Systems Architect / Analyst

Based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, we are an award winning full service digital agency specialising in Social Media and Search (SEO) led projects.

We now have a requirement for  a freelance Senior Systems Analyst to work with us on a 4-6 month project.

The successful candidate will work with the in-house team including Project Manager, Account Manager, Technical Project Manager, and our Search & Social Team, to produce a technical system specification.  This is a new project for one of our key blue-chip clients who have a strong brand and are one of the market leaders in their field.  It is therefore imperative that we find the right person for this project.

Details

• Day Rate:                 £negotiable
• Contract Length:        Up to 6 months
• Start Date:                 ASAP
• Location:                Leeds

Requirements:

Excellent track record of…

• Delivering high quality technical systems analysis and design for web based systems.
• Analysing, interpreting and designing complex systems and data processes.
• Producing comprehensive, precise, clear and easy to read technical specifications.
• Working collaboratively across multi-disciplined project teams.
• Strong analytical & data analysis.
• Identifying and understanding business and commercial objectives.
• Designing large web-based systems, incorporating real-time data streaming, integration with 3rd party systems, and large traffic volumes.

Bloom Media is a leading digital agency based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Our solutions are totally ROI focused combining strategic, creative and technical innovation to realise maximum commercial value for our client accounts.

An opening has emerged for a talented, flexible and experienced Front End Web Developer to join our team in Leeds.

We want to hear from skilled web developers with excellent front-end development expertise, ideally in an agency environment, although we’ll also consider applications from individuals who are in the earlier stages of their career and can demonstrate a true passion and interest in web development.

About you:

• You have superlative ability to hand code lightweight, standards based, semantic XHTML and CSS
• You have extensive experience in cross-browser development techniques, and progressive enhancement strategies
• You have good working knowledge of JQuery and unobtrusive javascript
• You have experience in WordPress, ExpressionEngine and/or Drupal
• Your best friend is Firebug and layout tables make you weep
• You are following the buzz about HTML5
• You provide accurate delivery time lines
• You have an almost unhealthy attention to detail and take real pride in the finished product
• You are well organised and self-motivated, with the ability to work to tight deadlines
• You have design awareness and follow the creative brief to the letter
• You are interested in and follow SEO best practices
• You may have some familiarity with server-side languages and databases such as PHP and MySQL
• You may have some familiarity with Facebook API and the Open Graph
• You may have some flash and Actionscript experience
• Experience in mobile development a plus

As an individual, you’ll enjoy brainstorming ideas with the team and you’ll believe that there is always a solution to a challenge. A self starter, you’ll instinctively know how to approach and manage your work and your enthusiasm for what you do will be infectious – you’ll really care about the quality of the work you produce.

In exchange for commitment and hard work, you’re guaranteed a good humoured team environment, a competitive salary and the opportunity to take your career to the next level.

If you’re up the challenge, please send your CV and cover letter (outlining your experience, your current salary or salary aspiration, and examples of your work) to Alex Morris, HR Manager at amorris [at] bloommedia.co.uk.

I just stumbled across what looks like a very useful way of browsing/searching Apple’s AppStore from your desktop.

Enjoy!

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131558

FTA:

“I’ve written dozens of books and hundreds or thousands of articles, columns and blogs about PCs and Windows. Along the way, I’ve earned the unending enmity of plenty of Mac folks.”

This guy absolutely reviled everything about Apple and OSX, until he actually tried using it. At which point he concluded:

“Overall, though, Mac OS X beats Windows. There, I’ve said it. And lightning hasn’t struck me yet.”

Talk about eating your words!

His previous article two weeks ago entitled Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X was (unsurprisingly) made without ever having used OSX. Funny that, I find many people who have never even used the OS telling me how terrible it is. I really hope 7 doesn’t let you down!

According to aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 4 billion page-views per month across more than 3 million websites, Firefox 3 has surpassed Internet Explorer 7‘s European browser market share.

For the first time ever, Firefox pulled ahead by just over half a point, registering 35.05% to IE7′s 34.54% with Internet Explorer 6 lagging way behind in third place at 11.92%.

While Internet Explorer as a browser on the whole (across all its versions) is still more popular than Firefox, these statistics show that the gap is narrowing quite dramatically. In Europe at least.

This can be compared to North America where IE7 still has roughly twice as many users as Firefox 3. (Let’s not talk about Asia, where IE6 still is king.)

“The move is partly explained by a small switch from IE 7.0 usage to IE 8.0 but also by growing market share overall by Firefox 3.0,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder StatCounter. “The data shows that Firefox is closing the gap and is now just 10% behind all IE versions in Europe.”

This could mean that European web consumers are becoming more web savvy, care more about security and speed and have simply opted to use a superior web browser. The knock on effect of this is much better support for web standards on the whole, making our lives as web developers much easier. It also means less pressure to support hideously out-dated browsers such as Internet Explorer 6.

Today has seen a fairly major hardware refresh from Apple, including upgraded Mac mini’s, Mac Pro’s and iMacs.

It’s a well known fact that I’m well entrenched in the Apple camp, and as such I get infuriated at the plethora of unfounded arguments levied at Apple and their systems. One of the most popular of which, is the notion of an ‘Apple Tax’, upon which Apple apparently levies it’s customers for the mere privileged of allowing them to don the fabled Apple insignia.

So in light of today’s update, I thought I’d do a quick comparison of the iMac 24 vs the Dell XPS One 24, Dell’s rival machine.

XPS One 24

1. 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Quad-Core (More recent CPU, but Windows applications barely know what to do with 4 cores)
2. 2GB 800MHz Memory (Slower memory, and half as much)
3. 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (Older video card in this class)
4. 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (Half the size)
5. Slot Load Blu Ray Rom and 16x DVD+/-RW (bonus but I would never use)
6. Analog/Digital TV Tuner and Remote Control (bonus but I would never use)

Total cost: £1,799.00

iMac 24-inch

1. 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Technically not as good for apps written for quad core architecture, but a much fast clock speed)
2. 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 (Faster memory, and twice as much)
3. 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 130  (Latest video card in this class)
4. 1.0TB Serial ATA Drive  (Twice the size)

Total cost: £1,799.00

For exactly the same cash, an iMac gives you a CPU with a faster clock speed (quad core is meaningless without applications that can make use of the architecture), twice as much and much higher spec speed RAM (DDR3 vs DDR2), a better and more recent video card and double the storage capacity (500Gb’s to 1Tb). It is true that you lose the Blu Ray and TV tuner, but big deal. I watch films on the sofa in front of an even bigger screen, not at my desk, and the BBC iPlayer keeps me entertained on the TV side of things.

Ignoring the fact that the iMac 24 is, in my opinion, a much nicer looking piece of kit than the Dell XPS One 24, or that it runs a substationally better and faster operating system and instead rationally comparing the specs, for me, it’s really a no brainer, but for die hard Microsoft zealot’s I’m sure I’ll be seen to be a brainwashed, evangelicalised member of some weird cultish religion.

The conclusion? Swallow your pride and buy a Mac!

Since the introduction of Flash video (flv) in 2002, Flash Player has become the most widely installed Internet video client, running on over 96% of all Internet-connected PCs. The ubiquity of Flash Player ensures that most visitors can view Flash video without downloading additional plug-ins, so you can reach more people with lower development, testing, and support costs.

Flash video can be delivered either via a streaming server, which allows for on-demand/live video, or via the more commonly used progressive download method. Progressively downloaded videos do not start until a proportion of the video has downloaded to the client, ensuring a smooth un-interupted video experience.

While this is fine and dandy, what happens when you want the entire video to download before it begins to play, or if you have several bandwidth intensive videos as is the case of our own “Meet the Team” page. In either case, preloading flv’s is not a documented feature, and it must therefore be simulated.

What follows is one method you can use to simulate preloading Flash video files, including a progress bar and percentage label.

/**
* Preloading FLVs with progressbar
*
* Actionscript developed by Bloom Media Ltd. | www.bloommedia.co.uk
* Contributors: Dominic Kelly
*/

// open a net connection
var nc:NetConnection = new NetConnection();
// null connection for progressive download
nc.connect(null);

// create a stream
myNetStream = new NetStream(nc);
myVideo.attachVideo(myNetStream);
// load video
myNetStream.play("dom-kelly.flv");
// pause video to hide it from the stage
myNetStream.pause();

// hide load progress
percentage._visible = false;
percentage._visible = false;

// resize video onload, based on meta data
myNetStream.onMetaData = function(obj)
{
	myVideo._height = obj.height;
	myVideo._width = obj.width;
	// show load progress
	percentage._visible = true;
	percentage._visible = true;
};

// listen for the 'Stop' status event, and restart the video to loop it
myNetStream.onStatus = function(info)
{
	if (info.code == "NetStream.Play.Stop")
	{
		this.seek(0);
	}
};

// create a preload interval to check load progress every 1 millisecond
myInterval = setInterval(checkBytesLoaded, 1, myNetStream);

// preload loop progress
function checkBytesLoaded(mns)
{
	// calculate percentage of video that has downloaded
	pctLoaded = Math.round(mns.bytesLoaded / mns.bytesTotal * 100);

	// update textfield on the stage
	percentage.text = pctLoaded + "%";

	// update progress bar on the stage
	progressBar._xscale = pctLoaded;

	if (pctLoaded >= 100)	{
		// the video has fully downloaded
		_root.percentage.text = "loaded";
		// play video from the beginning
		mns.seek(0);
		mns.play("dom-kelly.flv");
		// clear interval
		clearInterval(myInterval);
	}
}

And there you have it, a simple and effective flv preloader.

View the demo or download the source code.