I will be posting a lot of video on YouTube and may embed some video here later. For now I will just mention some of the historical sites I managed to find.

First I came across the Betsy Ross House on Arch Street because it was very close to my hotel. Then I found  Elfreth’s Alley which is a quaint street of colonial hours. I shot a lot of video along this alley, holding my camera up as I walked even though it killed my arm. Then I proceeded to Race Street and filmed the Race Street Cafe which I remembered on a previous visit. Unfortunately, they tore down a building across the street from this where I bought my tickets for the Philly Fringe Festival. I also found the art deco building on North Second Street. This building seems to be something of a mystery because I cannot find any information on it online. It has big display windows and a large sign on the front “National”.

I managed to locate and video the following historical sites;  Thomas Jefferson Statue in front of Independence Hall, statue of Commodore John Barry in the State House Yard behind Independence Hall, Second Bank of the United States, Library Hall, Philosophical Hall, Congress Hall, First Bank of the United States, Carpenter’s Hall, Old Pine Street Church and its cemetery, Physick House, and various colonial houses and buildings. I also found the Signer Statue in Signer’s Garden which does not appear to be mentioned in my guide book.

I had to keep putting my guide book down on the sidewalk to operate my camcorder. I filled one 60 minute MiniDV tape and around 20 minutes of a second tape. I must have been walking around and filming for 2 hours so eventually I got very tired and very hot. Walking on all those brick sidewalks and even cobblestones will kill your feet. Fortunately there weren’t many people around that early in the morning on a Sunday so I did not have many pedestrians to obstruct my view. There was some sort of bike race going on so I saw a lot of people on ten speed bikes which you’ll see in my videos.

I was planning on leaving in the afternoon but since I got up so early and had my fill of historical sites I decided to leave early. I lucked out when I left the parking garage because there was a ticket stuck in the electronic booth and the gate raised when I pushed it in. Unfortunately I had several problems getting out of the city. I wound up crossing a bridge into New Jersey and had to pay $3.00 to cross the Ben Franklin Bridge to get back to Philadelphia. At least I got to drive across the Ben Franklin Bridge! After some careful driving I managed to get on Interstate 76 West but then accidentally got on the wrong exit. That caused me to go far out of my way until I got impatient and managed to make an illegal u-turn. I almost caused an accident merging back towards Interstate 76. After that I drove even more carefully and followed my Google Maps driving directions to the letter. It is always a nightmare to get out of Philadelphia on Interstate 76 without getting on a wrong exit. I remember this happening to me before. I don’t know if I’ll be visiting Philadelphia again any time soon. This trip just reminded me of how awful it is to drive around that city.

Once I reached Philadelphia, I didn’t make the correct exit in Central Philadelphia so I would up driving far to the South and had to make my way back downtown through a lot of narrow one way streets. That is why I hate driving around Philadelphia! It is easy to miss an exit and then you have to drive pretty far to get back on track. All those one way streets make it difficult to keep going in the direction in which you want to go.

Eventually I made it to my hotel on Arch Street. I stayed at the Holiday Inn which is conveniently located in the Historic District. I had to circle around the block several times before figuring out how to enter the parking garage. This is the kind of detail I want to record for future trips. To enter the 6 story, above ground enclosed garage, you drive up to the hotel entrance off Market Street, the entrance with all the flags and the revolving door, and then to the parking garage entrance on the left. When you take a ticket at the electronic booth, the gate will go up. I parked on the second deck. I could not check in until 4:00 PM so I took my video camera for some sight seeing.

The gathering was at the Independence Visitor Center which was a short walk from my hotel. I showed up at 10:00 AM which was two hours too early so I shot some video of the National Constitution Center across Arch Street and Independence Hall in the distance. I also shot some video of the Free Quaker Meeting House, a small building in a corner of Independence Mall.  Then I walked past the Independence Visitor Center and past the Liberty Bell Center to film some close ups of Independence Hall. I got some footage of a horse and carriage driving by.

Then I crossed 5th Street and entered The Bourse, a small shopping mall.  The Bourse features many gift shops for tourists filled with mementoes of Philadelphia. I bought some antiperspirant because I forgot to bring some and then I bought a Declaration of Independence scroll and a book Philadelphia In Photographs by Edward Arthur Mauger. According to my sales receipt the store was called “Making History” and my total was $22.47.

After spending a few tourist dollars I went back to my hotel and put the bag in my car. The parking garage has a stairwell and an elevator. Then I went back to the Independence Mall to wander around some more. I bought a sprite at a small cafe off to the right of the mall, overlooking Christ Church Burial Ground. Most of the gathering took place in front of this cafe where there were plenty of benches and tables and a few tree to provide shade. The trees were much too small for any shade though.

Then I entered the Liberty Bell Center and got in line to see the Liberty Bell. Unfortunately the line was pretty long and it was almost 11:00 AM by that time so I sent to the gift shop instead. I bought a small bronze bust of Ben Franklin and a small biography of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan. I then walked back to my hotel and put that bag into my car.

Back at Independence Mall I kept my eyes peeled for anyone with a video camera or camcorder but there were plenty of tourists milling about with cameras. Eventually AnthroVlog came up to me and asked if I was there for the gathering. (Later on, I learned that she was making a documentary. She interviewed several people and had them sign release forms). We searched the area until Noon looking for anyone else. Finally we sat down at the Free Quaker Meeting House where she assembled her video camera. Then I found one more woman looking for the YouTube gathering. So for awhile there was only three of us and we were worried that Independence Mall was the wrong place. What was going through my mind was the thought that some people met early on Friday and may have decided on a change of plans.

At about 12:30 PM, one of our scouting party found a large group of YouTubers under the pavilion. I think Jill, xgogobeanx, was the only user I recognized in that group. We wandered over to the cafe where the rest of the YouTubers eventually trickled in. I would estimate that between 100 and 150 people attended this event so it was not a large gathering considering how many subscribers someone like Nalts has or how many people use YouTube.

At about 1:00 PM Pipistrello showed up with a group of people. I’m pretty sure BigFatLamp (Nic) was with him. OHdulcenea! was there with her husband. She looked vaguely familiar to me but I did not recognize her from the NutCheese chat room until someone addressed her by her username. Some other familiar vloggers I met include; LittlePandaExpress, PrincessDiana and her husband Frankie and her daughter, Charles Trippy, OlgaKay, SneakyPreacher (seemed to feel very awkward being there), VioletKitty411, KatiesOpinion with ZanyBear, FantasticBabblings, and funkwurm who came all the way from Holland.  TheMightyThor did not show up until later and Nalts arrived last. Nalts soon had a crowd of people surrounding him. He was the most popular YouTube vlogger there. Unfortunately NutCheese and Reynaldo could not make it because Rey had an infection and was in the hospital. This was a real shame because a lot of their crowd was there.

Chris Barrett set up a professional video camera on a tripod and filmed people against the backdrop of Independence Hall in the distance for a documentary. Someone was playing guitar with TheLilRedheadedGirl. I thought a few people were a little rude in interrupting me while I was filming, as if you would not expect anyone to film the gathering. That was mildly annoying. Nobody said anything to me when I videotaped a lot of the historical sites.

It was very hot and a few people commented on the fact that I was dressed all in black except for a skinny white tie. I just thought that looked better than a t-shirt. Eventually the gathering moved to The Bourse which had air-conditioning. I had a slurpy and sat with gang on the lower level until 4:30 PM when I had to leave to check into my room.

I was asked for my credit card which surprised me because I made reservations online and prepaid. They better not charge me twice for a room. I brought my bags up to my room and changed into a t-shirt and freshened up. At 5:00 PM I went back to The Bourse but almost everyone had gone so I went back to my hotel. I decided to leave immediately for the after party at Dave and Buster’s because I figured I might have trouble finding the place. It cost me $28.00 to leave the parking garage. Fortunately, I did not have any problems finding Dave and Buster’s which is located at 325 North Columbus Blvd. It is slightly difficult to get there because you must find a street that leads virtually into the Delaware River and under Route 95. Race Street allowed me to head in that direction, although I got stuck behind a horse and carriage that was traveling about a mile per hour.

Dave and Buster’s has its own parking garage. It cost me $8.00 to park there although I got a ticket worth $4.00 off a meal or drinks. I had trouble finding a place to park in the garage because it seemed pretty full. Parking is very expensive in Philadelphia. It really isn’t a good city to visit by car. Dave and Buster is a large dining complex with pool tables, a large bar, multiple seating areas, and an extensive game room. I walked through the place looking for my friends. The game room was very noisy and seemed to have everything including a western showgirls shooting gallery. LOL. I did not see anyone I recognized but I was early so I waited in the lobby. Eventually I met the same documentarian who was early  for the gathering so we wandered around inside until Pipistrello arrived with 5 other people.

We were seated at a table and ordered drinks. I had a vanilla milkshake because I’d been too hot all day and was driving so I didn’t want any alcohol. Unfortunately, they could not take any food orders because their computer was down. This eventually became quite a problem as more YouTubers arrived. They could not be seated. It took over an hour for our food to arrive. I had a Philly Cheesestake! It didn’t seem like anything special. Maybe the bun was a little bit better than usual. Otherwise it is just ground beef glued together with cheese. Meh! Since nobody else could be seated they decided to head over to South Street. This did not make much sense to me because South Street is like the Greenwich Village of Philadelphia, a lot of small boutiques and little restaurants along a street that stretches for several blocks. It was not like a specific place to move an after party to. After my meal I decided to head back to my hotel room rather than try to find people along the entire stretch of South Street.

I noticed that it was getting dark and the bright lights of the city looked attractive. I decided it would be a shame to miss this opportunity. So I took my camcorder and walked up Arch Street. I got some great footage of Philadelphia skyscrapers all light up, the ChinaTown Friendship Gate, and close ups of City Hall including the huge sculpture of William Penn at its top in spotlights. For some reason, there were a lot of police and security on Arch Street that night. There must have been 15 or more police vehicles lined up and even more police on bicycles. They made me kind of nervous.

When I got back to my hotel room I got out my Mac iBook G4 and managed to connect to the Internet. I logged into NutCheese’s Stickam room and told the few people there that I was at the gathering in Philadelphia. NutCheese and Rey did not seem very interested in that bit of news. Maybe they were disappointed and didn’t want to hear about it. I’m used to people ignoring me so I didn’t say much.

I’m currently reading “Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript For Dummies” by Doug Sahlin but I’ve ordered three more current books.

Last night I finally learned how to import video into Flash, a topic not covered in my books, and saw the various video skins you can choose from. I positioned a transparent PNG file over the video as a logo. The advantage in doing it that way is you can swap out the video and still have the logo appear over the video without editing the actual video footage.

One thing that always gave me problems with Flash was trying to edit a movie clip. Sometimes I would edit the symbol instead because it is hard to tell exactly what you are editing. I think I’m getting the hang of that now. The layers and frames in the timeline is also starting to make more sense to me. My ActionScript book does not really cover the design aspects of the program but I’m still picking up enough information on that.

I can use Flash in my Notes help collection. Since my SWF files are fairly small right now I can include actual examples of working movies in my notes. I’ve always had a few simple Flash movies in my notes like a typography Flash file that highlights part of the font as you move your mouse over font terminology.

The YouTube gathering will probably be the largest event since the historic 777 gathering which I missed. I’m going to meet a lot of my online friends and major YouTube vloggers like; Nalts, battim, NutCheese, Reynaldo, Tom Guarriello, Pipistrello, VioletKitty411, Jill (aka xgogobeanx) and Michael Buckley. There may be a representative from YouTube there to give out coveted YouTube t-shirts and local media to record the event.

I’ve booked a hotel room for Saturday night. If there is nothing going on Sunday I’ll probably walk around the historic district and shoot some video. The book has given me all the information I need about tourist attractions within walking distance of Independence Park. I plan to visit The Bourse and maybe the National Constitution Center.

I also came across some really cool technology which is undoubtedly the future of video. On the http://www.immersivemedia.com/ web site you can try out 360° video. It is sort of like Google Street Views only with video instead of photos. You can look in any direction and see video running in a 360° panoramic view. It is just like being there! Now that I’ve seen the concept demonstrated I’m sure this is how video is going to be in our high tech future. It may spell the doom of television sets because 360° video definitely requires a computer to process the 360° panoramic view. It will also require faster computers because my system could barely handle the processing involved in following my movements.

Today I created an ASP.NET page to automate the Microsoft Source Code Analyzer for SQL Injection command line tool. You can read more about that on my ASP.NET Weblog article.

Actually I found a lot of interesting ways to create animated GIFs. After Effects can render a movie as an animated GIF using dither, a web safe palette, or a system palette. I tried each option and documented the results with screen captures after stopping the animation with the ESC key. The dithered animated GIF created the largest file.

Next I used ImageReady CS2 to create an animated GIF. I copied some stuff directly from the Adobe Help System into my notes which is probably a waste of time. But I did learn that ImageReady has an option to export an animation as a Macromedia Flash file (i.e. SWF). I rarely use that program and needed to document some basic instructions on how to create an animation. That may save me some time later and I’ll know to use ImageReady instead of Photoshop if I’m doing something for animation.

Then I exported a Flash movie as an animated GIF. This is probably a better option than publishing a SWF which will require the Flash Player plug-in. If your Flash movie is simple text animation then it will look fine as an animated GIF. It would be far easier to deploy an animated GIF than a Flash file. You can use shape tweening to make some fancy animated GIFs that would be too difficult to produce otherwise.

I also made some progress in studying Flash. I found a list of all the Flash keyboard shortcuts on the Internet so I added that to my notes. Now I don’t need to write down every keyboard shortcut I find mentioned in my books on Flash. I also copied the Flash help system’s images to my notes project so I won’t need to hunt down images for my notes. I waste enough time on managing screen captures. I took some notes on the debugger in Flash which might impress Visual Studio users and I documented some Flash Video Encoder information because I am especially interested in Flash video. The main reason I’m learning Flash instead of Silverlight is that Flash is used extensively for video on the Internet. YouTube uses Flash to play its videos and Stickam uses Flash for its webcam chat. Most of my books on Flash only cover ActionScript because as a programmer that was my focus but now I realize that I could use a book on Flash basics as well.

“You could potentially get caught up in research and skill building rather than doing or seeking paid work.”

That is a major problem for me. I spend far more time on research and skill building than I do on paid work. For example, last night instead of working on my client projects I spent hours on stuff that I don’t really need to be doing. First I figured out how to generate JSON from a database using classic ASP and a script I found on the Internet. While that is potentially useful it does not apply to anything I’m working on now. I only worked on that to document the ASP script and add it to my notes. Then I wasted even more time figuring out how to customize the default help page generated for an ASP.NET 2.0 web service. I’ll probably blog about that later on my ASP.NET Weblog at  http://weblogs.asp.net/rrobbins/. You usually won’t expose the web service help page to the public so there is little need to customize its look. However, it may make for a nice article on the ASP.NET Weblog site which is a good way to get your mad skills noticed by the brightest people in the ASP.NET job market.

Today I used the ASP.NET validator controls in a project only to discover that they only work in Internet Explorer! I tested my form validation in Firefox 3, Opera 9.5, Safari 3.1.2, and Firefox 2. It did not work in any of those browsers. This is another example of Microsoft  ignoring web standards in favor of their own platform. I did find an old article explaining Client-Side Validation in Downlevel Browsers which expressed the hope that this would be taken care of with ASP.NET 2.0  but apparently not. I have not checked validation improvements in ASP.NET 3.5 yet.

Last night I browsed through the Adobe Illustrator CS Wow! book and read a chapter on “Making Artwork for a Flash Animation“. This was the only chapter on using Illustrator in combination with Flash but it is exactly what I was looking for. Today I got the Amazon book I ordered on using Flash with After Effects, “Flash + After Effects” by Chris Jackson. I want to have all the After Effects books available because I’m putting a lot of effort into mastering that software but I managed to overlook this book. It was published in 2008 so maybe it just wasn’t available until recently. According to this book there is an amazing new set of Puppet tools introduced in After Effects CS3. The Puppet tools allow you to animate the joints of a character.

Last night I reacquainted myself with Flash 8. Most of my books are on Flash MX though.  I worked through creating a simple button that can be clicked to show today’s date in ActionScript. I also found a way to apply syntax highlighting to ActionScript using my favorite Free syntax highlighter written in Java Script. I had to find an additional JavaScript file for this language and add a few keywords.

I’m also investigating the Flash 8 Video Encoder which can be used to convert videos in various formats into FLV files. It does a good job of compressing the video.

But I’m still doing some technical research. Recently I learned how to use PHP to create a HTML table that will open as an Excel spreadsheet in the browser. I also learned a lot more about parsing XML files using PHP.  This was for a PHP version of my YouTube data backup script. I even did a little of the work on my iBook G4 which can run PHP scripts.

Today I did some research on scripting Fiddler. Automating Fiddler interests me because I want to figure out how to download Flash video files from various web sites and Fiddler can reveal the web address that the SWF files are calling. Scripting Fiddler is extremely difficult and counter-intuitive so it took me hours just to figure out some basic procedures. Automating a video download using Fiddler seems promising but I may need to jump through many hoops. For example, it can dump a session with everything the browser downloaded and all the requests it made but this is compressed into a ZIP file so I’d have to unzip that. It would also be a challenge to run Fiddler without opening its window or a browser window.