My Writings. My Thoughts.

How to install IE 7 and keep IE 6

// June 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

As every web developer knows (or should know), testing your work across all major web browsers is part of doing business. My own setup is primarily on OS X using Safari and Firefox, but I also keep Parallels open running Windows XP and IE 6 to quickly catch problems.

But there’s one browser missing — IE 7. Yeah, it’s supposed to be much more in-tune with the rest of the browser world when it comes to supporting web standards, but it’s still lagging behind and buggy. Up until Vista was released I could pretty well ignore IE 7, but those days are gone.

So…just install IE 7 in XP and everything will be fine, right? Wrong. Installing IE 7 deletes IE 6, which is still the dominant Windows browser to test against. I could install a second build of XP as a separate virtual machine in Parallels, but thanks to Microsoft’s draconian activation scheme, that won’t work. Buy Vista? I could, but come on. Plunk down nearly two hundred bucks just to use IE 7? There has to be a better way.

Thankfully, there is. Like the old days of evolt.org’s browser archive, enterprising developers have built a standalone installer for old versions of IE. Here’s how it works — you install IE 7 through Windows Update, which will remove IE 6 from XP. You then download and run the aforementioned installer, and choose what version of IE you want to bring back to life — IE 6, IE 5.5, IE 5 and/or IE 4. I went ahead and installed them all.

The result? Five flavors of IE in XP, each running side by side without any code overlap or problems so far as I can see.

Update: Looks like you can use the same XP license with more than one virtual machine in Parallels, though you may be breaking the license agreement (of XP) in doing so. Anyway, all you need to do is clone your existing XP virtual machine, startup the duplicate, and update it with IE 7. Personally, I’d rather keep just one virtual machine running, and not risk the chance of Microsoft crippling / de-authenticating XP, but the clone option seems to work well for some.

The 10 Commandments of eLearning

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Cath Ellis a fellow eLearning specialist like me, has a great post outlining her Ten Commandments of eLearning. These basic principles, if adhered to, can make a huge difference in whether or not a project will be successful. These principles apply whether you are designing an eLearning course or introducing a new tool for your learners (ex. a blog, wiki, discussion board, etc.).

Here’s a summary of the Ten Commandments, so be sure to read Cath’s post for detailed information on each of the items:

  1. Put the pedagogy (not the technology) first
  2. Be aware of workloads and work patterns (yours and theirs)
  3. Balance risks with safety
  4. Balance obligations with rewards
  5. Make ethics a priority
  6. Model good practice
  7. Make expectations clear
  8. Establish patterns and stick to them
  9. Keep spaces available for students to use and shape to their own needs
  10. Use/develop protocols

Will the iPad change the face of publishing?

// June 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // books, iPhone, rambling

There’s been a lot of hype about the launch of the iPad this week. Many are claiming that the iPad and its iBooks software will save the publishing industry. They’re saying that it will kill the Kindle, the Nook, and every other ebook reader with a nonsensical name.

I say: not gonna happen. And here’s why:

1. Lack of an ePaper display.

This is the deal-breaker for me. Reading on an LCD screen causes eye strain after awhile. Not a big deal if we’re just reading blogs or news sites for a few minutes at a time. But when reading a book, I might sit down for hours at a time to read. With an LCD display, that’s going to cause eye strain. That’s the single biggest reason I would not consider this at all for a viable ebook reader.

The other side effect of not having an epaper screen is that I have to charge the thing every day. With epaper, a charge can last for days or sometimes even weeks. That means if I’m going away for the weekend, I don’t have to carry along a charger with a Kindle or a Nook.

2. Lack of Selection.

The official Kindle store has more than 400,000 books available. Barnes & Noble’s Nook has access to over a million books, newspapers, and periodicals. And that doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands of books available on sites like Smashwords and Fictionwise. The iBooks store currently has titles available from five major publishers. Which probably amounts to a few thousand books (probably more with backlists, but I bet it’s still less than a hundred thousand titles). So if you only read mainstream ebooks, the iBookstore might have everything you’re looking for. But more likely, it won’t. And it’s unclear how well iBooks will play with DRM-free ebooks from other sites.

3. DRM.

If iTunes is any indication, iBooks will have heavy digital rights management. The mainstream publishing industry embraces DRM, but it’s pretty clear that tech-savvy consumers (which is what the iPad is most likely to appeal to) don’t appreciate DRM.

Other Shortcomings

The iBooks software isn’t the only shortcoming the iPad has. First of all, the internal memory is really lacking. Sure, the most expensive version has 64GB of storage, but the base model (the one that’s only $499) only has 16GB. To top that off, there’s no SD slot. Which means I can’t expand that 16GB of storage. I can tell you how long that will last me. About a month if this is something that I’m watching movies on, listening to music on, storing photos on, and reading books on. That’s unacceptable.

The lack of an SD slot also means I have to hook this thing up to a MacBook Pro if I want to transfer photos to it. Which makes that photo software they were showcasing a whole lot less impressive. It doesn’t even have a USB port. Or an HDMI port. That means I can’t hook it up to my TV to watch high definition movies. What’s the !@#$% point?

A Better Alternative

First of all, if you just want a dedicated ebook reader, buy a Kindle. Buy a Nook. Buy an Alex. Don’t buy an iPad. If you want a giant iPod Touch, then buy an iPad.

The good news is that there’s a better alternative only a few months away. A company called Pixel Qi has come out with a new transflective display. What this means is that the display does double-duty. Let’s say you want to watch a movie. Then you use the display as a standard LCD. But then let’s say you want to read a book. You simply switch it over to epaper mode! And if you’re trying to surf the web in bright sunlight, then you can switch it over to transflective mode, which has less saturated color, but is easier to read in direct light.

And there’s a company based in India, Notion Ink, that has created a tablet that uses this new display. It runs on the open source Android platform, which means there are plenty of apps available, and it’s easy enough to learn to code them yourself. The best part? It’ll have expandable storage and it’s expected to retail for only $325. This is what I’ll be waiting for.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »