Mid-weight to intermediate advanced beginner PHP developer wanted

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by Dan Nolan

As part of our ongoing expansion we’ve been on something of a recruitment drive lately. This has involved placing lots of adverts in the paper and online and watching the applications start to roll in.

We’ve also had to take on a new member of staff just to deal with the phone calls from recruitment agents, which for the past two months have been coming at a rate of one of every seven minutes.

Anyway. One thing that has caused us trouble has been the advertising of our current vacancy, for a (whisper it) Junior PHP Developer. Now, we’re as au fait as the next employer when it comes to discrimination laws. We know that you can’t include wording in job ads that implies a desired age for successful candidates.

This presents a dilemma. In the context of a job advertisement, the word 'junior' holds a lot of semantic information. Without it, it becomes harder to succinctly define what we want in a candidate.

• ‘Trainee PHP Developer’ implies that we’re going to teach successful applicants wholesale aspects of the job while they do it (we are not).
  
  
• ‘PHP Developer’ will invite hundreds of applications from across the entire spectrum of experience and salaries and make the hiring process harder for us.
  
  
• ‘Pretty good but not amazing and eager to learn PHP Developer’ is not snappy enough.

How do accountants hire their junior clerks these days? It’s a genuine question; do they face the same linguistic difficulties, is there a really obvious workaround we’re missing?

We’re still advertising jobs at the moment. Two PHP roles and a content writer position. You can find details of all three current vacancies on our website.

Growth still officially good at theEword

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by Dan Nolan

When our company site displays the mantra ‘Growth is good’, it would be a bit remiss if we didn’t display some signs of it ourselves. Luckily, we are growing (unlike the plants in the office which are looking iffier by the day) and our expansion currently finds us looking for more staff to bolster our ambitious and hardworking team.

We’ve got three positions available: two for PHP developers and a third for a content writer, particulars of which – including details on how to apply – can be viewed here.

Let’s use this space to list some of the perks successful applicants can look forward to:

• Great atmosphere
  
• Funny and attractive workmates
  
• Quiet coffee machine
  
• Excellent range of organic cordial (free)
  
• Five minutes’ walk from Salford Quays – the north west’s very own South Bank

To the jobs.

Google's G1 launches with rollerblading in New York

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 by Dan Nolan

Not content with having just released an amazing browser, Google has now waded into the next-gen mobile phone war, forging new rivalries with Apple and Nokia, to go with their already simmering Microsoft ‘beef’.

Broadband Guide, the blogular companion to our client CompareBroadbandUK’s main site, has done an interesting post about the new phone’s features, including an amusing (NB NOT VERY AMUSING) video of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page rollerskating on stage at the machine’s New York press launch.

You can read the post here.

Gone Phishin'

Monday, September 22, 2008 by Dan Nolan

The new generation of web browsers – basically, Internet Explorer 8 and Google’s Chrome – come with so-called ‘smart screen’ filtering technology, which acts like a sort of chaperone. Try to visit any malicious websites (we’re talking about phishing sites, not Perez Hilton) and a big red screen pops up warning you against it.

Being clued-up ‘n’ conscientious surfers ourselves, we haven’t yet been accosted by the browser police. So we decided to deliberately try to trigger a telling-off.

Opening a blatant spam email headed CONFIRM YOUR ONLINE BANK ACCOUNT (we found the capital letters most compelling), we were greeted with a message telling us that a bank account – which we don’t even hold – was in danger of expiring unless we re-enter our details on the company’s website. Yeah right.

But would Chrome step in and save us if we ventured forth to the site?

Visiting the link presented us with this screen (click):


Which is about as clear a warning as you could hope for and should be a useful tool in preventing the less web-savvy among us from falling victim to such phishing scams.

For the record, we don’t recommend opening spam email, even for research purposes. Banks never contact customers asking them to input address and card details online and any email communication is likely to be addressed directly to you, not the generic ‘Dear Customer’. With email, and now browser, filtering becoming more sophisticated it is harder to stumble into these traps, but, as ever, if in doubt – delete delete delete.

Barwatch: The Bay Horse

Monday, September 22, 2008 by Dan Nolan

theEword team hit Manchester’s fashionable Northern Quarter™ the other night to celebrate winning a major new contract.

Desirable watering hole The Bay Horse was our chosen destination: the relaxed and stylish atmosphere perfectly complementing our own cool collected qualities.

Once inside we were greeted with a laid-back clientele enjoying post-work drinks to a soundtrack of ambient, new wave and world music tracks. The tunes got progressively louder and our pockets progressively lighter (the place is hardly cheap) as the night wore on and a good time was had by all.

Bay Horse mini review:

Location: at the heart of Manchester’s fashionable Northern Quarter™
Prices: above average (pints come in at £3+) but by no means the worst in the city
Music: ambient eclecticism, with genre club nights downstairs
Staff and atmosphere: friendly and inclusive, relaxed
Overall: a sparse but warm venue with a wide selection of drinks served by friendly staff

867/1000

Stay tuned for more in-depth bar reviews like this! (Pending further reasons to celebrate).

The Bay Horse on WHLN.

So shiny and new

Tuesday, September 09, 2008 by Dan Nolan

You know what they say; browsers are like buses. You wait ages for one and then three come along all at once. (NB no one says this). So it goes with the launch of Google’s new Chrome beta, which follows hot on the heels of Internet Explorer 8.

And while having another browser on the scene presents something of a headache for us (some sites look spectacularly broken in Chrome), we welcome Google’s foray into the world of browserdom (while scratching our heads as to what it means for their involvement in Firefox).

The first thing that hits you about Chrome is its simplicity. The window is uncluttered and incredibly straightforward. Everything is handled in separate tabs, which appear to behave in the same way as IE8’s (although without the smart colour coding). Functions are taken care of by two big, chunky buttons, for current page options and general settings.

Chrome is like Swedish furniture; beautiful to behold and stunningly simple. Unlike Swedish furniture, you can check your Facebook and look at clips of people falling off bikes on YouTube.

But despite its innocuous simplicity, two darker issues have emerged from Chrome’s launch.

The first, which is of little consequence to the general public just yet, is that some people view Google’s new browser as a sign the company intends to mount an assault on Microsoft and KILL WINDOWS FOREVER (gasp!). It all relates to a passage in a recent Google blog entry, which alluded to Chrome’s status as a “new platform for applications”.

Any foothold the company gains against Microsoft would be significant from an SEO perspective. By drawing more and more users away from Bill Gates and co, Google can increase the dominance – and therefore revenue generated by – their already-powerful search engine. With growing emphasis on search engine placing, SEO will become an increasingly useful marketing tool for companies.



The second serious issue to arise from Chrome’s launch was – apparently – all down to an error on Google’s part when transcribing the program’s EULA. Clauses within the agreement appeared to suggest that Google would own the copyright on every action you take using their browser, meaning they would own every email, blog post or LOL you sent over the net. Dutifully alerted to the ridiculous ownership claim, the company removed the offending articles, blaming a “copy and paste error” for the confusion.

The more we use Chrome, the sleeker and more impressive it seems. It’s fast, clean and great for nippy, intuitive browsing. Our favourite feature from a user’s perspective is the start-up screen, which features thumbnails of your nine most-visited websites, meaning that they are only a quick click away. The always-on Bookmarks Toolbar is very useful too, as it allows instant navigation between your favourite sites.

Chrome is in the very early stages of development (beta 0.2) but if the final release delivers on its early promise, it could be very special. You can download the new browser here, and have a look at the much talked about Chrome Comic by clicking the picture below.

New IE features tested

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 by Dan Nolan

The latest Internet Explorer beta was released last week, and we’ve spent the intervening days familiarising ourselves with the new browser and getting to grips with the techy side.


There are loads of technical features, changes and improvements in the new browser, but to go through them all would take far too long. Instead, we thought we’d have a look at some of the things the average website user can expect to get out of Internet Explorer 8.

One of the coolest new features is the enhanced system for handling tabs. In IE8, tabs appear in different colours according to the page they were opened from, making it easier for you to see which ones go with which. There’s also an option for bringing back tabs you’ve closed – perfect for those times you’ve accidentally got rid of important tabs.


Another convenient feature is the Smart Address Bar (above). Start typing in this and it searches across your surfing History, Favourites and RSS feeds. This is good news for the lazy, as it means full web addresses can be found and entered with just the touch of one or two keys. However, the size of the Smart Bar makes it a bit intrusive and some advanced users are already longing for the days of old fashioned address bars.

There’s a new thing called Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8, which allow developers to mark off parts of websites and send information directly to the Favourites bar. This has consumer implications as it will allow people using the tool to stay up-to-date with constantly changing information, like price updates on retail websites, without needing to subscribe to or check feeds.


One more feature with implications for consumer browsing is the InPrivate Browsing mode (which has already been given a number of less savoury nicknames based on how it might be used). This allows web users to surf the internet without IE saving their history, keystrokes or mouse clicks, a feature designed to combat online fraud. Basically it’s a tool for covering your tracks, making sure no one knows what websites you’ve been on. This is particularly useful if you stand to get in trouble with loved ones for visiting certain sites. As the Microsoft website points out, “Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won't accidentally find out”.

The new features in Internet Explorer 8 seem to put it firmly back among the browser pack, after Microsoft let it fall behind. And the Corporation’s claims that IE8 is more interoperable with other web browsers and web standards should (should) make it less of a headache for us to get pages looking beautiful in all the major browsers. Hurrah.

Internet Explorer 8 (Beta 2) is here!

Monday, September 01, 2008 by Dan Nolan

The second beta form of Internet Explorer 8 is out now, and Microsoft is encouraging members of the public to give it a try alongside us more discerning web developer types.

We’ve been playing around with the new browser for a few days and have come across loads of features and tweaks tucked into the program. Most of them are things that the average surfer won’t use, but the industry implications for some of the changes are huge.

The release of IE8 is basically Microsoft’s latest attempt to keep up with Firefox, something which is reflected throughout; even down to the visual similarities between the two browsers. The delayed progress is definitely a case of ‘better late than never’, with the increased security and move towards industry standards making this a welcome, as a well as important, release.

Microsoft says they’ve developed the new browser in accordance with how people actually use the web, focusing most of their design efforts on aiding users’ navigation around the internet. They’ve also looked at safety and cross-platform usability.

Because the code in IE8 is different to previous versions, some (ie most) websites look quite ill when brought up in the new browser. However, there is a button you can press to make things run like they do in Internet Explorer 7, meaning misaligned text and graphics that you’ve got to scroll for five minutes to see are quickly brought back into line.

We’re still messing about with the new Explorer; stay tuned for a post where we’ll go through some of our favourite new features and improvements (including the enigmatically-named ‘InPrivate Browsing’ mode).