Kenny Bunch

It almost seems medieval that Cartoon Network was still using Windows Media for their video delivery platform in this day and time, but they stepped out of the dark ages yesterday. Just like Adult Swim, it was a matter of just encoding all the videos to FLV and switching the playback for their current application. Then “POOF”, they are using Flash video. Now the chains are finally off their wrists and they can start moving forward and push ideas rather than have them constrained. Congrats to my friends at Cartoon, and thanks for letting myself and Dreamsocket do the switch for you!

Finally making use of Twitter. Catch my random thoughts there.

In a previous post I pointed out that setting WMode in the HTML params for a Flash file would bind the player to the browser which in turn would cause fullscreen not to work. Well folks, I’m happy to say that in the latest player 9,0,115,0 (aka MovieStar) this is no longer an issue. Bug 202290 is fixed!

I’m hate to publicly gripe about anything, but after my experience with the Adobe store I’m so upset that I have to say something. So to preface this, I already own licenses to Adobe software, create very high profile projects with it, but I wanted to buy another full license for CS3 web premium (on Mac). Yesterday, I went online to purchase it, made my order and then get a response that the order is pending. No where before this last state do I recall being informed my purchase was going to take time to process. So problem here is that I’m onsite with someone and I want to run the software now on a specific OS installed on my box. I figured it wasn’t so bad, since I can do builds of the code with Ant etc. and don’t need the Flash IDE immediately or can run a different OS. Time passes, then I get an email saying that my purchase has been declined. Since I’m using a business credit card with a very high limit, this made no sense. Therefore I tried to make the purchase again. Same thing, pending. At this point, I’m wondering what is going on. Adobe has online live chat, so I opened a conversation only to find that the person is a sales person, not a customer rep. Great. At the same time I had made a call to customer service, which finally got answered 2o minutes later by someone in India. I gave him all my info and had him check the order. He mentions that orders above a 1000 dollars have to be completely approved before processing them. Ok, I can understand that, but a little forewarning goes a long way to my reaction. Then he goes on to say that I should get a response in the form of an email about my purchase. Super, this is what the other email had told me. I mentioned the previous purchase I had attempted and the outcome. I asked him to check that order#. He said I had no other orders, but I insisted and gave him the # which I had saved. So he checked it and after 5 minutes responds that my bank turned it down. To that I told him it’s a credit card company not a bank and asked him if we could just process the order over the phone, since a card can be simply called in. His response was you will get an email. Finally, I was getting frustrated and asked for a supervisor. So I waited on the phone for 15 minutes, and then they hung up on me.

So yes, I hate to say it, but Adobe’s Store sucks. I say it in hopes that maybe the comment will improve it. I love Adobe, but you can’t put your customers through that kind of ringer. My outcome, I’m don’t have the software running on the OS I want it to be on, so I’m not going to be as efficient. I’m also still waiting on the “email approval”, but I’ll probably end up going to a physical store like Apple and buying it.

[UPDATE] - My order magically went through finally as it says I can go download it, but it I go into my account and it still says pending. It’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth :(.

[UPDATE AGAIN] - So I never followed up on what happened, but I finally got my software. A representative from Adobe personally followed up with me and promised to  address some of the issues I pointed out. I totally appreciated that, and hope that my gripe will save some others pain in the future.

As the title reads, I recently spent 51 days in Kazakhstan. I was not there on business, but by choice. Having traveled to a lot of places, but traveled no where, I’ll make a statement. At the root of all things, everything is the same. I would say this for all places and people in various walks of life. What I mean by this, is that at the core we all share the same dreams, fears, passions, anxieties, and experience the same things as we pass through our lives. Fear and misunderstanding can make people perceive differences, but they really don’t exist.

I’ve always felt this way, but experiences like the one in Kazakhstan are great reinforcers. While I was there, I met wonderful people who will forever be in my heart. The funny thing is that even though I saw some of these people everyday for 4 weeks, our communication was limited mostly to gestures, single words, or referring to books. Yes, the entire time I was there I had no interpreter. You might think that’s somewhat crazy, but it was also very enlightening. Everything can be seen in demeanors, expressions, and emotions. Don’t believe me, just sit outside in a large city, and watch everyone around you as they move through their life.

That said, it was a beneficial experience, but a hard one. Being unable to really fully communicate and share feelings with those around you can be very isolating. It can also take a toll when you are trying to accomplish simple things, like looking for things to eat (especially when grocery stores don’t exist). Needless to say, I have been back for almost 2 months, eating like crazy, and am still 18 pounds less than my weight when I left. Anyone who knows me will tell you I didn’t have the weight to lose. I’ve also been sick for about 4 weeks straight. Sound bad. I won’t lie, it’s been rough, but I’m finally feeling like I’m on the road to recovery. I also wouldn’t trade it for the world.

So, what does my road look like now? Well considering the past 4 months have been a wild ride and the prior year was one of uncertainty (I had no idea when I’d have to go, since you have to have an invitation to Kaz), it looks pretty good. With the dream of Kaz in the bag, it’s time to start making the others happen. Here’s to looking and moving ahead.

Though I didn’t win, the Adult Swim Interactive video commentary I did for Adult Swim got an honorable mention. It’s really nice to get a little recognition, even if it doesn’t list my company (Dreamsocket) as the developer ;). Thanks for the highlight Adobe!

As a programmer, it is vitally important that you constantly learn and evolve to keep you moving forward. I personally spend hours upon hours analyzing frameworks, reading, studying others code, talking with others, and generally trying to grow mentally. I refer to this as my mentally programming myself.

Well once upon a time not so long ago, the nature of my programming was much different. Instead of mentally programming myself or a machine, I was programming people both physically and mentally. In a weird twist of fate, I some how managed to be a physical trainer in Los Angeles. Now normally you are supposed to have a degree to be a trainer. Due to the fact I’d been in physiotherapy so many times from skateboarding, I was actually able to convince a friend of mine to sneak me in as an onsite trainer at a high end rec center.

So what does this have to do with programming you ask? Well just as you have a mental workout everyday, it is just as important if not more, to have a physical workout. Keeping your body healthy, keeps your mind healthy and allows you to focus and think clearer. Not only do you feel better, but you think better.

When people work out they tend not to know what to do. This can typically makes the process feel unproductive and causes one to lose interest. In hopes of setting you on the right path, I’ve included a set workout program in this post. Every phase lasts 3 weeks. After a phase you move to the next phase, until you reach the sixth phase, then you go back to first stage. Each day you do a group of exercises that work a specific set of muscles. For example, phase 1 day 1, you work out back, chest, bis, and calfs. You do 5 sets of 13-15 reps for each body part, waiting 90 seconds between each set. By starting a week off withendurance reps/sets and moving towards strength, the program gives you a comprehensive workout.

I use this program 5 days a week and have been doing so for years. It is not my end all be all (since you should try to mix in cardio, like riding a bike or swimming), but it definitely keeps me going. The program can literally be a life safer, so good luck and happy “programming”!

Phase1
(perform 5 sets, 2-3 sets per exercise)

Phase2

Phase3

Phase4

Phase5

Phase6

I don’t necessarily think I can beat having press from the New York Times, but it’s awesome to continue seeing press roll in about the PS3 Megasode Application that I helped concept and build. GameZone has the latest standout article, which you can view online. Check it out when you have a chance, and for those who haven’t done so yet, don’t forget there is actually an online video available of me presenting the prototype in Canada.

Has sexy been gone so long, that the idea of JT bringing it back is making you itch to tell everyone? Wait no longer my American Idol inspired friend, because now you can show them. That’s right SHOW is the word, as SonyBMG has opened up their music video library for all to see and share. MusicBox is the name of the game and the site has a plethora of music content with a nice community wrapper over top of it to boot.

For those in the know, MusicBox didn’t just launch yesterday. Instead it has been evolving over this past year. Being the lucky lad that I am, I have been fortunate enough to be involved with it. So why all the fuss over something that has been around for longer than a month? Well we just brought sexy back to the video player.

That’s right as you can see above, SonyBMG has a sexy new viral video player to play that “Sexy Back”, brought to you by yours truly. The distribution code is all over the MusicBox site waiting to be grabbed.

For my fellow nerds who are curious on the tech side of things, the player is a custom interface wrapped over top of the embeddable Brightcove template. If you want to make your own custom BC viral player, the embeddable template is only available for higher end Brightcove accounts. However, if you have access to that template, and you are wanting to get your sexy on as well, below are a few pointers to save some headaches:

• don’t use the APIs to set settings, instead all settings can be set up front when loading the BC module using config values.
• want the pesky menu to disappear? set the useOverlayMenu config value to false
• with a viral player, BC loves Javascript and sites hate it. set the config disableJavascriptAPI to true, call System.security.allowDomain(”*”);, and if you are aiming for MySpace set the config domain to embed.
• using streaming media, call {player_instance_here}.base.mWorkArea.layout.mPlayer_mp.mContentCompleted = false; in your media start events, which will ensure that mediaComplete event gets called.

All of the above are simple actions, but if you don’t know them you’ll be searching the docs and scratching your head wondering why things don’t work. On that note, good luck to the nerds and happy sharing to my pop loving buddies.

When you turn to MTV are you watching that same Sweet 16 episode over again, left wondering where all your music videos went and questioning what is Ed Lover doing now? The day of music television seems to have come and gone overnight. It existed long enough to define the culture of a generation and then in what seemed like a blink of the eye had itself redefined by a new generation. Don’t get me wrong MTV as a channel is not gone, its focus has just shifted. MTV on air is no longer Music Television it’s more like Teen Reality Television.

Enter the INTERNET which makes what was once lost now found. It’s unlimited capacity has made music videos popular once again and given them a new home. MTV is serving them up online, but so are the content creators. The fact that the creators are acting as the immediate channel or distributor marks a definite shift. The point illustrates the narrowing gap between creator and consumer, as well as who can be the creator. The creator could range from a small band with a camcorder to a large music label’s production.

With all that said, the time of waiting endlessly for that one video to come on or staying up late hoping to catch the next big thing has come to an end. Now it’s just a matter of search, point, click, and enjoy. The amount of music videos now available seems endless and it just keeps growing. We have gone from discovering cool on MTV, to MTV discovering cool on YouTube. These are exciting times.