We have taken delivery of an 8 core Mac to run Catalyst Media Server. Now we just need to learn how to operate it. It will be available for hire via. www.edinburgh-projector.co.uk and www.warpro.co.uk
It's the sort of kit that is used for X Factor, Eurovision, etc.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
More website enhancements
I've been following a policy gradual improvement in terms of several projection based websites that I have been developing utilising slightly different methods to promote. As ever with this type of work it's a case of experimenting, tracking users and trying to improve things to try and pick up more business.
Today I have supplemented a projection lamps data feed on http://www.birmingham-projectors.co.uk/projector-lamps.php with additional date from another lamp supplier. This means that when a customer arrives at our website, (hopefully on a carefully targetted landing page designed to serve up exactly the lamp they are looking for) if they happen to find that we are out of stock, the site automatically checks with distributor 2 for stock and offers to supply the lamp in a fairly transparent way. If neither supplier has stock then a check is undertaken to see who can supply first and that option is shown.
I may look to introduce a price sensitive search for customer who don't need a lamp in a hurry.
Today I have supplemented a projection lamps data feed on http://www.birmingham-projectors.co.uk/projector-lamps.php with additional date from another lamp supplier. This means that when a customer arrives at our website, (hopefully on a carefully targetted landing page designed to serve up exactly the lamp they are looking for) if they happen to find that we are out of stock, the site automatically checks with distributor 2 for stock and offers to supply the lamp in a fairly transparent way. If neither supplier has stock then a check is undertaken to see who can supply first and that option is shown.
I may look to introduce a price sensitive search for customer who don't need a lamp in a hurry.
Friday, 12 February 2010
What to do when someone copies your top ranking website content (and domain name)?
Hhhm... a new issue that raised it's ugly head today... I have discovered that someone has taken by top ranking .co.uk domain name and registered a .com version, which in itself is fine. It's a UK site and the .co.uk is the one to have as far as I am concerned, but not only have the copied the domain name, they've also lifted large chunks of the website.... the main pages are essentially the same with badly designed headers, and different link urls & phone numbers. Oh, and did I say badly designed?
This has been done to 2 geographically relevant sites and we have had complaints from unhappy customers who think they're dealing with us. The strange thing is that most of the content is lists of specialist equipment that we have for rental, and that the imitator can't have most of it available (it's a small market and we know who has what) so it's been done purely as these sites were high ranking, possibly to support some other business.
So what to do? Well at 5.30pm on a Friday the options were a little limited but I will be detailing what I do and how I get on in this blog.
Some people say call - discuss, but as this is a clear cut case of trading on our reputation it's not the first thing I've done. My first course of action was to a run a whois check, plus basic DNS record checking. The registrant is based in Glasgow and is listed as having about 538 domains. I found the Registration Service Provider: and requested that they remove the offending material (in this case it's a UK based company that I am a customer of anyway so hopefully that will help - request logged through their support channels)... I also submitted a Spam notification via Google Sitemaps explaining the situation. Both original domains have longstanding sitemaps associated. On Monday, I intend to call the numbers listed and ask them to remove the content. If that fails I'll be contacting trading standards and considering legal action. There are a number of websites that offer advice on such issues, but I haven't had time to investigate more fully yet. I shall post further updates and developments as they occur. It's probably a good time to remind you to ensure that your websites and content have appropriate copyright notices on display in case this happens to you!
UPDATE: I've had a response from his host (UK2) who have a logged a ticket and given him 1 week to respond (They didn't say that would take action as of yet). UK trading standards don't think they can act and have suggested a solicitor. Still waiting for a response from google. Next step is probably to discuss legal action (possibly via FSB or Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce for an initial consultation at least).
LATEST UPDATE: I contacted UK2 again today and they reported that the owner of the copycat site had not responded with the time limit set. They then reported that he had just submitted a long and rambling reply which would need careful consideration. The UK2 operator also apologised and said that the copy sites should have been suspended which they did do within 30 minutes - currently they are showing a 403 error. I've been advised to wait for a response to my support ticket. We have also looked into legal action at this point and as things stand we have been advised that we stand a good chance of proving that the copycat site is guilty of passing off. It will cost money though so I'm hoping that UK2 will persuade the ripoff merchant to create some of his own content at least. I have heard nothing back via google sitemaps as of yet. UPDATE 27/02/2010 Both offending sites are back up, but with our content removed (as far as I can tell). They are now 1 page sites (although there may be orphan pages on the site still accessible via google and other search engines. The page layout is still mine, and the domain name is still a copycat but I guess I can't expect anything more at the moment.
This has been done to 2 geographically relevant sites and we have had complaints from unhappy customers who think they're dealing with us. The strange thing is that most of the content is lists of specialist equipment that we have for rental, and that the imitator can't have most of it available (it's a small market and we know who has what) so it's been done purely as these sites were high ranking, possibly to support some other business.
So what to do? Well at 5.30pm on a Friday the options were a little limited but I will be detailing what I do and how I get on in this blog.
Some people say call - discuss, but as this is a clear cut case of trading on our reputation it's not the first thing I've done. My first course of action was to a run a whois check, plus basic DNS record checking. The registrant is based in Glasgow and is listed as having about 538 domains. I found the Registration Service Provider: and requested that they remove the offending material (in this case it's a UK based company that I am a customer of anyway so hopefully that will help - request logged through their support channels)... I also submitted a Spam notification via Google Sitemaps explaining the situation. Both original domains have longstanding sitemaps associated. On Monday, I intend to call the numbers listed and ask them to remove the content. If that fails I'll be contacting trading standards and considering legal action. There are a number of websites that offer advice on such issues, but I haven't had time to investigate more fully yet. I shall post further updates and developments as they occur. It's probably a good time to remind you to ensure that your websites and content have appropriate copyright notices on display in case this happens to you!
UPDATE: I've had a response from his host (UK2) who have a logged a ticket and given him 1 week to respond (They didn't say that would take action as of yet). UK trading standards don't think they can act and have suggested a solicitor. Still waiting for a response from google. Next step is probably to discuss legal action (possibly via FSB or Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce for an initial consultation at least).
LATEST UPDATE: I contacted UK2 again today and they reported that the owner of the copycat site had not responded with the time limit set. They then reported that he had just submitted a long and rambling reply which would need careful consideration. The UK2 operator also apologised and said that the copy sites should have been suspended which they did do within 30 minutes - currently they are showing a 403 error. I've been advised to wait for a response to my support ticket. We have also looked into legal action at this point and as things stand we have been advised that we stand a good chance of proving that the copycat site is guilty of passing off. It will cost money though so I'm hoping that UK2 will persuade the ripoff merchant to create some of his own content at least. I have heard nothing back via google sitemaps as of yet. UPDATE 27/02/2010 Both offending sites are back up, but with our content removed (as far as I can tell). They are now 1 page sites (although there may be orphan pages on the site still accessible via google and other search engines. The page layout is still mine, and the domain name is still a copycat but I guess I can't expect anything more at the moment.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Launching a New E-Commerce site from Scratch
This week has seen me rollout a newly designed e-commerce website (www.london-projectors.co.uk), aimed at the world of audiovisual equipment - specifically projector hire & sales, replacement lamps and ceiling mounting brackets. The site is targetted at the London geographic area and has around 6000 pages which I will be attempt to drive some traffic to over the coming months. The site uses google checkout and the google checkout cart and is built in php and mysql - mostly by hand over the course of the last week. I intend to investigate google base and the effect that this has on traffic, google sitemaps (submission today), plus every other technique I can find to launch on the world.... watch this blog for regular updates.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Three Useful Utility Programs - All Free
ImgBurn - It describes itself as the ultimate image burner program and I've found it great so far. It's small and easy to use and will burn .iso & .img files without renaming. It will also create image files and can be used to check your finalised CDs & DVDs for errors (some drives perform better than others). It will also burn Blu-Ray discs.
Download it here.
-----------------------
Bulk Rename Utility - Another really useful program, again free (donations accepted). It's a huge timesaver when it comes to renaming files (eg. batch renaming your newly downloaded photographs). It's fully configurable and can remove names, prefixes, suffixes and add them all back in again.
Download the free bulk rename utility here.
------------------------
RarZilla Free Unrar - You may well have come across .rar files (.rar is a file extension used to reduce filesize, similar to zipping / unzipping but on a GNU licence) and wondered what to do with them - windows has not built-in solutions (as far as I know). Well, here's the answer - just drop it into this piece of freeware to decompress the files and get on with the business in hand.
Download free rar decompression utility here.
Download it here.
-----------------------
Bulk Rename Utility - Another really useful program, again free (donations accepted). It's a huge timesaver when it comes to renaming files (eg. batch renaming your newly downloaded photographs). It's fully configurable and can remove names, prefixes, suffixes and add them all back in again.
Download the free bulk rename utility here.
------------------------
RarZilla Free Unrar - You may well have come across .rar files (.rar is a file extension used to reduce filesize, similar to zipping / unzipping but on a GNU licence) and wondered what to do with them - windows has not built-in solutions (as far as I know). Well, here's the answer - just drop it into this piece of freeware to decompress the files and get on with the business in hand.
Download free rar decompression utility here.
Friday, 29 January 2010
How to setup public wifi access on a private network (The idiots guide)
This is a general guide at the moment. It's an easy enough project if you understand what you are doing, but if you did I guess you might not be reading this.
The project is to allow guest users internet access (in a bar, but it could be anywhere) without allowing them access to the private network of office computers, tills, etc. This can be done by sharing a single broadband ADSL (or cable) connection.
At the heart of this project is the router, what it does and the concept of network topology (Don't panic!). I'll keep this in plain language as far as possible.
A Routers primary job is to route traffic from one network to another. Note that routers have a WAN port and LAN ports - The WAN port is for connection to other networks (eg. the internet). Routers typically have a firewall built-in, along with NAT (Network address translation). In effect this means that all traffic originating from the LAN behind the router appears to come from the router. It also means that the LAN is protected from unsolicited inbound traffic by the routers onboard security. Still with me? If not read this last paragraph again before continuing.
In a typical SOHO situation we have a single ADSL (or cable) router which issues DHCP addresses to all the devices on the LAN and acts as a gateway to the internet. All devices on the LAN will be discoverable by each other. If we allow our guest users access to this LAN then they'll be able to see our private computers which poses a security risk. Not recommended.
The solution, is to use multiple routers (2 required at least) and setup them up as follows:
Router 1 - Primary connection to the internet. All public (guest) access is via this router. If it has wifi then make it public, or you can attach a wifi access point and make this public.
Router 2 - Our private network. Attach the WAN port of this router to an available LAN port on Router 1, and attach our private network computers to the LAN ports on router 2. Router 2 should be setup to issue DHCP addresses in a different network address range from router 1 (see example addresses below). The WAN port should automatically pickup an address from router 1.
EXAMPLE ADDRESS RANGES FOR PUBLIC / PRIVATE ROUTERS
Router 1 - Set DHCP to issue addresses 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.255
Router 2 - Set DHCP to issue addresses 192.168.10.1 - 192.168.10.255
You will have to consult your equipment manuals for details on how to achieve the above specifically. If you want private wifi access you'll need to attach another wifi access point to router 2 (or purchase one with on-board wi-ifi).
Hope this helps...
The project is to allow guest users internet access (in a bar, but it could be anywhere) without allowing them access to the private network of office computers, tills, etc. This can be done by sharing a single broadband ADSL (or cable) connection.
At the heart of this project is the router, what it does and the concept of network topology (Don't panic!). I'll keep this in plain language as far as possible.
A Routers primary job is to route traffic from one network to another. Note that routers have a WAN port and LAN ports - The WAN port is for connection to other networks (eg. the internet). Routers typically have a firewall built-in, along with NAT (Network address translation). In effect this means that all traffic originating from the LAN behind the router appears to come from the router. It also means that the LAN is protected from unsolicited inbound traffic by the routers onboard security. Still with me? If not read this last paragraph again before continuing.
In a typical SOHO situation we have a single ADSL (or cable) router which issues DHCP addresses to all the devices on the LAN and acts as a gateway to the internet. All devices on the LAN will be discoverable by each other. If we allow our guest users access to this LAN then they'll be able to see our private computers which poses a security risk. Not recommended.
The solution, is to use multiple routers (2 required at least) and setup them up as follows:
Router 1 - Primary connection to the internet. All public (guest) access is via this router. If it has wifi then make it public, or you can attach a wifi access point and make this public.
Router 2 - Our private network. Attach the WAN port of this router to an available LAN port on Router 1, and attach our private network computers to the LAN ports on router 2. Router 2 should be setup to issue DHCP addresses in a different network address range from router 1 (see example addresses below). The WAN port should automatically pickup an address from router 1.
EXAMPLE ADDRESS RANGES FOR PUBLIC / PRIVATE ROUTERS
Router 1 - Set DHCP to issue addresses 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.255
Router 2 - Set DHCP to issue addresses 192.168.10.1 - 192.168.10.255
You will have to consult your equipment manuals for details on how to achieve the above specifically. If you want private wifi access you'll need to attach another wifi access point to router 2 (or purchase one with on-board wi-ifi).
Hope this helps...
Monday, 25 January 2010
How to identify which track crashes Traktor when importing
I have no idea why this happens but I have seen it happen when importing new tracks (previously ripped in iTunes) into Traktor.
The quickest way to identify the offending track is to divide your collection into half and import the first 50%. If you make it to the end of the first half you have ruled out 50% of your collection already. Great work! Now save your collection (if you don't know how just exit Traktor and let it autosave).
Now that you have established that the bad track is in the 2nd half of your collection, divide this into half again and try importing. Keep doing this until you are done.
At some point you should hit the portion of your collection that crashes Traktor - when you do, restart Traktor and import 50% of the portion of your collection that previously crashed. In this way you can very quickly work your way through the collection and identify that bad track.
Once found, you can either just delete it or attempt to find out why it crashes Traktor. Good luck!
The quickest way to identify the offending track is to divide your collection into half and import the first 50%. If you make it to the end of the first half you have ruled out 50% of your collection already. Great work! Now save your collection (if you don't know how just exit Traktor and let it autosave).
Now that you have established that the bad track is in the 2nd half of your collection, divide this into half again and try importing. Keep doing this until you are done.
At some point you should hit the portion of your collection that crashes Traktor - when you do, restart Traktor and import 50% of the portion of your collection that previously crashed. In this way you can very quickly work your way through the collection and identify that bad track.
Once found, you can either just delete it or attempt to find out why it crashes Traktor. Good luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)