HCBX.COM back up

HCBX.COM site now available.

Some minor changes are still required.

www.hcbx.com

HCBX.COM Site down

I recently suffered a server failure at home, and rather than bring the system up as it was, I'm taking the opportunity the re-jig my system, streamline it, make it more efficient.

I'm also going to completely redo my site while I'm at it.

"Watch This Space"

www.hcbx.com

JPMorgan Global Careers CMS, Regional Websites and Microsites

Building of a Content Management System and construction of 5 Graduate recruitment websites and 5 Microsites.

Built on .NET 1.1 using C# and SQL.

http://www.jpmorgan.com/careers

Busy busy busy

I've been sooooo busy, I haven't had a chance to write or update anything on the blog, catch up with friends, etc...

The Reason: JPMorgan.

I'm currently completely redeveloping the CMS for the majority of the JPMorgan graduate recruitment sites (EMEA, Asia, India, South Africa, US Investment Banking and Asset Management, and the Global Portal). In addition several of the microsite go global this year, a list will be forthcoming.

I'll update this blog, when the site goes live on the 1 Sept 2007.

[Tax] Proposed new road tax (Road Pricing)

In the news, the other night, I saw an article about the new e-petitions site, run by the Prime Minister's Office, and the the top petition on the website was one to scrap the proposed road pricing scheme where you install a tracking device on your vehicle and you are sent a bill each month based on your usage.

Today, I received the email below from a close friend, which reminded me to visit the site and express my objection.

I don't know how true the information is in the email, but I would like a chance to understand the implications and work out relative cost based on my family vehicle usage. But the deadline is the 20th of Feburary (six days time).

The petition is: More details

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy.

Proposed new car tax (Road pricing)

Radio 2 talked about the proposed Road Pricing car tax scheme on the radio.Apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax. The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. more signatures are required to stop them introducing it. Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it.The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non-working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

[Systems Administration] Free Website Analysis

I use Webtrends, Log Analyser Pro and other web traffic analysis applications for client sites. Some of these are very powerful, others fast, and others yet simple to use and/or install.

Now along comes Google with Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics), and for the site with small /medium traffic flow, this blows most of these applications out of the water.

It's FREE, simple to setup, does everything I normally require Webtrends to do.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and
how you can enhance their visitor experience. Improve your website return on
investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.

With
over 80 reports, your free Google Analytics account will track visitors through
your site, and will keep track of the performance of your marketing campaigns -
whether they're AdWords campaigns, email campaigns, or any other advertising
program. With this information, you'll know which keywords are really working,
which ad text is the most effective, and where your visitors are dropping off
during the conversion process. Don't be fooled by the fact that this
functionality is available to you for free - Google Analytics is a
full-featured, powerful analytics package

How much does Google Analytics cost?

Google Analytics is absolutely free! We are very pleased to be able to offer
this web analytics solution for no charge, allowing anyone with a website to
track conversion data, analyse the flow of visitors through their site and
identify elements of their site that could be changed to improve visitor
retention.

This free version is limited to 5 million page views a month,
however users with an active Google AdWords account are given unlimited page
view tracking.

WAI Accessibility Checker

Can your website be properly viewed by everyone?

Web Accessibility Inspector is a program that can determine whether or not your website can be easily viewed by the elderly and those with visual impairments. Web Accessibility Inspector, which is based on W3C WCAG 1.0 and Fujitsu Web Accessibility Guidelines, effectively determines whether a website is easy for anyone to view.

It can evaluate not just HTML but also CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and it can conduct a diagnostic at a high level of precision, including character size, line spacing, and the color of characters and backgrounds. Use of this software allows for the improvement of your site's overall accessibility and can ensure its reliability.

http://design.fujitsu.com/en/universal/assistance/webinspector/

HSBC's graduate recruitment website

HSBC graduate recruitment website, a site I worked on last year was in the news yesterday!

HSBC enjoyed a 49-place rise to 14th position, said it had involved students in the design of their new website.

John Morewood, from the bank's graduate recruitment department, said the streamlined website, which is designed to be used by potential applicants worldwide, had already led to an increase in the number and quality of applicants.

"We have been able to fill up particular programmes much faster than in previous years because we have seen an improvement in the quality of candidates applying this year."

FT.com Article