New CCNA Exploration Course

Posted by Peter George

We are currently recruiting job seekers for our Cisco Certified Network Associate course, starting Wednesday 14th May.

To be eligible, you will be unemployed and living in Edinburgh, qualified to at least NC Computing, HNC/HND Computing or related discipline, CompTIA A+, or degree level educated.

In addition, we’re looking for candidates who have not benefited from either Training for Work or New Deal type training support in the past. Candidates will also be able to demonstrate regular job seeking activity.

This is a unique opportunity to gain one of the most sought after career certifications in the industry today.

Find out more and apply online, or call Peter on 0131 477 7128 for more information.

The Highland Fling 2008!

Posted by Sara Dodd

The Highland Fling 2008 Web Developers Conference

We were delighted to support and attend Alan White’s second successful Highland Fling conference held at Symposium Hall in Edinburgh yesterday.

The conference space was filled with web developers, designers, programmers and students from across Scotland representing the top agencies and companies and of course, freelancers. Paul Boag compèred the event flawlessly, incisively quizzing and questioning key speakers to create a animated dialogue between audience and speakers.

The theme of ‘The Browser and Beyond’ was explored in some depth by Mark Norman Francis of Yahoo who gave us a potted history of himself and his life with browsers from Gopher to Foxes… Christian Heilmann followed giving us an insight into the changing landscape of the web and the opportunities afforded by incorporating Badges and developing APIs successfully and Gareth Rushgrove followed this up with his theme of generating clean, clear protocols and designer URLs

The afternoon sessions opened with Aral Balkan dispelling the myths that Flash has had its day, underlining his point with the aid of a flying pig. Opera’s Chris Mills discussed the state of the current mobile website market, and went over the pro’s & con’s of various approaches. Finally, Simon Wilison showed us a glimpse of Comet; a bizarre yet potentially very exciting method for delivering content in real time.

The event was a success, judging from the enthusiasm and interest evident in all who attended. I think everyone went away with more than a few things to think about.

Thank you Alan – as last year’s fling brought Scotland’s web community together under the banner of Web Standards, this year’s event strengthened that sense of community and focussed our attention on the tasks ahead.

PS. For a more comprehensive round-up of the conference, have a look at Chris Mills’ blog

Net Res News

Posted by Sara Dodd

We have had a great spate of work in recent weeks forcing us to keep our noses to the codestone and not to the blogsphere, but sensing a bit of breathing space thought it might be nice to sociable for a change…

Lots going on in the back room – slowing emerging from its previous role as a training room to become a hive of web development. The schedules are tight and the air is thick with CSS and PHP. Roan’s powering through series of site layouts and designs, Ian’s working magic on his MODx snippets, Richard’s carving functional specs into tablets of stone, Brian’s molding content to life and Jonathan keeps weaving it all together.

And who for? Well, some new and old clients – re-designs for Scottish Council of Independent Schools, Scotland for Golf and Lennoxlove, new designs for Sam Thomas Shops, the Scottish Association of Optoelectronics and Scotland IS, and collaborative work for Scottish Womens Aid (with the Graphics Company) and the Carneige Club at Skibo Castle (with Elastic Creative).

Back to the front room and Peter is picking up the pace with a new Cisco CCent course starting this week as part of the ECTA programme to assist unemployed people in Edinburgh. This will be followed by a new series of Microsoft courses as we join the Industry Alliance for Jobs as a satellite hub.

Our ILA status should be complete this month so we will be able to invite you all to use yours on some excellent training courses, including our forthcoming series for wannabe search engine gurus in SEO, SEM and PPC.

SAS, Ajax & Web Developer Jobs

Posted by Sara Dodd

SAS, Ajax and Application Support Developer Jobs today.

Search Marketing Specialist, Red Chilli Search, Peebles

Red Chilli Search, based in Peebles, is looking for a talented search marketing specialist to help them work with their rapidly growing client base. The ideal candidate will have good experience working with SEO and PPC projects and have a good rapport with clients. But they are also looking for enthusiastic and career focused graduates. Good presentation and communication skills are essential. Training will be provided. Please send your CV initially to Andrew Allfrey at andrew@redchillisearch.co.uk or call 0845 658 0330 now!

.Net C# Developer, Fife
Salary £18,000 to £22,000

An ICT electronic solutions company in Fife is looking for a .Net C# Web Developer to join them. You will work within a team of experienced developers and your role will involve maintaining and supporting existing systems as well as working through the full development life-cycle on new development projects. You should meet the following criteria:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in an IT related subject
• Previous experience in a web development role
• Excellent web and programming skills using .Net C#
• Strong knowledge of SQL, PHP and classic ASP
• A good appreciation of design, functionality and interactivity

For further information or to apply please contact Lynne Oliver on 01506 517215 or forward your CV to lynne.oliver@go-escape.com

Application Support Developer, Glasgow
Salary: £35k – £38k pa + benefits
Ref No: 109181-UK513391

Financial services client based in Glasgow City Centre is looking for an Application Support Developer to be responsible for the maintenance and enhancements of in-house applications, (VB6; Java); database design and maintenance (SQL Server 2000); developing and supporting Business Objects reporting; and providing support to end-users. Applications are invited from candidates with 2 – 5 years exp in applications support / development, including demonstrable commercial experience with the above technologies. Financial Services exp would be an advantage. Please forward your CV stating your interest and availability to: Scott.McPherson@jobs.hudson.com

Web Developer : Javascript & Ajax, Edinburgh
Salary: £25k / £35k (dependent on exp)
Ref No:14792-GJ-PR-CABA575306

Here is an opportunity to be involved in developing a new generation of web sites for a world leading web-based organisation with offices in Edinburgh. You will be developing interactive web pages using the latest in WEB 2.0 technologies. Including: –

• JavaScript
• AJAX
• HTML / XHTML
• CSS

Contact Craig Black at Progressive Computer Recruitment Ltd for more information, or look on Jobsite.

SAS / Oracle Software Developer, Edinburgh
Salary: £20k – £45k pa + bens
Ref No:102838-14379

Elan is recruiting for a Software Developer with great skills in SAS to work for a fantastic company in the city centre of Edinburgh. You should have solid SAS experience, Business Objects exp and a great understanding of SQL and Oracle. Java, Lotus Notes, HTML, Access and Excel are all considered favourable for this role although the main focus is with SAS experience To find out more please contact Caron Leckie on tel: 0131 558 4800

RBGE website launches!

Posted by Roan Lavery

We are delighted to announce the launch of our most recent web site for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

We worked very closely with the RBGE web project team to develop a dynamic, visually appealing site that would ‘inform, inspire, communicate, encourage and educate’. Within this was a determination to please a variety of users from scientists, educators, gardeners, families, students and art lovers, to a staff of over 200 – 50 of them content contributors.

The new site provides information on a full range of public courses, events and exhibitions, gives direct access to the internationally important plant databases and (we hope) displays the beauty and vitality of our four national botanic gardens in here in Scotland.

Launch: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Comment

Learn to build dynamic websites on our PHP and MySQL course

Posted by Ian Morgan

PHP and MySQL are powerful open source scripting and database technologies which allow you to build dynamic database driven websites.

We have a PHP and MySQL course scheduled for the 21st and 22nd of November and there are still a couple of places available.
(Fees: £659 + VAT)

The 2 day course is aimed at beginners; the only prior knowledge you need is how to code HTML. The course will cover all the main building blocks of the PHP language, and MySQL database system. For full details on what will be covered see: PHP & MySQL Training Course

The aim is to give you enough knowledge on how to code PHP and interface with a MySQL database so you can start writing your own website applications. And with your new skills you should have the confidence to try out (and perhaps add to or modify) some existing PHP/MySQL applications like Wordpress, Textpattern, phpBB and MODx .

To find out more or to book on to the course then send us an email

Sir Basil Spence

Posted by Sara Dodd

We were delighted to launch the Sir Basil Spence Archives website last week as part of a larger collaborative project with the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments Scotland, The Lighthouse, Glasgow, and The National Galleries of Scotland. to celebrate the centenary of his birth.

The website showcases the breadth and depth of Sir Basil Spence’s extraordinary career in designing and building some of Britain’s most prominent buildings at a time of great social change. Few architects can match the variety of work which he achieved which included a Cathedral, an airport, country houses, universities and an embassy.

The website is rich in images, videos and audio clips and uniquely offers a ‘memory sharing’ area to engage viewers who have direct experience of living, working, learning or worshiping in Spence’s buildings.

It accompanys a major exhibition of fascinating original material that explores key achievements as well as Spence’s less well known works. A major exhibition, Back to the Future: Sir Basil Spence 1907- 1976, will be opening at the Dean Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, in Edinburgh on 19th Oct 2007 and running until 10th Feb 2008. There is also a touring exhibiton, currently at Coventry Cathedral which will come to the Omni Centre in Leith on 13th Oct 2007.

Net Resources Facebook Community

Posted by Peter George

Unless you’ve been living under a Web 1.0 rock over the last few months, you’ll have probably heard a lot about Facebook, the fastest growing social networking community on the web at the moment.

At first sceptical, expecting more MySpace and Bebo type novelty and a youthful demographic, we were quite excited to discover the real business networking opportunities that Facebook seems to offer.

It’s quite clear that there is a wide, and exponentially growing community of business Facebook users who ‘get it’, and are beginning to really explore the business aspects of social networking. It really does feel as if we are at the start of something quite interesting.

Within a week, Net Resources team members have been actively engaged in developing a Facebook application with an online business, an opportunity that evolved purely through Facebook itself.

So, we thought we’d set up a Net Resources Facebook group, on the principle of “build it and they will come”. We are very keen to reconnect with some of the 800 odd Graduate Internet Course participants we’ve worked with over the years, and find out how they are getting on now, connect our cuurent Cisco, CIW Linux and Microsoft communities, as well as network current and former staff, clients and collaborators.

Come and join us. Let’s network, and see what happens.

LPI Approved Training Partner

Posted by Peter George

Net Resources Academy is now a Linux Professional Institute Approved Training Partner (LATP).

Having delivered Linux and Open Source Software training since 2001, we are delighted to now partner with the Linux Professional Institute (LPI).

LPI is the largest independent provider of Linux certification, with more than 145,000+ exams written worldwide.

LPI certification (LPIC) is a vendor-independent Linux programme aimed at practitioners. It provides a detailed and structured education in key Linux administration skills up to a very advanced level.

” We are delighted that Net Resources Academy has joined the LPI
Approved Training program, which numbers hundreds of quality training organisations throughout the world” said John Meaney, LPI’s Operations Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Meaney continued ” We look forward to welcoming new LPI alumni in Scotland, as Net Resources get their new Linux courses under way”.

Our current LPIC course offerings cover both LPIC-1 exam preparation courses LPI-101 and LPI-102. These four day courses run on consecutive Thursdays throughout the Autumn, and are competitively priced at £1,195 + VAT.

Our practical and hands-on Linux training is supported by LPI certified instructors, approved training materials and years of experience helping people to successfully pass the high stakes LPIC exams.

Dr Magnus Hagdorn, Research Geophysicist at Aberdeen based OHM Ltd said;

“The LPI training provided by Net Resources is excellent! The combination of theory followed by practicals proved to be very effective. The course is well prepared and the staff at Net Resources are very knowledgeable. They did manage to teach an old dog new tricks.”

We are also in the process of designing a modular LPI oriented training product. This will enable customers to select critical, job relevant LPIC learning objectives and create intensive, focused one (or more) day training solutions specifically targeted at workplace Linux system administration tasks.

If you would like to find out more about Linux training at Net Resources Academy, please call Peter on 0131 477 7127.

New LPI Course Dates

Posted by Peter George

New dates scheduled for LPIC-1 exam preparation courses in Edinburgh during September and October 2007.