UPDATE: Please fill out this form if you're having problems, any info helps!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15OJmcEw4DJ20osPV6zWNgB3azUKFu7ddwxBju6IcB2Q/viewform

I know that a lot of you have been having problems with the stream cutting out and the play button showing back up. So the root of this problem is Akamai is dropping your streaming connection, and telling our video player that the stream has ended.

So here's what we're doing about this, we're attacking it from two angles. Prepare for a long explanation:

1. Edgework is working with Akamai to try and solve the problem on their end. Nothing significant changed on our end to cause these problems so we're working with them to try and pin down the problems in the stream encoding and delivery process. This is the real solution and we are still working with them daily
2. I've been making some changes to our video player to try and recover from these issues. Basically, when the player gets a signal that the stream has ended we don't believe it, we immediately try to recover the stream and resume it. We then wait a couple seconds to see if the stream recovered properly, if not we end the stream and the play button comes back up. This fix is live and is actually why some people are seeing the stream stop but the audio continue in the background. What's happening here is the stream is recovering but we're not waiting long enough to see if it recovered properly. I'm working on tweaking the time so by the next live stream hopefully this stream recovery will work properly. We're really close to getting this right, I can feel it!

I haven't posted here in a while but I figured I'd give an update on what's happening here in Giant Bomb engineering now that I've been here for a while (just over 5 months!) I've gotten a pretty good hang of things now and I'd like to share a few of the things on my radar lately.

So, here's what's coming soon that I've been working on. (Keep in mind this is only my personal list, we have a lot of great engineers here all working on different things and I can't speak to all of them.)

Here's my top 3:

#1 Subscriptions!

I was tasked with cleaning up our billing code and getting subscriptions working properly. Subscriptions have been a bit shakey for a while and my goal was to make them well.. work. As of this week a bunch of new code went out for subscriptions that should make things work quite a bit smoother. There's still more to come and I'm sure there will be some more things to clean up, but it's a good start at least! As a GB subscriber for years before I got a job here this is a pretty important thing to me, so I want to make sure they work right!

#2 WIKI

The wiki... well the wiki has some issues. It's big and complicated and needs some love. We have good news though! Myself and another engineer (Joe) have reserved a whole week next week to do nothing but analyze the wiki and come up with a plan to fix/rewrite it. Wiki is a big priority for us and we'll be working hard to get a hold on things. It's a big task that will take a while so wish us luck!

#3 Video player

Giant Bomb videos are unquestionably the best videos on the internet... unfortunately our video player isn't exactly the best player on the internet. We are a bit limited in what we can do with the video player because part of it is controlled by another team, but it needs a lot of love (especially on older apple and android devices.) Recently I fixed a nasty bug that caused the videos to fail on a lot of older iOS devices, but there's still a long way to go. We have a few engineers that plan on working together in an upcoming sprint to address as many issues as possible. Side note: Vinny, Drew, and Jason have been working on some of the audio syncing and encoding issues which are separate from the video player, and they've solved a bunch of them.

There are quite a few other things in my pile of issues but these are the big ones. I promise we're always working hard to keep making the site better, thanks so much for your patience, and keep giving us feedback.

Thanks everybody!

-Will

P.S. I've been working with some of you directly with subscription related problems and every single one of you has been super patient, understanding, and awesome, I really appreciate that!!!

If you're just coming across this blog check out my intro post. Long story short, I'm the new CBSi Engineer making my way out to San Francisco to start working on this fine website.

...

In the last couple of days I made it through New Mexico and Arizona, I'm currently in Las Vegas staying with some family and not going anywhere near the strip. Along the way I stopped at the Grand Canyon for some hiking, the Hoover dam, and some pretty sketchy gas stations in the middle of nowhere. I accidentally murdered a bird also... he flew right in front of my car and I couldn't avoid him. So now I have a bird carcass lodged under my radiator, guess I have to deal with that at some point. One thing I wasn't expecting was snow, a lot of snow.

Well that's if for now, this was the most beautiful drive I've ever done, I highly recommend taking this route through the west. Tomorrow morning I make for San Francisco!

-Will

If you're just coming across this blog check out my intro post. Long story short, I'm the new CBSi Engineer making my way out to San Francisco to start working on this fine website.

...

The real difficult part of my journey was the past two days. As of my last post I was just leaving Florida, now I'm writing this post from Roswell, NM. I saw the sun for the first time today since I left, it has been cloudy and raining for over 1000 miles. I spent some time in Austin with some old high school friends, stayed out way to late, and probably drank too much. Austin is a hell of a city, even on a rainy Sunday night there's fun to be had... At one point we were picked up and driven around by a school bus covered in neon lights with a band playing in the back... It sounds strange, but I have blurry cell phone pictures to prove it.

After a cold, rainy, and boring drive through West Texas I made it to Roswell and went straight to the bar to get some alien themed beers and hang out with some locals, everybody here is crazy nice. Some random guy walked into the bar with his guitar and we all joined in a sing along to some acoustic covers of Journey songs. This is a really cool little town, if you ever find yourself here go to Pecos, drink whatever alien ale they have on tap and sing some Journey.

Tomorrow morning I make my way to Sedona, AZ. After some morning rain I should finally be in the sunshine for the rest of my trip.

It's an interesting experience driving cross country on your own, stopping in little towns and meeting people you'll never see again. Everything is new and exciting, then gone again in an instant.

-Will

If you're just coming across this blog check out my intro post. Long story short, I'm the new CBSi Engineer making my way out to San Francisco to start working on this fine website.

The first leg of my trip is complete, I'm spending the night in Fort Walton Beach, FL with my brother, his wife, and his many animals.

Tomorrow at 5 AM I set out for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and half of Texas, 11 hours of driving in total...

See you in Austin, TX!

-Will

The adventure begins today! After a great going away party with my friends and family last night I'm starting my journey west. Saying goodbye to a group of people I've been so close to for 25 years was really tough, and even though I know it's not the end, not having all these awesome people right around the corner is a tough reality to accept.

With all that said, I'm ready to start the next step... Everything I own is in my car and I have a full tank of gas.

Next stop: Fort Walton Beach

I'll be posting updates to this blog as I go, so follow along!

-Will

As I mentioned in my previous blog post I'll be joining the CBSi Engineering Team next month, and I'll be updating this blog with my progress as I move a few thousand miles across the country. Follow along if you'd like!

My road trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific is looming and I've started putting together a rough plan. The furniture in my apartment is slowly disappearing as my friends all show up and start grabbing all the free stuff they can carry. Pretty soon all my possessions will fit into my little 4 door sedan.

The road trip is set to start the morning after my going away party on the 27th (this is probably a bad idea... oh well) and I hope to arrive in San Francisco on March 5th. I've put together a route that takes me to some family and friends and interesting spots along the way. Here's what I have so far:

The stops:

• Fort Walton Beach, FL (Visit with my brother)
• Austin, TX (Visit some old high school friends)
• Roswell, NM (Aliens! seems like as good a place as any to stop)
• Sedona, AZ (Incredibly beautiful little town)
• Las Vegas, NV (Actually here to visit family, I'm not a big gambler)
• San Francisco!

That's the plan so far, it's a pretty daunting task, but I'm excited to get started!

I'll be updating this blog along the way if you'd like to follow along. Wish me luck!

-Will

Hey Duders!

My name is Will, and I was just hired on as the new CBSi Engineer. I've been a Giant Bomb user ever since the first "How to Build a Bomb" video, and before that I was a regular Gamespot user. I saw the job posting a few months back and had to take a shot at a dream job. After a few phone interviews and a trip to San Francisco I was offered a spot on the team! I'm really excited to get started next month, and in the meantime I have a lot of planning to do to get ready to move a few thousand miles across the country.

I've been mostly a lurker on Giant Bomb so I'd like to share a bit about myself so you all can get an idea of who I am.

I'll start with video games. I mostly stick to the PC and pretty much dabble in every genre. My favorite games tend to be strategy and puzzle games or anything heavily story driven. Some favorites from recent memory in no particular order are: Bioshock, Portal, Half Life, Brothers, FTL, Burnout Paradise, GTA, Kerbal Space Program, Left 4 Dead, Company of Heroes, Battlefield, etc. etc. etc. I could keep going but these are just some of the ones that caught my eye on my Steam list.

Now a little bit about me personally. I currently live in Jacksonville Beach, Florida and have spent most of my life here. I will be leaving my job as a web developer for the University of North Florida where I've been working for the past 6 years. I love the outdoors and do a bit of surfing and snowboarding in addition to the odd camping or hiking trip here and there.

I'm also a sports fan, I love my Jacksonville Jaguars (even though we are currently really bad) and am getting more and more into soccer. I've recently gotten more into traveling and backpacking also, so I've been to some live Bundesliga, La Liga, and Premier League matches.

One last thing I'll mention about myself you may notice if you ever see me around, I'm kinda tall (6'9" to be specific) So I think I've stolen the title of tallest CBSi Engineer.

I'd really like to start getting more involved in the GB community so you should be hearing a bit more from me in the coming months. I plan on updating this blog with info and pictures of my long drive from Florida to California, so if you'd like to keep up with that follow my blog here!

I can't wait to start working on Giant Bomb and Gamespot and breaking lots of things! Please bear with me as I learn the ropes and thanks for reading.

-Will