This bun’s been in Made Media’s oven for a while now but, as they say, slow bakin’ makes good eatin’. As well as showcasing The REP’s fantastic programme with visual impact this website features the full compliment of Web 2.0 must-haves:
- RSS feeds: Check!
- iCal Subscriptions: Check!
- Tags: Check!
- Flash Video: Check!
- Light-box Image Galleries: Check!
- Microformats: Check!
- Commenting: Check!
- Those little social-networking bookmark widgets: Check!
Huge thanks go to the wonderful marketing team at The Rep for having the right kind of vision, and for giving us enough time and support to deliver a website we’re really proud of.
And as if that’s not enough a meticulously re-designed ticket system is on its way shortly, courtesy of the technical geniuses at KB Group.
New Year, New Projects, New Deadlines.
We’re pre-empting a crunch by soliciting CVs from freelancers with the following skills:
Graphic/Web Designers
With a particular focus on designing website house-styles in Photoshop or Fireworks and Flash movie layouts. HTML skills not a must, but experience of doing lots of professional web layouts at a relatively high level is.
HTML/CSS Developers
People who can take a photoshop visual and turn it into valid HTML and CSS. You must understand accessibility, Flash Replacement, SiFR and Common JavaScript libraries, even if you’re not necessarily a programming whiz. Attention to detail is crucial, as is an ability to pull off layouts that don’t necessarily make sense.
.Net Specialists
We have lots of experience delivering stunning web applications within the LAMP environment, but we’re increasingly asked to work our magic on .Net projects. We’re looking for solid .Net programmers with staying power, who can work from our specifications and UI designs.
All freelance opportunities have the potential to turn into long-term relationships or careers if you are that way inclined.
email CVs with links to: jobs@mademedia.co.uk
But first, please remember the following golden rules:
- We want to hear from genuine freelancers only. You must know your daily rate. You must know when you are available. You must demonstrate a portfolio of high-level work (for the HTML/CSS position we’ll consider hobbyist stuff as long as you have the chops).
- Thou must not be a recruitment consultant.
- Please, please, please read what we’re looking for, and only respond if that honestly sounds like you.
We’ll try to reply to everyone properly, but we are very busy (that’s why we need freelance help). Have no fear, if your CV makes it into our inbox, it will be read and you will be considered. If you don’t hear back for a while it might mean we just ran out of time, or you might just have sent us a load of nonsense. You’ll know which one in your heart.
If you can be of any help to us we will most definitely be in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks to translations from Lau Chee Loong, Diarised is now available in Malay. Our little web application is beginning to grow up a bit.
Want to know more about Malay? Check the Wikipedia entry.
"The Malay language (Bahasa Melayu; Jawi script: بهاس ملايو), is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, parts of the coast of Borneo, Cocos and Christmas Islands in Australia, and even in the Netherlands. It is an official language of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore. It is very similar to Indonesian, known locally as Bahasa Indonesia, the official language of Indonesia."
Oh, and did you know the word ketchup is derived from the Malay word _catsup_? Think of that next time you’re piling it onto a bacon sandwich.
As ever, if you want Diarised in your own language then this is the deal. If you can provide the translation then we will write the code and localise Diarised for you. We make it as easy as we can for you so why not get in touch.
Argentina’s hottest dance show, Tango Fire, comes to Symphony Hall on Saturday 13 October. It sounds like quite an occasion but of particular interest to us is that this is the first event on the THSH website to feature a video of the performers in action. Rather than just read about the event why not watch a short preview of the performance?
One doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds one, but I’m sure I’m not the only one having a chuckle at this. I’ve whinged at people in the past about ‘Assist Fatigue’. Often only to discover later that they were actually ‘Assisting’ me at the time.
Via Created In Birmingham.
Thank god the Gaggia coffee machine is finally back from servicing. It’s like a new age of civilisation and optimism has dawned in the Made Media office. Gone are the dark ages of the £15 Tesco-special filter machine. The treacly, black liquid kept the new-media super-powers going but at the cost of frayed synapses and thousand-yard stares come home-time. A bit of European finesse is what we require of our morning cuppa. Normality is returning.
How long before the grinder packs in again?
We are delighted to announce that Diarised is now available in Dutch, our third language. The translation was provided by Roel Van Gils of anysurfer.be.
We’re also on the lookout for more translators. Want Diarised in your own language? Then why not step up and help us out. Just get in touch. The application itself is fully internationalised now so adding languages is, in the main, a question of just 'plugging them in'.
You may have noticed that Diarised is now available in Spanish as well as English. More languages are on the way and this is now pretty easy thanks to the 'internationalisation' of your little meeting application.
Steve, our lead developer, has just had his first article published on Think Vitamin where he talks about the work involved.
Give your web app international appeal is the first in a two-part series offering fairly technical guidance on how to internationalise web apps generally. It's a good read if you're into that kind of thing. Watch out for part two coming soon.
Oh, and if you would like to see Diarised in your language then let us know. If you (or someone you know) can do the translation then we'll add the code and make it happen. It's a simple process - we just send you a text file which you can translate and send us back.
UPDATE: Part two is now online.
We were delighted to launch the new Town Hall/Symphony Hall Website this morning.
Some of the bright young things in our office are too young to remember Birmingham’s Town Hall as a functional venue, but following a painstaking restoration it re-opens in October as a more intimate sister-venue to the world-renowned Symphony Hall.
Our brief, put crudely, was to ensure maximum bums on seats at both venues and with that in mind we focused on events and tickets. The site remembers the kind of events you’ve looked at in the past and starts to focus the home page towards your tastes. There’s always room for something different though.
We also found time for a few Web 2.0 niceties so there’s plenty of RSS, tagging and iCal stuff going on too.
See you at the opening festival!
After hearing high praise from numerous sources over recent months, I finally had the opportunity to see The Destroyers play live this weekend and discover if they live up to the hype.
To categorize or pigeon-hole this multi-musician ensemble isn't so easy. However I'll make a ham-fisted attempt by describing their rawkus, energetic and relentlessly fun performance as a moravian-ooomp-pah, folk-punk wall-of-sound infused with an acid laced soul of Ennio Morriconi. No offence to anyone involved or to you more articulate and enlightened musos - it's meant in a complimentary fashion.
Festooned with a vast array of instruments (many of which I recognized) and some fantastically bizarre pointy hats The Destroyers provide an audio-visual assault on the senses which you can't help but both smile at whilst simultaneously jumping about to.
Good to briefly catch up with band member Dan O'connoll, formerly of Brum mates 3form who recently relocated to the big Smoke and has found himself at McCann London.
