February 2010
Volbase Webhub Portal New Release
Users with an advanced Volbase Webhub can now be upgraded to version 3.01 which has been released this month. The new portal pages are rendered in a more modern wider format and with appealing graphical images. It is also easier to configure, using configuration files in the Volbase Webhub folder on your desktop. End users who have forgotten their portal password or have not registered will be able to more easily request their sign-in credentials, and if they are not on your database, your information team can be automatically informed. This way you ensure you only receive new entries on your database which you want.
Navigation of the online survey/questionnaire or profile forms is also easier with a handy sidebar whowing which page you are on. This is particularly useful for those longer questionnaires.
Not even Google supports IE6!
In January, Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager announced that google are no longer going to support Internet Explorer Version 6 , Quote:
The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively. So to help ensure your business can use the latest, most advanced web apps, we encourage you to update your browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices :
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+
Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products - as well as new Docs and Sites features - won’t work properly in older browsers .
Many Web developers are delighted with Google's stance. THey can say to customers, Not even Google supports IE6! . 3rdbase welcomes this development too, but it is estimated that 10-15% of web users are using older browsers. It would be interesting to know how this statistic varies between sectors. One may expect that the VCS has a higher percentage of users of older equipment and software. Like many other companies, 3rdbase will try to ensure that our web designs use the most up to date technology, and we are striving towards the xHTML standard for accessibility. This may cause some failure in IE6 put we will try to ensure that any failure is graceful.
See http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/modern-browsers-for-modern-applications.html for details of Google's announcement.
January 2010
Microsoft SQL Server Version Released
Volbase can now connect to Microsoft SQL Server database. SQL server is a more industrial enterprise database management system with the ability to scale-up massively in terms of the number of consecutive users, and data quantities without affecting performance. Routine testing has found Volbase connected to SQL server retrieves data 20-50 times faster than from a JET/Access File Server Database. This means that users can enjoy the simplicity of a Microsoft Access database for smaller scale and low cost implementations, or upsize to SQL Server for a larger implementation with superior performance.
Existing customers should contact 3rdbase for details about upsizing from Access to SQL Server.
Old News
Rough Sleepers
3rdbase directors Chris and Philip slept out on the street, along with 250 other IT executives, at Byte Night 2008.
By spending a night sleeping rough in Potters Fields by Tower Bridge they raised funds for Action for Children (formerly NCH), the children's charity - who provide much-needed support for some of the 32,000 homeless 16 to 21 year olds in Britain.
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