Flash on the Beach is a fantastic conference in Brighton at the end of September, and it’s one of the best Flash and design conferences to check out.

Registration is now open, so if you’re looking for an excuse to head to the UK, this is it.

Also, next week is Google I/O (Flight of the Conchords are playing a show there!), which I believe still has a few tickets available, and just next month I’ll be heading off to Flashbelt in Minneapolis, so come say ‘Hi’ if you see me wandering around either of these events.

I’m very happy to announce that I recently accepted a job working at Google (specifically on YouTube). We’re moving out on May 1st, and don’t know too many people out there, so if you’re in the area and want to get some beers, let me know!

New York is a fantastic city, and I’m a a bit sad to leave it (and Schematic), but at the same time am at least equally excited about the new job.

Primary responsibilities are (about 50% of your time):

• Building Flash websites (using AS 1 and 2) that load data in dynamically (usually from XML files).
• Authoring valid and semantic XHTML and styling it with CSS, using Javascript (AJAX and DOM) to enhance those Flash and XHTML websites. Familiarity with FlashObject and sIFR is a plus.
• Cross browser compatibility is very important, so being able to work around all of IE’s quirks and Safari’s shortcomings is a required.
• Having a good eye for design and good usability practices is a must.
• Managing production artists and designers and being the technical lead on multiple projects at once.

Secondary responsibilities (about 30% of your time):

• Building or modifying the back end for those websites using server side technologies like PHP, Java, ASP.NET, Ruby (on rails), MySQL, XML and XSLT.
• Administering production and development web servers and e-mail (familiarity with Plesk is a big plus), including using Mailman to manage mailing lists.

Other responsibilities (about 15% of your time):

• Assisting the principals in maintaining a small network of OSX workstations and a couple OSX file/web servers and a couple of Windows PCs.

And last (about 5%):

• Playing Pong, Halo, Quake 3, and flying RC Helicopters in the conference room.

To apply, please send your resume in PDF or plain text format, along with a link to your online portfolio (or examples of your work) to jobs@choppingblock.com.

UPDATE (9-29-05): The spot has been filled, but if you are looking for work it wouldn’t hurt to send your info over to them in case they need more people!

It even includes a nice class photo! (I’m the one in the middle playing the PSP).

Here are links to the projects we showed or talked about:

• Winged Migration
• Badasssss
• iVillage
• Fog of War
• CosmoGirl
• National Sleep Foundation
• Adobe CS2 Web Photo Galleries (source files)
• FlashObject

And if you couldn’t make it, Brandie posted some pictures.

UPDATE: Here’s the presentation in PDF format. (44MB)

Here’s a screenshot of the new player:

This new version should be much more accessible and easier to use, and also takes up fewer system resources, so people who want to tune in a channel and leave it playing in the background while they work should be happier.

This was an excellent project to work on – while I’ve done quite a bit of DHTML/Javascript work in the past, I’ve never used it as a base for an entire application. This was also the first time I used xmlHttpRequest, but I found that applying my Flash knowledge to the AJAX model worked out great – the only tricky part was figuring out a few browser inconsistencies and working around those.

If you want to check it out, you can sign up for a free 3 day trial.

It was a very… ehm… colorful project to work on :). As mentioned in my other post, the site is XHTML 1.0 transitional with CSS used for layout, with a little Flash content peppered in there for some extra flavor. More and more of the sites we are working on these days entail an XHTML/CSS layout and then a few Flash movies embedded around in various locations to spice things up a bit, and I have to say it’s working out great. I really think a lot more designers will go in the direction of hybrid sites rather than the old full Flash site or straight HTML in the coming year.

Another thing to note is the validation problem. It seems that most of the problems (if not all) stem from a few sloppy Javascript embeds and unencoded ampersands that were added in by the iVillage development team. Unfortunately with the way the site was developed – doing the design and template coding first, then integrating those files with the content management system – and without someone on the development side constantly cracking the validation whip, I suppose these things are bound to happen.

Anyway, enjoy the site: www.ivillage.com.

Of special note is the fact that this is the first large scale (high traffic) site that is using my FlashObject embed method. The site has been up for a few weeks so far without a hitch. Unfortunately they seem to have changed the HTML around from what we gave them (it was valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional). Oh well, can’t have everything.

Anyway, the site turned out pretty nice, so go check it out.

This was one of the first projects I worked on when I moved to New York. We decided on a CSS layout using XHTML 1.0 transitional (sent as text/html), with some Flash peppered around. Right now only the entertainment section is using the new design, with the other sections to follow as their internal team takes our template and adapts the content in the other sections. Unfortunately the site doesn’t validate because of one little error(!) that I’ll be passing along to their internal team along with a few small visual errors to fix.

It uses a similar method to the suckerfish dropdowns for the flyout menus on the left navigation, and some basic CSS rollovers for the main navigaion tabs at the top.

I would have liked to use my FlashObject embed for the Flash content, but this was handed over to their internal team way before I had even thought it up, so it uses generic Javascript to detect and embed the Flash movies.

UPDATE (12-22-2004): Looks like the one validation error was in some content that has now rotated off of the homepage, so now it validates!

UPDATE (01-31-2005): The whole site went live this week.

So after finally finding a workaround, we realized very quickly that it was also a fix for the Firefox/Safari issues we were having.

So, starting today, you can listen to XM Radio Online using Firefox or Safari on your mac. Go sign up for the free 3 day trial and check it out.

DESIGN TECHNOLOGIST
We’re looking for a crack developer with unmatched flash abilities. Successful candidate should end the match in one round based upon his/her XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Actionscript, dynamic Flash experience skills.

DESIGNER
We’re loooking for a designer with fancy foot work and the strong graphic design muscles. Must be able to command the fight from round one right through to the knockout (no tko’s).

PROJECT MANAGER
We’re looking for a manager who is not afraid of stepping into the ring and landing a few solid punches. Must be able to inspire other fighters to go the extra round and not afraid to sometimes help put in that plastic mouthpiece.

WEB PROGRAMMER
We’re looking for the kind of person that it is impossible to make boxing analogies for… Bust out the nerd glasses, we’re looking for programmers. Database architecture, Back end scripting capabilities (PHP, ASP, Java, XML, XSLT), experience with website CMS systems and dynamic Flash integration a plus.

So if you are in New York City, send your info here: jobs@choppingblock.com

Two shirts to start it out, and there will be other cool things coming down the pipe in a bit. More t-shirts and possibly some action figure type things.