Latest from the Stable

Full Steam Ahead!

mradamwood — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:11:33 +0000

So tomorrow (Wednesday 29th Feb) is my last day as an employee. I will be saying Au Revoir to the Ministry of Justice. It’s been some time in the coming but I wanted to be comfortable with where things were at working on my little lonesome but with the client work, and work on Kroma and Chatr I desperately need the extra day!

So no more excuses. The extra time will be added to internal development so progress can be made on the above projects without affecting the ring fenced client days.

preppeller: 1.1 is now available to people who have opted to...

mradamwood — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:32:27 +0000

preppeller:

1.1 is now available to people who have opted to have pre-release builds as shown in the screenshot above. Lots of excellent stuff in this release so be sure to read the change log.

Cheers,
Andrew

So another year is quickly drawing to a close with barely the...

mradamwood — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:37:02 +0000

So another year is quickly drawing to a close with barely the time to write this little Merry Christmas / Yearly Sum Up post.

2011 has been pretty alright. Have moved to Bristol, resigned from the day job (still there ad hoc for a couple of months) and Coding Stable is really starting to take off. If I find time over the Christmas holiday I’ve got a very detailed plan to write as I’ve got grand ideas for stepping up the game in 2012.

The stable is closed from 23rd December until 3rd January 2012. Emails are being monitored any anything urged will be responded to.

So, with the traditional “best Christmas song in the world*” video, Merry Christmas one and all!

*Aware that most people disagree with this fact!

preppeller: I know this is a bit off topic from my usual stuff...

mradamwood — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:09:24 +0100

preppeller:

I know this is a bit off topic from my usual stuff but every so often, I stumble across a lovely little app… this weekend, I found ColorSnapper.

It has trivialised a procedure I do day in, day out… wanting to get a #hex or NSColor code from an image on the screen and use this colour immediately in my editor. I can now do this by:

Press hotkey (I have fn+F1 assigned)

Click on the colour I want on the screen

Use cmd+v to paste the hex code for this color

It’s great value on the App Store and really useful for all developers and web designers so I thought I’d share this with you :)

Cheers,
Andrew

p.s. I just read this post back and it sounds like a sponsored post or advert, just to let you know, it’s not :P

I woke up to the news of Steve this morning. More accurately I...

mradamwood — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:40:00 +0100

I woke up to the news of Steve this morning. More accurately I was asleep and may partner (who was up) woke me to tell me.

It’s not often I feel overly saddened by the death of someone in the limelight. It is sad whenever someone dies but at the back of my mind I always remember something Eddie Izzard said in a gig after Diana died. It was along the lines of “My mum died when I was young and no one gave a shit”. It wasn’t a slur on Diana but making the point that people die all the time.

I am deeply sad today and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shed some tears in bed as I was looking at other peoples tweets, posts and comments about Steve.

My tweet, before I read anything else, was simply “RIP Steve Jobs. Whatever your views on Apple, the man was a visionary genius.”

This, however, moved me most. The picture says it all but the words are spot on. cultm.ac/pmasYA

I do remain fully confident that good ship Apple will continue to innovate and improve without Steve at the helm.

Quick edit to add this quote from Steve:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

DomainDonkey Update

mradamwood — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:19:00 +0100

I’m going to switch off the automatic processing of domain renewal reminders and invoices. This is because the majority of customers have moved their domains away from DD to alternative registrars and the reminders and invoices (although annotated) have been confusing people.

This means that you will no longer get renewal reminders. It is your responsibility to ensure that your domain, if required, is renewed through an alternative registrar in the appropriate time frame.

Donkey recommends TSO Host for all your domain registration needs.

Any problems please email support@domaindonkey.co.uk.

You can still access your DD client account at https://www.domaindonkey.co.uk/clientarea.php.

Historic Information from DD Site

DomainDonkey has been retired and is no longer available for new customers.

UPDATE 14th August 2011
Donkey Internet is no longer a member of Nominet. Please ensure you transfer your .uk domains to a new provider as soon as possible. Any domains allowed to renew will be charged at Nominet’s full registration price of £96 + any processing cost incurred by Donkey Internet. It is normally free to transfer .uk domains to other registrars.

Existing Customers
Manage your Domains
Read More - Updated 27 May 2011 @ 08:19

Transfer Instructions
To transfer your .uk domains names please place a transfer order with your new registrar and then open a support ticket asking for a Tag Change. Please supply the new registrar’s Nominet tag.
To transfer other domains please log into your DD stable and request an EPP code. This will be automatically emailed to you and you’ll be able to place your transfer order with your new registrar. (Please note: if your new registrar uses Enom to supply domains you do not need an EPP code. Please open a support ticket and ask for the domain to be pushed to the new registrar’s Enom account. Please provide their Enom username).

PLEASE NOTE: When you move your domain away any DNS hosting with us will cease. Please ensure you updated your nameservers.

Chatr App Survey

mradamwood — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:43:36 +0100

Chatr App Survey:

If you’d be so kind and have an interest in Mac, Live Chat and websites then I’d be really uber grateful for you assistance.

Stable open soon

mradamwood — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:37:12 +0100

Have you seen the funky holding page on the main CS site? Pretty cool n’est pas?! Proper site on it’s way soon!

Chatr - Live Chat for Mac

mradamwood — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Planning and work is well underway for Chatr - Donkey’s first Mac app project. I’m not going to fill the Donkey blog with Chatr specific posts so if you want more info as things progress head over to the Chatr blog. Updates will probably not be frequent - Chatr is a part time project at the moment.

Another Change

mradamwood — Sat, 21 May 2011 02:00:00 +0100

Further to this post in February about diversifying Donkey I’ve decided to make another change which is to retire DomainDonkey from active duty and full focus on software development. Although the SaaS market still appeals I suspect that more focus will be put on Mac development (one of the originally mentioned in house projects was a Mac based one).

I’m an existing customer, what does this mean for me?

I appreciate that you may be disappointed with this further decision. Rest assured you will still have full access to your domains and to me. You will still be able to log in to your DD stable to make changes to nameservers and DNS (if hosted with Donkey) until your domain is due to renew or expires.

I will assist as much as possible in helping you find a new home for your domains, either if you wish to move them now, or if you want to leave them with DD until they are due to be renewed.

As has always been the case there will be no charge for releasing a domain to another registrar. Please note that transfers away of non .uk domains will incur a fee from the gaining registrar but a year will be added to your registration.

I can’t thank the existing DD customers enough for their custom and support.

I was going to register with you. What do I do?

There are many, many, many registrars out there. You need to find one that offers good support, doesn’t overcharge, gives you full access to your domain (and DNS if they offer that service). Also make sure that they don’t charge you to release your domain (if you decide to move away from them) – this is just a money making opportunity and something I disapprove of. It costs nothing to release a domain and anyone who charges is just trying to squeeze the last drop from you while they can.

Can you recommend a new registrar?

The only people I can genuinely recommend are the guys at TSO Host (Affiliate ink if you are so inclined: TSO Host). Adam and Darren offer superb support around the clock. All of the Donkey site’s are hosted with TSO and I can’t fault them. As and when the many domains I own fall due for renewal I will be moving them across.

Existing customers who wish to move to TSO should get in touch with me and I’ll arrange as seamless transfer as possible.

So from DD… thanks and goodnight!

PS: Donkey will still be around as the company behind the new projects so this isn’t the last of him

Edit (21st May 2011 @ 17:34): Those clients with a balance on their account will be able to continue to renew domains until their balance has been used or will be reimbursed their credit value.

Update (23 May 2011 @ 09:50): You will still receive domain renewal reminders. Thought it best to leave those active so you can advanced notice of when domains are due to renew.

Update (27 May 2011 @ 08:19): I have updated the domain expiring email notifications to remind people to transfer their domains and a summary of the process required to do that.

.uk transfer orders should be placed with the new registrar and then a support ticket opened asking for a tag change. Please include the new tag for the gaining registrar.

Other transfers can be made by requesting the EPP code from your DD stable. If the gaining registrar registers their domains through Enom please open a ticket asking for a manual transfer to the gaining registrars email account. Please include their Enom username.

Update (27 May @ 11:29): When you transfer your domain away please update your nameservers to use your new registrars services, or those of your hosting provider. DD can’t offer DNS functionality to domains once they have been transferred.

Diversify to Stay Alive

mradamwood — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:34:00 +0000

“Diversify to stay alive” is a term that is banded around all the time with business but more so lately during our economic crisis / recession / general doom & gloom. Donkey is no exception and is having to realign priorities.

There are three aspects to Donkey Internet:

Domain Registration
SSL Certificates
Software Development

And here is how each one will change

Domain Registration

DomainDonkey will continuing as is and focus on providing simple first class domain registration services.

SSL Certificates

SSLDonkey has to change. It hasn’t been as successful as hoped for a myriad of reasons and isn’t sustainable in it’s current form. The plan is for it to become an advisory and guidance site with links to the primary Certificate Authorities or other suitable SSL resellers. It will supply direct links and also affiliate links so that you have the choice which one you use (although using the affiliate link would be good). It will not link to any reseller or supplier that I don’t think warrants it.

Any existing clients will continue to have access to their client stable and will receive support as required.

SSLDonkey will be rebranded as SSLguide.org and will endeavour to be a top SSL resource.

Software Development

This area will become the focus for Donkey Internet. For some time Donkey has been providing coding and development support for several clients. There are also two in house projects about to commence.

Software development, primarily SaaS (Software as a Service) / web apps / in the cloud, has much greater longevity.

These changes, which I know will disappoint some customers, are necessary to ensure that Donkey survives the current conditions and can grow and prosper.

If you have any questions please get in touch as you would normally or post a comment here.

Custom php.ini

mradamwood — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:08:00 +0100

I hate them. I need to have something different to the main PHP.ini and low and behold I need a custom one with everything so nothing else breaks so I can change one little thing. And if that isn't bad enough you need one per directory. Seriously?!

Well, it turns out that actually no you don't.

You can fire this into you .htaccess (mine is at the top)

#Site Wide custom php file
SetEnv PHPRC /path/to/php.ini

and then just have one php.ini for your entire site - marvelous!

I keep my php.ini outside of my web root - just to be on the safe side - and it works a treat. No more multiple files to sort out php.ini!

Credit where credit is due - this little Gem came from the <a href="http://blog.eukhost.com/webhosting/using-a-custom-phpini-file-with-your-linux-shared-hosting/">eUKhost blog</a>