The value of data

Posted by logon.info, Sep 30 2009, 09:29 AM

One of the easiest things to overlook is the value of your database to your website. Think about it; if your website files were to disappear overnight, you could still pretty much get a site back up and running pretty quickly. It may not be identical to your original, but provided your database can be restored, you can be up and trading within a matter of hours. However, without that database, you are literally starting from scratch - no products, no customers, no order history, no subscribers to your newsletter - and no way of contacting all those people to get them to come and look at your shiny new site when it is fully operational.

If you try to sell any online business, a significant part of the valuation will be the size of your customer database; another chunk of the value will be proven with your trading history, and last but not least yet another chunk of the value will come from the products you offer - the descriptions, imagery and titles you have added to distinguish your site from your competitors.

So, the most common practise I see with my clients is taking a (fairly) regular backup and storing it on the server. This is all well and good, but if that server should fail, your backup disappears too. Now, there are a number of different things you can do here to provide yourself with a modicum of insurance against this unlikely event. I say unlikely as most servers most of the time get along quite happily with no issues at all. But then again most houses stay standing most days, but it still is common sense to get buildings insurance just in case it catches fire one day.

Firstly, get in a routine of taking backups. I normally recommend first thing Monday morning and last think Friday evening - these are two times when the office routine takes a different tilt and its very easy to take 2 minutes of your time to backup the database. Secondly, when you take a backup, leave one on your server by all means (just remember for clutter prevention to only keep a certain number on there though - I saw one client last week with over 400 backups saved - complete overkill and unnecessary!) - but also save a copy. If you like save it to your work PC, but if possible save it to a USB flash memory stick, then keep that on you. If the worst should happen all you then need to do is find a PC and you have all you need to get started.

Just remember that this data is extremely valuable. As such, it makes sense to password protect wherever you are storing it - in the UK not doing so could land you in hot water with the Data Protection regulations. This information is the CORE of your online business. Protect it wherever possible - both from prying eyes and from technical failure.

Flatpack instructions

Posted by logon.info, Sep 16 2009, 07:52 AM

So, I have just finished a marathon session of assembling flatpack furniture.....aside from our bed, our entire bedroom. We got a nice pine set with two wardrobes and two chests of drawers, and at a pretty decent price too. So we get it home, trundle the boxes upstairs and decide to just go for it and get it done. That was 8pm last night. It is now 9am and I have finished both chests of drawers and one of the wardrobes with the other one about 80% there.

Now, why so long? Well, the first wardrobe in all honesty went up like a dream. About 70 minutes from start to finish which for me as a complete anti-handyman is not bad going. Then I get to the chest of drawers. So, first issue - no instructions. Luckily for me though we have 2 of them, so I rummage around the second box and find a set in there. **phew**.......except these instructions are for a DIFFERENT chest of drawers - something I failed to notice until I came across a part that didnt exist in my box, 30 minutes into the build. So I came online had a quick google around and still couldnt find anything, figured the manufacturer probably wouldnt have anybody manning the phones at silly c'clock and tried figuring it out myself....which I did (eventually). As this was fresh in my mind I then zipped onto the second set of drawers and had them up and ready in no time at all. (You may ask why I didnt quit and take them back for a refund, but these were on a clearance deal - yes I know, you get what you pay for....) Great, only one wardrobe left....and this is where it went silly.

The fixing pack (screws, nails, handles etc) was from a different item in the same range, but this wasnt a major problem as I have screws nails and odds and sods galore floating around in the shed, so I do a 2am visit to the shed and retrieve everything..then discover that whilst I have handles that on the surface LOOK the same as on the other wardrobe, they have a lug at the back and therefore wont sit on the doors properly. So back to the shed and dig out the saw, mutilate the handles so they will fit (quietly so as not to wake the neighbours). Come back, fix the first two bits together...try to fix the third and find the predrilled holes arent spaced correctly, so back down to the shed (at 3.30am), close the door, stick some old carpet over the window to reduce the noise level and attempt to redrill the holes in the correct places. Then I find the back panel has warped in the packaging and will not sit flat on the back....some creative bending later I somehow crowbar it into place....and so the saga continued.

The point of all this in context of our project though is that when we release the software, you will (hopefully) have that same sunny happy feeling as I did coming back from the shop with my new furniture. You know you are going to have to do a little work, but you fully expect to see the finished product in front of you pretty quickly. You expect all the parts to be there and those parts to work in concert with each other. You expect decent documentation to allow you to find you way around, and you expect support no matter what time of day via the forums and/or a knowledgebase. You DONT expect to have to resort to your toolkit (metaphorically) just to be able to get it working, and you certainly DONT expect to end up with a "bodge job" cobbled together with the bits you could track down.....

Now, all I have left to do is fit the doors on - which should be great fun as the hinges supplied dont fit anywhere on the doors themselves.....grrr.

The circular discussion

Posted by logon.info, Sep 14 2009, 09:06 PM

I just came across this post I made back in March this year on this forum. It pretty much says exactly what needs saying today so Im just going to quote it verbatim (including the typos), as the discussion has gone full circle quite a few times and I feel that it is once again fully relevant (excluding the references to the previous post):

In the last few days/weeks I have been called many things. Some are true, some are distorted truth and some are completely false. Chances are if you are reading this you already have a good idea in your mind which comments fall under which heading and Im not going to start another pointless argument about it (Ive already stated my case and been rebutted, so please lets not revisit old ground). What I have tried to be though at all times is polite enough to listen to others opinions (even those I ardently disagree with). Some comments have struck home and have made an impression on the way I look at events. Some comments have been so far off the mark its not funny....but either way a lively discussion is healthy, provided all parties are willing to listen instead of just concentrate on making their own voice heard.

Another direct quote from this very blogs first post:


I am by no means perfect and I will take issue with ANYBODY who claims to be. However I do try very hard to be a reasonable human. I would be shocked to the core if the world agreed with everything I said - it just wouldnt happen. However if people are polite about it I will listen to any viewpoint on any subject. It wont necessarily change my thoughts on the subject, but at least I have listened to the other person.

The world is NOT black and white, it is multicolour. To assume that somebody is either wholeheartedly for you, or if not then they are completely against you (even when they agree with 95% of what you are saying) smacks of fundamentalism. I believe everybody in this matter thinks they are working with the best of motives. And the great shame is the common ground between everybody concerned is so much bigger than that which is being disputed. I'll probably get called naiive for that sentiment but in all honesty I dont care. There are times when I despair of the whole human race when people who essentially share the same set of values start dissecting each others every word.

There ARE big issues at stake, I would be a fool to deny that; but ask yourself - "If I were an outsider looking in right now - what would I make of it all?"......now ask again, and answer honestly this time - after all its only you who can hear the answers.

September 11th

Posted by logon.info, Sep 11 2009, 03:05 PM

Well, its that date again, and this year I cant help noticing a distinct lack of comment. In all years past, the whole web has been absolutely overflowing with commentary, personal stories, memories and tributes. Whilst I completely see the sense in moving forwards and not becoming morose, I also think it is important to remember the events of that day, along with the repurcussions. For those who are about to jump up and down and get all political with comments, please dont - whilst your opinion is perfectly valid, this is NOT a political blog and I dont particularly wish to go down that road if possible.

As with most people, my memories of 9/11 are very personal. I cant claim to have known anybody directly affected, I was fortunate enough to not lose anybody or have any firends or relatives injured. There was a brief period when we worried my father in law might have been in one of the twin towers, but this was a very shortlived worry as he rang us to let us know he was fine and not even in New York. At the time I was a truck driver, and was travelling on a provincial road in Suffolk with the obligatory queue of cars behind me when the local radio station interrupted a record to say a plane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York. I remember thinking how absurd that sounded and wondering if I had perhaps misheard, as the record was put back on and everything else seemed to be normal. I then had to stop at a small factory, and couldnt get anybody to answer the goods in door. I wandered round the front to the office and spent the next hour staring incredulously at a small tv screen along with 30 people I barely knew wondering what the hell the world had come to.

In the great scheme of things, the loss of life (whilst tragic and this comment is in no means meant to belittle the loss) paled when compared to the death bought about by wars, famine and disease - but what struck home and made the world sit up and take notice was the viciousness of the attacks, the suddenness and the apparent selection of targets. If the heart of New York could be hit, then every city was a potential target that couldnt be protected.

In the years since we have had the Madrid bombings and the London attacks, both of which have had similar effects, but the iconic pictures of that day will be ingrained in the minds of all who saw them. In our busy lives with all of our own personal things to engage the mind and take up our time, I think its important that we take a minute or two at least to remember that day, the people who lost loved ones and the civilians and soldiers who have lost their lives since as a direct result.

I am 33, and in my life there are few days that can be seen to have had such a direct change on the world that followed. Where we are today is a result in part to what happened in the space of 30 minutes in New York 8 years ago. I just thought that was worth me writing, and just hope that this date does not become a post-script in the history books.

Mud slinging in the 21st Century

Posted by logon.info, Sep 4 2009, 09:26 PM

So without going into the specifics of any particular cases that may or may not be ongoing, I for one have just about had it up to my eye teeth with the amount of moaning and cat fighting that seems to be pervading the internet these days. It would seem that if you can cobble together a loose alliance of people who have very little common ground, but a common foe, and if those people have a lot of time on their hands, then you can have a pretty good crack at twisting words and events to look extremely differently to how they actually are.<br /><br />There are some exceptionally talented people <font size="1">[1]</font> who in the last few months have spent inordinate amounts of time trolling the web for tidbits, researching loosely connected strands and spending cash on factfinding missions. When I say exceptionally talented, I dont mean at these tasks, I mean that they have a [wasted? - sic] talent for code, development and assisting others on forums. However, instead this time has been spent on a vindictive, personal and viscious assault. <font size="1">[2]</font>.<br /><br />I dont doubt for a second that excerpts of this blog will probably also find their way into forum posts or blog posts elsewhere on the net, and most likely the sentences will be taken out of context, or other words from other posts I have made will be cobbled together with them to make a completely different meaning. I have to admit that for a while I have refrained from participating in any discussions or posts on here for that precise reason.<br /><br />See, perhaps foolishly I was of the belief that if you put up and shut up, that if you hold your tongue and dont fan the fire, then the naysayers will get bored and go away.<br /><br />The ONLY thing of any interest to me with regards this project is in creating and supporting a new piece of software, which makes full use of the latest technologies available, which is easy for end users to obtain, implement and setup, and which is fully open source. To read various pieces of trash around the net, you would think this was the polar opposite of the team here at osQuantum. However, the precise reason I decided to get involved with this project to begin with was that the ethos of open source, of freely available software, of full community involvement and of decisions made by communities rather than individuals was already here long before I arrived.<br /><br />If the trouble makers would care to divert even half their energies into open source coding, community support or even documentation on open source projects, the OS world would be all the richer for it <font size="1">[3]</font>.<br /><br />I have no particular axe to grind with anybody from the open source world. There may be some out there feel they have an axe to grind with me, but if so then I am blissfully unaware of it. But it frustrates, annoys and bewilders me when people divert so much of their energy into such a negative set of activity.<br /><br />I have deliberately kept the above obtuse, as certain matters are being dealt with by solicitors, but a more direct response to one particular criticism regarding time to respond to a letter. Yes, research has been done prior to all this becoming a legal matter. However, when you stand accused of something, in a free society you have the right to know the full nature of your accusations. To pretend that you can defend something which has not been articulated in even wooly terms is foolhardy. To criticise somebody wishing to clarify the things being said about them is a complete, full and prime example of the titifying and frivolity with which this matter is being seen from certain quarters. If you are accused of defaming somebody, then it is vital that you know where, when and in what way you have supposedly defamed them. Without this knowledge, you can not defend yourself, and perhaps more to the point, you cant prosecute either.<br /><br />There is a certain teacup in a small corner of the world in which a wind is gently gusting. If it keeps at it for a good time, spends lots of time practising and does its homework, one day it may even get to call itself a storm. But not today, not yet and not even with all the words being flung at it. To call this a storm in a teacup is an insult to storms and teacups the whole world over. To all intents and purposes, because of the way in which this has careened, this now has to be a private matter dealt with by solicitors and possibly even courts. Because of this, the amount that can be discussed freely is very limited. The guff all over particular forums and blogs is just that...guff.<br /><br />Please, turn your attention to something productive, the world will be a better place for it.<br /><br /><font size="1">[1] in the interests of honesty, there are also some completely talentless people participating, but aside from this footnote, Im going to pretend they dont even exist.<br /><br />[2] Thus far, to the best of my knowledge, not against me personally, but in particular the activities being undertaken against Monika are disgusting, and the language being used to describe Vger is just pure filth. In a grown up world with supposedly bright people, I see no need whatsoever to stoop to the words being used. Perhaps they dont have the intelligence to argue an effective case without resorting to &quot;potty mouth&quot;...?<br /><br />[3] again in the interests of fairness, the majority of the naysayers have spent large chunks of time in the past coding, developing and supporting. However they somehow feel that now they are too experienced to be involved with the little people and can treat forums like gentlemans clubs and vent their anger at the world whilst smoking fat cigars. However, you have to be gentlemen to do that. Please see [2] above.<br /></font><br /><br />Please feel free to post your replies to this post if you wish to do so. To those genuine people wishing to reply, I am sorry, but because of a certain minority I feel compelled to write the following set of rules which I hope they will read prior to wasting their time typing:<br />* Foul language of any nature will result in your ENTIRE reply being removed<br />* Direct personal attacks on ANYONE will result in the entire reply being deleted.<br />* Purely replying to attack this project is not acceptable. There are plenty of places where you can (and have) air your gripes. Here isnt one of them.

The problem with blogs....

Posted by logon.info, Jul 22 2009, 05:15 PM

Sounds a great idea to start a blog. You get to put your ideas out there into the great big wide world and get feedback on your musings. However, thats all well and good provided you are somewhat regular in your posts, and those posts have something of interest to say. Now Im not going to publically admit to being a boring individual, but there are times when I really dont have anything to say to the big wide world. I mean, I could comment about Swine Fever, my latest projects, coding tricks and tweaks Ive developed or picked up and/or many other topics. However, most of it is already out there in the www, and Im not sure how much credibility my voice would add to the causes, or of how much interest my ramblings would be.

So, you may have noticed its been a while since I last blogged. And now I am back blogging, Im writing about...well, blogging actually. There is a lesson here though, and one I intend to take to heart. A blog will work so long as you have a finite topic to write about. Random ramblings arent of interest, especially on a well defined topic specific site such as this. And much of what I do in my professional life day to day would be of precious little interest to anyone else (thats an educated guess, judging by my wifes eyes rolling any time I mention a website or customer ). That said, what i hope will be of interest to you will be the ideas behind coding conventions, reasons for approaching code in a set way and tidbits about running an ecommerce website. Whilst it is true to say I dont actually RUN an ecommerce website myself, I am heavily involved in a large number of them on a daily basis....

So, from now on I aim to blog more frequently, and blog more concisely. If you dont like it, well dont read. If you do like it, please post your feedback by using the comments.

Here endeth the lesson about blogs.....

Open Source in the non techie world

Posted by logon.info, May 24 2009, 02:14 PM

I have just got back from my sons Cub Camp, which this year was run as a "family camp" - i.e. every cub came to the camp with their family - whether it be just dad (as in my case), or their whole brood - mum, dad, sisters and brothers. I have to confess I approached it with quite a high level of doubt; I had not heard of this before and worried that it would either degenrate to a cluster of family groups who pitched tents next to people they knew and it all became very tribal, or that some silly adults would start drinking and make fools of themselves. However, what happened was an absolutely brilliant experience (relaxed but organised, deliberately laid out to encourage mingling of people who wouldnt know each other any other way outside of cubs, amazing leadership and interesting activities with no stupid adult behaviour to be seen anywhere), and one which would not have been possible without a huge amount of preperation, dedication and knowledge from a select few leaders.

This got me thinking. What we are doing here with the project is trying to use our skillsets and knowledge to create a piece of freely downloadable and modifiable software which others can use to their advantage. This is called Open Source. However, whilst the phraseology may be relatively new, those cub leaders are in fact doing pretty much the same thing. With no financial reward whatsoever, they are donating massive amounts of their time, utilising their skillsets and knowledge to impart to my son and the other kids in his peer group. This knowledge will doubtless then be used by him and them later in their lives to benefit them and improve their circumstances.

Their are a huge number of areas where this ethos exists, and in a way it surprises me that I have only just seen the parallel between voluntary organisations and the online techie based open source communities. That is definitely not to say one replaces the other, just to point out that Open Source is not a new concept, and that it is absolutely thriving today in all walks of life, mostly the ones completely unrelated to processors, computing and the internet...

Blinded by the light

Posted by logon.info, May 15 2009, 09:34 AM

As somebody who approaches store deployment and website creation from the coder side of things, I am a little unusual in that I always try to ensure that whatever I am doing to a site also keeps the owners administrative time to a minimum, maximises the potential for customers to spend money, and offers the best chance of a high position in the search engines. To me this is second nature - the days on the internet of "build it and they will come" are very much behind us, and having a fantastic site that takes the owner all day to administer is pretty pointless - the owner will doubtless have other concerns such as sourcing stock, offline advertising, meetings, customer phonecalls and maybe even a family life. And having a great looking site which is easy to run but which customers will never order from is equally as aim-defeating.

However, every single day I encounter new clients who have been working with somebody else, or who have developed their own sites, and who have taken a single strand of the attack and taken it to its absolute limits. For instance, the site which is so optimised for the search engines that it ends up looking hideous and is virtually impossible for a human to navigate. The site which has the simplest checkout procedure you could imagine, but which is completely invisible to a search engine. Or the site which is a dream to manage but at the expense of usability and seo.

Keeping a balance is something which applies to virtually everything in life, and which if done correctly always yields its own rewards. What happens all too often though is that somebody finds that they are an expert in one of the four strands I mention, and concentrates purely on that aspect. Whilst this will undoubtedly be very good for its intended purpose, an ecommerce site needs to be all things to all men if it is to be a success. It is very very easy to get carried away and go crazy in one direction, but please, for the sake of your online business, when developing your stores, wear many hats and look at your site with 4 different sets of eyes. If it is appealling to all 4, then you have a site which is destined for longevity.

So, to recap, the 4 angles you need to view your website from:

• The owner - Your site should be easy and efficient to manage
• The customer Your site should be easy to navigate, the products should be easily accessible and the checkout should be easy and/or self explanatory, and it should load relatively quickly
• The designer - your site should be aestheitcally pleasing. There is quite a bit of overlap with this one and the customer - a well designed site will undoubtedly make it easier for your customer to get around and give you their money)
• The Search Engine Spider - your site should have well placed keywords (but not too many of them), should be accessible with static links (not only javascript or flash links) and the content of EVERY page should be very clearly related to the main theme of your main theme or target keyword.

If you find one of these massively overpowers the others, dont dumb down that one aspect, but work harder to bring the others up to that level. Think of them as muscle groups - if you had really strong arms but your chest and shoulders were extremely weak, the strength of your arms is massively undermined. It is important that they should be of an equal strength to maintain maximum effect.

Have fun

Migrating servers - without the headaches

Posted by logon.info, May 14 2009, 01:52 PM

One of the most common jobs I get asked to perform for clients is migrating their website to a new server. This is invariably a huge stress inducer for store owners, and generally if you have cause to move server, it is either because you have fallen out with your previous host or you feel the service is unacceptable. Occassionally it is a planned move to bigger and better things which is to alow for future growth, but mostly it is because of an unexpected problem and needs to be done in a hurry.

If your website is live, moving from one server to another presents a large number of hazards, not least of which is minimising the potential downtime. So, here is my guide to a smooth, succesful transition.

First off, check the new server:

• has all the required paramteres for your application
• allows remote connection to the database

If these two are correct, the rest of the task becomes much easier. So before we even look at migrating anything over, we are going to get some ducks in a row. First off, we are going to set up all of your email addresses on the new server. This is so when you do move across, you dont lose any emails. Now we are going to setup a blank sql table, making a note of all the connection parameters (address [normally localhost], username, password). Now you are going to connect to your OLD site via ftp and download ALL of your files to your hard drive. This is a good idea every now and again even if you arent migrating btw, as it then gives you a full, complete backup of your site.

While the files are downloading, we are going to do a very quick bit of research, again on your OLD site. What we are looking for is the quietest one hour window for your store - the hour of a given day (or week) when it is least likely that you are going to get an order. This is critical, as we are going to need to give ourselves an hour when the site will be unavailable to your customers, and our end goal here is to minimise the impact on your business. So, when you have found that hour, make a note of it and agree with yourself to stay up that night and/or clear your schedule so you are completely available without any distractions. What you need to do should only take about 10 minutes, but by allowing a full hour you give yourself a realistic window without piling any more pressure onto yourself.

So, we now have a window when we can do the DATABASE migration. By this point, your files should have completed downloading from your old site, and you can now connect via ftp to your NEW server and guess what?.....upload them. Before you do though, you are going to need to change tow files - includes/configure.php, and admin/includes/configure.php. In here you are going to add the database connection info for your NEW server, and for the url portions, you are going to enter your temporary ip address. This is so you can see your new server and give it a good test before you let customers loose on it. When they have been changed, then go ahead and upload everything to your new server.

Only thing left to do now is to make a very simple html page explaining your site is unavailable and will return shortly. Save this as "shutdown.html" and upload to your NEW server.

OK, now we fast forward to that "quiet hour". This is where quick fingers come into their own. First off, you are going to disable your OLD site. You are going to edit a file called ".htaccess" (if you have one take a backup of the original as you will need to put it back in pace very shortly, if not create one). In .htaccess you are going to include only the following:
obviously changing new ip address for the web viewable address of yoru new website (i.e. 79.123.123.123/~newsite). This will redirect all traffic to your old site to your static holding page. This is only temporary, but makes the next bit much simpler and less error prone. Upload the new .htaccess to your OLD server.

Now, on the old server, you need to go to your database management system (normally phpMyAdmin), find your stores database and take a full backup of it (use export facility in phpMyAdmin). Save this to your desktop. Now go to your NEW database and import the file. If you have a lot of products and/or order history, you may need to use a text editor to split this file into smaller chunks. Each server has its own limits on filesizes, so you will need to ensure the file is below this limit. When all is complete on database, you will then need to navigate to your new site using your ip address. Just have a quick click around and put in a test order to ensure all is working correctly.

All good? Excellent, nearly there now.....

Go to your OLD site and edit the includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php. Change the db connection settings to connect to the database on your NEW server. This will make your older site significantly slower, BUT the reason for doing this is so you dont get orders placed on the old site, then lose details of them when your domain name migrates. Whether a customer orders on the old or the new server, the details will all be stored in the same place.

Now, go to your old site and either restore the original .htaccess or simply delete the new one you put in there. Your old site is now back up and running. Now go to your domain registrar and change the dns of your domain name to point to your new server. This can take up to 24 hours to come into effect, and can happen on one persons computer instantly but not on the one next door for the full 24 hours - hence the importance of having a single place to store all of your customers orders. As soon as you have made this change, you also need to redirect your emails on the old server to a non domain based email address. i.e. if you have sales@mysite.com, redirect it to an address that doesnt end @mysite.com - we dont want emails going astray during the transfer. Reconfigure your email client to connect to the new site, and remember to check your temporary email address for the next 24 hours so you dont miss any orders or enquiries.

Nearly done now - go to your new server, and amend the includes/configure (and the one in admin) to use your proper web address instead of the temporary one so as soon as the dns change comes into effect customers will see no difference (except a quicker site).

Now, wiat the full 24 hours, be certain your DNS changes have taken effect, then delete your database from the old server and remove the files. You can now safely cancel the old hosting account, your change is complete.

This is the method I use on every migration, and although there are quite possibly steps in here which are un-necessary in any given situation, by following the exact same method every time, you ensure nothing gets missed. I hope this helps some people.

If you have just read this and are completely overwhelmed by the terminology used or it just looks like too big a task, then ask your developer to assist. However, doing it yourself saves some cash and also gives you that nice warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.......

Childrens Home Access Grants

Posted by logon.info, May 13 2009, 09:44 AM

So, living as I do in Suffolk, we are one of the two areas of the country piloting the governments much lauded Home Access Scheme. The idea behind this is a fantastic concept - that a child with full access to the internet and a computer will acheive higher results than one without. Therefore the government has setup a means tested grant scheme giving a prepaid card to parents allowing you to purchase a computer or laptop with internet access from selected retailers.

A great idea, and a very worthwhile idea, like most things run by any government, this already has its setbacks. First lets look at the positives. A schoolfriend of my eldest son sent off their application on Saturday morning, and got their award this morning. By anybodys standards, thats amazingly quick. The form was relatively simple, and the support call center were incredibly helpful.

Now, the drawbacks. The schoolfriends aprents asked me to help them find a suitable system. To me, £475 (the award component for the computer part of the cheme) is a decent amount to be able to spend on a computer. To put it into context, I am currently using a 320GB hard drive, Vista Business sysrtem running quad core athlons and 6gb RAM. This little beauty cost me £429 from PC World. So, I go to the 5 websites listed in the paerwork as authorised Home Access Grant partners to see just what their money will buy.

First off, all of the websites have a very small range. The worst one had 3 options, the best had 7. Thats a pretty poor range to be able to choose from, but I suppose the idea is to get children on computers, so I cant grumble too much about the choice. However, the first option on all of the sites is a Toshiba NB 100-128 Mini-Notebook. Prices vary, but this runs at between £410 and £492 across all the sites. To me that seemed exceptionally expensive, so being the anal research type that I am, I typed it into Google to see what others were able to sell it for. The most expensive site I could find was selling it at £250. I smell a rat here.

Now granted the Home Access partners are selling the product with 3 years of support so I need to factor that into the equation, but even so this seems an exorbitantly high price to charge for a netbook.

What worries me is that this is a very good scheme, but the vast majority of parents going to look will see a solution, figure they arent paying for it anyway and just hand over their prepaid card details. These "selected" retailers are then coining it in - and in the end somebody is paying to line the retailers pockets here, and that somebody is us, the taxpayer.

There are a number of stores listed which I can go to with our friend to see if we can get a better deal face to face, but when those partners include O2 and Orange, my mind does start to wonder what was being thought of when these partners were chosen. No PC World in the list, none of the larger online retailers and no Staples or similar office suppliers. Instead we have Hughes (from memory they offer about 3 systems all told anyway), O2 (a mobile phone shop who only actually offer laptops for free when taken with an over priced mobile broadband package and Orange (likewise). The only actual retailer of note for computing is Comet. So I will be off to Comet this weekend with our friend to try and get them a better deal.

Needless to say I have rung Becta (the people administering this scheme) and pointed out just how overpriced the online partners were, but I sincerely hope this gets sorted out before the scheme goes national. Otherwise we will have 5 online retailers grinning from ear to ear with great big fat bank balances, a huge number of parents thinking they have got a good deal until they actually do a little bit of research, and yet another great big black hole in government finances which has paid for goods at nearly double their price.