Musings of a Manchester Drupal guy

Drupal, Open Source, Analytics, Social Media.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Honesty cafe at Prestbury Nursery - Cheshire

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These days you usually need a bank loan to visit a garden centre cafe. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a novel approach at a local nursery just north of Macclesfield.

Unmanned, you make the brews, you set the prices, leave the dishes. Help yourself to milk in the fridge. Unpretentious and a welcome break when you have a toddler in tow. Brilliant idea.

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Drupal Networking Lunch, London

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The last official Drupal event I managed to attend was DrupalCon Barcelona, thanks to the Icelandic volcano I missed San Fransisco.

My company recently joined the Drupal Association which has opened a range of opportunities to build better business relationships with Drupal houses.

Today I attended the Drupal Networking Luncheon which proved an invaluable opportunity to meet many forward thinking organisations and individuals in London.

Without Drupal Association Membership I would have been unaware of this event. The strength of Drupal is not code but it's community, I suggest you get involved and head along to http://association.drupal.org/ there are events worldwide no matter what your specialism is.

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Friday, March 25, 2011

Double decker bus top destroyed in Macclesfield bridge strike

Just driven past the railway station in Macclesfield. Witnessed the aftermath of a double decker bus having driven underneath what is a very low railway bridge. The whole wreckage of the top deck lays underneath the bridge and bus on opposite side.

4 police cars are at the scene, I saw no evidence of ambulances, hope to god no one was hurt.

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Double decker bus top destroyed in Macclesfield bridge strike

Just driven past the railway station in Macclesfield. Witnessed the aftermath of a double decker bus having driven underneath what is a very low railway bridge. The whole wreckage of the top deck lays underneath the bridge and bus on opposite side.

4 police cars are at the scene, I saw no evidence of ambulances, hope to god no one was hurt.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

GPS Visualiser - charting data geospatially <-- Awesome

This web site saved me a heap of time today. I needed to visualise web site turnover based on location for a client. Having merged postcode regions from Jibble Postcode data and web sales data I simply used this form to provide my data. The rest wast child's play.

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Play.com marketing data hacked, yours next?

I got an email this morning from play.com warning me that their marketing companies security had been breached, customer details had been lost.

We can all take the moral high ground but these kinds of events are common place. What we should really be doing is auditing our own security measures, challenging our suppliers to ensure they are employing best practices.

If you store passwords, are they encrypted? Are logins transacted under secure socket layer (SSL).

Is your web software platform updated with the latest security patches? Are you desktop PCs protected with anti virus? All simple measures without which data loss can occur.

If you send email addresses to a third party supplier, what NDA do you have in place? Security breeches can be malicious and as simple as emailing a spreadsheet.

We all handle personal data and have a responsibility to take every measure possible to secure it.

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Untitled

Ideas of things to do with a three year old in London

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I raised £620 for Earthquake victims - what are you going to do?

With chilling pictures beaming from both New Zealand & Japan after terrible earthquakes, there is an urgent need for help. I have just donated the proceeds from our sponsored run to the Red Cross New Zealand Earthquake Appeal. £620 raised.

Its really easy to donate online, and you can use gift aid too. The Red Cross provide an invaluable emergency response and follow up practical help to victims. There isn't a moment to wait.

Japan distaster dontations - Red Cross site http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Ap...

New Zealand disaster donations - Red Cross site http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/New-Zealand-Eart...

 

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Tsunami waters engulf town - Japan

Horrific footage of Japanese town being overwhelmed by Tsunami waters. Cargo ships and lorries being tossed around like match sticks. No-one seems to be talking about the fact that hundreds of vehicles could have had people in them. Awful.

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72% of people ignore Google Adwords on right hand side

A recent eye tracker research paper reports that 100% of people view SERPs but just 28% cast their eye over paid search on the right hand side of the results.

Image-bing_v_google_2011

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Manchester City Council chop 4 city centre trees down

Behind the city library once stood 4 substantial trees. All that remains are 4 stumps. I hope Manchester City Council have plans to replace them once the library refurbishment has been executed.

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Does your brand own all its digital assets?

The importance of owning all the digital assets cannot be over stressed. When it comes to brand creation the issue is even more important. There is little sense to invest thousands on a brand name only to discover subsequently that the .com, facebook or twitter account are already in use.

Beyond multiple domain names (including variations, plurals and misspellings) you should also register social media accounts, popular blog engine accounts, business social networks. With such a bewildering array of assets to be aware of it is fortunate there is a tool available to help, Knowem.com.

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Tuesday, March 08, 2011

What are the Red Cross doing to help Christchurch Earthquake victims?

This story from the Red Cross web site really struck a chord with me last night. It drove home how valuable any donation, no matter how small, is.

“On Sunday, they discovered a 19-year-old woman and her toddler son living in their car in their driveway. They couldn’t stay in their house, as it was flooded with silt and badly damaged. They did not even have enough petrol to get to a petrol station. The Red Cross filled their car up with petrol so they could drive to a welfare centre, where they are now being looked after” RedCross.org.uk

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Monday, March 07, 2011

Retro milk bottles, what next?

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Twelve if your hard earned pounds and not even any milk in them. Clearly in this recession some people have money to waste. Harvey Nichols is packed with branded retro tat, me thinks I will check my loft!

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4pm, Wednesday is peak-time for workplace shopping

4pm, Wednesday  'is peak-time for workplace shopping'. The largest shopping rush comes when employees are celebrating the  'hump' of the week seeing a 75% increase of shopping at 4pm on Wednesday. [Source: Digital Strategy Consulting, September 2010]

Taken from econsultancy UK E-commerce Statistics Report 2010

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Sunday, March 06, 2011

Virtual DJ on Mac Appstore

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Put simply, virtual DJ for Mac is one of the best free apps I've ever downloaded. If you've ever wanted to sound like a pro DJ this is the answer.

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Saturday, March 05, 2011

Charitable offer: Empty truck needs a load from Tauranga to Christchurch

"We have a truck coming down to Christchurch from Tauranga 14th March to pick up the furniture for a family who have it packed ready to go from Rangiora. After that it will be going down and back weekly We don't want it going down empty, when it could be bringing you generators, portaloos, water, heating appliances, tents, office equipment. It costs $5,500 for a round trip. ( ferry, diesel miles, diesel, 2 guys) Can someone in Christchurch connect with us to help facilitate this?"

Contact: 0210728255 or riseuptauranga@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rise-Up-Tauranga/168008926585311

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An earthquake make the world smaller

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At 12:51 (time of the quake) today we embarked on our 6.3 Mile sponsored run in aid of The Red Cross New Zealand Earthquake. £500+ in sponsorship, for which we are truly grateful, was but one benefit of our efforts. We thoroughly enjoyed the run and were blessed with good weather.

What surprised me was the mind boggling number of people around the globe and in Christchurch who came forward via Twitter and Facebook to wish us luck and show gratitude. In desperate times it was wonderful to be able to make people feel good. It made covering the distance all the more pleasurable.

Christchurch is a city so many hold dear to their hearts, it was easy to rally support and many were so generous. In the coming months as Cantabrians start to rebuild their lives, they should never forget a wider world cares.

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Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Muffins to the rescue - Christchurch Earthquake fundraiser

Kathryn couldn't stop herself baking these lovely muffins for me to take to the office today. We are going to be selling them for £1 each in aid of The Red Cross New Zealand Earthquake Appeal. Anyone who has meetings with us today are lucky people ;-)

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Running in London

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Strangely I enjoy running round London, you always stumble across interesting things. My route took in The British Museum, Chelsea Football Club and Ghandis flat.

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