Nov 9, 2015
Nov 7, 2015
Mar 9, 2014
Digital photo albums using youtube
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
A photographic album, or photo album, is a collection of photographs, generally in a book. Some albums have compartments which the photos may be slipped into; other albums have heavy paper with an abrasive surface covered with clear plastic sheets, in which photos can be put. Older style albums often were simply books of heavy paper which photos could be glued to or attached to with adhesive corners, or pages.
Digital photo albums using Youtube is possible by transforming digital photos into videos and upload the video to Youtube. Youtube can actually transformed into Digital photo books. Digital photo books seem neater and more professional than traditional albums. This has led to their growing popularity amongst both professional and amateur photographers. Examples or a youtube digital photo albums is listed below.
 The Egyptian Zoo in Cairo |
Video 1. The Egyptian Zoo in Cairo
 Cats |
Video 2. Cats
Jan 30, 2014
Pictures can be transformed into PDF photo- albums that can be viewed online and downloaded for offline usage: A very good way of imparting information
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
Pictures can be presented online as PDF photo albums, these photo-album can be viewed online and downloaded for offline usage. Downloadable PDF photo albums is a very good way of imparting information. This is simply anther way for online photojournalism to show its muscles, where soundless, commentless,voiceless and musicless sill images tell the whole story.
| Slide show 1. The Egyptian Zoo In Cairo, Egypt |
Click to download slide show in PDF format (40 MB)
Photojournalism: The Egyptian geographic magazine
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
The Egyptian geographic magazine (http://egm.yassermetwally.com) is a slideshow-based digital publication that contains too may images and too little words because I always regarded pictures as pieces of information (infographics) that are even more informative than words. Images (infograms) represent a wordless international language that can be understood by any human being without the need for an interpreter and without the need to translate any thing to any language. Photos in this publication act as a medium of information in its own right rather than to enhance a text. Instead of the images acting as a supplement to the text, The Egyptian geographic magazine highlights the use of photographs as the predominant medium for the imparting of information. The Egyptian geographic magazine is about Egypt that will ultimately describe every thing about Egypt in photos rather than words. Images are grouped in flash-dependent slideshows to maximize the interest of the reader on one hand and the ease of use on the other hand.
When i talk about images, i mean sill images, with no verbal or written comments or background music. The whole story is told by still images. Comments and music will direct the viewer to a certain direction and that is not what i mean or want. The limitation here is your imagination. The Egyptian geographic magazine represents what is called photojournalism. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media.
You need adobe flash player (which must be installed in your computer) to be able to play the slideshows. The downloadable version is a limited one and to keep this version as small as possible, it will not contains any more data, it contains only basic information (Click to download...44 MB). The CD-ROM version contains much more slideshows about Egypt than the downloadable one and it is free of charge and will always be. If you are interested to get your CD-ROM version, please contact the author. The CD-ROM version is now available online for download (Click to download the CD-ROM version...100 MB)
The online version probably contains all slideshows present in the CD-ROM version and it is free of charge. However some slideshows that can not be played online are only present in the CD-ROM version.
Both the Online version and the CD-ROM version are ever growing publications that is to say "more and more data and slideshows are added on regular basis". Please contact the author every few month to get the latest CD-ROM version of the publication, it is always free of charge.
Please note that The CD-ROM and the downloadable publications are supplied as is without any warranty whatsoever, either publications are not designed to fit any of your purposes or to meet any of your requirement. The downloadable version can be distributed free of charge without the need for any permissions.
Mar 4, 2013
The Egyptian geographic magazine: Pictures are pieces of information that are even more informative than words…
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
The Egyptian geographic magazine is a slideshow-based digital publication that contains too may images and too little words because I always regarded pictures as pieces of information that are even more informative than words. This publication is about Egypt that will ultimately describe every thing about Egypt in photos rather than words. Images are grouped in flash-dependent slideshows to maximize the interest of the reader on one hand and the ease of use on the other hand. You need adobe flash player (which must be installed in your computer) to be able to play the slideshows. The downloadable version (mini edition) is a limited one and to keep this version as small as possible, it will not contains any more data, it contains only basic information (Click to download...44 MB). The CD-ROM version contains much more slideshows about Egypt than the mini edition and it is free of charge and will always be (Click to download…105 MB). If you are interested to get your CD-ROM version, please contact the author. (Click to download…105 MB)
The online version probably contains all slideshows present in the CD-ROM version and it is free of charge. However some slideshows that can not be played online are only present in the CD-ROM version.
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Figure 1. The Egyptian geographic Magazine
The Egyptian geographic magazine has three versions
1- An online version (Click to view)
2- The mini edition (Click to download...44 MB)
3- The CD-ROM version (Click to download…105 MB)
Both the Online version and the CD-ROM version are ever growing publications that is to say "more and more data and slideshows are added on regular basis". Please contact the author every few month to get the latest CD-ROM version of the publication, it is always free of charge.
Please note that The CD-ROM and the downloadable publications are supplied as is without any warranty whatsoever, either publications are not designed to fit any of your purposes or to meet any of your requirement. The downloadable version can be distributed free of charge without the need for any permissions.
Your opinion is very much important to me. Never hesitate to contact me for suggestions.
The author
Professor Yasser Metwally
www.yassermetwally.com
Dec 13, 2012
E-publication creation: HTML to exe, PDF to exe and DOC to exe creation.
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
December 13, 2012 — Using applications that transform web sites, PDF file and Microsoft word (DOC) files into stand alone desktop applications is a very powerful way to create electronic books, E –publication that can be distributed among students, customers and other end users. In fact there is nothing like HTML files, PDF file and DOC files that can organize text, pictures, Videos, and audio files into a single page in a very practical way. However the problem is that your end user can manipulate these files, modify them, edit them and reuse them. You need to protect your files.
Using applications that transform web sites, PDF file and Microsoft word (DOC) files into stand alone desktop applications are very powerful tools that can pack all your files into a stand alone EXE executable applications that have the following characteristics
- They Protect html, PDF and DOC pages and content using security profiles; restrict user rights (disable copy to clipboard, PRINT SCREEN, print).
- Add a table of contents, a search system and a favorite manager easily. Use websites as help in your applications.
- You can create search engine that can search thousand of HTML files in seconds, you can use wild cards, bolean logic (and, or and not). Search words are high lighted thus making it easy to files them in the corresponding pages
- Make trial or evaluation versions. Set up expiration options or limitations, send registration keys to customers or use online activation.
- Show messages or splash screens, open programs; customize everything with integrated scripting support.
- Show messages or splash screens, open programs; customize everything with integrated scripting support.
- Design attractive user interfaces with skin support and multiple window options.
- Insert your company name, logo in your ebooks. Advertise your company.
- All source files (HTML, PDF, images, CSS, media, JavaScript code...) are strongly compressed and protected in order to make compact, secure executable files useful for distribution or archiving, without losing performance.
- Passwords offered to the end users are system-locked and are usable in a single computer only (single system, single user license)
- The applications can be uploaded in the internet to be downloaded by end users. If the application is a freeware, that is it. However if the applications are not free of charge, you can created system locked application that can be used only in a single computer (that means the paid passwords you give to the end users are system-locked and will unlock the application in a single computer only and will be completely useless if used in anther computer).
- The Final exe applications can be used as web browsers. They allow end users to access specific web contents and with the sufficient java scripts, they can be supplied with an address bar that allow end users to freely surf though the internet.
All my ebooks are created by web compilers which I personally found them very powerful and doing the job in a wonderful way. You can download an example by clicking here, It is an example of HTML to exe application.
By clicking here you can download an example of PDF to exe application…Have fun
Dec 12, 2012
E-learning: Online lectures using embedded power point presentations
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
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Click here to download presentation in powerpoint format
Click here to download presentation in PDF format
Example of E-publication using Online PDF viewer: Ancient Egyptian panorama: The Egyptian army 5000 years ago
Example of E learning using online PDF viewer with downloadable links: Textbook of clinical electroencephalography
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
December 12, 2012 —This publication covers the clinical aspect of conventional EEG. It simply reflects thing the way I understand, deals with and interpret a conventional EEG tracing. The textbook is composed of 410 pages that can be printed.
Conventional EEG has fallen short of expectation not because of its limited value, but rather because it is rarely ordered by a Knowledgeable clinician and interpreted by an electroencephalographer in a way most useful to the patient.
Another reason why Conventional EEG have fallen short of expectation, is its impressionistic, qualitative nature and this strongly reflects the needs for quantitative EEG. Quantitative EEG (Also called brainmapping, EEG cartography, Brain electrical activity mapping, BEAM) is a wonderful way that reflects the brain function in real time and in a totally non-invasive way. A short notice is given to brainmapping at the end of this textbook.
I really hope you will find this publication as useful as a truly wish. This publication is distributed free of charge, it is placed in the public domain as soon as it is uploaded and can be freely distributed on two conditions;
1- It is not changed in any way
2- It is distributed free of charge
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Click to download PDF version of the publication (Server 1) 10 MB
Click to download PDF version of the publication (Server2) 10 MB
Click to download software version of the publication (10 MB)
Click to download PDF version of the publication (Server 1) 10 MB
Click to download PDF version of the publication (Server2) 10 MB
Click to download software version of the publication (10 MB)
References
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Metwally, MYM: Textbook of neuroimaging, A CD-ROM publication, (Metwally, MYM editor) WEB-CD agency for electronic publication, version 13.1 July 2012 [Click to have a look at the home page]
E-learning using youtube videos: Ankle clonus
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
December 12, 2012 —Ankle clonus
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References
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Metwally, MYM: Textbook of neuroimaging, A CD-ROM publication, (Metwally, MYM editor) WEB-CD agency for electronic publication, version 11.4a October 2010 [Click to have a look at the home page]
E- learning: example of E-learning using youtube videos. Hepatolenticular Degeneration (Wilson Disease)
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
December 12, 2012 — Hepatolenticular degeneration is transmitted by autosomal recessive inheritance. The disorder may be caused by a disturbance in the biliary excretion of copper and its incorporation into ceruloplasmin. The defective gene is located on chromosome 13 (1). Symptoms result from the accumulation of copper in liver, brain, and cornea. Clinical Features. Hepatic failure is me prominent clinical feature in children less than 10 years of age, usually without neurologic symptoms or signs. Neurologic manifestations with only minimal symptoms of liver disease are more likely when the onset of symptoms is in the second decade. A single symptom, such as a disturbance of gait or speech, is often the initial feature and may remain unchanged for years (1). Eventually the initial symptom worsens and new features develop: dysarthria (97%), dystonia (65%). dysdiadochokinesia (58%), rigidity (52%), gait and postural abnormalities (42%), tremor (32%), and drooling (23%) (1).
Dystonia of bulbar muscles is responsible for three prominent features of the disease: dysarthria, a fixed pseudosmile (risus sardonicus), and a high-pitched whining noise on inspiration. Psychiatric disturbances precede the neurologic abnormalities in 20 of cases. They range from behavioral disturbances to paranoid psychoses. Dementia is not an early feature of disease. The Kayser-Fleischer ring, a yellow-brown granular deposit at the limbus of the cornea, is a certain indicator of the disease. It is caused by copper deposition in the Descemet membrane and is present in all patients with neurologic manifestations, although it may be absent in children with liver disease alone.
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Video 1. Dystonia of bulbar muscles is responsible for three prominent features of the disease: dysarthria, a fixed pseudosmile (risus sardonicus), and a high-pitched whining noise on inspiration.
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Diagnosis
Hepatolenticular degeneration should be considered in any child with dysarthria and dystonia. The further association of chronic liver disease increases the probability of hepatolenticular degeneration. The diagnosis is confirmed by demonstrating an increased copper content by liver biopsy or by the demonstration of a Kayser Fleischer ring by slit-lamp examination. Ninety-six percent of patients have a serum ceruloplasmin concentration of less than 20 mg/dl, corresponding to less than 56 |jig/dl of ceruloplasmin copper (1).
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Video 2. Wilson disease with neurological involvement.
MRI demonstrates increased signal intensity and decreased size of the caudate, putamen, subcortical white matter, midbrain, and pons. MRI findings do not correlate well with clinical features (1).
References
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Metwally, MYM: Textbook of neuroimaging, A CD-ROM publication, (Metwally, MYM editor) WEB-CD agency for electronic publication, version 13.1 January 2012 [Click to have a look at the home page]
Jun 22, 2010
E-learning: Web graphics
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
June 22, 2010 — Web graphics are visual representations used on a Web site to enhance or enable the representation of an idea or feeling, in order to reach the Web site user. Graphics may entertain, educate, or emotionally impact the user, and are crucial to strength of branding, clarity of illustration, and ease of use for interfaces.
Examples of graphics include maps, photographs, designs and patterns, family trees, diagrams, architectural or engineering blueprints, bar charts and pie charts, typography, schematics, line art, flowcharts, and many other image forms.
Graphic designers have many tools and technologies at their disposal for everything from print to Web development, and W3C provides many of the underlying formats that can be used for the creation of content on the open Web platform.
Apr 29, 2010
What is a blog
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
April 29, 2010 — A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs.
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Video 1. What is a blog
TYPES OF BLOGS
There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written.
- Personal blogs
The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. One type of personal blog, referred to as a microblog, is extremely detailed and seeks to capture a moment in time. Some sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family, and are much faster than emailing or writing.
Corporate and organizational blogs
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member activities.
- By genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially about home and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.
- By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs; see typecasting (blogging).
A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.
- By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.
Apr 4, 2010
E-learning tips
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
April 4, 2010 — E-learning tips
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Video 1. E-learning tips
References
1. Metwally, MYM: Textbook of neuroimaging, A CD-ROM publication, (Metwally, MYM editor) WEB-CD agency for electronic publication, version 10.2a April 2010 [Click to have a look at the home page]
Mar 26, 2010
E learning: RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
March 26, 2010 — (Really Simple Syndication) A format for notifying new content at a website; the initials originally stood for Rich Site Summary. RSS defines rules for listing information about new content added to a website, such as the title, link and a short description (or in some cases the full body of the content), which the site publishes as an XML file at a specific URL -- in effect, a web service. This file, often called a newsfeed, can then be read and combined with feeds from other sites by news aggregators, which display the consolidated information either on a user's desktop or on a website. RSS is widely used both by news sites and by weblogs. There are four versions in widespread use: 0.91, developed by Netscape; 0.92, a modification popularized by Userland Software; 1.0, a variation based on RDF (Resource Description Framework); and 2.0, formalized in September 2002 by Userland's Dave Winer.
RSS (most commonly expanded as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
 | Figure 1. The RSS icon |
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999, it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use, and the icon was decided upon by several major Web browsers.
- History of web syndication technology
The RSS formats were preceded by several attempts at web syndication that did not achieve widespread popularity. The basic idea of restructuring information about websites goes back to as early as 1995, when Ramanathan V. Guha and others in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework. For a more detailed discussion of these early developments, see the history of web syndication technology.
RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by Guha at Netscape in March 1999 for use on the My.Netscape.Com portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999, Dan Libby of Netscape produced a new version, RSS 0.91, which simplified the format by removing RDF elements and incorporating elements from Dave Winer's scriptingNews syndication format. Libby also renamed RSS "Rich Site Summary" and outlined further development of the format in a "futures document".
This would be Netscape's last participation in RSS development for eight years. As RSS was being embraced by web publishers who wanted their feeds to be used on My.Netscape.Com and other early RSS portals, Netscape dropped RSS support from My.Netscape.Com in April 2001 during new owner AOL's restructuring of the company, also removing documentation and tools that supported the format.
Two entities emerged to fill the void, with neither Netscape's help nor approval: The RSS-DEV Working Group and Winer, whose UserLand Software had published some of the first publishing tools outside of Netscape that could read and write RSS.
Winer published a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification on the UserLand website, covering how it was being used in his company's products, and claimed copyright to the document. A few months later, UserLand filed a U.S. trademark registration for RSS, but failed to respond to a USPTO trademark examiner's request and the request was rejected in December 2001.
The RSS-DEV Working Group, a project whose members included Guha and representatives of O'Reilly Media and Moreover, produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000. This new version, which reclaimed the name RDF Site Summary from RSS 0.9, reintroduced support for RDF and added XML namespaces support, adopting elements from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core.
In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92 a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark podcasting. He also released drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn.
In September 2002, Winer released a major new version of the format, RSS 2.0, that redubbed its initials Really Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 removed the type attribute added in the RSS 0.94 draft and added support for namespaces. To preserve backward compatibility with RSS 0.92, namespace support applies only to other content included within an RSS 2.0 feed, not the RSS 2.0 elements themselves. (Although other standards such as Atom attempt to correct this limitation, RSS feeds are not aggregated with other content often enough to shift the popularity from RSS to other formats having full namespace support.)
Because neither Winer nor the RSS-DEV Working Group had Netscape's involvement, they could not make an official claim on the RSS name or format. This has fueled ongoing controversy in the syndication development community as to which entity was the proper publisher of RSS.
One product of that contentious debate was the creation of an alternative syndication format, Atom, that began in June 2003. The Atom syndication format, whose creation was in part motivated by a desire to get a clean start free of the issues surrounding RSS, has been adopted as IETF Proposed Standard RFC 4287.
In July 2003, Winer and UserLand Software assigned the copyright of the RSS 2.0 specification to Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where he had just begun a term as a visiting fellow. At the same time, Winer launched the RSS Advisory Board with Brent Simmons and Jon Udell, a group whose purpose was to maintain and publish the specification and answer questions about the format.
In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team and Outlook team announced on their blogs that they were adopting the feed icon first used in the Mozilla Firefox browser. A few months later, Opera Software followed suit. This effectively made the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard for RSS and Atom feeds, replacing the large variety of icons and text that had been used previously to identify syndication data.
In January 2006, Rogers Cadenhead relaunched the RSS Advisory Board without Dave Winer's participation, with a stated desire to continue the development of the RSS format and resolve ambiguities. In June 2007, the board revised their version of the specification to confirm that namespaces may extend core elements with namespace attributes, as Microsoft has done in Internet Explorer 7. According to their view, a difference of interpretation left publishers unsure of whether this was permitted or forbidden.
Mar 16, 2010
E-learning: RSS and XML feeds
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
March 16, 2010 — It can be a major challenge to keep current with the rapidly growing body of scientific and clinical neurologic knowledge. Fortunately, there are several tools available for neurologists to gain access to this information, almost all of which are now available online. Email alerts, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) feeds, and mashups (Web pages that display continuously updated information simultaneously from multiple sources, using RSS and XML) are among the most important of these alerting methods. Podcasts (multimedia files that are transferred over the Internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer) are another good way to obtain organized presentations of in-depth information on new topics. Other sources of current neurologic information include major media outlets, academic society Web sites, proprietary medical news sites, neurology news magazines (eg, Neurology Today and Clinical Neurology News), the National Library of Medicine's PubMed data service, and traditional peer-reviewed journals.
- RSS and XML feeds
Various online tools facilitate access to these information sources. So-called push technologies such as RSS and XML allow media sources to send recipients selective updated information, including late-breaking news or newly published articles, along with links to more detailed information. RSS and XML feeds have come into wide use among media sources, and are identified on Web sites of these sources by the symbols and .
Early versions of the special Web browsers required to view RSS and XML feeds, called readers, were limited in that they could only display one information source at a time. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome all have the ability to display individual RSS/XML feeds. Various readers, or aggregators (eg, Google Reader), allow more efficient viewing of multiple RSS/XML feeds on a single screen.
Mashups permit constant desktop display of multiple RSS or XML feeds. Examples include iGoogle (Box 1) and Netvibes, both of which simultaneously display multiple RSS feeds in small boxes, called modules or gadgets, on a single screen. The mashup can be set as the browser's home page, providing the neurologist with a tremendous array of frequently updated news sources. One advantage of mashups is the ability to create a module, or gadget, based on any RSS or XML feed, in addition to the vast number of predefined modules from commercial sources, such as BBC News World Edition. These are powerful tools for organizing information that is being updated constantly.
Box 1. Creating a custom gadget in iGoogle
| Use the following steps to create a custom gadget in iGoogle: •Open a free Google account •On the Google Accounts page, click on iGoogle and follow the instructions to create a mashup page •Find an RSS or XML feed of interest (eg, see the symbols on the home page of http://www.AAN.com) •Click on the RSS or XML icon •Copy the URL for the RSS feed from the address box at the top of the browser •Click on the “Add stuff” link in the upper right of the iGoogle screen •On the next page, click on the “Add feed or gadget” link in the left-hand column •Paste the URL into the address box •The RSS gadget will automatically appear on the iGoogle mashup page. The gadgets can be organized on the page by drag and drop. |
Gadgets That show constantly updated information are frequently used in my web site (www.yassermetwally.com) you can have a look at: http://yassermetwally.com/blog/?p=256. A mashup is a Web page that displays constantly updated information from several media sources, using RSS or XML feeds. Each of the small boxes, or gadgets, contains a summary of several news items, with a link to more detailed information. The iGoogle mashup can be set as a home page, allowing the neurologist to follow multiple news sources in real time.
References
1. Chio A, Montuschi A, Cammarosano S, et al. ALS patients and caregivers communication preferences and information seeking behaviour. Eur J Neurol. 2008;15(1):55–60.
2. Diaz JA, Griffith RA, Ng JJ, et al. Patients' use of the Internet for medical information. J Gen Intern Med. 2002;17(3):180–185.
3. Baker L, Wagner TH, Singer S, et al. Use of the Internet and e-mail for health care information: results from a national survey. JAMA. 2003;289(18):2400–2406.
Feb 6, 2010
Interactive PDF files: A wonderfull way for E- learning
The author: Professor Yasser Metwally
INTRODUCTION
February 6, 2010 — JavaScript for Acrobat is an extension of core JavaScript, version 1.5 of ISO-16262, formerly known as ECMAScript, an object-oriented scripting language developed by Netscape Communications.
JavaScript was created to offload web page processing from a server onto a client in web-based applications. Acrobat extends the core language by adding new objects and their accompanying methods and properties, to the JavaScript language. These Acrobat-specific objects enable a developer to manage document security, communicate with a database, handle file attachments, manipulate a PDF file so that it behaves as an interactive, web-enabled form, and so on. Because the Acrobat-specific objects are added on top of core JavaScript, you still have access to its standard classes, including Math, String, Date, and RegExp.
PDF documents have great versatility since they can be displayed both within the Acrobat software as well as a web browser. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the differences between JavaScript used in a PDF file and JavaScript used in a web page:
- JavaScript in a PDF file does not have access to objects within an HTML page. Similarly, JavaScript in a web page cannot access objects within a PDF file.
- In HTML, JavaScript is able to manipulate such objects as Window. JavaScript for Acrobat cannot access this particular object but it can manipulate PDF-specific objects.
Most people know Acrobat as a medium for exchanging and viewing electronic documents easily and reliably, independent of the environment in which they were created; however, Acrobat provides far more capabilities than a simple document viewer.
You can enhance a PDF document so that it contains form fields to capture user-entered data as well as buttons to initiate user actions. This type of PDF document can replace existing paper forms, allowing employees within a company to fill out forms and submit them via PDF files, and connect their solutions to enterprise workflows by virtue of their XML-based structure and the accompanying support for SOAP-based web services.
Acrobat also contains functionality to support online team review. Documents that are ready for review are converted to PDF. When a reviewer views a PDF document in Acrobat and adds comments to it, those comments (or annotations) constitute an additional layer of information on top of the base document. Acrobat supports a wide variety of standard comment types, such as a note, graphic, sound, or movie. To share comments on a document with others, such as the author and other reviewers, a reviewer can export just the comment "layer" to a separate comment repository.
In either of these scenarios, as well as others that are not mentioned here, you can customize the behavior of a particular PDF document, implement security policies, interact with databases and web services, and dynamically alter the appearance of a PDF document by using JavaScript. You can tie JavaScript code to a specific PDF document, a particular page within a PDF document, or a form field or button in a PDF file. When an end user interacts with Acrobat or a PDF file displayed in Acrobat that contains JavaScript, Acrobat monitors the interaction and executes the appropriate JavaScript code.
Not only can you customize the behavior of PDF documents in Acrobat, you can customize Acrobat itself. In earlier versions of Acrobat (prior to Acrobat 5), this type of customization could only be done by writing Acrobat plug-ins in a high-level language like C or C++. Now, much of that same functionality is available through Acrobat extensions to JavaScript. You will find that using JavaScript to perform a task such as adding a menu to Acrobat's user interface is much easier than writing a plug-in.
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