Just got back from a 5-day holiday off work! And I had a good time thanks (if you were asking?!).

Ahh yet another factor that I’ve encountered about the world of work.

Coming back to work after just getting used to it, even if it’s just a week off, you sure do wonder what the heck is going on!?

It’s a nightmare to try and get back on track and even more, to try and read through the hundreds of emails that flooded through my time off. Ok maybe not hundreds this time, as there were only really two internal projects going on but it was between 80 and 100 at least.

I had found that SMSGR had come to a standstill for now, until the Microsoft team release a stable version. As for the rest of the week I worked on demos previously created by some other members of the team, for Longhorn, editing and synchronising.

I had a chance to work with Sony Soundforge too, normalizing and editing audio files ready for production. This process was required due to audio output requirements set by Microsoft when publishing media which in turn help to maximise download rate (i.e. reduced wave input/quality results in reduced file size). The audio still sounded ok.

However the original professional productions could have done the same job in my opinion and the file size would only be raised by a 100k or so. However rules were rules. On top of normalizing, the audio had to be cut up, for which was a simple procedure. Listening to the audio and selecting the portion of the wave to copy/paste into a new sound file.

Some other features learnt this week included going through the process of what copy edit hand-offs and MCT review hand off emails were, and connecting with Laselle Ramsey FTP site for uploading work we’ve done at Content Master. Laselle Ramsey is a company that deals specifically with copy-editing content. They check for all grammar and spelling mistakes and send back the content for correction after a couple of days.

An MCT is a Microsoft Certified Technician. This is a quick overview performed by Microsoft personnel who would be familiar with the technology/terminology for this particular project. This check was required to ensure Content Master was on track in terms of producing valid content which covers the teaching aspects of the course provided.

Most of the week was spent on delivering the daily work performed on Longhorn, whilst producing hand offs for the various copy edits followed by incorporating changes of Longhorn. Also working on doing Quality Assurance passes (QA) on edited courses. This meant loading the content within a HTML wrapper. This wrapper is located by using software called Learning Content Development System (LCDS). I only viewed the final course in this, by clicking one icon, however the development of a course in this software was yet to be taught.

Further work included, introducing changes in LCDS Courses, transcripts and importing media images into courses. Sound editing within animations. Further hand off emails have also been done given successful QA passes and returned to copy edit for a final check.

It has been quite a dry week, but otherwise I given permission to work on personal development skills by following certain Flash tutorials on Web sites, including Kirupa.com.