Solving technology problems, one at a time
If you get this error when trying to upgrade the operating system on an iPhone or iPad:
“There are purchased items on the iPhone (iPad) “[name of device]” that have not been transferred”
Things to try:
Continue readingWhen working on an application that consumes data from a webservices XML response, you may find it useful to test your X-path expressions.
Continue readingAlthough Captivate has its own SCORM interface, its reliability in our LMS over the last few years has become increasingly problematic. Data gets lost, quizzes score incorrectly, or do not complete at all, and there is a lot of frustration.
At the same time, there has been increasing demand from subject matter experts and educators for inexpensive, easy to learn tools like Captivate that leverage their Powerpoint skills but have plenty of flexibility and options for interactivity. So something had to be done to make Captivate useful again.
What I decided to do was to turn over all the SCORM communication for Captivate activities to our HTML template, which doesn’t have the communication issues of the Adobe products. Using the SCORM template as a wrapper does not add a lot of work to a project, in fact, it requires only one line of code to add a scored Captivate or Presenter quiz to a template-based learning module.
Any type of scored Captivate file will work – both question slides and interactive slides. The module can handle one or more Captivate quizzes, either by themselves, or in combination with other types of content and quizzes, such as Questionmark Perception or the template-based interaction quizlets.
Continue readingI’ve been doing a series of phone interviews lately, and I find it difficult to take notes while I talk, so I needed a reliable way to record these conversations (after getting all parties’ permission, of course!). An added complication is that the interviews usually involve multiple participants, so we typically use a conference line to connect – either DimDim or something similar.
Continue readingAn interesting peek at the not too distant future of visual, gestural interfaces. Thin, light, responsive and embedded. Every incremental improvement in devices and UI’s enables a whole new range of expression and interaction, so
Continue readingI run a little site that is mostly access-protected. If it is viewed from a location within the company IP, no password is needed. If viewed from outside the company firewall, it will ask for a user-id and password. However we wanted to make one subdirectory public.
Continue readingA site I administer uses the openWYSIWYG rich text editor module as the default input format for most users. Like other rich text editors, openWYSIWYG makes it possible for anyone to add styles and colors to their posts, including tables, images, links and more.
The openWYSIWYG interface
Our LMS users sometimes have problems accessing SCORM learning activities. These days, when all other possible causes (java not installed, security settings, etc.) have been eliminated, the next most likely culprit is an expired certificate. The JAVA adaptor used by our LMS is very particular about security, and fails with various silent exceptions if the certificates aren’t in order.
Most of the users I work with with are unfamiliar with the concepts of FTP transfer or compressed archives, primarily because they never have to use them. These days, there are other options for transferring files than FTP, with a fast network and various cloud sharing services, and documents rarely have to be compressed, even for email purposes.
But occasionally, we run into something that really has to be zipped to get to the destination in working order, or where FTP is the only method available for transfer. So here are some tips and suggestions for those who have never used zip or ftp before.
Continue readingIf you have followed all the instructions that come with your new iPhone, only to be faced with a “Waiting for Activation” message that remains unchanged for hours, try powering the phone down completely. Press
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