Archives / Tag: Web applications

The fact that just over a month after switching from Santander to HSBC I’m already compiling a list of annoyances with their ‘online’ banking system says something I guess. Maybe I’m a bit of a moaner or maybe I just expected more from someone that claims their online banking system is ‘award winning’.

• Standing Orders: Don’t be fooled in to thinking that you are actually adding, editing and deleting your standing orders ‘online’. The reality is that changes are not live despite what the online banking interface might lead you to believe. The reality is that an email request is sent to some chap somewhere is HSBC and he manually processes these requests as and when he’s at his desk. Heaven forbid you might want to change a standing order on a weekend or any other time when ‘stand order man’ is away from his desk… you’ll just have to wait an unknown amount of time for the change to happen, meanwhile you’re in standing order limbo unaware of if the change you requested is actually going to happen or not.

• Beneficiaries: Want to use the HSBC online banking system to maintain a beneficiary list where two beneficiaries might have the same sort code and account number, forget it. You can’t do that. As much as I hate to say it – even Santander could manage this one. The problem here isn’t so much that the ‘legacy system’ behind the front end can’t handle multiple beneficiaries with the same account number and sort code, the problem is the user interface… rather that spouting a useless error code (HE7) at me why not just tell me what the problem is and advise as to how I can work around it.

This is an ongoing list which I’ll no doubt be adding to!

Well after hearing from Darren that he was switching in full to using Google for business email I decided to investigate myself. Google have a fantastic offer for small businesses; up to 25 mail accounts with a 6Gb limit ‘each’ which runs through your own domain.

It’s all pretty easy to set up though if you have a lot of existing email to import (how about 3Gb) then it can be quite painful!

I start shifting email across a few days back, starting with folders containing email to prospects then working my way slowly through my client folders, which are organised by client and job number. This is where I hit a big snag. Google Mail does not support folders (or labels as they call them) which have names that are longer than 40 characters. So as much as I would love to use Google for Mail because I might have a folder called ‘Clients’ with a sub folder called ‘John Smith Tractors’ and a folder inside that called ‘J123 – Website Development’ I am well and truly stuck.

Nothing I can do about it unless I want to spend hours renaming all my folders, shortening the names or manually re-labeling all the email to use multiple labels once inside Google Mail.

If only there was a script that turned ‘folders with sub folders’ into ‘multiple labels’ then I would be saved.

See how your email newsletters look in a wide range of different email clients, and webmail systems. For every email you send to us, you receive two screen captures. One of the email as it is displayed in the software’s preview pane (see an example), and using our FullPage technology, showing you the entire message once it’s been opened (see an example).

I’d always thought that the Campaign Monitor would do well to get cosy with Paul and the rest of the SiteVista team, an integrated ‘SiteVista / MailBuild’ solution would be a killer combo. API anyone?

If, like me you missed the Carson Workshops Future of Web Apps Summit you’ll be glad to know that the podcasts from the event are now live, and even better… free to download.

1. Joshua Schachter (Delicious)
   Delicious – Things we’ve learned

2. David Heinemeier Hansson (37 Signals)
   Happy Programming and Sustainable Productivity with Ruby on Rails

3. Steffen Meschkat (Google)
   Reality-Checking the AJAX Web Application Architecture

4. Cal Henderson (Flickr)
   From website to web application. Ten reasons to love Web 2.0

5. Shaun Inman (Mint)
   10 Reasons Why You Need to Build an API

6. Ryan Carson (DropSend)
   Building an enterprise web app on a budget – Inside story of DropSend

7. Tom Coates (Yahoo!)
   Designing Web 2.0-native Products for Fun and Profit

8. Panel Discussion with all speakers + FeedBurner Discussion

A little late I know, but since I was supposed to have been attending the Carson Workshops Future of Web Apps Summit, I thought that the least I could do in the absence of a personal viewpoint would be to provide a write up by proxy of a couple of mates who did make it. Still gutted.

• Drew McLellan
• Jonathan Leighton

Like probably every other web designer out there @media 2006 is an event that I’d love to attend, however the registration fee of £395 (+VAT) really blows my chances out of the water.

First off I have to get any expenses past the financial controller wife, then following that I’d have to consider whether I’m really that desperate to blow upwards of £500 (once I factor in travel and beer) on a 2 day jolly in London. I guess it’s all a bit different if you’re working for an agency (like I used to) and you can get the expenses past the relevant person, but when you’re your own boss that figure really smarts.

Instead I’ve decided to book my place at one of the upcoming Carson Workshops; The Carson Summit – The Future of Web Apps. There’s a really exciting list of speakers including respected figures from Delicious, 37 Signals and Flickr to name just a few.

At just £75 (+VAT) it seems a bit of a steal if you ask me. If you’ve got your place reserved add your mugshot to the Carson Summit Flickr group and maybe I’ll see you there. :)

Just a couple of Basecamp themes I’ve put together.

Header Background: #72AA1D
Project Name: #fff
Client Name: #000
Current Tab Text: #000
Tab Background: #B8D48E
Tab Text: #000
Tab Hover Background: #FFCC00
Tab Hover Text: #000
Links: #8C8C8C

Header Background: #7B007B
Project Name: #FFD52C
Client Name: #fff
Current Tab Text: #7B007B
Tab Background: #B340B3
Tab Text: #fff
Tab Hover Background: #990099
Tab Hover Text: #FFD52C
Links: #03c