September 2009 Entries
This customer had their domain registered through a developer who changed the passwords on the registry account meaning that they thought control had been taken away from the customer. We have dealt direct with Nominet in order to ensure that the identity of the account was restored to our customer and then paid Nominet to change the IPS-TAG which allowed us to transfer the name to our control The registrant details have been changed to the customer and we have successfully moved it to our network despite the major problems the customer has had with the other developer in the...
We are in the process of performing our monthly backup. Customers using a monitoring service may notice a very small drop in performance of around 2 millseconds whilst the back up is in progress. This is because our network is transferring data to an off network location for additional security - our nightly backups are done to a server on our network which does not cause any performance issues. Some databases may be offline for up to 1 minute 30 seconds whilst the off site backup is performed. I won't be blogging these events in future but wanted it on...
I am delighted that Ladybird Internet Ltd has been accepted for the Microsoft WebsiteSpark Programme.
Acceptance gives us a closer relationship with Microsoft (our Microsoft Partner status is more for our networking and desktop software expertise). The WebsiteSpark program provides us with lots of new development software for free and although we already have Visual Studio 2008 Professional and SQL Server 2008 the shiny new Microsoft Expression Web and Expression Studio will shortly be making an impact on the look and feel of the sites we deliver for our clients.
Watch this space for more information!
Oh no ... I am actually excited about a mobile phone. In fact, I am not just excited - I am in love and want to take it to bed with me (in case the cat knocks it off my desk!).
Now, most of you already know that I am not a big fan of SMS as I have quite thick and chunky fingers and I find it difficult to hit the buttons on a normal phone. I have a mail server which supports IMAP and the Blackberry but haven't been able to find a phone that I like enough to...
More photographs are being added to this build over the weekend and we will be launching a major Google Adwords campaign on the 27th September 2009.
The new build is almost complete and we expect this to go live at the weekend. Converting the old content from HTML to XHTML is taking longer than anticipated but needs to be done ...
The new version of Glasgow Hostels web site is now live and incorporates the very latest AJAX technologies (try the online booking system!) and links to Royal Bank of Scotland to handle live deposits. This has been a very challenging development as the client has used several different developers (all of whom messed him about) and in the end I decided that upgrading to XHTML / CSS 2 / and .NET would help his marketing and make it easier to add WorldPay integration.
The new site is available at www.glasgowhostels.com and uses our SQL Server 2008 database, AJAX, .NET 3.5, LINQ...
For a company specialising in web development I have been very lax in my approach to our own site. We've been so busy getting new business in and serving our existing customers that we just haven't had time to revamp the single page I put up in January! This has now been fixed with the launch of our new corporate home page - we've still got some work to do but at least it provides a lot more information about the Company (the history page brought some memories back whilst I was writing it!). By the way, if anyone wants...
I have spoken to some customers before about privacy and the new "deep search" services available which include www.pipl.com (which is scary enough!). I was surprised today to find a customer emailing me to ask if they could buy me a book from my Amazon wish list instead of using my virtual bar at www.getabeerinfor.me/nickbird.
I headed off to the web address they gave me (where they found my wish list) at http://www.123people.co.uk/s/nick+bird and was surprised to see a link to my Amazon Wish List at : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/1KIVU3CTU17NV?tag=section_wishlist0e-21
How bloody scary is this? If you have a dig around for my name...
We have a new product available - this is an open source application written with SilverLight which we have rewritten to work with our network. You can upload videos to our wall or (free on request) we can setup a video wall on your own web site allowing customers to view videos in a very dynamic way - this is YOUR youtube!
Ideas on how to use it....
We'll be launching a new video service for Lanzarote in the next few weeks
Bars can get their customers to upload videos of their time spent inside...
We are happy to announce that we have been awarded the development contract for the Las Coronas Apartments in Costa Teguise Lanzarote by our sister business in Lanzarote NISCOWEB. The team in Lanzarote have done a cracking job in obtaining the account and they will handle the day to day requirements of the project whilst Ladybird handles the server side infrastructure and the development of the web site and intranet solution.
Quite apart from the provision of a high end public facing web site, we will also be providing over 130 dedicated email accounts and a private discussion forums which will allow the apartment owners...
We have had the contract through NISCO for another site owned by this customer and they are now moving their major Scottish construction company onto our network for a rebuild with the latest technologies. The old site is static HTML and contains out of date information which the client is struggling to get updated and our proven platforms are ideal for this kind of redevelopment project. We'll keep you posted.
We have just taken delivery of our shiny Microsoft Expression Web 3 development studio DVD. Whilst we use Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition for our .NET Development, the Expression Studio provides a better design service and standards compliancy - it also includes a super previewer which helps to make sure that the sites we build look great in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. You'll see an improvement in our accessibility standards too as we work to ensure that our clients' sites meet the latest disability accessibility legislation.
This site has been on our network for over three years and is now looking a bit dated so we'll be rebuilding it over the next couple of weeks with a new XHTML and CSS format for standards compliancy, online booking with payments powered by RBS WorldPay, and other neat features. The customer has many sites on different domains hosted with many different providers and we are working with the owner to move all of the domains to our network, relaunch them all in different languages, and provide a Google Adwords campaign to boost his traffic. You can view the...
We launched the final build of Booking Manager yesterday and sold the first account to www.theestatehouse.co.uk. As part of the rollout we have also integrated the Booking Manager Availability Wizard into the new site and this now allows visitors to the site to check room availability in real time. The next section we will be adding to the wizard is the ability for it to provide quotations and also to handle online payment processing via PayPal or WorldPay. If you haven't tried it yet, read the posts below to get access to the demo account or sign up for a...
We are now developing a new product aimed at guest houses, hotels, and holiday rental home companies. The product is called BOOKING MANAGER and will provide a complete online solution for managing bookings. Features already in place include:
Dynamic AJAX driven schedule engine similiar to Microsoft Outlook Calendar
Microsoft .NET Membership Provider for security
Unlimited resources per clients (rooms per hotel, or houses per company)
Bookings can be entered, edited, and deleted
Booking can be categorised as NEW, CONFIRMED, ARRIVED, CHECKED OUT
...
We are currently developing a new service for hotels, guest houses, and bed and breakfasts which will allow these establishments to throw away their booking diaries. Whether you own ten hotels, manage villas for someone else, or have a guest house with a few rooms, this system will allow you to manage them simply and effectively. As the system is developed we are going to be adding invoicing capabilities and other functions needed by accommodation owners. To find out more, enroll in the beta program, and give us your ideas please contact us.