JoshPaul

This is a simple Blog.

This rant is all too familiar to me.

Nextel SUCKS! doesn't cover it!

I had to cancel my phones 3 times in order to finally cancel my service. By that time I'd been billed for 3 months I didn't use. The company seems to have a policy of treating their customers like shit.

I'd love to see a class action lawsuit against Nextel in the near future.

Nextel deserves to go bankrupt and it's customers deserve the money that's been stolen from them.

I absolutely HATE the Nextel company. The last gig I was on I prevented the company from purchasing about 50 Nextel phones/contracts, so I can take some joy in that. If you are thinking about getting a Nextel phone…DO NOT DO IT!!!

Last night we celebrated Holly's (Judd's wife) birthday. We joined a whole mess of people at Rosen Studio for a night of karaoke. Quite different and a lot of fun.

The studio has to be experienced. There must have been about 30 karaoke rooms; all about 100 sq. feet. I never knew karaoke was such a phenomenon.

The highlight of the evening, for me, was a guy in a mohawk singing “Oops. I did it again” by Britney Spears. (Erik, Erik, Erik…?)

In the process of updating to WebObjects 5.2.2, a few things have changed. Yes, methods have been deprecated and it has been integrated with XCode, but NSLog now uses Log4j. Therefore, Project Wonder and EO-SQL logging needed to be updated.

Since I've been relying on Nightly Builds (and they haven't been built for a while), my SQL logging attempts failed. So, I head on over to the Wonder CVS repository, checked out the latest version and attempted to build it.

Well, it's been a learning experience. Today was the first time I really “wrestled” with Ant. Apple was kind enough to offer it as an optional install with the Developer Tools, so there wasn't much to do there. However, getting Wonder to build was a different matter.

I guess I lost the forest for the trees. When I was trying to build, it kept failing. I poked around the build.xml file, specifically around line 244, to try to find what was wrong. After a few email exchanges with Anjo Krank and the Wonder-discussion list, I and Anjo were at a loss.

We tried moving the woproject.jar file to a variety of locations…with no luck.

In the end, it turned out that a few abstract methods in JUnit's BaseTestRunner weren't declared in ERXTestRunner.

public void testStarted(java.lang.String value) {
    ;
}
public void testEnded(java.lang.String value) {
    ;
}
public void testFailed(int i, junit.framework.Test aTest, java.lang.Throwable thrown) {
    ;
}

Now I just have to find out what to actually do with them…

I don't really know why, but I'm getting an:

Error response

Error code 404.
Message: Not Found.

…when accessing my blog.

I'm off to PyCS to find out.

A friend/mentor/client/overall great man asked me to join Friendster. He is doing a little research for a project, so of course I joined. I'd heard about the service a while ago, but didn't find it intriguing enough at the time.

It's quite an interesting concept and I'm hoping a few of my (single) friends are able to find a “match.”

I also looked at Tribe.net. A think I like the intimacy of Friendster, but Tribe seems to be a better concept. Only time will tell…

When I began my career in the entertainment industry, I was fortunate to have a Producer recognize my affinity for computers. This talented and Emmy-nominated Proucer gave me a position in Post-Production where I was exposed to the latest technology. At that time, Avid was in the process of becoming the standard and the web was still in its infancy.

As I moved from job to job, I created databases using various programs (primarily FileMaker Pro) to manage information, including simple tape libraries and tracking online edit costs. Eventually, I used the databases to streamline the flow of information for both Production and Post-Production departments.

Although every production was unique, I found they all shared common similarities. Tired of reinventing the same wheel for each production, I built templates based on the similarities I found. I used these templates when starting a new job and doing so made my work-life much easier. Soon I found myself integrating the databases with databases other people had created, allowing us all to “be on the same page.”

Through this process I began to understand why large companies make large investments on databases and technology. It saves time and money.

Personally, I like to know both the how and why certain things are done. I understood “why” companies invest in technology. However, I did not quite understand the “how.” How does a company decide to use product X instead of product Y? Cost? Performance? Reputation? Ease of use?

The answers I discovered during my research opened my eyes to how the internet affects media production.

I access the web on a daily basis and I also conduct a large portion of my work via email. I will go so far to say the majority of us now deem access to the internet as a requirement both in our professional and personal lives. Yes, a requirement. Writers send scripts…PA's find driving directions… anf Travel Coordinators check flight information. All in seconds.

Since we already do so much work using the web, why shouldn't we be able to access the latest Staff List, check the status of a Location Lgreement, or search our Lape Library using a simple web browser?

Large companies including Disney and Universal employ Information Technology (IT) departments. Many of these IT departments have already networked their companies' databases (or are in the process of doing so). Sharing information between departments is a daily necessity for these companies and their employees expect information to be available upon request.

Our production companies however, whether producing a Feature Film or Cable TV Show, rarely have an IT department. Instead we are left with two options. One is to rely on the staff to cobble together databases, forms, spreadsheets and networks, with the hope that the staff responsible for the work will do so skillfully and not duplicate each other's work. The other option is to hire an outside contractor, one who most likely has no experience in our industry.

Because I was intrigued with the “how”, I began to experiment…

I found FileMaker Pro databases did not complement the web. Performance, even with a “broadband” connection, lacked. I also discovered security was a great concern. I found my databases worked well in certain situations, however, they had large limitations – especially in a networked environment. The more I searched for the answers, the more I understood the limitations.

Financially, if the company I worked for chose to “serve” my databases, even only on the office intranet, it had to purchase a Server version of FileMaker. Additionally, each person who required access to my database (or someone else's) also required to have a Desktop license to FileMaker Pro. At $1,000 for the Server and $300 for each Desktop license, the costs added up quickly. For a company of 50 employees the expense just for the FileMaker Pro software would be more than $16,000. Add in the cost of hardware and the company is looking at an expense of $20,000 or more.

Most productions I have worked for did not have a line item in the budget for software, much less one for $20,000. This discovery sealed my decision and I began to look elsewhere for database solutions. After months of research, I made a decision on which technology to use…WebObjects.

Over the past 3 years I have moved all of the databases to this new web-enabled system. The technology behind WebObjects, primarily the Enterprise Objects Framework, has allowed me to jump from database vendor X to database vendor Y (and even back again) with little hassle. EOF is truly a beautiful technology and the performance has been outstanding.

Recently the television shows Paradise Hotel, Mr. Personality and Beauty Secrets have all successfully used (a portion of) the system.

I have collected information from colleagues from all facets of production and assembled what I could into an integrated system. The system as a whole is now accessible from any computer with a network connection. The performance is absolutely amazing. I can now access the Production Schedule, search for a Staff member's phone number, or download the latest version of the Script from home.

I recently installed the whole system as the “central hub” on project. Our Deal Memos were created using the system, our Segments were tracked, and our Tape Library was reliable. In all, we had access to more than 100 forms including Run Requests, Purchases Orders, and Location Agreements.

All of the information can be searched or created using any computer with a web-browser. Since most people know how to access a web browser, our staff had had no difficulties learning the system. What's more, within the next six months they will be able to access information from their cell phones.

A friend/client recently purchased an iPod for his Windows machine. I went over to his place yesterday, installed a FireWire card along with iTunes. The major hurdle he's currently facing is the migration of his .wma files (encoded using Windows Media Player) to .mp3 files.

So far, Audio Conversion Wizard looks the most promising. At $25 I'm not sure it's worth it…seriously, all we're doing here is a format conversion. But, then again, in the World of Windows you gotta play by Bill's rules.

According to this article Microsoft will be offering a $250,000 “bounty” for the MSBlast and SoBig virus writer(s). Great.

As of the last article I saw, the SoCal fires have killed 22 people, burned around 750,000 acres and destroyed over 3,400 homes. Arsonists are to blame for most of the fires. The reward for information is a hefty $50,000.

Seems right to me. (sarcasm intended)

Okay, I rebooted into Jaguar and checked my project under the “old” WO version…it was fine.

So, is it a bug? Or a feature?