03 Mar 2010 - An Extended Time
Greetings.

What follows is a post nearly six weeks in the making. To be more accurate, I haven't been working on it for six weeks; rather, I have put it off for six weeks. No...that's not entirely true, either - the first two weeks were utterly consumed in other business, and the last four weeks were truly put-off time. There, that's better.

For the sake of those reading this post, and for my own sense of organization, a bulleted "short" summary follows. The details proceed immediately thereafter...I really am trying not to write novels, but as I believe a lot of this bears explanation, I will at least compromise and offer an easy-out for those seeking such a thing.

Project Omega is over...with unexpected, but not bad, results
To be perfectly frank, Project Omega is over. Or rather, it has been over for about...five weeks. It likely perished shortly after the start of Phase VI - well, perhaps "perished" is the incorrect term.

In a sense, Project Omega was born out of the need for organization. As it has served that purpose, it is no longer required, and silently drifts into the void. I speak as if the Project had a life of its own and that I had no hand in its departure, and that's a blatant nontruth, but the metaphor stands correctly, at least.

I am not unhappy about the results. For simplicity's sake, Project Omega established a very solid and flexible framework, which in essence was its main goal. I was very recently surprised by how much was done and how effectively it worked when transferred to another situation, and that actually transitions nicely into the next topic (bullet point number 2).

The last semester is tough, but not impossible
This is my last semester of formal education. For the past 16 years, I have spent 9 of 12 months (roughly) of the calendar year at various educational institutions, and have almost earned the privilege to possess an undergraduate degree in Computer Science with a double major in Business Administration and a minor in Mathematics.

Before such privilege is granted me, however, I must complete my final semester. Said semester consists of one upper-level business course, one upper-level theological history course, and one capstone course each for my respective majors. Whereas some final year students have the luxury of a partial course load, I am not quite so lucky.

I do not wish any pity for this, as I undertook my studies knowing full well that this situation was nigh impossible to avoid. Rather, I merely wish to clearly explain to what extent my time is consumed. Naturally, all four courses are demanding at least 100 percent (each) of my available time; I have no shame in admitting to forgoing some responsibilities in favor of others...but such is life, correct?

The most pressing demand on my time comes from the capstone course for my Computer Science major - this is what actually ties in to the results of Project Omega, as mentioned above. Basically, the capstone course is one long project for the entire semester, with small bits of normal coursework for good measure. Rather than explain the project in its entirety here, I will redirect you to its site, which should contain most of the pertinent data available on the matter: 2010 Capstone Course - "Create" Robot Friendships

Perhaps you will not notice Project Omega's influence on my capstone project's site, largely because production-level code from Project Omega has never been released. However, I can assure you, the framework in use is largely identical (with some minor tweaks) to that produced by Project Omega. Do not be fooled by the rather simplistic layout and style - that is merely a consequence of the short production time for the site itself. All totaled, I spent maybe one hour to adapt the framework, with almost zero issues.

Granted, adapting pre-existing software downward is no astounding feat. However, it has forced the realization that Project Omega is finished, and that an new initiative is ready to continue the work. More on that now, for my third bullet point.

Some things will change, some things will not change On the list of things to change: Obviously, I've spent some time talking about why Project Omega is over. What this means, however, is that another initiative is necessary to carry out the rest of the work. Project Omega has done an excellent job in producing a framework, a solid base for development, as well as expanding (explosively so) the work to be done. The new initiative's duty now is to refine the work, and contract it to fit what Zero Hour Productions needs. As the capstone project site shows, the framework is adaptable and feature-complete enough to run a basic site; expanding from that base is the order of the hour (the Zero Hour, as it were). The first task is to discard the standing layout and color scheme in favor of the one developed way back in Phase IV.

Project Omega had originally plotted out the course of the entire Network, even out to the day that the Network would be fully open for business. While I'd still like to meet those goals, it's really more of misguided idealism now than a strict deadline. As such, major upgrades to the Network layout and features will not be restricted to "release day". Rather, small modules will be integrated as they are are completed (testing prior to integration will still take place, far more frequently than before). No deadlines or overarching plans will be produced for specific modules, though I have a set of rough figures in my head for the near future.

The Forums are plagued by inefficiency, since there are some sections that clearly hold an uneven amount of activity over others. In this light, I will be revamping the structure to balance things out, and bring a clearer idea on what should be going on where. In the process, I may uproot some old Project Omega stuff, in the interest of disclosing what has formerly gone on behind closed doors. I will not touch the color scheme, as I've grown rather fond of it.

As for the Network as a whole, I'm not too certain myself if the direction and purpose were ever made completely public. I have a lot of ideas for both, and I'll lay down more definitive terms after I collect my thoughts. For now, let's have this: "Zero Hour Productions is a portfolio and collaboration network, bringing together developers, artists, and their works; providing portfolio-related services to our members; and supporting community for the expansion and dissemination of ideas" Very rough and vague, yes.

Recently, I haven't been so good about the one-post-per-week thing, but not long ago it was on time and under budget. The problem I frequently encountered was that news does not flow at a constant rate; some posts were novels, some barely a paragraph. In an initiative a long time coming, I will be posting news shortly before or after it occurs.

What will not change: Despite the shake-ups (planned and unplanned), Zero Hour Productions will not go away. The Charter has been on the to-do list for awhile, and it will be completed and updated to reflect recent events. The overall to-do list may not appear on the front page for long, but it will not disappear entirely. The RSS feed will be updated in-step with news posts. Small or temporary amenities will be added, others removed, as necessary.

We've had a list of potential service offerings for awhile, and while they haven't been implemented yet, they will not be changed, in either content or price. Zero Hour Productions is partially a reimbursement for so much assistance other communities have given me, and that reimbursement will be provided in the Network's offerings.

Seriously, I probably won't ever give up on novel-length posts...there's just so much I want to talk about sometimes, and I'd rather over-explain than under-explain. I will make an effort to include bulleted summaries from now on, as a courtesy and apology for my long-winded-ness.

Real life, dead ahead
In accordance with my final weeks as a student, Real Life(tm) is rearing its ugly head at a rapidly accelerating pace. I am pursuing full-time employment for my post-graduation life, and I have several promising leads, with a couple phone interviews already done and past. There are definitely have some front-runners, a decent number of fallbacks, and at least one almost-certain-to-get-should-all-else-fail (use fire).

It would be safe to say that this is also a task that demands 100 percent of my time. If you consider that upon graduation my coursework duties would effectively end, and if I secure employment prior, my job search will end...that leaves a vacuum of about 480 percent of time (20 percent goes to my work hours). If only that were true, correct?

Big keg o' miscellany
More like a small keg, actually. What might impact tho Network most content-wise (at least for now) is the loss of GCast. GCast is the podcasting service we are using to host the numerous INFINITY radio show recordings for streaming or download. As of the first of February, GCast is no longer accepting new submissions, but will hold on to current ones. This poses a serious problem for me, as INFINITY is in its final campaign and the recordings are one of the only major pieces of content Zero Hour Productions can offer (for now).

Luckily, I've been able to locate a suitable replacement. PremiumBeat offers a free-to-use Flash-based music player that will stream MP3s from any valid web address. The player they offer is quite flexible in regards to space (less so for colors), and it does give more control over the music than GCast did. Granted, adding new tunes to the player is now a process for me to handle, and the auto-generated iPod-esque podcast subscriptions will be gone...but I think with a little black magic I can bring it all back. Look for the new player (and posts) along with the first post-Project Omega consolidation.

The long-term downside I can see is the space and bandwidth requirements. All recordings now have to be hosted and streamed by Zero Hour Productions, but since we've got those resources to spare anyways, I'd call it a pretty bang-up deal.

Well, now, that wasn't too bad. Thanks a bunch for sticking with me this far. I'm sure the read wasn't as entertaining for you as it was for me writing it, but do consider this the exception and not the rule.

Mr. Bond, signing off.