Benoks Hosting to restart services

Since we closed in October, we’ve been working hard to sort out the previous issues with our service making it; safer, securer and more reliable. Finally, we’re closing in on our goal of re-opening Benoks Hosting!

We’re now extremely happy to announce that we will be re-opening our hosting services around February to March. During this time we’ll be making several improvements to our website, to make it even easier for our visitors to use and access our website.

During this year, we’ll be bringing out a few new applications which will start to shape the way Benoks works. These applications will be available to everyone this is our way of coming back into the industry!

We hope to see you visiting our website soon, and perhaps even become a customer!

My Guitar

This is my guitar that I got from Lawnmower Deth at download. I even found a clip of me receiving it on You Tube. I get it after about 30secs in.

My Guitar

The bands. I did not get it signed myself. Paul Anthony from Rock Radio got it signed for me. He gave me a list so I will type up what it says.

• Thunder (all)
• Anvil (all)
• Devil Driver (1)
• Five Finger Death Punch (2)
• Clown – Slipknot
• Simon Laffy/ Paul Cook – Sex Pistols / Man Raze
• Steadlur (2)
• The Answer (3)
• Stone Gods (3)
• Skin (3)
• Gun (1)
• Trivium (1)
• Black Stone Cherry
• Magnum (1)
• Dream Theater (1)
• KK Downing – Judas Priest

New Design

After long thought I have decided to design my own blog design. As I have been using templates in the past I decided that I want something more personal and also something that can show off what I can do. The bad thing  was that I am not really that good at design compared to my development skills. So I wasn’t thinking that it was going to be great.

So I have spent a long time working out what I wanted. I was at first going for the grunge effect which I like but I found it to difficult for myself to make. I then decided to go with another way still with a bit of grungy inspiration and now have manage to create my design.

I have made it more me and it is very different to what I have now and the way it is used. When making this I will be testing it in four browsers. IE8, Chrome, FF and Safari. I will be testing it in all the latest versions of these. I wont be testing it in older browsers as that is just silly as people should update plus it is easier for me.

Coming Soon!

Soon I am going to do some tutorials on how to create a PHP login system. This will use MySQL, XHTML and CSS. This login will be simple and will include.

• Login Page
• Registration Page
• Secure Page
• Forgot Password

I will then start making modifications to it to add other features like a “Remember Me”. I will also then show you how to create an admin section. At first this will just be very simple with just using the normal form post method. But as I go through the tutorials I will then show you how to use jQuery to improve the way it looks and works. I will also be creating some tutorials the jQuery effects that will be used during this and I will be putting them on another site that I help run and that is jTutorials. Which is made for jQuery tutorials.

Interview with Richard McCoy

1.          What is your name/alias?

Rich McCoy

2.           Are you a developer, designer or both?

Hum, I’m a creative I do UI development to, but less & less these days, not out of choice but out of necessity as that’s just the kind of work I’m getting offered more
3.           Tell us a bit about yourself:

Graduated with a Degree in Fine Art back in the mid 90’s started working in multimedia (creating high end clip art, a bit of an oxymoron I know and no wander the company when under), built the companies first website in 96 and have been doing it since sometimes employed but mostly freelance. I live wherever I can and so far I’ve free-lanced from Australia, New Zealand, England & Ireland. I like film, design thinking, music, cooking, philosophy and my kids, don’t like getting bored, cliché’s and the smell of chocolate.
4.           What sparked your interest in the industry?

I was always interested in interaction during my Art Degree and created several interactive pieces with homemade electric guitars and other noise making tools, worked a lot with video and computers and it just seems like a good marriage between creativity, technology and humanity, and I like that.
5.           What’s your typical day?

Far too long, I wake up check my mail from bed on my IPod then get up sort out breakfast for the kids, see them off to school and start work, usually lunch at my desk, finish about 5:30 then back to work again at about 11pm though till 2:30 typical. There are usually 3 – 4 projects worked on in a day and dealing with enquiries.
6.           Who is your idol in the industry and why?

In this industry, na… there are some good folks out there but none that I idolise, I love the cover work of Vaughan Oliver and the 23 Envelope croud, they probably have had more influence on what I do then any one else working in the same field.
7.           What inspires you?

Play, a new challenge, something tricky.
8.           What’s your favourite piece of work?

The next one I do, I don’t tend to look back on what I’ve done, I don’t know why, I have always had that approach, I suppose I enjoy the journey of creativity more than the product, I really don’t know, I do think it helps me move on though and take on the next project with a fresh perspective not always comparing it to a favourite.
9.           How did you come up with your design for your site?

I wanted something that was simple and easy to update, but that contained a more personal hands on raw creativity, I love texture and noise and a large part of the influence for the sites composition is based in old Japanese Zen painting composition and aesthetic but not the details!
10.       What would you say to someone who is beginning to learn about the web?

Learn fast, be adaptable, have fun and stay current.
11.       What is your website address?

My primary address is mccoy.co.uk but I also live at littlehellos.com / themushroomfarmer.com / mccoy.me.uk / mypeppersoul.com and the list goes on and will continue to grow!

My first post this year!

This is my first post of 2010. It’s a bit late but I have been ill for a bit but feeling better. I will hopefully be doing more posts this year. These will include my work, tutorials, snippets of code and what I find on the web. Hopefully this year will be a good one.

To kick off this year I am going to share some WordPress code with you all. This snippet is something I have used recently in a project and I have found very useful. What this does it it gets the Users role but can be used to gather other information as well if tweaked. So what is it.

<?php
function get_current_user_role () {
global $current_user;
get_currentuserinfo();
$user_roles = $current_user->roles;
$user_role = array_shift($user_roles);
return $user_role;
};
?>

Here’s an example for you. I used this to add a link to my menu to show up if I’m on.

<?php
if (get_current_user_role() == "administrator") {
echo "<li><a href='/wp-admin'>Admin</a></li>";
}
?>


Teh.GD Plug-in 0.2

I have now got the plug-in on WordPress. With seconds of it being up I have updated it as I have missed a few things in the readme.txt and needed to change the file path slightly in the main file.

It is working properly and I will soon start some more updates and try to improve it more. If you have any suggestions on what should be included then please comment. I am working on the Teh.GD Plug-in page which will have the information on the plug-in and any instructions. There will also be the link to the WordPress page.

Here is the link to the page.

It will even tell you when you have an update.

Version 0.2

Teh.GD Plug-in

I have been working on a plugin for jQuery that uses the Teh.GD API to shorten URL’s. I have got this to work. So now I have decided to make it a WordPress plug-in. This creates a widget that can them be placed into a area of your theme that allows widgets.

Currently it works by getting a person to put a URL into a text box and then on the submit of a button it puts the shortened URL into another text box. This works fine as you can tell with it being on my sidebar at the top.

The Plug-in

I have posted my plug-in to WordPress so waiting for it to be confirmed and once that is done I will be able to update the plug-in and allow you to automatically update it.

The updates will include an admin section so you can give it more control. Such as the Goggle analytic’s etc. With having these I will also make it use the API key. So you can keep track of your links and also you will be able to make you links that are used public or private.

Interview with Arthur Kay

This is my interview with Arthur Kay.

1.What is your name/alias?

My name is Arthur Kay, and I advertise my freelance services as “aKa Web Design”. I’m involved with a number of web development forums under a variety of aliases.

2.Are you a developer, designer, or both?

I am much more of a developer than a designer, but I often have to wear both hats. I do a great deal of JavaScript development in conjunction with PHP or .NET, depending on the project.

3.Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m pretty much an average 27 year old American guy – I like watching football, snowboarding in the winter and drinking beer. I studied Music in college, focusing on classical guitar – but my CD collection features everything from Pink Floyd to Nirvana. I currently live near Chicago, IL with my family.

Professionally, I’ve been involved in web development for more than 10 years. I’m currently working with ASP.NET MVC and ExtJS to build some really cool web applications.

4.Who is your idol in the industry and why?

I don’t know if I can say that I have one specific idol in the web development world, but there’s a few people who I really respect. Glenn Lipka does a great job analyzing the User Experience. Douglas Crockford has amazing ideas in the JavaScript world. Matt Cutts has a gazillion tips regarding SEO. That list goes on and on.

5.What sparked your interest in the industry?

I started building webpages when I was in high school on GeoCities – before it was bought by Yahoo. At the time I think I just wanted to be a part of a larger community, but I wasn’t satisfied with programming HTML through a WYSIWYG editor. I eventually went to school and learned things like C++ and Java, but I missed developing things for that larger world-wide audience. As a result, I taught myself PHP and .NET and began working on web-based applications.

6.What inspires you?

There’s a lot of things that inspire me. I read a lot of blogs and stay involved in many web development forums, so I’m always finding new ideas to solve problems for my clients. Often times I’ll see a website with some cool feature and I’ll try to find a way to extend that solution to solve a new problem. The learning process never stops.

7.What would you say to someone who is beginning to learn about the web?

My advice would be to not get overwhelmed. Start by solving the problem you need to address and then figure out what you liked about that project. Then search the internet for blogs related to that topic and start playing with code.

With so many different languages and frameworks available, a developer can’t possibly learn them all. You’ll find things you’re good at and things you’re not so good at.

8.What is your website address?

You can find my website and blog at http://www.akawebdesign.com

Interview with James Brooks

This is my interview with James Brooks.

1. What is your name/alias?

James Brooks/jbrooksuk

2. Are you a Developer, a Designer or both?

Definitely a developer. I’m not creative enough in an artistic format.

3. Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m an 18 year old student. I started coding when I was 7 year old.

4. What got you started in web?

Honestly, sheer boredom. There was nothing for me to do where I lived at the time.

5. Who is your idol in the web world?

I don’t really have an idol. I don’t want to be like someone, because I have my own techniques and ways of doing things.

6. What inspires you?

The drive of my ambition; to help people use the internet in a simple, fast and organized way.

7. What would you say to a newbie who is starting out in the world of web?

Quit now, I want my job! Haha, no, I’d say good luck. It’s a tough industry, you really have to be very good at what you do.