Hello readers, it's time for you guys to have some input into the future directions for Passy World in 2010.
The above graph is what we suspect might be the composition of our Blog readers. But really we don't know, it just produced a nice shape in Excel 2007 when we played around with it.
Over in the right hand column of this page, you will notice a Survey asking you why you like to visit Passy's World of ICT.
Please go and click a single response right now, based on what material you have found most interesting and useful on our Website.
This survey will run for the next few weeks, and we also have upcoming plans for a more comprehensive online survey, probably using something like "Survey Monkey".
If you want to know how to put a survey onto the side bar of a Blog, then here are some detailed step by step instructions:
If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:
Thankyou for participating in our Annual Survey. Please only vote once in this survey, and if you have other ideas for us for 2010, then drop us an email at the hotmail address shown down the bottom of the right hand sidebar in the "Contact Us" section.
NOTE: It takes a few seconds for all the components to load in and the car to become drivable. Also make sure you click your mouse onto the car to activate the game window, and then keep pushing the arrow keys until the car starts moving.
To play the above Flash game, use the up arrow to drive forwards, and the left and right arrows to turn and steer. Hold down both Up and left at the same time to make the car drive around in circles.
Be careful because the car can drive right off the screen ! Sometimes it reappears, but usually it does not.
This "move and rotate" game was made by following the instructions in Gary Rosenzweig's excellent book: "Actionscript 3.0 Game Programming University". I followed his code, but got my own sprite for the car from the Google Images on the web, and used a computer game map as the background.
Both of these images were first modified using Adobe Fireworks, before importing them into Flash CS3.
Gary has several other great games to make in his book, and a set of accompanying resource files that can be downloaded from the web. I am having great fun working through his book, and might put some more of his games up here in future posts.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Actionscript 3.0 Flash programming, because the book is brilliant! It has very clear and progressive step by step projects, and contains really well thought out and fun games to make with Adobe Flash CS3.
The following PDF gives a brief explanation of how the Trigonometry math works in the car driving project.
If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:
Okay it's "Friday Funnies" time again, and this week the theme involves taking a look at our nearest and dearest relatives: the monkeys.
First up, we have a classic compilation from YouTube of the "Trunk Monkey" TV advertisments from the good old USA. These have entertained millions of people around the world, and so I am certain that you will enjoy them as well.
Okay, how about a funny monkey joke, (to flex the old cheek smiling muscles):
A young pet monkey had an accident and needed a brain transplant. The veterinarian told the monkey's human family, "Brains are very expensive, and you will have to pay the cost yourselves."
"Well, how much does a brain cost?" asked the family.
"For a male brain, $500,000. For a female brain, $200,000," replied the vet.
All the men in the family nodded because they thought they understood. But the mother was unsatisfied and asked, "Why the difference in price between male and female brains?"
"Standard pricing practice," said the vet. "The female brains have to be marked down because they’ve actually been used!".
This joke came from a site with a great collection of Monkey jokes at: http://www.monkeymatters.com/jokes.htm It even has this set of bananas that chase your mouse around the screen..... really cute.... check it out.
"The Arctic Monkeys" are a band with some darn good tunes, and here is one of their finest in a very neat little homemade music video from YouTube:
Enough of this monkeying around, Go and have a great weekend, I'm off to get some more bananas !
The bounds of ICT are limitless indeed, especially when looking at Christmas Gifts. Some observers are even saying that this is the "killer" software application of the year !
The new one here for 2009 is the "Barbie Doll'd Up Nails", also known as the "Barbie Nails Digital Nail Printer".
This exciting new technology involves a special printer that prints patterns directly onto fingernails.
Expensive professional digital nail printers have been used in nail salons for a while, but this is the first time a domestic machine has been made available to the general public.
The printer uses thermal inkjet technology combined with a specially-formulated cosmetic grade ink to print directly on the nail surface in full color. You simply place your finger in the specially designed finger slot, a digital camera takes a live shot of the nail and shows on screen where the design will print. The ink is sprayed on at close range by the printer, but does not actually touch the fingernail.
The software comes with its own easy-to-install disc, (but requires that your computer to have Flash ActiveX installed - free from Adobe).
Patterns that are available include: pictures, logos, flowers, stripes, waves, and words. You can even upload your own images and use them. There are also patterns available for Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and other special occasions.
The full working setup is shown in the following 30 second advertisement:
Note that the cute pink colored laptop does not come with the Doll'd up nails kit, and you do need to use your own computer to run the software. (Unless you've got a particularly large Christmas Bonus and want to buy a pink laptop to match).
Doll'd Up does however come with three bottles of nail polish. One is white nail polish that users need to paint on their nails as a base. The second is a bonding material that is applied on top of the base. Finally, there is clear nail polish that is applied on top to protect the printed pattern. The only thing not included is nail polish remover.
So if you know a Barbie Girl, living in her Barbie World, then this is THE GIFT for her.
Here at Passy World we have finally upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007. The reason we had to wait so long was because we still had clients on 2003, but at last it seems we are all on the same release.
The install went super smoothly, and the new Office 2007 apps, had all of our Dafont fonts in them, as well as full interfacing with our CS3 version of Adobe Acrobat. The only problem we had was that our Creative Sound Card had horrible "hissy" output and had to be reset to default, and then reconfigured manually.
Microsoft Word is fabulous, but there are some familiar 2003 tasks, that we found difficult to figure out how to do in Word 2007. In particular, page footers with "Page X of Y" on them were not easily figured out.
However the Microsoft Online Help resources on the web are excellent, and so far we have been able to find answers to all of our questions.
Here is a Slideshare slideshow we made about our introductory Word 2007 experience. Click on the bottom row "full" icon to go fullscreen, and when finished press the Escape key to return to this Blog.
The following PDF is the definitive Guide for Word 2007.
It has lots of useful links in it to help anyone become proficient with the new Word.
If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:
Open Office.Org did not like opening Powerpoint 2007 presentations, (all loaded up as a mess), so we downloaded the latest version of Open Office 3.1.1. This worked a bit better, but still all of the screen print picture croppings, font sizes, gradients, etc were all lost.
HOWEVER, if we use PowerPoint 2007 to save our presentation in 2003 format, then Open Office.org opens it up and copes with it really well.
This means that PowerPoint 2007 presentations can be saved to 2003 format, and then loaded in Open Office, saved as ODF format, and then exported into .SWF files using Open Office. (But only if we do NOT have cropped pictures in the original PowerPoint. If we do have cropped pictures, they all uncrop and make a big mess when exported to SWF format using Open Office).
If it is ok in format, we can then use the .SWF version on web pages, like we used to do with Powerpoint 2003 presentations. If it is not ok in the SWF, then simply join up for free with Slideshare.net and upload your PowerPoint like we did for this blog post.
So that's enough words about Word 2007 from me. Once you have found your way around Word 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and Excel 2007 should be quite easy to transition into.
Okay, stop drooling at the girl and take a look at what she is standing on. It's my favorite new game discovery: a Wii skateboard.
I tried one out at a computer conference recently, and it was excellent fun !
You scooter along to get up speed, and then do all types of tricks, my favorite ones being on the "half pipe", as shown below:
Image Source: http://dyn.ifilm.com
Skateboarding is part of the "Wii Fit Plus" pack. This pack is comprised mostly of mini-games. There are fifteen games in all, including table tilt, skateboarding and snowball fights, as well as yoga and strength workouts.
There are also Mario-style obstacle courses. These platform games require you to actively run past hazards and jump over gaps, sometimes on ice or conveyor belts, as shown in the screen shots from the web below.
Image Source: http://img4.ifilmpro.com
Image Source: http://img4.ifilmpro.com
After each activity, Wii Fit Plus estimates how many calories you've burned, and you can view a chart to see how that relates to different foods, as well as set and track daily goals.
Another great game on the Wii is 3-on-3 Basketball. The Wii MotionPlus demands precision and won't let you score with limp-wristed reckless shots; you really need to arc the ball and give it your best effort. Probably not as much physical exercise as the real game, but the fun factor is definitely there!
Image Source: http://www.videogamesblogger.com
The basketball game is part of the "Wii Sports Resort" pack, which also has Table Tennis, Golf, and Archery.
Image Source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com
It sure would be nice around the end of this month to see a Wii under the Christmas Tree, but if not, then maybe at the post Christmas sales, Passy might just skate away with one ?
It's the end of the week, and definitely now is the time to put a smile on the dial..... Hopefully this blog post will help do it for you.
Even the real "Miss Piggy" and her friends, (pictured above), found this post absolutely hilarious !
The first item is the Muppets Version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" (steadily working it's way up towards 9 million views on You Tube).
And for those with a passion for classical music: Here is the Muppets "Ode to Joy":
Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest classical composers, wrote "Ode to Joy" towards the end of his career. He was deaf and ill and had suffered much in his lifetime. Yet he was able to compose this magnificent piece by hearing it in his head. He never heard it played.
It is said that at its premiere performance, Beethoven was conducting and it wasn’t until he turned to the audience at the end and saw them standing and applauding and yelling out praise and emotion, that he knew that this wonderful Ode to Joy was felt by all who heard it, as he had felt it, in his head when he heard it. Definitely one of the most uplifting and magnificent pieces of music ever written.
Okay, with all this Muppetering, you might as well do the Online Muppets personality test : "Which Muppet are You ?"
(Note that when you submit your test answers, it takes a couple of minutes for the answer to arrive).
Source: http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/muppets/
I won't tell you about which Muppet I turned out to be, other than he was very green in colour.
And finally, here is a classical Ludwig van Beethoven Joke :
"A tourist in Vienna is going through a graveyard and all of a sudden he hears some music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source. He finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: "Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827." Then he realizes that the music is the Ninth Symphony and it is being played backward!
Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him.
By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed. This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece, it is being played backward. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar.
When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backward. The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th.
By the next day the word has spread and a throng has gathered around the grave. They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backward.
Just then the graveyard's caretaker ambles up to the group. Someone in the crowd asks him if he has an explanation for the music.
"Don't you people get it?" the caretaker says incredulously. "He's decomposing!"
