Chimp Returns

[Nnnnsic]

Almost like Batman, Chimp has returned.

Send it to your friends, your family, your dog, your cat (who's too busy sleeping with your other cat), and anyone else you know:

Chimp

We're loading the page up with the old articles as well as new ones too. Reviews, previews, unboxings, interviews, educational bits, and we'll also be starting a ChimpCast that will be released every week too. That will be online this week, just not today.

The old magazines are now there for everyone to view without needing to register to download. Provided you've got Flash installed - which is pretty hard to not have these days - you'll be able to view the magazines from the past as well as the ones we've got planned.

That's right, Chimp is coming back in its digital magazine form.



Send me a private message if you have an article or story idea for this next issue that we're aiming for a December release of (because you need something to read when the in-laws are boring you over the holidays).

You may note that there is advertising on the Chimp page... well, we're looking at proper advertising for Chimp, but the ads currently on there are free. We're offering services that provide to photo, video, graphics, animation, sound, multimedia, and tech (computers included) free advertising at the moment as a way of testing our ad management system. Hopefully this means we can eventually make a full print edition of the Chimp magazine, as well as pay our writers... but we'll deal with that down the track.

For now, we'll just be asking for volunteer writers.

And any previous writers for Chimp wondering why your content isn't online yet, I'm still going through and adding the remaining articles. I also need biographies (little ones) for previous writers. Like this one.

[Killakoala]

Cool.

[Potoroo]

I hate Flash. It's a bandwidth hog and violates the Australiamn government's web accessibility guidelines.

[Frankenstein]

Just had a quick browse - it looks good. Well done Leigh

Frank

[gstark]

I hate Flash.

So do I. With a vengeance. Almost as much as I loathe karabloodyoke.

It's a bandwidth hog

Yep, it often is.

and violates the Australiamn government's web accessibility guidelines.

So, who pays any attention to what the government says about the internet? This would be same government that thinks that the introduction of internet filters is a good idea, right? And we all agree about just how practical that an idea that is, don't we?

And the typical concept of the failed marketing genii who think that using a three-day-long flash animation on the portal to their company's website, which is where one usually sees - and becomes pissed off with - flash is is where flash really doesn't work as well as those dweebs seem to believe.

But every tool has a purpose, and the bottom line is that there are some applications where flash actually does work. Bruno Bozetto's cartoons are one such area, and this is another one, where the use of flash seems to me to be measured, reasonable and appropriate.

And in the case of Issu, I would even venture to say elegant.

[Potoroo]

and violates the Australiamn government's web accessibility guidelines.

So, who pays any attention to what the government says about the internet? This would be same government that thinks that the introduction of internet filters is a good idea, right? And we all agree about just how practical that an idea that is, don't we?

The government's accessibility guidelines have been around for many years, are a bloody good idea and the kind of people who give a damn are people with disabilities like poor eyesight. The whole point of the Web was that the user could implement the markup language as they saw fit, meaning they could choose colours, font sizes and all the rest regardless of what the web designer wanted. Flash screws all that up and as far as I'm concerned it's mainly used by control freak wankers who think they are so cool that anyone who has a problem with the site doesn't deserve any consideration.

But every tool has a purpose, and the bottom line is that there are some applications where flash actually does work. Bruno Bozetto's cartoons are one such area, and this is another one, where the use of flash seems to me to be measured, reasonable and appropriate.

We'll see, but I'd like to know what Flash supposedly gives the user in this instance that PDF or DHTML doesn't.

[gstark]

The whole point of the Web was that the user could implement the markup language as they saw fit,

Er, no.

When the web started, there was no such thing as a markup language. They came quite a bit later.

Sorry.

We'll see, but I'd like to know what Flash supposedly gives the user in this instance that PDF or DHTML doesn't

While in one sense it's simply a different mode of delivery, there are other points to consider as well. I think you may find that that the newer format provides the authors with a better level of protection of their IP whilst delivering a very high quality outcome.

I think that is a very significant point to be considered.

[Potoroo]

The whole point of the Web was that the user could implement the markup language as they saw fit,

Er, no.

When the web started, there was no such thing as a markup language. They came quite a bit later.

Sorry.

Not so. Tim Berners-Lee developed the first version of HTML along with the first web browser as part of the WorldWideWeb project at CERN. You may be thinking of the universal line mode browser that was developed later.

We'll see, but I'd like to know what Flash supposedly gives the user in this instance that PDF or DHTML doesn't

While in one sense it's simply a different mode of delivery, there are other points to consider as well. I think you may find that that the newer format provides the authors with a better level of protection of their IP whilst delivering a very high quality outcome.

I think that is a very significant point to be considered.

Flash can be deconstructed just as a PDF document can.

[gstark]

The whole point of the Web was that the user could implement the markup language as they saw fit,

Er, no.

When the web started, there was no such thing as a markup language. They came quite a bit later.

Sorry.

Not so. Tim Berners-Lee developed the first version of HTML along with the first web browser as part of the WorldWideWeb project at CERN. You may be thinking of the universal line mode browser that was developed later.

Yes, so.

Before there could be browsers, there needed to be the Internet. CERN's work followed that of ARPANET, and at CERN the introduction of TCP/IP was, in about 1983 somewhat later than its original development at ARPANET in the mid 70's.

Please remember that the internet was developed as a means of permitting computers to communicate with one another. Anything else - everything else - follows from that original premise. And markup languages, which include, but are not restricted to, browsers, followed very much later.

And no, I'm not thinking of the universal mode line browser. That's just a text mode browser, and being a browser, it came along well and truly after the development of the web. Browsers and markup languages are merely a small pimple on the bum of the internet. And the web is way bigger than markup languages.

And I shall now declare any further discussion on this to be off topic.

You don't like flash; that is noted. Neither do I. Believe me, I don't.

But I can see that, in this instance, its use is warranted.

[PiroStitch]

Great work! Love the layout.

[Nnnnsic]

Previously, Chimp was open to being hacked, ripped open, and the images straight out stolen from the Acrobat files. At the time, we knew about it but didn't have anything to change it with.

At the moment, we have a solution: Issuu.

Issuu allows us to have an easy to view (and use) document platform that yes, does utilise Flash, but does it in a way that doesn't make you hate Flash. Further, being that it's contained within Issuu's system, the magazine issues can be distributed to more people than just those who read about it on Chimp or on DSLR Users. Adding to that, because it's part of their system in a way that looks heavily developed on Flex, it's not JUST a Flash file and is therefore a hell of a lot harder to open and crack.

Now you can sit there and argue that Flash is bad for people with eye problems & seeing disabilities, but given that Issue allows you to click to blow the entire magazine up, and then zoom in until your heart is well and truly content, I imagine you're just going on a for a bit without physically trying what we're using.

Oh, and that's just one section. We only use Flash in the magazine section.

[Marvin]

Yay, I am excited. Thanks for all of the work you have put in to Chimp. We have such an amazing wealth of knowledge here.

[leek]

Well done guys... glad to see Chimp back...

[surenj]

Nice to see that we are back doing some monkey business.

I quite like the site! Wealth of knowledge indeed.

[Steffen]

Nice to have a fresh new Chimp! Also, good to see how the concept has evolved. Congrats to all who have contributed!

Cheers
Steffen.

[colin_12]

Now your cooking.... Or is that chimping Leah?
Awsome to have this up.