Photoshop is 20 years old

photoshop.com web image Our favourite photo editing software: Adobe Photoshop turned 20 this week.

Back in 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, started playing with greyscale digital images on a monochrome display. His brother, John, soon joined him and together they came up with the image editing software.

This week, John (now a visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic) said: ‘It’s endlessly amusing to see how much it has permeated popular culture. It really is everywhere. You can hardly turn around and not see something that was done in Photoshop. And it started out with Tom and I screwing around with it as a hobby. It was the right product at the right time.’

View the Photoshop 20th year celebration website or pop over to the photoshop website and throw a picture or two about or visit Photoshop Disasters to see how NOT to do it ;o)

February 19, 2010
general | No Comments »

Cybrand redesign gets revved up!

Cybrand web design by iprogress iprogress were asked to redesign and build the new Cybrand website.

Cybrand is a market-leading manufacturer and distributor of Automotive Exhaust products, Industrial Silencers and Emission Control technologies for diesel and petrol engines.

Alongside their products, they offer expert technical advice, a comprehensive installation and support service, and a dedicated bespoke design department.

Check out their website here: www.cybrand.co.uk

February 1, 2010
general | No Comments »

Virtual Assistants

The more your business grows, the more administrative tasks you have; the more time you spend on administrative tasks, the less time you have to generate new business.

Virtual Assistants or VA’s help you manage the everyday running of your companies administrative tasks. You need to calculate how much your time is worth. Carrying out inconsequential administrative tasks yourself does not add value to your business. One solution is to delegate those less profitable tasks by hiring someone professional capable of completing them for you, but whose hourly rate at a cost effective rate.

This is where the Virtual Assistant come into play, an invaluable economic new work force that provides a practical solution for small businesses owners. A virtual assistant frees up your precious time so you can focus on growing your business and exploring new leads.

Virtual assistants don’t need office space or even to live in the same town or city. All communication in through email; telephone, fax or post and web-based tools such as instant messengers and online calendars and planners. This not only makes economical sense but is also environmentally friendly with the removal of the daily commute.

Other advantages include

Virtual assistants are self-employed, and invoices you only for the actual hours worked or by tasks completed.
When you hire a VA you get all the benefits of outsourcing – no employer liabilities, tax and benefits issues, coupled with the loyalty and steadiness of a company executive personal assistant.
Your virtual assistant can return telephone calls, answer e-mails, and draft letters for you.
Virtual assistants can run your diary, manage your post, design your next presentation, book your doctor’s appointment and even arrange those presents for your spouse that you forget every year!

As we more and more and more of our business and personal lives communications to the Internet, remote working and virtual assistants are becoming the obvious solution to managing our time and resources. Especially when the hourly cost is less than the cost of temporary staff or the real cost of employing someone and all the legislation and time that takes its even more of an attractive proposition.

January 28, 2010
Call Handling, Virtual Assistant | 1 Comment »

Internet Explorer 6 – time to go!

Cross-browser compatibility is one of the most complex issues when it comes to web-development. Web standards are usually consistent, however no browser is perfect and particularly older browsers continually surprise us with their ‘creative’ rendering of (X)HTML/CSS-code. Internet explorer 6 is the ‘king of thorns’ in a coders side (11% of users still in Dec 09) and version 8 has been upon us for nearly a year. Still we need to make sure that all visitors to your web-site have the same experience, so testing code can sometimes be an frustrating event at iprogress towers and the ’swear box’ donations can certainly mount up.

So this week we read with interest a little article that hopefully may force sensible people to upgrade:

Certa, a French agency that studies cyber attacks, yesterday warned users against all versions of IE and advised them to switch to browsers such as Firefox or Google Chrome.

Microsoft insisted Internet Explorer 8 was the ‘most secure browser on the market’. The company admitted last week that a previously unknown flaw in its browser was the weak link used in attacks by hackers who attempted to break into the e-mail accounts of human rights activists in China. It insisted that general users were not at risk.

Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy, said that only the older Internet Explorer 6 was targeted in the attack. Surfers visiting a compromised website could see their computer infected by a ‘Trojan horse’, allowing criminals to take control of the computer and steal information.

There has been a growing effort by many organisations in recent years to persuade users to stop using the outdated Internet Explorer 6, which many feel causes security issues and is impeding the development of the web.

January 20, 2010
development, general, programming | 2 Comments »

Googles Apps IMAP and Outlook

We use Google Apps for just about everything at iprogress and email is a major part of our day to day life. So when we configured Outlook to work with IMAP service it was a breath of fresh air.

We now have fully synchronized email on the move and in the office. To see just how easy it is to configure outlook with Google mail IMAP check out this dead easy setup guide.

January 6, 2010
Google Apps | No Comments »

23 foundation

We recently finished developing the 23 foundation charity web site for Liverpool FC defender Jamie Carragher. The site is for a good cause and helps kids in Merseyside by giving them an outlet through football and sport.

We worked alongside Finch who create the concept and designs for the site. You can see the site at www.23foundation.com

November 7, 2009
general | No Comments »

Google Position Checker

We have been optimising www.allgoodfun.com for a range of kitesurfing equipment including kitesurfing kites, kitesurfing boards and kitesurfing harnesses and have found the Google Position Checker from Search Engine Genie a massive help. Much better that changing the advanced search setting in Google and doing a quick control F.

August 17, 2009
SEO | No Comments »

SEOMoz

We are working on quite a few search engine optimisation projects at the moment and to help us along we decided to have a look at SEOmoz.org Professional as it was recommended by an associate. So far we mainly been using the “Back links Analysis” tool.

The reports that SEOmoz.org creates are very useful, especially the back link checker which allows us to run reports on our clients completion to see where they are getting inbound links from. Of course the next step is to try and get listed in the same places.

This has worked to an extent for www.bannermandirect.co.uk and we have been able to locate a submit the site under PVC Banners.

One of the problems we have had with www.Bannermandirect.co.uk is we didn’t build the site, not that we couldn’t or wouldn’t we just didn’t get asked.

Another site we did build and manage is www.purplehazecouture.com which is doing well in the rankings but could do better. SEOmoz.org has again helped in locating some inbound links we had overlooked. The site is being returned in the top 100 for twenty8Tweleve and has produced quality leads and sales.

We have also started to add all our ecommerce clients stock to Google Base, this is working really well for our latest ecommerce site www.allgoodfun.com who have a vast catalogue including kite surf , snow ski and marine products. All their products are now in Google base and are being returned on specific product searches.

All in all SEOmoz.org appears to be a valuable asset but I’m just not convinced it’s worth the monthly fee but the next couple of months will give us a better idea.

August 14, 2009
general | No Comments »

Your ticket for liverpool leaflet

Livesmart leaflets

After creating a slight refresh of a couple of the ‘Your ticket for Liverpool’ website pages the people from Livesmart asked if we could do the same for their leaflet. The design work was to show the cards benefits across Liverpool and Wirral across 2 sides of a folded A3.

The new detailed Livesmart ‘Your ticket for Liverpool’ foldout leaflet is now in circulation so pick up a copy and see how you can benefit from the card, its discounts and free entry to various places.

bullet Visit the website to see more information about the ‘Your ticket for Liverpool’ card.