by Tom on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
There are few things on the World Wide Web as ubiquitous as the animated GIF. We’ve all seen them demanding attention as they spin, flash, and bounce around our screens. If an animated GIF could write its autobiography, it would be a rags to riches tale of a quick ascent to fame and a crushing fall from favour.
Fortunately this story has a happy ending, because the humble GIF has made a comeback in the last few years and is more beloved now than ever before. keep reading →
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by Tom on Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Today is the day hundreds thousands of websites unite against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), two proposed US bills that threaten the integrity of the Web. To protest against censorship, participating sites will be blacking out their pages — either with special banners, or by blocking access completely.
Here are some of the most effective protests we’ve come across today. keep reading →
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by Tom on Thursday, December 15th, 2011
American Comedian Louis CK has been performing an experiment over the last few days, and the results are in.
The question was this: if you create a professionally produced video and distribute it on your own website with no copy restrictions at a much lower price than a DVD, BluRay, or even iTunes, would you turn a profit? After all, those dirty pirates live on the Web, and if you make it so easy for people to copy, surely most will just download it for free, right?
As it turns out, this is not right. In fact, Louis CK has managed to prove something technology pundits have been screaming for years — people are inherently honest and willing to pay for online content providing the price is right, and the process is convenient. keep reading →
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by Emily on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Muffin Break recently ran a competition to make a TV commercial to win $35,000 in cash & prizes. In the interests of product research, KOJO got together and made this little number…
Director: Roh Smith
DOP: Aaron Gully
Producer/Writer: Emily Green
Production Manager: Anna Bardsley-Jones
Camera Assistant: “Rags” Phillpot
2nd Camera: Kevin Russell
Editor: Marty Pepper
Composer and Sound Engineer: Justin Astbury
Art Director: Tony Cronin
Special thanks to Matt Arnold, Paul Sobolewski, Barbara Devlin, Paula Smith, Phil from Muffin Break and everyone else that contributed their time, skills and muffins.
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by Geoff on Monday, November 21st, 2011
With Siri hitting the office of my Apple enthusiast peers my attention was again thrown at Natural Language Processing (NLP). This article isn’t explaining how Siri in particular works, but instead how to make something close on a shoe string budget. I originally wrote this in December of 2010 for Procon 2, an unreleased remote console tool for administering Game Servers and sequel to Procon, that I continue to work on today as a hobby.
Read on for an explanation of how I solved the problem, or skip to the live demo.
keep reading →
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by Emily on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Where in the world is Carly Maple?
At the moment, you’ll find the KOJO Production Coordinator in the remote forest regions of Laos. Working on her fifth documentary project, “The Way of the Mahout” (working title), Carly is telling the story of the Asian elephant in this part of the world.
Laos was once known as “the land of a million elephants”, but today there are as few as 1500 including both wild and domesticated elephants. This year alone there were two registered elephant births in comparison to 13 deaths, and the species is suffering a rapid decline.
Baby Noy, one of so few elephants born every year
Most of Laos’ domesticated elephants are employed in the logging industry. While profitable for the mahouts (the elephant keepers), the elephants are worked very hard and are unable to breed. ElefantAsia, a french non-governmental organisation in Laos, is working with the mahouts to assist in breeding their elephants to use tourism as an alternative income to logging.
The aim of Carly’s documentary is to raise awareness on the issue and tell the story from the point of view of the mahout.
Mahout Peng
Carly’s previous work has been broadcast in over 50 countries via National Geographic TVI distribution, and she is confident this documentary will have the same success. Early financial supporters of this project include herself, Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation and the KOJO Creative Incubator with Kent Smith as Executive Producer.
KOJO cinematographer Aaron Gully will this week be on his way to the Laos jungle to begin filming the doco. As the first of three shoots, this is to compile an excerpt which can hopefully serve to attract a broadcaster.
Big thanks to the KOJO Creative Incubator project and Carly for driving this story that must be told.
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by Tom on Friday, November 4th, 2011
More details have emerged about Apple’s plans for their Apple Store app. If true, they could set the trend for an entirely new way to shop at brick and mortar retail stores.
For those who haven’t used it, the Apple Store app was released for the iPhone some time ago and allows users to order products on a mobile device and have them shipped to their door. The app was well done, but served mostly as an alternative to Apple’s website more than anything else.
In the upcoming update, according to Boy Genius Report, app users will have three new tricks up their sleeves when shopping in-store. The first two are nice, but the last one is pure genius:
- Customers can order and pay for a product within the app, then pick it up in-store within the hour.
- For products that are back-ordered or require engraving, customers will receive a push notification when their order is ready for pickup.
- While in an Apple Store, customers can scan an item on the shelf and pay for it on their phone, then simply walk out with the product.
This is likely to be US only initially, but it’s only a matter of time to hit our shores.
Of course, this isn’t the first time a retailers have used apps as a companion to physical stores. Coles and Woolworths have had apps out for some time now that allow their customers to browse items from their phone, and even locate which aisle they are in. And let’s not forget eBay, which serves as a secondary income stream for many shop owners.
It’s a smart retailer than can see the Web and mobile apps not as a threat, but rather an opportunity to enhance their customers’ shopping experience. Let’s hope more of them take Apple’s lead before the Christmas rush begins!
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by Tom on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Today Ars reports that Internet Explorer’s marketshare has reached a new low of 49.59% in October 2011. This is incredible considering Microsoft’s web browser owned 95% of the share as recently as 2004.
This is due in a large part to the rise of alternative browsers — Firefox, Chrome and Safari in particular — which have consistently leapfrogged IE in features and compliance with Web standards such as HTML5.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these findings is why the scales finally tipped under 50%. If you count only desktop operating systems IE still holds 52%, but once you account for the 6% of users who are on mobile operating systems the landscape starts to shift dramatically. In fact, IE holds only 0.16% of market share on mobile devices.
It’s sure to come as a blow to Microsoft’s ego, but you’d be hard pressed to find a Web developer who will sympathise after more than a decade of sub-par performance and a deplorable lack of standards compliance that has held the Web back from its full potential.
via Ars Technica
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by Steve on Thursday, October 27th, 2011
Geoff Green returns from DICE, Sweden. Geoff has spent two weeks with the developers of the latest in the Battlefield series, Battlefield 3, soon to be released by Electronic Arts.
The picture is with Geoff and Mikael Kalms in the reception of DICE’s office, literally as he was walking out the door on the final day.
A picture of Mikael working with the countdown to the initial release in Vietnam(?) at 69 hours. Leaving the office at about 10pm, Mikael left at about 3 am. Very dedicated and smart individual.
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by Emily on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
Today is the day KOJO supercharges its cool factor, as we welcome new Director/DOP Ben Dowie to our ranks.
Starting his career in filmmaking at KOJO back in the naughties, Ben went on to found his own production company, Beanpole Productions, in 2009. Getting by on just enough paid work to live, and filling in the gaps with his own side projects, Ben has crafted an impressive portfolio.
He’s young, fresh and oh so cool, and describes his style as “chocolatey, organic and honest, with fine attention to detail”.
With a well-followed YouTube channel and Vimeo site, Ben has racked up views in the millions. Armed with his 7D, iPhone 4s or anything else he can get his hands on, Ben captures the mood and emotion in the simplest, real life moments.
Ben’s body of work has attracted international attention; his longboard film ‘Slide’ drew work from LA-based skate company Loaded, and he’s also picked up work from food and beverage uber-company Lion, shooting and editing content for a host of their wine brands.
We can’t wait to see what else Ben can bring to the content realm; if it’s anything like his existing work, we’re in for a treat!
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Darren Grant
Hubert
Miko