Category: Research

  • Macropad, Custom Keyboard Using Arduino/Seeeduino XIAO

    Long story short, I have wandered far into the rabbit hole of custom and mechanical keyboards, and, while I really enjoy some of the compact keyboard layouts, I did find myself missing some of the extra keys in a full keyboard. Armed with a 3D printer and an old mechanical keyboard that I could cannibalize…

  • Code examples with js-beautify and code-prettify (auto indented with color coding)

    I wanted a simple way to show java code samples in HTML pages. My workflow involves writing all my content using Google Docs and copying and pasting into an LMS (D2L). However, copy & paste rarely works as intended. Code, in particular, lost a lot of formatting – or at least, it was inconsistent. My…

  • JW Media Player Clickable Transcript

    Context: This code controls the media player (http://www.jwplayer.com/) via javascript API.  The inspiration/idea came from Philip Hutchinson’s Easy Captions code (http://pipwerks.com/2010/06/07/for-your-reading-pleasure-easycaptions/) which provides an incredibly elegant solution to captions/transcripts embedded as html (instead of being dynamically loaded). This code basically serves as a remote control to find a specific spot of a video or audio file…

  • Learning Swift: Calculator App, part 5. Revamping the logic/design

    This is part 5 of my Learning Swift Calculator App. This update is mostly about the code structure and design decision about the calculator and its behavior. Technical lessons learned: Adding variable values in the middle of the string is so much easier using the following format – “blah blah blah and I am going…

  • Learning Swift: Calculator App, part 3. IBOutlet and button touch highlighting

    This is part 3 of my Learning Swift Calculator App. Progress Working on UIX (visual cue that a button has been touched) Lessons learned: Yes – there is only one item on this update.  Adding a state change when a button is touched sent me down a long rabbit hole I did not expect would…

  • Learning Swfit: Calculator App, part 2. Case, Auto Layout, Variable types

    This is part 2 of my Learning Swift Calculator App. Progress: +, -, x operations are now functional decimals also work Lessons learned: It’s easy to get caught up on a new programming language and forget to use universal concepts of programming that would have made my life a lot easier In my haste (and…

  • Multicam editing in Premiere Pro CS6 and its many quirks

    So we (World Campus Learning Design Multimedia Specialists: Brian Strauss, Pete Warren, and myself) went on a very interesting video shoot recently. This was for a psychology class modeling some simulated psychotherapy sessions; we were able to get students from the Penn State theater department to do an excellent job as patients and therapists. This…

  • Snap by Lectora Quick Review

    I had a chance to play around with Snap by Lectora (http://www.trivantis.com/snap/e-learning-software-for-PowerPoint-Presentations) for a few hours.  It is marketed as a e-Learning Software for PowerPoint presentations with a Roulette guide and strategy.  Their main marketing strategy is presenting themselves as a low cost competitor to Articulate Studio (http://www.articulate.com/products/studio.php) and Adobe Presenter (http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/).  Since one of…

  • Threaded Comments in blogs.psu.edu

    This is OLD – from 2008, but, blogs.psu.edu can support threaded comments.  Just takes a bit of work – modify the template… just a little copy/paste. http://www.personal.psu.edu/bak147/blogs/brad/2008/10/test-of-threaded-comments.html

  • Angel Notes to self

    A way to link from an external page to the current Angel course and specific content within that course: https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=Goto&WCU=CRSCNT&preview=0&MATCH=some+search+string+separated+by+plus+signs A way to link to associated files within a course: $COURSE_PATH$_assoc/subdirectory/filename