a host of others....
Soundtrack Air, "Pocket Symphony" / Radiohead, "OK Computer" / Led Zeppelin, "III" / Abra Moore, "Strangest Places" / Luscious Jackson, "Fever In, Fever Out" / Hole, "Celebrity Skin" / Lori Carson, "Everything I Touch Runs Wild" / Massive Attack, "Mezzanine" / The Breeders - "Last Splash" / Mozart's Piano Concertos # 6, 17, and 21
Research & Development Tools JaguarPC website hosting, MacBook Pro & Titanium G4 Powerbook, dual-processor G5 tower, Mac OS X, Logitech Optical Mouse, HP Laserjet 6MP, TI-86 Calculator, Pilot Precise V5 pens, lots and lots of engineering computation paper
Nutrition Information Garlic Jim's Nutty Chipotle pizza, David's homemade Smokey Desperado Hummus, chocolate PowerBars, Diet Pepsi with lime, Fuji apples, Michelle's Veggie-Bake, Lily's dried chicken in garlic sauce, homemade nachos, Eva's refried beans

History

Date Development
August, 2010 Internal MySQL database is used for tracking student grades, with PHP front-end for student/parent access.
July, 2009 No major redesign implemented for the AP Physics and Conceptual Physics sites new year. How can one improve on perfection? ;)
A new section is added to the site for Polytechnic's Python-based Computer Science single-semester elective.
October, 2008 Percentage widths are used with nesting floated divs to improve layout. Engrade online grading service has had display issues for a week with no communication from company--is it time to move to the long-awaited PHP front-end and MySQL back-end are used to deliver individual grade updates via login to the crashwhite?
June, 2008 Discussion Board is removed from the website. Links to the new www.learnapphysics.com website are included.
June, 2007 Site layout is converted from table-based to CSS-based. RSS Feed is implemented full-time. Grades were not posted on the site.
July, 2006 Sample problems are restored to the site, in PDF form, with handwritten solutions and annotations. Student info request pages are converted to a secure https format.
August, 2005 Site is restructured based on usability feedback from A. Glimme. The best change is a "Course Materials" menu item that groups all current material--lab handouts, practice tests, etc.--in one place. Overall number of individual web pages on the site is reduced to simplify navigation. Finally, a traditional layout is implemented for the calendar to improve usability, and links to practice tests and lab handouts are incorporated into the calendar--it's hoped that this will make it easier for students to find what they need, when they need it.
April, 2005 Switched to phpBB discussion board. Site is migrated from Norcov.com to JaguarPC, the new host.
January, 2005 Implementation of CSS-Layout is briefly considered, then discarded. This was due in part to cross-platform issues, but mostly just because three-column floating layouts (which are used extensively on the website) seem to require insane hacks. I'm sticking to tables!
July, 2004 Installed new discussion board (Teemz).
June, 2004 Preliminary design for Polytechnic websites are begun, including a new "snow" color scheme, CSS-rollover effects, and RSS news feeds for site updates.
April, 2003 Search engine capabilities are added to the site, courtesy of www.atomz.com. Preliminary design for Berkeley High Physics websites are begun for Fall, 2003.
March, 2003 "Algebra" and "Algebra2" subdirectories are added to supplement math courses taught at Yucca Valley High School.
October, 2002 Second menu-bar added to right side of Physics Tutoring home page to accomodate "Pop Quiz" feature: a multiple-choice problem is presented, and students may "vote" on which answer is correct. A summary of votes, by percentage, is then given.
September, 2002 Controversial "Physics on Crack" problem-solving animations start to appear in Sample Problems. These narrated animations are designed to show how physics problems are really solved.
August, 2002 Site is completely restructured to accomodate tutoring. The physics bulletin board and sample problems remain, and subscriber-only tutoring features are added: Instant Messaging, weekly WhiteBoard chat sessions, and e-mail Tutoring.
May, 2002 Site is archived and submitted as a project toward completion of my Master's in Education (emphasis in Instrutctional Technology) at California State University. Title of project: A High School Physics Instructor's Website: Design, Implementation, And Evaluation
October, 2001 crashwhite.com is moved from LanMinds to a new host, Norcov.com, located in El Cerrito.
September, 2001 Alpha test of on-line lecture delivery using the web-based AudioGraphic plug-in.
August, 2001 Minor cleanup of site includes adding the ability to search from every page, and removal of graphics to speed page loading. Menu bar loses color to clean up the appearance of printed pages.
November, 2000 Based on Jakob Nielsen's Usability guidelines, a dynamic search engine is added: the header of the index page contains the ability to instantly perform keyword searches of the entire website.
October, 2000 A "Terms of Service" section is added to the website in order to clearly identify the website's purpose and intended uses.
August, 2000 Based on the results of a written student survey, the site is redesigned with a new format. Homepage is now at "crashwhite.com", left-side menu bars give the user greater navigation control, a new logo is included on each page, and a site index is added.
April, 2000 A photo page is added, with quick-loading thumbnails linking to larger graphics. A redirect page to the Berkeley Operational Robotics Group web side is added. There is no direct link to this page from the physics site -- it's simply used as a permanent address that will send users to whatever server the BORG group eventually decides to use for their permanent website.
March, 2000 A bulletin board system is added for Physics students to share information.
February, 2000 An animations page is started: animated gifts of wave functions, simple harmonic oscillation, and Young's double-slit experiment are included.
September, 1999 Eric Snow implements a bulletin board system on which AP Physics students can share information. Crashwhite.com includes a link to his bulletin board.
August, 1999 Domain name "crashwhite.com" purchased, and hosted at LanMinds, Inc. Site is completely redesigned with a new "splash" index page leading to AP Physics, Physical Science, and Physics index pages organized as tables. New design includes spreadsheet formatted year-long course schedules for each class, student grades posted by ID number, solutions to homework problems (for AP Physics), and review sheets (for Physics and AP Physics). Personal pages removed from site.
May, 1999 Begin posting student grades for each class, identified by student ID number.
October, 1998 Begin posting chapter review sheets for Physics and AP Physics students on the site. Begin posting solutions to AP Physics homework problems.
August, 1998 First personal home page created, including index pages for Physics and AP Physics classes, a link to some personal travel stories, and a section on rockclimbing in Joshua Tree National Park. This first version was posted on a friend's webserver.

Frequently Asked Questions About the crashwhite.com website

How did this site get started? The crashwhite.com site had its beginnings in 1998, and has gone through a number of different transformations over the years. The site was the subject of my Master's project at Cal State San Bernardino.
Why does this website exist? I hate computers. I hate calculators. I secretly love computers and calculators, despite the fact that I am a confessed Luddite, which is to say I think anything more complicated than a Swiss Army knife is just plain TOO complicated, and these days, even the Swiss Army knives are getting a little out of control.

But computers and calculators can be pretty goshdarn useful. The programable calculators that we use in class allow me to teach, and students to learn, in ways that were literally impossible until recently. Likewise, the computer has enabled me to communicate with parents, students, and other teachers in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago. Email is the medium of choice for contacting me when I'm not in the classroom, and this website is the primary means of providing students and parents with information regarding this course, including sample problems with solutions, homework answers, supplementary materials, review problems for tests, and grades.

As far as students are concerned, they need to communicate with each other as well. Calling or texting a friend on the phone to figure out how to do one of the homework problems is sometimes an option, but maybe they can't do the problem either -- what does one do? For years, a Discussion Board was available on the site for students to post questions and answers, but--with occasional exceptions--it never seemed to be a very satisfactory solution to the problem. We're still working on finding a way to carry on these kinds of discussions.
Shouldn't you be teaching, rather than working on this dumb website? I'd like to think that the two go together. It certainly takes a little bit of extra effort (as well as some time and money!) to maintain this website, but past experience has indicated that students and parents strongly benefit from using it. Most of the real work on this site is done during the summertime when I'm not teaching. During the school year, maintaining the site is relatively simple. I prepare materials for class on the computer anyway, so making that information available online is a relatively simple process.
Who pays for this website? I do, supported by occasional contributions from students and parents. jaguarpc.com charges me $24.00 bucks a month to host the domain on their servers. If you're looking for a hosting solution, I don't hesitate to recommend them.
What software do you use to develop the website? I code the HTML by hand using Panic's Coda on an Apple MacBook Pro. I've played around with some web authoring tools, but prefer coding by hand. I use Microsoft Excel to create the course schedule and grade report pages, and Adobe Photoshop Elements to tweak photos and graphics so they load more quickly.

As you may know, different browsers display HTML code differently. This website is designed primarily for Mozilla's Firefox, although occasionally I cross-check pages on other platforms to make sure they don't look too funky.
Why don't you use ______ on your website? (high-tech graphics, Flash, animated GIFs, Javascript, AJAX, etc.) As much as I love the promise of new technologies, I try to keep in mind the needs of the users of this website. People who are coming to this website are primarily looking for information, including:
  • help with homework
  • test review problems
  • problem-solving clues
  • grades, or
  • homework & lab assignments
My job is to make that information as fast and easy to find as possible, and that's what I've tried to focus on.

While most of my students have high-speed access to the Internet, that's no reason to clutter things up with unnecessary noise. People come here to get information, and anything that makes it harder to point-and-click one's way to that information is just an exercise in excess.