by Kevin Partner on 11th December, 2009
I've spent some time during a busy week signing up for Google Apps Premier. Why? The main benefit to my companies is that it allows us to use corporate level email facilities without the expense or hassle of setting up and running an Exchange (or similar) server. I'm currently in the 30 day free trial and all is going well.
For around £2.50 per month per user, we now get sophisticated email which is delivered via the increasingly impressive Googlemail interface. In the background is the Postini service (acquired by Google a couple of years ago) which adds superb spam filtering and virus checking along with other facilities (including a standard footer) I have yet to explore.
We also get the rather nice Google Sites which allows us to set up an ad-hoc intranet. By editing our MX records, I'm able to access the various functions at [function].[domain name]: for example
mail.example.com or
docs.example.com and even set up a Google Sites web page at
www.example.com so that all users can log in and get to the various sections from one central page.
Google Apps includes Google Docs which, frankly, is still pretty rubbish. It will enable us to collaborate on simply formatted documents and presentations before the final version is downloaded and prettied up.
Apps includes a shared Calendar application, built in chat and even the ability to access Apps on your mobile phone (it works beautifully on my Android phone).
It took a bit of setting up, although it was easy enough and most of this was spent in Google Mail setting up filters to help me manage email coming from all my many email accounts. So far it's going exceptionally well: enabling me to keep to my "clear inbox" policy almost entirely. Because it's online, I don't have to worry about viruses and my inbox is not cluttered with Spam because it would have to get past Positini first and then Google's own spam filter. So far, not a single inappropriate message has made it into my inbox. I was able to achieve something similar using Thunderbird and Cloudmark but it took ages every morning to process the crap that came in.
So far so good: I now need to sell my co-director (and technophobe) on it. If he goes for it, then I know we're onto a winner.
Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous
by Kevin Partner on 2nd December, 2009
I’m just starting to experiment with Expression Web 3 as a site editor (specifically for editing PHP, CSS and Javascript files) and the first stumbling block was how to set it up so that I can edit my remote files directly without having to create a local version. This is necessary because I don’t have PHP/MySQL and Apache installed on my Windows machine.
Despite the fact that this doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the application help, it’s actually very simple. Just go to File, Open and, in the address bar, type your FTP address. You’ll then be prompted to type in your login details and, assuming this has worked successfully, you’ll then be presented with an Explorer view of your site from which you can pick your file. Simple.
by Kevin Partner on 11th November, 2009
Our latest commercial venture www.MakingYourOwnCandles.co.uk has launched in time for Christmas. This site/business was created as part of a project for PCPro (or which more in due course) and offers easy-to-use but professional quality candle making kits that anyone can use to create coloured and scented 15-hour candles.
The site was created using WordPress and is linked to a shop created using EKMPowershop’s ecommerce structure. It’ll run until Christmas, at which point we’ll evaluate whether to run it as an ongoing business.
by Kevin Partner on 10th November, 2009
The utter stupidity of big corporations never ceases to amaze. Forced by law in the US to provide a protective cap to owners of their push-chairs, Maclaren refuse to do so in this country because our law does not force them to do so. Utterly pathetic: they could have had a marketing triumph by issuing the covers in the UK because it’s THE RIGHT THING TO DO. If it prevents one more child having their fingers chopped off in the mechanism then DO IT. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The epitome of why big corporations are SO 20th Century.
Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous
by Kevin Partner on 5th November, 2009
Somewhat off-topic, I’ll admit, but I’ve worked with Automotive clients for years helping to teach them how to sell properly so perhaps I’m well placed to help you get the right deal for you. Having just bought a used Toyota Verso, here are my practical observations:
Choose your car before you go to the dealer
Car sales executives will want to sell you the car that best suits them, whilst (more or less) meeting your requirements. This might be a car that’s been on the forecourt for a while or one that the sales executive has been incentivised to sell for whatever reason.
Use the internet and personal recommendations to select your car. Check out What Car and pay particular attention to the user reviews (whilst bearing in mind that reviewers are self-selecting: either gloriously happy or, more likely, bloody angry!). [click to continue…]
by Kevin Partner on 27th October, 2009
PHP gets a bad press from time to time, largely because its very flexibility is seen as laxness by the tight sphincter brigade. However, just because PHP doesn’t force “best practice” on programmers doesn’t mean you can’t adopt said best practice.
Object oriented programming is much talked about and has many advantages over the old-school line-based procedural code. You’re probably familiar with functions (blocks of code called independently: they used to be called subroutines in the old days). Objects are groups of function which are, to some degree, “self aware”. By this I mean that values can be passed within the objects to allow the object to take the appopriate actions.
Enough of theory, I want to give a concrete example of how using objects can be, in a very practical, sense a timesaver. I’m going to show you how to create a very useful database object which can be used to make connecting to the database, retrieving and storing data much simpler. [click to continue…]
by Kevin Partner on 27th October, 2009
I live in Milton Keynes and have been to Bletchley Park many time. As you probably know, Bletchley Park was the home of the “codebreakers” in the Second World War who cracked the various enemy codes (including the infamous Enigma Code) and are credited with shortening the war. The park became, by default, owned by BT but is now independent. It is, however, in grave need of preservation. I heard about an Early Day Motion in Parliament related to the park and asked my local MP, Phylis Starkey, if she supported it.
Here is her response:
[click to continue…]
by Kevin Partner on 27th October, 2009
Just run the Safari browser to check a site (it was already installed) only to find that it has automatically set itself to be my default browser. The Apple control-freakery spreads…
Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous
by Kevin Partner on 26th October, 2009
by Kevin Partner on 26th October, 2009
To my utter disbelief, I have today received an email from my “Royal Mail Business Consultant” (some might call it spam, especially since it’s not personalised, but that’s quite another matter) offering to meet me to discuss a new service they’re offering (“Royal Mail Tracked”).
ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH? My post isn’t even being DELIVERED at the moment! Sort out the dispute, stop demonising the posties (oh, and posties, get real about what you can expect in terms of job security and terms and conditions) and get my post delivered before I will even CONSIDER talking to you.
I shall be emailing my new “consultant” to that effect.
Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous
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