21-Dec-2004 - Just got back from Ireland, an emergency job.  Making a point of sale and booking system more responsive.  It was taking 7 seconds to come back from making a booking, now it is less than 2 seconds.  Having said that, I feel about a 10 years older.  It is a lot of fun delving into someone else's code to make changes to live systems, but it is stressful as you have to get an understanding of how it works (or doesn't), very quickly.  I spoke to the prospective client on Friday, flew out Sunday and back Monday.  A job well done.  The environment was Delphi and Interbase.  If I get permission from the client, I might elaborate on the problem - it is not uncommon and may strike a chord with other prospective customers.

For another client we are just starting to develop their second electronic bank reconciliation feed.  We have now done this for over half a dozen different bank feeds in for various clients.  The sources have varied from bespoke hardware interface devices, to monthly CD's and now, thankfully a bank that will provide daily transactional information using the internet as the delviery medium.

Finally been dabbling with Delphi 2005, no live development at the moment.

08-Dec-2004 - Time passes, as stated in the best (old) text based adventure games.  If you look at Older News, you will see my intention was to update the site weekly.  Well, that was a little shy of 2 months ago.  I have thought about what to add / update, but taking care of business has taken priority.

I should have learnt about split infinitives, since my last entry, but alas, I think I have already forgotten what it was that KevinP so kindly pointed out!

I have been asked by a friend to put together a website.  Once you are associated with IT, it appears that you know everything there is to know about IT!

I am hoping that if I make some notes along the way, it may well become apparent that a good database / system developer does not make a good graphic designer / website designer.  As I read on a poorly presented website from a company whose sole purpose was to produce websites "there is a big difference between a website designer and a website developer".  I will post a link when the new website is up and running, I look forward to your feedback.  The website is to promote a fantastic little holiday farm on the Spanish / Portuguese border about an hour from Vigo.  Totally in tune with my idea of an idyllic location.

16-Sep-2004  - Well as some may have noticed, this site has not changed in the last year or more.  Our initial plan was to be updating the site weekly.  What we would like to do is have a news/blog section where we write about systems we are working on and incidental technology that we look into.

Our interest in providing web content has been prodded recently.  A client has asked us to do a feasibility to giving their clients access to some of their corporate data.  Also a client has given us permission to discuss their system in detail on our website - the system we have and are writing for them centres around pension administration (SIPP & SSAS).

We are also looking into taking on more clients locally (we are based in Warrington) - writing database applications that at least save them the same amount as the system development costs, whilst at the same time improving their business processes.  This has always been our development ethos.  If we feel that a companies needs would be better suited by an off the shelf package, we will recommend software such as Act! or even Excel.

We still do mentoring and training, we have a number of support contracts that allow client development teams call on our experience and knowledge. But, we feel that we would benefit from more development work at the moment - any leads would be welcome.  More later.

If you have a requirement and would like to explore us developing a solution or giving advice on non-development options, please call us.