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feldon34 · 06-20-2002, 01:11 PM

I've always believed in honesty, but I think this posting to the News section would be a bit gloom-and-doom. Opinions?

Version 1.1 Launch (February 22nd, 2002) Version 1.1 of the Aquarium was released late Friday evening with the full involvement of the Prolific team (Ron, Will, Jim and Reichart), the SereneScreen tech support team, and Jim Sachs himself. The most complicated part of the new rollout were the new keycodes. Some keycode issues started to occur and it became clear that the keycode database had to be stripped and rebuilt, a process which took nearly 3 hours. In the SereneScreen Chat room, at one time, there were 20 people present, including all the key personnel at Prolific involved in the Aquarium, Jim Sachs, myself, and Michael (Jav400, forum co-administrator). We were fielding questions, comments, praise and frustrations from 7pm until 3am.

At approximately 2am, the keycode database rebuild was complete. Over the next 2 months, SereneScreen tech support would be swamped, working 12 hour shifts, because of issues with the customer database and with the online ordering system. Many of the e-mails which SereneScreen was receiving at this time started out with vulgarity, hostility, and threats of lawsuits and/or contacting civic organizations such as the Better Business Bureau. Two people resigned from the tech support department during this time.

A large part of the delay in the launch of version 1.1 of the Aquarium was not the creation of the Lionfish itself, but rewriting the fish avoidance procedures which keep the fish from bumping into--or worse--passing through each other, the coral, etc. Jim Sachs has stated that the algorithym used in version 1.1 is temporary and will replaced by a true collision detection system with the release of the 3D Background version of the Aquarium.

Around this time, Jim mentioned that he was going to be involved in at least 2 film projects, modifying the Aquarium for an opening titles sequence and an effects shot involving fish.

Work resumed on the 3D Background in early March.

06-20-2002, 01:11 PM	#45
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	I've always believed in honesty, but I think this posting to the News section would be a bit gloom-and-doom. Opinions? Version 1.1 Launch (February 22nd, 2002) Version 1.1 of the Aquarium was released late Friday evening with the full involvement of the Prolific team (Ron, Will, Jim and Reichart), the SereneScreen tech support team, and Jim Sachs himself. The most complicated part of the new rollout were the new keycodes. Some keycode issues started to occur and it became clear that the keycode database had to be stripped and rebuilt, a process which took nearly 3 hours. In the SereneScreen Chat room, at one time, there were 20 people present, including all the key personnel at Prolific involved in the Aquarium, Jim Sachs, myself, and Michael (Jav400, forum co-administrator). We were fielding questions, comments, praise and frustrations from 7pm until 3am. At approximately 2am, the keycode database rebuild was complete. Over the next 2 months, SereneScreen tech support would be swamped, working 12 hour shifts, because of issues with the customer database and with the online ordering system. Many of the e-mails which SereneScreen was receiving at this time started out with vulgarity, hostility, and threats of lawsuits and/or contacting civic organizations such as the Better Business Bureau. Two people resigned from the tech support department during this time. A large part of the delay in the launch of version 1.1 of the Aquarium was not the creation of the Lionfish itself, but rewriting the fish avoidance procedures which keep the fish from bumping into--or worse--passing through each other, the coral, etc. Jim Sachs has stated that the algorithym used in version 1.1 is temporary and will replaced by a true collision detection system with the release of the 3D Background version of the Aquarium. Around this time, Jim mentioned that he was going to be involved in at least 2 film projects, modifying the Aquarium for an opening titles sequence and an effects shot involving fish. Work resumed on the 3D Background in early March. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman