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The Blog
July 03, 2008 @ 06:43 PM
Posted by Mohanad Alyajouri
Slicejar is an exciting/fun project that we started working on recently (early-beta now). And today, I want to share a quick and easy way to create a Slicejar-like heading banner with basic knowledge in Photoshop.
First, set the foreground color to #2D2823, then insert the “Banner 1” shape at any size you like but make sure to maintain the size proportions (hold the shift key). Rename this shape layer to “original”.
Now using the Marquee Tool, select one of the banner folded endings (I’ll go with the right one). Zoom in and use the arrow keys to pixel-move your selection and make sure you are only selecting the right part as shown below.
Once you have selected the right area, hit cmd+J (mac) or ctrl+J (pc) to create a new layer from that selection. Name that layer “right fold”. Use the Eraser tool to remove any unwanted parts if any.
Select the “right fold” layer, hit cmd+T (mac) or ctrl+T (pc) for free transform and rotate it by (-15) degrees.
Now that we have the “right fold” ready, let’s move to the flat middle part of the banner.
Select the “original” layer again. Use the Marquee Tool to select about the right quarter of the middle area of the banner as shown below. Again, make sure your selection is correct (specially from the right side) by zooming in and nudging the selection as required.
Once you have the right area selected, hit cmd+J (mac) or ctrl+J (pc) to create a new layer from that selection. Rename that layer “flat”. Then rotate it by (-15) degrees. The result so far should look like this:
Now… get the Single Column Marquee Tool and make a selection similar to the one shown in the screenshot below (right after the curving ends). Then click cmd+T (mac) or ctrl+T (pc) for free transform and drag to the left creating half the banner. Then use the Marquee Tool or the Eraser Tool to remove the unwanted part at the bottom.
At this point, we have half the banner shape done. So first, duplicate (cmd+J or ctrl+J) the “flat” layer, flip the duplicate horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal) and place it on the right position next to right half (as shown below) then select both halfs/layers and hit click cmd+E (mac) or ctrl+E (pc) to merge them into one layer (make sure it is still named “flat”)
After that, duplicate the “right fold” layer, flip it horizontally, rename it to “left fold” and place it on the right position as shown.
Now that we have the banner shape complete, select the “right fold”, “left fold” and “flat” and group them: cmd+G (mac) or ctrl+G (pc). Name the group “banner”. Then duplicate (right click > duplicate) the group and select the duplicate and click cmd+E or ctrl+E to flatten it.
Rename the flattened layer to “stripe” and move it (drag it) to be the bottom layer of the “banner” group. Now, we have the “stripe” layer exactly behind the 3 banner layer we made earlier. The layer structure should now look like this.
All we need to do now is to select the Move Tool and nudge “stripe” 5 pixels down using the arrow key. Now that we have all the shapes in place, what’s left is to give these shapes some styling.
Select the “right fold” layer and give it an Inner Shadow at 180 degrees Angle. Change the Distance to 7px and the Size to 10px (these numbers work well with size of banner I am working with, feel free to increase/decrease them to achieve a similar look on bigger/smaller banner sizes ).
Add the same Inner Shadow style to the “left fold” but change the Angle to zero. Then select the “stripe” layer and add a Drop Shadow style to it: change the Opacity to 50%, Distance to 2px and Size to 4px. After that add a Color Overlay style and change the color to #FFC717.
If you made it this far, then, congrats! you’re done :) now add your custom text and enjoy.
July 03, 2008 @ 12:56 PM
Posted by Michael Smith
In Episode #5 of The Spin Show, we interview Karim Arafat, co-founder of Tootcorp and CEO of watwet, a social networking and mini-blogging service based in Jordan.
Watwet is growing and looking to expand in the region.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get in touch about the podcast, just email us at spinshow AT spinbits.com.
June 25, 2008 @ 02:07 PM
Posted by Mohammed al-Safi
At SpinBits, our team has built and contributed to some of the most enviable web applications in the region. Even though we pride ourselves on our fun, relaxed and casual culture, we take our products and services very seriously. We aim to delivery real, hard value.
If we accept a website development project, we not only put thoughts on the technical implementation of the web application, but we also work with our clients as Web 2.0 business consultants. The end result that we invariably achieve is a solid and impressive interactive web application.
Our efforts with client projects help us contribute to making a better online experience for users in the Middle East as a whole. But we do not stop at that; we build our own web applications, too!
The business understanding and technical comprehension that our team possesses allow us to think up great and useful web applications that provide immediate value to the internet users in the Middle East. The applications we build respond to a direct market need.
We have built SliceJar, which is a comprehensive video publishing platform for publisher in the Middle East and it has garnered great reception from desperate video publishers who have been looking for such a solution. In addition to SliceJar, we are soon launching a very useful feature in restate.ae that will tackle the messy real estate market in Dubai and the UAE and help buyers and sellers connect instantly.
One thing that we do not overlook at SpinBits is the business behind our efforts. We realize that our financial stability is vital to the continuity of the value that we provide to society. That’s why our products have clear and easily workable business models.
We are confident that, as a leading web development company, our prosperity and growth can have a direct positive impact on the quality of the Middle Eastern internet industry. That’s why we are working hard to grow and we are already raising the bar for everyone else.
June 20, 2008 @ 12:00 AM
Posted by Fouad Masoud
For all my life I’ve cheered for Brazil’s soccer team! Why? Simply because they can play and they can deliver a great fair game.
What do i know?
Over the years I built an image for Brazil in my mind and at some point I thought I knew it all; I know that they have the best soccer team ever, I know they have soccer as part of there culture, I know they dance samba, I know they have great beaches, I know the flag, the language they speak, I also know that they are the biggest country in South America. Thinking about what i know now; I would say it’s just the kind of information that anyone would learn watching Discovery Channel or reading some online article; in other words, I only know the obvious.
Enlightenment!
Eduardo joined SpinBits two months ago as an intern, he is a Computer Science fresh graduate and he’s the cousin of Cloves, SpinBits’ co-founder.
Having Eduardo among us opened my eyes to a whole new side of Brazil. Though he can’t speak english very well, but he still had his impression and he managed to reflect who he is and what Brazilian people are all about by actions.
I wont go and pretend that I know it all about Brazil just because i met Eduardo, but I know a lot more now. I know for a fact that they are kind, humble, smart, and funny, honesty is part of who they are. They are joyful and positive and this isn't the kind of thing you learn through TV, it’s the kind of thing you get through human interaction.
No goodbyes for you Eduardo
He is leaving us and heading back to his homeland this Friday, still he won’t get any goodbyes from us, all he’ll be getting is “Till we meet again”. That’s why we all at SpinBits went out on a “Till we meet again” night for Eduardo.
We all wish you good luck with the RoR business you are planing to start in Brazil. VIVA BRAZIL! VIVA EDUARDO!
June 19, 2008 @ 11:19 AM
Posted by Rida Al Barazi
In Episode #4 of The Spin Show, we interview Tariq Al Asiri, co-founder of Argaam and the blogger behind Ajabni, we talk about web businesses and internet advertising in the region.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get in touch about the podcast, just email us at spinshow AT spinbits.com.
June 08, 2008 @ 01:00 AM
Posted by Cloves Carneiro Jr
In the third episode of The Spin Show, we talk about
DemoCamp Dubai 2, IT/Web related events in the region, and Google Apps for your domain.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get in touch about the podcast, just email us at spinshow AT spinbits.com.
May 25, 2008 @ 01:59 PM
Posted by Cloves Carneiro Jr
In the second episode of The Spin Show, we feature an interview with Baher Al Hakim, the founder of CloudAppers. We mainly talked about Twitter and the upcoming DemoCamp Dubai.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get in touch about the podcast, just email us at podcast AT spinbits.com.
May 15, 2008 @ 04:31 PM
Posted by Cloves Carneiro Jr
We’ve decided to start a new fun project in the last few days. We’re announcing our new podcast named The Spin Show, which will feature weekly episodes. The subject will mainly contain news about the Internet Industry in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, and interview with professionals in the region. Instead of explaining what it is, I’ll invite you to
If you have any questions, comments or want to get in touch about the podcast, just email us at podcast AT spinbits.com.
May 11, 2008 @ 03:03 PM
Posted by Cloves Carneiro Jr
We are doing it again, I’ve just announced DemoCamp Dubai 2, which will take place on May 27th 2008 at the Radisson SAS in Dubai Media City on May 27th at 7:30PM.
It’s great to see DemoCamp happen again here in Dubai. The first event was a success in all senses, we had great people attending, awesome presentations, and overall a great evening for all those involved. We hope DemoCamp 2 is even better, and the community around the event keep coming with their enthusiasm.
April 24, 2008 @ 05:02 AM
Posted by Cloves Carneiro Jr
As mentioned in our last post, our team is bigger and we are extremely excited with the new members of our team. It’s key for a business as small as ours to get it right when hiring its first employees. We knew that a “bad hire” would affect us tremendously by slowing our effort to serve our customers with quality. Following the same line of thought, a “great hire” would increase our productivity in so many ways that we decided to take the decision to hire slowly.
Although hiring each employee happened naturally, we’ve noticed that, unconsciously, we ended up following the same principles/rules for each one of them.
Rule #1 – Hire the person
In every single case, we hired our employees because they are smart and passionate people who care about their work. By smart, we mean we felt that although they might not possess the skills and experience we would want them to have now, we know they have the capacity to learn fast and be effective if we provide an environment where they can share their ideas and concerns, and learn from their peers. Also, we felt the passion through their comments, ideas, and work was an indicator of good things to follow. Getting a feeling of the person’s attitude eventually tells you more about how they will fit into a team than asking the usual interview questions.
Rule #2 – Say No to the traditional hiring process
We usually ask for resumes/CVs to get a sense of the work and education for potential candidates; however, we ended up hiring the ones for which we haven’t even seen a CV, or have interviewed in the more traditional sense. In all cases, we had previous experience with dealing with each of those individuals, even if out of a professional setting, or for a very short period of time. We felt that we didn’t want to ask the usual interview questions, since we never felt they added value when we were in the “being interviewed” position.
Rule #3 – Find complementary talent
We had the chance to interview some very interesting individuals; however, we settled with a team where we always have more than one individual who can perform a specific task; at the same time, we have professionals that have great experience in areas others are not as strong. It’s a great feeling to know that at least one of us can fill in for another developer/designer if one needs to be absent, without compromising the quality of the work we produce.
Rule #4 – Identify who to not hire
In a lot of cases, we interviewed candidates we wanted to hire because we needed help, and the person seemed “good enough”, but we didn’t settle for “just good” professionals. In most cases, the decision to not hire is made easy by feeling a lack of passion or interest in the industry or work, or just if the person doesn’t fit within the company culture. This rule is influenced by Joel Spolsky’s great Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing, which states that you can only have one opinion after an interview, either Hire or No Hire, if in doubt, No Hire is the default answer’.
Our conclusion is that following those principles will definitely yield a strong candidate, and someone that will fit well the requirements for any job position. Of course, we’ll add, change, or even remove some of those rules in the near future, but that’s expected and is part of the learning process we are going through.
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