Gregory Posey

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April 22, 2008

LawDem
- Graph Builder
  - Got images working
  - Structured XML for multiple graphs
  - Enabled the ability to use multiple graphs, wrote simple test program
  - Researched the use of flex for future projects

April 8, 2008

LawDem
- Graph Builder
  - Started adding picture element
  - Cleaned up XML
  - Met with Brinks, came up with new idea: Graph Suite
    - Combines multiple graphs / teaching tools into a single flash module.
    - Still built through XML, but XML will be built through another interface (no programming for the end user)
    - Implementation of many types of graphs
    - Possible further use to make learning modules that contain other information
    - Hardcore
- Democracy Movie
  - Deleted the almost triangle on the start button
Possible Graph/Learning Module thing interface

April 1, 2008

LawDem
- Started graph building program
- Define graph through XML, and it is built automatically in flash
- Can change width of graph, number of data categories and bars per category, titles,

March 25, 2008

LawDem
- Democracy Movie
  - Finished Suloni’s design
  - Implemented tabs using a combination of buttons and movie clips
- Next Graphs
  - Started working on new graph structure in AS3
  - Fixed width for countries, makes it easier to reuse code.

March 18, 2008

LawDem
- Started implementing Suloni’s design.

March 4, 2008

LawDem
- Changed some code so that the start date can be set through XML
- Changed the code for the text so it’s easier to change outside Flash (year ranges, rather than year by year)
- Finished commenting the code I’ve done so it’s easier to understand
- Added comments to the XML for easier editing
- Consolidated XML to one file
- Added a pseudo-preloader (a full one isn’t needed)
- Reduced size of code to make things more efficient
- Added all countries to the XML file (even countries with no data)
Reading Between the Lines
- Fixed some alignment issues
- Fixed some coloring in one of the poems
- Fixed some link locations and transitions
FLASH TIP OF THE WEEK
- Always explicitly define the type of your variables ( using var variableName:Type;). If you don’t flash will assume a type and promote at will, which can cause weird errors in your code.

February 26, 2008

LawDem
- Fixed color changing in islands of Chile and Argentina
- Added a slider to quickly run through years
- Started converting all of the user preferences to xml (number of years, duration to stay on a slide, etc.)
- Added a legend

February 19, 2008

Reading Between the Lines
- Fixed old errors and formatting
LawDem
- Finished changing colors of all countries

February 5, 2008

More Democracy Movie
- Fixed many bugs
- Added timer rather than counter, makes updating quicker
- Fixed scrool bar issue
- Started fixing map
- Fixed formatting
- Conned Mai-Thi into building the color.xml file

January 29, 2008

Worked on Democracy movie
- Fixed loading of colors
- Added text loading
- Added scroll bar to the text
- Fixed buttons

November 26, 2007

Help David with SOMS
…..
Profit

November 19, 2007

Song of Myself
- Fixed all searching problems
- Hacked together some test timing arrays to fix some text issues
- Fixed the page numbers after using the bookmark page and line searches
- Fixed the infinite loop in the line search
- Now all bookmark searching displays as it should
Flash Group
- Spent some time researching AS3 for teaching the flash group and for using in future projects.
- Went over XML basics, and how to use XML in flash
- Created a favorite movie list example in AS3 using XML

November 12, 2007

LawDem Movie
- Discussed design with Corinna
- Started setting up the XML documents to load in the text
Song of Myself
- Fixed bookmark input boxes
- Fixed searching
- New problem with the rendering after searching

November 5, 2007

LawDem Movie
- Came up with design with Suloni
  - “Good artist copy, great artists steal”
  - Adapting the LawDem website layout
- Talked about the movie at the Flash Group Meeting
  - Detailed how the project would be carried out
  - Corinna is helping me with making it
  - Discussed the differences in an animation vs programmatic approach to the movie
Song of Myself
- Looked at more code to understand it
- Identified the issue with bookmark searching, looking into the best solution
RenFest
- Ate a lot
- Saw some shows
- Played with weapons
- Became “King of the Log”
Server Breakdown
- Taught Mai-Thi some flash
- Dreamed about being a pirate

October 29, 2007

LawDem
- Starting new phase of the project: Flash video thing
  - Taking pictures that were given and redoing the video that he has in Flash
  - Adding control features, rollover text, etc.
  - Possibly redoing the slides to make it look better
  - If anyone is bored and wants to help let me know
- Graphs:
  - On hold for now
  - Poverty graph finished
Leaves of Grass
- Helping look through and understand the code
STA Frontpage
- Finished it
- Redoing it?

October 22, 2007

LawDem
- Made another version of the buttons
- Reorganized the stage
- Made the code more efficient
  - Combined methods
  - Deleted old methods
  - Code has been reduced by 160 lines
STA Frontpage
- Updated the pictures
- Added new “sun rises” effect using actionscript tweens
- More code optimization, reduced the number of items using actionscript to reduce code size

October 15, 2007

Worked on new buttons for the Lawdem charts
Worked on the STA frontpage

October 8, 2007

Flash group meeting recap
- Quick meeting, discussed some syntax for programming
- Looked at some interesting aspects of Adobe Illustrator
- Took a tour around the ASL website and brainstormed ideas on how to do it in flash
- Looked at some tutorials on flash development
LawDem Charts
- Made some more functional buttons
- Started making it look better
STA Frontpage
- Done with first version

October 1, 2007

Flash group meeting recap
- Went through basic actionscripting example:
  - Moving to mouse
  - Dynamic text
  - Programming basics
- Next week I need to go over basic programming syntax
LawDem Charts
- Worked on color pallette
- Started converting the poverty line graph
  - Added all data in
  - Got the data to display properly after adding functions
  - Wrote new functions to deal with the 3 bars for each country
  - Fixed sorting function to make it easier to reuse for 3 different bars
STA Frontpage
- Started working on flash
- Ran into problems converting the items in photoshop to flash, fixed
- Finished a few of the rollovers, more to come this week

September 24, 2007

Fixed bug with graph updating
Added comments to the program to make it easier to understand
Added a relevance field for each bar, added a function to only show relevant information
Wrote code for data to follow mouse, just in case

September 22, 2007

Worked on graphs in flash
- Added different sorting options (using a basic insertion sort)
- Found a bug dealing with updating the graph too quickly, looking for fix (Standardizing times for the tweens?)

September 21, 2007

Worked on a test graph to try out some ideas
Finished the feminist track for the Daily Intelligencer
Had the first Flash Group meeting
- Discussed everyone’s proficiency with flash
- Talked about some of the projects that have been assigned in flash
- Got ideas for next meeting
- Showed off some actionscripting

September 17, 2007

Weekly STA meeting
Helped Lindsey more with flash Japanese slide-show things

September 15, 2007

Corrected audio for Japanese flash video thing and then added that into the flash
Documented more ideas for the graphing
Found templates for the graphs online to adapt to what is needed

September 14, 2007

Lab hours
Found more bugs in the DI site
Finished the movies track on the DI site, only 3 more to go
Found a wiki page rating system for the lawdem wiki
Started looking at graphs to decide on different ways to improve them, ideas written and stored on server
Worked on one of the Japanese Flash slideshows, just need a button to use as a play button to finish

September 13, 2007

Edited my banner, put on the new version
Found some interesting new errors in the Daily Intelligencer site, recorded through email
Met with Dan about the lawdem site
- Graphs are to be redone in Flash to improve:
  - Readability
  - Relevance
  - Ease of use
  - Flexibility in which information the user can view (specific countries vs whole graph)
  - Possible rollover information for exact numbers from the data
- Need to find a wiki plugin for rating the usefulness of a page
- Redo the spread of democracy over time video in Flash:
  - Add forward and back buttons to step through the years, as well as play to just progress through
  - Add rollover and/or highlighting for countries to see the relevant information on that country for that year. Either a rollover with a text box or a dynamic text box on the side that follows the selected country.
  - Add a general information box at the bottom to describe what’s going on in the region in general
- Add general country information to graph on front page (click on the country and a separate information window pops up, examples spread throughout site)
- Work on issue about best way to password protect the files (Talk to Gary about this) so the general site can be opened up
Work on Japanese flash project when the folders go yellow

September 11, 2007

Searched for bugs on the Daily Intelligencer teaching tool. All bugs recorded in email.
Added a contact page so people can get a hold of me easily.

September 10, 2007

Be mindful of image size vs monitor resolution, just because it looks good on the computer you create it on doesn’t mean it will on every other computer. Resize the banner to be more compatible with smaller resolution screens. On here you can use the percent width command.
Tile finished

September 9, 2007

Learned a valuable lesson: Norton adblocking is very sensitive, so including any links or pictures with the word banner in them will block them from your site, as evidenced by the numerous changes made to the site tonight. Remember in the future to be careful with file naming, and to double check everything after it’s been changed to make sure it’s not destroyed by Norton.

September 5, 2007

Assigned to work on flash for lawdem
Finished the tile, used the same tree as from my website
Need to brush up on css

August 28, 2007

Site has been created!
I’m not sure what to write here