Big Trousers, Web, Design, Photography and new media.

After many years building e-commerce sites using platforms like OsCommerce, Shopify, WPECommerece, Magento and others, we think we finally have a solution that looks like it has all the answers. Woo Commerece. Jigoshop was a ground up build as a WordPress plugin and although it looked like it could be a great solution it was [...]

Great SEO article by Matt Gemmell that gets to the heart of my distaste for paid SEO services. We have warned clients over a number of years that SEO salesmen are selling a short term fix with a long term failure rate. Matt Gemmell places the emphasis exactly where it should be. I recently read [...]

Category navigation for news, shopping carts and general page navigation is often misunderstood or completely ignored by some content managers. Andy Rutledge posted an article ( News redux )  recently that attempted to explain how news websites have gone wrong in navigation design. Worth a look even if you don’t have any news articles on [...]

Big Trousers online ticketing and support introduced today. It is designed for all customers who register  to report problems with content management, wordpress, computer hardware and software, email, photography and general IT.  Also available are articles in the knowledge base designed to assist your and your business. The web is no longer prohibited by desktop [...]

Fantastic improvements in WordPress backend speed and a beautiful interface update.

WordPress as a CMS has been of great value to most of our clients and as such is now the only web CMS we use. In this specialisation we have become aware that server requirements can be quite specific. Whilst WordPress itself is fairly straight forward requiring only reasonable hosting in the past, we have [...]

Over the last few months we have been testing various methods of achieving an effective method of speeding up page load times for WordPress for our client sites. Along with numerous site caching plugins and file optimisation we have found a Content Delivery Network (CDN) Amazon Web Services, is the best way to achieve fast [...]

We tried a bit of an experiment today using the Apple iPad and onOne DSLR  Camera Remote software. A new pro version now runs in HD on the iPad so we thought it might be a good way to monitor video. Althogh this app is primarily designed to allow remote management for camera functions is [...]

Now past and all seems to have gone well. Fantastic service from various Ustream and Justin TV clients. Remarkable work by Storm Chaser Shane Williams broadcasting live from Townsville in his car during the night and next morning. Looks like the mobile data network remained intact. I am installing Ustream Broadcaster app for iPhone4 just [...]

This is a demo of the sort of form you can build with conditional logic. Using our Gravity Forms plugin available to those who build and host with Big Trousers, you too can use this technology to get your clients details into a database. Use it for data collection, application forms, or even some form [...]

With the current trend towards mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad and the slew of Android based systems to be released, most small businesses are struggling to find a workable solution to email. Using a regular POP3 account requires that you keep email on the POP email server as part of your web hosting account [...]

Interesting job for Risk Management and Compliance firm Heath and Ford. Mostly mobile, David Butters insisted on trialling Google service IMAP for his email. This service costs $50 per address but give full IMAP configuration for email on his domain. Sent folders and inbox are automatically synchronised on all devices. Big Trousers can configure Google [...]

Great work by all in the Aceplus consortium. Everyone involved has taken to uploading of course details via the WordPress backend. Thanks to Kathy Jacka for keeping this group together online. The new WordPress site uses the new features of the Google Maps API to show training venues by map view and Street view. Check [...]

Just thought I would post an early warning that we are on the move. The old shop in Essex Street has served us well but we are on an expansion drive. The new place is a warehouse conversion 9 Bute Street Seddon. Full 5 metre high photographic studio and large office floor is a bonus. [...]

Apple Inc (aapl) shot ahead of Microsoft in market capitalisation yesterday to become the second largest company behind Exon-Mobil. The trend continues as investors see the value long term in Apple (aapl) stock given growth in the iPhone, iPad tablet business. Apple is now worth 222 Billion Dollars, Microsoft….219 Billion.