What did you do in the last week?
In addition to moderating meetings, I investigated procuring rights to the knowledgbox.com domain. It seems without a trademark, this will be difficult to get.
Additionally, I tested some branches of the server code.
Also, I created the intro video using Powerpoint animations.
What were your challenges?
Getting my environment configured correctly for test was a bigger challenge than expected as I had zero experience with MySQL. I was able to test succesfully with help from the team.
Creating the intro video was a far larger challenge than I anticipated. Vaclav shared a video he thought was a good example. I attempted to create my version of it, first using a tool called KaPow. Although KaPow creates nice looking animations, I had quite a bit of trouble getting the timing and animation right. Being under a deadline, I switched to a "safe" tool, Powerpoint.
Although PowerPoint allows you to record narration to slides, it is NOT made to work with fast narration and animations. Audio kept being cut off. I recorded a seperate track, and attempted to sync the animations. However, the timing STILL was off. Very frustrating. I ended up having to split the audio track into 19 separate samples, and embedding one onto each slide. It wasn't my vision, but it was something I could live with, with the deadline approaching.
As if this wasn't trouble enough, I could not save the file as a video file on my home PC. I also could not save it on my office PC at work either. I finally had to revert to PowerPoint 2010 to save as a .wmv, not an MPEG like I desired.
I describe the whole intro video experience as trying to sculpt Michalangelo's David with a screwdriver.
What do you hope to accomplish in the next week?
This week I hope to lead the launch of KnowledgeBoxes. After demonstration, I plan to promote the product at my work, so we can get beta testers for test feedback.
