The World according to Phodetheus

APPLE BITES INTO iPad APP FOR RESTAURANTS

2011-02-19T09:12:00.000Z

A revolutionary new App which allows diners to book a restaurant table directly from their iPad has been snapped up by Apple Business as part of their sales drive in the States.VirtuaBook is an in-house and online reservation system for the dining industry that should the venue wish, will allow diners to book the time and date of their reservation and even select the table of their choice from a

Email campaigns must be mobile optimised

2011-02-03T20:38:00.000Z

Whether you can track it or not, you can safely assume that a significant portion of emails are being read on mobile phones. One in 10 consumers are triaging their primary personal email accounts on handheld devices, according to Forrester Research, and that percentage is poised for continued growth. For that reason, optimising emails for cross-platform performance should be at the top of your

Apple policing for good reason

2011-01-27T21:30:00.000Z

The other day I was having quite a heated debate with Peter my business partner at Rogue over why Apple will not allow flash to run on the Iphone or Ipad. His main argument was that of financial control, forcing users to purchase through only their App Store. I believe thats just a convenient side issue for them and was more about ensuring great user experience for everything that is done on

How to choose a good password

2011-01-22T11:45:00.000Z

Creating a good safe password that can be remembered is very simple if you just follow one of the simple processes below. They are much more secure than using your cats name or a easy to remember word or, god forbid, your name. All of which will take any wannabe amateur hacker just seconds to work out and steal your money, identity, house, wife and kids. Formula 1 1. think of 2 unrelated

Poker - £0 to £1000 in 12 months

2011-01-13T21:11:00.001Z

Just like many I found myself reflecting over last year on many things in my life but on this particular occasion it was on my poker. Not so much on my ability or on if I had improved my game over the previous 12 months but on the fact I had probably spent a lot of my hard earned cash playing online and have a bankroll of ZERO. So the decision had to be made to stop loosing, simple, no more

Apple approves app in 48hours

2011-01-11T12:06:00.001Z

I was under the impression that to get an App approved through Apple for Itunes takes weeks and quite often rejected on the first submission. With this in mind we decided to begin the approval process long before we were actually ready to launch our new product, Virtua-Book an in-house and online reservation system for the dining industry. Having submitted our Ipad App for approval we would

Some drivers are beyond belief

2010-12-31T08:39:00.001Z

Taking a trip down to DFS in Hove the other day in the fog I saw three cars who for reasons only known to them didn't have any lights on whilst the rest of us deemed it necessary to have not only our main lights but also fog lights on. Now these were not just any cars, oh no, these were silver coloured cars. What in heavens name are these idiots thinking? It's not good enough to have a car

Here we go again - New Years resolution time - what's the blinking point

2010-12-30T07:24:00.000Z

Now we finally got Christmas out the way and not bothered to go to the sales it's time to think about celebrating the new year by getting seriously drunk, which we fail to do, and make promises to our selves we have no chance of keeping. Oh come on let's face it we will go to some party way to early and hang around waiting for midnight desperately trying to get drunk but can't because we are

Legalise prostitution - it makes sense

2010-12-29T10:24:00.001Z

The police chiefs are calling to have the prostitution laws reviewed and frankly I agree with them, in fact I think we should make prostitution legal. Yes I know it's immoral and can wreck marriages and destroy society to the point that we will all end up back in caves drooling except the prostitutes who live in big glittering palaces because they have taken all the men in the worlds money.

The high street is doomed

2010-12-28T09:20:00.000Z

The high street as we know it is doomed and I think 2011 is likely just to hasten this along. Let's face it, it is looking like the much needed annual boost to our local retailers has not been anywhere near as good as they needed and I seriously doubt the snow was to blame. The culprit is more likely to be the massively growing Internet shopping. Figures show that the UK has spent a staggering

Phew - Kent School Closures is done.

2010-12-17T17:08:00.000Z

Phew I finally got the Kent School Closures web site and alert system all done and the invitational emails to all the schools and nurseries sent out. Thought it was funny that just minutes after sending the emails out it started to snow again. The site has been developed using a mixture of PHP, Mysql, Javascript, Jquery and Ajax and is hosted on a cloud server so will be able to cope with large

PHP Date conversion Functions

2010-12-17T09:31:00.005Z

It was pointed out to me the other day that I don't have much in the way of technical stuff in my blog. This, I have to admit, has been an oversight of mine as I did intend to have technical stuff regularly in my blog.So here goes with something useful for PHP/** * This function takes in a date in dd/mm/yyyy format and converts it to yyyy-mm-dd * for storing on mysql database * * @param string $

Check your usage... Well I would if I could find it!

2010-12-15T07:08:00.004Z

Some times I get so annoyed with big companies sending me emails saying I can find something or other on their web site and then spend the next 20 minutes wasting my time because either its just not there or so well hidden I don't stand a chance.I am a BT Broadband customer and so also a part of the BT Fon community/network. This is great as it gets me free access to the net through hundreds of

Very honoured

2010-12-14T22:02:00.002Z

Like many I have a google alert set up on my name so I can see what is being posted about me on the good old interweb.Today this reaped a reward as I discovered that Bob Wan Kim partner, creative director, investor and author from Santa Monica CA has included me in his top 100 programmers in the world (who will still answer your call).Thank you very much Bob I am very honoured.- Posted using

Etailers need to take more of a interest in customers or risk loosing them

2010-12-11T08:07:00.011Z

Retailfraud.com carried out research into a number of online retail organisations which led me to thinking more about customer service and transparency. (click here to read)I much prefer to shop online than to drag myself into town and struggle with finding parking so do most of my shopping online. The majority of the time all goes perfectly well and my goods are delivered on time to my door

Cloud computing - the best explanation ever

2010-12-05T08:21:00.002Z

From time to time you come across some really good stuff on the net, and that's great, but just occasionally you fall across something truly brilliant and this is one of those.Accenture have produced a video to explain the cloud, featuring those experts who never new computing before the cloud existed, those who use and understand today's technology very naturally but more importantly those who

The day after the apocalypse

2010-12-02T08:58:00.002Z

Normally when I stand outside my back door in the morning having my first smoke of the day I listen to a constant drone of traffic trundling along the A264 just a few meters away.Today I stood there and carried on standing there long after I had finished smoking listening to absolute silence. It was seriously eerie and it occurred to me that this must be what it will be like the day after man

Social media ROI

2010-12-01T21:00:00.002Z

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of attending a breakfast seminar and networking event on Social Media ROI measuring the unmeasurable organised by Business Link Sussex (http://www.sussexenterprise.co.uk/).I personally learnt a good few new things about social media and what I am doing wrong or should I say not quite right.Some of the things I got from the seminar are:- Being on linkedin was

POSTAL SCAM

2010-11-19T09:49:00.001Z

I have just received this rather worrying warningThere have been reports relating to cards being posted through doors from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number).DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.If you call the number and you

Muslims - too far this time

2010-11-12T12:49:00.001Z

I have just read about the protest held by Muslims yesterday during the minutes silence where we honour our British heros and frankly to say I am appalled and sick to my stomach would be a gross understatement. It is bad enough these people want to hurt and kill us 'in the name of religion, but to then disrespect us and our babe fallen heros in this way is going way to far and I feel is nothing

Toby comes good

2010-11-11T18:15:00.001Z

I had a call today from a line manager at Toby carvery (who's name I am embarrassed to admit I can not recall) as a result of the complaint I made a few weeks ago ( see my blog 'Bariatric patents not welcome' ). He called me to firstly apologise for the way the restaurant manager handled the situation and to also pass on the managers apologies which I gracefully accepted. The main reason for his

Top Gear Live

2010-11-06T16:43:00.002Z

Today I got to go to the Earls Court Motor Show and Top Gear Live show thanks to my loving wife who brought me 2 tickets for me and my son Nathaniel to go to for my wedding anniversary present back in august.Whilst I have to admit being in severe pain with my feet, the price I have to pay for sitting on my arse all day every day, we both had a great time both looking around the motor show and

Bariatric patients NOT welcome at Toby restaurants

2010-10-10T15:36:00.001+01:00

Bariatric surgery is on the increase and Toby restaurants owned by Mitchells & Butlers are determined to discriminate against those who have had the surgery. As those who have had bariatric surgery or know of people who have had it are well aware that it is no longer possible to eat full size portions and have to order a Childs portions when eating out. Something that Toby restaurants refuse to

Ring game success (at last)

2010-08-01T23:28:00.000+01:00

Having bust out on the bubble (again) I thought I would chuck my last $0.67 away on the cash tables, I always loose on the cash tables, but he'll thought I might as well. About 2 hours later I walked away with $7.33. Very very pleased with myself. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPadLocation:Heather Close,,United Kingdom

Why do americans have to be such arses

2010-07-25T23:21:00.001+01:00

I was just reading some stuff on flipboard and found an article from the New York Times about how the web means the end of forgetting and was disgusted but sadly not surprised by:"the 66-year-old Canadian psychotherapist who tried to enter the United States but was turned away at the border — and barred permanently from visiting the country — after a border guard’s Internet search found that the

Quiet day

2010-07-25T22:51:00.001+01:00

It's been a nice quiet day. Not been out at all, the first time in a long long time. Got some work done and played some poker (and lost as usual, really must give up playing online). Just watched the first episode in the new BBC tv Sherlock. Absolutely brilliant I highly recommend it. Anyway going to get a nice early night for a change lol - Posted using BlogPress from my iPadLocation:Heather

The microsoft telephone scam

2010-07-25T09:18:00.001+01:00

It appears not only do you have to worry about worms and viruses if you own a pc but now you can get scammed over the phone.I just received the following warning from my community police officer: Reports are still being received from members of the public about scam telephone calls from people allegedly working for MICROSOFT, they state that the software on the computer is out of date and that

Brillant new telephone scam

2009-09-18T09:48:00.002+01:00

This is a really clever telephone scam that is doing the rounds and many I think will fall for this one. I received a call from a 'representative' of BT, informing me that he was dis-connecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00 , or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect at a later date.The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly

Pilots told not to report hijacking in US airspace

2009-07-03T12:45:00.002+01:00

I have been informed from a reliable source inside Virgin Atlantic that pilots are being instructed not to report a hijacking to air traffic control when in American airspace but to head out of US airspace as quickly as possible.Apparently to report a hijacking whilst in US airspace will result in the aircraft being shot down by the airforce in a shoot first policy which is now in force since the

IE form submit bug

2007-01-26T12:42:00.000Z

This had me baffled for 3 or 4 hours. What worked fine in firefox just didn't work in IE, and appears to be a well known bug but I couldn't find a work around to it at all.It is probably best described in code: Now as I said it works as it should

Still nothing

2006-09-30T11:35:00.000+01:00

I am still waiting to hear somthing back from Princess Cruises. If I don't hear something by the beginning of this comming week I will take it all to a solicitor.

Honeymoon wrecked by US immigration

2006-09-13T08:16:00.000+01:00

Having got married to a very wonderful lady we embarked on our dream honeymoon, a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean.This all came to a very abrupt and unpleasant end as soon as we landed at Miami airport.The events are probably best described in my email to Princess Cruises:T0: enquiry@princesscruises.co.uk>05/09/06 12:11 Subject: Booking Ref: VDGR5QDear SirWhen booking our dream honeymoon with you I

Variables not to use

2006-04-27T09:38:00.000+01:00

Had a problem with getting CodeLock V2 to work correctly. At first it seemed that MySql calls were not working but after a few hours investigation I finally worked out it was because I was using an object called $sess with a somewhat vital class that is passing a few variables to my sql statement. Sorry but I don't know what other variables not to use but $sess is certainly one of them.

Protect your PHP code

2006-04-26T12:23:00.000+01:00

OK thanks to my mate Teo I have found the best solution to protecting your PHP code from people (well mostly clients and agencies) nicking it. CodeLock V2 does the perfect job for very little money 50USD a real bargin.

Converting php scripts to window apps

2006-04-26T12:03:00.000+01:00

Came accross this blog todaywhenpenguinsattack.com: Converting php scripts to windows appsCould be useful in the future, also some of his other blogs look worth a read.

Saturday's Rail Crash

2004-11-08T07:25:00.000Z

Having sat and read all about the tragic rail crash in Berkshire on Saturday a few things occur to me. Some people are calling for improved technology at crossings to warn train drivers of blockages, this, in itself is a good idea but they seem to be missing that it was pointed out a number of car drivers using these crossings take the risk and drive round the barriers. This would mean trains

Human Chips

2004-10-18T13:21:00.000+01:00

Having just read the news item on the BBC website Security under the skin It began to occur to me that this can be a very good thing not only for me but for the ones I love as well. A chip placed in my arm will clearly identify me better than any other method and could be linked to my bank, health records and more. There won't be any chance of mistaken identity or someone being able to pose as

Fish - Good or Bad

2004-09-15T13:35:00.000+01:00

I wrote this as a news story for the babywelcome.com site. Fish - Good or Bad We have all been told by our grandmothers that fish is good for us being the “food for the brain”. However women who are nursing, pregnant or expecting to get pregnant must be especially careful to avoid contaminated fish. Polychlorinated biphenyls

Internet ad revenue at record level

2004-05-25T13:28:00.000+01:00

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, which compiled a study with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said that the first-quarter revenue was the highest quarterly sum recorded since it began measuring online ad revenue in 1996 by 39 percent. The results are extrapolated from data provided by the top 15 online advertising sellers. "The last two years have offered marketers the opportunity to collect

Security on the net ?????

2004-01-21T10:42:00.000Z

I have been told time and time again that I should have a firewall and anti-virus software on my PC (I stopped using this stuff a couple of years ago as it was slowing up my machine so much it wasn't worth it). 2 days ago the company I work for was hit by a virus, OK it was the stupid fault of one of the girls seeing an email from someone she knows with random characters in it then opening up a

2004-01-19T13:40:00.000Z

Cookie Law Update - This will make you laugh ---------------------------------------------- Whilst researching the spamming aspects of the new privacy laws I made a very disturbing discovery. If you visit the governments own website http://www.ukonline.gov.uk or worse the courts web site http://www.courtservice.gov.uk the very first thing they do BEFORE anything is displayed is to attempt to

2004-01-19T13:10:00.000Z

The Cookie Law ----------------- As of last month an important change to the Data Protection Act will come into force that affects the use of cookies used by web sites to track users. As always with new laws and directives it is somewhat confusing and unclear as to exactly what is required. Even the Information Commissioner admits there are many aspects that are unclear in "The Directive on