At Best Served Cold we’ve been working on a lot of our own projects for a while – the “101 best” sites are always growing and our latest venture has come about because of that: We realised that with the introduction of all these app stores for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android there’s suddenly a massive need for mobile and social application developers and so we built Apps Jobs.

From the site:

Do you need a developer to build an application for you? Apps Jobs is part of the 101 group of websites which get over 1 million page views a month and 300,000 visitors! With that kind of interest, you’ll know that your advert is getting to the right people.

One of the first places that developers are going to go to when they’ve finished their current iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry or twitter application is somewhere they can showcase it, and then on to find a new job, all on the same page!

By running Apps Jobs as part of the 101 sites we’re able to use the momentum of all the visitors we get to those sites to push the popularity of Apps Jobs. We currently receive over 500,000 pageviews every month across our 101 portfolio! So, if you’re trying to find a high quality mobile application developer for your new iPhone or Android app or if you’re a developer who can programme Blackberry or Facebook applications and you’re looking for a job, check out the site!

Mobile Application Developer Jobs

Post your Apps Job

We’re very happy to announce that CK Clinical has been entered as a finalist of the National Online Recruitment Awards (NORA) 2010. We have worked with CK Clinical closely over the last few years and we’re very pleased that our hard work has paid off. The nomination also shows the amount of time and effort that CK Clinical have given to adding high quality content and regular news updates to the website.

The awards take place on the 4th November and we’ll be cheering on CK Clinical and hoping for the best.

From CK:

CK Clinical is pleased to have been shortlisted for the Best Newcomer in Online Recruitment Award. It really is a great recognition of all hard work and passion that has been invested into ensuring the CK Clinical website is the best that it can be.

This year, a massive 28,000 nominations were made for 592 separate recruitment websites. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those who took the time to nominate the CK Clinical website, it is greatly appreciated.

Speaking of the Finalists, Founder of the NORAs, Stephen O’Donnell said, “We are proud to announce the most diverse shortlist of Finalists in the history of the NORAs. The standard this year, particular amongst UK employers, has greatly impressed, and shows a marked advancement in progressive and sophisticated recruitment methods via the Internet.”

Find out more about the NORAs 2010

CK Clinical – Clinical and Pharmaceutical Jobs in the UK

Even though WordPress is very popular and, to fairly technical minded people, easy to use there is still a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of all the features. Now, I’m not talking about designing and building new WordPress themes or plugins – I mean blogging, writing pages, uploading images and making sure the content works.

A lot of people would be reading that and shaking their head: “WordPress is SO easy! How can anyone not understand how it works?”. But to somebody not used to any kind of computer software, let alone a content management system (CMS), it can be pretty daunting.

Over the last few years we’ve worked with a number of clients who have all wanted a CMS on their site, they don’t like the idea of paying us more money just to copy and paste text into their site – which is fair enough, it’s not something we really want to be doing either! When we’ve looked at all the various CMS available, something has stood out – if you design the theme correctly, WordPress is by far the easiest for most people to pick up straight away. Expression Engine is very good as is Drupal and Joomla but they always feel a bit over complicated.

But, even with something as simple as WordPress, we still need to train people how to use the features to best show off their site, keep the site search engine optimised and make sure the blog or news is regularly updated.

We’ve always found a simple face-to-face training session has worked best. It’s all very well showing YouTube videos to people or forcing them to read long winded PDFs but it’s just not the same as being in the same room and teaching them to work it on their own computer.

For starters we concentrate on what is WordPress and the difference between Posts and Pages. And from there we move straight onto adding content. After 30 minutes even the least technically minded people can write a new post, add and image and link off to another website. It might sound pretty basic but there’s a lot of people who wouldn’t know where to start otherwise.

If you’re using WordPress for more than just a blog, or planning a new website, it can very soon become a very large and difficult to understand piece of software. All those pages, categories, posts and tags can become quite overwhelming. If you need help with your WordPress site – we can probably help! We have designed and built bespoke themes, edited plugins and helped train users of several of our sites to make the most out of the WordPress cms.

Please contact us for more details

Nylon Films has recently produced a new video trailer for a graphic novel “The Concrete Jungle Book”.

Using a variety of techniques, london based Nylon Films has created a video that brings to life the strange, compelling reality of the new graphic novel, The Concrete Jungle Book.

Original artwork from the book was animated and blended with newly shot video and stills of urban landscapes and scrapbook making. Live animal archive was rotoscoped, then transformed with the software program ToonIt before being added to the video mix and choreographed to a hard-driving, original music track.

It’s made us look twice as we drive past billboards and office towers — is that a leopard leaping out at us…or a bear on its hind legs. As the video says, the city is, after all “just the jungle in disguise.”

Nylon films helps clients tell their unique stories through film, video, stills photography and other multimedia formats. Whether it’s corporate films or documentary films, training videos or music videos, viral ads or internet ads – we think the end product should always make for compelling viewing.

View the Nylon Films website

After spotting a few 25 year anniversay DVDs for great films I suddenly realised that not only am I getting old but also the greatest three years for movies ever was 1984, 1985 and 1986. I don’t think it’s just a case of misty eyed, childhood memories either. There’s a few films from that time that I didn’t get to see until much later.

I suppose a list of films to prove my point is needed:

1984

• Ghostbusters
• The Terminator
• This Is Spinal Tap

1985

• Back To The Future
• The Goonies
• Brazil

1986

• Aliens
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Crocodile Dundee

These are just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t think there’s been a greater contribution to modern movie pop culture that the films released in those three years. 25 years later we’re still seeing adverts based on the Ghostbusters theme, t-shirts with Save Ferris on and everyone still wants a DeLorean.

So, what else made those years so great? It was the high point for the ex-Saturday Night Live team of Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase. Arguably the greatest films starring these comedians were released in those three years:

• Ghostbusters
• Spies Like Us
• ¡Three Amigos!
• Fletch
• National Lampoon’s European Vacation

These three years brought the world the Police Academy movies, which is a good thing! And also the first installment of the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy – without which Eddie Murphy might only be remembered for The Golden Child (also released in 1986).

In 1984 the world got the first big glimpse of Tom Hanks in Splash, if only Big had been made two years earlier it would have been added to this list as the best Hanks movie to date. The Karate Kid was released in 1984 – can the new version compete? Also in this year we got to see Romancing The Stone, Gremlins and The Killing Fields.

1985 is the big year for epic movies: The Color Purple and Out Of Africa were both released this year. But what strikes me most is all the films that people still love today:

• The Breakfast Club
• The Sure Thing
• Teen Wolf
• Weird Science

To be honest, things drop off a bit by 1986 but there are still some unexpected classics popping up: The Fly, The Name Of The Rose, Platoon, Top Gun. Not forgetting possibly the most important film release of the year (to my 10 yr old self) Tranformers: The Movie, starring Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, and Orson Welles!

So, I might have missed out a few of the more “important” movies of the time: The Muppets Take Manhattan, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Flight of the Navigator, Short Circuit etc. But I think I’ve proved that there’s never been a better three years of movies.

Pressitt the Social Media News Release service is searching for a talented web developer to learn the Pressitt system and help develop the platform further.

If the first project goes well there is plenty more updates/concepts/user feedback to be integrated into the current platform.

The Role: freelance/short term

To develop and improve Pressitt.com on a freelance basis or short term contract, as and when required.

Working closely with our lead developer and front end coder, you’ll be responsible for coding various parts of the site, including bespoke and custom newsrooms from basic php functions within Code Igniter down to in-depth classes.

Built on Codeigniter, Pressitt is a fully featured site with combined client-side and server-side technologies allowing users to create rich and detailed news releases.

Required Skills

• Object Orientated Programming
• Model View Controller/Frameworks
• Linux Systems Administration
• Content Management Systems
• Social Networking (Web)
• Internet usability
• Accessibility (Web)
• Front end coding and javascript

Required Products

• Codeigniter
• PHP
• MySQL
• jQuery
• XHTML/HTML
• CSS
• LAMP
• WordPress (not essential)
• Zend Eclipse (not essential)

So, if you can deliver on the above, live preferably near London/the South East, are hard working and able to work to strict schedules, please get in touch via email at andy@pressitt.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

When you think of social networks there’s one that often gets overlooked: Linkedin is a business network that allows users to set up profiles, add pictures, talk to each other, link to like minded and similar business people and then network with them. So is Linkedin a social network like Facebook or MySpace? Yes, sort of. The main difference is the demographics and the fact that looking at Linkedin at work may be considered good but playing with Facebook isn’t something you want your boss to see!

At a very simple level you can think of Linkedin as “six degrees of seperation” for business people.

With over 50m users worldwide Linkedin isn’t as big as Facebook yet but the demographics of its users makes for quite interesting reading:

Average Age: 41
Household Income: $109,703
Male: 64%
Household Income $100k+ 53.5%
Own Smartphone/PDA: 34%
College Grad/Post Grad: 80.1%
Business Decision Maker: 49%
EVP/SVP/VP: 6.5%
24% Have a Portfolio Value of $250k+
Job Titles:

• C-Level Executives 7.8%
• EVP/SVP 6.5%
• Senior Management 16%
• Middle Management 18%

50% Are Business Decision Makers in Their Companies

Why should you be on Linkedin?

There are a lot of companies and business executives on Linkedin, it’s a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry and you can join groups to talk about your business interests and what might be affecting your current and future work plans.

If you’re a freelancer or contractor you can use Linkedin to promote your services. Spend a little time talking to people in your area of expertise they might want to hire you.

By using your profile and contacts wisely you can use Linkedin to find a new job and talk to prospective clients – wherever they are in the world. You can also find out about companies and talk to existing employees to check out what your next job might be like…

LinkedIn allows you to:

• Get online recommendations for your professional abilities and your character
• Get introductions to potential employers or colleagues in your field
• Search available job postings placed on the LinkedIn website by members. While you can also search the web for jobs through LinkedIn, the big benefit is that many job posts are exclusive to LinkedIn: They aren’t advertised elsewhere. Those postings often have a requirement that you have one or more LinkedIn recommendations. Additionally, there is a chance that someone within your LinkedIn network already works there or knows someone who does, giving you a big foot in the door for an interview.
• Join various groups that align with your interests and participate in discussions. Having a group in common with another LinkedIn user is one way you can invite others into your network. Each group discussion contains its own job listings.
• Create an online resume that can work for you all the time. LinkedIn allows hiring companies and recruiters to search for professionals who might fit their criteria.

We have a company profile on Linkedin: Best Served Cold on Linkedin

I love finding these odd little sites, it makes me remember that the internet is all about creativity and freedom of expression – not just business and shopping…

Dear blank, please blank

Two of my favourites:

Dear Twilight Fans,
Thank you for making us look sane and well-adjusted.
Sincerely, Trekkies

Dear Great Tasting Foods,
Please stop being so fattening!
Sincerely, Everyone

On tonight’s IT Crowd, Moss uses a word in countdown:

Tnetennba

Used in context:

“Good morning, that’s a nice Tnetennba”

After some research, it appears that it’s not actually a word at all!  Been looking all week and can’t find a real reference to it other than what people have made up.

According to one source, it could mean:

Tnetennba – [tuh.net.un.bar]
- noun

A word whose function is purely to attract traffic to a website; a gratuitously used keyword whose presence is aimed at attracting the search engines attention and improving the website’s placement in search results.

But we’re not convinced…

It’s certainly nowhere to be found in the dictionary, but there is a facebook page already in place to try to get it there!  I think if it’s officially printed a whole bunch of times then it can officially become a word so there’s hope yet!

If anyone has any more info, post some comments and we can find the true meaning of Tnetennba!

Click here to view the clip on Channel 4

Now that we’ve all got used to Facebook and Twitter and businesses are starting to realise the potential of social networking and talking to new customers directly there’s a new social revolution just about to hit the mainstream: Geo-location social networking.

This new form of networking has been made possible with the increase in GPS enabled smart phones and faster mobile connection speeds. We can now pin point our position on earth to within a few metres with our phones and we can use that technology to find interesting events, shops, restaurants and places of interest nearby. The geo-location social networks aim to take that a stage further by connecting people who are in the same area and allowing friends to connect to each other via maps.

So, imagine you’re on a night out in London, you’re meeting a few friends but don’t really know the best places to go – simply log into your phone and check the map. You’ll see where you are, recommended restaurants and pubs and even how far away your friends are. If one of the local bars has a special offer on you’ll get an update so you can get a few cheap drinks… while you’re at the bar a message pops up that a restaurant round the corner is offering free starters if you get there in the next 30 minutes. All of this can be worked through your phone and local businesses can connect directly to potential customers.

There are four main location based networks vying to get users and businesses signed up at the moment: Foursquare, Brightkite, Gowalla and Loopt. They have all had a lot of funding and offer similar features but each one has a slightly different focus. And don’t forget that with this much potential revenue and traffic the big guns are also going to be competing in this arena soon enough – Facebook, Google and Twitter all have location based services starting, in the pipeline or already working.

Foursquare

“Foursquare is a mobile application that is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. Foursquare lets you “check in” to a place when you’re there, tell friends where you are, and track the history of where you’ve been–and who you’ve been there with. Foursquare challenges you to explore your city in new and fun ways by earning points, winning mayorships, and unlocking badges and specials for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.”

foursquare

Gowalla

“Gowalla.com is a web site and, more importantly, an iPhone application that allows you to check in with your social network from where ever you are. When you use your phone, Gowalla locates you through GPS, then allows you to check in at the location, share a message about where you are and why you’re there and pick up virtual items.”

Gowalla

brightkite

“Brightkite is the simple way to keep up with friends and places. It lets you see where all your friends are, so you can spend more time with them. You can also discover places in your neighborhood and meet other locals along the way.”

brightkite

Loopt

“Loopt is a mobile social-mapping service that lets you use the location of your phone to discover the world around you.”

Loopt

If you’re interested in finding out more about how you can use social networking and geo-location social networks for your business please contact us.