Patrick Hansen.com

I recently experienced a really strange issue with Scratch Live v1.9 and iTunes 8.0, although I also found and reproduced the issue with v1.8.1 as well.

When I recently updated to Scratch Live v1.9.0, my iTunes library was not loading. I played a song in my iTunes library via iTunes, and it was fine. When I went back to SL, that one song and only that one song appeared in the iTunes library. All of my playlists displayed as well, but they were empty.
(This is not a case of user error with the new Tree folder for iTunes which allows it to collapse an appear to be hidden)

I recently posted to the Serato forum here:

http://www.scratchlive.net/forum/discussion/155778/#1936152

So far, I’m the only one on the thread and may have fixed my problem, but I’m still not sure why or how this happened.

This was my last reply:
I have done some further research and experiments and I may have found a solution, but I am still not sure why it happened in the first place.

I uninstalled v 1.9 and reinstalled v 1.8.1. I still experienced the same issue. So, I do not believe it is related or isolated to the v1.9.0 update, but more towards iTunes and its library management. I am running iTunes 8.0 which I recently installed with the last OS X 10.5.7 update, and I wonder if something was affected with the library.

However, I checked my other machine (MacBook Pro) and it is running Scratch Live v1.8.1 and iTunes 8. That machine loaded the iTunes library fine an everything is working correctly on there.

Th only difference between the two computers, is that I did update to Scratch Live v1.9 on the MacBook and that’s when I first noticed the issue.

I also found out that to get any songs from iTunes to load, they don’t just have to be played in iTunes, but the just need some type of action so iTunes can have a recent action or update on that file, such as playing, a name change, comment added, etc.

I have made some “comment” changes to a group of songs in iTunes, and went back to Scratch Live and those songs did load fine. I am currently updating my whole 72GB iTunes library. All I did was enter an empty comment and it is applying that to all of my songs now, I rarely use the “comment” attribute in iTunes, so I am not losing anything real important. The primary reason why I chose comment is because I wanted to do this to my whole library in one action, and that is one of the attributes I can change/share for ALL songs globally.

That did seem to fix the issue and I reinstalled v1.9 and it is still working!

We (Effective UI) just finished up a new Silverlight application with Photobucket.

The app is called Visual Search, and is designed to encourage visual exploration within Photobucket’s massive library of photos and users, while allowing you to share your results externally using Windows Live Messenger.

Initially, the application will serve the user some featured media results from Photobucket’s site. You can either go from there and dig into the displayed images, or you can search “related terms” that have been gathered from those images. You can also dig into the user’s album in which that image resides, which I think is a really unique aspect of this model. The user should hopefully end up in a result set that they may have never expected, and the user will have explored much more content along the way.

The user can also initiate a custom search and enter any term they desire. The application will then provide results for that term along with related terms.

Again, this application is really intended to not only provide users with direct results of a search term, but also introduce the user with related results and even the source of the result. This is not a revolutionary approach, as many system deliver related items such as an e-commerce site or standard search engine, and social networks such as Photobucket allow users to dig into the source’s (another user) account to view other results. However, the delivery and experience of Visual Search really encourages this format of exploration with minimal effort on the part of the user. I would say it is fairly easy to venture through the various veins and arteries of Photobucket’s library of images and users.

You can also zoom into the images for a larger more detailed view, and you have similar options to the website where you can download the image, copy HTML code embed code or the link code to share.

Another unique aspect is the ability to share using the new Windows Live Messenger bar which is planted at the bottom of the page. This component is actually a javascript/HTML based module that lives on top of the application and can communicate with the Silverlight app for various events including sharing out images you find to other users in your buddy list.

As an example, if a user have a Windows Live account, and the user finds a photo they like and would like to share with a buddy in their contact list, you can easily trigger your contact list view from within the Application by selecting the “Share with Windows Live” button. The user can then select whom they would like to share this out to and it will initiate a chat and pre-populate your message with the link to that image.

This is the first round of the application and I’m not sure about the future of it, but many additional features have already been defined and noted.

Visit: http://photobucket.com/visualsearch/

I had the opportunity to work with Blend 3 beta for most of the production. Expression Blend 3 has some really nice features and improvements, although there are still some little nuances about the whole design to dev work flow, but the new tools like Blend 3 should begin making this a little smoother.

I’m getting a little more familiar working with XAML now, and I am liking the framework and concept. I have also been working with Flex and the MXML (FX-G) framework for graphical mark up, ans they are on a similar level. If you are purely a visual designer with no code experience, do not be intimidated by looking at XAML. It is pretty straight forward and Blend has both code/design and split views. You can see how Blend writes the mark up as you design visually, and this is a great way to begin learning XAML.

I’ll try to not make this so sappy…

I really wanted to send out a big Thank You to all of those who made it out to my art show with Path One Friday night at The Funky Buddha! The turnout was awesome and we had a banging time!

Title: Tu Pac Tu Early (Sold)

I saw a lot of friends, old faces & new, and even family (my 2 bros). I know a few made quite the trek to get out to Denver for the show, so I sincerely thank those who came out.

It’s really awesome to know that I have such great friends and family with a lot of support.

If I didn’t get to say hi to everyone, I apologize. It was a crazy night and there were a few people that I did not see and wish I did.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of the night to post with this, but hopefully someone did.

Title: Koi Splash II (Sold)

If you were not able to make it, I have posted an online gallery. Some of the images are not very great and some pieces are incomplete online, because I was literally working on them until the day of.
visit: http://www.patrickhansen.com/galleria

There are a few pieces still for sale, so if you are interested, please contact me.

Some more shout outs to Michael, the Manager of The Buddha, the staff at the Buddha, Sounds Supreme & Low Key who threw down mad beats on the roof top and invited me to have my Art Show there, Todd Hebenstreit (Path One) for sharing the space with me and displaying his dope art, and especially to my girlfriend Crystal who supported me the past few months in the stressful process of getting ready and setting up.

You all ROCK!