We would like to give you £60

Yep that’s right, we would like to give you up to £60 for every sale you refer to us though the Open Mind Commerce affiliate scheme. Sound good to you? Then read on…

The Program
Dead simple this one, we will give you 10% of the excluding VAT value of all sales generated by you referring customers to our site. This could result in up to £60 in commission for customers who purchase a license from us along with our bespoke design service.

At the the very least you would earn £8.90 if they just bought a single license so your commission could quickly add up to quite a bit!

Because we’re lovely people we’ll not only also give you £20 as a thank you for signing up but if you refer a new affiliate to us through your link, you will get 20% of their earnings as well!

The program is completely free of charge to join and you can start adding a range of banners and text links to your site straight away…

So to summarise:

1. You earn 10% for every completed sale
2. We give you £20 just for signing up
3. We also give you 20% of all earnings that your referred affiliates generate

Signing up is very simple, click the link, fill out the form and you’re done…

The Nitty Gritty
Just a couple of points to make things clear…

1. Commissions are based on the ex. VAT value of the sale
2. Payments are made on the 1st of the month via PayPal or cheque as long as you have at least £100 “in the bank”
3. You earn commission on referrals up to 90 days after they click the link even if the customer visits via another affiliate
4. You may not refer yourself for purchases, sorry!

So you’ve read about the program now do something about it. Join today, earn yourself £20 for five minutes work and start driving money out of our pocket and into yours!

Hello Mum

Well I suppose I’d better say hello as I recently found out that my mum reads the blog. This worries me slightly as I can no longer swear, post rude cartoons or do anything else that might offend “she who must be obeyed” so I’d better keep this clean from now on 😉

Noce to know that I have more than one blog reader though!

It’s geeky but still very cool…

Now being the geek that I am, unashamedly so as well I might add, I was looking around for an application for my HTC touch that would tell me how far I was walking when I took Bert the staffie out.

She who must be obeyed looked doubtful the other day when I reckoned I was walking about 20 miles per week so I needed proof dammit!

Anyway I came across this rather natty application called TrackMyRun which has been developed by a chap who runs quicker than I walk to log his training schedule.

It’s in Alpha/Beta at the moment but works really well on Windows Mobile 6 although I did have to upgrade the .NET Compact framework from 2.0 to 3.5 to get the beast started.

Basically it will use GPS to track your walk/run/drive/aeroplane/whatever journey, calculate the distance travelled, average speed, calories burnt etc and will also give you a rather cool map of your route using Google maps as the base.

A nice find I thought and ideal for anyone who enjoys anything more exertion than sitting on a chair reading blogs 😉

Renaults Briatore out over race fix charge

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8258987.stm

I’m not actually that surprised to be honest. Piquet jnr. was never going to make such a massive allegation if he had no evidence of race fixing and now that Briatore and Pat Symonds have quit it just confirms the race was a stitch up.

They simply would not have quit before the hearing if there was no truth in the allegations.

Personally as a Formula one nutjob I hope they kick Alonso out as well but keep the team in, or at least those who were innocent.

For Alonso to say he knew nothing about this is utter rubbish and he deserves to be banned from next season. It won’t happen though as the FIA is a toothless tiger. All this shows is that F1 has again been dragged through the mud which is a real shame…

Unlimited and unmetered hosting, what’s the difference?

Simple, one exists and one doesn’t…

Every day I come across web hosting companies who offer unlimited bandwidth and/or disk space and to this day I have never found one of these unlimited hosts that doesn’t have a fair usage clause in their terms of service but before we look at this situation, we really need to define these two words:

Definition of Unlimited

1. not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade.
2. boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.
3. without any qualification or exception; unconditional.

Source: dictionary.com

Definition of Unmetered

Not metered, not charged on a meter (as Internet bandwidth).

Source: wikipedia.org

The key thing to point out here is that unlimited means with restrictions of any kind whereas unmetered is simply a value that is not measured.

Now, if a host is offering unlimited bandwidth but has a clause in their fair usage terms that says something like “we reserve the right to suspend your site if you have an impact on other users” then it is not unlimited as it is restricted. Hence it is a lie, an untruth, a porkie…

But if a host says it is unmetered bandwidth then they are saying that they don’t actually measure the bandwidth you use.

From a geek point of view, the technical difference is that all servers are connected to the outside world via a network card attached to a router. These cards are only physically capable of carrying a certain amount of bandwidth as they are limited in the speed of transfer.

For example, if you have a 100MBit card, there is a limit to the amount of bandwidth the card can carry. You can, if the connection is unmetered, max out the capacity of that card each day, every day as you have reached the limit that it can handle.

As for disk space, the only companies that can offer “true” unlimited space are the Googles and Amazons of this world. Between these megaliths, they actually own the capacity to offer this level of storage. That why when you see “bobs best hosting” offering unlimited bandwidth/storage for 2p per year you should run away, quickly…

These hosts are basically overselling their servers. Overselling is simply where they will load as many accounts onto a server in the assumption that not everyone will use the available resources. They will also boot off users who use too much under their fair usage clauses…

So in conclusion, view the word unlimited with caution. Unmetered might not sound as sexy but at least it’s the truth…

Hosting Technical Support Position – Tentative Applications Required

Open Minded Solutions Limited are currently in negotiations with a leading UK merchant account & payment gateway provider to supply our eCommerce software to their merchants. At this stage it is anticipated that negotiations will be complete by late June.

Now a new partnership of this size does bring a new set of challenges to an existing, thriving business such as ourselves and a primary area of those challenges is exceeding customer expectations through an unrivalled level of customer support to new and existing clients.

We are therefore seeking tentative applications for a new position that will be based in our Edinburgh office.

The Position
The ideal candidate for this new and exciting position will be an individual who is passionate about providing an extreme level of support to clients in a manner that would exceed expectations. From a technical perspective they will also have:

  • A strong working knowledge of Windows and Linux web hosting platforms
  • Experience with troubleshooting and resolving network related issues, DNS, FTP, IIS and Apache platforms
  • Experience of the technicalities of domain name registration and transfers, SSL certificate provisioning and PCI compliance testing.
  • A background of providing superb customer service in an environment containing a mixture of businesses from small SMEs through to multi-million pound corporate clients
  • A working knowledge of various server side scripting languages such as ColdFusion MX, PHP, ASP and .NET
  • Although a wide programming knowledge is beneficial, the ideal candidate will have a strong background in developing and maintaining ColdFusion MX applications
  • Be based in Edinburgh or the surrounding area as they will be required to work from our offices based in Edinburgh South.

The Benefits
Aside from working with an established and rapidly growing company, the chosen candidate can expect:

  • An excellent starting salary based on background and experience
  • Performance related bonus scheme (after qualifying period)
  • Profit sharing scheme (after qualifying period)
  • Sick pay and holiday entitlement
  • A very friendly and exciting working environment
  • Joining the company at ground level but with unlimited opportunity to grow all the way through to director level

At this stage the position is tentative but should negotiations be successful it is anticipated the position will be available from late July 2009.

So does this sound like you? If so please forward a detailed CV of your background and experience to Phil Williams at contact <at> openmindedsolutions.co.uk and we will contact you in due course.

Why Men are happy…

  1. Your last name stays put.
  2. The garage is all yours.
  3. You can never be pregnant.
  4. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
  5. You can wear NO shirt to a water park..
  6. Car mechanics tell you the truth.
  7. The world is your urinal.
  8. You don’t have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
  9. Same work, more pay.
  10. Wrinkles add character.
  11. Wedding dress £2000. Morning-suit rental-£100..
  12. People never stare at your chest when you’re talking to them.
  13. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.
  14. New shoes don’t cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
  15. One mood all the time..
  16. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
  17. A five-day holiday requires only one suitcase.
  18. You can open all your own jars.
  19. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
  20. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
  21. Your underwear is £4.95 for a three-pack.
  22. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
  23. You almost never have strap problems in public.
  24. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
  25. Everything on your face stays its original colour.
  26. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
  27. You only have to shave your face and neck.
  28. One wallet and one pair of shoes one colour for all seasons.
  29. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
  30. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache..
  31. No wonder men are happier.

We will remember them…

Today at 11am, walk away from whatever you are doing and fall silent for just two minutes and spend the time thinking about those who have died in conflicts around the world…

These brave men and women fought and died for us as individuals so it doesn’t matter if you are having a bad day at work or feeling grumpy, that is nothing compared to the sacrifice they made.

So today just one simple thing, just remember them….