I saw this in development via the web about three years ago, and now out of (seemingly) nowhere microsoft launch it as "Surface", based on the silverlight platform, it is the next step in the 'flas' type platform where web/interfaces are now multimedia rich applications, the surface platform just adds the touch sreen world to this and combined makes my job as a web developer tough (I am not complainin though).
No more will people be happy with flat, no media websites, they will want by default a feature rich site that works on all browsers with embedded video, sound, moving living information.
To be honest I am happy, the 'web' at last can break free from its static life (I am not a great fan of flash as its not SEO friendly, silverlight is written in XAML (text) so can be 'read' by search engines) and move into the realms of desktop software where everything is live now not waiting for a click of a mouse etc.
It may be a while before Surface and Silverlight make it into everyday websites/stores, when it does it will definately change the face of both highstreet and web experiences and bring them so much closer.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
semi conducter geekness
It is amazing who you meet at weddings.
I was chatting to a guy called B , who said he was an engineer, he was german over 2m tall.
His job is to make things smaller, if you have ever thought to yourself, 'there is no way thy can make my mobile any smaller' and then a week later you see they have.... Well B is one of the men on the planet that understands all of those IT articles that explain how stuff is stored onto semiconducter chips (ie flash memory.....). Not ony does he understand it he has a pretty good idea how to fit more information into the same space.
The smallest amount of space we can have curenntly without going into quantum physics is one atom big, from memory we are in the 600nm (Nanometre - approx 3 atoms per nanometer), so if moores law holds true we will be naring capacity shortly (a few years...) Oh no he says that is only if we use 2 dimensional storage....
I cant recall alot of the conversation after this I was just like the thought of a 200Gb SD card, a few years ago these were limited to 32Mb of storage, now you can but 4Gb cards, albeit pricey.
It looks like the age of solidstate storage is going to hit shortly and the ideas are endless, can you imagine downloading an entire DVD and storing it on a piece of silicon the size of a grain of rice?
Its all poosible before we even get to quantum ideas.
You sometimes forget there are people out there who are passionate about their job, we take them for granted but thout people like B and the companies they work for we would still be draggin briefcase size mobile phones around while waiting for the post to arrive...
hats off to all those who do the work we all take for granted!
I was chatting to a guy called B , who said he was an engineer, he was german over 2m tall.
His job is to make things smaller, if you have ever thought to yourself, 'there is no way thy can make my mobile any smaller' and then a week later you see they have.... Well B is one of the men on the planet that understands all of those IT articles that explain how stuff is stored onto semiconducter chips (ie flash memory.....). Not ony does he understand it he has a pretty good idea how to fit more information into the same space.
The smallest amount of space we can have curenntly without going into quantum physics is one atom big, from memory we are in the 600nm (Nanometre - approx 3 atoms per nanometer), so if moores law holds true we will be naring capacity shortly (a few years...) Oh no he says that is only if we use 2 dimensional storage....
I cant recall alot of the conversation after this I was just like the thought of a 200Gb SD card, a few years ago these were limited to 32Mb of storage, now you can but 4Gb cards, albeit pricey.
It looks like the age of solidstate storage is going to hit shortly and the ideas are endless, can you imagine downloading an entire DVD and storing it on a piece of silicon the size of a grain of rice?
Its all poosible before we even get to quantum ideas.
You sometimes forget there are people out there who are passionate about their job, we take them for granted but thout people like B and the companies they work for we would still be draggin briefcase size mobile phones around while waiting for the post to arrive...
hats off to all those who do the work we all take for granted!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Summer is on its way - albeit not today
With summer on its way (its raining today, but I am assurred the English summer will be here soon) its that time of year again that I wonder if the old server sitting in the corner in the sun will survive just one more year.
To quote a blog post - "Note to future IT hopefuls:Computers make heat. Heat is BAD."
PCs, servers especially run hot, all the time, there are warning stickers on some of the servers I have seen that say 'Do not run this server with this side panel off'.
Every time you Server/PC shuts down due to heat (called a thermo-shutdown, its normally automatic once Processor gets to 60+ deg C) it looses 1 yr of its life and they are not designed to last forever (well some are - HP competiton )
So with a scorching summer on its way here are a few tips to keep it cool, (note they dont run under water);
- Air con is good, it may be hard on the electricity bill and maybe the environment but the cost of downtime and early server retirement may be worth it)
- Keep access to the servers limited, I have seen a server room door left open to cool the rest of the office as there was only one air con unit in the place and in the open plan space
- You could look at virtualising some of the server functions - consolidating the number of machines running your company will mean less heat created etc, leaving the released servers to be used as backups?
- Keep the severs in the same cooled or at least well vetilated room, this aids security as well.
I currently have 4 servers in the crypt of a church....cool no really it is, as the room is below ground level under the chapel it is naturally cooler down there. With a portable air con unit on standby incase it gets too hot, the room sits at around 35 de C, which is probably a little warm, but the aircon cant cool it any more than 30 deg C as the heat outlet pipe heats the room up as its cooling. However the system works well.
Make sure you have a backup system in place as the heat can kill: http://h40059.www4.hp.com/campaigns/golddust/index.htm
If you need any advice on server virtualisation, cooling or security feel free to drop me an email craig.hogan@chillfire.co.uk
goodluck with the summer heat.
To quote a blog post - "Note to future IT hopefuls:Computers make heat. Heat is BAD."
PCs, servers especially run hot, all the time, there are warning stickers on some of the servers I have seen that say 'Do not run this server with this side panel off'.
Every time you Server/PC shuts down due to heat (called a thermo-shutdown, its normally automatic once Processor gets to 60+ deg C) it looses 1 yr of its life and they are not designed to last forever (well some are - HP competiton )
So with a scorching summer on its way here are a few tips to keep it cool, (note they dont run under water);
- Air con is good, it may be hard on the electricity bill and maybe the environment but the cost of downtime and early server retirement may be worth it)
- Keep access to the servers limited, I have seen a server room door left open to cool the rest of the office as there was only one air con unit in the place and in the open plan space
- You could look at virtualising some of the server functions - consolidating the number of machines running your company will mean less heat created etc, leaving the released servers to be used as backups?
- Keep the severs in the same cooled or at least well vetilated room, this aids security as well.
I currently have 4 servers in the crypt of a church....cool no really it is, as the room is below ground level under the chapel it is naturally cooler down there. With a portable air con unit on standby incase it gets too hot, the room sits at around 35 de C, which is probably a little warm, but the aircon cant cool it any more than 30 deg C as the heat outlet pipe heats the room up as its cooling. However the system works well.
Make sure you have a backup system in place as the heat can kill: http://h40059.www4.hp.com/campaigns/golddust/index.htm
If you need any advice on server virtualisation, cooling or security feel free to drop me an email craig.hogan@chillfire.co.uk
goodluck with the summer heat.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
new google product
I have just found http://www.google.com/tisp/ it looks like a great concept for broadband, and with google backing it all the way, who knows how far it will go.
goodluck with the free 8mbps 'trickle line'
goodluck with the free 8mbps 'trickle line'
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
SEO forums - worth weight in gold
Well with the development of the new CMS out of the way I am back into the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) forums (www.v7n.com).
This is a great place to find information out about the how-to side of good/ethical SEO.
The moderators do a great job of 'keeping it clean' and people are quite open about how they do what they do so well.
check out my latest post http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/57537-thanks-v7n-1-site-links-now-has-pr2.html
Any SEO benchmarking required?
This is a great place to find information out about the how-to side of good/ethical SEO.
The moderators do a great job of 'keeping it clean' and people are quite open about how they do what they do so well.
check out my latest post http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/57537-thanks-v7n-1-site-links-now-has-pr2.html
Any SEO benchmarking required?
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
freelancers.net profile
I have been using freelancers.net for a number of years and finally have got around to posting about them.
The site is a very good place for freelancers to start looking for projects, jobs and even business alliances.
It has a simple layout and a good reputation amongst reelance professionals, it is mainly geared towards IT/design etc, however there are always jobs from other sectors posted.
my profile is http://craighogan.freelancers.net
goodluck on the job hunt.
//craig
The site is a very good place for freelancers to start looking for projects, jobs and even business alliances.
It has a simple layout and a good reputation amongst reelance professionals, it is mainly geared towards IT/design etc, however there are always jobs from other sectors posted.
my profile is http://craighogan.freelancers.net
goodluck on the job hunt.
//craig
Yeah Nah Umm Bro - more T-shirts
I have just added a few new Yeah Nah Umm Bro designs and products!
I saw couple of guys at the Walkabout Embankment (London) wearing them, great to see!
remember to 'keep speaking kiwi'
I saw couple of guys at the Walkabout Embankment (London) wearing them, great to see!
remember to 'keep speaking kiwi'
Paypal will be a bank
I heard on the news this morning that PayPal will become a real bank, with offices in Luxemburg.
Its amazing that this was started form nothing a few years ago.
Looks like Yahoo is onto a winner here.
Bring on the PayPal credit card.
Its amazing that this was started form nothing a few years ago.
Looks like Yahoo is onto a winner here.
Bring on the PayPal credit card.
new ocre CMS on the way
I am about to release the latest version of ocre CMS.
There is new functionality along with a new database system, some of the older versions (1.x) are not compatible at the moment, but am happy to port them across if you want need to (your webserver will nee to be upgraded - see below).
Ocre is now asp.net 2.0 compatible and implements some of the new Atlas toolkit controls, these help to create a really nice interface and more of a desktop feel to the admin tools.
Some of the new features:
- Multi content ability, you can have differnet content on the same URL depending on where people have come from, this is perfect for 'content specific Landing pages'.
- News feed reader and editor, add newsd directly form any number of RSS/XML feeds.
- Social Bookmark me - using addthis.com
- Customer reporting, more in depth tracking of people using your site.
- E-commerce package plugin for ProTx, take payments online via ProTx (paypal as well)
- Multi level navigation, up to 3 levels deep
- Cross browser drop-down menus, and content
All old features have been updated to use the new framework and atlas
I have not used the public release of the Atlas toolkit as this needs to be installed on the hosts server and as most of you are hosted on remote servers the controls (and site) will not work.
What about the speed, there as never been an issue with the speed of the content engine in ocre, however with the internet/computers getting faster I am looking at making the engine more efficient.
I will keep you all posted about this.
If there are any issues with your current ocre install or if you would like information please drop me an email ocre@chillfire.co.uk .
regards,
Craig
There is new functionality along with a new database system, some of the older versions (1.x) are not compatible at the moment, but am happy to port them across if you want need to (your webserver will nee to be upgraded - see below).
Ocre is now asp.net 2.0 compatible and implements some of the new Atlas toolkit controls, these help to create a really nice interface and more of a desktop feel to the admin tools.
Some of the new features:
- Multi content ability, you can have differnet content on the same URL depending on where people have come from, this is perfect for 'content specific Landing pages'.
- News feed reader and editor, add newsd directly form any number of RSS/XML feeds.
- Social Bookmark me - using addthis.com
- Customer reporting, more in depth tracking of people using your site.
- E-commerce package plugin for ProTx, take payments online via ProTx (paypal as well)
- Multi level navigation, up to 3 levels deep
- Cross browser drop-down menus, and content
All old features have been updated to use the new framework and atlas
I have not used the public release of the Atlas toolkit as this needs to be installed on the hosts server and as most of you are hosted on remote servers the controls (and site) will not work.
What about the speed, there as never been an issue with the speed of the content engine in ocre, however with the internet/computers getting faster I am looking at making the engine more efficient.
I will keep you all posted about this.
If there are any issues with your current ocre install or if you would like information please drop me an email ocre@chillfire.co.uk .
regards,
Craig
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Yeah Nah Umm Bro
Kiwi T-shirts for teh international Kiwi....
http://chillfire.spreadshirt.co.uk
Yeah Nah Umm Bro!
Speakg Kiwi For Ages
http://chillfire.spreadshirt.co.uk
Yeah Nah Umm Bro!
Speakg Kiwi For Ages
new google analytics
Google launched a new Beta version of their web analytics tools.
The interface is very 'google', they are using the latest flash plugin to display graphs, images etc.
It is completely different from the old one, however it is very functional and with the move of 'seldom used' menu items the experience is much cleaner and easier to use.
Will be interesting to see what new tools are added before the Beta version is released 'live'
The interface is very 'google', they are using the latest flash plugin to display graphs, images etc.
It is completely different from the old one, however it is very functional and with the move of 'seldom used' menu items the experience is much cleaner and easier to use.
Will be interesting to see what new tools are added before the Beta version is released 'live'
Friday, April 20, 2007
exchange 2003 vs active directory distribution/securituy lists
A simple problem I thought, I use Active directory security groups for group email list.
I know this isn't best however when I set the security group up I needed it for security of folders not for distribuiton of group emails and it worked as an group email address for my users in outlook.
However when new users were added to the group they would/would not appear int he DL.
After much umming and arring I decided to change the security group into a DL.....Not advisable unless you check where its used and if you do it may not take effect straight away, it can catch up with you.
And got the message that some of the users in the security group had the group as their 'Primary Group'.
Each user user in this position were missing from outlook's group email list.
Fixed by editing the users primary group to be 'Domain Users', all done.
It never occurred that having your primary group would remove you from the email list?
I know this isn't best however when I set the security group up I needed it for security of folders not for distribuiton of group emails and it worked as an group email address for my users in outlook.
However when new users were added to the group they would/would not appear int he DL.
After much umming and arring I decided to change the security group into a DL.....Not advisable unless you check where its used and if you do it may not take effect straight away, it can catch up with you.
And got the message that some of the users in the security group had the group as their 'Primary Group'.
Each user user in this position were missing from outlook's group email list.
Fixed by editing the users primary group to be 'Domain Users', all done.
It never occurred that having your primary group would remove you from the email list?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its depend
Have been building www.nffw.net for Northland Family Four Wheelers (New Zealand off road club my family helped set up).
The site was working fine on my test server, however once it was ftp'd this message appeared:
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
After deleting the problem lines out of the web.config file I realised the problem was the Ajax extensions. Although I never used them in the site I had created the site form the Visual Studio Ajax template (not the Atlas Toolkit one the new Ajax 2.0 release) which it seems you need to have installed in the host server GAC.
The old Atlas Toolkit still works on any server running .net Frameowrk 2.0, as it has its own .dll that sits in the bin folder of the project. However the Ajax release for .net is part of the framework so need to be installed onto the server.
Be careful: Make sure the hosting company has it installed before you start developing the site, if they dont you will have to unpick the entire application and replace all controls with the ctp/version (if they existed).
ext link to asp.net forums: http://forums.asp.net/thread/1499963.aspx
The site was working fine on my test server, however once it was ftp'd this message appeared:
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
After deleting the problem lines out of the web.config file I realised the problem was the Ajax extensions. Although I never used them in the site I had created the site form the Visual Studio Ajax template (not the Atlas Toolkit one the new Ajax 2.0 release) which it seems you need to have installed in the host server GAC.
The old Atlas Toolkit still works on any server running .net Frameowrk 2.0, as it has its own .dll that sits in the bin folder of the project. However the Ajax release for .net is part of the framework so need to be installed onto the server.
Be careful: Make sure the hosting company has it installed before you start developing the site, if they dont you will have to unpick the entire application and replace all controls with the ctp/version (if they existed).
ext link to asp.net forums: http://forums.asp.net/thread/1499963.aspx
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
hotmail blocking emails
It looks like hotmail is blocking emails, possibly in a bid to stop spam?
I have emailed my hotmail account from 5 different domains, and only one is going through without any delay (tiscali) 1 is taking an age and the other 3 are being dumped, there is no 'NDR' - Non Delivery Report, no bounce message, no notification that the message hasn't gone anywhere.
Very frustrating, they (hotmail) used to dump a lot of emails into the junk mail folder, now it seems it just doesn't arrive at all?
I have emailed my hotmail account from 5 different domains, and only one is going through without any delay (tiscali) 1 is taking an age and the other 3 are being dumped, there is no 'NDR' - Non Delivery Report, no bounce message, no notification that the message hasn't gone anywhere.
Very frustrating, they (hotmail) used to dump a lot of emails into the junk mail folder, now it seems it just doesn't arrive at all?
Monday, April 02, 2007
3 weeks in new zealand
Well after one week of work its time to think about my holiday again...
3 weeks in New Zealand, a well needed holiday, I spent the entire time at my brothers/parents farm without broadband (not even rubberband speed), so checking an average email account is painful... I went to an internet cafe in whangarei, but they didn't have plug and play capibilty for my laptop....
I spent about 4hr online at 56kbps.... and sent 5 email, and read few here and there that looked important.
The world without broadband is a bit unusual, from using the web for everything - tv schedules, music, recipes etc I was left pondering what to do next.
So I braved the outside world, and remembered that pre internet life wasn't that bad. Okay I couldn't buy stuff on ebay or buy songs online, so I went to a record shop (they even had records) and bought 5 LPs (dont have an LP player....) and 3 CDs (all of which are now part of my MP3 library).
I realised I spend way too much time at the monitor/keyboard, not a life changing revelation but a good reminder to get out a bit more.
Broadband in the north of New Zealand is fairly few and far between, you can get dialup 115kbps, or 336kpbs on GPRS/3G but pretty much anything over that is a business only level.
Telephone exchanges are being upgraded all the time, but with only 4million people living there and a land mass approx same as most of england you can see where the problem is.
One thing that made my holiday was the music, NZ has a massive rock following, try www.therock.net.nz for a very good rock station - definately 5 stars for quaity of music.
I will post a few holiday snaps up on my site shortly, my brothers wedding went well (a week later and it would have bee 400mm under water) photos here http://www.craighogan.com/hogan-tucker , goodluck to Brett and Jo as well.
3 weeks in New Zealand, a well needed holiday, I spent the entire time at my brothers/parents farm without broadband (not even rubberband speed), so checking an average email account is painful... I went to an internet cafe in whangarei, but they didn't have plug and play capibilty for my laptop....
I spent about 4hr online at 56kbps.... and sent 5 email, and read few here and there that looked important.
The world without broadband is a bit unusual, from using the web for everything - tv schedules, music, recipes etc I was left pondering what to do next.
So I braved the outside world, and remembered that pre internet life wasn't that bad. Okay I couldn't buy stuff on ebay or buy songs online, so I went to a record shop (they even had records) and bought 5 LPs (dont have an LP player....) and 3 CDs (all of which are now part of my MP3 library).
I realised I spend way too much time at the monitor/keyboard, not a life changing revelation but a good reminder to get out a bit more.
Broadband in the north of New Zealand is fairly few and far between, you can get dialup 115kbps, or 336kpbs on GPRS/3G but pretty much anything over that is a business only level.
Telephone exchanges are being upgraded all the time, but with only 4million people living there and a land mass approx same as most of england you can see where the problem is.
One thing that made my holiday was the music, NZ has a massive rock following, try www.therock.net.nz for a very good rock station - definately 5 stars for quaity of music.
I will post a few holiday snaps up on my site shortly, my brothers wedding went well (a week later and it would have bee 400mm under water) photos here http://www.craighogan.com/hogan-tucker , goodluck to Brett and Jo as well.
server flood in the uk
Well the first week was fairly busy, we had a flood in the server room while I was away, luckily the water was no deeper than the height of the proliants plastic feet....(I would have really like a photo of this situation, bit sadistic, but ot see a room full of servers up to their bottoms in water and still running would make a cool poster to remind everyone to have a backup system in place),I will never take these off again, so lots of checks on systems etc to make sure all is well, looks like the the pc on the floor shorted out once it became submerged and blew the fuse, and all systems went down.
In the event we lost 2 desktops, one plugged in the other just full of silt now, very lucky, used all 9 server lives in this event.
I am not sure how we would have coped with the possibility of no database/files/data and a mail server under water....
I am guessing I would have built two virtual servers up as 'clones' until newhardware could be purchased via insurance etc. Not something have practised or even run through in my head before.
But in my backup system I never had a section for complete annihilation of company servers, I do now and am in the proces of setting up an offsite server (across a vpn) which will have copies of all data, mail, files etc.
Still a big job to recreate an office, but at least its a starting point.
In the event we lost 2 desktops, one plugged in the other just full of silt now, very lucky, used all 9 server lives in this event.
I am not sure how we would have coped with the possibility of no database/files/data and a mail server under water....
I am guessing I would have built two virtual servers up as 'clones' until newhardware could be purchased via insurance etc. Not something have practised or even run through in my head before.
But in my backup system I never had a section for complete annihilation of company servers, I do now and am in the proces of setting up an offsite server (across a vpn) which will have copies of all data, mail, files etc.
Still a big job to recreate an office, but at least its a starting point.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Server has black logon screen
We just had a power cut and when everything came back to life our exchange server (proliant) booted to a black screen, oddly enough it still seemed to work, if you know the order of the buttons you can still login....
weird,
after much hunting it seems that the system default colours in the registry have the odd bug that if the machines system drive runs out of space they may reset themselves to 0 0 0...
ALthough not the same cause,, definately the same problem, to fix this I did (and dont advise, so if you do and it doesn't work or the server becomes an expensive paper weight, there are no guaruntees, no liabilty etc);
1- using regedit on a pc on the same network, goto file -> connect to network registry
Type in the name of the server with the problem.
NOTE this is a live server do not adjust any settings you are not sure about (ie all of them) any false moves and your machine could be toast.
2- Got to the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors" entries, you will see they are all set to 0 0 0.
You can set these three numbers to any RGB (if you dont know what this is I would stop now) you like, the system defaults are below, change each color setting to the one listed
**********************
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"ActiveTitle"="10 36 106"
"AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128"
"Background"="102 111 116"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="64 64 64"
"ButtonFace"="212 208 200"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="212 208 200"
"ButtonShadow"="128 128 128"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="166 202 240"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"GrayText"="128 128 128"
"Hilight"="10 36 106"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128"
"InactiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"InactiveTitle"="128 128 128"
"InactiveTitleText"="212 208 200"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"Menu"="212 208 200"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="212 208 200"
"TitleText"="255 255 255"
"Window"="255 255 255"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"
**********************
Now I can see my login screen!
see link for more info: http://www.flyhpr.com/blog/2005/02/windows-2003-black-login-screen.htm
weird,
after much hunting it seems that the system default colours in the registry have the odd bug that if the machines system drive runs out of space they may reset themselves to 0 0 0...
ALthough not the same cause,, definately the same problem, to fix this I did (and dont advise, so if you do and it doesn't work or the server becomes an expensive paper weight, there are no guaruntees, no liabilty etc);
1- using regedit on a pc on the same network, goto file -> connect to network registry
Type in the name of the server with the problem.
NOTE this is a live server do not adjust any settings you are not sure about (ie all of them) any false moves and your machine could be toast.
2- Got to the "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors" entries, you will see they are all set to 0 0 0.
You can set these three numbers to any RGB (if you dont know what this is I would stop now) you like, the system defaults are below, change each color setting to the one listed
**********************
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"ActiveTitle"="10 36 106"
"AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128"
"Background"="102 111 116"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="64 64 64"
"ButtonFace"="212 208 200"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="212 208 200"
"ButtonShadow"="128 128 128"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="166 202 240"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"GrayText"="128 128 128"
"Hilight"="10 36 106"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128"
"InactiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"InactiveTitle"="128 128 128"
"InactiveTitleText"="212 208 200"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"Menu"="212 208 200"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="212 208 200"
"TitleText"="255 255 255"
"Window"="255 255 255"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"
**********************
Now I can see my login screen!
see link for more info: http://www.flyhpr.com/blog/2005/02/windows-2003-black-login-screen.htm
Friday, February 23, 2007
resetting the default virtual directories for OWA 2003
Everynow and then you will need to reset the directories for exchange 2003 OWA (outlook web access). I have been setting OWA up to run in https mode and playing with OMA (outlook mobile access) for my PDA, in doing so I got it working nut along the way needed to reset the directories, and rather than unpicking all the changes I ghad made I found this much easier and quicker.
The tasks are simple but i can never remember the order the link below has the answers;
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=883380
good luck.
The tasks are simple but i can never remember the order the link below has the answers;
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=883380
good luck.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Remember company details on all e-Docs.
Company Details update
On January 01 2007 legislation from The Companies Act 2006 relating to electronic documents came into force. To avoid being in breach of the Act all companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their website and in certain e-mail correspondence:
"Every company must list its company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on 'business letters' but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents."
For further details on the Companies Act 2006 see http://www.dti.gov.uk/bbf/co-act-2006/index.html
Information that must be on your website
The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given. This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained – e.g. "ABC.co.uk is the trading name of ABC Limited."
It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.
If a company, the company's registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "ABC Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567") If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous.
Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.
On January 01 2007 legislation from The Companies Act 2006 relating to electronic documents came into force. To avoid being in breach of the Act all companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their website and in certain e-mail correspondence:
"Every company must list its company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on 'business letters' but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents."
For further details on the Companies Act 2006 see http://www.dti.gov.uk/bbf/co-act-2006/index.html
Information that must be on your website
The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given. This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained – e.g. "ABC.co.uk is the trading name of ABC Limited."
It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.
If a company, the company's registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "ABC Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567") If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous.
Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
best SEO descrition I have read in a while
Have a look at Matt Hockins breakdown of SEO here - http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/seo-terms.html, the descriptions are very good and have a down to earth feel.
Any questions regarding SEO and your site drop me an email, or a the bottom of Matts page is a query request for an assessment from his company.
Any questions regarding SEO and your site drop me an email, or a the bottom of Matts page is a query request for an assessment from his company.
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