Last week, Spot the Dogference  came online as a public beta. Time to write a blog post about this project I worked on during my internship at Almer/Blank.

What is this game?

Spot the Dogference is an online game of spot the difference featuring pictures of dogs. It has 3 levels and one bonus level. You can share your score on twitter and it will be displayed on the spot the dogference website.

The game itself is built in Actionscript 3 with the pureMVC framework. It uses MocciAds and the Twitter API from Sandro (SWFJunkie)
I contributed in some parts to this game which was originally build by different developers from Almer/Blank.

Play it now

After being here in Los Angeles for about 7 months I think its time to show you some of the projects I worked on. The first project I want to show you is St Moritz TV.

What is this project?
The website www.StMoritzTV.ch is a Web TV station with short videos about St. Moritz and the Engadine. The main goal of the website is to inform tourists and locals about events, art, dinning and shopping in St Moritz and its surroundings.

What was the goal?
The current version is a Beta site. Its focus is to see what the needs of the users are and how we can build the final version and what we have to improve. Because this is a Beta site we are asking for any feedback about the site and would highly appreciate if as many of you can try it and give us a  feedback. We want to find out how we can make it most enjoyable for its user.

But hey, let’s get geeky :)

What technology did I use?

Video player with Open Source Media Framework:

The player is built with the Adobes Open Source Media Framework. We had to add some functionality into the player as the version we used didn’t have all functions we needed by the time we developed it. For example we had to build in a video time calculator and a function to read the source for the videos from the XML. Furthermore I had to implement a function to allow jumping to a requested video. For this I used external interface in actionscript to send data into the player from the html page. In this way I do not have to reload the website again if a new video should be played. Of course the play-list is continuously loading the next video as soon as the current video finished playing.

Next Up
The “NextUp” area is build with flash and reads the same XML as the video player. Every time a new video starts to play the video player calls a Javascript function in the html site. This Javascript function send the current played video into the NextUp flash file where I update the view class. If one of the nodes will be pressed in the “Nextup”, it calls a Javascript function too and sends the requested video to the video player.

HTML, CSS and Javascript
I created, based on the delivered design by Almer/Blank, the HTML and CSS part of the website. Different Javascript functions are responsible for handling the requested videos and advertisement .

Web hosting
The current version of StMoritzTV is hosted byCubera Solutions GmbH. Hosting on a Swiss web hosting company helps us to keep ping time low and provides us with a reliable service.
Happy testing :)

You may ask how my work life is. To be honest it’s different to what I expected it to be. So far I do exactly the same as I do during school. I do research, research, and research. Sometimes, when I don’t do research I water the plants or spray new names on the parking slot name signs. I am the intern as you can see… But I still love it and I really hope I can start programming soon. The building of the office is really cool. It is more like an garage then an Office. I really like the way the office is build. It gives it a more industrial and easygoing touch. My co-workers are all very friendly. I even got a new flat and a bike through them. We have quite a few graphic designers, motion specialists, programmers and team leaders here. Working hours are different too. Usually I start at 9.30am and need to be there till 6.30pm but it seems to be quite common to leave the office after 8pm.

My life back home will change a bit. I will move to another place in the next few days or weeks. I will then have my “own” flat without animals but with a small office of two guys (one is from our office). Looking forward to move there because I can save some money as the new flat is cheaper. The location is not as good as it is now. I will probably not walk to the beach anymore. (walking will be around 1h).

Because I didn’t had to work on the weekend, I took my new bike, fixed the breaks and drove down to the beach. I wanted to drive to Malibu, or at least into this direction. I didn’t made it, Los Angeles is HUGE! I rode my new bike 2-3 hours in one direction and I was hardly moving on the map. I need a car! :)

Lesson 2: Los Angeles is unbelievable huge

On my way back to Venice I stopped in Santa Monica. Santa Monica is so far the best place I’ve visited in California and I really like it. Santa Monica remind me a lot of Australia. There are many shops and bars… I will definitely go again to Santa Monica.

On Sunday afternoon I went to the beach. Some guys asked me to play dogeball so I did. My team players, random picked people at the beach, and me had good fun and I look forward to play again. But for the next few days I will try to play beach-volleyball. It shouldn’t really be a problem because there are hunderts of people playing.

more Photos

What happened back home. I still live with my roommates in the small house in Venice. The dogs are now used to me and do not bark anymore when I pass them or enter the house. Amaya, the owner of the house is a belly dance instructor. Nearly everyday she holds classes in the dance room. My room mates are very friendly. They are very much into pets. As many of you know I’m not but I got used to the cats at my girlfriends flat. :-) But as you know, dogs aren’t cats and smell different. *no comment* Unfortunately the rent is quite expensive and I will need to look for a cheaper place in order to have enough money to pay my time in Venice. Another reason for looking for another flat is that my girlfriend will come to Venice in order to learn English. A colleague from work is helping me looking. Anyway, as long as I stay there I enjoy my breakfast in the garden. I usually sit in a small mosquito tent and have a cup of coffee and some Nutella toast and a fruit (orange).

Shopping in the Venice is different to shopping back home. The first supermarket I went to was full with junk food, lemonades and sweets. But I only wanted to buy a salad. There was no salad. I might should go back to this supermarket to take a photo. Without a salad but with an orange (the ones I eat for breakfast) I left the supermarket. At least they had one healthy thing there. It looked like I choose the wrong supermarket.
Next day I tried a different shop. This time I found my beloved salad but the price was a bit shocking, a salad is nearly double the price of a salad back home.
Lesson 1 for living in the USA: Healthy food is expensive!

Hi everybody. After flying for ages I landed safely Los Angeles. Passing the customs and immigration took me only 1.5h. :-/ After leaving the airport, I took a shared Taxi to my shared flat in Venice. I live in a small house with a beautiful garden next to a golf course and a playground. The location is good. I can walk to the beach (25min) and to my office (15min). The house is charming and clean and my flatmates are very kind and gave me a warm welcome. Currently there are five pets around. Three cats and two dogs. The dogs scared me a bit in the beginning but they seems to be very well behaved.
In case anybody of you wants to get in contact with me here is my home address:

Michael Fretz
1042  Rose  Ave
Venice 90291

Today I had a brief look at the area I live in. I took the unicycle because its the only transport I have at the moment. I thought, Venice Beach, an arty place in the USA will be used to unicycles but its not. Every time I overtook or passed anybody they started talking to me. It was funny especially the strange people at the beach who tried to sell everything to me. There was even another guy at the beach with an unicycle but he tried to make money with being there with a one wheel bike. Maybe I should do that too.. :-)  Anyway, I enjoyed my  ride along bodybuilder, skateboarder, musicians, dancers, tattoo freaks, rockers, tourists,artists , runners, swimmers and salesman’s. Of course I went for a swim in the sea but the water was actually quite cold. My ride ended in Santa Monica Pier where I turned back to Venice Beach.
At the moment I sit in the beautiful garden from our flat, write this post and will start coding afterwards. Tomorrow I will start my internship at Almer / Blank.

more photos on facebook

The only concern I have now, I NEED A ROOM!!! If anybody knows somebody who can help me, please contact me! I need a clean room near my office!
I’m also happy with just a couch for the first few days so I can sort out things locally..

Thanks for your help

While I stay in Venice, there is Adobe MAX in Los Angeles. A colleague from the Swiss Flash User Group (SFUG) could help me to find a Technical Assistant position. I look forward to help at following BYOL labs:
- Advanced Interaction Design and Designing for Data in Flash Catalyst
- Learning AS3 lab
I looking forward for this well known event.

Of course I will also blog during my time in Venice… Therefore make sure you follow me on twitter or RSS!