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I don’t usually post rants, but feel compelled to comment on the crazy situation with the UK Tax (VAT) system at the moment.

As a business trading in the UK,it is a legal requirement to register for VAT when you expect your turnover to exceed a threshold set by the government.

My company applied for VAT registration in December 2008 and, more than 3 months later we are still waiting for our registration number and no end in sight. We are not alone, it seems that many UK businesses are stuck in VAT limbo too due to administrative delays from our governments’ VAT offices.
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UK VAT Delays

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admin :: Mar.05.2009 :: Business :: No Comments »

Today sees the launch of my company web site Rolosoft.com.

Its reason for “being” is to provide software and services that I have developed over the years.

Currently, there are 3 products available all geared towards solving common issues that companies face when developing ASP.Net web sites or applications:

• GEO IP.Net easily solves the problem of how to identify an IP location by country. The nice thing is that it works to automatically set native ASP.Net page properties Culture and UICulture. Data updates can be automated too with the “Premier” edition.
• Cookie Secure.Net encrypts cookies and protects the data inside from tampering.
• IP from HTTP.Net accurately gets an IP address from a client web browser.

There will be further product announcements shortly.

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Rowland :: Sep.23.2008 :: Development, Software and Internet, Blogroll :: No Comments »

My main desktop PC runs Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64. It has been running happily for many months and is stable.

In April 2008, Microsoft launched Service Pack 1 making it a required download via Windows Update.

It doesn’t install on my PC and leaves it in a continuous cycle of re-boots with error message:-

STOP: c0000139 {Entry Not Found} NtClearAllSavepointsTransaction could not be located

I have tried to apply SP1 5 times with the same result using different methods such as:-

• Disabling all start up services.
• Installing the full service pack.

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continuous cycle microsoft windows vista service pack 1

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Rowland :: Apr.24.2008 :: Window Vista :: 2 Comments »

My latest acquisition is Credit Card Exclusive.com. The site compares & lists US based credit cards.

I bought the site pretty much as a “Punt” in getting into the very competitive arena of credit card websites.

So far, there’s a lot of tidying up of the site to make it more Search Engine and user friendly. A lot more work is needed to get traffic up to anywhere near respectable levels. Worth a gamble though:).

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Rowland :: Mar.25.2008 :: Development, Blogroll :: No Comments »

Today, I received an email from a marketing agency enquiring about advertising opportunities on my website. The confusing thing was that the website domain mentioned in the email isn’t owned by me!

On further investigation (by typing the “mystery” url into a browser) and to my utter amazement, up comes my own website content! It appears that some idiot has set their domain DNS records to point to my website! The “mystery” domain in question sounds very asian smut orientated. Here is what I found by digging further:-

• The “mystery” domain has only been registered recently.
• It has already acquired the same Google Page Ranking (PR) as my own website with a 7 year old domain name!

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IIS search engine optimisation

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Rowland :: Dec.19.2007 :: Development, Software and Internet :: No Comments »

Here is a quick trip report of our (Lisa & I) trip to Indonesia in October 2007.

Crater of Mahawu Volcano, Mando, Indonesia		Spot the furry crab.

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Indonesia Manado SCUBA

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Rowland :: Oct.26.2007 :: SCUBA Diving :: No Comments »

We’ve just put a new broadband speed test live over at my site Broadband-help.com .

This new version has some great new features including:

• Built in service comparison. Uses “traffic lights” to show if your broadband is any good or not.
• Built in interactive chart. See every second of your broadband speed test results.
• Built in detailed report. As geeky as you like! More information than you could every possibly want.

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Broadband Broadband speed test

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Rowland :: Oct.05.2007 :: Broadband :: No Comments »

Comparing stuff on-line can be painful. Not any more for broadband! My new site www.broadband-best-deals.co.uk is designed to give a very simple and fast comparison of leading broadband providers.

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Rowland :: Oct.04.2007 :: Broadband :: No Comments »

Do some on-line shopping experiences drive you nuts? A recent experience with BT Shop left me wishing that I’d not even bothered.

The Great Camera Quest

The Olympus u770SE is a great little camera for diving trips and holidays. Not only does it take great photos but it can go to 10m without a case!

On a diving trip this weekend, our digital camera packed up. I’m not sure what the problem is but it rattles now

Pending warranty repair (which usually takes ages!), I decided to purchase a second u770 as a backup for last minute holidays / events etc.

A search in town for several hours yielded no hope of finding this camera. The later model (u790) was available in several shops but this isn’t waterproof to 10m and moreover I already have a waterproof case for the u770!

BT Shop Mess it Up

Searching on-line showed some options, with BT Shop being cheapest at £197 including free next day delivery. The camera was in stock, so I ordered. 1 hour later I get an email as follows:-
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Rowland :: Oct.01.2007 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »

After much messing around, I was still unable to get phpmailer to work on IIS6 (Windows 2003). I am using PHP v5.x for windows.

From investigation it seems that IIS SMTP service has a problem with phpmailer. The error message from PHP is:-

“Language string failed to load: instantiate”
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IIS SMTP phpmailer smtp service

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Rowland :: Sep.25.2007 :: PHP :: No Comments »