We wheeled up on last Thursday evening and entered into a real gamers electronic wet dream (dangerous, that). The club was kitted out with comfy sofas, a free bar, a DJ and MAHUSSIVE HD screens attached to shiny games consoles, free for anyone to mooch on over and play!

So in we trot, eyes glinting and super ready to be bamboozled by mind-bending challenges mixed with fancy graphics and some of the best games the goliath of Sony could throw at us.

But… while the staff at the event were great ambassadors for gaming, geeing you on with silly chat and mini-competitions, I’m afraid I felt these “unreleased games” would stay better being unreleased for a while.

Playing on the console they were unresponsive, unnatural and failed to make me care about the character. It’s odd; that companies with so much gaming heritage can miss out on a few simple pillars of game design.

While I don’t presume to understand the complexity of design of a PS3 game, it just felt there were a few playful basics missing:

RESPONSIVE CONTROLS

Players don’t want to feel cheated by their character when controls repeatedly don’t react naturally. Play Booty Juggler!

NARRATIVE

Games need to have a reason, we like ones with playful learning. To be honest though. we’ve all played enough First Person Shooters and puzzle games, they now need something better than ‘just shoot baddies’ to keep me playing. Play Artist Rooms!

GAMEPLAY FIRST

..fancy graphics later. Play Fire Kills!

The games we were playing were: FIFA12, GoldenEye, Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3.

So thanks Playstation, but I think I’ll be sticking to lots of other games for the time being.

Views expressed are entirely Dan’s, so there.

It’s called MongoDB (short for “huMONGOus”).

Did you know that the databases which most companies rely on today were designed to be stored and accessed on computers with only dinky sized memories? At around 4Kbits, these beasts had less power than your watch and were about the size of your mate’s car (or the other way round for you automotive-sans-chronometer types).

With MongoDB, they addressed what was wrong with the current system of database design and improved it, utilising a modern company’s access to computing power. Eg, HUGE Memory and multiple servers in MANY physical locations

Here’s the benefits,

Easy scalability
“Automatic sharding”, makes it easy to add another server your system. Just install and type this…

> db.runCommand( { addshard : “<serverhostname>[:<port>]” } );
{“ok” : 1 , “added” : …}

Rich query language
See how easy it is to write.

to write

db.scores.save({a: 99});

to query

db.scores.find();

High performance
No joins and embedding makes reads and writes fast

High availability
Replicated servers with automatic master failover. So if the main server blows up, pow, another one is “elected” to take over and the service continues

Training Day

We were lucky enough to get tickets to a specialist one-day training conference in shiny London to learn more about its progress. While learning, we heard from The Guardian (a national newspaper), the National Archives (the UK Government archive) and mngr.it (a tech start-up), all who are currently using mongoDb in their applications for both sideline and critical systems. Interestingly, two of them moved to mongoDb because their normal supplier, Oracle, was adding too many 0′s onto the end of their quotes!

Sounds cool, right? A new piece of software that should be able to handle Facebook sized databases, but available to everybody from SMEs through to multinationals corporations. That’s a lot of power!

Thought Den’s official line

So, will Thought Den be using MongoDB in their apps? Well, in time we’ll be trialling it on our own internal apps before moving it into production, but it looks very promising:

PROS
- Faster
- Easy to replicate/manage data across different global cloud data warehouses
- Auto-recovery from other cloud servers if main database fails
- Compatible with Amazon EC2 computing power
- Open Source
- Received lots of investment $$$ to secure its future
CONS
- Global Write lock, causes issues
- New technology
- Other new tech is available, like Google’s BigTable.

Monga-liciuos!

Source: besttechInfo.com

A rumour that spread like wildfire across the web a month ago has now metamorphosed into a big, exciting News butterfly. Facebook is on a journey to take on the might of Apple and Google in the mobile market, much like Leonidas and his 299 fellow under-dressed men.

Project Spartan, as it is known, is Facebook’s plan to develop their own new App Store; think iTunes but through Facebook. While not too much has been said yet (Spartans are men of action, not words) it is not too difficult to imagine what the project could lead to.

This will allow for e.g. making better use of some features like Facebook Credits for sales, in-app purchases and thus making more profit.  It is a clever battle-plan which the Financial Times and Playboy have already kicked off.

Apparently about 80 outside developers and companies (including Farmville and The Huffington Post) are contributing to the project, and we also know now that Apple is giving a certain level of support.

This effort from Facebook to bring a whole new experience to the iOS devices is something to celebrate. It would be nice to see this new platform being spread through other mobile devices, let’s say… Android OS for instance!
It may very well push developers and the rest of the industry to have more interest in HTML5 and CSS3 features, pushing forward new web standards.

source: Slashgear.com

The exciting news for our clients however is that it is a new contender in the app market with Facebook’s 750-million users behind the top brand.

Thought Den’s experience with the technology, HTML5 and Javascript will allow our clients pretty much instant entry to the service.

Now less talk about the naked men fighting please!

Check out our top list of improvements.

Improved Management Dashboard

It looks much more tablet-like

Security Improvements

This is Dan’s best part of the list, old technologies which can leave HUGE security holes are dropped to favour the new tech.

Dropping IE6 support!

Dropping PHP support!

Dropping MySQL 4!

Top Admin Bar

You’re able to get to what you want really quickly

Performance upgrades

Common pages have been tweaked to load faster

Default Theme has HTML5 support!

Times are a moving on, it’s time we allowed the <video> <audio> tag to make easy embedding of media. Plus more useful markup for Search engines

Not a bad list, better get on and start updating our blog then!

However, what’s interesting about this story is how the company were thought to be storing their detail in clear text like below.

Passwords in plain text

Storing details in plain text means that anyone who’s able to view the database has easy and plain access to the password. People like the staff, developers, marketing managers, database administrators and even hackers. Imagine how many times you use the same password for lots of different online accounts. That’s a pretty important piece of data for a company to not cover up.

So I felt compelled to write about the Thought Den method we use to store our users’ passwords in any bespoke modules of our online software.

Hashing of passwords
None of your passwords are ever kept in plain text. We immediately use a “one-way hashing algorithm” and a hidden keyword to hide your passwords when they’re saved. Or in English, we put it through a sausage masher and then save the result. Then anyone who views the data will never see your passwords in plain simple text, just a mashed view.

Passwords hashed

Nice right! And the beauty is, it can only go one way, so there’s no de-cyphering it backwards.

Next post. SQL injection attack… or in plain English, keeping your borders well checked against trojan horses.

Nick Clegg!

On Tuesday 26th April 2011, Nick Clegg came down to be involved in a discussion on the creative and digital industries in Bristol. Seems like we’re important or summink

After turning up… a little late (may have been something to do with the riots outside) he was answering questions focusing on “what’s involved with making Bristol a powerhouse comparable to places such as California, Silicon Valley”. Obviously no small task but the responses which focussed mostly around the government having ‘no money’ and ‘do it yourself pals’ were eloquently put across.

Nick Clegg speaking in Bristol

In the end the time seemed to rush away so very quickly and soon he was hastily escorted from the premises.

Next time, it’d be great to hear his thoughts on support for setting up businesses, new online privacy laws with Facebook, the digital rights bill or even if he’s got Angry Birds installed on his phone?

Either way, thanks for the visit, glad you wanted to talk! Who wouldn’t want to chat to this gormless looking pair…

Ben and Dan

Google Inside AdWords blog gives an example: “if someone types “flow” into Google.com, our algorithms predict that the user is searching for “flowers” (the predicted search) and therefore display both search results and ads for “flowers”. However, if that user then adds the letter “c” to the query, our algorithms may predict that the user is searching for “flowchart” and show the corresponding natural and paid results for flowchart.”

Screenshot of Google Instant in action

Interestingly, the results vary for every individual as it depends on your web history and location to offer up appropriate predictions.

From a BBC article Google estimates the typical user will take 9 seconds to enter a query and a further 15 seconds then looking through the results for answers. Google Instant Search is claimed to be able to cut between 2 and 5 seconds off a typical web search. They reckon that could be 11 hours saved globally every second.

All magical of course, however this is going to bring some serious changes to the future of SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of making your website or web page more visible in search results. It actively tries to push your site higher up the results list for potential visitors to find your site first.

Why is it affecting your SEO?

For instance “with Google Instant if you searched for ‘red striped socks’ you’ll whizz through results for ‘red’ and ‘red stripe’ first, but as these produce listings on the DVD rental company Redbox and Red Stripe beer, they’re unlikely to hit the term ‘red striped socks’.”

It is stated in a Telegraph article that Google’s main system for deciding relevant search results has not changed. So this means if you search for something in both static and instant Google, you will get exactly the same list of results. Google Instant just autocompletes your search query as you type, offering up results on-the-go related to your half-complete search.

It now appears you may need to capture the attention of the searcher earlier to create an SEO instant winner.

Further reading:

Mashable poll results – Google Instant Vs. Regular Google

The official Google blog has some interesting articles upon Instant Search if you are interested and want to read further. Take a look here and here.

Google is not the only search engine, even though it does control around 85% of the international search engine market. Please remember with SEO to remember the little people (Yahoo, Bing etc.)
(Stat from: netmarketshare.com

A nice link on an SEO’s point of view -
http://tupalo.com/en/blog/pass-through-impressions/

Back then, in the haze of Autumn we read-up on and whittled down a list of providers to choose from. Deciding strongly to not be swayed by the sexiest newest thang’ out there with ample blinding gizmos, BOGOFs to fill your boots with and then all backed with snazzy marketing.

And we picked the Rackspace Cloud Sites. Knowing them to be a solid provider, we were already using their services on the clever  Parashoot site and their offering is aimed directly at companies like ourselves.

Rackspace cloud sites logo

So 6 months down the line… what do we think now? Is the snazzy server still flying high or have we needed to clip it’s wings? Here’s out personal thoughts so far. Bad news first as always!

The Bad news: We’re thinking clippers because…
- Setting up FTP is a chore. An actual chore.

- No SSH. We can’t do nippy logins, scp our files to the server, no mass chmod’ing. But now there’s no chance to accidentally “recursively delete” a whole folder+contents in one swoop.

- After setting up a domain aliases like “thoughtden.com” to point at your “thoughtden.co.uk”. The .com won’t accept emails, unless you give in and just create a whole new site.

- Web access to PHPMyAdmin is trial and error! There’s about 50 different databases choices to log in to, and they’re labelled by number, not name…
Enter the username & password, select database number 1, click login. wait….. nope. Enter the username & password, select database number 2, click login, wait…. nope. Hmmm.

Good news: Flying high because….
- Blazingly quick to get started!

- Simple & clean interface THROUGH-OUT the site. Very easy to use & navigate. Very easy.

- Pretend FTP details to login into your site while you’re waiting for the DNS to point. Makes our development really easy.

- Support. It’s just like Rackspace’s Fanatical support. Always useful, always speedy.

- All our sites are running up to speed.

- Dan’s free T-shirt all the way from America for saying “hi” in a blog-post.

Dan looking a goon

Conclusion: Good far outweighs the Bad, it’s still Flying!

CBS News mail out

What’s interesting is not the dull blues and greys. It’s how focussed the mail is on selling direct links to their twitter & facebook pages. But not their main CBSNEWS site.

Can you see how the lady, katiecouric, is always mentioned with an @ symbol (for her twitter feed) & the most prominent logo you can see is the facebook icon.

There is no direct mention of the CBSNEWS site.

So are some bigger companies more interested in getting people connected through their Social media sites rather than their own site?

Something to ponder while Thought Den wrap up their next MySpace app for aMap and plan a  twitter game =)

So far I have been designing logos, web layouts and an iphone game, so lots of fun and varied projects for me to get my teeth stuck in to! See the subtlemob site – our latest creation, where I designed the layout with Ben’s guidance! Check the event out while you’re there.. it looks awesome!

I sit here in my room – (a place I am very proud of, my own little Thought Den.. ambient bubble of music and lighting, beneath drapes and walls carefully plastered with creative inspiration) – I think of how to sum up the past few weeks freelancing for Thought Den. My first paid job actually doing what I love to do… and what an amazing thing it is to do what you love every day and be guided by professionals who can teach you more at such a fast rate!! The highlights so far probably being white boards, creative brainstorming, jokes, drinks, paper throwing when ‘in the zone’, learning fast, and being a part of the thinking den!

Thanks guys for looking after me and being good to me! Lots of cupsa tea! I have loved my time here, experiencing a new creative environment and getting a taste for the Bristol life – the place I definitely want to move myself to and get lost in! As the hardest thing about my experience so far is probably the commute totaling in 5 hours a day… but no worries, as traveling around is a big part of my life I see it as an opportunity to brainstorm or catch up on some reading… power walking to music is also much fun, trying not to miss that train again! It has definitely all been worth it!!

Since graduating Uni, I have been through a whirlwind of adventures – traveling Thailand and Cambodia, and then hitting home to unleash myself into the creative world… it’s tough times for job hunting, with scarce opportunities and much competition about! However with some inspiration from Ben I have ventured into the world of freelancing… Something I originally felt slightly nervous about doing, however it’s proving exciting, varied and worthwhile! I am very grateful for the opportunities I have gained so far, and cannot wait for the next ones that may come my way. Any of you other graduates will know what i’m talking about i’m sure, but please don’t give up, patience, practice and keeping a hold of the dream! Put a big bottle of champagne on your desk and let it sit there and wait for you to guzzle when you finally get your dream job! It keeps you motivated! Any thoughts or advice from other graduates or creatives in the industry on your experiences or on current creative job hunting? Would be amazing to hear from you all!

Keep an eye out for our halloween pumpkins we will share with you soon! And hoping everyone is going to celebrate in style! I myself am going to be dancing the weekend away to some of my favourite artists on the Twisted Records labels….. the twisted madness awaits!

Happy Halloween! It’s been nice sharing some thoughts

- Hannah Ormsby