In case you hadn’t heard, pipwerks.com was hacked last week. The entire database was erased. Bastages. Luckily, I had a recent backup. While going through the pains of a new WordPress install (with new plugins, extra security, and imported posts/comments), I decided “why not throw a new layout in the mix, too?” I mean, if I’m going to make changes, I may as well do them all in one shot, eh?
Just a quick note: I’m renovating this site to make better use of WordPress’ capabilities. Because of the move to WordPress, many of my static HTML files will be converted to WordPress ‘pages’; this means you may see some odd posts in my RSS feed from time to time. Feel free to ignore them.
It took me much much longer than I anticipated, but I am happy to announce the new CaptivateController utility.
This controller is not a simple rehash of the original pipwerks.captivate.control utility; it is a complete re-write that adds a number of extra features.
The folks at Adobe recently published a list of Captivate 4 variables. While it’s a solid list, it’s not really a complete list.
I’ve had a flurry of emails and messages regarding my SCORM cheat the past few days, and have received feedback from a number of well-regarded SCORM aficionados, some of whom contributed to the standard and helped make SCORM what it is today. This is wonderful, I’m very happy to hear from everyone, especially regarding such an engaging topic.
But as I hear more from these seasoned SCORM pros, I’ve made (what I believe to be) an interesting observation: there is a sharp division between die-hard SCORM developers and casual users. I suppose I’ve felt this way for a long time, but it’s really coming into focus this week. Let me try to define the camps.
I’m always surprised how little people talk about cheating in e-learning; maybe it’s a fear of revealing just how easy it can be. The fact is, SCORM — the most common communication standard in e-learning — is fairly easy to hack. I’ve whipped up a proof-of-concept bookmarklet that when clicked will set your SCORM course to complete with a score of 100 (works with both SCORM 1.2 and 2004).
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is at Release Candidate 1, which means it will be released very shortly. IE8 is a brand-new browser and will represent a considerable shift from IE7/IE6; it will follow standards more closely and will offer much improved CSS 2.1 support. However, because of some of these changes, it is also widely understood that IE8 might ‘break’ websites that have relied on IE-specific hacks targeted at previous versions if Internet Explorer.
I started by developing an HTML example page that used the canvas element and had the excanvas.js file hard-coded. Everything worked as planned. I then took out the hard-coded excanvas.js file and replaced it with a JavaScript-based lazy loader. Guess what? It didn’t work. A simple modification to the excanvas.js file fixed the problem.
Like many other web professionals, I’m tired of the limited font set we have to work with. Gee, should I use Verdana on this site or Georgia? Maybe Arial? Meh. Bor-ing.
I’d like to say thank you to all the people who posted in the pipwerks forum, and invite you to join me in the new eLearning Technology and Development group.
I’d also like to ask anyone and everyone who develops e-learning to drop by and sign up for the eLearning Technology and Development group. Ask questions — lots of questions — and let’s see if we can get a good community going!
