Flash can be a useful tool to jazz up a website, but is often used pretty inappropriately. One rule I always abide by is: 'Never make a large flash intro sequence, especially if it involves a fair amount of loading time, silly animations and ridiculous sound effects'. The flash developer at Hema (a Dutch department store) took this mantra and threw it out the window, doing everything wrong...


Looks like a normal product page to me... © Hema (2009)

...except the result is BRILLIANT. It makes their product list come to life and actually serves a useful function, guiding people around their products, keeping them entertained and leaving a sizable impression on them for next time.

Hema Product Page - wait until it loads.


...but it's much more fun than that © Hema (2009)

Normally these animation things only serve to boost the developer's ego, but I think in this case, he or she should be praised - it's silly, but great too :)
 

I know, I know. It's been a while.. Work has been pretty hectic and I've just not had time to finish off a number of posts that I've written 80% of. Somehow they've become an annoying job, so for now I'm moving on to something new.. and pretty old.

So, we've got a Christmas photo competition going on at work and for the 'funny' category I've entered a pic of me impersonating a security guard somewhere on Lake Geneva. Saving any suspense, here's the photo:


This is probably illegal in Switzerland. © Beats! Design (2001)

All I remember (well, until further research helped out) was that the sign was next to a big castle on Lake Geneva, near the town with the Freddie Mercury statue. Well, that town is Montreaux and a small amount of googling got me to the castle as well, Chateau du Chillon:


A stunning shot of Chateau Chillon at sunset. © Creative Commons (2008)
- Photo taken and released by Flickr user 'Pear Biter'

Now that is a pretty amazing photo, and looks for all the world to be an HDR shot, although apparently it isn't. Anyway, I particularly like the fact that I visited this castle but only bothered to take a comedic shot of me and a sign, the castle features no where in my album - ha.

Just for fun (this would also have been another route of castle-based discovery), I maximised the sign to try and get the french and then translate it. The bit I could make out reads, "..saut autorisation expresse de intendant du chateau du chillon la plage sise sur cette..", which comes out as:


I'd love to go to a beach where you need a Superintendent's permission to visit - sadly I didn't have said permission so just ended up disrespected his/her authority instead. For those interested, there's a wee map of the area below, along with a few links - enjoy!




Wikipedia: Chateau du Chillon
Pear Biter's Flickr Photo of Chateau du Chillon
My 'comedic' photo, within my Europe Trip Flickr gallery

PS It's good to be back.
 

I'm currently in the mood for sharing - It's so easy to do the same old things on the internet and never really explore for anything new. But the best way to find new content is to ask others for their recommendations, so I thought it was time I reversed the process and gave some tips of my own.
 
My last post centred on computer and web browser modifications, so this time I'm moving on to web content and offering up the 9 blogs I visit most (and would thoroughly recommend). There's a nice range here - not all will be to everyone's tastes, but I'm sure some will, and I've tried to avoid any hugely popular sites that most will know of already. The rest should be self-explanatory, so sit back and enjoy. Oh, but don't forget to keep visiting this site too! :)
 
 

Category: Language Update Freq: ~25x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   The BBC Magazine Monitor blog has features such as Web Monitor, Paper Monitor, daily letters and a quote of the day.		Category: Comedy Update Freq: ~5x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   Emails from Crazy People is a pretty self-explanatory blog, and a very funny one at that.		Category: Comedy Update Freq: ~30x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   Failblog posts pictures and videos of people failing, and has a unique user community, often more baffling than the content!
Category: Image Design Update Freq: ~1x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   Tutorial9 is a website that provides really good quality Photoshop tutorials, with free PSDs available to download.		Category: Maps, History Update Freq: ~1x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   Strange Maps does what it says on the tin, but has suprisingly thought-provoking posts with some really interesting maps.		Category: Image Design Update Freq: ~7x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   Photoshop Disasters highlights awful image editing in the world of visual media, naming and shaming culprits!
Category: Video Update Freq: ~15x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   The Best of Youtube posts a wide-range of videos, most of which are certainly worth a watch - a good 'youtube guide'.		Category: Video Update Freq: ~1x per week URL: click here | RSS: N/A   Another 'best of youtube' site, canada.com posts the most talked-about videos of each week.		Category: Video, Sport Update Freq: ~1x per week URL: click here | RSS: here   The Guardian Youtube Sport Archive posts a group of videos based on that week's sporting events.

 

Six weeks ago, I posted on here to apologise for the lack of recent posts and to suggest I'll be being a bit snappier in the future:


So how many posts did I publish in those 6 weeks? Two. Just two. And neither were particularly snappy. OK, I've been really busy and got loads of work done (updates on here soon - once the sites are officially released) but I've neglected this blog somewhat.

I've got a relatively free run for a while so things should get back to normal on here, but I won't promise anything in case I need to go back on it like I'm doing now. However, I have plenty of things to post and nearly finished a couple of articles so please do watch this space! :)

Just so this post isn't purely boring admin, I've put one of my favourite recent FailBlog pictures below - made me laugh anyway!


© FailBlog (2009)

FailBlog.org - Bulletin Board Win
 

I was in Northallerton a few months ago and found a brilliant leaflet in the pub, offering an exciting venue for tourists and locals alike...

...I'm not sure if it's the state of the woman on the front (her period costume ends up making her look like a tramp...the bagpipes are a nice touch too!) or just the brilliantly simple name, but I had to laugh at "The Shed":


Come to 'The Shed'... © The Shed (2009)

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh or maybe the cover was slightly tongue in cheek, but it looks like a cracking tourist attraction. In reality, The Shed is a small music and arts venue on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors but I prefer the idea of it just being a shed with some woman with some bagpipes nearby :)

UPDATE: After receiving some feedback (and photos) via email, I've posted an update to this story: #143 UPDATE: Let's Go To.....The Shed!
 

OK, so I was expecting something 'April-foolish' from Google but didn't expect it to be quite this subtle - I was thinking maybe a re-designed logo or an unusual search result, but it seems they've plumped for a Street View panda icon (that old chestnut!).

Maybe this is just in the UK (we've only just got Street View after all) but if you go to Google Maps drag the yellow man onto a blue street as normal, now he magically turns into a panda in the overview map:


Google Map Panda with multiple positions (insets, left) and classic yellow man (inset, middle). © Google (2009)

I'm about to launch a new Street View service on this blog (next post) so watch out for that - in the mean time, you'll have to make do with some bamboo-fuelled goodness!

Google Maps with Panda Icon (only working today, I imagine)
 

Well it's been a while getting here, but here is the 100th post on the Beats! Design Blog. I was tempted to do a review or 'best of' the last 99 posts, but in the end I decided just to be nice and simple. Somehow, I feel this image sums things up pretty well [click to enlarge]:


© Wellington Grey (2007)

I've seen this cartoon posted on a few other sites, but there never seems to be a source - or each site pretends it's there own work (naughty!). I think I've now tracked down the original post now, so take a look at their site: Wellington Grey - This Modern Life

This blog has been up and running for over a year now and there's plenty more to come. In the next few months, watch out for the conclusion of Earth Stories series, some more Beatslinks and hopefully a few more examples of customised online mapping - I'll get working on it!

Thanks to all for reading - keep it up :)