I’m not sure how much support for html5 the xbox 360 web browser has? It would be cool to try it out with something like PrimaryPad
I would love to see if kids are quicker are typing with a keyboard or an xbox 360 controller.
Category: ICT
Canvas LMS by Instructure
So a new LMS came out, this time it’s open source and they mean business..
So I did an install guide:
Then I did a quick getting to know video:
What I like:
- The fact the developers are all on IRC and easily reachable.
- That the project is open source
- It’s relatively slick
What I don’t like:
- The sales/marketing video is a bit overly hyped and is going from one LMS to another really change?
- The name.. Really? Canvas!?! Do they realize how hard that is going to be to SEO?
- The docs only cover ubuntu/debian 🙁
- There is no apt package for the entire lot (I’m lazy)
- It’s super CPU heavy
- There are some bugs from the get go.
Why I’m making a game before my next project
Primary Technology is a good place to work, the main reason being is that I have a lot of freedom to be creative. The ability to be creative means I get to work with a lot of different platforms and technologies. The next project I have been asked to do is a “web based really real time light-weight open source collaborative sticky note tool” AKA PrimaryWall. o_O
So let’s break that down… Web based, easy.. Really real time, not so easy when using conventions… light-weight, easy-ish.. open source, sort of easy.. collaborative, not so easy…
I could go ahead and make something with AJAX & Apache but it wouldn’t be as really real time as a lot of genuine really-real time so I’m going to be better off using NodeJS and Web Sockets. I did an example using Socket and Node a week or so ago that really got me thinking about how I can/could apply what I had learned to the projects I work on at Primary Technology.
The biggest problem I face is my lack of experience with Javascript. If I went straight into building PrimaryWall I would probably build it in a linear fashion and that would suck for an open source project because it wouldn’t feel appropriately structured.. Sure I “could” structure it all out based on what I know so far but I feel like I should do a test first and that test is to build a game using the same structure and hopefully at the same time build my knowledge of NodeJS, WebSocket + Javascript.
So I have 4 weeks to build a game then 4 weeks to build PrimaryWall (It is due at the end of March). The game will be called either “Tag” or “You’re it” and will be a simple multi-mouse game where moving the mouse is all that is required to play.
Any developers that read this think that I’m wasting my time and should just go for it?
I think this post is mostly me justifying spending the next month building a game that has been ultimately funded by the public sector.. I know this may seem a little strange but NodeJS is relatively new and so is Javascript and I really need to learn before I create as to create something that is worthwhile for other people to contribute towards….
Getting to grips with Channels in Ajax Chat
Channels in Ajax chat are really poorly documented so I wanted an easy place for you to get started.
The first thing you should know is that just adding new channels to lib/data/channels.php WILL NOT make them visible to users. To make channels visible to users you must edit lib/users.php and add the relative channelID to the user account. You can test this by logging in as admin (default password is admin). The admin by default has 0 and 1 listed as their channel IDs. Try create a new channel in channels.php and add the relevant ID to users.php.
The second thing you need to know is that Ajax Chat also calls private messages “private channels.” This is a horrible mistake by the project and I am trying to get this renamed.
That should get you started with channels. Enjoy and have fun 🙂
npm install ReferenceError: console is not defined
Trying to install npm with:
curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
Returns:
ReferenceError: console is not defined:
Cause:
NodeJS not properly installed.
Solution:
Goto NodeJS download and get the latest tar package and install it yourself. Usual install procedure:
tar -zxvf node-whatever.tar.gz cd node-whatever ./configure make make install
Now try again and it should work 🙂