Miguel Mascorro's Blog

HYPE Framework

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:04:48 -0500

Branden Hall and Joshua Davis have released a new framework based on their previous work to bring back the fun and art to Flash. Check out the samples and download the source. They're even running a contest until Dec. 13.

Intro to Facebook Connect

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:31:44 -0400

I recently investigated the Facebook API and ended up using Facebook Connect to let our students post to their walls after they finish evaluating a course. Because of the large amount of information in the Facebook Developer Wiki, I decided to make a short tutorial, not only for my future reference, but for anyone else looking to get started with creating new social interactions on their web sites and apps.

Geolocation API in HTML 5

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:55:08 -0400

Now that HTML 5 is starting to trickle into browsers, it's time to start learning about some of the new features. The first thing to catch my eye is the Geolocation API. If you have already downloaded Firefox 3.5, or have Mobile Safari on iPhone OS 3.0, you can immediately view the test page I have created. Your browser will ask for your permission to share your location and then you can click on the link which will show your location on Google Maps.
You could easily use the Google Maps API on the same page, but I kept it simple to see how little code is required to get latitude and longitude coordinates. If the browser doesn't have access to gps or wifi access point information, the location is good to the city level. Your mileage may vary.

Firefox Reference

Safari Reference

W3C Geolocation API Specification Draft

Publishing Captivate Content to Mobile Devices

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:19:49 -0400

Flash is still not on every mobile device out on the market right now, so it can be hard to get to existing Captivate training material anywhere, anytime. With Captivate 4, you can now publish to video, and with some video encoding tools, you can make mobile friendly video files. This is especially useful in large organizations that give out Blackberrys and other smart phones to large numbers of employees.

View the video

Use virtual machines to test different IE versions

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:46:57 -0400

Since we're still stuck with IE6 for a little while longer, we need to now test for three versions of Internet Explorer. Surprisingly, Microsoft has actually been distributing whole XP virtual machines for IE 6, 7 and 8. They do expire every few months, but they have been releasing updated images when appropriate.
Of course, these are in Microsoft's Virtual PC format, which is free on Windows. On Mac, there are virtual machine converters, so it may take a little work to get them going.
IE VPC Images