September 2011
1 post
New client website launched for Glen McCoy →
Round up of the Week.
It’s that time of the week again and we’ll be starting the weekend not too far from now, but first it’s time for a round up of what has been going on in and around the office this week.
This week we’ve been kept busy as normal and we hope this continues through the chillier months and into next year.
Here are a few uselss pieces of trivia that will probably never come in...
SO TRUE: The pain of watching non geeks use... →
Blackberry Tablet?
Research in Motion may introduce a tablet computer next week, according to a report in Wall Street Journal. Rumours have persisted over the past few months about the emergence of a BlackBerry tablet that would aim to compete with Apple’s iPad.
The Journal provides some details of what the supposed tablet might look like sourced from unnamed “RIM insiders”. According to the...
Apple Customer Service Unhelpful? Surely Not.
At Decode we know the experience of trying to contact Apple in order to gain some competent answers and exactly how long this can take (4 hours on the phone waiting for a reply) but this is nothing compared to the ‘courtesy’ shown to a certain journalist who tried to contact Steve Jobs. Journalism student, Chelsea Isaacs, who is studying at Long Island University, was asked by her...
Round up of the Week.
Hi! It’s been another busy week in the office as numerous people seem to have been away for various reasons either through illness or having to work away or, for the luckier of us, holidays, but we are making the best of the people we have as usual and haven’t let that get in the way of making sure we offer the best service we can and trying constantly to become more widespread both...
Facebook Faces Competition?
Diaspora, the social network site branded a more “private” alternative to Facebook, has propelled into the next big stage of its development. They seem to be making the most of accusations that Facebook doesn’t take the privacy, and therefore safety, of their users seriously enough in this modern age. The project announced in April adds an important step in allowing the users to...
Round up of the Week.
Another week has passed and it’s time for another Round Up. In the office we have been kept busy with various meetings and clients as usual which we are more than happy to continue.
With hype for the new Harry Potter film - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) escalating I thought I’d share some HP facts with you all.
Dementors from the books are deadly, magical, wraith-like...
Happy Birthday Google.
Google has taken the opportunity of its 12th Birthday to celebrate what you can achieve with a few lines of code and the effectiveness of interacting. It’s the latest in a long line of “doodles” that create Google’s logo in a range of attention grabbing ways, creating the logo on its homepage out of a set of bouncing “balls” has been their latest acheivement....
Promotional Offers
Interested in hosting? If so please don’t forget to look at our website to make sure you don’t miss out on our promotional offers because they will only last for a short amount of time.
Blackberry Spies?
Dubai have voiced certain concerns that they are being ‘spied on’ by the U.S and so have started plans to strictly limit Blackberry services in the United Arab Emirates. They are suggesting a tough line with the smart phone company.
The UAE says it will block BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services in mid October unless authorities can warrant access to encrypted data. This...
Round up of the Week.
We hope you all had a fantastic bank holiday weekend - unfortunately our director spent it in hospital after he tried to ‘kick a nail’ - and let’s just say he, especially his foot, came off worse!
So it’s time for another RUOTW and we’ve been busy again this week with meetings and clients etc.
Did You Know? Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from...
Google Introduces Priority Emailing.
This week Google has announced the release of the ‘Priority Inbox’ Beta version.
One of the toughest things to accomplish as a successful company is the ability to remain at the top of your game. To do this you need to constantly update and release new products with as much enthusiasm and vigor as you did with your first release. This continuous innovation and development appears to...
Decode Grid Offer
Don’t forget to check out Decode Grid @ http://www.decodegrid.com/ for our limited time only offers on hosting.
Britvic Develops 'Smart' Vending Machines.
Britvic has developed a new series of vending machines that awards those who can prove their intelligence, through a series of tests, with free drinks.
The “smart” vending machine promotes a brand of flavoured spring water called Juicy drench, with touch-screen programmed games that test mental agility, the idea is to reinforce the message that our brains perform best when they are...
August 2010
19 posts
Round Up of the Week
The Bank Holiday weekend is almost here and to get you in the mood Decode Studios has done a special RUOTW - bank holiday edition!
Stuck for something to do? We’ve scouted the internet to find the 5 top places to go.
1. The National Space Centre is the largest space centre in the UK and is a great day out for adults and children.
2. Chatsworth House is in the heart of Derbyshire. It...
Nokia Intel partnership
‘The year’s most significant collaboration’ was announced, according to Intel who have now decided to make a joint research lab, with new partners Nokia, in the Finnish University of Oulu.
The University that has specialised in 3D interfaces will be the home of the partnership announced last June. Although the partnership has been around since mid last year there has been no evidence of any...
Clients From Hell: My client regularly downloads... →
My client regularly downloads thumbnails off of Google Image Search and emails them to me to post on his site.
Me: “I’m sorry but I can’t post these on your site.”
Client: “What? Why not?”
Me: “For one thing, that’s copyright infringement, which is illegal, and for another, these are WAY too…
Round up of the Week.
It’s Friday again and that means it’s time for our weekly Round Up. In the Office things have been busy with sorting our clients and also the plumbing but things should be back in order by this afternoon - or so we hope!
Did You Know? The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings). SOURCE
If...
Facebook Places New Privacy Scares.
Facebook Places allows users to share their location and will launch first in the US.
This has sprouted concerns about how seriously Facebook takes the privacy of their users. The feature automatically shares information on the location of users with their online friends.
The feature allows users to “check in” at locations which will then be shared with Facebook network of friends...
Google Defend Net Neutrality Pact.
Google has defended its pact with Verizon and claims that it is not selling out the principal of net neutrality. It says it maintains the idea that ISP’s should not be allowed to pick and choose what speed to give traffic depending on its contents.
Google said “No other company is working as tirelessly [as Google] for an open Internet” in a company statement.
The problem...
Friday the 13th - Round Up Of The Week
Today is Friday the 13th and as I’m sure some of you already know it supposedly orginates from the Knights of the Templar. The story goes that the Knights Templar, the legendary order of “warrior monks” formed during the Christian Crusades to fight Islam, by the 1300s the order had grown so mighty and powerful that the King and Pope saw them as a threat. So they came up with a...
Unsuck It →
laurawhitehead:
:)
A paper trail of betrayal: Google's net neutrality... →
techspotlight:
Oh Big G what is taking place? It seems that Google has confused many in its new bonding with Verizon, this is a worry as it may weaken the FCC’s position to protect the open internet.
-Ars Technica
Net Neutrality
What does it actually mean?
Net Neutrality is the principle that the internet should be democratic, that all traffic used by the internet should be treated equally by their networks.
The internet, as it stands at the moment, is fairly equal. We pay to access the internet, companies pay hosting sites to make their content available and ISP’s pay for the connection.
However, some people...
Decode Grid
We have decided to partition the Hosting from the web development. The development will stay under the Decode Studios name and Decode Grid will be the name that the hosting comes under.
When we set up Decode Studios we struggled to find a reliable, affordable and efficient hosting site, so we decided to set up our own. Because of this our team knows the importance of reliable hosting and this is...
Round Up Of The Week
I’m pretty sure I posted this on Friday like it was supposed to be but somehow Tumblr deemed it unworthy to post - so here it is a round up of the week - on a Monday.
The internet has some offerings for us this week.
If you got up this morning and felt the need to change someone’s life, then KIVA is a site you should look at. It sets you up with people in the third world who have...
clientsfromhell:
Client: “What’s my username?”
Me: “It’s your first name, a space and then your last name.”
Client: ”How am I supposed to remember that?”
Android catches Up.
The new Samsung Galaxy S GT-19000, equipped with Android 2.1 is making is making it a hot competitor in the ‘must- have’ phone race.
It’s glossy enough to be compared to an iPhone but that’s where the similarity ends, the Galaxy is both lighter and thinner than it’s Apple conterpart and it works, giving it a much sleeker appearance.
The Galaxy S learns from the...
Technology Review: Amazon CEO hopes new Kindles... →
techspotlight:
Jeff Bezos isn’t just confident you’ll want a Kindle e-book reader. The CEO of Amazon.com is bracing for a future in which you’ll also want ones for your kid heading to college, your spouse in a book club and perhaps even Grandpa.
And despite increased competition from Apple Inc.’s flashy iPad and other e-readers, that future could be coming soon — as early as August, actually,...
OmniFocus for the iPad
chrisbowler:
Since I already own versions of OmniFocus for the iPhone and desktop, this looks like an easy sell for me. I love Things as well, but the lack of a OTA sync has been extremely frustrating with three clients. So much so that I’ve basically stopped using it.
So I found it interesting that the page for OmniFocus for the iPad states:
It’s simple to maintain one task management...
clientsfromhell:
Me: “OK, let’s start by opening your web browser.”
Client: “Web browser? Oh, you mean Internet Explorer?”
Me: “Sure, that’ll work. Now you’re going to click on the web address window at the top of your browser and type in…”
Client: “Wait, wait, slow down. What do you mean by click?”
Me: “… like, click with your mouse button.”
Client: “Mouse button? What? Man, this is really...
“I’m not sure about the black text on a white page. Can’t we make it easier to...”
– (via clientsfromhell)
July 2010
16 posts
Round up of the Week.
Yes - it’s that time again and the weekend is upon us. So what has the week brought for us here at Decode Studios? Well, we’ve been busy with new clients and websites to create as well as various meetings and training days.
Asides from the office the internet has a lot to offer this week.
The guys in the office like going to the gym but I’m not sure they can do these tricks...
“The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.”
– TipsFromTheTop
Google helps the Government.
Google has recently developed Google Apps - for the Government. It has also announced that it has been awarded Federal Information Security (FISMA) Certification.
Google currently offers Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and Video for government use which it charges $50 a year, per user to use. It comes with heightened security levels and their data is stored on a completely...
Amazon faces problems.
Amazon’s Kindle has sold out and they don’t know when it’s going to be back in stock.
Foxconn manufactures the Kindle for Amazon but also the iPad and iPhone 4 for Apple which may explain the company failing to meet customer demand. The iPad sold over 1 million devices in the first 28 days and, more importantly, the eBook sold over 1.5 million downloads from the iBookstore.
...
Technology Review: Passwords that are Simple--and... →
techspotlight:
Instead of enforcing complex passwords, as many organizations do, the new scheme makes sure than no more than a few users can have the same password, which has a similar overall effect on security.
Further research from Microsoft also reveals why only some organizations insist on very complex passwords. Increasingly complex password requirements—rules like “passwords must be 14...
Clients From Hell: Me: “Here are the designs, and,... →
Me: “Here are the designs, and, with your approval, we’ll code them and put them up in a couple of days.”
Client: “Why aren’t they up now?”
Me: “We require client approval before we put up the final product, in order to make any changes.”
Client: “I wanted it up yesterday.”
Me: “Well,…
Round up of the Week.
So it’s Friday, and for those followers who don’t know, we like to do a post rounding up things Decode Studios have been up to and what we have found interesting while surfing the World Wide Web.
Japan have been making head way in the fight to preserve energy and have come up with an innovative idea for their train systems. They are testing an experimental way of making electricty...
Clients from Hell →
themeforest:
Client: ”The site is looking great! However, I’m a bit confused. I thought you said the design was done.”
Me: ”Yes sir, the ‘visual’ design is complete. Was there something bothering you about it?” Client: ”Oh no! The design is great, everyone loves it! However, it doesn’t seem to be finished. There are a bunch of pages that look wrong.” Me: ”How so? Could you show me?”...
echo{less}: Flipboard - A look at things to come →
A friend told me I ‘must’ download Flipboard (http://flipboard.com) for my iPad ASAP. So what is Flipboard? Sixty seconds after install, I thought it was one of the most usable interfaces I had seen to date for viewing social media on the iPad.
After two minutes, I was completely blown away…
Sounds interesting :D
iPad
Apple’s new iPad is the latest thing to take the technology industry by storm. Even Decode Studios’ Director has jumped on the bandwagon despite misgivings about Apple technology.
The iPad advertises itself as ‘A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price’. The tablet style computer certainly looks impressive and professional. The 9.7-inch LED screen allows...
A little about Decode Studios.
First and foremost we are web developers and are here to provide a service for YOU.
As developers of sophisticated and functional websites, we have witnessed firsthand the impact that a professional website has on both existing and new companies. A website represents you and your company to the world whilst generating sales and clients; making a well designed website, tailored to your company,...
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