What did you do at Lycos before you became part of Team Sonique?

I've been with lycos over 5 years now. I started in their office in Massachusetts and transfered to SF in June 1999. Over those years I have worked on a lot of products. I was hired to write NT services to handle investment feeds coming in from S&P. Then I was working on a COM object that queried Lycos' search catalogs. This COM object was used on a handful of sites but Hotbot used it the most. Hotbot used it for searching catalogs like the Open Directory Project. Then, somehow or another I got hornswaggled into working on the actual websites - writing server side scripts and things like that - only occasional getting to crack open my compiler. I mainly worked on Hotbot.com and then Lycos Music. When I heard they were thinking of assigning an engineer to take over on sonique2 development, I jumped at the chance.

What media players did you use before you became part of Team Sonique?

Sonique, Winamp, WMP. mainly just the major players.

How long did it take for you to get a handle on s2's code when you first started working on it? It had to be at least a little overwhelming.



Overwhelming isn't even the word. I just did my best to take it one day and one bug at a time - to be excited I was working on something so cool and so challenging. Every day i get paid to work on sonique2 is a bonus. Of course, sometimes I get completely overwhelmed and freak out a bit. I guess I started to get a grip on certain pieces and the big picture within the first 6 months - but I am still filling in the holes. The project is so complex, that my comprehension sort of waxes and wanes. When i am working in the audio system, I get a pretty good understanding of it - I can actually communicate intelligently about it. But, then I'll switch over to the MML parts of code, and the audio understanding sort of gets pushed out of my head. So when I shift gears, there is always a little ramp-up time while I re-familiarize myself with the bit I am in.

Can you give us any status updates on the site re-design? Are you
involved with that?

There is a designer in miami working on the sonique.com redesign. She is in contact with Tim, Juan and myself - bouncing ideas around. I am going to do my damnedest to avoid working on the web site. Wish me luck!

It was previously mentioned that once we enter the beta phase, the bugzilla system will be used and releases will be much more frequent. Is this still the case? Can you walk us through what the procedure will be once we hit beta, and how "frequent" the releases will be?

Yes, bugzilla is still the plan. In fact, we are in the process of setting up. Once we enter beta, we'll make the bugzilla instance public. The actual beta process is still sort of up in the air, but I envision a handful of the forum users acting as moderators for bugzilla - marking bugs as dupes and generally filtering them before assigning them to me. I'm not sure if we'll publish automated builds or just do them piecemeal like we did with the alpha. Either way, they will happen more often - don't want people reporting bugs we've already found.

Do you foresee any updates to the VisAPI and PluginAPI in the near future?



Nope. The audio system plugin API is reasonably complete, and the vis api is probably done for 2.0. Sonique2 won't support the more advanced vis levels.

When should the users expect to see these start to evolve into more complete versions?

I'm not exactly sure what is missing in them beyond better documentation. I've been trying to work with those using the SKD's to make sure they are as fleshed out as they need to be. But obviously I don't focus on them too much...So, long story short - the SDK's aren't high on the list right now.

In a perfect world, what features would you most like to see by say, 2.5?

Hmm... All of the mml/mscript requests that the skinners want, improved video support (with full mantis integration), the more advanced vis level support. A bug free, fast player with the best UI in the world.

If you could see one skin ported from any other program, which would it be?

I'm a sucker for vintage audio gear. So I would love to see a good marantz skin ported from winamp. Or how about a mcintosh tube skin? But in general, I have yet to find that killer skin that I love. My favorite skin for any app is probably the current skin on the sonique2 installer.

Just how many vacations does an S2 coder get a year?

Ha! Being with The Company for over 5 years has its priveleges. This year, I was bumped up to 4 weeks vacation a year (finally!).

So, how do I become a Lycos employee again?

heh. Move to the SF bay area and then send us yr resume.

How has Lycos felt about the product thus far. Are you guys making any believers out there?

Not sure about Lycos, but there are definitely some Terra believers. But the hard part is that in this modern internet age - where successes are guaged not by coolness, but by profits and losses - it is difficult to convince anyone to invest much in a free media player.

Does it frustrate you that s2 forumers/skinners always seem to want to make your job harder asking for new mantis additions?

To no end! But mainly it frustrates me because I want sonique2 to be perfect. I want the skinners to have everything they could ever dream of - but the fact is, we don't have the time or the resources. So everytime i can't fulfill a request - it frustrates me a lot because it means I am letting sonique2 be less than perfect.

Would you throttle Travelian if you got the chance? We all know he can be a little annoying sometimes.

trav? nah. bits? maybe.

When are we going to see the beta...really?

Well, i'm done with my feature list (you heard it here first!). Jerome has a couple things to finish up with an 'analog' CD plugin, then he will be done (Jerome works on other things besides sonique2, so we get his time whenever we can). The big hold-up will be the default skin. I believe that the decision was made to not call it beta until it has a new skin. But that is going to be a while (imo). In the meantime, I'm already starting to tackle bugs...

Who's going to be the poor soul who has to update the mml docs (you, Juan, or Tim)?

Ugh. probably me. or maybe an intern? or maybe someone from the forums?

Are you guys ever going to add Juan to the team page?

Great idea! I had basically forgotten about that page. Both Juan and Jerome should probably be on there. They both work on other products as well, but their hearts are with Sonique.



If you could make one request of any skinner...what would it be and why?

Hmm... There are so many requests i'd like to make - interfaces i'd like to see made, styles and colors I like. But i guess the biggest request I'd like to make is a general request to all skinners - useability is very important - and people don't read help. So try and make your interfaces useable - even to the not so savvy.

But more than requests I'd like to applaud and thank all the interface writers out there. They have done such amazing work with half-assed docs, word of mouth and an evolving player. Without them, I doubt sonique2 would be anywhere right now.

Do you think you'll be able to get the Linux and/or Mac version of s2 to compile anytime soon? And is it something that you guys plan to work on after 2.0?

I won't even try to compile on linux until sonique2.0 is released. And then it will have to be a business decision, because the linux compile is going to be time consuming at best. The MacOS version would be even further down the line. The only hope would be if Sonique2 is wildly successful and somehow makes enough money to warrant hiring someone to work on the ports.

And last question...Does your grandma really use Sonique?

Um. err. no. But she should be ABLE to if she wants!