Author Archives: Steve Morley

A normal Manchester guy with interests in Strongman, Fitness and Geekery.

Nestle to Cut 40% of Sugar in Chocolate

Dark Brown Milk Chocolate

Dark Brown Milk Chocolate

If any women read my geekery or trash there would be a gasp of shear horror that chocolate is being tampered with. Nestle has made what they are calling a breakthrough which could dramatically reduce the amount of sugar in their products. As I said before I call this a chemical shitstorm

In a nutshell they have fiddled with the molecular structure of sugar, to make Sugar 2.0. The simple explanation is they make it dissolve quicker, which I assume make it hit you harder faster and makes you think there’s more sugar than there is. Think a chunk of rock salt, crunch it up with your teeth and salt city. Nestle claim it does not affect the taste at all. 

The problem is, that when when you fiddle with things like this, you don’t know how far reaching the consequences are. What seems ok short term, isn’t long term. Look at various drugs, they are doled out like tictacs, then a few years later they are withdrawn and banned because it goes horribly wrong. 

0-65% Sugar Per Bar

When you consider that Chocolate is about 45-65% sugar on average, it varies depending on brands and white, milk or dark, some of which is dairy sugar, but raw and pure chocolate can have virtually no sugar at all but most people would find it very bitter. Various companies have come up with tricks like using sea salt or chilli peppers in an attempt to reduce sugar and balance the bitterness, and some of them are good. 

What is not clear is, they say 40% sweeter, but don’t clarify if this is 40% less calories or physical mass. Which means we won’t know if they will need to add some other filler to regain the size or yet again reduce the size of the bar. We also don’t know if it will reduce the calorie content, I would guess it would. 

Dairy Milk 36g Bar   Berliner Doughnut (Waitrose)
  Current Style Sugar 2.0      Current Style Sugar 2.0 
Energy 191kcal 159kcal   Energy  461 421kcal
Fat 11g     Fat 21.1  
Protein 2.7g     Protein 8.4  
Carbs 20.5g     Carbs 59.3  
Sugar 20g 12g   Sugar 25.6 15.36

Looking at the potential above, which assumes it achieves 40% calorie reduction, 32 calories doesn’t seem alot, but its actually about 17% reduction overall in the Dairy Milk. I assume this Sugar molecule can be used in all manner of other goodies, so I applied it to the unhealthiest thing I’ve eaten in a long time.

The Halo Effect 

On the grande scheme of calories the difference isn’t all that impressive, but sugar impact, its impressive. Gets more impressive when applied to sugary drinks. 

I hadn’t heard it call the Halo Effect, but had heard the theory. The theory is that when someone is perceived as having been made healthy, people double up the amount. Fruit is the usual suspect, tell someone an Orange is healthy, I eat 10 of them and gram for gram of sugar they may as well have eaten a 4 pack of mars bars. 

Even Professor Julian Cooper form Nestle highlighted this problem when he said “This is good science. A lot of people have been look at sugar trying to reduce the amount.” he added that there is a risk that it would give Nestle Products the use the “adapted” sugar the hal0-effect which may lead people to believe they can eat more of it.

HE also went on about protecting the profit margins and nestles patents letting other companies in the idea blah, who cares. Make a fuss that since 2007 you (Nestle) have been reducing sugar (and product size) then in the next breath blurt out, its about the money. 

 

Chocolate Bar image courtesy of Kaboom.

Non-Fault Accident Increases Your Insurance Premium

Firefighter Extinguish Car Fire

Firefighter Extinguish Car Fire

I have been looking in to this since one of my friends reported a no-fault accident. In their case, they have a double dash cam set up, they had a cam attached to the rear of the car, they drilled this near the reg plate and it doubles as a reverse camera to their tablet. They also have a camera facing forward, which has GPS, Lane Detection and some other gadgets, I don’t know.  

They were hit, and it were all recorded. The other person admitted it were their fault, which was also caught on the cameres complete with audio. 

Open and Shut Claim

This would seem like an open and shut claim, accident happened, video showing admission, other driver admitted fault to insurance, and it should not impact his insurance at all. This isn’t the case come renewal time, he didn’t know why, I didn’t know why, and we just assumed the insurance companies actively seek out any way they can to help themselves to your hard earned cash.

Because accident data is shared between insurance companies, you can’t simply decide you’re unhappy with Insurance A, and get a better quote from Insurance B, because both of them have penalised you and factored it into your quote. Of course shopping around will save you some pennies since most insurances hide their mystical formulas of risk which gives you some variance, so always a deal to be had, if you shop smart. 

I had forgotten about this until I saw an article in The Telegraph about the same sort of incident, so I sent it to my mate who told me, his premium dropped the following year by about £200 but were still about £200 more than before the accident. 

The AA British Insurance Premium Index keeps and eye on insurance rises, and currently shows comprehensive premiums this year are £82 more expensive than last year, Assuming last year increased the same, it could explain why his insurance increased approx £200, including IPT (Insurance Premium Tax) increases on top. 

The article in The Telegraph has some interesting quotes from Sheila’s Wheels “While a claim on the other persons insurance is outstanding, liability can still be contested.”, they continue to say “In these circumstances, and when a policy renews when there is an open claim, the premium would be temporarily increased while we wait fro the case to close.

Once its settled, the premium would be recalculated and any additional premium paid would be returned.” This means that if you’re renewal comes up before the other insurance companies pays out, even with iron-clad evidence, and an admission of guilt you’re still penalised. The fact that data is shared between insurance companies means, you’ll be penalised everywhere else too.  

My friend went on to tell me, he were never refunded anything, but says he’s going to contact his insurance and ask what the hell. I’m putting my money on his insurance company suggesting he like a long run off a short pier or something along those lines. 

Firefighter image courtesy of Pexels/Pixabay.

Stocking Filler Lynx Oud Wood and Dark Vanilla Gift Pack

Lynx Gift Pack

Lynx Gift Pack

This Oud Wood and Dark Vanilla Gift Pack is an excellent stocking filler. The Lynx Signature Fragrances are all borderline expensive aftershave scents and work as top ups through a day/night out. 

I love tobacco based scents, some of the best combination scents with tobacco are Vanilla, Amber, Tonka and some spices. Spicebomb Extreme and Tobacco Vanille are my go to night out and special occasion scents, my day to day scent is Tabac which has a nice sandalwood undertone which makes it smell fresh. My beard oil is often Tobacco, Bourbon, Vanilla, Lime and Mango based, you get the idea by now.  

I recently discovered Lynx Signature fragrances, Tobacco and Amber as well as Oud Wood and Dark Vanilla, both of these work amazingly well with my favourite scents. The above links are £4 from Amazon Pantry, which is a good price. I paid £5 from Sainsburys on offer, they are normally £6 each.

In this gift pack you get 150ml Antiperspirant Spray and 100ml Precsion Pump Spray for £5, buying these separate would be about £9-10 depending on where you buy them.

I’ll be posting stocking fillers as and when I see them over xmas.  

Accessing Your Drop Lists

In previous parts, I covered DAC Connections, then Part 1: What You Need To Build A Drop List, Part 2: Building A Drop List, Part 3: Maintaining A Drop List and now Part 4: Accessing Your Drop Lists. 

There really is no point to having a populated zone file, if you are unable to access it for any reason or produce your own drop lists. This article will cover those who have populated the zone file, but also for those who make lots of searches to see what exists. This latter point, is more about research and mark/rights protection, as well as finding potential buyers, and part of this article will suit your needs too.

Downloading Todays List

This is the basic, downloading todays drop list, you can of course modify this to download any day you choose. 

$today = date("Y-m-d");
$query = "SELECT domain FROM `zonefile` WHERE `dropdate` = '$today';";
$result = mysql_query($query); 
$fp = fopen('php://output', 'w'); 
if ($fp && $result) {     
       header('Content-Type: text/csv');
       header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$today.'.txt"');
       header('Pragma: no-cache');    
       header('Expires: 0');
       while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
          fputcsv($fp, array_values($row)); 
       }
}

The above will simply download todays file, I would suggest including a switch to change the date, but its up to you, how you do it. 

Searching The Database

Suppose you want to search the database and browse online, I have gone with absolute basics which is Domain and Drop Date only. A Very simple form is all that is needed.

<form id="search" method="post" action="./droplist.php">
<p>
<label for="drop" id="datelab">Search by Drop Date:</label> 
<input id="drop" name="drop" onClick="this.form.reset()"> (note todays renewal required is: <?php echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime('+ 92 days')); ?>, Suspended Date is <?php echo date('Y-m-d', strtotime('+ 60 days')); ?>)</p>
<p><label for="domain" id="domainlab">Search by Domain:</label> 
<input id="domain" name="domain" onClick="this.form.reset()"></p>
<p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="   SUBMIT   " /> &nbsp; <input type="reset" value="  RESET  ">
</p>
</form>

I have added some embellishments such as showing some useful dates to use for reference but these aren’t needed. I have also set it to clear the boxes when clicked to avoid crossed data on submit. 

Displaying Drop Lists and Data

Once you have submitted the search query using a form, or converted it to a GET[] rather than POST[] you need to display the results.

Firstly, you need to connect to the myql database…

$con = mysql_connect ('localhost', 'zone_zone', '9@55\/\/012D' or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ('zone_nzf) or die ('I cannot select the database because: ' . mysql_error());

I keep this in a function, with success or fail returned, but you an just bung it at the top of your file, its down to you. 

You will need to know if the form have been submitted and extract the Drop Date or Domain string.

if($_POST['submit']){
if($_POST['drop']){
$date = $_POST['drop'];
//
// drop date search code here.
//
} elseif($_POST['domain']) {
$doms = $_POST['domain'];
//
// domain search code here
//
} // close if drop
} //close submit

You don’t need to do this, but I always do it with any database query. Sometimes it only shows in debug mode, sometimes in the main view but I always have it in there. You’ll need to alter the Query a little for Drop Dates and Domain searches, but I’ll go with Domain Search code here.

$query=mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS `rows` FROM `zonefile` WHERE `domain` LIKE '%$domain%';");
$rows=mysql_num_rows($query);
echo "<p>This date ($date) has " . number_format($rows) . " records returns.</p>";

This is useful if you want to know how many records are returned on the given date or within the search query. You may deem it not worth while but thee codes there anyway. You should build this action in to the below code, rather than run it twice, but since you may not care how many lines I’ve omitted it below. I have also switched to dropdate search since I posted a search query above.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<thead>
<th width="300">Domain</th>
<th width="150">Drop Date</th>
</thead>
<?php
$query = mysql_query("select * from zonefile where dropdate='$date' order by domain ASC;");
if(mysql_num_rows($query)>0){
	while($data=mysql_fetch_array($query,1)){
?>
<tr>
<td><strong><?php echo $data['domain'];?></strong> (<a href="http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/webwhois.cgi?wvw7yesk=3hryr4hby3&wquery=<?php echo $data['domain'];?>">whois</a>)</td>
<td><?php echo $data['dropdate'];?></td>
</tr>
<?php } // while sql fetch
} //if rows ?> 
</table>

You probably should add a switch to adjust the background of each line to make it less headache inducing to read. I’m sure there are a dozen different ways to do this, but I went quick and easy to read code.

if($lalt==1){
	$row ='#888888';
	$fon='#FFFFFF';
	$lalt="1";
}else {
	$row ='#EEEEEE';
	$fon='#000000';
	$lalt="0";
}

Insert the above “if…then” statement into the “do…while” code block. Putting it there means on each iteration lalt (line alt) will change from 0 to 1 and the colour panels will change each row. Something like this would work…

<tr bgcolor="<?php echo $row; ?>">
<td><strong><font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace" color="<?php echo $fon; ?>"><?php echo $data['domain'];?></font></strong> (<a href="http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/webwhois.cgi?wvw7yesk=3hryr4hby3&wquery=<?php echo $data['domain'];?>">whois</a>)</td>
<td><?php echo $data['dropdate'];?></td>
</tr>

So thats a simple displaying a given date. How you get the date to the above page is down to you. You can either use a GET[] or a POST[] function to get the date and pass it to the code. I would use a form to feed a POST[] array and then act, but a GET[] can be useful to quickly change date…

$date = $_GET[dd];

Then call the page with “dropdate.php?dd=2016-11-24” or similar. 

Other Applications

These are just some ideas I toyed with, Domain Watchlists, you could set up a Crontab for certain keyterms, and when the application detects the keyword in any given days list, it sends an email with the domain list. 

The download script I posted at the top of this could be very easily modified for this job. 

If you have your own tag, you could create a watchlist to watch your tag and track renewals and modifications or any other tag if you stored tag data. 

How much data you store, is subject to Nominets allowance and your own personal choice.

I have a few more things to write about this, but this concludes the basics. I’ll do a summery post and perhaps put the code together in to a workable solution but 95% of all the code you need in in these files and just needs sticking together.

You should now have a 2-3gb database, populated with around 11m records, and able to produce your own drop lists.

Important Notice

Before using this or any of the code I have posted you should sanitise it and enhance security, this code is NOT meant for public use. In order to keep the code simply, it has been aimed at private access so security hasn’t been a huge concern.

DO NOT DEPLOY THIS CODE.  

 

Homeless Shoebox Appeal

Homeless Shoeboxes

Homeless Shoeboxes

Winter is not a fun time for the homeless and less fortunate. This is made even worse by Christmas, a time traditionally spent with family or enjoying yourself. If your homeless or the less fortunate, you maybe watching everyone else enjoy themselves while you seem invisible.

It isn’t wrong of you to enjoy yourself at all, but you should spare a moment to think of the less fortunate. You really do never know when the tables maybe turned, and it kinda makes you a good human if nothing else. 

Homeless Shoebox Initiative

The Homeless Shoebox initiative is a rock solid idea, and shouldn’t really cost much at all. If you haven’t heard of this idea, let me fill you in.

Basically you take an shoebox or a box of a similar size, a bigger box is fine too, and prepare it with items which will make a homeless persons life a little easier in the cold winter and hopefully add a little joy over the Christmas period. 

This is a fun task to do with your children, as many many schools already do this as a class / school project. Its also a good time to help teach your children to be compassionate and good humans. Not to mention a good excuse to spend time with family.  

Every year I think about what to put in the box, and in the end the imaginary balance I come up with, is 75% essential items and 25% Useful Items, for me this is the ideal mixture. Essential Items to me are things to keep warm and dry, sanitary products, personal care items (brushes, toothpaste etc), a wind up torch, dry and long shelf life foods. Useful Items is a misnomer really, more useful but not essential items, I’m talking about books, a wind up radio, magazines, pens, notepads, things like that. 

Forbidden Items
There are various items which are forbidden, the primary items being…

Sharp Objects – Knives, Forks, Scissors, Blades, Plastic and Reusable Cutlery is ok. 

Alcohol – Just No, its best to even avoid alcohol flavoured foods and drinks. 

Money – Nope.

Suggested Items

I have made a quick list of items which I think are worth considering, and including, there isn’t really an order I added them nor is the list exhaustive, but should give you a starting point.

 

Essential Items
Hats Chocolate
Gloves Books
Scarves Toothpaste
Sanitary Products Toothbrush
Blankets Mouthwash
Ponchos Magazines
Windup Torch Biscuits
Towels Sweets
Hair Brush Windup Radio
Combs Shampoo
Deodorant Conditioner
Shower Gel Baby Wipes
Hand Sanitiser Lip Balm
Lightweight Flasks Bars of Soap
Canned Drinks Protein Bars 
Packet Soups Energy Bars
Packet Drinks Pens
Sealed Foods Notepad
Sewing Kits Bottle Openers
Dry Foods Puzzle Books
Tinned Foods
(ringpull only)
Zip Lock
Sealable Bags

I’m not sure about the following items, but figure they maybe useful for those with family. Postcards and Stamps, Phonecards, it may make it easier for them to contact said family. Its worth checking if any of these are prohibited. 

AA Batteries for any items they have which need them, I always think this is a good thing to add. 

What About The Dogs

You should also consider that many homeless people have pets, usually dogs, but I have heard of one occasion where the homeless lady had a cat, but its rare, so best to stick to dogs focussed. Please don’t include human foods, they maybe bad for the dog, and where possible stick to dry foods which can be stored and keep for a long time. 

Essential Items 
Tinned Food Toys
Sachet Food Balls
Bowls Treats 
Fleeces Dog Jackets
Blanket Dog Covers
Collars Towels
Leads  
Poo Bags  
   

Final Check List

Please don’t include prohibited items, which are essentially money, alcohol and sharp things.

When you put your box together, don’t seal it shut, as often the organisers will add extra items, or needed items which you either didn’t think of, or may have missed. 

If possible, wrap both the lid and the box separate, and perhaps use a bow to hold it closed. 

You should also mark who you’re intended recipient is, as in young male, general female, dog, etc, so it can be handed to the right recipient.

You can also include wrapping paper if you’re not good at wrapping and/or a Christmas Card as a nice touch as they may not get one this year. 

Shoebox Appeal Links

Shoebox Appeal Manchester.
Shoebox Appeal Sheffield.
Shoebox Appeal Leeds.
Shoebox Appeal Chesterfield.
Shoebox Appeal Mansfield.
Shoebox Appeal Belfast.
Shoebox Appeal Rotherham.
Shoebox Appeal Doncaster.
Shoebox Appeal Barnsley.
Shoebox Appeal Liverpool.
Shoebox Appeal Swansea.

There are loads more, search for your area on facebook, or check your local newspaper for more information. 

Photo Borrowed from Crisis Centre

Web Presence and Domain Name Branding

Mail In A BoxWeb Presence and Branding are crucial when it comes to making the most of your Virtual Real Estate. There are a few major pitfalls which I see time and again, so I thought I’d cover a few of them here.

These are presented in no major order, other than how I thought about them. I were actually prompted to write this by a the signage on curtain sided wagon I saw, which were very much like the first van image I have posted below.

Make the most of what you have, with some simple guidelines. 

Failure to Utilise

This is the biggest offender, a business or trader has a domain name, they have an email address and a business name, but none of them match up. I have seen people with www.test.co.uk and their email is [email protected] or once, the other way around [email protected] and the website www.testnorthwest.wix.com.

If you are going to use a domain name, use it for both the presence and the email address, marry them to make a pair and boost you’re memorability. 

Trading Names

Following on from marrying your email and website url, we have Trading Names. If you have a cracking domain name, why not use a trading name to capitalise on the domain powers ? 

A trading name is a name you trade by, which can be anything really, but you must also identify who you are legally. This why you will often see for example “ABC is a trading name of XYZ Limited” or “ABC Doodads trading as ZXY Widgets Limited”. This is useful if you are say DIY Limited, and want to run Roofing Specialists, Flooring Experts and Boiler Repairs as separate companies under a main brand. This is often used if the company name you wished for, were already taken. 

Implementing the above issues in real world style situation. I’m going to make up a business name, and some pretend branding just to illustrate this crucial point, the domain name is owned (at time of writing by myself).

Less than Ideal Branding

 

MJ & BB Electricians
0161 234 5678
www.ManchesterElectricians.co.uk
[email protected]

 

If you see the above on the side of a van (like left) at best you may remember the domain name as its you’re geographic location and a service you may need, so some recognition exists. 

Now lets marry up the email, and website url into a cohesive pair, lets play with the layout a little and we’ll use a trading name to tie it all together. Now you tell me, which one sticks in your mind, the above van of this…

Manchester Electricians Branding

Its nearly impossible to not know what this company does, the company name reinforces the domain name / website url and the email all matches up. We’ve also increased the phone number size so its nice and easy to see. 

This isn’t really the end of your branding and presence, not by a long shot. Most of the this happens behind closed doors, you’re customers will never see how much effort and thought foes into this. Infact you, yourself may never have actually given it a seconds thought. 

E-Mail Infrastructure

If you’re a sole trader, small business or a growing medium business there is no reason not to plan some sort of basic infrastructure for your email and web presence. I’m going assume this post is being read by SMB (Small and Medium Business) and Sole Traders, so the advice is more geared towards them. Bigger business with dozens of employee’s need to use a slightly different method for contacts and potentially geographic locations maybe a factor amongst other things. I will touch on the latter issues here and there but not too much. 

First up, I always recommend a basic set of email addresses, obviously a little tweaking is needed for the exact nature of your business. Sticking with the imaginary Manchester Electricians, I would go with the following basic set up.

Business Emails
info@ManchesterElectricians – General Enquires.
quote/s@ManchesterElectricians – Quotes and Pricing Alias both plural and singular spellings to one account.
emergency@ManchesterElectricians – Emergency Aerial Problems.

Business Card Emails
mary@ManchesterElectricians
bill@ManchesterElectricians

The business card emails, are important as it gives customers a way to contact someone they know directly rather than a faceless company. There is nothing stopping you having all these emails copy into one inbox; multiple outbound addresses, but its about planning for the future. 

If you’re a bigger business, and expect more than half dozen employees, its worth using whole names. There will be a time when you have multiple Chris Jones and Sarah Smith employees. 

mary.johnson@ManchesterElectricians
bill.baker@ManchesterElectricians

Multiple People with Same Name

This isn’t perfect, when you get to 1000s of employees you may end up with multiple Robert Jones employees, so its often best to allow those employees to go with less formal names. Not all Robert’s use Robert, they could be Rob, Bob, Bobby or similar, this allows you to keep your email addresses clean. 

There will come a time when you need to consider using a multiple notation:

robert.jones@ManchesterElectricians
robert.jones1@ManchesterElectricians

Its inevitable, I would personally try to avoid using numbers, and go with:

r.jones@ManchesterElectricians
rob.jones@ManchesterElectricians
robert.j@ManchesterElectricians
robert.jones@ManchesterElectricians

Geo-Specific Emails

If you’ve multiple offices in different areas, then you can use specific geo markers in your emails. 

england@ManchesterElectricians
manchester@ManchesterElectricians
cheshire@ManchesterElectricians

Promotional Email Addresses

Lets say you’re running a competition or special offer which is advertised in a magazine but you want to know the impact. You can use a specific email for this electronicsweekly@ManchesterElectricians and direct to the special offer / competition on ManchesterElectricians.co.uk/electronicsweekly this allows you to see the impact and direct people to more information.

This works for buses bus@ManchesterElectricians or anything else really. 

The Bottom Line

Making maximum use of your domain and email within your branding, 

Using a basic planned infrastructure from the start allows you to effectively route your emails to correct people and show a more professional presence.

Keep it simple and easy to read and you won’t go wrong. 

Van Image courtesy of Michal Zacharzewski, Mail in a Box image Courtesy of Svilen Milev

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