With the minor delay for the launch of www.toolbarheroes.com (due to us wanting to make it even cooler), we’d like to unveil our first hero and our first tool that he’ll be accommodating.
Terry
We had our illustration expert Brian from Hartoworld create Terry for http://www.toolbarheroes.com. His superpowers are currently unknown (other than a lycra fetish), but they’ll see the light of day when you least expect it.
The First Hero
Our first hero is the Percentage Calculator. It works with JS enabled or disabled and does the most simple of tasks, that of calculating percentages in numerous ways. We’ve also looked to optimise the tool as much as possible by using sprites, compressing & optimising code and using CDNs. We were originally planning to write our own JavaScript library specifically for this project. With time constraints this changed and hence our beloved jQuery 1.4 was given a run out.
The Coming Soon Heroes…
Two other heroes are currently in development: the file size convertor and typical measurements. We’ve got a lot of plans for www.toolbarheroes.com and will be looking to launch at least one new hero per month from June onwards. Other superheroes like Terry will also be making an appearance later in the year. In the future we’ll post up sneak peaks on dribbble.com, once I’ve earned my creative badges in the community.
As you can probably tell I’m not really a big fan of ‘Flash’ animation on web sites – Flash being the software package most commonly used to create the graphics that move around on your screen.
Ah but its about leveraging dynamic and engaging content to align our core values with the user’s inner brand karma! Hmmm…
You know the feeling. You just need a telephone number or an address, you just want to find out about a product in the few seconds you have before the next call. You don’t want some irrelevant swirling psychedelic half-arsed clap trap bamboozling you!
Just give me the information mate and go and express yourself through contemporary dance or something…
Sure you see the odd site that uses Flash well, but frankly they are still few and far between in my book.
As always its a question of ‘horses for courses’; its about understanding who will be using your web site, when and where they’re likely to be using it and most importantly why!
Magento is the ecommerce solution that takes time to master! It comes in two flavors; Enterprise and Community.
Enterprise is the fully supported, commercially licensed version of the app with prices starting at $11,125/yr (as of 2nd May 2010).
Community is the version available for no cost to the general market. Naturally your only source of support “out of the box” are the Magento forums and a few third party sites (feel free to tell us about your Magento site in the comments). There are quite a few specialist Magento developers out there, so if you need more help there’s always someone available for the right price.
For the rest of this post we’ll be talking about the Magento Community version.
Magento Community – Should I use it?
Web Developers
Magento is a beast worth taming. You’ll be frustrated, angry and annoyed with parts of the system whilst working on it but keep going. The more time you spend with it, the more understanding of how solid and powerful an application it is. You’ll have a “eureka” moment whilst working on it which will change your attitude towards the app. If you’ve got an “intermediate” web development skillset you shouldn’t have too many issues setting up the vanilla (default configuration) version of Magento. The majority of issues come about due to file permissions on the server or the caching engine of Magento (try to fix something and you don’t see the results). We usually disable the caching on our development server, and only fully enable it once live.
Store Owners
Magento offers a lot of features in terms of reporting and the management of products and stock. It is also one of the most complicated to get used to due to the sheer number of options and features available (and will most likely need you to spend some money on a web developer). If you’re looking for a fully fledged store that is well rounded and secure (if maintained properly) then Magento is an excellent option and worth the additional time to understand as well as the possible extra cost for development. If you have no web development experience (be it yourself or the team) then you’ll need a web developer to assist you with installing and configuring the installation. To keep costs low you could purchase a pre-built Magento theme/style from places such as Template Monster (recommended) and ThemeForest.
For those of you looking for something a little less intensive, utilizing a managed service such as Do Your Own Site and aShop (has both retail and wholesale functionality) is definitely worth looking at.
Handy Hints
Here’s a list of resources that we’ve utilized whilst working on the development and customization of a Magento 1.4.0.1 (and older) installation. Please feel free to ask any questions if you need a little help with anything listed below.
Anything related to Queens of the Stone Age (fanboyism)
One of my favorite set of posters is from the Queens tour in 2008; a set of four that I purchased from Jacknife Posters (after they sold out at the gig).
Anyway back to the real subject matter of this post. I had previously purchased Melissa Auf Der Maur’s (MAdM’s) self titled album back in 2004 and found it a solid listen. When the new album was announced (Out of Our Minds (OOOM)) my interest had been whetted by the previous album and the album package available at the official site. Temptation proved too much and the wallet was presented to the Mac Book Pro, thereafter it was just the question of the waiting game (AKA delivery).
After a couple of delays in production the vinyl a dispatch date was set; unfortunately this coincided with the Icelandish volcano (Eyjafjallajokull) blowing it’s top and delaying the delivery further. Which was only mildly annoying, so I didn’t report it to the national news (though I was tempted during one whingefest).
The box has a blood red coloured lid, with some “trickles” of blood flowing onto other parts of the box. Opening the box up, the first thing you see is the black T-shirt which is 100% cotton. Yes I really just did put that in bold text. The Blood Healer print on the tshirt looks pretty dam cool (two colour print (red & white)). Next on the list is the tote bag, again 100% cotton with a 2 colour print. The smaller parts of the package such as the bookmark, buttons and sticker are exactly what they are. A bookmark, buttons and a sticker.
Now moving onto the comic book. I’m not a comic book fan in terms of the actual reading of them (Axe Cop excluded), but I do like to have a look at the different art styles and techniques of the artists. In this case there is no writing bar some lyrics on the first page. The comic uses the same prominent red throughout to highlight varying things from a flower to an open wound(!). Jack Forbes style is quite simple from a first look but when you look closer there is a lot of subtle detail in place on every page. I think the comic is a very strong part to the package.
The 7 inch picture disc is a nice slab and plays ‘Out of Minds’ and ‘Lead Horse’ from the album. The design of the disc itself is good but not overly attractive. The LP is a beautiful thing. Now in terms of the quality of the vinyl itself I’m no expert but the bright red colour it’s comprised of just gives off a feeling of – I want to play this!
The Album
I’m not going to go into too much depth here, as my inane ramblings are enough to put someone off music for life. After having a few weeks of listening to the album, I can honestly say it’s a good direction from MAdM’s first and a lot stronger overall. The first album was heavier which I liked (Followed The Waves is a cracking track) but I felt it was a little disjointed with a few too many “skip” tracks.
On OOOM there are songs with catchy hooks (Out of Our Minds, The Key, 1000 Years), a couple of progressive tracks (The Hunt, Lead Horse) and the little gem of Father’s Grave. There’s the usual talky track that a good number of albums seem to contain (This Would Be Paradise) but it doesn’t grate too much (well not yet anyway).The rest of the tracks compliment the album and only ‘This Would Be Paradise’ gets skipped every so often.
Overall it’s a good album (8/10 for those looking for a marker). It’s always a nice surprise when any of the tracks pop up on a random playlist, which for me shows the quality of the output by MAdM.
The Film
To be honest I haven’t watched the film yet, but from the little I’ve seen there’s been a lot of care and attention put into the production.
The End
I’ll let you make your own mind up as to whether the package is worth buying.
While I’m here (shameless self promotion following) Rosslyn Digital’s sister company Rosslyn Promotions can supply promotional merchandise that includes tote bags and t-shirts.
Update
As per my initial thoughts I received the following from the OOOM mailing list:
This is Melissa. It has come to my attention that Vinyl has not been shipped in sufficient packaging and some of you have already received, or may receive damaged records.
I sincerely apologize to anyone who gets damaged OOOM and of course I’ll send you another Vinyl if yours is broken.
To let us know if you got broken vinyl, please find the receipt from your purchase in your email and then forward that onto merch@phi-montreal.com and put “BROKENVINYL” in the subject line.
If you can’t find your receipt, no worries, just reply to this email. We’ll still need to find you in the system so please use the email you purchased with and give us the first / last name on your credit card or your pay pal email address of purchase.
Thank you for your understanding, patience and support. The little OOOM engine that could, will get it right – I promise! Thanks for Reaching for it…
xMAdMx P.S. Little treat to try and make up for this inconvenience is …. MP3 Download of “ISIS SPEAKS” Live & Intimate from Volcano Show in Finland!
Here’s a few points to consider when planning your next web site.
Your web site maybe creating the ‘first impression’ of your business.
Think about it, would you answer the phone ‘no, go away!’? Exactly!
Would you put up a neon sign next to the M1 saying ‘its easier to get a quote from our competitors who are [...]
