of CoSolvent Community Server last week.  I am pleased to announce that we released Milestone 32.1 The main new functionality in this release is that FLV files can now be stored and served “as is&# – previously FLV uploads were treated just like any other video upload and were reprocessed into 3 different streams (configurable) targeting different bandwidths.  Now sites can choose to use the original FLV upload as is.  MORE >>

Last night we released Milestone 31 of CoSolvent Community Server to production.  Among other things this updates PDF display for IE to use the non-standard <object> tag syntax using the classid attribute and the src param instead of the type and data attributes used in standards mode.  The standards mode tag works, mostly; however IE seems to block page execution while downloading the PDF when in standards mode (regardless of the “Fast Web View&# setting of the PDF), something which is obviously a big problem for the Video-in-PDF documents we’re hosting.  MORE >>

App servers write to EQL. Dell AIM – giving personalities to servers. Assign a persona so server can be moved around, so VMs can be moved to different servers as needed. Note: these are my (mostly) unedited session notes. The session focused on backup best practices for virtualization. Other live blogs from VISION can be found here and here. 70-90% of backups are not restorable. Backup windows are huge. Virtualization makes these problems worse. easy to make VMs, VM sprawl etc, portable, VDI (great target for deduplication). Tiered storage build out. MORE >>

The sim has to be installed on the final deployment server. The database integrator must ensure connectivity to the LMS. The content should be pre-cached around the world if necessary. Further, any media files, such as video or sound, must be configured and optimized. This step requires a working relationship with the IT department that cannot be assumed in most organizations. If the sim is not considered mission critical with high level support, this step can take a lot longer than it should. MORE >>

Here is an interesting case study released by Microsoft: Drug Research Firm Cuts Costs and Boosts Training Quality with Collaboration Solution. Since developing my first interactive 3D simulation, I have seen the learning potential in action. But my experience was well over a decade ago. Its been frustrating to know what's possible and yet still see the eLearning industry struggle to make a place for interactive 3D solutions. It was strange to see environments like SecondLife basically disappear, when they held so much potential. MORE >>