I put a “trial” concert together for my friends on MySpace. I knew there was a potential for real problems connecting too many people to my web cam, as MountainCable.net, my ISP, told me I had limited bandwidth available for that. They said I might get 4 or 5 listeners and that’s all.

So I set out to find the solution, which came in the form of a peer-to-peer broadcasting tool called PeerCast.

Tonight was the trial launch of a concert I want to have for my MySpace friends and other fans, and it was AWESOME. Over 150 people tuned in to hear me play and sing. About 80 were logged into the chat room and conversing with me and each other about my songs. HOW FUN!

My piano is broken, and awaiting repair, so I sang and played guitar. It was quite an intimate affair, with joking and laughing, helping people get connected. After a song, I’d get this torrent of WHOO HOOs from everyone. Very encouraging.

So the next video concert is being planned, but this time with (hopefully) a full band, and a better-looking venue. It’s going to take some planning, so if you want to help, let me know.

10 years ago, no one would have guessed that a guy could start his own TV station from his PC. With web cams, peer-to-peer streaming, compressed audio and video streams, and a little creativity, the future comes into appalling focus.

See you next time!

~Jason

Most MySpace users comply with the whole name tag thing, but many instead put something like, “Tonight I’m Going to the City!” in their name spot. Ugh. I always feel stupid writing, “Hey Tonight I’m Going to the City, did you like my new song!?”

Anyway, I’m not quite at 10,000 fans yet— but I’m close. I’m planning on giving my 10,000th friend a free signed CD. Who will it be??? We’ll know in a couple of weeks!

Update: Lots of people have asked, so here’s how it works: When I hit 10,000 friends, the first person to message me on MySpace.com will win the free CD.

~Jason

They had launched a superheros web site called UltimateBattles.com where they put strange combinations of fictional characters upagainst one another to see what might happen. They used computer simulation to put the likes of Jeffrey Dahlmer up against Dr. Hannibal Lector, or the Hulk again the Thing. They had designed software that would predict the outcomes of these battles.

…they wanted to lay down fantasy bets on these virtual battles, and wondered if I could  help. They weren’t able to pay me, so I told them I’d program it for free, and then resell it to try to make back some of my investment. I had no idea how much of a hit Fantasy Betting was to become!!

The latest evolution includes a category system, paid for by Meylin Taylor.

Now you can create any categories you want, and assign these categories to bettors and bets. If a particular wager isn’t assigned to a category, then any bettor can see it. However, if it is assigned a category, then only those bettors who are subscribed to the category are able to see it, and make a virtual bet on it.

Included in this new version are lots of great features!

• set bets to expire after a certain time (updated slightly)
• set the bet amount to a predetermined cost
• include/exlude a ‘draw’ option
• make certain, or all items ‘compulsory.’

You may also limit the number of bets a user can make per term— say, each week. At the end of the week you can login and reset everyone’s bet count with a simple click.

UltimateBattles.com hasn’t been updated since 2005, and they never really made use of this FantasyBetting script— but I hope you do, joinng hundreds who have already bought it — and let me know how you’re using it!

~Jason

This new feature allows me to click a ‘popular’ link to view the number of views each script is getting. So far the results are actually somewhat surprising!

Since some of the popular scripts are not the ones being most-often purchased, I must assume that something about the script isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s too expensive, maybe it doesn’t have all the right features… maybe something else.

I’m often surprised that I don’t get more emails from people about this sort of thing. It can never hurt to request a customization from a software author. I do it all the time, and many authors are glad to add a new feature if it will enhance the usefulness of the program.

So if you’re reading this, and you want to see a feature added to Questionnaire, HomePage2, Dictionary, or another script— please feel free to ask!

~Jason

Not a very fancy name; I called it MySpace Profile Feed. Right now it displays the number of “friends” you have, the number of “comments” made, the date of your last login, and for musician accounts, the number of visits made to your profile.

I plan on adding a few more details to the script, such as the latest posts to your blog, and upcoming gigs (again, for musician accounts). It would be great if I could get the number of ‘plays’ for songs too, but that information isn’t readily accessable for scraping.

It’s cool, because you don’t actually have to install the script to use it— just put your myspace ID in the URL and it will make a custom feed for you. For example, here is my feed:
http://www.intelliscript.net/test_area/myspace_rss/fetch_friends_count.cgi?jasondsilver
and here is Joanne’s:
http://www.intelliscript.net/test_area/myspace_rss/fetch_friends_count.cgi?joannesilver

~Jason

~Jason

If I were a rough copy, messy but interesting, I would be annoyed because I would be erased a lot. I would wonder what I was about. Maybe I was an adventure story, or maybe a mystery, a fantasy, or a science finction. I would hope I was an exciting, page-turning story, or even a children’s tale. I would be full of ideas. Exciting ideas, interesting ideas, or maybe even boring ideas. I would try to get to know the eraser and make friends with it so I would not be lonely.

I would sit in a desk dreaming about becoming a good copy and being published, and maybe becoming a famous best-seller. Then my writer would take me out and start to make me into a wonderful good copy. I would become an exciting, thrilling, neat and tidy adventure-fantasy tale for children. I would be happy and caring, and become best of friends with the earser that corrected me so many times. I would be every reader’s friend. I would have a waiting list of people wanting to read me. I would be read to kids everyday. I would be published in lots of languages and would be read all over the world. All my good copies would be dog-eared.

But if I was no longer a rough-copy, I think I would mmiss the eraser.

~Jason

If you’re related, or are interested in the branches I’m researching, then you can login and check it out yourself.

You’ll need to contact me for an access password if you don’t have one already.

Jason

After church we were driving up to our house, when we noticed our brand new neighbours were having a garage sale. Joanne didn’t want to stop, but I thought of it as an opportunity to meet people, and to explore junk… two very fun things to do!

So we started snooping, started picking up, putting down… you know, sailing through the garage. Suddenly I spotted a cardboard box on the ground under a table… it had some sort of cool looking gadget in it, so I picked it up and inquired.

Apparently my neighbour had bought it a year or two ago for $365 and never used it… so I asked him what he wanted for it now, and he said I COULD HAVE IT. Free!

It’s a digital mini disk recorder! I’ve already recorded some parts on the grand piano at the church… tomorrow I hope to import those parts into my recording software and lay down some vocal tracks… if this works, I’m very pumped!! I’ve got a way-mobile recording studio for getting little parts and ideas anywhere!

Thanks neighbour!

~Jason

MySpace is quite the tool! I mentioned to my ‘friends’ on MySpace that it would be cool to make a request at Hamilton radio stations for some of my songs, and I couldn’t believe the response! Talk about mobilizing a marketing machine!

And it’s a lot of fun meeting all these people too!

Yay MySpace!

~Jason