The Codeo is a contrary beast; he hibernates all summer long while the students he depends on for his existence bask in the sun instead of in the warm glow of their computers. As he sleeps, he sees strange dreams. Probably something like this: (explore Codeo winners and challenges by clicking the images) What next?

Put on your green-tinted spectacles, it's time for a look at the best (and the rest) of the internet through the eyes of the Cogapp Internal Blog...

Ever seen a lovely colour on a flower or a sweatshirt and wished you could grab it there and then for use in an artistic project? In the near future artists could be using a version of Photoshop's 'colour picker' tool in real life.

Women past and present have made countless valuable contributions to technology, but how often do we hear about it? Probably not enough. Hoping to help change this state of affairs, this post is written in honour of Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging to draw more attention to women excelling in technology.

Last Thursday we attended the annual Wired Sussex Jobs + Skills Fair, held at Brighton's Corn Exchange.

The Internal Blog continues to provide Cogappers with a distillation of the somewhat crude and slippery substance that we know as the World Wide Web.

Cogappers, friends and clients alike enjoyed a festive and quirky evening last Thursday at our Christmas Party, held at The Basement, a local multi-use arts space.  As well as the excellent cocktails and music that had partygoers dancing the night away, the event gave attendees the opportunity to try their hand at Digital Graffiti:

Some of the many designs created during the course of the evening, more of which can be seen on our Flickr.  Also in photo: one of Tristan Roddis's colour-changing LED balloons.

Don't worry, no walls were actually defaced - users created these ephemeral images by pointing a laser pen, not a spray can, at the wall.  Put simply, it works like this: a camera at the back of the room tracks the light of the laser pen, this information is interpreted by a computer, and nanoseconds later, graffiti is "drawn" onto the wall using a projector.

It's been a while since you were last fed, so you must be hungry for the latest tasty morsels from the smörgåsbord that is the Cogapp Internal Blog (these elaborate analogies are getting harder to think of, ok?).

10 tips for managing a creative environment
Spotted by Gavin.

After coming back from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, Gavin spoke to the production team about 10 tips for managing a creative environment by Adaptive Path - a really interesting presentation where they went to talk to a number of different creative groups, looked at how they managed their creative processes and then developed a ‘ten tips’ presentation. You can find it here.

Patients Like Me
Spotted by Gavin.

Also at the New York Conference, this site came up loads:

Patients Like Me is a website that allows users to share experiences, track symptoms and ask advice from others - all specific by condition.  Useful in Cogapp's work with Arthritis Research Campaign, as well as the Kidney Patient Guide.

There's been quite a buzz on Cogapp's internal blog (initiated mostly by Joe Baskerville, our Head of New Technology) surrounding developments in "surface computing" - ways to make everyday surfaces like walls and tables interactive, designed to replace the traditional keyboard and mouse.

It’s the fastest growing type of waste: computers, phones, televisions, iPods and all the rest. The flip side to rapid advances in technology is that electronic products are becoming obsolete at an alarming rate, and the fate of much of the millions of tons of e-waste generated every year in the West makes for very grim reading.

The bad news is this: our favourite electrical items contain highly toxic materials which are harmful to humans and our environment. The problems really start when it comes to disposing of our used technology. A large proportion of the e-waste collected for “recycling” from the USA and parts of Europe is actually shipped to less developed countries, where the products are dismantled and separated using primitive technologies that expose workers to deadly levels of chemicals as they extract the metals, toners and plastics from computers and other e-waste.

"A sea of television housings, cathode ray tubes, monitors and other imported electronic  waste not salable at the Alaba market in Lagos, Nigeria,  is dumped here in a nearby swamp" (c) Basel Action Network

What to do?