Bencredible

Happy almost new year everyone! I know we have an amazing and engaged community out there eagerly awaiting the live shows. I want to take a moment and explain the delay as well as let you know what my plans are for 2012.

First let me start by saying that the live shows will resume in very early 2012, hopefully the 2nd week of January. Unlike before the shows will no longer be on Thursdays at 0200 UTC. The new time, which is not set in stone, will likely be Sundays at 22:00 UTC which is Sundays at 2:00pm PST / 3:00pm MST / 4:00pm CST / 5:00pm EST. I can't stress enough that this is just a test time and I'm not sure it will stick. I can say that Thursdays at 0200 will not work anymore.

There have been a few issues in resuming the live shows. Some of them are pretty nasty bad while others are mostly in my head. The nasty comes from technology. We have been unable to find studio space that doesn't break the bank. While Spacevidcast epic subscribers as well as ad revenue does help offset the cost of Spacevidcast, we do still operate at a loss. So really awesome and expensive studio space is out. We have started planning on how to do the live shows from our apartment in Anaheim, CA. Unfortunatly the Time Warner Cable broadband connection we have doesn't have very good upload speeds. That means HD it out and stable SD is barely workable. But it does work. In March of 2012 we are slated to get DOCSIS 3 and hopefully that will allow us to bring back HD.

Another technology issue has to do with the camera and video equipment. A lot of support stands and infrastructure is still in MN. I'll be working on getting that out here, but no matter what we do we'll want a new camera for the live shows. For now I have been investing in our on-demand gear with GoPro cameras, new lenses/filters for our 7D and whatnot to get the SpacePods and LA Space Salon online. But now I need to invest in live get a bit. I'm combing eBay to see if I can't find a really nice prosumer camera like a Panasonic HPX-170 for a reasonable price. However, just to get us started we may move back to Webcams for a bit.

There is also this whole thing that is just 'in my head' which has also been pushing off the live shows. I don't like to stay put. I like to always be changing and improving. If you go back and watch Spacevidcast archives, you can clearly see that. We are always, always, always pushing what we're capable of. I have been working behind the scenes on a lot of awesome new stuff for Spacevidcast 500. Not just the live shows, but all of Spacevidcast in 2012. A lot of this new stuff needs to be done in a certain order, and when one thing gets delayed the whole mess gets pushed back. As you can probably imagine, that has happened and it has all been delayed. So much so that it simply won't be ready by January or likely even February.

So here is my plan for Spacevidcast in 2012 (subject to change of course):

• Resume live shows as early as possible. These will still be branded as 400 series shows and will maintain the same look/feel of the shows we did in 2011. 
• When the 5 year anniversary of Spacevidcast comes up on March 6th, 2012 switch to the new format and change to the 500 series numbering system on the next live show, March 11th.
• Work on no fewer than 3 SpacePods per week as well as 1 live show per week
• Play with live show timing to see what works best for everyone

My hope is that when Spacevidcast 500 rolls around we'll have a really great new show that everyone is excited about. My fear is that since the live shows have been offline for so long that it will take nearly a year to get the community back together. By switching the show time, that will likely make it harder to do as well. 

I welcome any feedback on the proposed changes and anything you think Spacevidcast should be doing in 2012 to help make space commonplace!

For fun I grabbed my GoPro Hero2 and decided to grab a clip of the construction happening on the all new Buena Vista Street going in at Disney's California Adventure park!

What you're looking at is a slow motion video looking away from the turnstiles from Monorail Red as it passes over the renovated bridge. Originally shot at 120fps the clip was slowed down to 24fps for a nice smooth slow motion.

You'll notice my reflection in the window and how low it is. That's because Disney put up pretty large barricades so you can't see all of the construction. To get the shot I had to hold the GoPro at the very, very top of the monorail window and put it in to wide angle view. Even then you can still see some of the barricade in the shot!

We'll work on getting the reverse shot pointed towards the turnstiles in the next couple of days. This was captured on December 25th, 2011 at around 11:30am PST.

For reference, this is the image of what it is expected to look like when it is finished from about the same vantage point as what I captured in the video. You can see the monorail in the shot at the very bottom and the theater at the top.

I want to go on the record for saying that Spacevidcast does not in any way, shape or form support the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA.

SOPA is a new well intentioned bill that is far too aggressive and over steps its bounds in a huge way. We at Spacevidcast don't support piracy and go to great lengths to make sure our episodes are fully licensed or content is uniquely our own, so SOPA isn't a huge concern for us on that front. But the wider implications of this bill are very, very scary even for Spacevidcast.

The fundamental issue is that SOPA will give the US Attorney General the ability to cut off web sites from search engines as well as cut off the sites from ad networks and payment processors. This would basically kill a web site such as Spacevidcast should the Attorney General decide that they don't like our views on space and the cosmos. In essence this is pulling the power cord on any web site that the US wants. That's censorship. That's not OK.

Piracy isn't OK either, but by implementing something like SOPA we would be giving the US Government censorship abilities on the Internet. This is not power that the Government should wield. There are other Governments in the world that do this today, and if I wanted that level of dictatorship I wouldn't live here in the US.

This is a huge deal. You have probably seen SOPA online and heard a bit about it by now. But beyond just writing this blog post I feel it is important to put my money where my mouth is. To that end I am moving all of my domain names away from GoDaddy who has been my registrar of choice for years.

GoDaddy had been a pretty big supporter of SOPA. Recently they came out and their PR team said that they no longer support SOPA. However, while their PR mouth says one thing, the legal reality is completely different. At the time of this writing even though GoDaddy says they don't support SOPA, they actually are still officially do. Because of this I am moving all of my active domains away from GoDaddy and to a Registrar who has openly spoken out and acted against SOPA.

This transition may cause Spacevidcast, Bencredible and other domains I control to go offline for a small amount of time. Since I use external DNS servers not linked to the registrar it is unlikely that this will happen, but I did want to warn everyone.

I think it is vitally important to keep the Internet open and not allow our Government this level of censorship over anyone. For any company that supports bills that take away our freedom and works to give our Government more control rather than less control, I will not spend our money with you. I encourage everyone to do the same.

Here is a quick update on Spacevidcast Live from LA and where we're at. The short version is that everything is taking longer than I would like and I don't know that we'll be back the first week of January as planned. The slightly longer version is in this video...

With a GoPro Hero2 I give a quick update as to the status of Spacevidcast. Actually, I was more playing with my camera than giving an update. Nevertheless, enjoy!

For all of you rocket engine or XCOR fans out there, here is an iPhone lock screen wallpaper of the XCOR XR-5M15 prototype which was taken from this image. Feel free to download and use this on your iPhone or mobile device! Works best as a lock screen as I couldn't quite get enough data on the bottom to work for the main screen, so I just left it black where the unlock bar is.

Here is a more colorful version that pops a bit:

And finally this is what is looks like when you have it on your iPhone:

We're back! Sorta. Now that Cariann and I have settled down in California we had a chance to go out and find a place to shoot a new SpacePod. Of course our gear is still a bit scattered so I had to sorta piece it together. But we made it happen and I expect to be able to crank out hopefully around 3 SpacePods per week!

However, we're nowhere near ready to go back live with our 24x7 channel. Right now we're looking at Downey's Columbia Memorial Space Center and that looks very promising. We even have a lead on a new C-Band satellite dish so we can bring you best-of-class NASA TV HD Streaming again! However there are bandwidth limitations and no real great spots to set up a permanent control room. And of course we're running out of time!

One of the really cool things about being in California is that we're much closer to the NewSpace action. A lot of really great things are happening out here and it is my hope that not only will we come back with a bang when the live shows return, but we'll also be able to bring in live guests that you can ask your questions of! The plan right now is to restart live shows in 2012, but that only gives me 2 months to get my ducks in a row!

What am I doing until then? I'm working on a few surprises that I think you'll all like. Well, I hope you'll like it because it is a major and awesome change for Spacevidcast. Second, I just got a new GoPro Hero 2 camera and have been playing with it. I hope to be able to grab 4 or 5 of these and put them on experimental rockets to get you some epic video footage of when things go right and, well, very, very wrong. Until then I needed to test it, so last night we created a video with a few friends. Do enjoy!

Cariann and I like theme parks. A place to get away and just get lost in the fantasy of whatever world the creators want to put you in. Theme parks are very different than amusement parks. Amusement parks are just a bunch of rides and roller coasters slammed together. They may have some decor, but there is little in regards to thought of following ideas all the way through sections of the park itself. Theme parks have not just the rides, but the whole area your in has a general style and design relevant to that theme. You feel like you're in that world.

One of the things that ruins a theme park is lack of people management. Details matter and in this regard Walt Disney World really does an amazing job. I remember earlier this year Cariann and I decided to go from Disney World to Universal Studios Florida to check out the new Harry Potter ride. It was amazing at how poorly Universal did people management. No one had any idea what was going on, masses of people clogged the streets and prevented traffic flow, and chaos was at the entrance of any ride which required you to stow your bag in a locker. To say it ruined the illusion would be an understatement.

Disney World has a lot of people, so it isn't as if there are no crowds. Quite the opposite. However little things that you may or may not have noticed go a long way to improving traffic flow, safety and management of people. For example, have you noticed that any time you have to go to a raised sidewalk, the entire sidewalk has a red tint to it? This is a subliminal message telling your brain to watch out as you have to step up. When you enter and leave the park there is only one place you need to go to get picked up or dropped off. And as you're driving, all of the parking lots are one-way so you don't have cars criss-crossing. When you're in long lines, the line itself generally starts out wide and as you get closer and closer to the front it will narrow down a bit pushing you in to a nicely formed line. Little things that add up to a much better user experience. All in all Cariann and I have always been impressed at how many people Disney World is able to move through their parks on a daily basis. So when we came to California and decided to live in Anaheim we thought surely Disneyland would be much the same as Disney World.

We were wrong.

Disneyland is certainly a lot better than amusement parks or Universal by a long shot. But the people and crowd management in Disneyland can't hold a candle to Disney World and that is a bit disappointing. Whereas in Disney World they tend to force you to the right and have wide, open walkways for large groups, in Disneyland if you have more than 4 people across you can block an entire walking section. In Disney World you enter a ride and the queue starts immediately with the theme of the ride... indoors. At Disneyland the queue starts outdoors and may or may not hold the theme of the ride all the way through. Then you re-queue in the indoor line which while capable of holding 4x the number of people that are currently in it, for whatever reason doesn't. The Disney World tram system has a stanchion per row. The Disneyland tram system has a stanchion per car with little grooves on the ground to represent each row, which no one notices so no one follows. The end result is a large cluster of people who have no idea what is going on and have to try and keep their family together.

Disneyland could learn a thing or two from Disney World, starting with parking. At Disney World you are guided by humans directly to your parking spot. At each turn you have someone guiding you and showing you the closest spot for you to park. They then have you walk one row down to get to the trams, so incoming traffic and moving people are always one row apart. Simple, brilliant, effective, safe. At Disneyland you will get people telling you to turn at the bottom level (which some simple cones could also do) but then once you get up the ramp, you're on your own. Which row should you go down to park? No idea, no one is guiding you. That row may be full, and much like Disney World the ramps are all one way. Hit a full row and you'll have to swing all the way around the ramp to try another row. Super, super annoying, a bad user experience and inefficient. And the sad thing is, you're not even in the park yet. This is your first experience of Disneyland. Then you move to the cluster of people trying to get on the Tram. Then you move to the cluster of people doing bag checks (and if you don't have a bag, you still have to wait in line, unlike Disney World). And STILL we're not to the front gate yet. Need a ticket? You have a couple lines to choose from, but telling which ones are open can be difficult. No automated ticket machines like Disney World either, so you must wait in line. Now we're ready to get to the front gate, and already we're aggitated. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, much of this could be taken care of by adding a personal monorail car system to the parking structure. Rather than taking a tram, simply get in a PRT car and that will bring you straight to your destination. Then at each gate they can do bag checks.

And lets talk about the gates for a moment. At Disney World they use fingerprints to verify your ticket. Put your ticket in, place your finger on the pad, green light and go. This includes day and annual pass tickets. At Disneyland you have a personal attendant at each gate. If you're an annual pass member there is a photo on your ticket. They scan your ticket, verify your photo and let you in. One would think that this would be more efficient, but because you now need a human at every gate it makes each line go so... much... slower. At Disney World it is a rare moment when I have to wait more than 30 seconds to get in to the park. At Disneyland it is a rare moment when I can get in to the park in under 60 seconds. That's sad.

I don't mean for this post to sound like I don't like Disneyland or that they have no idea what they are doing. Far from it. However, some additional attention to detail, some more imagineering on crowd management and looking at exactly how their guests experience the park from the drive in to the front gate would go a long way to making the experience that much better. I'm not at Disney to just ride a few rides. I'm there because it is a theme park and I want to get lost in the amazing worlds they have created. Instead I tend to get lost in the sea of people trying to get on a Tram, or out of a parking lot.

As you may or may not know, there are a lot of crossover rides that make it from Disneyland (Land) to Walt Disney World (World) and vice versa. While the rides may share the same name, they do not always match up 1:1 in terms of guest experience. Here's a quick list of a few rides and which park they are more awesome in:

Pirates of the Caribbean - Better at Land. There are a few aspects of the updated ride at World that are better, but in Disneyland you have this great intro in New Orleans as well as a much more rich experience in the caves. The animatronics at World with the new Captain Jack stuff is pretty sweet, but it is such a small part of the ride that our vote goes to Land.

Haunted Mansion - Better at Land. While at first glance the rides seem similar, there is something a bit more awesome about the mansion at Land. Maybe it is the setting, or maybe it is the fact that they update it for Halloween/Christmas with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. I can't put my finger on this one, but both Cariann and I enjoy the mansion at Land more than World.

Star Tours - Tied between the parks. The ride itself is exactly the same between the two parks. If I were to give a nod to either it would be to World for better line management and more fun in the queue itself. Land has this nasty habit of not really following the theme all the way through the queue or not even letting you in the building's queue until the very last moment. Makes for a more boring wait. That said, once you're on the actual ride it is impossible to tell which park you are at.

Space Mountain - Better at Land. Although Cariann will disagree with me on this one. At World Space Mountain is a tandem seater with 3 people to a car. You jerk around a lot and frankly it hurts a bit. Hard to get in and out of the cars and hard to keep your party together if you're 4 or more. I will give props to them as it does feel darker at World. Land sits 2 in a row like a traditional car. Additionally you have speakers right behind your head and they pump music in for you. It is a smoother ride and feels a bit faster than World. Additionally Disney will switch out Space Mountain to Ghost Galaxy during Halloween and change the ride up. It is really awesome that they are able to do this, and the speakers really seal the deal on that one. So Cariann is wrong, Land has the better Space Mountain.

Tower of Terror - Better at World. I hope that they built the Tower at Land first, figured out what they needed to improve then migrated it to World. Frankly the Tower at Land isn't even in the same league as the one at World. The World Tower is three dimensional. Your car moves forward, left right, up down... It is freakishly awesome. The Tower at Land moves up and down. The cars have a hallyway in front of them spoiling the illusion. It's just not as fun at Land.

Monorail - Better at World. The Disney World Monorail System is an essential transportation system allowing guests to quickly, easily and with a bit of magic get from point A to point B. World uses the older Mark VI monorails, but they are very efficient where passengers disembark on one side and new passengers embark on the other. Very great flow of people, great experience and a lot of fun. The Monorail at Land is a ride. It ihas 2 stops. All loading and unloading is done on one side. While Land has the newer Mark VII monorails and they look a lot more awesome (I mean, they really, really look awesome), in reality the Mark VII monorail is just a new skin atop the Mark III Monorail. No air conditioning, can't stand and a lack of people management makes this a bummer to ride. It could be a great tool if Disney took our suggestion and made the Monorail an actual transportation system. But yeah, kinda doubt that.

Jungle Cruise - Better at World. The cruise at Land is shorter and missing the fallen temple. Just not as much energy on this ride, but that is also very dependant on your cruise director.

Soarin' over California - Better at Land. The line ride sucks on both of these. World has nifty screens you can play with while in line. Land has a much shorter line, and an SSME that sprays people with mist which is kinda awesome. The ride itslef is basically identical, but you have more to look at while going to the ride at Land. This one was nearly a tie though.

There are a few rides I didn't cover like Small World, Turtle Talk, etc. In many cases it is simply beccause we have not done these at Land yet (I believe we have done every ride at least once at World, including screwing up and doing a character greet with Mickey once.) If anyone really cares and wants a compare/contrast between any rides not mentioned, let me know. Any excuse to go back to Disney is a good one!

For those keeping track, if we count the ties as a point for each park, then Disneyland gets 5 points and Walt Disney World gets 4. Of course there is a lot more to do at Disney World, so it isn't exactly fair, but interesting that the older Disneyland can, in my opinion, very easily keep up with its larger counterpart in Florida.