Ginger Lincoln: The First Movie

He was born because the old beard model no longer fit the newer face models, causing it to look like Lincoln's beard. Once we realised there was a ginger variation of the beard available, a red suit and top hat quickly followed. That's how things go in QA. Ginger Lincoln made regular appearances in daily test movies, accompanied by cries of, "It's Ginger Lincoln!". It was merely a matter of time before he made his cinematic debut.



A startling insight into the mind and mentality of your average QA tester.

A higher-resolution version is available here.

but can you walk the walk?

We've working on the geriatric shuffle of the characters. We're giving them zimmer frames! Only messing with you, we have curvy walks and faster ways to get into the walk cycles:



I also overheard someone in the office talking about lopsided alien walks other day (johnnie does a good impression of a lopsided alien btw). But I think that's a little way off.

What I still hate about Christmas

So, throughout the world, the Christmas tree has been put back in its box, the lights are packed away in the attic, and all evidence of the Winter Festivities are vanished. Except for one small corner of East Anglia, where, in a darkened, soundproof room, Christmas is still very much alive and kicking.

As if they hadn't had enough of Christmas already, our judging panel are now locked away poring over your entries for the "What I Hate About Christmas" competition. We're shovelling left-over mince pies through the letter-box into the judging room, making them wear silly hats out of crackers, piping Frosty the Snowman through concealed speakers in the walls, and we're not letting them out again until they choose a winner.

We'll let you know later this week if they manage to come to a unanimous decision.

how to get your feature requests noticed

Now listen up class, if you want to get your feature requests noticed, this is how to go about it (thanks to the amazing Dr Overman)

(web link)

The next (~2 weeks) code update included the request:


Seriously, this level of enthusiasm, together with ShortFuze's agile development cycle is an awesome ride to be on (even if it feels like living in a tumble drier). I'm a little afraid the release cycle will slow down as we aim for stability in a larger company, but I always hope to have a free-and-fast pioneers version.

context palettes

Moviestorm is a complex bit of software - we (I'm) constantly fighting requests to add more to the interface, to keep it as simple as possible for the n00b. One of the techniques for this is only showing users options when they are applicable.

So for example we hope to only show the "add doors" or "paint walls" options once users click on a wall that they've already created. The latest move in this direction is an experimental widget for moving marks around the set.



Most apps show this widget in 3D, but this has the disadvantage that the widget isn't under the mouse when the drag is finished, so continuing the drag isn't fluent. Putting it in 2D and making it appear on demand should be a cleaner solution, but as with most of UI design, we won't know if it's the right way until we see people using it.