BrainFuel

We’ve just introduced a new benefits package at Tornado. Let us know what you think and if you’re in the Phoenix area, feel free to come by and challenge us!

What is it about clients that makes them think that Photoshop turns them into gods? We’re doing a catalog for a client and the request was “turn the water in the glasses into wine, please.”

If you don’t have a Health Savings Account, it’s a great way to save money (and avoid taxes) while saving for medical expenses (now or later in life). We have been working with a long time client on building this web site and it just launched on Friday. NEOS Healthcare has what most other health savings accounts don’t — a fully web based interface for managing your HSA.

Check out the sweet calculators we made (all in Flash, too). The Tax Benefits Calculator. The HSA Contribution Calculator.

Tornado Design is seeking a skilled Ruby on Rails/PHP developer that can join our team and assist us in day-to-day projects as well as our upcoming, web application!

Required Skills:

• Ruby on Rails
• Web application frontend design
• AJAX web browser client technologies, ie. Javascript, CSS, DOM+XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, Web Services.
• (Prototype and Scriptaculous and others)
• Languages (in order of importance): Ruby, PHP, ActionScript, C/C++
• PostgreSQL, MySQL
• Linux and Open Source development platforms

Desired Skills:

• Distributed/Clustered (web) application development
• Any experience or familiarity with other languages such as Javascript, Actionscript, CakePHP, SmartyPHP, C++, VB, or .NET
• Mad PC/XBOX/Wii gaming skills are a plus

This is a full time position in Phoenix. Inquire within.

I’ve been trying to make the Business Journal’s list of Top Web Design Companies for about 7 years now, and finally, we learn today that we’ve made it. We’re not too high on the list, but we made it and now we can begin moving up. Click the image for a larger version.

One of our clients is opening a new wellness sanctuary in Phoenix this weekend, and we did all of the Flash for their web site. Go and check it out at www.justbreathewellness.com.

Tornado did all of the Flash work and our client supplied the basic design for the site. Mega-kudos to Tom for all of the great Flash work. You wouldn’t believe some of the amazing stuff that goes on in the background of that site. There is a full blown content management system, action scripting that determines the thickness of photos that slide out, and then randomizes the distance between them, and which picture to show. We’ve also helped this client get set up with a blog, a forum, and email campaigns.

We’re in the middle of building a customer assessment form system for Just Breathe, which uses Flash and PHP and allows staff to record customers health status and see past assessments. It’s pretty cool.

Viddler has launched! Go check it out now and set up a profile. It’s a new video sharing web site with a lot of cool features. We played a part in making it happen, along with a great team spread around the world.

Andrew Smith is the lead designer on the project. I handled site planning and blueprinting. Robert Sandie and Donna DeMarco are the founders of Viddler, and organized the project (Pennsylvania), and Kasper Cecek and Lukasz Hankus did all of the Java and Flash development (Poland).

Major kudos to Andrew for his work on this project. From the design of the logo to the overall site design and front end CSS and markup, as well as a large portion of the ideas behind this project, Andrew really made it happen.

Highlights:

1. Upload lots of videos at once, and videos up to 500 MB in size
2. Tag your videos with timed tags, and link to that moment
3. Comment on a specific portion of the video
4. Share videos with everyone, or only with specific friends you select, or keep video private

The time tags is the coolest feature. You can hover over the little dots in the video timeline to see what people have said about your video. You can also share a video and send people a link to a specific moment in the video.

A few more screenshots:

The Dashboard which is your homepage once you have logged in successfully.

Your Videos panel lets you see how many times your videos have been viewed, and see whether they are public, private, or shared.

The Explore panel is visible to logged in and logged out visitors.

There you have it! It’s a great new video sharing site, with unique time tags. Be sure to add us as your friends. Our usernames are Chris, Thomas, Kent, and Andrew.

And here’s a test embed of a video:

Continue Reading (I will update this whenever I see a new review):

• Rev2.org: Viddler Puts Time Into Video Sharing
• StevenBao.com: Viddler: YouTube To The Extreme
• Mashable: Viddler and GlanceTV Launch – YouTube, What Have You Started?
• Inspirational Technology: Viddler launches
• Technically Speaking: Viddler
• Feasible Impossibilities: Viddler.com launches Public Beta – Free Flash Streaming Video Sharing Service

This is our office (a converted home). Check it out. You can tell it was a weekend (no cars in the back lot), and obviously summertime, because the back lot is so dry.

View on Live.com 3D Maps or see closeups of the studio.