TrueNuff Blog

[TrueNuff] TrueNuff Chat, there's an app for that!

Threeboy — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:29:08 CDT

Even though content has been dribbling out a lackluster pace we are indeed working on some new stuff. Our next video will be out eventually and as always we'll update the appropriate channels when it drops. In the meantime we've got a few announcements to make regarding the TrueNuff community and chat...

TrueNuff Chat (powered by tinychat)
If you recall, TrueNuff Chat is powered by a thing called "tinychat" and that lets you chat and use your webcam on our website provided you have evil Flash installed. The tinychat dudes have recently given the interface a nice clean update and have also released a free iPhone/iPad app (Android is in the works). If your iOS device has a camera you can chat/broadcast with us while on the go (maybe while you poop). The info to connect to us via tinychat is at the bottom of the TrueNuff Chat page.

TrueNuff Forum Chat (powered by Envolve)
We've 'bate tested it for a while and now we're officially announcing TrueNuff Forum chat. Basically when you're logged into the TrueNuff Forums there's a chat function similar to Facebook chat except it's not filled with people you went to school with and don't want to talk to. We're using the "free" version that limits us to 25 simultaneous people but I don't think that'll be a problem since there's usually only 2-3 people at any given time. It's mostly Snuffy and myself drinking beers reminiscing about times gone by...

In other boring news, the TrueNuff Comic and TrueNuff.tv websites were moved to our new web host. There were a few stumbles but should all be cleared up and the sites should load up a bit more snappy now.

Which would matter if we had new content - yeah, we'll get on that...

[TNTV] October 2011 Video Update

Threeboy — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:33:02 CDT

Watch Video at YouTube

[TrueNuff] Movember 2011

Threeboy — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:11:31 CDT

TrueNuff will be participating in Movember this November. For those who aren't familiar with Movember, it's a charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for men's health - specifically prostate cancer. In November men from all over the world grow mustaches during to raise awareness and funds for the cause.

We've registered the teams below and made them open so anyone is welcome to join us, grow some sick mustaches, and raise funds for a great cause.

100% of the money raised will go directly to Movember and you'll get a donation receipt for taxes - it's all legit.
We'll even sweeten the deal further: if you donate donate $50 or more (or join our team and raise $50) you'll get a free shirt (shoot us an email if you accomplsih such a feat and we'll hook it up).

If you can spare a few bucks then hit up our Mospace and donate to team TrueNuff or a crew member of your choice - it's all good.

Mo' money, mo' less problems.

Edit: We've found out that only Canadians can join our team so we've gotten help from our buddy Chris who agreed to captain TrueNuff USA! If you'd like to Captain a TrueNuff team in your country let us know

[TNTV] What's Old is New...

Threeboy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:41:16 CDT

So, long time eh? We finally squeezed out the long delayed and barely culturally relevant Transformers sketch that we filmed in 2009! It's the debut of Brando and it won't be the last you see of him. He has aged a couple years since filming so hopefully you'll recognize him in future videos. You gotta remember that he's a married man now and each married year is worth seven regular years.

In other TrueNuff.tv news we we finally got that new camera and it was on sale! We've played around with it a bit and it's pretty damn cool. We Smash Co'd my old television and will hopefully use the footage for a new "front bumper" since our future sketches will be in glorious high definition and our old intro might look a bit manky if we scale it up.

Our regularly scheduled writing & development sessions are starting once again this weekend so content should start trickling out at a regular pace again. We have no idea what that pace will be so stay tuned!

Here are some news nuggies that aren't terribly interesting to you but I'll post them anyway because my fingers are feeling fat and they need a workout:

Preroll Ads on YouTube
We've enabled "Preroll" ads on our YouTube videos. A preroll is when a commercial plays before one of our videos starts. We've received a couple negative comments but our content is free so deal with it. If you really hate ads you can watch our videos through our Podcast or buy our DVD that doesn't exist yet.
Website Tweaks
Our website has gotten a few tweaks here and there most notable update is the addition of a FAQ. A Twitter widget has also been added to the main page with the latest updates and all that jazz.
Podcast Updates
Our Podcast video titles are now in line with our YouTube videos. This is good news for people who have OCD, OCD, OCD. We also submitted our podcast to Blackberry Podcasts but didn't hear back - how unprofessional!

I'm also happy to report that The Closer has been tweeting consistently during this content drought because he's contractually obligated. We've also continued to pay his salary, consisting of bottles of cheap scotch, even during these times of economic hardship - best employers ever!

I don't have "OCD" I have "CDO" - it's in alphabetical order, the way it should be!

Sweet truck photo by kenjonbro - thanks, bro!

[TrueNuff] The Crew on Google+

Threeboy — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:35:04 CDT

We're all on Google+ (invites here) so you can follow our hijinks's there if you're opposed to twitter or Facebook. Here are The Crew's Google+ accounts in order of signing up which is also oddly shortest to tallest:

Bonus: Jeff Raimondo (J.Rai)

Not sure what we'll be posting but as a general rule if you want life or behind the scenes stuff follow us each directly on Google+ or twitter and if you want general TrueNuff news & updates there's the plethora of options at our updates page.

Will anyone (other than me) use Google+? Will it dethrone Facebook!? Stay tuned!

That's him officer, I'd recognize those pixels anywhere!

[TrueNuff] Moved Web Servers!

Threeboy — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:39:03 CDT

We've moved the TrueNuff forums & blog to a new website host to see how green the grass is on the other side. The move itself should all be automatic for you meaning you shouldn't have to do anything. If you can read this post you're successfully connecting to the new web host.

If you can't see this post have a few beers and it should "reset your firmware".

Photo by kristianhertoft who carried suitcases that way before it was cool.

[Life] Duke Nukem Got Me Fired

Brando — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:28:30 CDT

I used to work at a White Spot restaurant in Richmond BC, Canada. I started when I was 15 years old, cleaning tables and wiping seats. It was my very first job. Through the years I learned every role outside the kitchen; seating guests, doing dishes, making desserts and waiting tables. I had a spotless record as an employee; I worked hard, I was well liked, I knew every staff member and most of the customers too.

I used the money from that job to purchase my first PC Game: Duke Nukem 3D, which I'd seen running on a state-of-the-art Pentium 133 at the local electronics store. It was cocky, aggressive, violent, sexual, had realistic set pieces - it was everything my teenage mind could hope for in a game. Little did I know, six years later that game would cost me my job.

In 1997, I got into level design. Despite the finicky nature of the Build engine, I learned quickly and loved every minute of it. I picked up a how-to book and within days was running around my own levels. Random maps didn't do it for me however, I wanted to build places I knew. I wanted to recreate the real world, fill it with aliens and fight to free it from my own infestations.

Unsurprisingly, my first real-world map was based on the only place I spent more time at than my home: White Spot.

I recreated everything; every booth, painting, rack of dishes, juice machine, beer keg, staff room couch... Everything. All the while, I took high-res (800x600!) screenshots of the map in progress and brought them into work. I'd post them on the wall outside the office for people to see. My manager loved it and everyone thought it was great fun.

I wrapped the map in a cheap narrative about aliens abducting Earth's good restaurants and called it a day.

In December of 2000 I got my first shared hosting account and posted the map, with screenshots and the story, to my website. At the time, White Spot had very little web presence and my map quickly became one of the first page search results for 'White Spot' on Google.

Jump again to September 2002. Enter 'Randy', the new head manager of our branch (name changed to protect the sleazy). Randy had the odious task of replacing a very well-liked manager and it didn't help that Randy was not very confident or talented. He earned no respect from the serving staff due to his habits of shamelessly favouring the attractive girls and stepping on people to make himself look good. As a result he was always trying to prove himself in all the wrong ways, attempting to get respect through all the methods least likely to achieve that result.

Three months later, December 2002. A White Spot executive was made aware of my website with the Duke Nukem map, story and screenshots. It was easy to trace it to me - my name and restaurant branch was all over the site. Why wouldn't it be? After all, I wanted people to be able to see how closely the map resembled the real place. He decided the violence didn't fit the White Spot image and that it should be taken down.

At the next manager meeting, the exec in question brought a printout of the site and asked Randy to have me remove it from the web. From my discussion with the Head Office staff who had attended that meeting, "take it off the web" was the extent of the instruction.

When I next arrived for work, there was another server already working my shift. My name had been scratched off the time sheet for that day.

Confused, I was immediately called into the office. Randy was waiting.

"You're in a bit of trouble, Brandon."

"I am?" He showed me the printout.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Hey cool! That's my website!" I was excited, I hadn't shown it to Randy before and had no idea how he'd found it, but I was excited to see it appear on its own through means other than my own promotion.

"Yes, it's your website. You have to take it down."

"What? Why?"

"Head office found it. They are very upset about it. The violence doesn't fit with the image White Spot wants to portray."

I was disappointed, but otherwise cooperative. "Ok, fine, I'll take it down after my shift."

"No, you'll go home and take it down now."

"In the middle of my shift?" I pretended not to have seen the time sheet, as I didn't understand what he was doing.

"Brandon, there's something else. I have to let you go."

The blood drained from my face. Did I just get fired? How would I pay for Christmas? Forget that, how was I going to pay for University?

"I don't understand. I've been here for seven years with nothing worse on my record than sleeping in! Your predecessor knew about this project and supported it. I didn't even know there was a problem!"

"I agree, it seems like you've been a great employee and your record is spotless... but I had to do something."

That was it. He had to do 'something'. I was in such shock that I didn't argue any further, I just left as I was told. As I walked out of the office, pale as a ghost, I vaguely recall the head waitress wipe away a tear and say to me "I'm so sorry, it's not fair. There's nothing we could do..."

I just drove home, in stunned silence. This may seem trivial now but I was still fairly young, it was 9 days before Christmas and I'd just been fired from the only job I'd ever had.

Appeals to White Spot head office were fruitless. The response from their representative was that he was sorry how things turned out, that he wouldn't have made that choice and that he hadn't expected Randy to fire me. However, as manager Randy "should know best" and therefore head office "had to support his decision". The head office rep didn't even try and justify the firing; he just apologized and held his hands up in impotent absolution of responsibility. He was a coward.

Ultimately, it worked out for the better. I got a job in webdesign at a large publishing company and made twice as much as I ever did at the restaurant (and never smelled like ketchup when I got home) but I'll never forget Duke Nukem and what he took from me...

...but nor will I forget the guilt-free freedoms he gave me. The minute I got home that cold day in December, the first thing I did was restart Windows 95 in DOS Mode and run "duke3d map whitespot.map" from the command prompt. You can bet that after Duke cracked his knuckles and I kicked in the front door of that restaurant, I wasn't aiming for the aliens anymore.

It's been a long time, Duke. Welcome back.

TrueNuff Trivia: The Creative Director at Gearbox, Mikey "Mikezilla" Neumann" actually co-wrote a few of the early TrueNuff Comic strips!

[TNTV] The Camera We're Going to Buy

Threeboy — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:48:11 CDT

Look at the TrueNuff.tv videos, now look at this camera, now back to the videos, now back to this camera. Sadly, the old videos aren't in HD. But when we switch to this new camera the new videos will be in HD. Look down...

Where are you? You're reading a blog post about the camera that our future videos will be shot with. What's in your hand, back to the blog - we have it, it's this camera's spec sheet with those things you love. 1080p/60fps recording, programmable zoom/focus ring and a Leica Dicomar lens. Anything is possible in HD and now you'll feel extra uncomfortable when we film our videos dressed as ladies. I'm on a horse.

Seriously though, overdone commercial parodies aside, the camera we're gonna buy is the Panasonic HDC-TM900. If there is anyone in the Vancouver area who has hookups and can get us this camera on the cheap please let us know. It has to be a legit hookup, we need a paper trail for tax stuff.

If you want to help you can can buy shirts & stickers or just straight up send us money. We're guessing our audience is broke like us though so if that's the case just keep your funny bones warm and get ready.

We warm up our "funny bones" all the time - at least once a day.

[TrueNuff] Mothersite Update

Threeboy — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:10:50 CDT

Our main site has gotten a much needed update!

Main
We trashed that old useless "network" bar setup and went with a simpler "springboard" styled layout. Ever since we split our sites to their own domains our main domain has been destined to become a hub. Today we realize that vision and it only took us a year or two
Updates
The subscribe page got a drastic overhaul. The old layout was a confusing mess so this update is a breath of fresh air.
Chat
We had an IRC/Java chat room back in the dizzay but this one is much easier to use and you can webcam chat too. Please don't be a dick, and please don't show your dick!

The blog & shop sections will be getting updates in the future too - hell we might even get our poop together and launch SpendMore.ca one day.

One day.

The next blog post by me should be about the next TrueNuff.tv video or Brando will hit me.

[TrueNuff] Forums Updated With Mobile Skin

Threeboy — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:04:42 CDT

Our forum software has been updated to the latest version of vBulletin that includes a new mobile skin optimized for smert phone browsing.

Mobile Skin
The new mobile skin doesn't work very well on my crappy smert phone it works great on Blerkberries and iPhones. The forums should auto-detect when you’re on a phone and if not there’s a drop down menu at the bottom left of the forums to switch to the mobile skin.
No More Account Moderation
I'm no longer manually approving forum registrations since spam bot registrations (and registrations in general) have slowed down. We have however added a couple required skill testing questions for new registrations. We also reto-hacked the answers into existing forum accounts so the system won't bitch at your face if you try to update your profile.
Techie Nuffies Unite
There's a new tech sub-forum for talking technology. I had a tech sub-forum at the old "Threeboy Forums" back in the day and I think with the amount of tech stuff being invented these days it’ll be a welcome addition.

The forum rules have also been updated and reorganized, you can find them here. Also we've been having some fun in this thread - hop in and make your own image if you get a chance.

The secret word is beer.

Sweet photo by richevenhouse who obviously called in sick for work to grab that pint.