MetroStar Systems has implemented Microsoft’s Pivot technology to create a new way to search Supernova: Visually! If you haven’t checked it out yet, give it a try by clicking here and see what catches your eye!

What is Pivot? Put simply, it’s an interactive navigation system built by Microsoft (on top of Silverlight) to organize vast quantities of data in a way that’s both fun and easy. To learn more about the product, check out the Pivot website: http://getpivot.com/

What excites us most about this technology is the variety of ways our posts can be visualized: By Author, Category, Post Date, or even by Tag! This is the kind of navigation that you simply do not get with a traditional archive.

For those of you who are more technically oriented, you can check out Lee Kohn’s earlier blog post to see what code we implemented to get our new visual search up and running.

What are you waiting for? Scroll up and click on the friendly alien to give it a shot!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;
using mshtml;

namespace JSInjector
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread] //needed for COM compatibility
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            /*
            this is the javascript which will be injected
            it takes one parameter and returns it multiplied by the number of images in the page
             * */
            const string jsToInject = @"
                function doStuff(foo)
                {
                    return document.images.length * foo;
                }";

            //create a new WebBrowser and point it to a website
            WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
            wb.Navigate("http://metrostarsystems.com");

            byte loopCount = 0; //we wouldn't want an infinit loop would we?
            while (wb.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
            {
                if (loopCount > 200)
                    throw new Exception("Page did not load after 20 seconds!");

                Application.DoEvents(); //needed by the WebBrowser so that events are processed

                Thread.Sleep(100); //if the page hasn't finished loading wait 1/10 of a second
                loopCount++;
            }

            HtmlElement scriptEle = wb.Document.CreateElement("script"); //create the script element
            scriptEle.SetAttribute("type", "text/javascript");

            /*
             Load the javascript into the script element.
             The type casting is necessary since the HtmlElement will not let you set the innerHtml or innerText of a script element
             Note: You must have a reference to the MSHTML (Microsoft HTML Object Library) COM dll in order to do the typecasting
             */
            ((IHTMLScriptElement)scriptEle.DomElement).text = jsToInject;

            wb.Document.Body.AppendChild(scriptEle); //add the script element to the page

            int jsParam = 5; //5 will be the parameter passed in to the JS function
            object returnedFromJs = wb.Document.InvokeScript("doStuff", new object[] { jsParam} ); //call the doStuff JS function with 5 as the argument and store the result

            Console.WriteLine("Returned " + returnedFromJs);
        }
    }
}

Error “Failure To Import Audio Stream”

1. Open the command prompt application
   1. I do this by typing cmd in the “Run…” text box
   2. Navigate to the directory where Adobe Captivate 4 is installed
      1. For me it is located here, [C:\Program Files (X84)\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 4]
      2. Once  you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 NSaudio.dll” and press Enter

Error 42001

1. Open the command prompt application
2. Navigate to the [c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory]
3. Once you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 c:\…\Adobe Captivate 4\PpsUplo.dll” and press enter

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/

Our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, was recently interviewed on Federal News Radio (1500 AM).  He was featured on Francis Rose‘s “In Depth“ show that airs Monday-Friday from 1pm-3pm.  The interview was part of Mr. Rose’s “Industry Chatter” series and they discussed President Obama’s memo on Transparency and Open Government (pdf), the Open Government directive that followed, as well as issues dealing with collaboration, participation and security.

You can listen to or download the interview here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=17&sid=1925310.