Clicknetworks has today launched an emergency support line for free advice to customers of Adventi IT, who has recently gone into administration.
Established in 2002, Adventi had been regarded as one of the fastest-growing technology firms in the UK but cash flow problems have forced their board to put the company into administration.
In an effort to help current Adventi customers today, Clicknetworks Ltd has setup a 24 hour support line whereby Adventi customers can call to receive advice on how to keep their vital business IT infrastructure running and their businesss moving forward.
"We were very sad to hear about what has happened to Adventi and their customers, especially with people losing their jobs. However, Clicknetworks is in a good position to help Adventi customers in this emergency situation, as 60% of our client base are former Adventi customers", said Clicknetworks Managing Director Mark Mahaffy.
If you are an Adventi customers and are unable to get support from them then please feel free to get in touch with us here at Clicknetworks Ltd. We can provide a wide range of support options for you whether they be just for the short term or in the long run.
Call the support line on: 0141 530 9116.
Click Networks - IT Support Glasgow
Click Networks - IT Support Glasgow
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Friday, 16 April 2010
HTML5 for today right now - It's a DOM thing ok!
Last week I brought up the question of whether it was ok to start developing and authoring sites in the still being devised markup language of HTML5. Today I will talk about which tags you can start using now in your web apps to future proof them for the future.
The vision and aim of HTML5 as mentioned in my last post is an attempt to make structured data more semantic (carry more inherent meaning inside of it) which will allow more advanced processing of the data than is currently possible with other doc types such as HTML4 and XHTML.
Apparently, when developing the HTML 5 spec, the editor, Ian Hickson of Google, analyzed over a billion web pages to find out how authors were actually using these elements. He discovered that in the top 20 class names used in the markup for this huge set of data were classes for common requirements: footer, header, nav, menu, content, and main.
So the foundation of the HTML5 markup spec consists of the following new tags which allow us to markup our website or blog in more meaningful ways:
Now even though not every browser supports these tags at the moment, there is no reason why you can't start using them now to future proof your documents for the next wave of development. Whilst Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera provide limited support, again Internet Explorer provides almost nothing (no surprises there from Microsoft).
So the way to get IE8, IE7 and possibly IE6 to start recognising and parsing these tags and therefore enable the ability to style them via CSS, is to introduce the tags into the DOM via the use of a tiny and non-intrusive linked javascript. Then we can add style rules—floating, background colors, margins. This one line piece of code introduces the following tags into the DOM: abbr, article, aside, audio, bb, canvas, datagrid, datalist, details, dialog, eventsource, figure, footer, header, hgroup, mark, menu, meter, nav, output, progress, section, time, video.. Once in IE's DOM the browser recognises them which allows you to style them even though actual functionality for that element and attribute may not work, which means that you can start developing for the other browsers and at the same time enable backwards compatibility for IE as well as forwards compatibility for IE9 which apparently is being shipped with some support for HTML5. For more information, discussion and comments about this HTML5 DOM script please see: http://remysharp.com/2009/01/07/html5-enabling-script/
Alternatively you can use a script in the head of your document which enables you to call only those tags you wish to use:
So start authoring your docs in HTML5 today and future proof your sites whilst getting ahead of the competition. Although there is no evidence as yet that Google is making any meaningful sense out of the new tags, there is ample evidence to suggest it is wise to be prepared for the change in the algorithim when it happens for SEO purposes.
Next week I will go into more detail about HTML5 and even introduce some new ideas about how you can use Microformats and rich snippets to enhance your website, synidcate its content and improve your ranking and overall brand in Google and Google Maps all at once and at the same time.
The vision and aim of HTML5 as mentioned in my last post is an attempt to make structured data more semantic (carry more inherent meaning inside of it) which will allow more advanced processing of the data than is currently possible with other doc types such as HTML4 and XHTML.
Apparently, when developing the HTML 5 spec, the editor, Ian Hickson of Google, analyzed over a billion web pages to find out how authors were actually using these elements. He discovered that in the top 20 class names used in the markup for this huge set of data were classes for common requirements: footer, header, nav, menu, content, and main.
So the foundation of the HTML5 markup spec consists of the following new tags which allow us to markup our website or blog in more meaningful ways:
- header
- footer
- nav
- section
- aside
- article
Now even though not every browser supports these tags at the moment, there is no reason why you can't start using them now to future proof your documents for the next wave of development. Whilst Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera provide limited support, again Internet Explorer provides almost nothing (no surprises there from Microsoft).
So the way to get IE8, IE7 and possibly IE6 to start recognising and parsing these tags and therefore enable the ability to style them via CSS, is to introduce the tags into the DOM via the use of a tiny and non-intrusive linked javascript. Then we can add style rules—floating, background colors, margins. This one line piece of code introduces the following tags into the DOM: abbr, article, aside, audio, bb, canvas, datagrid, datalist, details, dialog, eventsource, figure, footer, header, hgroup, mark, menu, meter, nav, output, progress, section, time, video.. Once in IE's DOM the browser recognises them which allows you to style them even though actual functionality for that element and attribute may not work, which means that you can start developing for the other browsers and at the same time enable backwards compatibility for IE as well as forwards compatibility for IE9 which apparently is being shipped with some support for HTML5. For more information, discussion and comments about this HTML5 DOM script please see: http://remysharp.com/2009/01/07/html5-enabling-script/
Alternatively you can use a script in the head of your document which enables you to call only those tags you wish to use:
So start authoring your docs in HTML5 today and future proof your sites whilst getting ahead of the competition. Although there is no evidence as yet that Google is making any meaningful sense out of the new tags, there is ample evidence to suggest it is wise to be prepared for the change in the algorithim when it happens for SEO purposes.
Next week I will go into more detail about HTML5 and even introduce some new ideas about how you can use Microformats and rich snippets to enhance your website, synidcate its content and improve your ranking and overall brand in Google and Google Maps all at once and at the same time.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
HTML5 - Is it time to start developing websites this way?
HTML5 is being developed as the next major revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web.
HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apache Pivot, and Sun JavaFX.
The First Public Working Draft of HTML5 was completed in 2008 and will reach W3C Recommendation by late 2010.
Although the final specification is not to reach W3C Candidate Recommendation till 2012, many parts of the specification are stable and may be implemented in browsers.
So is it time to start developing websites and applications in HTML5?
Yes and no. Yes, you can start developing using the features already supported by the major browsers. No, you should not use HTML5 experimental features on any client projects where you must have an absolute 100% accessibility compliance.
In my next post I will talk about the major features in HTML5 and CSS3 that you can use now, and have vendor support across all major browsers.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
IE9 Platform Preview - SVG, HTML 5, CSS3; looks like pigs do fly
Microsoft released a preview of their next browser at the MIX conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Although it can only muster a 55/100 score in the ACID tests I must say I'm impressed with Microsoft's progress to put right years of piss-poor browser releases. The JavaScript engine is fairly sprightly too beating Firefox 3.6 on the SunSpider benchmark.
CSS3 support is there but without too much digging I don't know if this is an MS implementation or if they have followed standards (suggestions on a postcard please) but given the commitment to SVG, which is a direct competitor/replacement to Silverlight and Flash it's likely the browser devs are actually listening to users.
On the edge of the blade side of things we see the IE engine using the Direct2D API's to offload graphical processing tasks to a compatible GPU; a nice touch. They have also added some neat new DOM events and objects and support for a multitude of HTML 5 goodness although we don't currently have evidence of the <canvas> tag support everyone is looking for, here's hoping eh?
If you want to give the preview a shot and check out the differences between it and MS's old browser engines (IE6 - 8) then click below:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/ThankYou/Default.html
If not then, like me, you already have a better, more compliant browser which you are probably using to read this. But still, kudos to MS and the IE team, keep up the good work.
CSS3 support is there but without too much digging I don't know if this is an MS implementation or if they have followed standards (suggestions on a postcard please) but given the commitment to SVG, which is a direct competitor/replacement to Silverlight and Flash it's likely the browser devs are actually listening to users.
On the edge of the blade side of things we see the IE engine using the Direct2D API's to offload graphical processing tasks to a compatible GPU; a nice touch. They have also added some neat new DOM events and objects and support for a multitude of HTML 5 goodness although we don't currently have evidence of the <canvas> tag support everyone is looking for, here's hoping eh?
If you want to give the preview a shot and check out the differences between it and MS's old browser engines (IE6 - 8) then click below:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/ThankYou/Default.html
If not then, like me, you already have a better, more compliant browser which you are probably using to read this. But still, kudos to MS and the IE team, keep up the good work.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
RE: Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users
The BBC's released an article last night entitled: "Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users"
Read it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8557144.stm
This article seems to have caused a lot of excess worry and confusion for people still using Windows XP. So allow me to briefly put your mind at ease.
What does this actually mean for Windows XP users?
First of all, you do not need to worry about any of this until you have to buy a new hard drive. Nothing will change on your existing computer.
If you are about to buy a new hard drive; There are very few of these "Advanced Format" hard drives out at the moment - and all of them have a "switch" (jumper at the back of the drive) which allows you to run the drive "in compatibility mode" (the original 512-byte format) which will work happily with Windows XP.
In the near future (2-3 years) there is nothing to worry about, hard drive manufacturers should provide this "compatibility mode".
In future (more than 4-5 years time), hard drive manufacturers may begin expecting customers to have an operating system (such as Windows 7) that can support this new format.
As futher reading, I'd highly recommend this HotHardware article for a good introduction to the new Advanced Format:
Exploring WD's Advanced Format HD Technology
http://hothardware.com/Articles/WDs-1TB-Caviar-Green-w-Advanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/
Read it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8557144.stm
This article seems to have caused a lot of excess worry and confusion for people still using Windows XP. So allow me to briefly put your mind at ease.
What does this actually mean for Windows XP users?
First of all, you do not need to worry about any of this until you have to buy a new hard drive. Nothing will change on your existing computer.
If you are about to buy a new hard drive; There are very few of these "Advanced Format" hard drives out at the moment - and all of them have a "switch" (jumper at the back of the drive) which allows you to run the drive "in compatibility mode" (the original 512-byte format) which will work happily with Windows XP.
In the near future (2-3 years) there is nothing to worry about, hard drive manufacturers should provide this "compatibility mode".
In future (more than 4-5 years time), hard drive manufacturers may begin expecting customers to have an operating system (such as Windows 7) that can support this new format.
As futher reading, I'd highly recommend this HotHardware article for a good introduction to the new Advanced Format:
Exploring WD's Advanced Format HD Technology
http://hothardware.com/Articles/WDs-1TB-Caviar-Green-w-Advanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Converting DVDs for YouTube – apply the HandBrake!
Our client Epilepsy Scotland has recently announced a new educational DVD "Taking the Tablets" created in partnership between five UK epilepsy charities (Epilepsy Action, Epilepsy Bereaved, Epilepsy Scotland, the National Society for Epilepsy and the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy).
As part of it's promotion Epilepsy Scotland asked us if there was any way we may be able to provide their video online for people who live with epilepsy who may be considering anti-epileptic drug treatment so that they can be better informed whilst making their decision.
The most cost-effective options were to use either one of the charities' existing web hosting space or a public video sharing website. As this video was created equally between all the charities a neutral-territory option was preferred, so it was decided that YouTube would be the ideal host for the video as this mitigated any individual responsibility for the video's hosting.
The job set out for us at ClickNetworks was therefore to provide the DVD in a format compatible with YouTube and to upload the video for the world to see.
Whilst the YouTube website states it “accepts a wide range of video formats”, it goes on to say they have specific “recommended video file formats” in order optimally convert the videos into their own Flash Video format.
YouTube distinctly discourages any changes to the resolution, bit rate or frame rate of your existing video so it can be presented in as much of its original glory as possible, the recommended codec was H.264 or MPEG-2 within an MPEG-4 container.
After searching through countless “shareware” “one-click” solutions that provide DVD to MPEG-4 conversion, we finally stumbled across HandBrake – an open source, multiplatform (yes, that’s Mac OS, Windows and Linux) video transcoder.
Available from http://www.handbrake.fr this wonderful software provided an easy to use GUI that allowed us to convert nearly any file format (as well as the DVD itself) into either the MPEG4 or H.264 format with a multitude of different options. After closely following YouTube’s recommended guidelines and adjusting the options on HandBrake’s easy to use interface – the final result was perfect.
The “Taking the Tablets” DVD was in its entirety, approx. 24 minutes long. As YouTube limits you to a 10 minute maximum, we had to split the video into it’s separate chapters. HandBrake provides this option straight from it’s main screen which made the task quick and painless.
The handy queuing option also allowed the whole job to be setup and then left to run in the background while we got on with other jobs.
Our hats go off to the HandBrake developers for making a great efficient application that gets the job done.
So, if you need to get your band’s new music video (provided to you on a cumbersome DVD) or you have an existing video that just won’t upload to YouTube nicely, HandBrake could certainly be a great helping hand in getting your content onto the web.
As part of it's promotion Epilepsy Scotland asked us if there was any way we may be able to provide their video online for people who live with epilepsy who may be considering anti-epileptic drug treatment so that they can be better informed whilst making their decision.
The most cost-effective options were to use either one of the charities' existing web hosting space or a public video sharing website. As this video was created equally between all the charities a neutral-territory option was preferred, so it was decided that YouTube would be the ideal host for the video as this mitigated any individual responsibility for the video's hosting.
The job set out for us at ClickNetworks was therefore to provide the DVD in a format compatible with YouTube and to upload the video for the world to see.
Whilst the YouTube website states it “accepts a wide range of video formats”, it goes on to say they have specific “recommended video file formats” in order optimally convert the videos into their own Flash Video format.
YouTube distinctly discourages any changes to the resolution, bit rate or frame rate of your existing video so it can be presented in as much of its original glory as possible, the recommended codec was H.264 or MPEG-2 within an MPEG-4 container.
After searching through countless “shareware” “one-click” solutions that provide DVD to MPEG-4 conversion, we finally stumbled across HandBrake – an open source, multiplatform (yes, that’s Mac OS, Windows and Linux) video transcoder.
Available from http://www.handbrake.fr this wonderful software provided an easy to use GUI that allowed us to convert nearly any file format (as well as the DVD itself) into either the MPEG4 or H.264 format with a multitude of different options. After closely following YouTube’s recommended guidelines and adjusting the options on HandBrake’s easy to use interface – the final result was perfect.
The “Taking the Tablets” DVD was in its entirety, approx. 24 minutes long. As YouTube limits you to a 10 minute maximum, we had to split the video into it’s separate chapters. HandBrake provides this option straight from it’s main screen which made the task quick and painless.
The handy queuing option also allowed the whole job to be setup and then left to run in the background while we got on with other jobs.
Our hats go off to the HandBrake developers for making a great efficient application that gets the job done.
So, if you need to get your band’s new music video (provided to you on a cumbersome DVD) or you have an existing video that just won’t upload to YouTube nicely, HandBrake could certainly be a great helping hand in getting your content onto the web.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Browser Wars - The European Commission Strikes Back
From today, if your a UK or European user of a Windows machine you may be asked if you would like to switch to another browser. Microsoft is to release a software update via its Windows security patches website prompting users to select a default browser for their desktop.
Microsoft has made the update for XP, Vista and Windows 7 users. Users of Firefox, Safari, Chrome Opera and other alternative browsers will apparently not receive the prompt.
Only those users who have IE set as their default browser will get the pop-up window outlining the alternative choices available for installation. The prompt window is the result of a deal Microsoft cut with the European Commission after its antitrust investigation.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer already has a 60% share in the world browser market so it remains to be seen how effective the new patch will be in providing an opportunity to Redmond's growing list of competitors.
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