Happy New Year 2012!

I'm looking forward to a great New Year 2012 and I hope everyone else is and we all get a happy and prosperous New Year!

I finished last year with a bad case of flu that I am just slowly recovering from now but I have many plans for my blogging this year.

I know this is another New Years resolution, to do better at blogging, but I am determined now and throughout the year to do it!

I am so keen on this I just had to put this post straight up without thinking too much about content etc. It is good to post spontaneously sometimes and this is one such moment.

Recently I have been coding away. My projects still include HTML5 & PHP and I am now looking at FLASH and AIR! I have also been sharpening up my video producing skills-so talented-LOL! Anyways I have a lot to keep me going and it is all very interesting.

In brief on the blogging front I hope to be opening my new blogging site very soon and I am looking forward to programming tools for it.

Hopefully soon I shall be getting somewhere with my chess project goal and releasing details but that is not as urgent as my blogging project. So I am looking forward to the coming New Year on the World Wide Web! Stay tuned here for further breaking news

Mum, Dad, & baby Gill Africa c1959

RIP Douglas John Ronald Dickinson

A month since my last post about my new html5 drag and drop chessboard!
The chessboard still does not have satisfactory html5 drag and drop.
I have researched for help with this on GOOGLE search of course and left posts for help on several programming type websites (eg Sitepoint/StackOverflow & Twitter tweets!)-yet so far I have not solved the problem.

I will solve this even if it takes a long time! Meanwhile if any can help me with it I would be most grateful!

STOP PRESS!!:

Just after posting this I have had a really helpful reply from Xavi on StackOverflow:

The reason the <li/> is being moved (thus rearranging the chess board) is because in your drop function is calling appendChild:

function drop(event) {     var element = event.dataTransfer.getData("Text");     // This changes the DOM     event.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(element));     event.stopPropagation();     return false; } 

Instead of moving that actual DOM node, the drop function should copy the innerHTML of the node that’s being dragged. Here’s how the new drop would look function:

function drop(event) {     var coordinate = event.dataTransfer.getData("Text");     var element = document.getElementById(coordinate);     event.target.innerHTML = element.innerHTML; // Moving piece to new cell     element.innerHTML = ""; // Clearing old cell     event.stopPropagation(); // Consider using `event.preventDefault` instead     return false; } 

Also, I’d consider using event.preventDfault instead of event.stopPropagation. This makes it possible to add new drop listeners to the board or one of its parents. For example you may want to add a drop listener to the document body to handle the case where a user tries to drag a piece off the board.

As general remark, have you considering using jQueryUI draggable and droppable libraries? You’d be able to support much richer drag/drop interactions such as snap-to-grid movement and delayed starts. Also, HTML5 drag-and-drop is typically used to allow users to drag files from their OS desktop onto the a web page. The way your using it is totally fine, it’s just a little strange.

 

Thanks Xavi-
I am just going to edit my html5 chessboard code….& will post back my results……

End STOP PRESS…

I have enjoyed learning a little about html5 Canvas element as a side product of my research into Html5 DragnDrop.
Html5 really rocks! I look forward to using the canvas tags to make my drawing canvas and letting my artistic talent run wild! Hopefully I can even get Drag and Drop to work with it too!

HTML5 Canvas Demo:
see: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-html5canvas/

Change the subject_BuddyPress forum

Today I tried to add a BuddyPress forum to my blog but that needs further work!
Hopeful it should be ready soon (the joys of technology!)…..

Well it is somewhile since my last post. Why is that? Well it is because I was doing some website coding which has taken me longer than I anticipated!

I had been converting a static website to a WordPress site for the junior chess club I am webmaster too.
That was quite straightforward but the issue I have had is adding a chess game to the site. WordPress has 2 fine plugins to play through chess games but there is no plugin to play chess against an engine-ie a chess computer program. The nearest I found on the internet was Html5Chess at SourceForge. Then difficulties arose integrating this into the WordPress site and I started to look at the coding for this and while I am reasonably familiar & competent with HTML5 there was a lot of JavaScript included!

Html5 DragnDrop Chessboard

So my JavaScript coding skills are not great and I have been trying to improve them. This is not a great problem as there are many JavaScript tutorials on the internet & it has certain similarities to other programming languages I have some experience with (data handling/variables/objects etc etc).

I have though been stuck over the last few days trying to implement HTML5 Drag and Drop on the Html5/CSS (no tables) chessboard I adapted from HTML5Chess from Sourceforge. I often find that I have to adapt or start from scratch with code while using open source code as a guideline to get what I want from the application.

In the course of my trials with this I find the HTML5 Drag & Drop API does not have the greatest reputation and I have been advised to try jQueryUI Drag and Drop as an alternative. However I still want to get the HTML5 DragnDrop working so I will continue until it does work! I am very stubborn!

I have many other jobs to attend to but I do hope to find time to finish this project & use the chess game on the junior chess club website. I could always then try & produce it in WordPress plugin format!!

Hi

Recently a new friend of mine asked about having sidebar on single posts on WordPress theme TwentyEleven.
This is my theme edit/customisation for this. Please check it out on my demo page @
onlinewpthemetest.richard-dickinson.com

Edit details:
Add to single.php & page.php (just above get_footer code)
Comment out body class function in functions template (functions.php)

I wonder if WordPress will include the ability to have a sidebar in future versions of TwentyEleven?
It seems many people would like this feature. We will have to ask WordPress.org & see if they will!

I will leave this theme here for a little while as a demo-enjoy!

I have recently started to look at video production methods and have just started using Microsoft’s free products for video Expression Encoder 4 & Screen Capture.

ExpressionEncoder4Screencapture is quite useful and can produce a video clip 10 minutes in length. This is produced in .xesc format which can be converted to .wmv format by ExpressionEncoder4 free version (mp4 format needs the EEncoderPro version).

The output .wmv format have 3 types VC1 Advanced/Main/Simple-here is the description (from Encoder4 help file):

1. Click the Encode tab.
2. Set your top-level options in the Encodepanel according to the following guidelines:
   • Output Format This setting specifies the type of file that you will create. You have a choice of Windows Media, MP4, and IIS Smooth Streamingas output formats. When you choose a format, all the other pertinent fields in the panel are automatically populated with the optimal settings for that format.

     Note
     The option of choosing MP4 or IIS Smooth Streaming as an output format is not available in the trial version of Expression Encoder.

   • VideoThis setting specifies the codec to be used for encoding. Select this option to include video in your encoded file. Depending on your format choice, you will have a choice of either VC-1 or H.264 codecs.For the Windows Mediaoutput format, you have four choices of VC-1 codec types. :
     • VC-1 Advanced Choose for high-bit-rate encoding (20 Mb per second and up), though this option is also effective with lower bit rates down to 2 Mb per second.
     • VC-1 Main Choose for bit rates below 20 Mb per second. This option is the most popular WMV profile for web and local playback.
     • VC-1 Simple Choose for bit rates below 400 kb per second. This option is the least difficult profile to decode, so it is appropriate for mobile phones and other devices that may have software-only decoders available. However, the main profile is likely as well suited for these scenarios too. Use the simple profile if you are certain that playback will generally happen in devices that require very low bit rates.
     • Source Choose to retain the codec and settings that the source video was originally encoded with.

     For the MP4 output format, you have three choices of H.264 codec types:

     • H.264-High Choose for high-definition broadcasting and high-quality disc media, such as Blu-ray discs. The high profile adds such encoding improvements as 8 X 8 block support and support for monochrome video.
     • H.264-Main Choose this high-quality profile for most web-based streaming scenarios. Before the advent of the high profile, the main profile was the standard for broadcast and disc storage.
     • H.264-Baseline Choose for mobile devices and playback scenarios requiring very low bandwidths.

     For the IIS Smooth Streaming output format, you can choose VC-1 Advanced, or any of the H.264 codecs described in the preceding section.

   • Please note MP4 not available in free version as stated above

   Here is the link to MS ExpressionEncoder4 free version with Screen Capture4

MS ExpressionEncoder4

When using MSEEScreenCapture4 it is worth knowing about the codec format it uses (MTS2).

See this link for more on this:  EEncoderScreenCapture4 codec info

Quote from that site

“  Microsoft Expression Encoder Screen Capture Codec will install and register the Expression Encoder Screen Capture codec that will allow you to playback the Expression Encoder Screen Capture output (XESC) on machines that do not have Expression Encoder installed. ”

I have today completed the addition of AWeber email signup to my blog-see the AWeber blog signup widget in the sidebar.

All signups presently get my free gift of an HTML5 Salespage Template ideal for IM purposes.

My interest in my blog has been reignited by the IM course IBCX I am presently on. This step of adding a signup was part of my ‘accountability  plan’ which is now completed successfully for the last week!

I will now be adding at least 2 blog posts here a week as part of the 7 Day challenge at IBCX & this will be a challenge-given that I go on holiday tomorrow. I will have to take my laptop with me to add a post & hope the place I am staying in Norfolk has internet access!

Well here is to more posts on technical and general issues….I’m looking forward to it & I hope you will be too!

NB_IMPORTANT-10/08/11
Due to a technical difficulty with the download gift I have had to remove it from my blog & suspend registration-I hope to reinstate this as soon as possible when I have fixed the problem. My apologies

NB_IMPORTANT-13/08/11
Today I have replaced my AWeber blogn list signup. This I hope has been modified and will allow access to subscribers to my free gift-my free Html5 Salespage Template

I have over the last few days created a free gift to give away on my blog!

I intend now to blog regularly and also post freebies to give away. I shall soon add the ‘Freebies’ page.

The free gift I have just made and will be making available for download from here is a FREE HTML5 salespage template.

This should be very useful for all internet marketers.  I will though provide this free gift as a reward for signing up to my blog as I will be doing the interactive approach of sending emails to subscribers.

Later I plan to provide regular email newsletters and really get interactive! I have great plans for sharing my knowledge and experience in marketing, computing and other topics in this way. However before I release this free salespage template I am adding an A Webber opt in form in the sidebar to subscribe to my blog & then receive my free HTML5 salespage template.

In the meantime here is a quick composite screenshot as a preview of the free html5 salespage template:

free html5 salespage template

I have just recently joined an Internet Marketing and mentoring program called ‘InternetBusinessCodeX’ or IBCX for short!

This course is led by Gary Simpson & Garry Parkes, two well known and highly respected bloggers and marketers. These two have great experience through their years online marketing (including seminars with Alex Jeffreys and many other IM contacts). I have already experienced tremendous advice and generosity from these two leaders which is pushing my own Internet Marketing goals forward.

As IBCX has just started I am part of the first course and the members range from IM novices to experienced IM marketers and there is something valuable to gain from this course for anyone even vaguely interested in IM. The list is now building for the next course-if you would like to apply and I highly recommend it click the affiliate banners here on my blog to sign up.
I look forward to seeing you as an Ibcxy/Ibcxies!

I will be blogging more about IBCX as I progress through the course-stay tuned….

Today I changed my blog theme from my original theme (remember?-it was my customisation of Ryan Grabensteiner’s WP theme) to my WordPress theme anIMass!

I had just customised anIMass theme for Hilary’s blog (increasing the content width & adjusting wordwrap on the comments) and I have used this template for anIMass here. I still have some tweaking edits to do to get everything working fully correctly but so far I am pleased with how my WP theme anIMass is (appearance & function) now.

Of course anIMass is available from WP theme directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/animass
anIMass @WPTheme directory link
If you would like to try this WordPress theme then go ahead & download it and if you need help to customise it-just ask me & I will help!

So now I have a new theme for my blog I SHALL be blogging more regularly…..