Windows SBS 2003 migration to Windows SBS 2008

I am doing a migation at the moment of an old 2003 installation to a new fast server with SBS 2008.

I have just finished the update downloading and settings changes asked for in the SBS Best Practices Analyser Tool. I have changed the old server's network settings to a single NIC card configuration from the 2 card setup. (1 to Firewall, 1 to LAN).
Tommorrow I will reinstall SBS 2008 with the aim of migrating in situ.

I will come on line and blog my progress tomorrow.

Zamrish - release new vid on muzu.tv

Zamrish - ZamrishSinner

Zamrish is our in house family band.

Enjoy!

Japan Central Bank intervenes to prop dollar

Japan is wasting its money trying to push the yen down as it is in effect trying to push the dollar up. The dollar is going into long term decline as US consumption gets extra competition from the rest of the world.
It used to be said that if the US coughed the rest of the world caught a cold.
Not any more. The GDP of the whole world is $58.15 trillion (2009 est.), the US was $14.14 trillion (2009 est.).
It doesnt take a genius to figure out the US cannot keep consuming 45% of the worlds output.
This adjustment in US consumption is the long and short term problem that faces the US. The pressure on US consumption will really happen when Chinese workers wages and the renminbi's value increases as is happening now.
More cars were sold in China last year then the US.

It is possible that the US could maintain the 45% consumption rate by reducing the GDP of the rest of the world somehow. Maybe a new really destructive war? Iran maybe? Although I believe the rest of the world has absolutely no appetite for this option, It should be remembered that crumbling empires are the most dangerous.

Free UK Payroll Software

Today I started using 12Pay, a really useful alternative to Sage or TAS.
It is fully compliant with HMRC, and has all the bells and whistles normally only
found in much more expensive software.

It really is free for small business, however the paid version allows online submission, personalised payslips and advanced reporting. The paid version starts at £54.90 per year and will handle 30 employees. For more then 30 the £99.80 Bureau edition is the one to buy.
So go now and look at your current payroll costs and then consider if you really need to spend that much.

The philosophy behind 12Pay is ease of use for the first time user, although hardened
professionals will also be impressed at its quick setup and user friendly interface.

The website has lots of useful guides and video. An active forum testifies to its popularity with
UK business. Any business looking to cut costs, save time and maintain standards could not
have a better first step then signing up with 12Pay.

Take my advice and tell your accounts department to visit 12Pay and download a trial of the best free payroll software available in the UK today.

Contract Packing

Contract Packing for the retail and distribution trade is becoming more sophisticated as marketers come up with ever more imaginative ways of presenting their products to buyers.

I had no idea until I was asked to do a site for Pack It Right Ltd - a major contractor here in Leicester.
We spent a very interesting day there while we were preparing the site.
Check out their website to see what a modern contract packer can offer your company.
Pack It Right for Contract Packing

Renminbi - Forecast for the future.

A lot is made of the fact that the renminbi (RMB), or the yuan is kept artificially low by the Chinese authorities and the truth is that this currant level of 6.83 to the US Dollar is unsustainable in the long term.

The first big test will be the next oil price rise which could come as soon as this winter if it is particularly cold in the northern hemisphere.

As everybody knows the US got away with consuming 45% of the worlds output not by outworking,outproducing or outperforming the rest of the world but by convincing them to buy US dollars at an incredibly expensive rate. Suddenly China owns most of these bits of paper and has a vested interest in preserving the value of them or so it seems. The situation would be fine if the euro did not exist and its effect of replacing the dollar as a reserve currency.
China cannot really expect its export markets to continue to grow at the expense of its own citizens welfare and wealth. The path the Chinese will take is a substitution of export growth with growth in internal consumption and the subsequent growth in services. They can probably maintain 10% annual growth rate with a 10% annual reduction in the rate of the yuan to the dollar.

• 2009 6.83
• 2010 6.15
• 2011 5.54

A full floating exchange rate could be undertaken if there is more transparency and less government cross subsidies of energy costs.

The Chinese don't have to worry about selling less toasters in the West as most of the western consumer goods factories are gone and it would take at least three years to get them going again.

More cars were sold in China last year then in the US and they will have an appetite for petroleum products to put in them and on them.

Remember China bought 30 billion dollars worth of oil from Iran in 2008. And wouldn't it be better for the Chinese if they could pay for it using some yuan they printed themselves instead of using those hard earned US dollars.
It would probably suit the Iranians too as they buy their toasters from China.

My prediction for the future rate is as my table

Update from original post of Nov 2009



My revised prediction for Nov 2012 is 5.85.

The rate did not fall as fast as I expected but this year there will be an increase in the rate, especially as Iran will move from selling its oil in dollars to China.

Image Zoom tool for your website.

Magic Zoom, Magic Zoom Plus ,Magic Thumb,Magic Magnify,and Magic Magnify Plus are now available as Cubecart 4 mods which is great news as I used it on a fashion site last year and had to hand code it in. They basically provide image zoom ins by clicking and moving the mouse.

For any of you Cubecart developers out there this suite of tools is a godsend for pleasing your customers.

The support at the magictoolbox forum is active and responsive and I have no hesitation in recommending this product.

Two more shops from GBG

The football socks shop has gone live for Aptosports this week as has the fashion knitwear shop Knits2u.


The football socks site is already getting front page position on all the major search engines.

New online fashion shop

www.mythologie.co.uk went online yesterday offering a fabulous range of high fashion for all the ladies. Check out this great online fashion shop which is a good example of our current e-commerce offerings.

E-commerce features from GBG solutions

GBG Solutions announce the roll out of their new e-commerce platform using proprietary PHP and MySQL software. The first site on the new system is the recycled hanger supplier TFS hangers. Call Mark or Leighton on 0116 2689797 for an initial discussion of your web shop requirements.



Features of GBG Solutions E-commerce Website

Professionally Security Audited with thorough penetration testing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
100% Template Driven (HTML is completely separate from PHP code)
XHTML & CSS Valid
Number of Skins included	4
Skin Selector - Allows visitors to change the skin.	(Optional)
Checkout Steps	2
New Customer Registration	Optional
Customer Order History
Add / Edit Orders from admin control panel.
Courier Tracking URL
Unlimited Products, Categories & Images per Product
One product in unlimited categories
Product Image Gallery	HTML Pop up or "Lightbox"
Multi Currency Support
Email Marketing
Sell Digital & Tangible Goods
Inventory Stock Control	On completed payment or order creation.
Multiple Tax Classes	Applied to multiple zones/countries.
"Tell a Friend"
Spambot Flood Protection
Product Search
Log search phrases (Can be viewed in admin control panel)
Advanced Product Search
Unlimited Product Options with +ve or -ve price.
Expanding DHTML categories box. (Unlimited depth)
Product Reviews & Comments
Related products (based on actual orders)
Gift Certificates
Discount Vouchers / Coupons
FireFox Extension - Allows you to get instant notifications of new orders, product reviews & stock warnings.
Module Import with version control. (Allows new shipping/payment/affiliate to be imported through admin control panel).
Alternate Checkouts	Google Checkout PayPal Website Payments Pro US (Certified Integration) PayPal Website Payments Pro UK (Certified Integration)
Shipping Modules	By Percentage of Order Total By Price (Free over certain order totals) By Order Weight Flat Rate Free Shipping By Category (National / International) Per Item Royal Mail USPS UPS (Rate v3) Canada Post Australia Post †
Payment Modules	2Checkout Authorize AIM Manual Encrypted Credit Card Capture CCNow ChronoPay Nochex APC PayJunction PayOffline PayPal IPN Print Order Form Protx (VPS Form) psiGate WorldPay Junior iTransact † SecureHosting † eWay † viaKlix † HSBC † VirtualMerchant (Nova Networks) †
Credit Card Validation (Seamless Modules Only)
Payment Transaction ID Logging
Affiliate Modules	ClixGalore iDevAffiliate JROX tradeDoubler OSIAffiliate †
Google Analytics
Professionally Translated Language Files
Language Files	German English Spanish French Italian Dutch Portuguese Russian Norwegian Swedish † Brazilian Portuguese † Czech † Danish † Polish †
Edit Languages File from Admin Control Panel
SQL Caching (To reduce server load)
Page Output Compression (Faster Page loads)
Unlimited Site Documents (Privacy Policy / Delivery / Amount Us etc...)
Install Wizard	Multi Lingual
Admin upgrade notifications - Lets you know when a new version of software has been released.
Easy Logo Uploader
Maintenance Tools	Recalculate upload folder size Rebuild category product count Rebuild number customer orders Reset number product views Delete orphaned thumbnails Clear search history Delete admin logs Delete admin sessions Clear SQL Cache Clear Payment Transaction Logs Bulk Image Thumbnail Rebuild Tool Resize Master Images Database Optimize / Analyze / Check / Repair Database Backup Tool
Statistics	Sales (By Hour/Day/Month) Search Phrases Product Popularity (By Views) Product Popularity (By Sales) Customers Online Now
Statistics Display Method	Dynamic Image Histograms
Unlimited Store Administrators (with configurable permissions)
Admin Session Log
Admin Activity Log
Admin Dashboard Notifications	Low stock warning New Orders New Product Reviews / Comments
RSS Announcements Displayed on Admin Dashboard (Configurable RSS URL)
Bulk Product CSV Upload - Works with any CSV format!
Bulk Export CSV	Google Base (Froogle) Shopping.com ShopZilla
Bulk Product Price Update (By multiple category select or all)
Bulk Move Products by Category
Automatic Currency Conversion
Multiple unique stores with one database. (Software license required for each and it is not possible to share any inventory at all between stores. This feature is for hosting accounts that only provide one MySQL database when more than one store is required)
Sale Mode	Per Individual Product or store wide percentage reduction.
Hide prices for unauthenticated guests. (Optional)
Store Online/Offline Switch with message
Printable Order Invoices	Improved
Source Code Availability	Well Over 99% (2 Files Zend/IonCube Encoded)