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In a bittersweet moment, it occurred to me this morning as I woke up for the 3rd or 4th time that the solution to the issue I've been having at work, people lack tech savvy to update a webpage, could be solved with a little PHP and XML. This solution would also stream-line the creation process and better represent the template that we're using.
Now, of course, this will all remain theoretical because the powers-that-be have their own tech guys back in Florida somewhere who actually do all the website stuff, and I'm just a lowly temp who's to do as he's told, but still, I like having solved it.
Basically they have me shooting video for training materials. Now I'm a hacker, not a videographer, but they aren't looking for Golden Globe quality, so i think I can handle it. the killer is, after I finisht he video, they've got me embedding it into a Word Document. This si quite possibly the worst thing you can do with video IMNSHO, but hey, lowly temp, right?
The killer is, they then send my Word doc to Headquarters, where they make it into a website. Now we all say "But YOU'RE a Hacker" with a few other hackers adding the desonate "Ouch! That's so wrong." to catch thos eof you who aren't hackers up the main conflicts in this process are:
- Web video can stream, Word video is embedded.
- Web documents are of length document, Word documents are of length 11 inches.
- Word documents turned into web documents tend to quintuple code length, delete readability, and generally frustate later attempts to alter documents.
The upside that anyone with a 6th grade education can open a Word document, and change the text. They might need a lowly temp to shoot clean video for the new instructions, but the text is updatible by all.
What occurred to me this morning is that the training documents aren't actually a single thought, they're chains of little thoughts. Each 'step' in a processes is a node, containing an index denoting order, a text field containing verbal instructions, and a video element with my pretty pictures. If I were to treat it not as an HTML document, but an XML document with [step] elements, then I could write a simple PHP script to render the page by looping through a draw step instruction until the next index has a NULL verbal instruction component. Then , I can write another PHP page to open a Step in an editable form, so you can chang ethe value stored for the XML table.
GENIUS!
Now I just need to be able to convince three layers of management to let me write it, and post it, and access restricted company servers to do so. *sigh* Another reason why after I wake up, I like going back to sleep.
- Mood:
geeky
The dreams are back, and I've missed them.
Last night was interesting, there was a theme through out, but it was taken different ways.
The first scene was San Diego. My father was there and we were going to a Baseball game. In the parking lot of the game I discovered my car had be broken into, bu nothing was taken. Every time I mentioned something that might have been stolen, someone else had gotten it out of the car.
When we got inside, the stadium was domed, and it was huge, and they had a sky scene painted on the dome. The only way you could tell that it wasn't real was to look off to the right, where you could see some girders. I had pointed this out to a large black lady I'd been talking with in line. There was a sign stating that the Sea Hawks would be moving to San Diego in 2009. This made me happy, as I like the Seahawks. I also noticed a star.
There's a hard scene shift, I can't remember this one well. I'm not me, and I'm talking to someone about the star. It can't be a star because it doesn't move with the other stars, but there's no tail for a comet. I know what this means, but I know I can't prove it because the tech level of where we are doesn't have that sophisticated of technology. ((Insert here: it's a comet or meteor hurling directly at the earth.)) Rather like the feeling I get in D&D when I'm playing an INT 10 character, and I have a flash of insight that the player would never get. I keep coming back to this, I know, but I can't 'know' in this reality. The person I'm talking to has been seeing it for almost a week. He talks to a 'princess' who's been tracking it for months.
There's a thought in here somewhere that the planet was picked up and moved recently, and it shouldn't still be coming right at us if it was moved. Also I consider the possibility that the being who moved it did it to either avoid, or align, the comet. ((I get the feeling this was a dream I had earlier this week, but I can't remember it))
There's a scene change and I'm now a female elf. Light hair, pale skin. A kind of dream voice-over monologue informs me that the elves like me are an underground race, and that we've been enslaved by giant/troll kind of creatures. They're using us to do some kind of mining, and every so often they go out and get more to bring in. I've been promoted fairly highly, to a kind of house servant, and I'm looking to escape. I've found a good knife weapon, and for some reason have a cloak of invisibility. After a lot of talking, exposition, and getting a feel for the area, a chance to escape comes. I make for the doors, and trip, fall, skid, and get thrown into the air. I manage to fly somehow, and come down, instead of right by the door, almost a mile away.
I know this is a good thing because it means I've bypassed the first two gate, the most heavily guarded ones, and they won't be able to get to me before I can get to the far ones (they're called east and west in the dream) I'm in a kind of deep valley, at a T intersection. There are Giant doors facing me down each side of the T, there are obvious scouts for the bad guys along the walls, and they've seem me and they're coming for me. I break for the left gate, and there are 4 I have to pass, two in front of me, one dead even, and one behind. I manage to out pace the two behind, but just barely. I use my distance from the far wall to get past a third, but they're close. I reach the ramp to the doors just after the last scout. There are three people on the ramp, and I walk right by them through the doors.
Once I'm inside, I have to stop and think about how I managed that, they could have touched me, or just grabbed me. I decide it was the cloak of invisibility, and I try to consider why I didn't use that when I was running. They come into the room, and I use it again to hide. I can see sigils and pictures on the walls, they're talking about things, one of which is the comet hurling towards earth.
Scene change - I'm a man now, and I've been him before, but not tonight. I'm trying to deal with the comet. It's modern era, but the suit I'm wearing is more of a 20s style thing. I've also got a bowler hat. this is where it gets confusing, to close to dawn, to many other things stored, but I do know I'm dealing with someone who can help, it might be the person who moved the planet in the other scene. I spent a fair bit of time unconscious in this one, having been knocked out by a blow to the head by someone. Often, when i get knocked out, I jump to another person, the assistant who first started monitoring the comet earlier. He too is an overweight dark haired man in a 20s style suit. they both keep trying to same things over and over, getting knocked unconscious, switch bodies and try again. At one point, they're in a cell/room together, having just woken up from being knocked unconscious, and they're discussing what to do.
All I can remember form last night is a pirate ship (having just watch Pirates 3, I think I know where that come from ) but it’s got these mechanical legs that come out of the bottom that let it walk on dry land. I called it the Scuttle.
Last night was interesting, there was a theme through out, but it was taken different ways.
The first scene was San Diego. My father was there and we were going to a Baseball game. In the parking lot of the game I discovered my car had be broken into, bu nothing was taken. Every time I mentioned something that might have been stolen, someone else had gotten it out of the car.
When we got inside, the stadium was domed, and it was huge, and they had a sky scene painted on the dome. The only way you could tell that it wasn't real was to look off to the right, where you could see some girders. I had pointed this out to a large black lady I'd been talking with in line. There was a sign stating that the Sea Hawks would be moving to San Diego in 2009. This made me happy, as I like the Seahawks. I also noticed a star.
There's a hard scene shift, I can't remember this one well. I'm not me, and I'm talking to someone about the star. It can't be a star because it doesn't move with the other stars, but there's no tail for a comet. I know what this means, but I know I can't prove it because the tech level of where we are doesn't have that sophisticated of technology. ((Insert here: it's a comet or meteor hurling directly at the earth.)) Rather like the feeling I get in D&D when I'm playing an INT 10 character, and I have a flash of insight that the player would never get. I keep coming back to this, I know, but I can't 'know' in this reality. The person I'm talking to has been seeing it for almost a week. He talks to a 'princess' who's been tracking it for months.
There's a thought in here somewhere that the planet was picked up and moved recently, and it shouldn't still be coming right at us if it was moved. Also I consider the possibility that the being who moved it did it to either avoid, or align, the comet. ((I get the feeling this was a dream I had earlier this week, but I can't remember it))
There's a scene change and I'm now a female elf. Light hair, pale skin. A kind of dream voice-over monologue informs me that the elves like me are an underground race, and that we've been enslaved by giant/troll kind of creatures. They're using us to do some kind of mining, and every so often they go out and get more to bring in. I've been promoted fairly highly, to a kind of house servant, and I'm looking to escape. I've found a good knife weapon, and for some reason have a cloak of invisibility. After a lot of talking, exposition, and getting a feel for the area, a chance to escape comes. I make for the doors, and trip, fall, skid, and get thrown into the air. I manage to fly somehow, and come down, instead of right by the door, almost a mile away.
I know this is a good thing because it means I've bypassed the first two gate, the most heavily guarded ones, and they won't be able to get to me before I can get to the far ones (they're called east and west in the dream) I'm in a kind of deep valley, at a T intersection. There are Giant doors facing me down each side of the T, there are obvious scouts for the bad guys along the walls, and they've seem me and they're coming for me. I break for the left gate, and there are 4 I have to pass, two in front of me, one dead even, and one behind. I manage to out pace the two behind, but just barely. I use my distance from the far wall to get past a third, but they're close. I reach the ramp to the doors just after the last scout. There are three people on the ramp, and I walk right by them through the doors.
Once I'm inside, I have to stop and think about how I managed that, they could have touched me, or just grabbed me. I decide it was the cloak of invisibility, and I try to consider why I didn't use that when I was running. They come into the room, and I use it again to hide. I can see sigils and pictures on the walls, they're talking about things, one of which is the comet hurling towards earth.
Scene change - I'm a man now, and I've been him before, but not tonight. I'm trying to deal with the comet. It's modern era, but the suit I'm wearing is more of a 20s style thing. I've also got a bowler hat. this is where it gets confusing, to close to dawn, to many other things stored, but I do know I'm dealing with someone who can help, it might be the person who moved the planet in the other scene. I spent a fair bit of time unconscious in this one, having been knocked out by a blow to the head by someone. Often, when i get knocked out, I jump to another person, the assistant who first started monitoring the comet earlier. He too is an overweight dark haired man in a 20s style suit. they both keep trying to same things over and over, getting knocked unconscious, switch bodies and try again. At one point, they're in a cell/room together, having just woken up from being knocked unconscious, and they're discussing what to do.
All I can remember form last night is a pirate ship (having just watch Pirates 3, I think I know where that come from ) but it’s got these mechanical legs that come out of the bottom that let it walk on dry land. I called it the Scuttle.
