Once upon a time, an anonymous wag at one of the tech companies compared Internet years to "dog years," as in "one year of working with tech is equivalent of seven human years." There's some truth to this. Tech is an area that runs 24/7, fueled by copious amounts of caffeinated beverages and the boundless energy of twenty-somethings that are fresh from all-night cram sessions and days spent focusing on nothing but the project at hand. In this high-speed world, the only constant is change, and skills that aren't used decay quicker than a head of organic lettuce left in the trunk of a Lexus.
Such is the case with my Web design skills. Not too many (human) years ago, I not only knew Web design, I taught Web design. HTML code was my second language, DreamWeaver was my toy. I was knowledgeable enough to write a manual for my students on using DreamWeaver in the class I taught in 2003. Oh, how things have change in the past "fifty" years.
Firstly, Macromedia--the company that created DreamWeaver--was acquired by Adobe (they of the incredibly powerful but complex programs) in 2005, for the purpose of adding DreamWeaver to the Adobe stable. It was a good move: Adobe got a couple powerful programs (Macromedia was also the source of Flash and ColdFusion) to compete against Microsoft, and the owners of Macromedia got a large chunk of Adobe stock. Adobe took DreamWeaver, tweaked it into the powerful tool it is today, and added it to their Design Suite, rounding out what was already an industry-standard graphics, multimedia, and design package.
The second thing to happen was the elimination of vocational education at many of the high schools, including my own. I was given a choice in 2005: give up the edugeek life and switch to teaching social studies or look for another job. As I'm accustomed to certain luxuries (eating, sleeping indoors, etc.) I regretfully closed up the lab, packed up and later disposed of my tech manuals, and switched to teaching history and geography with nothing more complex than an overhead projector. I maintained a cyber-presence, but since I didn't need a website, I didn't bother to keep my skills up to date.
How much my skills have atrophied in the interval was forcefully brought home when I decided to create a splash page for my domain. It needed one. I had reset the DNS pointers to my site weeks ago, but all that was appearing was the site map--not terribly professional, especially for an edugeek. I simply needed a simple page with a few links, and perhaps dressed up with a photograph. Everything was already on the hard drive, so I could knock it out quickly...or so I thought.
DreamWeaver has changed. A lot. I barely recognized it. Adobe has incorporated the "look and feel" of its other flagship programs (PhotoShop, PageMaker/inDesign, Illustrator) so many of the buttons, menus, and toolbars are approximately the same. Adobe, and the intervening advances in Web tech, have simplified other tasks; it's no longer a chore to title a page, and it's not essential to set up a site before creating a page. However, there are just enough differences, and I've forgotten enough, that I floundered about a bit before getting the basics laid out, the content added, and the page uploaded to the site.
The page is up and the links work. I think this old dog can still learn a few new tricks.
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