So we just had a sneak peak of the NBC Olympics website by Perkins Miller a VP from NBC.

He gave a sneak peak of the new site for the olympics. Wow…..let me say that agian WOW. They are going to allow users to watch 2200 hours of Video on Demand. I think this is going to be a very important event to grow the worldwide user base of the Silverlight platform.

From the brief description there seems to be an number of  reasons to install Silverlight for the end user. It will be interesting to see the result of this event and  see how much it drives adoption.  It is a smart idea. Now be prepared for an immersive experience that is going to let you see more of the Olymics then has ever been possible.

This is also going to push the envelope for the next generation of video sites.

viva las vegas

Scott

Posted in ConceptShare ~ No Comments
Written by Scott

So we are sitting at the Mix 08 event at the keynote event listening to some of the cool stuff that is coming down the pipe.

They just announced the release of Explorer 8. Looks like there are some really cool things that they have added to it. the have made it alot easier for developers as well as work out some of those nasty nuances that existed in the the previous release.

I will post that link as soon as I have something to share.

I am still waiting for the wow moment of the keynote ….I guess I have watched to many apple announcements.

Looking forward to playing with this …..

Viva LasVegas

Scott

UPDATE: here is the link location for that http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx

Posted in ConceptShare ~ No Comments
Written by Scott

It is very rarely that I actually laugh at a commercial. But the “New Diamond Shreddies campaign is sheer brilliance. I have pitched ideas before to companies but I can only imagine the creative team heading into this one.  The manage to keep a very serious tone on all the commercials and it works. For those of you who are not familiar with Shreddies … they are a pretty common sight around Canadian breakfast tables. Up until this campaign they were square ….actually exactly the same …just turned a bit ….They have some great videos on the site of focus sessions ….. quiet funny.    Kudos to the creative team that came up with this.  I am not sure who it is … if you know please let me know.  CheersScott   �

Posted in ConceptShare ~ 17 Comments
Written by Scott

I am confident that once you try ConceptShare you are going to see that value that it brings to your project flow. You will see how you can go between design iterations faster, your communications are centralized in one accessible place and getting approvals has never been easier.  If you are with a company that needs to share visual ideas and gather feedback from a group you can benefit from ConceptShare. I am so sure of this that I offer you this challenge.  If you have been reading about ConceptShare, thinking that it might work for you here is what I propose.

Since I am so confident in the fact that ConceptShare will make a difference in your project that I am prepared to offer you a deal. You send me your ConceptShare Account name and I will upgrade your account to a business account.  You can experience how managing multiple projects is easy to do, How the customizing of your account creates an extension of your brand and  explore how allowing others in your company to create and mange projects only increases your effectiveness.

Your only promise to me is that you will give it an honest go for 1 month. Try it out with clients, suppliers and staff.

I will not charge you for that month. If after the month you really like the service you keep it and pay for it. If it doesn’t work for you at the moment, no harm, no foul.

I hope that you take me up on this offer and see ConceptShare can work for you.

Please send your ConceptShare account name to:

iwant2upgrade (at) conceptshare (dot) com.

Cheers

Scott “I george forman guarantee it” Brooks

Posted in ConceptShare ~ No Comments
Written by Scott

So once again we have been nominated for the Webware 100 awards. I know we can hardly contain our excitement. I was going to put out a press release but really …is it news?  I figured that a simple post on the blog would be more then enough to let you know that we are nominated.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE !!!!!!!

So what does this really mean? Well I guess in our case it means that someone out there has nominated us. So for that I thank you. Does it mean that we will win? Well considering that we are in the category along with Basecamp, Google Docs and Google Calender ….well I don’t think we have a hope in hell of winning.

But that sort of attitude never won anything for anyone. So we have what you could call hope.  So please share in our hope and vote us up. Actually take this link and share it around the world. Send it to your grandmother and her bridge partners, call aunt Suzy and thank them for the christmas gifts and give them something in return …a link to click on.  I guess if we really reach out we can win.

Thanks again for making us one of the finalists. We are only here today because of your support.

Cheers,

Scott

Posted in ConceptShare ~ No Comments
Written by Scott

Corel released CorelDRAW X4 today, with over 50 new features for designers. We’re happy to say that CorelDRAWConceptShare integration is one of them, we even got a mention in the promo video about CorelDRAW X4. I guess that says both companies are pretty excited about bringing web based collaboration right into desktop software.

We’ll have more news soon about how the integration works. If you just can’t wait to see for yourself, take a spin with a 15 day full featured free trial of CorelDRAW X4.

We’re super proud of our partners at Corel for launching CorelDRAW X4. Having worked in the desktop software world myself at Flock, I know how many months of hard work that goes into each release. We web companies have it easy by comparison.

Posted in ConceptShare, Design , Technology, Tools ~ 3 Comments
Written by Admin

There are two features that I have always yearned for in SQL Server: quick and easy paging, and string concatenation to be used as an aggregate function. For the life of me I could never figure out why these features never made it into SQL Server versions. I’ve been using SQL Server since version 7 and with each new version I was hoping it would be available in the subsequent release.

To this date there still is not function to aggregate a string when using a group by clause and no “easy” way to page. There are workarounds available but none that are as straight forward as MySQL’s LIMIT clause. As for string concatenation with SQL Server 2005, we can create custom aggregates so we can finally roll our own. I created a quick class (StringConcat.cs) you can embed in a DLL and load it into SQL Server’s CLR. To use the aggregate in SQL Server, you’ll need to load it and assign it first. Here is a good article quickly explaining how to create and deploy aggregates.

Posted in Development ~ No Comments
Written by Matt Richer

I was added to someones ConceptShare workspace recently to consultant on some designs. I was one of the first few people in the workspace and was able to make a few, what i hope were useful comments. The admin later added 12 and it was amazing to see how quick the pace change as there were 4 people in the space at once then 8 and basically we came up with so many ideas and decisions were made in under 5 minutes. Comments and replies were flying. Debates were happening. People were really engaged. It still amazes me how much time was saved vs sending those designs via email alone. As they others joined they also had great feedback and the momentum continued while I worked on other things.

It reminded me of a basic principle of this type of collaboration. If you have 2 or 3 people I think it does work effectively but can take longer, the more people added seems to increase the pace and frequency of the conversation. Everything happens fast and then its over and then back to Photoshop to redo and then do it all over again. Adding more people gives you better feedback faster almost everytime. That is why we put NO LIMITS on the number of people you can invite. So if you are redesigning your corporate business cards why not bring in the front line workers, assitant, interns, clients and see what they think.

Posted in ConceptShare, Design ~ No Comments
Written by Bernie

One of the most interesting design posts I’ve read in a good while was about how Apple design is inspired by 60’s Braun design. Apple’s Jonathan Ive has taken Dieter Rams‘ designs and updated them beautifully for everything from product to user interface design for Apple.

Braun T3 pocket radio and Apple iPod

Braun LE1 speaker and Apple iMac

What products have inspired you? I’ll never think the same way after seeing the the multitouch on the iPhone, and how it’s been adapted for the new Apple MacBook Air. Surely there must be more examples out there. Tell us what products have made you stop in your tracks and say “brilliant”.

Posted in Creativity, Design , Product Design ~ No Comments
Written by Admin

Adobe recently announced a big upgrade to their Flash Player. Here are just a few new additions in this version that will directly impact your use of ConceptShare:

• Better quality and faster performing image scaling
• Support for H.264 video, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codecs
• Multi-core support for faster rendering of many file formats including vectors, filters and video.

This new plugin is much faster then previous versions. ConceptShare runs twice as fast now with this new version, and we couldn’t be more excited about that. We recommend that all users upgrade their Flash plugin right away. Make sure you uninstall your existing plugin with the Adobe Flash uninstaller before you download and install the latest flash player..

Posted in ConceptShare, Technology ~ No Comments
Written by Chris D'Aoust