Diving

I haven’t done much in the way of scuba diving I think I managed around about 10 dives all year. One of those dives was the scuba santas event at Vobster Quay which was more successful than my wildest dreams. In the end we raised over £1000 for the RNLI, got coverage on BBC and ITV, and had around 80 divers in the water. Vobster was a sea of scuba diving santas for the day! I really hope I get to do mroe diving in 2009 (lots more!), getting back into it will involve lots of training to get comfortable again. I miss the days of getting on the boat, sun beaming down, grabbing a lobster, packing up   and heading home for a few beers.

Running

At the end of January 2008 I was involved in a car crash, hit from behind whilst stopped, nothing major or so I thought. Over several months my neck pain got progressively worse stopping me running. In the end I contacted an accident claims company who started getting me treatment with a chiropractor in Cardiff which I’m still attending (March 2009 – the claim still isn’t settled either). Running is another one of those things I want to get back to, I did start with Miles but between illnesses, injuries, and him eventually moving to Cambridge we only got out a handful of times. I really need a good kick up the bum to get going again, although my one consolation is that I have been cycling back and fore to work for months which is doing me some good.

Moved

In July 2008 I moved into a flat with Megan, we’re getting through the painting and decorating and getting it looking really nice  – although we’re sort of dragging our heels with the painting….still. The flat is in Adamsdown in Cardiff (I never seem to move far) and is suiting us just great.

Work

Work was all over the place in 2008, I started off drifting a little before taking up work at a letting agent as manager. This helped no end with the estate and letting agency software that I was developing. My plan for the estate and letting agency software is to release it as a low cost product when I have more time to clear it up. From what I’m told about competing products on the market it is easier to use and performs many or more of the same functions in a better way :)

During April 2008 coming up to my 22nd birthday both Megan and my mother started pushing for me to ‘get a career’, which a hard idea to swallow was really what I needed. Running my own company was fun but didn’t provide the stability needed and earning a pittance at the letting agency wasn’t a long term career goal. It was always a case of wait until I get my software finished and I’ll start selling it, but time was always against me.

What followed was several interviews with some great companies in some great areas, full of promise of moving to a new area, fresh start seemed great. The best job offer was with a large hosting provider in the Worcester area and seemed ideal. So what happened? Well I had developed an online SMS solution back around christmas that had been sitting around not doing much which investors were found for. Excellent I thought and off we went. All didn’t end well and after several months of broken promises and rising stress levels I made a stand and walked out. Working 60 hours a week, coming home and doing another 3-4 hours plus working all weekend and for all the stress it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. (Here I’d like to thank Megan, my parents, and my friends that stood by me, I was a stress-headed dick at times, and I’m sorry)

Four weeks later I landed myself a job with a company called Tracesmart in Cardiff Bay as a PHP Developer. After passing the tests and the interviews I started with a whole pile of enthusiasm (as you can imagine things had been a bit low for sometime). Tracesmart perform people searching, people tracing, electoral roll data handling, involving huge quantities of data. I’ve been there now for about 5 months (given I’m actually writing this in March 2009) and I love every minute of it. I’m pushing myself every day, have a great working environment (my desk overlooks the bay!), good colleagues! I’ve been involved in some good projects (other posts to follow) and I’m really proud of the work I’m doing there.

2009….

Despite starting 2009 in Germany suffering from the Novo virus 2009 is great so far. Megan and I spent  New Years time in Germany and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is beautiful and the Anne Frank house had a real profound effect on me, somewhere we’ll definately be returning to. Work is going really well. My neck is getting better and better so in a couple of weeks time I’ll head out for those first few awful runs once again. The only thing I really need now is a good few dives (or a dive holiday) to get back into the swing of things!

Evilprofessor Designs have created a fully bespoke SMS application for a new company called Instant Property Information. IPI provide a service whereby instant information can be delivered to people interested in property 24 hours a day 7 days a week even when the office is closed. The system also includes a FREE board management system, and can send out scheduled text messages for estates and letting agents. Unlike most other systems out there we’ve done the maths and have made sure that this system is FREE for agents.

Advanced Diver Training was a quick inexpensive website set up for a scuba diving instructor. The budget was small but this does not mean that the quality of the end product had to be low. The site was created, edited, and up and running within 3 days at a small cost. We hope you agree that the site has a professional look and the site owner is able to update and edit the site without further intevention of a website designer. This website was developed with the open source software wordpress.

Advanced Diver Training – PADI/IANTD training in nitrox and trimix

Keyfinder required a new online store for their business. Open source software solutions wouldn’t have provided the features that they required, therefore Evilprofessor Designs stepped in and created them a fully custom webstore with full PayPal IPN integration. Keyfinder staff can fully customise the website through an admin interface which includes updating orders and registations, editing page text, and add/edit/update product listings.

Keyfinder – Security and peace of mind for your keys…

Dive Signs required a low cost solution due to being a start up company. Dive Signs are a family run business based in Essex they sell highly reflective vinyl stickers for the scuba diving industry. The solution for Dive Signs was a customised install of Zen Cart, the entire site took less than one week to get up and running and they are already expanding their online catalogue.

Divesigns.com – Highly reflective vinyl signs for scuba diving

Evilprofessor Designs have completed several small contracts for Legal & General and continue to provide last-minute solutions as and when required. All work has been well received and we continue to maintain good relationships with Legal & General.

Legal and General

We are currently creating a huge bespoke website application for Seraph Estates. It is designed to control all aspects of their business which includes property rental, sales, serviced lets and holiday cottage rental. This is a long term on-going project with frequent updates. Website relies heavily on AJAX/Web2.0 technologies to provide a responsive web application for the company.

Seraph Estates – Quality Lettings, Sales, and Serviced Lets in and around the Cardiff area

Cardiff Scuba came under new ownership in 2006 and at that time decided that a whole new website was required. For Cardiff Scuba we built a completely customised web application. The backend of the website allows full control including a booking system for courses. The site was designed with future expansion in mind and adheres to web standards for code, design, and accessibility.

Cardiff Scuba – 5 star IDC Centre in South Wales