Crazy good Symfony

Man, I”ve had a ton of stuff happen in the last little while. It’s worth saying that the last week has been among the most productive I’ve ever had. I’ve generated nearly 600,000 lines of code, documentation, and other material. Talk radio version 2, a version 3 rewrite, the space center staff website, a police scanner backend and XML API, “Bill Travel” backend and XML API, “Q” (I think this will be one of our best apps) with it’s own backend, frontend XML API, and complex path-finding algorithms, and I’ve still found time to pack and get life together. *Whew*! Getting ready for a dentist appointment and getting a few schemes in order.

I must give credit for my productivity to an excellent team at Juicy Development (http://juicydevelopment.com) including creative, business, and technical genius from everyone, the Symfony Project first and foremost for creating an easy to use, easy to understand, uber-powerful programming framework, and for years of experience at the Space Center that have paid off in spades over the last few weeks, months, and years.

Okay, back to work.

Mogulus

There are times when really really really neat pieces of software appear out of nowhere and take you by surprise. OS X Leopard was like that. OS X Server too. Joomla, Dreamhost’s panel. Symfony, Coda, Photoshop, iLife, iWork, iTunes…really really high quality, rock solid applications that make you remember why it’s not just productive but fun to use a computer to get things done.

Today was one of those days. I stumbled upon Mogulus after a friend told me he was having trouble with some of his students breaking copyright laws with it. Intrigued, I checked it out, and was blown away. It’s a free Web 2.0 “Beta” service (like most of the cool stuff on the ‘net) that allows anyone with a broadband connection and a webcam to publish a live video stream to the internet. It’s like YouTube, but instead of uploading a video you make, you produce the video content live, prepare cues for the next clip, can integrate transitions, splash screens, graphics, badges, and even multiple video streams from your webcam, a firewire DV camera or USB camera, mobile phone, OR from anyone with a video device ANYWHERE in the world. You just provision them as a member of your production team, and they’re hardware appears. So you could manage a program from your production office, have a field agent with a laptop and a broadband connection doing an interview, and patch them into your program LIVE. SOOOO COOOL!

Now, I’m not a communications professional, and I really don’t think I’ll be in the communications field, but this is waaaaay cool. The possibilities for providing streamed content are just incredible.

Oh, I didn’t mention HOW you get the streamed content you want in place. For banners, ticker boxes, etc. you type it in and can enable/disable it. When you set up your channel, you can provide a badge that goes in the corner of your stream (which can be turned on/off). To set up content in advance, you create “storyboards” which are preset video lists organized as you like. Now for the good part: video can come from many many sources. Video podcasts, RSS feeds, files on the internet, files on your hard drive, YouTube users OR YouTube searches. This means you can cue up a video clip on your channel and, while it’s playing, get more content ready if you don’t want to use stuff already in your media library. You get it cued up and you’re live! And, if you’re away from your studio but still want to run content, you just set up the “auto-pilot” which plays clips or storyboards in the order and configuration you like. Cue it up, hit the “go” button on autopilot, and your channel stays on the air 24/7 while you’re away.

The possibilities for providing streamed content live for events and different activities is overwhelmingly neat. One thing I’m especially looking forward to, however, are the possibilities of adopting it’s interface for the Space Center. We currently run on pre-built mission tapes. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could create a playlist for a mission, preload it into your system, have the autopilot configured for science screens/stars, be able to cue up video in advance and, if you really wanted a video clip you could just search and drag it into your system. It’s perfect!

In order to implement something like that, however, you’d need to implement a SAN and several streaming servers in a cluster with a load balancer or something. I’m not familiar enough with data services to be able to design it 100%, but I get the gist of it I think. You’d set up a server with the video files indexed by tags, a mission playlist API call, and you’d be able to stream files from the system over a media distribution network from your data center to your video clients. It’s perfect!

I’m going to bed now before I hurt myself…

Entrepreneurship 101 a la Wikibooks

This is a wikibook I compiled painstakingly into a PDF for download, printing, etc. It’s a fantastic guide to entrepreneurship, including a lot of ins and outs of getting started, finding money, organizing people, and making things work. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, download and read or check out the latest version of it at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Getting_Started_as_an_Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship

Coolest. Ad. Ever.

Holy wow. Apple has done it again.

Facebook Security Advisory #4-ish

This is an advisory warning against the “Pictures” application. It looks like the Photos app built into facebook, but it’s been created by a malicious software distributor. The app itself automatically tags people and has been reported to install malicious software on some computers. Simply put: check out apps that ask for authorization by visiting their page. Keep your computer up to date (when was the last time you ran Windows update? Really?). Run a firewall and comprehensive antivirus software (I like Symantec 360).

 
Also, if you get weird links from people, don’t click on them. When in doubt, meet the person or call them (yes, in real life) and ask them if they *really* sent you the link. There is a more comprehensive listing of Facebook security advisories at http://www.facebook.com/security that is updated regularly.

Cheers, Brent

3AM

Tis a sad commentary on your existence when you’re able to burn through 3AM knowing full well that you have no alternative, but that at the same time you’re going to regret it in the morning when you have a dance final to pass, a philosophy paper to turn in, and a physics lecture to endure.

Computer Science versus Information Systems

I’m right now debating a switch from Computer Science to Information Systems. I’ve always been more of a business-minded, goal oriented, project leader that’s also been unusually good at computers. When it comes to the science behind it, however, I’ve always opted to just make something that works, works well, and gets the job done in an efficient, sustainable manner. Whether or not I’m using some binary search algorithm pioneered in the sixties or an Open Source library that I found, dissected, and integrated with my project, I don’t care. I just care about results. I don’t think I’ll ever dive too deep into the computer engineering pool of things, since I don’t plan on building the platforms I’ll work with by and large. For some custom applications (a few information security related projects come to mind), I would either hire someone and work with them on the project or I would use higher level parts that don’t require a computer engineering degree to understand. I don’t think I’m trying to take shortcuts by saying that information systems (with a strong emphasis on applied computer programming, as I don’t think I’ll ever stop coding) would make more sense.

My long term goals are basically find a workable job as a programmer or network administrator, work on the side trying to start a profitable and growing business, and then transition to that successful business. After growing said business to where I can sell, manage for a few hours a day, or simply hold stock and a board of directors position, I would start a new business and start going again. The objective here would be to develop a diverse business portfolio, one that would be sustainable in the event of significant failures, and also one with strong alliances between different companies. Although I lack the legal training, I’m inclined to think that there would be a large corporation that I would control that would own or acquire my business hobbies when they reached maturity. This could even function as a conglomerate, where there are software, web, mobile, infrastructure, and security related subsidiaries underneath the parent corporation. Heck, I could even roll my 501(c) business training foundation into this, however I’m inclined to keep it separate so as to give that organization some integrity in the event of a major failure.

Either way, tangents aside, I’m not sure if Computer Science is quite what I’m looking for. Knowing how to program lower-level technologies is important, but for me it may be more important to know how to integrate and develop systems that have concrete business applications. Additionally, I’d like to go on to get a JD/MBA and I think that ISys would be more supportive of those degrees anyway.

If anyone has an opinion on one or the other, drop me a comment.

Disk Cleanup

I’ve been cleaning up my HD for the last hour or so, removing unwanted apps, slimming binaries and deleting useless language translations. I’ve reclaimed 18 GB of disk space. Wow. That’s pretty crazy.

In other news, I have some mockups I’d like to share with people. Below are some mashups for a staff calendar I want to write for the Space Center. It’s been on and off for years, but now I think I have enough tools and experience to pull this off.

Coldplay Concert (part II)

There we were, in our seats at the Energy Solutions Arena at 7:30. I’d been to once concert before (Collective Soul at Brainshare ‘08) but never a *real* concert that you buy tickets for. 7:30 hit and Sleepercar, the opening act, hit the stage. They were decent, however nothing spectacular. It seemed more like they were giving the techies time to test all their equipment and get situated for the rest of the show to begin. 8:00 rolled around, still no Coldplay. Sleepercar had left the stage and a new act was assembling. It was a guy with two macbooks, a screen, and a projector. He fired things up and started to introduce the audience to what an acid trip was like. No joke. He improvised techno music from loops and paired it with video footage of cartoons, but the colors were all over the place and psychadelic. I’ve never seen something so truly disturbing in my life. The music and images progressively went off the deep end, going first from strange looped cartoons timed to the music straight into dolls that metamorphosized into people that then started to lose limbs…it was really weird. Christie, Mikayla, and I started looking at the ceiling, taking pictures, and otherwise distracting ourselves from the disturbing performance which lasted for a whole 45 minutes! It took FOREVER! Finally he wrapped it up and the techies started rearranging things for the concert to actually get going. The seats next to us had been unoccupied until now, when two couples arrived swigging beer and wearing University of Utah apparel (John, who was thoroughly in ecstasy over the results of the match, was subdued that evening when I told him we sat next to Utes at the concert. “YEahh!! WOOOO!”, said John “They were punch drunk,” said I. He wound down after that). I had felt it prudent to not wear my cougar apparel to the concert and this inclination proved to be of merit.

Finally, after two hours of decent warm-up band and a nightmare of audiovisual LSD, the lights went out and you could hear in the background (over the din of the crowd) the opening sound of Life in Technicolor, the first track on the Viva la Vida album. It’s instrumental, but very distinct and up-beat. You can’t help but feel good listening to it. The forms of band members could be seen in the darkness as they took the stage, all while the album cover began to appear on the screen behind the entire stage (Probably about 60 feet tall). When the pre-recorded background track hit the part where the guitars, drum, and accent vocals take their cues, the lights came up on each in turn and the concert started. They rolled from that track into Violet Hill and the rest of the album. I don’t remember the entire order they went in, as they skipped around a lot. They also played some stuff from past albums (God put a smile on your face, The Scientist, Clocks (very cool light show for that one), Politik, Fix You, and Yellow as an encore). It was absolutely amazing, every minute of it. Even in spite of the (wie sagt mann…) highly inappropriate behavior that was rampant in the seats next to ours. Some of the highlights: the lighting was amazing, hands down, including lasers, good use of smoke, precision instruments, and well cued hits with the music and lights in sync. Chris Martin is an excellent performer and entertainer. Although he probably didn’t do anything different that night than anywhere else, it felt like he was coming up with stuff on the spot (improving Violet Hill at the end, “If you’re from Utah won’t you let me know!” and giving away harmonicas in the crowd to some of the kids). Strawberry Swing had a really great light show as well. The coolest part of it all was Lovers in Japan. Taking cues from their music video for that track, they had millions (not an exaggeration) of paper butterflies that blew out of the top of the stadium and rained down on everything during the chorus. The last batch was fluorescent and they switched on blacklights to make it that much neater (Check out the pictures at planetbrent-photos.juicydevelopment.com for the details).

The photos describe the details of the concert very well. Ultimately, it was absolutely fantastic. We left the concert in short order, didn’t have trouble with traffic, drove home safely, and I think the entire experience was unforgettable for everyone. It was a blast.

Coldplay Concert!!!

[Reader: you are witnessing a rather unique event for this blog. An excerpt, straight from my journal. Although typically held under 2048-Blowfish lock and key (that's military grade encryption for the uninitiated), this is coming out of the vault and into your hands for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!]

Wow. It’s been an incredible week. I remember going to bed on Sunday with this warm happiness all throughout me because I knew it was going to be a fantastic week. I’m really glad I clung to that all throughout the week, because it turned out to be one of the rougher weeks I’ve had to go through. Homework and testing wasn’t any more than usual (in fact it was almost less), I did well in class, didn’t miss the bus, ate well, and took naps regularly. But by tuesday I felt as though I had “been run over by a bear driving a semi” and seriously felt like vomiting, I was so tired (okay, not entirely, but I’ve felt sick all week). Much to my chagrin, I had obligations on every front to meet, including church, social, academic, and business. Deadlines, activities, service, and everything in between. Even on the days when I would just collapse from exhaustion as I went down for the night, I remembered how great I felt about this week and I knew that this was definitively an absolutely fantastic week. Making my way through thursday and into friday, I was able to get my Talk Radio obligations put together. I love leading projects, can I say that? Mapping out all the components, the details, and then fielding off assignments to team members with full confidence in individual and collective excellence is a truly wonderful thing. So is getting an 87% on a curved chemistry test with the average fallling at about 69% and the curve being an average curve, not a “scaled-from-the-top” curve. This means I *might* pull off more than 100% on this test.

So, Saturday rolled in. Nate and I were terrible in getting up on time (9:00) and, after making waffles and bacon for my home teachers, we got ready and headed off for the temple at about 1:20 or so. It was a wonderful experience (again), I learned more, and at precisely 3:30 PM we left the temple on our way home.

The beauty in all this is that I had a plan for my day to go precisely like this in advance and it thrilled me that this time table was being met with such precision. At home, I got dressed and ready for one of the best saturday nights of this year (right up there with Prom and other brilliant experiences). It was interesting, as I had seen this day coming for so long and thought about little details in simple bursts for so many months that it all came together in an instance. It felt a lot like marching band, where you took 8 months worth of training, preparation, and perfection, strained out all the best bits, and used that as your performance instead of working through it again. I knew precisely where I needed to be, when I needed to get there, and what I would be doing when I got there every step of the way. In order, I dressed, took care of my personal grooming, printed off the directions, activated my debit card that arrived, texted Christie a few times to make sure we were still on time.

We left at 4:30 PM, popped in Prospekt’s March (straight from the Japan release), and hit the freeway. After exactly two times through Prospekt’s March (54 minutes and 46 seconds to be precise) we arrived at the Mandarin in Bountiful. The Mandarin is one of the best chinese restaurants in the country, and they’re not afraid to brag. Everywhere are plaques, newspaper clippings, and awards announcing their superiority in oriental cuisine. It’s affordable too. We walked in, put our name on the list (”Anderson, party of 3″) and took a seat in the “waiting cave” (as dubbed by Christie and Mikayla), a room just off to the side of the front desk. Not 30 seconds later, we heard from our bus boy “Anderson, party of 3″ and we were off into the heart of the restaurant, a comfortable table for 3. A few minutes later, Scott, our waiter, arrived. I am convinced that either in a past profession or a past life he was a high pressure salesman. Within a matter of 10 seconds he had the three of us convinced we needed to get the salmon spring rolls. They were good, however we all mutually thought they tasted like gourmet fish-sticks wrapped in fried wontons. The sauce was good too.

So from here, we ordered walnut shrimp, tropical thai chicken, beef chow mein, and brown rice. The food was delicious, and the experience fantastic. At exactly 6:35 (5 minutes behind schedule) we were stuffed, packed, and back on the road, this time headed for the Little America’s underground parking and a trax ride. I messed up getting to the Little America, passing it on accident and having to double back, but we made it there alright. I had accounted for a 15 minute buffer in my plans, which was perfect since we missed our train and waited 10 minutes, bringing us right on schedule. A quick trax ride and we arrived at the Stadium. In our seats, and ready to go.

I’m exhausted. I’ll fill in the rest of the details tomorrow. In the mean time, check out my Coldplay album for photo documentation and a sneak peak at the rest of the adventures of Lizzie, Gordo, and Miranda.

(PS – If you’re not in on the whole “Lizzie Gordo Miranda” thing, here’s the summary: Lizzie McGuire was a TV show a few years ago with Lizzie (Christie), Miranda (Mikayla), and Gordo (Brent). We each fit these in part because of personality traits but mostly because of hair color (Lizzie is blonde and Miranda is a brunette) and because I’m the boy that hangs out with those two)