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We just started re-generating all thumbnails

2009-10-09T10:56:00Z

fluxiom is just back online after a scheduled maintenance and is now back with big improvements (more details soon).

We now started re-generating all thumbnails, previews and video previews for all your assets.

The service is fully available during the re-generation of the thumbnails, without restriction, but you may notice that your thumbnails are replaced by generic “file type” icons. This is no cause for concern, and simply means the system hasn’t fully refreshed your account yet. We expect everything to neatly finish over the weekend.

Thank you for your continued support and your patience!

Downtime ahead

2009-09-29T16:29:00Z

For a few weeks now, we have been promising great improvements to fluxiom in the fall, building upon the new back-end we have been setting up for you during the first part of 2009. Well, fall it is!

After bringing on interface tweaks and new features, we are now ready to pulverise a few bottlenecks in our thumbnails and preview management system.

On October 9 at 10:00 AM Vienna time (see in your time zone), our administrators will take fluxiom into maintenance mode for two hours, during which new servers will be sprung into action. Worry not, your data will be safe and sound, but we need to disconnect the network temporarily while the processing machines are being shuffled around.

Around noon, fluxiom will be back with brand new code, and will start re-generating thumbnail previews for all your assets.

As soon as it is brought back online, the service will be fully available to you and your users, without restriction, but you may notice that all your thumbnails aren’t here yet, replaced instead by generic “file type” icons: this is no cause for concern, and simply means the system hasn’t fully refreshed your account yet. Priority will be given to paying accounts, of course, and we expect everything to neatly finish over the week-end.

Amongst the new features we will be launching are:

Bandwidth-efficient thumbnail generation — We now generate three sizes for each thumbnail, allowing us to present the best-looking and lightest possible file to the user. This speeds up the fluxiom interface dramatically, especially over slower connections, and makes for sharper, more beautiful images.

Super fast processing — Once the initial refresh is over, fluxiom will process your thumbnails up to 4 times faster, and this includes complex files.

Video skimming — You can now see key frames of your video clips by hovering over their thumbnails right from the fluxiom interface. Video previews will also look sharper and behave better.

Faster fluxUp! — Because fluxUp! is so tightly integrated with our processing system, it can now run up to 8 times faster in its default configuration.

Finally, we will grab the occasion to improve the overall fluxiom interface, focusing on the behaviour of thumbnails and previews. There will be no unsettling change but a smooth improvement over what you already know and use, based on both user feedback and our internal usability reviews.

As always, if you have any questions, please get in touch with our support specialists, who will be delighted to provide you with any additional information you may require. We appreciate your continued patronage, and are looking forwards to fluxin’ with you all on the new system.

Keeping tabs on tags

2009-09-07T16:21:00Z

There is more to updates than broad-sweeping interface redesigns and breakthrough features. Today, we are happy to announce a slight, but noticeable, update to the tags management view: gone are the multi-step tag updating procedures and the mute lines, replaced by inline editing and clear indications of the list’s interactive capabilities.

Those of you who manage lots of tags in your fluxiom account, or often update them to accompany project changes, should find the new interface more responsive, simpler to work with and overall more efficient.

To rename a tag, simply click on it, enter its new name and confirm. To delete tags, just hit the convenient trash can icon sitting at the left end of every line. As always, you can re-order your tag bar by dragging and dropping list items in the order you prefer.

If you are not yet using tags with your fluxiom account, you are missing out on a great way to cross-reference data: simply click on the “Manage tags” button at the top right of your fluxiom window to get started…

We now support IE8

2009-08-25T06:03:00Z

Internet Explorer sure does grab a lot of headlines in the fluxiom world these days!

With our recent news, some IE-enthusiasts have been wondering whether we were, in some way, phasing out our commitment to the Explorer product line altogether, and we wanted to put any such fears to rest immediately. Indeed, nothing could be further from our thoughts, and we remain as committed as ever to support all modern and popular browsers.

In fact, as we are planning to phase out support for the grandfather of Explorers, Internet Explorer 6, we are delighted to announce we now officially support Internet Explorer 8, the latest and greatest addition to the family, which now comes standard on Windows PCs.

Our operations team and designers has been busy over the past few weeks testing every nook and cranny of the fluxiom application on Internet Explorer 8, in both default and common configurations, to ensure it performs as smoothly and reliably as you expect.

Support for IE8 has long been unofficial but, starting today, we are publicly committing to the browser and have added it to our list of recommended applications. This also means the little login warning has now gone the way of the dodo.

In fact, we recommend that all IE users upgrade to this latest version, company guidelines permitting. In addition to new security features and optimised browsing tools, it features an enhanced JavaScript engine, that makes all intensive web applications, including fluxiom, fly a good deal faster. Fewer worries and higher productivity: what’s not to like?

We are phasing out IE6 support

2009-08-18T12:45:00Z

A brief history of IE6

Do you remember the launch of Internet Explorer 6? The month was August 2001. The commercial Internet was starting to really heat up, and Apple had yet to unveil its very first iPod. As for fluxiom, it wasn’t even a concept!

Eight years later, the browser is officially a relic. Superseded in October 2006 by the radically different version 7, and then again last March by version 8, it has been declared dead many times over, as it should be. Indeed, for all the innovations it brought in its day and age, it is now incapable of rendering modern sites, and constitutes a serious security liability for those still using it. It served us well, but it has no place on the web of today.

We are phasing out support for IE6

Following in the steps of many high-profile sites such as YouTube, MobileMe and Basecamp, fluxiom will progressively drop support for Internet Explorer 6, starting in the fall.

Supporting Internet Explorer 6 currently prevents us from focusing our energies on last-generation web technologies, that would dramatically improve the fluxiom experience. It is also incompatible with many speed optimisations we are waiting to put into effect, meaning it effectively holds back our entire user base, which we find unacceptable.

Finally, supporting Internet Explorer 6, and testing every part of the site on the browser, requires time and energy, which we cannot spend developing new features or improving existing ones. Here too, we feel this time is no longer wisely invested.

There are exceptions

Very few users still connect to the fluxiom application with Internet Explorer 6, and we will be pro-actively contacting those of you who still do to understand your particular circumstances. However, we know some of you are working with clients who have no choice in the matter, and do not want your usual workflow to be disrupted.

This is why we will continue to support Internet Explorer 6 in upcoming public versions of the Dropboxes and Stages, meaning clients and partners of our users will be unaffected by the change. The versions they see may not be as full-featured or as advanced as the versions we will serve to other browsers but they will work reliably.

What it means for you

If your own clients use Internet Explorer 6, Dropboxes and Stages will still work. We encourage you to educate those around you about the dangers of IE6, but there is no need to panic or to alter your workflow at the moment. Support remains unchanged.

If you still use Internet Explorer 6 to access fluxiom.com or your fluxiom account, you will need to upgrade to a more modern browser to continue using the platform. We recommend Firefox, Safari or the newer versions of Internet Explorer.

The adventurous amongst you will be pleased to know we also unofficially support Google Chrome. This means things should work well, but we cannot guarantee they will always do.

As a general rule, it makes good computing sense to upgrade your browser swiftly as new versions are released. These updates are free, and contain important security patches.

What’s in it for me?

By upgrading your browser, you will enjoy not only a faster, more beautiful fluxiom, but you will enjoy a safer, more up-to-date view of the entire web. Many sites have already switched and are serving simpler, less interesting pages to Internet Explorer 6. New browsers also come with great tools that make browsing safer and more convenient.

What is the exact date?

The transition will be progressive. We recommend that all users upgrade by October 1, 2009 but will update this post when support for Internet Explorer 6 is officially over. As always, we will keep an eye on statistics and ensure all of you are comfortable before we more full speed forwards.

We've got Dashboard abs

2009-07-30T12:05:00Z

Dashboard users rejoice, for an updated fluxiom widget is awaiting you.

Release 0.92, hot from the ovens, and published only yesterday, brings a slew of back-end enhancements to the widget’s functionality.

Most importantly, we have improved the download engine, to correct the error that prevented a few amongst you from actually downloading the assets (Whoopsie…). Additionally, the widget now works for both regular and SSL-enabled accounts, allowing you to connect to fluxiom regardless of the plan you have signed up for.

At the push of a button, your assets are downloaded right to your Downloads folder, ready to be shared, dropped onto an iChat conference or into your favourite editing application. There are no messy names or extensions to be dealt with: what you stored is what you get back.

Branding accounts is fun: with vibrant gradients and custom logos, fluxiom allows your brand to truly shine. In true fluxiom fashion, any widget connecting to your account will honour the brand settings you have set up for the fluxiom application itself, changing the widget’s entire appearance to fit smoothly with your colours and design of choice. How’s that for blending in?

For more information about the widget, you can refer to our original announcement or download it directly to start playing.

The widget currently requires Mac OS X v. 10.5 or later and API access must be enabled in your account.

A new plan for freelancers

2009-07-13T13:21:00Z

If you are a fluxiom-loving freelancer, we are delighted to announce our best value ever. It’s a new plan, it has been crafted just for you a few days ago, and it focuses on methodically answering all your feedback:

1. You want comfortable storage for all your files
2. You want SSL for serious business data
3. You want plenty of stages to deliver your work
4. You want to brand your account in your image
5. You want built-in versioning for your revisions
6. You want in-file search for your archives

Up until very recently, that meant spending 89 euros on the Pro plan, and, for many amongst you, that just wasn’t gonna to happen. You also felt the unlimited log-ins to the administrative interface were way overkill. Well, we’ve heard you loud and clear!

The brand new Solo plan

The Solo plan, fresh out of our ovens, features all the tools and storage a freelancer needs to conduct a booming business, but sheds the unlimited administrator log-ins. In doing so, it also sheds most of the overhead that led to the comparatively high price point of our Pro plan. Factor in our newly introduced storage re-calibration, and you’ve got yourself a sweet deal.

For just 19 euros a month

We now offer 10 GB of secure fluxiom storage, 10 stages, in-file searching, custom branding, versioning support and SSL security. Only one administrator (you) can access the account, but he gets the full fluxiom extravaganza, meaning web access, our convenient fluxUp tool and any API-powered add-on he wishes to develop.

Flux on, freelancers!

Solo accounts are hooked up to the same high-availability, high-redundancy storage platform our enterprise plans feature, and live on the very same code base, lovingly cared for by our in-house administrators.

We are honoured so many of you have decided to get their business started on fluxiom, and we know how much is at play for budding freelancers. We hope this new Solo plan will help you all get started on the best foot, and welcome any questions or feedback you may have.

We can’t stop storing ourselves

2009-07-08T14:05:00Z

If you have ever felt your fluxiom account get tight around the waist, or were reluctant to sign up for fear of bumping over our maximum quota, we have huge news for you. Effective to-day…

All paying users get more storage for the same price

Private users double their quota, going from 1 GB to 2 GB, Basic users more than triple it, raising from 3 GB to 15 GB and Pro users go from 8 GB to a very roomy 40 GB. The change is automatic, and no action is required from account administrators to claim the extra capacity. (Clear your browser cache, and reload the account page to get the new numbers if need be.)

Basic and Pro users also get lots more stages — ten and twenty respectively. Hey, more storage means more files to share, right?

We are retiring the Deluxe plan

It served you well, but you wanted more. All Deluxe users have been upgraded to Infinite One, a brand new plan featuring all the great features they know, sitting on top of a whopping 100 GB of storage — instead of the original 20 GB.

We have a new plan, and it’s called Infinity

Actually, it’s a family of plans, allowing enterprise or storage-intensive users to get a custom quote for any amount of storage they want. The sky is truly the limit: simply let us know what you want and our sysops will make it happen for you. We will also throw in unlimited everything, including unlimited stages.

Why we are doing this

Has fluxiom gone mad? Not quite… We’re not going bankrupt either, and this isn’t a blowout sale. It just so happens the fluxiom platform has grown to the point where economies of scale are really kicking in, allowing us to offer lots more capacity for a much more competitive price.

Speaking of storage…

We are not offloading anything to shady third parties or using diskette arrays in the coat closet. With fluxiom, quality comes standard: every plan, from Free to Infinity is hooked to our highly redundant, secure architecture, the very one we have spent years tweaking and polishing, the same large corporations entrust with business-critical assets. You can get all the nitty-gritty on our Q&A page.

Catch’ em while ya’ can

What are you waiting for? The signup page awaits, and so does our support team should you have any questions, comments or concerns about this update.

Welcome, Safari 4.0 users

2009-06-10T16:32:00Z

Updated on June 15, 2009 — As planned, and as promised, the latest fluxiom update has now been successfully rolled out, and Safari 4.0 users should no longer see the message discussed below. Thanks for your trust, and keep on fluxin’!

Whether on Mac OS X or Windows, Safari truly is a great browser. In fact, a significant percentage of fluxiom customers use it to access their accounts and manage their assets, whether from work or home. With improved JavaScript performance, Safari 4 truly flies on fluxiom, and makes for an even more enjoyable experience.

We are happy to announce that fluxiom is fully compatible with Safari 4.0 already, and that users can upgrade without worry. In fact, since Safari 4.0 contains a significant number of security enhancements, we recommend that all users upgrade as promptly as possible, personal computing situation permitting.

On Monday, June 15, we will roll out a fluxiom upgrade that will further tailor the Safari browsing experience. Actually, we never stop turning the dials and buttons, tweaking and fine-tuning settings as browsers evolve.

The most visible consequence of this upgrade will be the removal of the “unsupported browser” warning on the login screen, which you can safely disregard for the time being. (This warning does not prevent you from logging in, it merely checks your browser against a list of known-good user agents to facilitate large-scale deployments, but fluxiom’s standards-based infrastructure means it is compatible with any modern application.)

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments! Users who experience any strange behaviour with Safari are kindly invited to contact our support engineers, who will investigate the matter promptly.

Bastian Allgeier is fluxin'

2009-06-04T09:25:00Z

Since the introduction of the fluxiom free plan, we have had the pleasure of welcoming many students to our creative community. Making big dreams possible on a tight budget, and giving tools today to the talents of tomorrow, such is our goal.

To those of you sitting on the fence, allow us to introduce Bastian Allgeier, who started investigating fluxiom on the day we launched, all the way back in 2006, and jumped on board the day free plans were introduced.

Bastian is a student of web and graphic design in Mannheim, Germany. Today, he uses fluxiom to organise and back-up data on our advanced storage platform. He says: “One of the hardest things when you are not employed by a single company with a united work-flow, is to get organised. When it comes to files, at least, fluxiom has me covered.”

Synchronising files between home computers and university workstations can quickly become a hassle. That’s why he uploads all his course work and source material on fluxiom which constitutes “a great platform to exchange files with fellow students — just like an virtual USB drive on steroids!”

As he gets into design business on his own, he’s also test-driving fluxiom stages as a way to distribute files and invite comments on long-term projects that come with uncertain deadlines and looser feedback loops.

Like most dedicated graphic designers, Bastian likes his tools to look good and feel good: fluxiom’s breakthrough use of AJAX and desktop-quality interface seemed like a natural fit. He says fluxiom “highly inspired [him] to concentrate more on the development of web applications during [his] studies.” In fact, Bastian has already launched his first web application: colour us honoured!

If you’re a student or a newcomer to the world of design, a fluxiom free plan may be just what you need to get started. If you’re a professor, give us a ping, and we will gladly walk you through the process of setting up your class on fluxiom for free.

Finally, whoever you are, we encourage you to look at Bastian’s portfolio. It’s sure to entertain and inspire!

Are you using fluxiom too?

Then send us an email to support@fluxiom.com or tweet @fluxiom to let us know. We’re always on the look-out for fresh ideas and suggestions.

Do the (user) shuffle

2009-05-14T14:55:00Z

Managing information and access rights within a company is always tricky. On the one hand, it is necessary to grant everyone enough access for them to perform the work they have been assigned and feel comfortable in the process. On the other, being too generous with permissions could lead to the unwanted disclosure of sensitive data or, mundanely, to unnecessary confusion.

That’s why some of our users have been asking for a new feature in fluxiom: the ability to create read-only users, who could be allowed into a fluxiom account and given access to the full fluxiom catalogue, but without being able to alter the account or download the assets it contains.

For example, this would allow an intern to prepare a list of product shots for a presentation or an employee in marketing to reference packaging photos, but it would prevent these users from ever disorganising your collection — whether wilfully or by accident. (It also prevents them from vacuuming data out of an account and running away with it.)

To create these users, simply log in to fluxiom, and click on the “Users” tab, as you usually do to manage access rights. Upon creating a new user, you can now restrict its rights by un-checking the “Administer assets and stages” box, but leaving the account itself enabled. Since it makes sense for most users to administer the assets stored into an account, this privilege is still granted by default, as in the past.

Of course, you can edit your current users in a similar fashion to apply finer-grained restrictions to your existing base — no need to re-create accounts: simply click on the “Edit” link in their profile card. The “Users” tab has been slightly redesigned to reflect these finer-grained access controls.

If you’ve been using stages to grant limited access to users within your company, you can now merge them cleanly with the remainder of your employees, and grant them the many benefits of direct access to fluxiom, including a smooth upgrade path towards additional access to the system.

Do note that this new feature does not in any way signal the disappearance of stages, that are the preferred way to share information with clients and partners outside your company: not only do stages feature a simplified interface that is better suited to sharing, they can also be fully branded with your own logo and corporate colours.

You can read a full summary of the feature in our updated help documents.

As always, we hope you enjoy this new feature, and will be welcoming your thoughts, comments and ideas on both form and function. All feedback is always welcome!

related topics:

Scheduled maintenance

2009-04-14T15:59:00Z

Fluxiom will be unavailable for around 30 minutes on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 7am GMT for system maintenance.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve fluxiom for you.

Be the first to read about updates, announcements and system status over at our twitter stream or visit our status page http://status.fluxiom.com.

Update, April 15, 2009: fluxiom is up and running again. Thanks for your patience!

Introducing the fluxiom dropbox

2009-03-02T11:42:00Z

One of the best things about fluxiom is that it completely replaces FTP servers for deliveries: upload, share, done. If your job also requires you to accept files, however, chances are you still operate an anonymous FTP server, rely on your iDisk or simply wrestle with email attachments and their rheumatic-snail speed. Thanks to fluxiom’s new dropbox feature, this too is now a pain of the past.

The fluxiom dropbox allows you to activate and customize a convenient, upload-only page through which people can send you files and documents directly to your fluxiom account, ready for you and your team to work on. The dropbox requires no configuration on the public side, and is compatible with all modern browsers. It’s also secure because it gives no access to your data: only uploads are allowed. What’s more, you can embed your fluxiom drobox on your blog or web site for faster access.

Use your fluxiom dropbox to receive photos to process, resumes from applicants, term papers from students, mock-ups from marketing, whatever makes your business tick. As always, fluxiom will immediately process the information you receive and make it searchable in a matter of seconds.

activating your fluxiom dropbox

Activate your fluxiom dropbox today, and say good-bye to FTP for good: simply log in to your account, click on the “Account” tab and click on “Dropbox”. From there, you can activate your dropbox, fine-tune its behavior and download buttons to promote it.

Read our step-by-step tutorial….

Finally, we would like to grasp this occasion to thank our dedicated users for their continued support. The fluxiom dropbox was inspired by your feedback: as always, we hope you like it and will welcome any comments or thoughts you may have, on this or any other fluxiom feature.

fluxiom and the enterprise

2009-02-10T15:00:00Z

While smaller agencies and individuals have jumped freely on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, adoption rates are markedly slower in the enterprise. Compliance issues, concerns about data ownership, confidentiality and security all contribute to impairing the transition from in-house work-group servers to cloud-based collaboration. Yet, once unleashed, the power of the Web can give a serious boost to the efficiency and morale of an office.

That’s why we at fluxiom are thrilled to work with Casinos Austria International (CAI), a leading player in the international gaming industry. The company decided to migrate part of its infrastructure to fluxiom back in 2006, and has been expanding its reliance on the system ever since, thereby proving the value and pertinence of “software as a service,” even in a traditional corporate setting. Dubbed the “Global Knowledge Network” within the company (thanks to fluxiom’s white label feature), it is now an essential cog in a well-oiled work-flow.

Project leads at Casinos Austria International have kindly allowed us to publish a case study featuring their process in greater detail. We hope this interview provides you with fresh ideas to push the fluxiom envelope in your own business, and contributes to convincing your reluctant boss or co-workers to give fluxiom — and other Web-based tools — a serious try. Remember, our free plan is a good way to get started without tapping into your department’s budget.

Are you using fluxiom in an enterprise setting, too?

Then send us an email to support@fluxiom.com or tweet @fluxiom to let us know. We’re always on the look-out for fresh ideas and suggestions.

In the meantime, you can read the case study.

Scheduled maintenance

2008-12-06T17:40:00Z

Fluxiom will be unavailable for around 30 minutes on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 6am GMT for system maintenance.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve fluxiom for you.

Be the first to read about updates, announcements and system status over at our twitter stream or visit our status page http://status.fluxiom.com.

Update, December 10, 2008: fluxiom is up and running again. Thanks for your patience!