Bring Me A Rock

Once upon a time, there was a Master and a Servant.

"Bring me a rock!" the Master commanded.

And so the Servant went out, got a rock, and brought it back to the Master.

"This rock is no good! Bring me a different rock!"

And so on.

THE END

Research as I might, I couldn't figure out the origin of this little story. My first exposure to it was the article "13 Ways To Be A Better Lead Programmer" by Jelle Van Der Beek, printed in the April 2012 edition of Game Developer magazine. Jelle calls it "the classic example of leading from behind."

Apparently the story is well known in business circles. I have even seen business types abbreviate the phrase "Bring Me A Rock" into an acronym ("BMAR-style management"). I guess for people who have actually studied business or management or leadership or whatever, it may seem like old news.

But if you're like me, and you hadn't heard the story before... it really resonates, doesn't it? I mean, in my experience, this is basically how the entire entertainment business works. "Pitching" may as well be called "rock-bringing". There are people out there, let's call them "executives," who get paid big money for what amounts to rock-rejecting.

Perhaps it's because a lot of executives in the entertainment business lack formal management training that they don't see a problem with their BMAR system. Perhaps creative types actually like playing the BMAR game because executives don't always know what kind of rock they're looking for until they see it, or at least until they've seen a few options, and hey, as long as you're getting paid by the rock, you may as well bring in a few.

But the whole point of the story is that BMAR is stupid. Obviously totally stupid! The Master and the Servant would both be much off if either (a) the Master laid out some clear specifications about the sort of rock desired, (b) the Master trusted the Servant's judgement about what sort of rock would suffice, or (c) some combination of (a) and (b).

Of course, this all depends on the Master changing his or her behavior. Servants just gotta do what they're told, make the best of what they've been given. My only suggestion for Servants is to rise up in some sort of glorious (but ultimately doomed to fail) Slave Rebellion.

Enjoy getting crucified, suckers!

Mute (an Adobe Native Extension): The "Missing" API Doc

[UPDATE: As of AIR 3.4, you don't need an ANE to get the iOS mute switch to work -- just use the following:

import flash.media.AudioPlaybackMode;
import flash.media.SoundMixer;

and then

SoundMixer.audioPlaybackMode = AudioPlaybackMode.AMBIENT;

See this Adobe blog post for more.

(Original post follows anyway)]

---

In the interests of adding iOS mute switch functionality to Super Elk Murder 2012, I have begun digging into AIR Native Extensions, or "ANEs," a new feature as of AIR 3.

Basically, ANEs are little packages of native code that can be imported into a .swf just like an external .swc and may then be implemented like any other AS3 class. This is wonderful because it gives developers access to device-specific features that aren't included in AIR's platform-agnostic API.

Since I don't speak "native" and can't write the extension myself, I had to do what every programmer does from time to time: leech off the internets. And when it comes to the iOS mute switch (technically, Apple refers to it as the "Ring/Silent Switch"), the internets seem to agree on this ANE by a Spanish dude named Enrique David. ¡Muchas gracias, Señor David!

Mr. David was even kind enough to provide formal-looking API documentation for his ANE. As you can see, the class contains a single method, .Enable(), that takes one of three string parameters: SOLO_AMBIENT_SOUND (default), AMBIENT_SOUND, and MEDIA_PLAYBACK.

Unfortunately, Mr. David's English is terrible, and his descriptions of these parameters range between confusing and incomprehensible (hence "Missing" in this post's title). I decided I could give something back by posting the results of my own tests using these various options, with plain English explanations of what each one does -- YMMV.

---

Parameter Descriptions for
Mute ANE by Enrique David
(com.devilishgames.nativeextensions.Mute)

Test Platform = iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1
"App" = Super Elk Murder 2012, an Adobe AIR app written in ActionScript 3
"Music" = the iPhone's built-in music player app
"Switch" = the iPhone's hardware "Ringer/Silent" switch, located on the upper-left side of the device.

Standard Operation (i.e., without Mute.Enable())

• Switch has no effect on App audio
• If Music is playing when App starts, Music audio plays simultaneously with App audio

Mute.Enable(SOLO_AMBIENT_SOUND) (default):

• Switch mutes/unmutes all App audio
• If Music is playing when App starts, Music audio fades out and pauses

Mute.Enable(AMBIENT_SOUND):

• Switch mutes/unmutes App audio, but only works once -- it has no effect on the first sound generated after Switch is flipped, nor on any subsequent sounds
• If Music is playing when App starts, Switch has no effect on Music audio, and behaves as described above for App audio

Mute.Enable(MEDIA_PLAYBACK):

• Same result as 1. Standard Operation (i.e., without Mute.Enable())

Bugs:

• Switch has no effect if app is "backgrounded" and then "foregrounded" again -- this is obviously a pretty serious bug, and at time of writing I have no idea if there is any ActionScript workaround.
• MEDIA_PLAYBACK appears to be completely useless.
• Switch has no effect when headphones are plugged in -- probably not really a bug, but I thought it was worth noting.

---

Anyway, there you have it -- I hope this info can prove useful for somebody out there.

ADDITIONAL POTENTIALLY HELPFUL LINKS:

Extending Adobe Air by Oliver Goldman
Native Extensions for Adobe Air
Google Translate

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