New Mozilla Firefox 3.0.11 is a record breaker

Firefox 3.0.11 et a Guiness world record when it was downloaded 150 million times in 24 hours. The latest iteration of this very popular browser features many security updates. IE continues to be the dominant player in the market but there are now many credible alternatives with neat features on offer. For example Apple's Safari has a new Nitro Javascript engine which executes the script 3 times faster than Firefox adn 8 times faster than IE.

Interesting BACK Flip

The BACK Flip networking event has attracted interest from around the region which is great news. So far a wide variety of business types are attending from banks to PR companies to a dating agency! Lets see what kind of deals can be done with the dating agency to ensure that we're always top of the list....

To get more information about the event please click here.

Refreshing Times at Buchanan Macleod

Leading Scottish law firm Buchanan Macleod decided that their corporate website needed a bit of a refresh but without the normally associated huge cost. BACK Consulting's low cost website is proving ever popular as people what to quality work for the smallest amount of money possible. Retaining Buchanan Macleod's great reputation for legal services the corporate image was to be spruced up and given a bit of life but retain the core content with a few amendments. Managing Partner Karen Buchanan was delighted with the results:

"It's a complete change from what we had before yet it is firmly aligned with our current company logos and colour schemes so we do not have to tak eon additional costs to get these replaced as well. The site was turned round in a matter of days even with the list of amendments I made on the fly. I couldn't as for more."

If you want to know more about our low cost service please click here. If you would like to get in touch please contact us.

Don't Be Fooled By SQL Zero Values

Have you ever done a straight SQL division and found that the answer is always zero despite the fact that you just KNOW the two values being divided? If you didn't already know this there is a little trick to ensure this doesn't happen. For example the following code will result in a zero:

DECLARE @VARDATEFROM DateTime, @VARDATETO DATETIME, @VarRate real, @InterestAmount as real, @ReturnRate as real, @NumDays as int--, @InterestAmount as real

--assign stuff here

select @InterestAmount = ((@NumDays/365) * @VarRate) * @InvAmount

select @InterestAmount

But just making a little change to the values by multiplying by 1.0 will give you the result you need:

DECLARE @VARDATEFROM DateTime, @VARDATETO DATETIME, @VarRate real, @InterestAmount as real, @ReturnRate as real, @NumDays as int--, @InterestAmount as real

--assign stuff here

select @InterestAmount = (((@NumDays * 1.0)/(365 * 1.0)) * @VarRate) * @InvAmount

select @InterestAmount

And @InterestAmount will now give a result. A little tip should you encounter this highly annoying problem!

GMail for Business?

GMail has been out for a long time now and many businesses have made the transition across to use it full time. With calendaring, contacts and emails it can be an online version of your own desktop email system and all the maintenance work such as backups are done by someone else. But for some the Outlook interface is the one of choice and it also gives you the option to work offline which just isn't the case with GMail. However you can download a sync tool which now provides all the interactivity between your online GMail account and your Outlook application. This only applies if you are using Google Apps Premier or Education and used properly can negate the need for a expensive Exchange server. Microsoft must surely be losing some of their customer base.

Business Value in BPM

One thing that has become apparent in the global economic downturn is that businesses are looking inside themselves and analysing systems rather exclusively looking to the external market to provide benefits to their efficiencies. A survey by Gartner has stated that there has been a 44% increase in 2008 for Business Process Mangement related activties. BPM can give you a real insight into how your business currently functions and any ways that improvements can be made. Conversely if you get BPM wrong it can be expensive and a bit of a time wasting exercise. There are many technologies which have gained popularity on the past two years and at a recent Microsoft summit event the Sharepoint desk was packed with how-to books selling out on the first day. There are plenty of specialist technology suppliers out there as well with those case management supplies who survived from the 90's through to now having well refined offereings. If you are heading down this road then our only advice is that you think hard in advance about what you are trying to acheive and plan well in advance - this way the technology will enable you to reach your goals rather than search for them with it.

We Are Pie Men

BACK Consulting is suffering from a wholesale expansion. Expansions in business you may think are positive but this one is waistline related. The eating choices near the new office are mainly fast food related with two chip shops, one Indian and two Chinese food outlets. This has led to a rash of unhealthy eating and it's tough work but someone has to do it. BACK to the pie shop.