Psyho's blog

I will be doing 24h livestream during Marathon24 and I need your ideas! (all of you!)
By Psyho, history, 9 years ago, In English

Updated on 07/12 for the last time

  • Postmortem -- explains a lot of stuff and it might help you decide if there's any point in watching this
  • Twitch stream -- original livestream
  • YT mirror -- because for some reason a lot of people wanted it

If you have any feedback (bad or good, doesn't matter as long as it's constructive), I'll be more than happy to hear it. Especially since I might do more of these (just not that long).

Updated on 27/11, because it got into "recent actions"

The stream will happen 28/11 Saturday 9:15 AM GMT+1 to 29/11 Sunday 10:15 AM GMT+1

The address for the stream is http://www.twitch.tv/fakepsyho — yes, I mailed with the support and coding on twitch is now perfectly fine. Also, the stream contains all of the essential information, so I'm not duplicating it here.

Also, I'm using this mic, so don't worry about sound quality ;)

Edits:

0) For people who are confused about who took my handle. This guy.

1) I thought I should make it a little bit more clear: I really want to hear what you would like to see. There are no stupid ideas. Want me to eat 0.5kg burger? Want me to play IWBTG? Want me to do push-ups (pls no)? It's entirely up to you what I will talk about. I'm giving free upvotes for every suggestion ;) My goal is to make it interesting for everyone (i.e. across all of the skill levels), so don't be afraid to suggest something that you may feel is very basic.

Short version:

  • I will participate unofficially in M24, I don't want to break my streak of winning three 24h contests in a row ;)

  • I will do the livestream with full commentary (and most probably with full code although it may not happen due to security risks)

  • Since this is for you (across all the skill levels), I need to know what you'd like to see!

Longer version:

Since twitch was born, I thought about doing an educational livestream with solving some problems. The two biggest obstacles are: I wanted to do the livestream during the onsite contest (otherwise there's no thrill, and the conditions are artificial, so even educational values suffers). Unfortunately, this means that the contest would require the participants to have no internet connection. The other thing is that, doing the contest without commentary (and without interacting with chat) is quite boring. If I had participated, this would really hurt my performance. So, this really only works when I'm not 100% focused on winning. Unofficial participation in Marathon24 is a rare occasion to fulfill both of those requirements.

Current status:

  • If you have any ideas for the setup let me know. I will stream the editor + any possible visualization (pretty much everything that happens on my main screen). I may stream the livecam if people want it for some reason. I'm guessing I will also use some virtual whiteboard for drawing/explaining things. I may set up secondary stream exclusively for visualization (so that people will know how the game looks even if I'm not looking at the visualization). I may set up dropbox so that all of my local files will be synchronized. The last thing may not happen due to security risk (some participating team could download it and it would be hard to detect).

  • The stream will be full 24 hours. Probably even longer since I'll start a little earlier. I may also do some pre-finals testing stream, just to be sure to not mess up things during the finals.

  • I'm considering using Twitch. I have some experience with using OBS since I started doing some lame speedrunning recently.

  • Small disclaimer. I should also add that this is not 100% confirmed yet, but folks behind Marathon24 loved the idea (or they are convincing liars).

The things I can do:

  • I want to start at the same time as other competitors will do. The first 15-30 minutes will be reserved time for me (and hopefully viewers too) to read the problem statement.

  • For at least first few hours I will focus on the problem in the same way I would in the contest. I will definitely go way slower since I will be explaining all of the stuff I'm doing. I guess I will shift my priorities dynamically, depending on how I perform.

  • I could try to do live interviews with some participants. That may be hard to do technically, but it's definitely a possibility. The problem is, people don't really like being hassled during the 24h contests.

  • I'm not tied to talking only about M24. For example I could take a 2h break to talk about TC's marathons or stuff like that. It's entirely up to what you want to see.

  • You will be able to ask me questions via chat (less reliable) or twitter (more reliable). I'll try to answer them, unless I will be already braindead ;)

So, to sum things up. Livestream. I need your ideas. Also, if you don't want to miss the news follow me on twitter. And don't worry. I don't spam there too much, since I haven't figured what's the point of it ;)

  • Vote: I like it
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  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (39)
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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +27 Vote: I do not like it

Sounds awesome!

Just wanted to point out that Twitch has been known to ban users for streaming non-gaming related content, so maybe you should consider other streaming services (youtube, for instance).

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    No they have Programming section, so there is no problem with programmers wanting to stream on Twitch. I think twitch would be best(that's just my opinion).

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

      The terms of service are pretty clear in mentioning gaming related streams only.

      Maybe that's there because of game programming? Or maybe they do allow programming stuff, but I wouldn't risk it.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    I've heard a lot about it, but then I thought they changed their policies to allow non-gaming non-music too -- they added several categories that are definitely not directly related to gaming. Do you know anyone who was banned in the last 6 months? I googled for that extensively, but was unable to find anyone. For example there's /r/WatchPeopleCode subreddit and it seems almost everyone uses Twitch for that. Also, RoC that you quoted below is quite outdated.

    Anyway, I'll make sure that twitch allows it before I'll make a final decision about the streaming site. Every other livestreaming site that I checked had some downsides (for example Youtube is blocked in China). Twitch is far from perfect, but it has the advantage that I'm already used to it.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      I positive that they allowed it. When you scroll down in their categories they have Music, Creative etc and none of them are gaming related(believe me I've watched it and it was terrible :D) so I don't think you will have problems with them. You can always contact their support to see if you are allowed to stream it or not if you decide to go Twitch route. Good luck! :D

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        Yep, I wrote to support. Probably it will take a bit to get a response.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      I have seen someone get banned (it wasn't very recent though), which is why I was concerned in the first place. I wanted to mention it just as a word of caution, if twitch decides to allow it then of course it's a very solid streaming service and I have no opposition.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

livecoding.tv would be a good option. Any chance you could mention the importance of certain math, at some point of the stream, to be one of the best?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

    I have no idea why people are downvoting milesstevenson. His proposal sounds good to me. This article here describes livecoding.tv as the twitch.tv equivalent for coding. Even Stephen Wolfram used it once for a livestream.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

    livecoding.tv would be a good option.

    I've checked the livecoding, but it seems there are no quality options, rewinding current stream and no access to the chat unless you're logged in. Also, I'm not that certain about the stability of the stream. Although they're Y combinator startup, so that shouldn't be an issue :)

    At the same time, it doesn't look like it provides any additional options (in comparison to YT/Twitch) besides having a proper name :)

    Any chance you could mention the importance of certain math, at some point of the stream, to be one of the best?

    Most probably I won't be talking about math. There's very little math used in those contests on average and I'm also a guy who usually tells people that math is something that's barely useful ;) It's much more probable that I will be talking about code/algorithm design, code styling, code refactorization and other important aspects of fast algorithm prototyping.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +33 Vote: I do not like it

Please, tell us about simulated annealing during this 2-hour break!

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

That's a great idea

Probably you know this but make sure to record it so that one can rewind it to any time during/after stream, also make sure that one can choose to watch in different quality (some streams don't offer low quality versions, not sure what is twitch default).

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    Twitch allows for both of those things. Although for the second one there's a requirement that enough people have to watch that stream. It's usually around 30-60, so I hope this shouldn't be a problem.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

That's a great idea! I would like to see your facecam and hear all of your thoughts — what exactly happens in your head, how do you come up with the solution.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

I'd recommend getting a decent microphone and recording device. Clear sound and differs from what one typically gets from embedded mic. Also, it'll be easier to non-perfect-English-speakers to get up with what you're talking about during the broadcast.

Another idea is to describe your strategy for the contest beforehand. Say, "I'm gonna use this editor because others suck, I'm going to take a break several hours in contest and take a walk..."

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I'd recommend getting a decent microphone and recording device. Clear sound and differs from what one typically gets from embedded mic. Also, it'll be easier to non-perfect-English-speakers to get up with what you're talking about during the broadcast.

    That's the plan. My English is definitely far from perfect, but I hope I will get enough "livestreaming" practice before the 24h session. Talking to the screen monitor is not something that I often do :)

    Most probably I'll do the "testing" stream week before or something like that.

    Another idea is to describe your strategy for the contest beforehand. Say, "I'm gonna use this editor because others suck, I'm going to take a break several hours in contest and take a walk..."

    I will try to start the stream one or two hours before the contest. Also FAQ + up-to-date todo list should help a lot.

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

I think it will be useful for streaming to write some sort of todo-list in some part of the screen. It won't take much space, but if people will return to your stream after some break, they will quickly learn what happened and what are you working at. For example:

It may also be cool to make a small retrospective after contest based on this list and think what was useful, what was useless, what could be done better/faster/later/earlier etc.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    I think it will be useful for streaming to write some sort of todo-list in some part of the screen. It won't take much space, but if people will return to your stream after some break, they will quickly learn what happened and what are you working at.

    Great idea. I considered only putting up a link to some doc with schedule/todo list, but this is far better.

    It may also be cool to make a small retrospective after contest based on this list and think what was useful, what was useless, what could be done better/faster/later/earlier etc.

    I definitely will do the post-mortem. Most probably in a form of a blog post.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by Psyho (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Drink one beer every 2 hours

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

    Lol. In theory I could do it, but it won't happen for several reasons:

    • I don't drink beer. Shots would be fine though :)

    • I would get sleepy really fast. When I'm sleepy, I act like a potato. I can jump around, but I can't really talk. That's really opposite to what I'm trying to do here.

    • But mostly, this is going to be an educational stream. I mean, I should act responsible and such ;)

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -8 Vote: I do not like it

      Heh, yesterday I get to know about first person among people I know who, like me, doesn't drink beer, and here is second one :P.

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

        and did you take nationality as a filter? is he polish too? :)

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      Potatoes don't jump around, though :D

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

IWBTG seems interesting though... :D

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

I think it should be fair to remove users from the system that (a) don't have any rating and (b) didn't visit a site for the last year or so. This way you could get your handle back :)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

bring it to the top. tomorrow is the day :)

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    Well, I already posted http://codeforces.net/blog/entry/21759 2 days ago, but it didn't get too much visibility. And definitely not too many upvotes. I guess posting anything right after the contest is a really bad idea :)

    Edit: I lost my color as well, so that's another reason ;)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by Psyho (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I have a little suggestion. One can make more money having less viewers streaming at hitbox rather than at twitch. I know, it's not the goal of your stream, but...

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    And here I am, wondering if I can do anything to remove ads or "subscribe" button :)

    I'm doing this for three reasons only: 1) To educate people (and hopefully it will be entertaining as well). 2) I have a small hope that it will make 24h contests slightly more popular. 3) Because I like to do new things that I have never done before. After all, that's why I ended up doing whole competitive programming stuff.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      And here you are convincing me in something I noted in the previous comment...

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        If you didn't need any convincing, then I don't understand the point of your comment at all. I mean, there's no real point in advertising hitbox here, and I don't see any other reasons to mention it.

        Anyway, discussions based on different cultural biases could go on forever :)

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
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          The discussion is based on (didn't think I'll ever have to explain it to people related to math) choosing between two n-dimensional vectors a and b, where ai = bi for i < n and an >  = bn, where all the elements are non-negative and you are to maximize the distance from the origin.

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            9 years ago, # ^ |
            ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

            Less known

            No quality options

            Smaller organic traffic

            Twitch stream is already linked everywhere, changing the address of stream is pure idiocy

            It's easier to setup for someone who already used it

            I see that you like to prove your point and all, but there's no point in continuing.

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Are you going to solve all problems or will you focus on just one?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Just one and the problem is already chosen. There were few reasons for doing that, but the most most important one is that in this way, I'll do exactly the same things as I would do in normal contest. AFAIK, it's set up as I'm 31st finalist — not sure if they're going to put me on the ranking :)

    I could've tried doing all three and act like I'm superhuman. But even if I had ended up having decent scores, I would have absolutely no time and no stamina to do any talking, which is supposed to be the main goal of the livestream :)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by Psyho (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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