HM2K.com

So you’ve got a shop, or perhaps a new product range and you want to build a website so you can sell online.

What you need is some kind of web based eCommerce shopping cart system, the question is which?

I decided to build a short list of web based eCommerce shopping cart software out there.

The scenario is this, you have a client who wants an eCommerce solution, they are paying you, but not nearly enough, you’re doing this as more of a favour. You started to develop a solution for them, but felt their feedback wasn’t sufficient which would ultimately lead to missing things out, and it probably wasn’t worth it anyway. What is needed is a base platform to build upon.

The rules are this, it must be open source, and it must work out of the box.

Please remember, this is based purely on my options, by all means, take them on board, and form your own options.

Read the rest of this entry »

When trying to create a unique company name for your business, I found that there was a three step approach to creating a unique name.

When I was developing a new company name, I created about 20 using this method, each time I would follow the steps through to create a name that was appropriate, unique and usable.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some people find it difficult to get to grips with marketing concepts, so here’s some real life examples to get you started.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have a situation where there’s two scripts.

1. The main core of the code which is PHP based.
2. A perl script which is called by the mail server for parsing incoming mail.

Both of these scripts require database access to the same database.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always looking for new ways to get my hands on mp3s, this is yet another way, thanks to myspace.

I figured out that there must be a way we can get our hands on the actual mp3 files found on the myspace music player.

All we had to do was decode their site so we are able to grab their mp3s.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the world of web development and search engine optimisation you find this topic is frequently discussed, yet often without any reasoning or conclusion. Therefore the purpose of this article is to investigate why.

So, let’s start at the very beginning, and find out what “word separators” actually are, and why we need them in URLs.

Traditionally a word separator is a space, yes, an every day space you create with your space-bar key.

The problem with using spaces in URLs is that when the URL is utilised in a browser (for example), the URL is encoded using percent encoding which causes spaces to appear as the encoded “%20″, resulting in an ugly URL formation which is humanly difficult to read.

ie: http://www.example.com/percent%20encoding

How do we overcome the problem? Over the years a workaround has developed…

…the dash, no the hyphen, no in fact it’s the minus sign (yes, I mean this “-” symbol)…

ie: http://www.example.com/not-percent-encoding

Read the rest of this entry »

OpenCart is an open source PHP-based e-commerce online shop website solution. Ideal for new or existing stores to start selling online.

OpenCart all began because (at the time) the leading open source e-commerce solution out there was not very good, to say the least.

The first notable release was OpenCart v0.5 back in late 2006 and has been gaining momentum ever since.

The project is lead by Daniel Kerr, and I have also recently joined the team.

Download OpenCart v0.7.9

If you need any assistance with OpenCart, you can find me on the OpenCart Community Forums, and on the OpenCart Google Code project site.

Don’t forget to donate!

Enjoy!

I need to transfer a bunch of domains from Godaddy (aka Godamnannoying) to TuCows (aka OpenSRS), surly it can’t be that difficult? Right?

I found that there were lots of articles on how to transfer to Godaddy, but not how to get out. This is a short guide on how to transfer away from Godaddy, in this case we will be transferring to OpenSRS.

This guide is appropriate for .com, .net, .org, .name domain names.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was about 16 I hacked my schools website, why? how? Let’s find out…

Read the rest of this entry »

People often ask me how their system got infected in the first place, this article attempts to make you aware of where infections come from, in an attempt to help you prevent them in the future.

Read the rest of this entry »