Pete White - 'World Famous' ImAFish

Information Solutions Win Gold at Mayor Awards

Pete — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:04:21 +0000

For the second year running Shrewsbury based Information Solutions Limited have won an award at the Mayor of Shrewsbury annual awards ceremony.

This year the Gold award was presented by the mayor in recognition of Information Solutions’ “outstanding contribution to the community in the business sector”.

On receiving the award, company director Pete White said: “It’s great to be recognised for the hard work we do in the town helping local businesses with their IT and web requirements. We’ve been helping local companies to improve their competitive edge with advanced information technology for the last ten years."

Information Solutions also trade as The Web Orchard and are one of the companies behind the popular Love Shrewsbury website. Pete added "Undoutably our success with Love Shrewsbury over the past year is one of the reasons we've won this prestigious award and we look forward to continuing this over the coming year".

Information Solutions have been providing IT Support and Services to businesses throughout The Midlands and Wales since 2003. They serve some of the largest and smallest organisations in the area from their offices in The Pump House, Shrewsbury.

The company provides a wide range of services, from advanced websites and server/network installations through to computer maintenance and IT consulting services.

www.info-sol.co.uk

www.theweborchard.com

Affordable alternatives to game consoles

Pete — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:43:44 +0000

This year has seen a revolution in game consoles, with a new focus on social gaming and cloud technology. The Nintendo Wii U has completely remodelled the classic controller, whilst the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 are gearing up to transform game titles from physical DVD discs to internet installations. But these brand new console releases come with a hefty price tag, and the accompanying games only add to the rocketing costs that players face nowadays.

So, whilst you wait for console costs to drop, here are some of the best alternatives that will make sure you don’t go without your gaming fix.

Online games and emulators:

There is a huge online market for instant games, with sites such as EA and MoneyGaming offering everything from action to casino classics. You may sometimes be required to sign up with a player account and make a small deposit, but you can usually take advantage of promotional offers and even turn a profit whilst playing (which will certainly help you afford that Xbox 720 by Christmas time.)

However, if you have your heart set on a specific rare or discontinued title then emulators are a great solution. These can be downloaded straight to your PC and all you require to play is a cheap, USB compatible controller, which is available online or from gadget shops.

Mobile Gaming:

Smartphones have advanced significantly over the years, offering players impressive graphics and a high quality gaming experience. However, tapping some buttons on your phone isn’t quite the same as playing from your favourite console. Well, that’s where mobile gaming accessories come into play.

Portable game controllers connect straight to mobiles to allow you to game from any location. iPhone users can play with the iControlPad from £45 and Android gamers will be impressed by the stylish PowerA Moga, which costs around £30. Although a little pricey, these accessories are a fantastic way to keep entertained and, with free and affordable mobile games, they are easy on the bank balance.

Stream games to your TV:

Mobile gaming is all well and good, but sometimes you want to see your favourite game titles blown up on the TV screen. For around £65 you can purchase the OnLive, which allows you to stream full console games to computers, phones and TVs without the need for big bulky hardware. A microconsole links the OnLive to the television and works impressively well.

Similarly, MHL can connect your smartphone to your TV screen and is much more affordable, at less than £10. The smartphone controller accessories even connect to some Android apps, to allow the use of PlayStation 3 and Wii remotes whilst playing.

Microconsoles:

Microconsoles give you all the fun of playing your favourite titles on the TV, but at a fraction of the cost.

The console taking the industry by storm at the moment is the Ouya. Priced at under £100, the Ouya will be released in June and will allow players to enjoy Android games with a physical controller. Its creators also promise that it will be open to hacking, meaning avid gamers can use the microconsole to play emulator apps on.

Image courtesy of Stratageme.com at Flickr

GameStick is another microconsole very similar to the Ouya, except that it is smaller in design and cheaper in price. PlayJam, the creators of the device, are a game developing company, meaning that the software support on the GameStick is likely to be better than that of its rival.

Yearly Returns with Zopa

Pete — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:08:13 +0000

I first wrote about Zopa in 2007, back then returns on ISAs and similar investments were good and Zopa was a relatively new website with no track record.

With interest rates at 0.5% and most highstreet ISAs giving a similar return I've been struggling to find somewhere to save my money.

Zopa's philosophy remains unchanged, you move money into your online Zopa account, set the rates you wish to lend at and Zopa lends your money to people that need it.

When setting your rates Zopa gives you guidelines as to the market rates, these change frequently and I tend to set mine on the high end of the recommended rates. This means my money is lent our slowly however the return rates are higher.

I lend out a maximum of £10 per person hence my maximum exposure per loan is limited. Zopa has a number of markets and you can choose the rates you lend to each one (if at all) A* being the best market and B being the riskier, obviously the rates for the riskier markets are higher.

Through your loan book you can see the usernames of who you lend money to and the reasons, most are for DIY, cars or to consolidate existing debts however you do get some more entertaining ones.

If you need access to your money quickly Zopa has a rapid return facility however you lose a percentage of your earnings by using this.

My difficulty with Zopa came in trying to calculate the percent rate of return over a period of time. Therefore just over a year ago I took the decision not to add anything further into my account.

Over a year long period I could then calculate the years earning as a percent to then compare with other investments.

As a result in this time I had one unpaid load (ie bad debt), once taking this into account and the 1% Zopa fee my return was 5.56%.

Compared to high street ISA's and similar this is a good return.

April Fools on Love Shrewsbury

Pete — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:55:30 +0000

When I was writing the April Fools editorial in bed at 8.30 yesterday morning it didn't cross my mind that it would be the best day ever on the site. We over doubled our previous visits record, 5 times the average good days traffic and even got mentioned on local radio.

What was really interesting about the day was how quickly the article went viral and how quickly it started to bring visitors to the site. I published the article at 9.09, I immediately shared this on the Love Shrewsbury Facebook Page (with an audience of 877 likes), I then reshared to my personal Facebook friends (an audience of about 500). I then shared on my personal Twitter (knowing that the Love Shrewsbury Twitter would be tweeted automatically from IFTTT).

Almost instantly people started to click through to the website. Between 9.09 and 12pm traffic was fairly consistently showing 20-25 people reading the article. Just after 12 we broke the sites previous hits record (set sometime last year), by 9pm we had doubled this amount.

What was also interesting is the number of people that used the Facebook like button within the page, as I write this post it has 163 likes, given we struggle to get comments on the site its good to see people interacting in this way.

We've put a lot of work into developing our social media channels and days like yesterday so how effective they can be in distributing content and bringing traffic to the site.

The big challenge is continuing to develop content, the 1st of April only comes round once a year and this sort of article wouldn't work any other time.

Today we have a great photographic piece about the closed Shrewsbury prison that I was hoping would be the big article of the week however something tells me it won't cause as big a stir!

Originally posted on petejwhite.com

Twitter Automation with Drupal Views and IFTTT

Pete — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:56:28 +0000

Drupal Views is one of the most powerful modules available, paired with the automation service IFTTT you can post to Twitter in some fancy ways.

Best Cashback Credit Cards

Pete — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:36:07 +0000

Here are the five best cash back credit cards as of March 2013:

1. Barclaycard Cashback Card - this card offers a huge 6% for the first 3 months then 2% thereafter. The only downside is that there is an annual fee of £24.

2. American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card - offers a very nice 5% for the first 3 months and 2.5% thereafter. For this card you need an annual household salary of at least £20,000 and there is a £25 annual fee.

3. Capital One Aspire Elite - this cash back card offers 5% for the first 3 months and 2% thereafter. The big downside with this card is the £120 annual fee and you need an annual income of over £50,000.

4. Sainsbury's Cashback Credit Card - this card simply offers 5% for the first 3 months. You get an additional £5 each month when you spend £500 per month on shopping at Sainsburys and selected other retailers.

5. Santander 123 Credit Card - offers up to 3% cashback on fuel, National Rail and TfL, 2% cashback at department stores and 1% cashback at supermarkets.

Getting the right card is a tricky mix, especially if you are not a heavy spender. As with any credit card If you are in debt it is important to get credit card debt advice

Is Progressive Bingo More Fun?

Pete — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:49:16 +0000

We've covered a range of bingo games on ImAFish and today I want to talk about Progressive Bingo. Is there something more fun about playing a game with an ever increasing jackpot?

In normal bingo, balls are drawn until someone wins, in progressive bingo there are a limited number of balls, after each round the jackpot is increased for every round where there is no winner. As the length of the game increases so does the jackpot.

What's especially fun with progressive games is that the jackpot can become significantly higher than in a normal bingo game. As the jackpot goes so does the suspense that goes with the prize.

As with a lot of bingo sites community is key, websites such as www.goldenbingo.co.uk offer a range of progressive bingo games and often don't require an inital deposit.

Updated Pinterest Boards

Pete — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:26:21 +0000

I've updated my Pinterest page with some of my latest web portfolio screenshots - take a look here. If you like please share or repin!

The best SIM-only deals compared

Pete — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:18:33 +0000

In recent years there has been a distinct rise in the number of SIM-only deals on the UK phone market. Networks are finally listening to customers who are unhappy with the high cost of tariffs after their contract has expired. On the face of it, these newer options seem to represent better value for money for customers, but we’ve delved a little deeper to compare the best SIM card deals on the market when compared to new SIM-only companies such as giffgaff.

Let’s look at the Pay Monthly market, as these seem to be where we can find the best deals. Also worth noting is that the average person in the UK spent £439 per year – or £36.50 per month – on their mobile phones in 2011, according to BillMonitor. So let’s take this as a benchmark and see what we can get for our money.

First up is O2 pay monthly on a 1-month contract. For your £36 per month you get unlimited texts and 900 UK minutes but a mere 1GB of internet data. Commit to a 12-month contract and you get unlimited minutes and texts and 2GB of data for £31, however you are tied down to this for the term of the contract.

Secondly, we have Vodafone, which offers a slightly better deal. On a 30-day contract you get 600 UK minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data for £23 per month. Commit to a 12-month deal and you can get unlimited minutes and texts as well as 2GB of data for £26 per month.

Thirdly, Orange’s Panther 36 SIM gives you 1200 anytime minutes and unlimited texts yet only 1GB of data for your £36 per month. On the upside, it’s on a 1-month contract, however, if you have an iPhone you’re likely to use more than your allowance of data, so it could end up costing you more than you had bargained for each month.

Fourthly, we have T-Mobile. You get unlimited minutes, data and texts for £31 per month with their Full Monty SIM plan. However, this requires a 12-month contract and some users have complained about reception, even in built up areas.

Finally we have a different proposition altogether from giffgaff. They are an online SIM-only service provider with a community-run network of users. They have low running costs, so the savings are passed on to the user. This is reflected in their prices. Their £25 a month goodybag will give you a whopping 1,500 UK minutes, unlimited giffgaff to giffgaff minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data. And the best part is, there is no 12-month contract, so you’re free to chop and change your plan at any time.

This is great news when we consider that the average Briton wastes around £171 a year on their phone bill due to unused minutes and texts. As the functionality of smartphones becomes more sophisticated, we are running more and more of our lives through them and as a result we have seen a big jump in average data usage of smartphone owners in the recent years. So plans with high data allowances seem to represent the best value for money. giffgaff’s unlimited data goodybags seem to be the perfect tonic to this. To find out more and to see what’s happening in their world, head over to the giffgaff twitter page.

5 Common Web Design Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Pete — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:13:53 +0000

Creating a website allows you to showcase your unique brand or personality. Web design is open to unlimited potential, due to the wide range of tools and templates out there. You don't need to have a degree in coding or graphic design to create a website. Yet it's still important to analyse what works and what doesn't in the field of web design to make your site more user-friendly. The following are a few common mistakes that can be made even when using seemingly fool-proof templates.

1. Including too Much Information

One of the easiest ways to drive away your audience is by overloading your website with too much content. Although it's logical to try and provide your viewers with as much info as possible, this can be confusing and make your site look cluttered. Whittle down your message to a few key points that will fit into a streamlined format. Short, relevant facts and messages can include links to more in-depth content on another page. Online viewers respond well to bullet points, short paragraphs, and visuals.

2. Using Small or Blurry Photographs

When it comes to posting images, less is not always more. This is particularly true if you are posting images to be used as thumbnails in a gallery. Be sure that your viewer gets a clear view of what they're looking at, or they'll quickly lose interest and leave the website. Clear, varied, and large photographs can make your website more visually appealing.

3. Using Too Many Images

Although using images is vital to make your website interesting to viewers, you don't want to overdo this feature either. Just as it's easy to provide too much text, it's also easy to overload your website with imagery and graphics. This will make it harder to navigate. Keep in mind that images take longer to load than text, can obscure your main message, and may not translate well to mobile formats.

4. Not Updating your Content Regularly

Once you have created the perfect website, it's easy to leave it for a long period of time without any updates. However, this can make it hard to find in search results and gives your audience little incentive to keep visiting. You can use UK web hosting services to keep up a blog as well as your main business website. This provides an ideal opportunity to post regular content and link it to your full online network.

5. Not Including a Summary Page

In addition to your products, blog, or other main webpages, you will want to have a summary section that makes your website's purpose very clear to viewers. A brief description on the main page can provide this purpose, as can a separate "about me" section.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create a website that is streamlined, easy on the eyes, and useful to visitors. It will entice your audience to come back often, and share what they see with others.