Computer Shopper Epson WorkForce 520 Review
Communications Technology Watch is happy to announce that William Harrel has begun reviewing printers for the popular online magazine and buyers’ guide Computer Shopper. Harrel has a long history of writing about information technology, going back to the industry’s glory days, when monthly paper magazines–Computer Magazine, PC World, Windows Magazine, MacWorld, MacUser, and, yes, Computer Shopper–were popular and powerful. A favorable review in one of these publications could make an unknown product famous, and turn small, upstart companies into powerhouse corporations. Those days are over, and once two-inch-thick magazines are now a quarter or less of there size, those that survived, that is. The ones that did make it adapted to the medium of our era, the Internet. Computer Shopper made the transition successfully and is now a trusted Internet destination and source for well-researched and unbiased new product information and reviews–as it has always been.
William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com
Yes, creating Websites is fun and rewarding work. And nothing is more fun and rewarding than creating Flash Websites, or other Flash applications, such as online movies or training courses. Nowadays, learning to use Flash is a must for student Website and Web application designers.
The Flash CS4 course at Ed2Go was so well-received that I am feverishly working to crank out a CS5 course. The name of the course is “Introduction to Adobe Flash CS5“. It is a beginner’s course on creating basic Flash movies and Websites with the latest version of Flash, Creative Suite 5.
ed2go is the largest online course provider, offering hundreds of courses through most major universities, colleges and other learning facilities.
Course Details
This twelve-week course will introduce students to the basics of using Flash, and will cover the following:
- Getting to know the Flash interface
- Workspaces
- Animation and Tweens
- Flash’s drawing tools
- Flash’s text tools
- The Flash Timeline and frames
- Intro to ActionScript 3.0
- Intro to 3D and Motion Editor
- Using images, sound and video clips in Flash
- And much more
The course is well underway and should be available is a few months.
Bill Harrel – www.williamharrel.com
California Spine Institute
The folks at WilliamHarrel.com have been diligently upgrading the California Spine Institute’s (CSI) Website over the past few weeks, bringing it into the Twenty-First Century. As the original designers of World renowned Neurosurgeon, Dr. John C. Chiu’s first Website (SpineCenter.com) nearly 15 years ago, Bill and his staff have been asked to come back and give the old site a makeover. The new site is a completely scripted AS3 and XML modular Flash design, complementing CSI’s ultra-modern Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery (MISS) and physical rehabilitation center, located in Thousand Oaks, California. Dr. Chiu is the primary developer of the Micro-Discectomy and Laser Thermodiskoplasty MISS procedures for eliminating pain from herniated spinal discs.
The new site is resplendent with content on spine surgery, MISS and Medical Laser technology–complete with videos, presentations, research and other information designed for medical professionals and the general public. It branches at the home page to accommodate professionals looking for technology solutions and providers and non-professionals looking for alternatives to conventional “open back” surgery.
“We have been tacking on new information almost weekly for many years,” says Dr. Chiu. “It has become a huge maze of mismatched designs [reflecting the styles of the several different designers employed to update it] and outdated material mixed in with the new, pertinent data.” It’s time to bring it all together in a format where users can find what they need without hunting and pecking.” Dr. Chiu added that he is excited about the work so far and eager to get it up and running.
While in development, the site is located at csi.williamharrel.com. It has been opened to the public during the final stages, with the warning that not everything works yet. But anybody is welcome to come and watch the project as it nears completion. “Use the menus,” Bill Harrel says. “The page links don’t all work yet, and not all of the material they link to has been deployed.”
Communications Technology Watch is pleased to announce that William Harrel has contracted with Ed2Go to create and instruct two intermediate-level Flash courses, Intermediate Flash CS5 and Intermediate Flash CS4. The upcoming courses are extensions of Harrel’s popular Introduction to Flash CS4 and Introduction to CS5, which are currently distributed through Ed2Go.com to nearly 2,500 colleges and universities. Hundreds of students have taken the CS4 course to date, and it continually receives high ratings from students. The CS5 course in nearing completion and will be released soon.
The new course will help students improve their Flash animation, design, 3D graphics, and ActionScript skills.
“We’ll look closely at Flash’s high-end design and graphics tools,” Harrel told us. “Especially, the Bone Tool, Motion Editor, and 3D tools. Oh yeah, and ActionScript 3.0–lots of ActionScript 3.0.”
As the courses develop and get closer to a launch date, we’ll keep you posted.
Best Viewed in HD Format
Learn how to create inner popups using the UILoader component in Flash CS4. (This procedure is nearly identical in CS5.) Load any external SWF as a popup. Create as many popups as you need. Part 1 and Part 2 walk you through the entire process, from configuring the component to creating a close button movie clip, to scripting the popup.
Part 2 covers writing the ActionScripts and creating a Close button.
Learn this and other techniques in William Harrel’s Introduction to Adobe Flash CS4 (and soon to be released Introduction to Adobe Flash CS5) Course at Ed2Go.
Click here to download popups.fla.
William Harrel - williamharrel.com
Learn how to create inner popups using the UILoader component in Flash CS4. (This procedure is nearly identical in CS5.) Load any external SWF as a popup. Create as many popups as you need. Part 1 and Part 2 walk you through the entire process, from configuring the component to creating a close button movie clip, to scripting the popup. Part 1 covers preparing and setting up the UILoader component.
Best Viewed in HD Format.
Learn this and other techniques in William Harrel’s Introduction to Adobe Flash CS4, (and soon to be released Introduction to Adobe Flash CS5) Course at Ed2Go.
Click here to download popups.fla.
William Harrel – williamharrel.com
Finally, after several months of painstaking writing, editing and rewriting, my Introduction to Adobe Flash CS4 is ready to go over at Ed2Go. Begin your career as a Flash designer! In this course, you’ll learn how to create animated, interactive movies in Flash CS4. Nowadays, Flash movies appear everywhere—the Internet, the cinema, TV shows and commercials, computer games—everywhere. The skills you’ll learn will get you started on your way to a lucrative career designing animated graphics and special effects for one of these fun and exciting fields.
During this course, we’ll create a full-blown Flash application, complete with animated text and graphics, and interactive buttons. We’ll start by going over the Flash workspace, creating text and graphics, and animating objects on the Flash movie stage. Then, we’ll look in detail at the anatomy of a Flash movie—how to use the Flash timeline, layers and frames to control objects and timing on the stage.
While you can create an entire movie in Flash, most often you’ll need to import graphics, sounds, and digital videos from other applications. While creating your first Flash movie, you’ll learn how to format and embed external digital media and how to make them appear or play at specific times. We’ll also look at controlling digital media based on specific events, such as end user mouse clicks.
No course on Flash is complete without an introduction to ActionScript, Flash’s powerful programming language. We’ll get our hands dirty, creating interactive buttons with ActionScript 3.0. You’ll also learn to write scripts that control movie flow, and scripts that call to and load external videos, Web pages, and other Flash movie files.
As we create our movie, we’ll go over creating and animating 3-D objects, syncing sounds with animations, and publishing your Flash movies to the Internet. By the end of the course, you’ll know how to create and publish Flash movies and applications, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a Flash designer.
Here a few links to some movies showing you the kinds of things you’ll learn in this course:
- Using Photoshop Layers in Flash CS4
- Creating Simultaneous Fades in Flash CS4
- Creating Fade Affects in Adobe Flash CS4
- Sliding an Object on to the Stage in Flash CS4
- Using Shape Tweens in Adobe Flash CS4
- Docking Panels in Adobe Flash CS4
Here’s an example of the kinds of techniques you’ll learn during the course:
Again, the course is available on the Ed2Go network of schools, about 2500 colleges and universities, and the course carries full college credit. Check to see if your school offers the course or go to Ed2Go’s school list to find a course provider.
Hope to see you there.
William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com
Since my last post on upgrading from Vista to Windows 7, I (and many others) have experienced a number of snafus, ranging from the mildly annoying, to disastrous. In any case, the upgrade issues that arise during and after the upgrade process are at the least frustrating and incredible time wasters.
In last week’s Communication Technology Watch post about the upgrade experience, Installing Windows 7 – Not so Easy, I recounted some of the issues I encountered during the upgrade. Today we’ll look at some of the residual problems I have had to spend a few hours figuring out.
Compatibility Issues
During the upgrade process, Windows 7 checks to see if any of your programs are incompatible. Well, it did that for me, but missed one. After the upgrade finished, I started having trouble with my Internet connection. Windows 7 couldn’t communicate with the Windows 7 validation or Windows Update servers. I kept getting errors telling me that my serial number couldn’t validate; I should call Microsoft (eh!). Thinking that maybe a Win 7 update might solve the problem, I ran Windows Update, only to get an error telling me that either the Windows servers were too busy or there was something wrong with my firewall. Also, I could no longer download files successfully from my browser. The download would go all the way to the end, give me a message that I had one second left, and then hang. The few times the files did download successfully, they were corrupt.
None of the Troubleshooter solutions worked. I was pulling my hair out. I was beginning to think that the upgrade had failed, and was just getting ready to install Win 7 fresh on another computer. As a last ditch, I decided to go through my running services. To my dismay, I found an old antivirus program running that had been disabled for at least a year.
Attempts to stop the service or install the program proved futile. All the service control options, Start, Stop, Automatic, Manual, and Disable, were grayed out. During the uninstall process, I got an error that the program could only be uninstalled under XP or Vista. I was starting to think I was screwed.
I was able to stop the service in Safe Mode, but still can’t get it uninstalled.
Peripheral Woes
Within a day or two after the upgrade, I started having trouble with some peripherals and my video adaptor. My Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and mouse began disconnecting intermittently and some graphics programs wouldn’t display properly. It seems that, even though Windows 7 drivers are available for these devices, the upgrade utility decided to use the same Vista drivers already installed on my computer. Now that, my friends, is just downright neglect on Microsoft’s part.
Complaints from the World at Large
Apparently, my problems so far are fairly minor, compared to what some others are reporting. Checkout this link to cio.com for some real upgrade problems:
http://www.cio.com/article/506323/Users_Should_Delay_Windows_7_Upgrade_Support_Firm_Warns?page=2
A survey over at Gizmodo reports that about 20 percent of the upgrades have been troublesome. This is surely much better than the Vista release, but still, one in five!
http://gizmodo.com/5390991/over-80-of-you-had-a-smooth-windows-7-install-experience
William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com
I’ve been using Windows since before Windows 3.1, which is when this unruly beast finally became functional. You can’t imagine what it was like running PageMaker and Photoshop on machines that sometimes took a full minute or so for screen redraws. Crashes were a regular occurrence, driving me nuts and making me wonder why I bothered. Finally, with version 3.1, Windows became relatively stable and PCs were almost fast enough to run the struggling OS comfortably. Now, over 20 years later, here we are at version 7. As usual, Microsoft and pundits are touting it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. But we’ve heard that before…
With each Windows release the everyday enduser encounters numerous serious issues that don’t turn up during development and testing–upgrade issues, program compatibility issues, performance issues, security issues, you name it. Let’s face it, Vista was a disaster. Even after Service Pack 2, it’s still a bloated dog.
So, the question is, is Windows 7 what Vista should have been?
So far, my experience with Windows 7 has been relatively positive. But then, I doubt that I am the average PC user. (In fact, I doubt there really is such a thing as an average PC user.)
So, instead of simply recounting my limited experience with the new OS, let’s also take a look at what others are saying about Microsoft’s latest OS.
One thing we should all know by now is that moving to a new version of Windows will undoubtedly be an adventure, a test of our patience and fortitude.
Another Convoluted Edition Scheme
As with Vista, Microsoft has once again come up with an elaborate Edition scheme to confuse you and relieve you of more of your money. The more you need your computer to do, the more Widows 7 will cost you. Oh how I long for the days when all you had to do was buy and install Windows, without trying to figure out what level of user you are. This time, at least, there are only three Editions (so, Microsoft knows we don’t like this whole edition thing). Rather than go over all three and what they allow you to do, here is a link to a page on Microsoft’s site comparing them:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare
Speed and Stability
Several testers, including Microsoft, are touting Windows 7’s speed. Microsoft’s ads are calling it “snappy.” There’s a lot of hype out there about faster boot speed. Here’s an article about how fast the new OS boots:
http://windows7news.com/2008/11/11/windows-7-boot-speed-benchmark/
Most of the tests I’ve seen test how long it takes to display the desktop. But these tests are done primarily without virus and other software installed. Besides, just getting to the desktop is half the battle. Vista displays the desktop rather quickly, but the OS continues loading long after that. In fact, programs are slow to open and sluggish for quite some time after the operating system “boots”, to the point where Windows is nearly unusable for several minutes.
The real issue is, of course, how fast will programs load and perform their magic. Outlook, for example, is sluggish under Vista, and always misbehaving. We won’t know until the OS is released and running in real world environments how nice Windows 7 plays on PCs with various configurations.
Granted, Microsoft’s beta environment and sampling is much more sophisticated than with previous releases, but haven’t we heard that before?
My experience so far is that the new OS seems fairly stable. No real problems with crashing. Here’s an article from a guy with similar experience:
http://www.benhblog.com/2009/01/windows-7-beta-stability-is-solid.html
Notice, though, that Ben had trouble with one of his programs, which takes us to the next issue.
Program Compatibility
More often than not, upgrading Windows means also upgrading several programs, or running them in compatibility mode. Here’s an example of some experiences people have had running Photoshop CS4 in Windows 7.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=720420
I haven’t had a lot of trouble with the graphics and design software I run, mostly Adobe products. And it really looks like most applications will run alright in Windows 7. Here are a few sights where people are listing their experience with various programs:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=150360
http://www.joejoe.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=17767
New Features
So, we upgrade software to get new features, right? Well, Windows 7 has a bunch of those. Even Vista was easier to use than XP, once you found everything. And that’s the issue again. Microsoft seems to move things around and change how things are done for no apparent reason. A classic example is Office 2007. Does anybody know why it’s so different from previous versions?
Many things are different in Windows 7. For example, you setup dual monitors in an all new way. So, there is always a learning curve.
Anyway, I found most of the new features useful, though nothing to get excited about. Here is a list of the new stuff:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features
So far, it looks like Windows 7 is relatively stable, fast, and pretty slick. But I’ve said that before about other upgrades. We’ll see…
William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com
