I’m being a tad sarcastic. IE8 is looking more like Firefox. Originality is overrated.

I now believe there are no limits after viewing this huge query….

1. I installed Silverlight 2 in a few seconds.

2. It just works in Firefox.

3. Not an error in sight.

4. I tried the DeepZoom example and it worked in Firefox.

The DeepZoom ativity is useful within an educational context. Students can explore large images in a Problem Based Learning setting - medical, geographic, artwork, etc. Quick somebody make an extension/plugin for Moodle, Blackboard, etc.. Download the Deep Zoom Composer, if you’d like to explore these concepts.

Deep Zoom is possible thanks to the Multiscaleimage control. Controls are the key to the future success of Silverlight. We need simple to use controls that go beyond buttons and textboxes.

Do you know what superhydrophobic is? If not check out this vid on the Nokia Morph Concept. Seriously, this vid is very interesting- imagine a device that can morph into what ever you want it to be. I feel inspired to do some study in Nanotechnology. Oxford offers an Online postgraduate certificate on the subject…

Having a degree with ‘micro’ in the title feels dated now!!!!

BTW - I have an as yet un-used degree in microelectronic engineering.

Note: I called the tool I built to port content from a proprietary LMS to Blackboard, Morph. So I am happy the we finally have a good Morph that is superhydrophobic as well.

I must be impressed - I have added a nanotechnology tag.

I’ve been trying to use XSL-FO from various .NET components to render PDF without much success. Solutions seem either too pricey, are Java ports (iText and FOP) that have not been active since 2003 or don’t seem to be compliant with the XSL-FO spec.

I’d really like an affordable and user friendly tool that would allow a designer to create a template/stylesheet. I don’t really want to constrain the creativity of the designer! …And I don’t want to spend hours fidgeting with layout each time the design changes. 

I am almost thinking that I need to render Word documents and then use a PDF print driver to get the quality that I am after.

I’ve had nothing to do with a ‘Web-based Text Editor’ for over a year. I feel lucky! If you are not so lucky, check out this review of 9 popular editors.

Wow - Atlassian, have just announced that are going to allow staff to work on pet projects for 20% of the working week. This is awesome and I await to see what gets produced at the end of the 6 month trial period. Atlassian is still trying to figure out how/when this 20% can be used? I have a radical idea! Why not follow on from 37signals, where a 4 day week has just been introduced. 20% of time = 1 day a week. So pick a day and let all engineers do their own thing on that day. It should at least take care of scheduling conflicts.

It runs for 1 minute and 6 seconds. It has mostly still frames. Still frames of a logo. A logo for not just any movie. A Disney movie that in its 3rd iteration will debut on the big screen. It’s been viewed 252, 039 (and counting) times. I present to you the "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" logo rendered on multiple frames to make a video. When a standalone image is not enough…..

New approaches to teaching programming skills are always welcome, it is after all a difficult skill to master. I am pleased to announce a method that definitely has the moves. A plus side is that the next generation of programmers, could also be tomorrows music video choreographers. Check out Crocodile ICT which aims to teach programming using dance….

A couple of years ago I encountered software to assist with "Critical Thinking" and "Analysis" called Reason!Able. I am glad to report that this Australian software product has come along in leaps and bounds; and is now called Rationale. Worth a look if your are trying to embed critical thinking, analysis and knowledge construction activities within a course.

The Newsletter for Rationale is called Ratatouille. I guess "Anyone can Analyse". If you don’t get this terrible joke you need to go see Ratatouille the movie about the rat that is an amazing chef.

I guess I should mention that Rationale is .NET based and I think it uses WPF. This is second Australian made concept mapping/mind mapping product I have encountered this year - NovaMind being the first with a version in WPF. Makes me more excited to learn WPF!