Yeah, I feel the same.  Going to Seth’s book, I saw everything at hand, could pass it easily, and had not troubles loading anything.  For book #2, I found that the first thing I had to do was turn off my ad/cookie/java filter and reload the page just so I could move on past the banner page and open the book’s java page.  Annoying.  And, as you say, you can take nothing with you, not even links.  I recently reviewed an artists new album and had the same problem: instead of sending interested people to specific pages on his site (also flash-based) I linked them to the front door and then linked them to other sites for music samples, etc.

Really, the flash looks beautiful.  But I’d rather have a plain piece of pumpkin pie like mom makes than some extravagant dessert from a restaurant few people can get to and fewer could sample.  I want to share the pie, if it’s good.

I’m sure you know that I agree.

I didn’t even wait for David’s site to load. I’m sorry but watching navigation buttons animate into place isn’t my idea of a good time.

I will say though that I would imagine Seth’s and David’s target audiences to be vastly different. Seth’s audience is busy. They want the facts and they want them quickly.

I would think David’s audience, at least portions of it, would really enjoy the cool factor of the flash site.

However, I think that the ideal site would incorporate elements of flash while retaining the “portability” and “linkability” of an html site like Seth’s.

It’s almost like being invited to a really nice resort but not being allowed to take any pictures to show your friends back home.

David’s site is really nice, but he’s losing out on some great viral marketing opportunities.

Agreed, Kat.  I’d love to see a hybrid of the two for David’s book.  His audience - me included - likes the beauty of what he does but, yea, I want to take pictures - great metaphor - and show them to folks.  I can’t do that on his book’s site.

Are able to entertain techy questions yet?  I have one.  One very big one, that would require nothing but an answer from you.  You game?  Or are you still recovering from making a man?

Ask away.

I need something to think about when I’m up at midnight…

...and 3am…

...and 5am…

...and…

Hah!  So sorry you’re going through that...again.

Someday a woman will in vent a way for men to breast feed and then the revolution begins.

I’ll shoot you an e-mail.

Hi, this is to Kat and Shaun I suppose.  If there’s ever anything I can do to help with the site, I’m a web/software developer who loves to help out.  Probably nothing I can do, but just throwing it out there because I know sometimes it helps to just bounce ideas around to get to a solution.

Here ya go, Kat and Taylor.  An idea I’d like to know how to pull off.

David Crowder broadcasts himself making his new record by creating a site with 8 web cam images on it.  Each one shows a new image every 5 seconds.  Cool.

But, could I put one camera, updated more often than that, in the sidebar of the Music blog?  How would I do that?  When I say updated more often I mean something that more closely resembles a movie’s speed.  Something less like a slideshow.

Go here to see Crowder’s. It’s pretty stinkin’ cool:

http://www.dcb01.com/remedy/

Well there are a couple of ways to do this, but one of the easiest I would think would be to set up media streaming.  David Crowder is basically taking a snapshot (probably once a second) and then the browser is refreshing that picture once every 15 seconds.  While this works well for his setup, if you wanted to bump to a higher frame rate (maybe in the range of 10fps), I don’t think the browser could keep up.

An option that I could see would be to use Windows Media Encoder (its free!) and then embed a small windows media player on the side of the music blog that connects to this stream you would be sending out.

Shouldn’t be too difficult to do.  It’d just be a little setup on your end and then placing the embedded player on the page.  What do you think Kat?

Wah wah wah wah wah wah (to be read in Charlie Brown’s teacher’s voice)

Taylor, thanks!  Thanks for the quick answer.  Kat, is that doable with Expression Engine?  I’m willing to make another monetary investment in you and the technology to make this happen.  Thoughts?

Something to think about tonight...and the wee hours of the morning.

After a little deeper reading (what else are Friday’s at work for?), the encoder software can only sustain 5 concurrent connections.  I’m not sure of the traffic of this site to know if there will be more than 5 people viewing the feed at a time, but I could see it being likely. 

In that case, all of a sudden we’re looking at Windows Media Services which can be a part of a web server or a dedicated media server.  Now I don’t know how you’re hosting this site and all that so, yeah, I dunno what to do.  Maybe a different option is available besides the streaming.  I’ll see if I come across anything else.

I don’t know how many hits the MUSIC blog currently gets but I’d invite many thousands of people to come watch this record be written and recorded here on a webcam.  So, probably more than 5 folks will show up at any one time.

I’m on a Mac, btw, if that matters.  And my connection is DSL through bellsouth at the moment.  I’m willing to upgrade if need be to make this happen.

Any more suggestions?

I’ve not done this sort of setup before, however I don’t see why it wouldn’t be doable with EE. The only question would be the cost (not my cost, but hosting/streaming costs) and effort required to set it up.

I’m looking into it right now. bug me if you don’t hear from me in a day or so.

Thanks for your input Taylor. Feel free to email me at thekatjacobs AT gmail DOT com if you have any other ideas or suggestions or more insight on how this set up would work.

I have the opportunity to get a very cheap mac with much more power and a built camera, as well as get another camera for nothing at all.  Odd how that’s come about in the past 24 hours, just as we started talking about this possibility.

Kat, take care of your family and yourself.  Put me on the bottom of that full to do list of yours.  No rush here.  It happens when it happens.

-Shaun

I bought crowder’s book on amazon. much more simple.

I’ve just sent you an email, Shaun.

This have nothing to do with this post, but I thought you might want to check out the lastest edition of the Criswell Theological Journal dealing with just war vs. pacifism:

http://www.criswelljournal.com/