Author: ellen

Use inexpensive Korg Controllers to control Logic Pro interfaces

Posted on July 5, 2010 by ellen

Logic Pro is a popular digital audio workstation/ Midi sequencer for the Mac. It contains many virtual models of mixers, effects, synths, drum machines and sequencers. Since the typical audio gear requires simultaneous fine-grained control of multiple parameters, the typical adjustment method is with a knob or slider control.

A standard mouse is not the best way to control such a UI. Many companies sell USB-Midi control surfaces with knobs and faders that allow real-time control of the sound using Logic’s virtual mixers and effects. However these can be very expensive. For those who are on a budget it can be a high price to pay to get started.

A visit to Frederik Meijer Gardens

Posted on July 4, 2010 by ellen

Yesterday we drove out to Grand Rapids to see the sculpture garden at Frederik Meijer Gardens. I was blown away by the quality of the art and the beauty of the gardens. What made the visit even more exciting was the collection of Chihuly glass sculpture installations all over the grounds.

Beside the fantastic outdoor art and flower collection there’s an immense indoor botanical conservatory, with desert, carnivorous, tropical and Victorian garden sections. The enormous Tropical conservatory also features unusual tropical birds, along with many Chihuly pieces large and small which can be discovered among the palm leaves.

When Firefox won’t launch Java applets

Posted on June 29, 2010November 19, 2013 by ellen

If Firefox won’t launch java applets, but Internet Explorer will, you may need to change some settings in the Java control panel to turn on Applet support for Firefox. (Expert users: One sign that this is the issue rather than some Java security exception is that the Java console will be completely blank when you try to launch the applet in Firefox. _

Unfortunately on many PC’s, the Java control panel can be a challenge to find. First, check in the control panels area for “Java.” If it is not there, you may have to look in

C:Program FilesJava

for JRE (Java Runtime Environment) folders.

In the image below there are several of them. Usually you should pick the most recent one, as that is the one that is probably in use.

Create an iCal file from your data using ASP

Posted on June 23, 2010 by ellen

Google Calendar and many other calendar apps will import or subscribe to iCal format files (.ics) If your event data is locked away in a database, you may find it useful to display and distribute it using Google’s extensive calendaring features.

Following is an example of an ASP file that will write an iCal file.

Generate the iCal file in a web-accessible directory, then have Google Calendar or other iCal compatible application subscribe to it.

Set up a Cron job in Windows to run an ASP script

Posted on June 23, 2010 by ellen

If you are used to Linux environments, and working on a web application which needs to execute a function at regular intervals, you’d use a cron job. On Windows, you’d use a scheduled task instead. There is one part of the process that isn’t obvious, so here are the steps involved:

Create the web page that executes the desired tasks – sending email, creating files, etc. For example, I have some ASP scripts that create RSS and iCal feeds from a proprietary database, that need to run daily. Record the URL for later.
You will also need a domain account that can run the task, or a server account that can be used in perpetuity to run these types of tasks. I usually have a “fake” account that will never expire created for this type of thing.

Silence the startup “Bong” on an Intel iMac

Posted on June 21, 2010 by ellen

It used to be possible to silence the loud “Bong” sound that all Macs make on startup by simply hitting the “Mute” key on the keyboard before starting the computer. This no longer works on

Missing scrollbars on the iPad in some webpages

Posted on June 4, 2010 by ellen

When browsing certain sites like Flickr on the iPad, you may be frustrated by an apparent bug in Safari that causes scrollbars within elements on the page to disappear. This can make it impossible to

What is “cetrk.com”?

Posted on May 28, 2010August 26, 2018 by ellen

If you are looking through the code on your site and find a mysterious call to a javascript in the domain “cetrk.com,” you may wonder what it is and if it is a malicious script

Enhancing Learning through Technology – Part 2

Posted on May 24, 2010 by ellen

Scenario-based learning can teach decision-making and thinking processes. Here is an example of the “Labyrinth” scenario-based learning system created in a Scottish medical school which features low fidelity simulations created with just text and pictures – but with great effect.

Each page describes what’s going on and gives a choice of action.

Here you are a doctor doing rounds and a nurse comes in with news about a patient who is increasingly breathless. Your choice here is “Stick with the rounds” or “Ask to see the patient”

If you stick with the rounds, you start wondering if you are doing the right thing, and are soon brought back to the right track -going to see the patient.

Multiple JW players on a page, revised for JW Player 4.7

Posted on May 24, 2010September 6, 2018 by ellen

The JW Player is a very popular open-source media player which not only supports many video, audio and image formats, but has many scriptable behaviors. Here we’ll make use of the JavaScript API to generate as many players as you want on a page. The generated players all have separate event listeners to keep them from interfering with each other. Events or actions executed in one player do not affect others.

Article Outline

Add placeholders for each player

Playlists

Call the init function

This is a new version of that was compatible with an earlier version of the JW Player. This one has been updated to work with JW Player 4.7.761 and later.