adject media

Firefox 3 and Download Day

As long-term advocates of Open Source, Standards-Compliant software, I’m really pleased to be able to tell anyone who hasn’t already heard that Firefox 3 is now available for download! First impressions are definitely good, with significant performance increases on the old version. There’s the usual issues that early adopters have with add-ons I used currently awaiting compatibility updates, but that’s just a waiting game it’s worth playing

Until 6:00pm BST, it’s officially Download Day where you can help contribute to Firefox winning the world record for most software downloads within 24 hours. You need to download it from the official download page for your download to count. Get to it!

In other related news, Sitepoint have just published a free e-book called Firefox 3 Revealed. Basically, they commissioned an article summarising the new goodness in Firefox 3, and the author turned in an 8,000 word epic that they decided to just publish as an e-book. Well worth it at twice the price

At BarCamp NorthEast

After some initial trepidation and curiosity about what it would be like, my time at BarCamp NorthEast is almost done. There’s been a wide variety of sessions and topics so far, and I’ve been to slots about:

• Representing Graph structures in Python using RDFLib [Tom Morris]
• A look at issues surrounding technology and civil liberties issues [Glyn Wintle of Open Rights Group]
• Cross-browser styling techniques in CSS without conditional comments [Jon Sidnell of Adject Media :)]
• A guide to making viral content that isn’t rubbish [Tom Scott]
• Group discussion about mind hacks that work for us [Intro'd by Tara Hunt]

There’s not been a boring session yet, possibly barring my one, which at least wasn’t boring for me. It was more exposing than anything else, as I was presenting a technique that (as far as I know) is original to myself and is the first time it’s been shown to people outside the day-job. It seemed to go down well, and at least one person said they would have a go at using it where they are! I’m going to post something somewhere detailing what I presented, but in the mean time you can see the demo page I made specially for the day at http://adjectmedia.com/barcamp/.

Wherever you are, if you hear of a BarCamp event happening, get yourself along. It’s not hype - you really will meet interesting people, hear a load of fascinating things and generally have a good time. My only regret is that I can’t stay the night - I’ve got to be on a 9:10 train back to Hexham tonight.

We’re going to BarCamp!

After much encouragement from different people in the Refresh Newcastle group, I’ve just booked my place at BarCampNorthEast. If you don’t know about BarCamp, it’s basically a collaborative conference where everyone gets stuck in and contributes something. I’ve never experienced one before, but I’m looking forward to getting there, meeting new people and learning plenty along the way.

If you’re booked in too, I’ll see you there! If you’re not, check it out and get yourself signed up…

Blue Cherry site now live

After plenty of learning about Ruby on Rails and a re-development of Adject::Adapt, our in-house content-management system, we are proud to announce that the Blue Cherry website is now live!

Blue Cherry are a PR and Marketing consultancy based in Leicester. Formed just over a year ago, they already have an impressive client list and things continue to look good for the future! Head over to the site to find out about their services, read their blog and sign up to the handy-dandy RSS feed keeping you abreast of all the latest Blue Cherry news. With occasional competitions and promotional offers, it could well be worth your while!

As with all our clients, this has truly been a collaborative effort as we have worked closely with Blue Cherry to deliver a site that is contemporary enough for today and flexible enough for tomorrow. With bundles of ideas to develop the site further, keep checking back and see how it grows!