Category: Uncategorized

Nexus 10 vs iPad Retina: Actual Usage

I’ve had the pleasure (and displeasure) of using both an iPad Retina and a Nexus 10 for the last week or two last month and a half.  (this post was started in the last week of December)

This year, the iPad wins.

Nexus Failures:

  • In Facebook, a link to a video sent me to a mobile facebook website; the Nexus crashed and rebooted.   This has happened almost nightly.
  • In Facebook, pictures crop too much.   I couldn’t see the meme text without clicking in to the photograph.
  • In Evernote, linked to a Bluetooth keyboard, trying to organize the list of stuff that I want to get done for the weekend: a total disaster.
    • I could NOT use the arrow keys to navigate through the document.
    • Copy and Paste did not seem to work.
  • In the Trulia app: browsing real estate with the wife… Pictures much larger and UI worked better on the iPad.  I was jealous that she was using the iPad and I was using the Nexus.
  • Schlock Mercenary on was unusable – the UI elements fused together overlapping in a horrible way.
  • Battery on the Nexus seemed to drain faster… Two days to empty instead of four.  Note: This is not a measured, scientific observation.
  • Watching Videos on YouTube:
    • If the video started rebuffering, I could not tell the video to pause for a while (to let it get ahead).  I could only pause when it was buffered and playing.    On the iPad, pausing was independent of rebuffering.
    • I experienced rebuffering when their appears to be data still available in the buffer.
  • Netflix:  About the same, till I went to make a 30-second rewind (to show my wife something awesome).  On the Nexus, it did not register the shuttle change unless I did it for more than a minute.  When you’re trying to show a skeptical loved one something awesome, a minute is a LONG time to wait.  On the iPad, the shuttle resolution was better.

Nexus Successes:

  • Watching YouTube videos was a better experience – mostly due to the form factor, and better contrast.   (I was watching video on both devices – letting one “buffer” up while I watched on the other)

About the same:

  • Kindle Book Reading about the same on both.
    • Visiting a website with Flash – without working around it on the nexus – failed equally on both.  I tried working around it on the Nexus, but I couldn’t get that to work (probably the wrong browser)
  • Reading email via the Gmail app was about the same on both.  Both of them, I wish they fit more data on the screen. 

I dearly wanted the experience to be equal.. I have a soft spot for Android, I love its “intent” system for hooking apps together.. but as an honest consumer, the iPad experience for me in December 2012, January 2013, was better.   And for $100 more.. yes, I’d say it was worth it.

Addendum 2/9/2013:  My wife took over the Nexus for a while.    She is frustrated with it, HOWEVER, having multiple users on the device was clearly a win.     She’s going to get an iPad Mini, it fits her collection of purses better.  (Women are weird) (I like them like that)

Randomness: WordPress Fail, Feature Branching

  • I tried editing a post that I had started from Windows Live Writer, in the WordPress iPad app. Something about how the HTML got formed killed the editor there, as well as the rich text box editor on the WordPress site. Not having a laptop with me, I tried Remote Desktop from the iPad to my work computer, but that experience was too hard to do any real content creation. So I gave up and am writing this post instead.
  • I have had a rough patch at work the last few weeks. End of Release, lots of defects. We did a post-mortem, traced down each defect and where it came from, and found out:
    • Only about 10%were actual code errors. Yay, professional pride intact.
    • The rest were of the nature that no matter how much we looked at it, we would not have detected it was not what the customer wanted. The customer had to look at it, give us feedback, unfortunately in the form of a defect, because that is the stage of the SDLC we were in.
    • We are trying to find ways to get the customer to give us their eyeballs earlier in the process. The good news: The customer “gets it”, and now one of their style stars is hanging out on campfire where we can trade screenshots. Hopefully they will also be able to use the CI build and deploy to “play” with the latest code.
    • Part of the learning experience here is that the customer is going from a single pipeline of development to “Feature Branching”, and everybody is learning this new paradigmn. I could probably do a blog post on things to watch for with Feature Branching.
    • To be fair, we also missed a lot of things that if we had read every word of the requirements very carefully, we would have gotten. Yet, with feature requirements changing often, it was very easy to go with what we thought was common consensus rather than being word nazi on the requirements that may not have been up to date. Possible solution: as our perspective of things drifted, we could add notes to the requirements, as addendums.
  • I have not had a chance to get back to crunching car stats. the next thing I want to do there is visualize tracks in 3D using Processing. I have something working, but its not pretty enough yet.
  • A friend asked me for advice on how to do a timelapse of some work their employer is getting done. I hope I get to help!

Oops look at the time I am needed elsewhere. Publish without Pretty!

Developing as a Team

Update: This entry was re-posted on my company blog, here:   http://ignew.com/2013/02/16/developingasateam/  — with some updates.   

In October, I started on my current project as a solo affair. In November, we went up to 2, and then shortly afterwards 3 developers, and we had to figure out how to work together effectively.

I’ve had some good experiences in the past working as a team, and some bad ones.   I was eager to try to craft a good working experience, and with the help of my colleagues, I think we mostly succeeded.  We just did an internal presentation to my company on the subject, so now it feels right that I can blog about it.

We started collaborating on Campfire

At one person on a project, well, there’s just myself and myself.  Not much to do there; I can email the customer questions, I can save the emails I get back for stuff that’s important.

At two people, I can communicate with my teammate over IM (if they’re in), or yell across the hall.    Maybe try to maintain a wiki, and forget to do it.   Very often, one person takes primary in client communication, and the other person takes secondary.

At three people, things get a bit different.  Multi-person IM can be a pain.   One primary and two secondaries leads to a lot more communication overhead for the primary.

Enter Campfire.   http://campfirenow.com/

With Campfire, communication can be asynchronous – as long as everybody agrees to check the history of campfire to see what they missed.   We can work on different schedules.  (Its still more fun when we’re on at the same time).

  • Campfire became the place to start asking “I wonder if the customer meant this or that”
  • Campfire became the history of the project
  • Campfire became the place to state what we were working on, and to trade pieces of work (“while I’m in there, I could take care of xxx”)
  • Campfire became the place to let everybody know if one was working from home, or the office, or other
  • Campfire became the place to paste code for a quick code review
  • Campfire became the place to share cute jokes, and side technical things, as we got to know each other more

Note:There are many alternatives to campfire; that’s just what we used.  IRC is how we could have done it in the old days, although it would take some setup to get the history to save.

We centralized our communication with the client via Basecamp

If we had a question to ask the client, we would use a basecamp discussion.

  • We would create a discussion in basecamp, with a subject of “Question: xxxxx”, and the body being the question.
  • We would “loop the client in” (specifying their email addresses) to the discussion.  The client folks would get an email with the discussion thread.  We would also add ourselves to the discussion.
  • When the client responded, it got automatically added to basecamp, and we got notified by email.
  • Once the question was answered, we would rename the subject to “Answered: xxxx”.

This gave us:

  • A central place where we could see “what decisions had been made”
  • An easy way to figure out “what has not yet been answered”

I would recommend this even for a single person working on a project, because of the second bullet point.

Once again, I’m sure there are alternatives that could be used here; although I’m not sure which ones would provide a way to log customer responses with such ease, while presenting the questions in a format that they would easily understand: email.

We collaborated on Google Documents for Digesting Requirements

Wen we received the equivalent of 15-20 pages of requirements to digest and estimate, with links to external resources (mockups) and other “stuff”, we floundered for about 2 hours.  This was our (eventual) solution:

  • One of us pulled ALL the information into a SINGLE document, in Google Docs.
  • We individually went through the document, adding comments at places that we had questions, highlighting things that we found interesting, etc.
    • In reality, we did this together in almost- real time.  Maybe not on the same page, but I could see my teammates putting in comments, and I could even respond to them, as we all looked at the document together.
  • We then sat down face to face (although we could have done it over a phone call), and walked the document from top to bottom – everybody talking about the stuff they found interesting, how they thought it would affect the architecture, etc.
  • We then created a spreadsheet, and started filling out the “details” of the work.  We all collaborated on it as we were typing it up:
    • By the time we left that document, I *knew* that we all agreed on the same way to do the work, and the architecture.
    • The breakdown was more rigorous than I could have done myself (everybody’s rigor got UNION’ed together)
  • During the collaboration process, we also figured out the how to divvy the work up.  In this case, we decided to have one spearhead doing UI work, and another one coming up behind and connecting the UI to the underlying layers.

Google Docs is just what we had available to use at my company; One could also edit office documents in SkyDrive in a similar way.  As long as you can see what everybody is doing in real time, this works.  

We Used Planning Poker and Google Spreadsheets To Estimate

Example planning poker cardsOnce we had a work breakdown, we would use the planning poker process to figure out Low-end and High-end estimates on the individual items.

  • We did this face to face with a real planning poker deck, once.   (Thank you Microsoft)
  • We did this online, in a google spreadsheet, once.
    • We hid the numbers with white-on-white, and ran through the spreadsheet, and called out “done” when we were ready.
    • We revealed all the numbers
    • And then visited line by line to find any differences.
    • Sadly, our estimates were way off – high – but I don’t think it was because of the process.

Beware, with multiple people, you will get a higher number. This is because those who are more sure and bid lower, give in to the folks who bid higher.

We started collaborating on Google Documents for Demo Notes

Our process involves a weekly demo to show the client where we are at.     These demos were on Friday’s at 11am.   Thus, usually on Thursday night (Depending on who got to a stopping point first), or on Friday morning, we would create a “Demo Notes” document

  • We had a “team level” update which was usually put together by the “most chatty” of us. (me)
  • Each of us had a section, which we would fill out – of the stuff we wanted to show the customer, that we had gotten done.
    • We each had a different level of detail.  That’s fine, and in time, comes to be something we celebrate.
  • In each section, we had questions set aside like this, of stuff to ask the customer.   It was clear that there was an answer missing, there was a spot to type in the answer.
    • Question:  Why did the chicken cross the road?
    • Answer:
  • We could have added a section on “pending questions”.  Our client was excellent in responding, though, so we didn’t need to.
  • At the end of the document, we added a “Decisions” section.

During the demo:

  • We would openly share the demo notes document, using it as an agenda.  Whoever’s screen was being shared with the client, the client would see the demo notes somewhere in there.
  • As one person presented, if the client had feedback, or answers, another of us would take notes on their behalf.
    • It gave all of us a job.  With three of us on the call, we had two people listening in and ensuring that anything that was important got captured.   We helped each other.  We came to trust each other in a very “you’ve got my back” kind of way.
  • When the client stated something that was even a bit complex, we would type it into the demo notes, highlight it, and ask: “Did I capture this correctly?”
  • If decisions were made, we added them into the Decisions section.

Soon after the demo:

  • We would scrub the document (a little bit), to clean up the mess that sometimes happens during the demo.
  • We would export it as a PDF and email it to the client.

After the demo:

  • If something was noted that we needed to take care of during the demo, we would add it as a “TODO: xxx” in the demo.
  • When it was done, one could go back to those demo notes, and change it to “DONE: xxx”.  (we didn’t all do this; maybe it was just me – but that’s the beauty of a live document, it can represent “now” rather than “at that time”).

We started sharing administrative tasks

In a past team environment, I made the mistake of “volunteering” to be the only person who did administrative tasks, like merges, status updates, etc.  I was “team lead”, after all, wasn’t I supposed to do this?  In doing so, under the guise of “protecting” my teammates, I signed up for all kinds of pain.

In this incarnation, we’re going with the philosophy “Everybody is capable of, and willing to do, everything”.

The first part, “capable”, meaning:

  • If there’s something that one of us doesn’t know how to do, we’re willing to learn
  • We don’t have to be awesome at it.   As long as we can get it done well enough to move the project forwards.

The second part, “willing”, meaning:

  • Nobody has to be saddled with exclusive pain.
  • I know my teammates have my back.  They are capable and willing to take on my pain.

So, we’ve ended up at this:

  • We have a round robin order, for the weekly administrative tasks:
    • Preparing and sending the Weekly Status Report
    • Sending the Demo notes
    • Updating the Project Burndown

Additionally, we started doing automatic merges from the parent branch into our branch.   At first, we tried a “weekly” approach to it – but that ended up being WAY too much pain in a week.   So, if we hit that again, we might be doing a “its your turn today” round robin approach instead.

We started using Google Docs for Status Report Documents

The person saddled with the status report, would create the document, and look through our time tracking system / the commit log to see what people did, and take a first stab at the contents of the report.

Then, they would invite the rest of us in to the report.  We would update our individual sections, and add a “sign off” at the bottom of the document.

Once the document had everybody’s sign off, it got sent.

There’s More To Learn

Even with all of the above awesomeness, we have room to grow.    My teammates will probably either groan or cackle with glee when they read this, but here’s what I’m thinking:

  • There are other admin tasks we were lax on.   These could be added in to the admin-task-monkey’s list of stuff to handle.
  • We might start writing test cases together.
  • We might start running each other’s test cases [more often]
  • We might use a better way of breaking down the available work – in such a way that more than one person can get their feet wet in a feature.
  • We’ve now invited the client into some of our collaboration – might learn some things there.

The underlying thing is that we were willing to do what was necessary to have a good team working environment, and we did it.   And for that, I am grateful.

Trying to find a Twitter app for an Android tablet

sad-twitter-bird.jpg

I have been searching for a Twitter app for my Nexus 10 Android tablet for a few weeks.  None of the ones I have tried have worked for me.   Here’s the list so far.  My apologies to a developer if I misrepresent your app, kindly correct me and I’ll retest.

Echofon for Twitter (Beta)Echofon: While I love this app on iOS, the android version does not [yet] mute by client.  Its not very tablet-friendly either.  When they do, I’ll likely switch back to them.

Plume for TwitterPlume: The inline rendered pictures are far too wide (and not tall enough) to be useful.  Still too wide in three column mode;  and I wish that the three columns could all show information from the same stream.  But no, I have to look at 3 month old direct messages instead.

Flipboard: tries to be smart about what it will show and what it won’t, resulting in missed stuff.  And doesn’t mute but heck its like its muting everything. Very pretty though it has the best UI.

Twitter: I refuse to use it.  If its like their website, it has “sponsored tweets”  .. no thanks.  And, it doesn’t have mute.

Seesmic: So far, its working okay.  It does previews, it does mutes, and while it is not intelligent about using all the space available on the tablet, it’s the least obnoxious one (apart from Flipboard). 

What am I looking for?

  • Must have the ability to mute by keyword search.  I really don’t want to see all the GetGlue, Foursquare, and Untappd things that my friends post, while I do want to see their other stuff.
  • Must have the ability to preview pictures and/or article text.   I don’t want to waste time following the link.
  • Must show a lot of information in a small space.
  • Must not skip information.

If I were to dream I would want an app that did the above and:

  • Configured against multiple sources (twitter, facebook, etc)
  • Rendered the view using little squares
    • Either picture or text in a square
    • 2×1 Rectangles possible, depending on the form factor of the picture / content. 
  • Allow square sizes to be variable – zoom in/out to get more/less information on the page
  • Allow grouping by chronological or by user or by popularity (or both)
    • both:  map chronology across the X axis; and user across the Y axis;  give everything a gravitational pull that yanks them together and/or tries to keep them in order, and see what happens.
  • Allow grouping by slicing first
    • 1st priority is: all stuff by my wife;
    • 2nd priority: stuff by my family;
    • 3rd priority: stuff that’s popular;
    • 4th priority: everything else
    • This is only possible if the time frame to slice over is configurable on the page; defaulting to “since the last time I checked”, or maybe “the oldest unread thing up to a week ago”.
  • Mark things as read vs unread so that if I don’t find it one view, I can find it in the other. 
    • Either hide things that are read, or display them dimmed, configurable.

I would probably call the app “SquareReader” or something like that.    Except that there’s a credit card processing tool that seems to have the dibs on the word “Square” at the moment.

Ah yes.  If somebody would pay me for the time, I’d write it.   Smile

The Hobbit

I was quite shocked to find that some folks on Twitter whose opinions usually match mine, did not like the Hobbit.  So it was with great trepidation that I went to see the movie tonight. I watched the 2D version tonight, and I’ll watch the 3D HFR version on Tuesday.

Critically acclaimed Drama it is not.

Goofy Yarn it is.

Songs it does have.  (All of them?) Almost Bollywood worthy transitions they are.

Well tied the intro is, to the Lord of the Rings.

Introduce additional content they are. 

Walking there is. Ponies too.

Gandalf giving single word orders, there is.

New Zealand tour it is.  The detail/color of the grass in Hobbiton gave me pause.

A crush does Gandalf have. 

In all, I’m very glad to have watched it.  I’m glad I could support all those hard working passionate New Zealanders.

I am VERY much looking forward to seeing the Higher Frame Rate version on Tuesday.  Few theaters have it… For example Stonybrook does not.  HFR only in 3D.  In the normal 24p whenever they pan the screen by more than a few degrees a second, everything blurs for me and I cannot focus on anything. There was a lot of detail in the Goblin stuff that was just too fast for me, couldn’t focus, and I’m hoping the 48p fixes that.  I’m glad that PJ can try out this technology update.

In other geeky news: using Google Docs for burn ups and demo notes and status reports so that our team can update concurrently, reducing human communication overhead.

Wedding Video–Part 1–Acquisition

imageThe geekiest thing I’m doing right now is editing a wedding video for my friend Stuart. 

I’m very glad I did this wedding as a gift – ie, not getting paid.  If I were to get paid, there’s a lot of things I would do differently. Here is what I have learned:

Pre-Wedding Checklist

  • At least two of the same kind of camera, preferably of a resolution higher than the final product.  
    • You want better than the final resolution for stabilization – any software needs to loose some pixels in order to stabilize. 
    • Hint: film at 1080p, render at 720.   Unless you are Über with your camera moving Skills.
    • Cameras that do well in low light – the dancing at the reception, for example.
  • Two GOOD tripods, which extend at least above head-level high.   OR, a Balcony. 
    • When everybody is standing, it will be challenging to get the right folks in the video.   I had one tall tripod that didn’t move well, and one short tripod that did move but was no more than head high.
    • The $55 tripod at Target is not it.   While moving, it jars and shakes – that’s where an actual video tripod is worth the $.  Next time. 
  • One audio recorder to keep somewhere in the altar area.  In my case, it went in a flower pot.
  • As many extra little cameras as you can afford – to cover the angles when none of your other cameras has a shot.  I had a GoPro near the altar area in front of the entire congregation, on the floor. 
  • A gray-scale/color card.  These can get expensive – but you can cheat and print your own.  It doesn’t need to be perfect, its mostly to color balance between different cameras.
  • An assistant to run the other camera is REALLY nice.
  • Enough battery power for N+2 hours on each camera.  
    • I planned poorly for mine – I came prepared for 5, but it turned out to be 8. 
    • Enough time to charge all batteries. You may not get it onsite.
  • Enough card space for N+2 hours on each camera. 
  • A pair of silent black shoes, and a black outfit, to not draw attention to one’s self.   I used these guys.

Rehearsal Checklist

  • Ask the question:  Where will the congregation be limited to?   If I had asked this, I would have know about additional places I could have put camera #2 that would have not been affected by standing folks.
  • Film the entire rehearsal like you were doing the real service.  It helps you know where to be and where to point at any given time.   I changed my plan about 3 times during the rehearsal.
  • Get B-Roll video of the performers performing – mostly their fingers (since they will not be wearing the same stuff during the real thing)
  • You need a reception rehearsal as well – or at least ask the questions:
    • Where will the bride and groom enter from?
    • Where will the cake be cut?
    • Where will the toast be delivered from?  (I assumed the table, but it was from the singer’s microphones)
    • What’s the general order of events? 
    • Where is the dancing going to be?

Post Rehearsal Checklist

  • Re-charge all batteries.
  • Offload and clear all memory cards.
  • Final plan on where the cameras will be.   Remember the 180 rule. 

Pre Wedding

  • Place all the cameras, tripods, etc, in position.
  • Get some audio without anybody else there – to establish baseline noise (to be used later in noise reduction)
    • I used AGC (automatic gain control) on my recorder, but it would be better to have that turned off if you want high quality audio – however, that also needs practice.  My fear was that I’d have the gain turned too low, so I went with AGC turned On.  That makes noise reduction harder.
  • More B-roll.  By this time, all the flowers, etc will be in place.
  • 5 minutes before action time, turn everything on. 
    • Use a checklist.  Yes, I DID turn on the audio recorder.  Yes, I DID turn on the GoPro.

During the Wedding

  • If you have an assistant, one camera should be fixed on a subject at any point in time.  This is where the stationary Go-Pro or wide-angle cameras really help – you can always fall back on them even if everything else is moving.  
    • If you are a solo act, this works out – I would adjust one camera, pad over to the next (in my silent shoes), adjust it, then back to the first, etc.
  • Slow slow SLOW sweeps. 
    • This is where the good tripod really helps.
    • Do NOT zoom in all the way.  This is where recording at a resolution higher than the result is helpful – gives image stabilization room to play.  This is where having the grid turned on helps – keep most of it inside the center grid.   (But, if you are recording at the final resolution, obviously, don’t do that)

After the Wedding

  • Record the entire receiving line.  
    • From an angle where you can see the guest’s faces.
    • These are the people who are important to the Bride and Groom.  

During the Reception

  • You probably will not get to eat a full meal.   Plan accordingly.  
    • Why: Some of the footage you will want is people getting served food.   That cuts into eating time.
    • Then, while eating, the toasting will probably begin.    Or, people will demand they couple kiss, and you’ll want to be ready for that.
    • This does not exclude Cake.  Cake can be eaten easily.
  • Friendly kids and throw away cameras make for great video.   10 years later, its whatever the kids did, that gets watched, not the boring grown-up stuff.   I was blessed with two volunteers.

 

That’s probably about it, on lessons learned.   Don’t worry – while it sounds like I had a train wreck; au contraire, I’m 90% proud of what I’m able to produce – I have good editing skills.     The editing part is a separate post.

Entertainment / Hobby Queue (10/26/2012)

I have found myself with nothing to do tonight.   Not, as in, bored, but more like a moment to breathe.   As I sit back and relax, I realize I have a long queue of stuff that I want to do .. sometime.  I’m making a note of them here.   As I write this, I realize I also have misgivings about some things, they need to leave the list, I do not have the time, I must be picky.

(Creative Commons photo by Simon Law)

Video Editing Queue – Priority

  • Soccer Banquet:  player and coach interviews – mostly done, needs trimming and color correction and some titles.
  • Soccer Banquet: to be determined – JV, V, Seniors, Action shots, Clips of celebrations, Senior Parents flashback – waiting on media from my wife to set the grouping.

Video Editing – Not priority 

  • Now that I have multicam software, finish off the Café Unity Wizard of Oz video .. so I can delete the originals (22G) and replace with a single 4G video stream.   (Also amazing is how Premiere does 2 pass VBR etc – to get crisp high quality video in less space – as compared to consumer MPG generation)
  • Likewise, reburn the surrounding video to a DVD for Noumuas, but I want to attempt color correction on it now that I have learned how.
  • Battle of igNew vs Heartland – Basketball competition – its going down tomorrow.  I won’t be there, but supposedly there will be two GoPro’s in the mix. 
  • Niece Macki’s Oldham vs Shelby competitive girl’s soccer game.

Archiving

  • I *still* have all those old photos that need to be digitized.   I might just find a service and get them sent off.  I really want to color correct some of the stuff from the 70’s.  
  • Of course, none of it is of any use to anybody other than me.. I have no biological offspring who would care.
  • I have about a decade of digital pictures that I could try to organize and comment on.

TV

  • Staying up to date with Grimm, Top Gear Ameriica, Top Gear BBC, Doctor Who. Only one is currently in season.
  • Backlog of seasons: Doctor Who.  I’ve browsed the top 10 so far.  I might let this one go.
  • Battlestar Galactica?  I think they completed their story arc now.   I might let this one go.
  • Richard Hammond Crash Course.   Not started yet. 
  • There’s probably more excellent TV that I have missed, but I don’t know about ‘em, so I can’t list ‘em.
  • I think I’m giving up on Wild Alaska Flying Frozen People with Wind and Visibility Problems and oooo it could be dramatic but it really isn’t, but its pretty and I love watching airplanes fly.
  • Ice Road Truckers, if I get really bored.  Similar to the above. 

Movies

  • The Hobbit.  Oh yeah.   Probably twice, in the theaters.
  • Avengers
  • John Carter of Mars
  • reference Howard Tayler’s yearly reviews of movies, I seem to agree with him (except that I liked Wolverine)
  • Harry Potter!  I stopped watching the movies somewhere between 4 and 5 I think.
  • I once thought I would watch the entire LOTR, but with the directors or some other commentary track.  I might have to shelve this.  I think its beautiful what they did, but its in the past now, let it go, look at the new.
  • There are many feel good important movies about the beauty and challenge in our world —   Racing the Rez is one of them..  I want to watch more of these.   There’s also a movie about high school football that @CoachKennyBurke referenced in one of his videos.

Books

  • I have an active subscription to Schlock Mercenary.
  • I have many non fiction books.. math books, geeky books.. that I have gotten this year, that I can’t even remember.  Some by Martin Gardner.   There’s something about a very peaceful tribe in the Amazon.    I could possibly put these in GoodReads, but I’d rather actually read them.
  • Graphic novels from Humble Bundle that I just bought.  I got through xkcd the other night, it was great.
  • Shannara?  I grabbed 1 and 3, tried re-reading, but I’m finding it too dry and too.. suspicious?  the characters are not deep enough for me to relate any more.  I think I have to pass on it
  • Barbara Hambly is currently on my list.    I have 2 or 3 of her books lined up.
  • 2 anthologies (?) of Science Fiction short stories thanks to my Mother in Law.  I’ve read a few stories from each.
  • I read through the first 6 books in the “Warriors in the Wind” (cat stuff) series.  I am hesitant to start on the next 6.  Same shit, different paw.

Youtube

  • ViHart, CPGrey, VSauce, SlowMoGuys (sorry no links, you can youtube them if you want)
  • I seem to catch up about every month or so.

Music

  • I’m reasonably current now, thanks to Sirius XM. 
  • Mostly will involve banging on drums really loud.  
  • Some day I want to revisit trying to mix two or three songs together to make a mashup.
  • I do want to spend some time and just go through all the music that friends post on facebook, and listen to a bunch of it.  Just to see what’s important to them.

Code projects

  • Burnup/Burndown – currently working on it, at the rate of 1-2 hours every other week (link is to github)
  • Gmail super-archiving program – to delete all but the most recent of a pattern match; moving the most recent to an “Offers” folder.   Access via Imap, probably. 
  • Recovery Program Mapping – to help generate maps of 12 step meetings sorted by Date, Time, and mapped across a city.  Because that’s really hard to do.   Make it donation-based. 
  • LPC revisited in C# and .Net – to pay homage to where I learned OO for real.  

Games

  • XCom – I only played a few levels.  It was fun.   I probably won’t go back to it.
  • DayZ – I only played a bit; won’t go back to it unless its with a group of buddies
  • Civ5 – I did everything I wanted to do with it; I can shelve this
  • XPlane – I did all the travelling to places that I already know; I still have my cross country trip to do, however, I’m not feeling it right now.  Maybe in the dead of winter.   I have a TrackIr now, should be fun.
  • SPAZ – meh, it was interesting for a night.  Probably shelved
  • Borderlands – curiosity satisfied, shelved
  • SimCity – curios, might download demo, then shelve.
  • Portal – I really should play this.   Its so famous.

Then there’s another part of life.. that’s not work, its not family, and its not entertainment…  Its been ignored.  It’s the segment that I only seem to find the desire to work on, after I’ve spent some energy getting charged back up using entertainment.   It is:

Exercise

  • Get back to Yoga
  • Get back to resistance training / toning all muscles in general
  • Get back to running
  • Bonus: Swimming (== toning core muscles)
  • Bonus: Bicycling
  • Bonus: Soccer

If I ever say I am bored.. I need to come back and read (and freshen) this post.   And I’m not even listing the other areas of life I could get more involved in – recovery work (going to more meetings, taking on more sponsors), teaching (I think I would enjoy it, one on one, for those who want to be better developers), yardwork, house fixing, etc etc etc…

Life is Full.   That’s probably good.

Video Editing Quandry

I have a Quandry.  Or a Conundrum.  (Quandaundry?  Condrumdum?)

I’m working on one of the High School Soccer Banquet videos,  the one where I interviewed the seniors, asking them various questions (in retrospect, there were so many other questions I could have asked that could have been more interesting)..

I also have the coach’s description of each of the players.  It’s a bit long.  Coach said I could probably get a few seconds from that.. well, gosh darn it, he’s a good egg, he loves the players, I want to use all of it.

One way to do it would be to go player by player.. have the coach’s version.. then have the player’s answers.  Put that way, its about 23 minutes of footage, though I’m sure I could cut it down.  However, I think its boring.

I have another version:  Where I have the title of the question, and then each of the player’s answers.  This version is down to probably 10 minutes, but it does Not include the coach’s blurb on each player.  The coach’s blurb would get repetitive.   I also have 7 players, and 5 questions, so I couldn’t spread the blurbs between the questions.  (Or could I?  5 fits into 7 pretty well if the seven goes on the outside edges)

I also have these “cute” moments that need homes.    Celebration score during a Fifa game.. Giggling when they hear the goofy question before the interview… Googly-eyeing the camera… “Is this on?” … etc. 

Another alternative is to put the coach blurbs with the “focus on Senior” video – a totally separate video with baby pictures ‘n’ stuff.    I’m thinking in that video, each senior would get their own soundtrack.  *hmm*  Yeah, that might work better.

OOOO!  Idea.  I’ll have the coach’s blurb, but I’ll duck the audio when he says their name.. and then I would switch to the player’s baby pictures, and start building up.. and when I finally get to their current action pictures, I’ll put their name in for 1 or 2 seconds (on some highlight music part).   Yep.  that’ll work. 

Ok.  Conundrum solved.     Thank you for listening. 

Soccer SOUNDZ

2012-10-05 11.53.49I’ve neglected the blog a bit.. High School Soccer Season was upon us, and the priorities became: Soccer, Work (billable hours), Wife, and household chores.    I have the day off today (long story), and what have I been geeking out with?   

I have gotten my setup for soccer sounds to where I want it.  Background: previous seasons, a radio announcer guy was a parent, he brought a soundcart in from the station and provided sound effects during the game.. like celebration music after a goal was scored, crash sounds when a car got hit, “I get knocked down but I get up again” when a hurt player got up.   I “volunteered” myself to cover that starting last year, so I’ve been doing it pretty much every game.   Just a few more games left (my kid is a Senior).

Hardware

Audio-Technica AT8202 Adjustable Inline Attenuator

Audio-Technica-AT8202-Adjustable-Inline-Attenuator

The announcing booth has spots for two mics, and no other inputs.  So, I got this attenuator to convert the line-level out from <my equipment> into a mic-level – this avoids the annoying problem of having to have the volume REALLY low and have it get REALLY LOUD all of a sudden.

Yamaha-MG102C-Input-Stereo-Mixer

I could go straight from the laptop headphones to some funky XLR cable, however, QUICKLY controlling the volume on a laptop is hard.  When you have to use your eyes on the field, tactile/touch is very important – so I got a mixer.  I could have gotten a cheaper mixer, with less channels, but I’ve found that the mixer is a good tool to have in unusual situations..  and since I make myself “of service” in audio and video kinds of ways, this is pretty useful.   

Not Pictured:  1/4” TRS to XLR Male cable

Not Pictured: 1/8” TRS (headphones) to RCA cable

A Laptop.   The first season, I did this with a Netbook, so it doesn’t need a lot of processing power. (However, having a wide enough screen to have both apps open is a good thing)

Software

Screenshot

SoundByte is the best program I have found.  It cost me around $40, well worth it.  It relies on underlying Quicktime to play MP3’s, etc.    It does the sound effects, the “introducing your starting line up” music, and the playing of the national anthem, etc.   I did have to supply all the audio files – which was easy, as my predecessor left me a collection of his favorites.

I use iTunes DJ as the driver for music during halftimes.  It allows me to weed out stuff that’s coming up, balance volumes between everything that’s played, and cross-play between tracks .. and I can shift-select to see the total playing time of an upcoming segment.      

Music Selection

When I first inherited this, I had no clue what to play for music.  I was worried about royalties and legality and all kinds of stuff.  I tried to find FIFA soccer soundtracks… I used Spotify in offline mode.  

The good news is, another thing I’ve done is make mixes for cheerleading squads – and they tell me which music to make it from.  Hence, I’ve built up a collection of music from those requests – I started using that.

Further, I got tired of listening to “80’s on 8” and “Classic Rewind” on Sirius, and switched to more current stations – Pop2K, 20’s on 20, The Pulse – while coding – and when I hear a song I like, I tag it and usually end up buying it later.  More good music for the playlist. 

The end result is – it doesn’t really matter what’s playing, as long as there’s something there.  So don’t worry about it.  Grab some stuff, be careful of explicitness (“mommy, what does ____ mean?”), and move on.

Also, each team (girls, boys, soccer, football, etc) seems to have a mix CD that their seniors put together. using iTunes, I can import the entire CD (CTRL/I – set album information).    The benefit of this is iTunes helps balance the volumes and crossfade the tracks, giving a better sound experience.  The drawback is, usually its not checked for explicitness.  I leave that up to the coach:  Coach, have you approved the music?  And if he (or she) has, then its on him.

Process

This is as much to express the geeky-ness of the process, as it is a “here’s how I did it” so the next parent can invent what they want to do.  This is after all my last year doing it, 4 games left.

Prep:  in Soundbyte, there’s a menu option to set fade rates.  I set everything to 5 or 10, which gives about a 2-3 second fade-out.   I’ve also arranged music by color and columns.  I’ll refer to those below.

Process: Pre Game Setup

I usually arrive 30-40 minutes before the game starts, plug in my equipment, and get the “soccer music playlist” playing in iTunes.    Once the kids get on the field and warming up, I bring the volume up a bit more and switch to their imported playlist.

Prep: as we get the lists of names for the starting line-ups in, I usually chase down a parent and extract pronunciation so the announcer has it easier.

About 2 minutes before game time, I fade that out (physical volume knob), stop iTunes playing, switch over to “filller” music (3rd column) in SoundByte, and bring the volume back up.  Sometimes its Hawaii 5-0, more often its “Thunder” (which sounds like an NFL pregame orchestra something something).  This gives the background for the announcer to do his thing:  “Welcome ladies and gentlemen … to the … “ (etc etc)

When they are ready to do the starting lineup for the visiting team, I hit CTRL/F which fades out the current track, and switch it to another track in the 3rd column.. usually “Mission Impossible” (sneaky of me)

As that finishes and we go to introducing our kids, I’ll Ctrl/F again and switch to “Eye of the Tiger” or “We will Rock you”, and bring the volume up a bit.  Usually the announcer will be a little more excited voicing these guys.   

As that announcing finishes, its time for the national anthem.   Ctrl/F to fade it out, give people time to stand and come to attention (3-4 seconds) and then play one of the yellow-colored buttons – I have collected 4 National Anthems that I like so far.   I vary it up between games. 

Aside: one of the benefits of having a background track while announcing, you tend to pace your announcement to the music AND the parents get a chance to clap.

As the national anthem ends, I’ll drop the volume by hand, CTRL/F to stop it, and go back to the intro music (Thunder) as the teams take their spots on the field.  I’ll lower the volume somewhat when the ball gets to the center spot.. and lower it even further as everybody seems to get ready… then when the Ref blows his whistle, I’ll fade out (CTRL/F), bring volume back up to normal.

Process: When a Goal is Scored

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_0pHanV4-E&w=448&h=252&hd=1]
Video showing the sounds involved in scoring a goal, amongst other things

 

I usually only do this for our team, but if we’re hosting two other teams playing, I’ll do it for both teams.

As SOON as we realize that a goal has been scored, I reach over and tap “Q”, which is hotkeyed to play an “Oh Yeah” clip (from Yello).    This gives me the 5 seconds or so to get my mind straight, and pick the next sound to play, which is one of the green color clips – those are all little exciting celebration music clips, which don’t have to be any more than 30 seconds long or so.     What this also does, is give the announcer and the spotters a bit of time to argue out who shot the goal.. and then the announcer can announce the goal.. it takes the pressure off them a bit.  

As the kids get back to the center line, I usually bring the volume down just a tad (physical knob) when the ball hits the centerline, and when the Ref looks like he’s ready, I’ll hit CTRL/F to fade it out, then bring the volume back up.

Process: Post Game Teardown

The announcing booth has a CD player that many teams use that don’t have this kind of setup. I take one of the many pre-game warmup CD’s, and stick that in, play + pause, a few minutes before the game is over.  When the game is done, I hit play, and that provides music as everybody starts to leave the stands – and then I get to uplug everything and pack it away.

Process: Lugging it around

UPPTÄCKA Briefcase IKEA Extra protection for your laptop in a separate padded compartment.I use an Ikea UPPTÄCKA bag for the Mixer and Cables, and I have my normal laptop backpack for the laptop.  It’s a haul, but it works.  I usually get into the games for free, ‘cause its obvious that I’m there for business (well, to be fair, I have a second backpack for camera equipment, and a tripod, so I look like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.)

Minecraft #2/2: Layers of Adventures

When I searched for information about Minecraft, I found a lot of mind-numbing detail.. and a lot of tutorial videos.. but nothing I could use as a roadmap through the overall game (other than the achievements thing inside the game, which I somehow missed for quite a while).  So, I’m putting this together.  Its what I know so far.. there are many more things which could go on here, but I think this is the basics to get to the advanced stuff.

Adventures in Minecraft

Image creation notes – used desktop wallpaper from http://minecraftwallpapers.com/blueskys-96.html ;  Diagram created with CreateLy

I’ve tried to arrange all the above-ground stuff on the top-right, and the below ground stuff going, well, down.

One Side effect I have noticed:  When I first started playing, getting 4 blocks of wood seemed monumental, I had no idea of the scale at which I could grow and harvest things.  As a result, I held onto those 4 blocks, the single chest, etc, very tightly .. all resources were scarce.. till I learned how to plant trees and get renewable and efficient.  I think the same is true in real life … as I learn the patterns of real life, I go from being scared in the world to being confident and efficient. 

Click the image to zoom in on the detail. 

A Word on Mining

Each time I do a mine, I seem to pick a different pattern.. I’ve finally found one that I think I like.  Its related to Branch Mining Layout #1 in this Wiki article … with these additions:

  • The center section is 3×3 or 5×5 with a tunnel going straight up.   I’m having very good luck with branches every 6 (ie, skip 5 then start a new branch).
  • Try to keep all the ceilings 2 tall so that Endermen cannot teleport in
  • Use Wood Panels as markers – this way back to center – and as markers to know where I found something (because I’m filling as I go)
  • If I break into a cave, patch that enterance with wood paneling – which serves as a reminder to self, don’t open this.  (Problem: Mobs will spawn in there.  Endermen teleport.  Hence the ceiling height)
    • I suspect after I master lava I might try some creative way of killing all mobs in a cavern
  • Use Shift-F3 to see real light levels; drop a torch on the ground when RL=3 yields an overall lowest light of 8 between torches which prevents mob spawns.  Even better, use the torches at every 6 (branch mine) just as a pattern.
  • When I go down some levels, leave 3 blocks between levels (ie, go down 5) – and then do the branches the other way (if it was an east/west the first time, do north south the next time).

Bulk Mindset

I am finding that instead of doing things “just barely what I need” (ie, I need 4 wood, get 4 wood), its more efficient to batch up my operations.  So If I’m planting wheat, I plant 21 in a row yielding 63 harvest – which gives me a full stack.    If I’m creating torches, I create all 64 of them.    This way I’m not context switching all the time.

Further Adventures

These are the things I have not yet done (and may not get around to … or I might …)

  • Travelling in search of another NPC village (the one that my friends found, we didn’t protect the villagers, and now they’re all dead.)
    • “Villager Farming” .. growing the village (something about Golems?)
  • Visiting the other Biomes (or starting basic survival in one of them)
  • Building Railroads and Powered Rails for fast transport
  • Building above ground (everything I’ve done has been a hobbit-hole dwarven lair type of thing)
  • Building under water
  • Playing with Gunpowder and TNT
  • Playing with Lava
  • Playing with Circuitry
  • Pets
  • Enchantments
  • Endgame