Lab 3

Here is my link to Lab 3: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/Lab%203.html. This lab was much easier than the last one. I was impressed with how easy it was to put in sounds--all I needed to do was drag and drop, and the system did the rest. The timeline portion, however was painful regarding the size/placement of the buttons. 21 separate weeks makes for a long and complicated timeline that was difficult to fit properly on the stage. Consequently, I had to make the buttons (and text) very small, so it is hard to read.

Timeline Map

I found an interesting timeline at http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html

This map details the imperial history of the Middle East--which empire controlled which area at a given time in history. One can choose to just "play" the movie, but you can also click a different portion of the timeline to play from that era on. It would be better if it did a "goto and stop" there, but you can have this same effect if you click on the portion of the timeline you want, then hit "pause" to admire the map of that era.

What makes this timeline interesting is that, in addition to being able to click on different times, it also has a rollover effect providing a name for the era. For example, on the screenshot included here, when you select the year 1187, the text "Saladin's Empire" appears when you roll the cursor over this year. This gives you an era name as well as the year to help provide more information and history. It is a simple map, but it helps provide a summary history of the Middle Eastern Empires.

Lab 2

My Flash map for Lab 2 has been posted to the following link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/Lab%202.html.

There were some difficult portions of the lab. If anyone is using Flash CS3 (latest version) to work on this, it looks like you will also need to include the AC_RunActiveContent file with the html and the swf files. If you need the AC_RunActiveContent file, you can get it from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/activecontent/articles/devletter.html as a patch. The hardest part of the lab was getting the actionscript to work right--make sure you turn on Script Assist. You have to manually select it (I didn't know this so I tried to put the commands in without it). It did not work well, so script assist makes it much easier.

Interesting Interactive Map

This is an interesting interactive map that is useful for travel planning. The interactive version is available at http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/routemap_dyn.html. It appears to have been made using Flash because of the option to upload Flash Player in order to view it. It was made by Southwest Airlines to detail where they fly--you can roll your mouse over an airport to see a flight path of where they go from that airport. You can even sort the routes by nonstop service, or any service, including connections. I have included a screenshot of the interactive map above (with the service available from Washington Dulles clicked). For the interactive version, you can visit the above link.

Because the site uses the rollover effect rather than clicking the mouse, it is difficult to "lock" the airport you want to look at. This is especially problematic when two airports are close together (Washington Dulles and BWI for example). While looking at one, if the mouse moves a little bit, it then shows the other airport routes. This map could be improved if there was a clickable option to lock the aiport you would like to view.