Solving technology problems, one at a time
After installing ImagePicker 6.x-1.2 in a new Drupal site, I opened a book page to try to add images to it. There was no ImagePicker Fieldset below the text entry area. It did show up
Continue readingA while back I wrote [LINK] about a treasure-hunt-style game we developed in-house for training purposes. The purpose of the game is to help healthcare professionals memorize the location of items stored within a cardiac arrest cart, to make things go smoothly when every second counts.
A cardiac arrest cart (or “crash cart”) is a red metal tool cabinet, filled with items like airway tubes, IV needles, masks and other supplies used in advanced cardiac life support. The goal of this game is to learn where all the items are by retrieving the requested item from the cart by opening drawers, then dragging the item to a target for checking.
VIEW DEMO of the Virtual Cardiac Arrest Cart
DOWNLOAD SOURCE files for the cart game.
By default, Drupal takes control of all subdirectories within its root folder. If Drupal resides within the web root of your site, you will not be able to get to any subdirectories that are non-Drupal related. Drupal will give a “Page Not Found” error on any page that doesn’t have Drupal content associated with it.
Continue readingAfter installing Adobe Web Premium CS4, I tried to import a video clip that was shot on a little Canon PowerShot camera into Adobe Media Encoder. It immediately responded with the error: The file “CIMG1324.AVI”
Continue readingThe authors of our learning modules often want to embed one one or more videos embedded in a page. A typical request is to be able to “edit” the video using a duration set in the playist, so that the player shows only a few seconds of the video, focusing on only the relevant material for the current page.
Continue readingThere are some errors that come up time and time again when working with Jeroen Wijering’s Flash Video Player. Here’s how to troubleshoot them. I’ll keep adding to the list as time permits. Click the images to see a larger view.
If your flash file works correctly when you test the movie in Flash, but not once it is published, check your Publish Settings. While modifying a flashcard example application I downloaded from Flashkit.com, I noticed
Continue readingA colleague at work needed to know how to turn on captions in Windows Media Player. I started to write her a note explaining it, but needed to check exactly how to get to the setting since I knew how to do it in older versions but not 11.
This turned out to be just another opportunity to experience Microsoft’s creative approach to usability.
Here’s a snapshot of the the player. Note, there is no "File" menu, no Open command, nothing that appears useful unless you are purchasing music from their store or ripping from an old CD. And really, aren’t "Rip" and "Burn" SO 2006? Who even cares about ripping CD’s anymore?
If you’ve used javascript much, you are probably familiar with arrays. Typically arrays are used to manage lists of items. I frequently use arrays for maintaining information about the state of pages and quiz questions in learning modules, storing a series of properties for each item.
But, there is a problem. To find the particular item you want to use, you must loop through the whole array. Sometimes you can get yourself into a situation requiring multiple loops to get one item of information and performance will suffer.
I recently got to wondering if there weren’t a way to jump straight to the desired item, if the ID of the item were known. Yes there is!
Enter “associative arrays“. Associative arrays allow you to index items by any string key, not just the usual arbitrary index numbers. So you can go straight to the exact item by name without testing for property matches while looping through the array.
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My first attempt at a Google Gadget is now available, ready to contribute to your information overload and general level of anxiety. When loaded, “The Daily Bailout” widget shows you a random bailout from a list starting with the buyout of Countrywide Mortgages.
Researching this little gadget has been an eye opener because of the sheer size of the numbers involved. For example, did you know that the bailouts so far this year exceed all US bailouts in history combined? Did you know that some of the banks that appeared to be bailing other banks and companies out are actually themselves in serious trouble? This list could become very long before this is over.
In any case, you can add the gadget to your webpage by clicking this link:
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