There are a number of things it does so much better than the rest, stuff like different pricing groups, one page checkout etc etc etc.

However, there are a few things it doesn’t do too well – one of which was an issue with the TMP directory on the server the sites are on continually getting filled up, to the point where it would stop anything database driven from working.

Now obviously this is a fairly big issue – as most websites nowadays are (or should be) database driven – so we tried various things to see if we could get it to stop filling up, all with no success.

Then our in-house developer Dave noticed some php.ini files within the root, and the /admin folder of all opencart installations, and in these fields was this line;

session.gc_maxlifetime = 12000000;

This number is in seconds, so in hours that would be; 3,334 – which is 138 days!

Im pretty sure these don’t need to be stored for so long, so if we change that to 3600 – which is exactly one hour – we’re pretty confident that this issue will no longer happen, and hopefully the guys over at Openc

The reason for this, is a customer of ours has an awesome online shop made by us – and all his prices are INCLUSIVE of VAT/Tax. He trades internationally, so we’ve been working on a cool EUVAT/Vat Exempt module so that (example) if someone buys from the EU and is EUVAT registered, they input their EUVAT number, the site instantly checks it for validity and if its OK removes the Tax/VAT from the order.

It has a whole heap of other “conditions” with it, but thats not the reason for this blog post.

We wanted to bulk remvoe the vat from his products, but our initial plan fell flat on its face, becasue;

£100 + 20% VAT = £120

£120 – 20% VAT = £96

Ah.

The reason for this is that 20% of 100 is not the same as 20% of 120….

So we racked our brains for all those formulas and junk we learnt in school, and asked a few friends who mostly pointed us to cool websites that seemed to do the job – but we were still no closer to actualyl figuring out what the formula was..

Then all of a sudden, bingo!

One of the lads figured it out, and here it is;

(total_price/(100+VAT))*100

So, as we break it down…..

(120/(100+20))*100

(120/120)*100

1*100

£100

Bingo!

The invite only beta format of Google+ was picked upon by the group known as ‘Partnerka’ and they have reportedly sent emails with fake invites which apparently look very similar to the actual ones, only for the user to have their hopes dashed when they arrive at a website selling viagra.

A statement from security firm Sophos said that the attack was very ‘amateur’ and not many people would fall for it as it still requires the user to enter their details on the pharmaceutical site for any to be taken, however the emails are still being sent in growing numbers.

Users have been warned to not enter their details into any untrusted websites and to check the identity of who sends you any Google+ related emails.

For more information regarding social media marketing please call the SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

The service was down for several hours before a fix was issued through deleting a file call “shared.xml from the program folder, Microsoft have since said they are looking for a more simple fix, but insisted that the problem only affected a small number of the services estimated 600million users.

It is thought that the failure may have been caused during work to integrate Skype with another existing Microsoft service, however these rumours remain unconfirmed

Either way this is rather embarassing for Microsoft, coming only 2 weeks after they controversially made Skype their largets purchase, with many questioning whether Skype’s simple technology and relatively low amount of revenue was enough to justify a multi billion pound price tag.

Be sure to check back next week for more news from the Web Design Nottingham team, and if you would like more information about taking your business online, then please call 01623 650333.

The security flaw means that hackers would be able to obtain information from peoples calendars and contacts applications – and its been warned that this these sort of attacks will only become more frequent in the future.

This comes just a few days after Google CEO Eric Schmidt claimed that the company would be improving their services so people could better protect personal information they did not want to share, so this flaw has left Google looking far from good.

A statement from Google said ”We’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.” However with this being the latest in a string of privacy issues surrounding Google, you have to wonder how much longer people will stick around

Experts from online security companies have praised Google’s quick response to the issue, however have warned that the huge range of android smartphones on the market does leave them very susceptible to hacking and other issues

Graham Cluley from Sophos  has advised for people to update to the most recent version of android, and to try avoid using open wi-fi networks, saying ’3G may eat into your data plan, but it is far less likely that your communications are being snooped upon,”

For more information regarding anything to do with Google from Places to SEO, please call our friendly SEO Nottingham team on 01623 650333.

However, following the news a few weeks ago that hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money had been spent on office furniture, another sign that its returning to business as usual for MPs has emerged. The stricter rules which were implemeted after the scandal have now been relaxed following weeks of whinging from MPs about them being ‘anti-family’ amongst other things. Many more MPs can now once again claim for accomodation regardless of where they live, whilst those with children under 18 can claim for childcare, and MPs will be given a taxpayer funded credit card with a limit of £4000 per month to spend on…well…who knows what they really will spend it on.

With rules relaxed and MPs once again beginning to show their true colours and greed, how long is it before we learn that our money has again been spent on a duck house, or jam doughnuts?

Whilst small businesses and families all over the country struggle with soaring petrol prices and the tough economic conditions, it is quite disgusting that extremely well paid MPs still have the nerve to use the money of those who voted for them for things that their 6 figure salaries could surely afford.

Whether this will be the dawn of another scandal or if they have learnt their lesson will be found out in due time, however, this has done nothing to give me anymore faith in my MP than before.

For more information regarding business grants, or anything internet marketing related, give the web design nottingham team a call on 01623 650333.

It more often than not makes notable appearances in ‘worst tech ever’ lists and has been heavily criticised since its release for its terrible security and endless threats that each of its users face, it has still been receiving regular patches for new security vulnerabilities despite being almost 10 years old.

Even Microsoft themselves are trying to get people away from using that version of the browser, and other companies – most notably Google – have lessened or even stopped supporting it altogether.

At Dijitul we are a split office of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome users, however we ensure all our websites are compatible with all web browsers as we respect different people use different ones.

However, we want to once again raise our voice and say to everyone, stop using IE6! we make our websites are secure as possible, but why would you want to risk using IE6 and having someone take control of your online shop for example? with those details, people with bad intentions could do anything. Do the sensible thing, and update your browser!

For more information regarding internet browser safety and safe, secure web design, give our friendly team a call on 01623 650333.

The man thought to have played a part in the on and off rail network strikes we have seen over the last few years – who himself recieved a 12% pay rise last year, taking his ‘basic’ salary to £95,000 per year – suggested that the key to lowering the deficit was, not to cut jobs, but place a tax on email.

Appearing on popular channel 4 show ’10 O’clock live’ , he said “If groups of workers are under attack, we believe we should coordinate and stand firm – propose a tax of 1p per email, and get rid of Trident.” The audience reportedly booed his idea, and it has got a ‘boo’ from me too, email is a free, modern way of communicating with someone easily, putting a tax on it would be a huge shame, and impractical.

Unfortunately, 90% of all email sent is spam, so a majority of the emails would more than likely ignore the tax, meaning only legitimate online businesses who send many emails, would be effected by the tax, therefore not making much of a dent on the deficit, and damaging small online businesses, maybe even taking Britain back in time as many may try to avoid going online due to this.

Hopefully, however, Bob Crow will never get his way and email will remain a free service for everyone to enjoy, and the age of SEO and ecommerce will long continue.

Last years extremely bad weather has been burdened with a lot of the blame for this economic slump, with the huge amounts of snow driving people away from the high street, however the shrink was still more than the 0.5% expected due to the snow, fuelling fears that we could very well be heading on the dangerous path to a ‘double-dip’ recession.

The governments V.A.T rise and deep spending cuts have already been met with plenty of apprehension and questioning by financial experts and the public alike, and if this shrinking continues, you can guarantee the apprehension will turn to anger.

This news however, does follow the announcement a few days ago of ecommerce sales rose in both December and January based on last year, more stronger evidence that to increase sales and growth, more and more companies need to be getting online.

Upon further inspection i found out that the file in question had 2 lines of text added to the bottom of it, and my findings were not good.

After a scan of that websites account, we found a lot more infected files. Oh dear.

I did some searching, and NOTHING came up on Google. Now ive been “surfing the web” for 16 years, and i’ve NEVER been unsuccessful in finding what I want on google – so it must have been BRAND NEW!

A few days later and I managed to find a blog that was discussing the virus, and also talking about the different forms/variations it came in.

After much searching, editing of files, searching, editing of files, altering the search criteria, searching, editing files – we finally have gotten rid of this crap – but it was a long process!

We think the Trojan gains passwords from Filezilla and access the sites via ftp, edit all the javascript files, all the index.html, index.php, main.php and maintenance.php files to include some javascript redirect type code.

The overall “point” of the virus is unclear, we could do with some original virus files so we can rip them to pieces and analyse what its doing.

We do think its simply a redirect virus that will try and send you to a Viagra site or something – so its not the worst thing in the world.

It does however block users from viewing your website if they have found it thru google or if they have Virus/Malware/Spyware scanners running all the time on your pc.

Need help getting dis-infected?

Call our BUG SQUASHING helpline on +44(0)1623 650 333 or send us an email!