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Articles by tom

Code Style and Syntax Guide

When writing new code it's really helpful if developers adhere to a few basic rules and conventions. PHP is a fairly lose language which lets developers do things in a multitude of different ways, while this gives a creater level of flexibility and makes picking up PHP quick and easy…

How to generate your own QR codes

There's nothing particularly new about QR codes, they've been kicking around the web for ages, ever since they first popped up in Japanese car production lines all those years ago. At first - I have to admit, I didn't really see the point... Ok they're pretty cool... You can zapp…

How to make your website talk to you

If you're like me and you prefer listening rather than reading, then a new API from Ericson might be just up your street! Their new text to speech API lets developers quickly and easily convert strings of text into audio files. It's then just a small step to creating a…

How to use the TinyMCE Filemanager Plugin

TinyMCE is my favourite WYSIWYG editor (and I've used quite a few editors over the years). It's far from perfect - some of the code it produces can be a little non-standards compliant and we  often get clients who copy and paste directly from Word, which causes all sorts of…

The Web Design Process

Making a website doesn’t have to be complicated, this is how it works. 1. We have a chat with you about your requirements and what you hope to achieve from your website. It’s important at this stage to fully consider your audience. We can help you ensure that your website…

UK Number 3 in Top Startup Hotspots

Everyone knows Silicon Valley is the 'home of the startup', but here in the UK, we're not doing too badly in terms of levels of innovation. There are clearly some motivated people around the UK, trying to dream up new ideas and push new online startups. So why then have…

Shop Software Review: OpenCart

I was recently asked to quote for making a few improvements to an OpenCart shop. OpenCart wasn't a package I'd customised before, but as I always like to keep abreast of the latest software packages for use on clients sites, I thought I'd spend a little time having a play…

Setting up public key authentication over SSH

This post is a little on the techy side, but for those sys admins out there who have ever needed to setup SSH keys between 2 servers so they can authenticate without prompting for a password, you know what a hassle it can be. I've done it enough times over…

Think you’ve cleared your cookies? Think again!

There's nothing new about Cookies, most people are aware of their existence and accept that they're just a fact of life. They're fairly easy to delete after all, you can just go into your browser settings and 'clear history' or something similar and all traces of your browsing habits are…

Cost Effective SEO & Link Management

SEO can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. To get results in anything but the least competitive market these days you need to invest a considerable amount of time and effort, over an extended period. Many website owners don't have the time or inclination to get links from other websites, but…

Sexy forms with jQuery

I just found something pretty cool. I've always found form elements really boring, unless of course you view them on a Mac - then they look beautiful. But for most of us we're stuck in the 1980's with some pretty dull elements... Well not anymore! Checkout uniform a neat little…

Impressive Amateur Special Effects

I just found this short film reading an article on reelseo and just had to share it because it's really impressive stuff and just shows what you can do with a couple of $1,000 cameras, a decent software suite, a couple of interesting looking Russian dudes and a lot of…