KomBlog

Channel 4 have come up with this handy (and ugly!) little flash app that allows you to sort Olympic nations by a variety of factors. (This being Channel 4, one of them is "Human Rights Record" - which I imagine is just an "EXCLUDE WHERE NATION = CHINA")

Anyway, I'm currently using this to

a) Wind up Australians of my acquaintance
b) Lecture my colleagues on the Olympic glories of yesteryear. (There hasn't been a decent Olympics since 1928.)
c) Give minute by minute updates on how much Togo sucks

The 12,000 barrier has been broken in our studio Powerball trials. This great achievement was gained by none other than Roy after some serious practice! You have to question what extra curricular activities can make a mans wrists so strong and agile! Ping Pong anyone?!?!

Do you know Flash inside out? Do you eat ActionScript 3 and Flex for breakfast and shit Object Oriented Design (OOD)? If so we want to hear from you!

Based in Manchester city centre we're a small, fun and vibrant studio who share a passion for what we do, Interactive Media Development. As an up and coming web / interactive digital design studio we're looking to add depth and experience by recruiting a Technical Lead with solid Flash / ActionScript 3 skillz to lead our existing team of Developers on to the digital playing field!

Working across a range of exciting projects (3D Chat Rooms, Flash Web Games, Viral Campaigns, Virtual Worlds etc.) you'll need to demonstrate a sound understanding of Flash, ActionScript 3, Object Oriented Design and a grasp of Design Patterns and an eagerness to use them where possible.  More importantly you will express enthusiasm for leading, managing and commanding a core team of geeks!

It also goes without saying that you will have patience with designers (and their code!) as you'll be working with lightning fast creatives who design first and code later. For this reason you will often be called upon to advise on the best approach to designing a website or application. Any exposure to games development and scripted motion graphics is a huge bonus.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with an studio that produce some cutting edge, market leading interactive solutions. Benefits include bonus scheme, competitive salary and a fun place to work!

If this sounds just up your street, then please email your CV and Portfolio to:

jobs (at) komodomedia (dot) co (dot) uk

Studio Website: www.komodomedia.co.uk

Lots of good stuff on interface design and feedback loops in this article by Gregor Hochmuth. I think I've got the technique with these types of article down pat: the first and most important thing to do is to have a nice, chunky infographic in the first couple of paragraphs. (Hochmuth's is reproduced here.)

This infographic needs to be clean, clear and almost completely understandable at a glance. It needs to sum up the main thrust of the article to the extent that you almost don't need to read the article at all. Then you need a Complicating Factor. 

The complicating factor in this diagram is the arrows on the cogs. They lead the reader through the following stages:

1) Initial perception. "Awesome. Another information in IA. I can totally post this to the blog."

2) Surface appreciation. "Nifty looking infographic there. Mmmm, 2.0-ey."

3) Minor Irritation: "Dude, I could totally do this guy's job. That is simple soup."

3a) Idle speculation: "I could set  myself a sweet home office and charge £200 an hour."

4) Detail Apprehension. "Wait. What? Cogs? Maybe this guy is better than i thought."

5) Inevitable Anger. "Why do I suck so much at information architecture?"

6) Final Acceptance. "Well, I guess I understand. Kind of. I'll post it to the blog and pretend I get it."

See? It's really very simple.

Charlie and me chilling out in the reception of the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

A mid shoot break allows us a few moments to kick back and contemplate life's eternal questions. All that's missing is the obligatory glass of Cognac and a Habana. Waiter!

 

The current Komodo Towers desktop setup consists of...

4 Apple Macs

3.5 Windows

0.5 SuSE Linux (0.5 being a dual boot setup). 

The only thing keeping a good developer on a windows based machine is Flash CS3 and maybe ActiveSync and iTunes, otherwise we'd all be on the fast, stable, free and getting easier to use Linux!  Here at Komodo, we've took a liking to SuSE Linux as its easy to configure using Yast2 and pulls Compiz Fusion off great with KDE4.  It also makes a great reliable server currently boasting a 100% uptime compared to his Microsoft neighbour.  Instant messengers, Dreamweaver equivalents and media players are already established with SuSE, so no need to worry here.  Its even possible to run your favourite FP shooter using Linux on your dinner hour.  However until the day Adobe decide to release a native Linux version of Flash CS3, windows seems to be the quick answer, or is it?

There are a few things a dedicated Linux user can do to run Flash CS3 in Linux.  First is a VMWare of Windows, within Linux.  This is ok if you have a fast machine with at the very least 2 Gig of RAM.  However, a few things can annoy you with this setup.  Having dual screens does not work with a virtual machine which is a pain as any flash user likes to spread those library and actions windows around there desktop.

The second which is really a big cheat, is to run 2 PC's (1 Linux, 1 Windoze) and VNC from Linux to Windoze.  Not really practical when we should be considering our 'Carbon Footprint'

The third is running Flash CS3 through wine (A windows API for Linux).  It was possible to run older versions of Flash through wine with a few glitches which you could live with.

We've tried following this online blog from but cannot get it going.  The only things different are, we are running SuSE and using wine version 1.1.2.  We get as far as the install but on execution we get a 'Please Reinstall' message.

If you can manage to get Flash CS3 in Linux (Pref SuSE) please let us know!

The Prince & Me 2 Microsite has just launched on Nick.co.uk to promote the DVD release of the movie:

http://www.nick.co.uk/princeandme

The site revolves around Create Your Own Bride where users can design their own fictional Bride (very princessy) customising colour, hair styles, dresses, tops, accessories, flowers etc. Once they have created their Bride, users can download it as a custom wallpaper for their desktop!

So, if you're in the mood for a summer chick flick, the DVD is released on 11th August 2008.

The good people at Gizmodo have produced this handy ready-reckoner so that we can:

a) Keep our studio in working order

b) Understand anything that Gra says.

Pictured right is the studio floor only a few short months ago. We had to open up every nook and cranny across two floors, grab a handfull each and pull. It took maybe three hours to get it all out, and then a mere two weeks to get the new stuff in.

To get as far as we have done with little more than a half-mad scouser and a following wind is a testament to our awesomeness. Oh yes.

Obeying the well known law that there is no limit of time-consuming excess that designers will not stoop to, Phil has been fiddling with both his Hulk doll and the laws of perspective. (It's actually perfect from 1 angle, I didn't have time to get the snap because Phil, as you can see, is a very busy boy.)

 

Lee Byron made this super sexy little infographic-with-physics thing for the New York Times. I love it when just the teeniest tweak brings something alive. And who doesn't love pastels?