I’m too busy *doing* the things I would want to blog about, like getting a virtual machine working as a LAMP server for the first time (it has just become easier, I don’t think I learned anything new). Or, I updated the design of a Plone site recently which was a really engaging project. Being really busy can cause burn out but a sudden lack of business can be kind of a comedown. I want to get personal and technical without complaining even though I’m so quick witted when I do it. Argh.

The Dramatic Content Rotator in Action

Check it out. The drama comes from it starting all white. Then, bam, rotating box! Does it work for you?

Download Source Files

skills_src.zip – this be free but the tools cost money…

Tools

• Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
• Adobe Flash CS3 Professional (and its “FLVPlayback Component”)
• Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder

Background

In my post on December 8 I referred to my reflecting back on 2011. My mind returns to the questions, “What have I done with my time?” and, “What have I got to show for it?” Please suffice it to say I have had some copious stints of free time, and fortunately, I have work to show for it.

A former supervisor recently accused me of staying, “… current and up-to-date with new technologies,” in a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile and I did not make exceptions in 2011.

My last work-issued PC had Microsoft Office 2007 and I had barely managed to get my hands on Office 2010 when I was laid off with other IT staff in an org-wide downsize. I was craving exposure to Office 2010 though after spending so many hours producing training videos in PowerPoint. I had a personal need to check out the new slide transitions—even the prerequisite lame ones—as well as the video export capabilities.

It had been too long since I opened Flash, too.

General Procedure

1. Create four black slides with a white slide at the start and end, tweaking the timing until it is as mesmerizing as a lava lamp.
2. Create a WMV movie in PowerPoint’s “backstage view.”
3. Convert the WMV to Flash Video (FLV) with the Flash Video Encoder.
4. In Flash CS3, “File” » “Import” » “Import Video”. In my demo the SWF file progressively downloads the FLV.
5. Publish!

A couple of notes: 1) the loop is accomplished with ActionScript 2.0 applied to the FLVPlayback Component on the stage with this one line:
on (complete){ this.autoRewind=true; this.play(); }
2) to create the player without controls, set the, “skin,” parameter to, “none,” in the Parameters palette while the Component is selected. If it’s your first time using the component you can see some decent skins available.

Conclusion

As a content solution I don’t consider it the zenith of elegance, but that’s not what I was after. I wanted to create something visually interesting while getting my hands dirty with PowerPoint 2010 and Flash &amp Flash Video. If it’s of any use to you, I’ll be tickled. If you actually bought PowerPoint and own Flash Professional CS3 or later, I hope you didn’t pay full retail but bless you if you did, moneybags.

Let’s see… WordPress 3.3 hasn’t messed anything up that I can tell and I’m slowly figuring out Facebook apps. It is kind of for its own sake. One of my most influential mentors writes, “There’s no better way to keep current in a field like new media than being a practitioner with demanding clients and real problems to solve.” I’m looking for a challenge here save for starting my own business. That’s not what I’m about right now, and that’s okay!

I have a fistful of useful links to Facebook/WordPress resources. It is satisfying to be putting them to use… this one in particular: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1138460/how-does-facebook-sharer-select-images

I invoke the phrase, “worth my salt,” when I describe myself and my work. My choosing the phrase comes partly from reading articles whose topics overlap with my interests (like here and here). “Worth my salt,” is a passable phrase for describing myself as a professional but it no longer seems an apt title for my blog and portfolio at zmwilliams.com.

While the salty phrase in question seems common enough, I’ve encountered an appreciable number of people who have never heard it. Moreover, one of several goals in maintaining my website is to show you I am worth engaging as a professional and show you the work that has delighted its commissioning stakeholders. Someone with as much communications training as I’ve had knows that showing is far more effective than telling. “Worth My Salt,” as a title, seems more like telling and quite possibly draws attention away from my precious content.

As 2011 closes, I’m reflecting on 365.25 days marked by a variety of departures from what I took for granted as status quo. My eyes are fixed upon personal and professional improvement, as always, as I cope with these departures in creative ways. A step in that direction is an effort to make my personal brand clean and straightforward and to show you my work is compelling. So, sincere thanks for visiting my newly self-titled site that matches the self-titled web address I’ve had all along. My work on zmwilliams.com has only just begun.

What do you post when you haven’t posted in a long time? I say hit, “Publish” on a post into which you’ve already put a decent amount of time. These scans come from an impulse buy at Philly AIDS Thrift.

… and my dad likes it. We both like JS Bach.

Bach Inventions No.s. 8 and 13 by zmwilliams

This is here pretty much for him. I had it up using a Flash-based mp3 player from http://www.realitysoftware.ca/—who I need to take a moment to write has bad customer service. There is no harm in sharing it here. Not that it’s like me to show off, but maybe I should think about starting.

I’ve wanted to really check out Dreamweaver CS 5.5. It’s kind of a mammoth, but so are lots of IDEs out there. The capability to edit CMS themes, focusing on WordPress in particular, intrigued me as it is advertised on the box as a central feature. Having evaluated a variety of CSS editors, it is cool to see what Skybound calls the “bullseye” feature and Dreamweaver, less excitingly, calls, “Inspect.”

Wow. I set about changing up some things September 2 on my site here and I bit off a lot to chew. For the most part I feel accomplished and armed with more intimate knowledge of WordPress’ workings; but some enhancements and additions will have to wait for round 2 so I can spend some time job hunting which *is* the whole point of my existence at the very moment. I feel satisfied to report the following progress:

• Rework my Web Portfolio: I pushed myself to bring you a portfolio that is more navigable and interesting than any of my previous tries at the very same. The portfolio pieces employ various means, like Highslide to enhance image viewing experiences and Deep Zoom Composer to make the experience possible. How else might I show you a center spread feature story without the help of something like Deep Zoom?
• I really wanted to do something Flashy. Literally, like with Flash… as well as PowerPoint. I ended up with this animation but it didn’t have a place on the site yet and it looks too funky to justify the size of the movie file. But, I got my wish: to play with PowerPoint 2010 and Flash!
• My blog got some treatment but not all that I had hoped. I got some templates straightened out and I learned a LOT about WordPress (query_posts() changes the entire query, I get it now). But, I don’t have time to do much else with it. I’m trying to balance learning with the many other things I have to be doing.

In a couple of months I’ll revisit the whole thing and see about making a proper archive and working out my navigation between older and newer posts. For now I’m just flying with “Posts by Category.” I don’t think I can press any more words at the moment, so, good day. :)