Another simple script I made, that highlights the current link on a page on hover.

Demo

The Internet Archive are storing their entire archive containing 3 petabytes of data in a 20 foot shipping container. The system is from Sun and called the ‘Sun Modular Datacenter (Sun MD)’. Really cool indeed!

Just a quick one, If anybody needs any printing work done, I can’t recommend Print for Less enough. I ordered some bulk leaflets off them a few months ago and the quote they gave me for the job was the lowest by far!

The quality of the leaflets delivered was very impressive, full colour both sides and a gloss finish. And Sandra, the person who looked after me is very friendly and answered a few silly questions I had, fantastic customer service.

They have a sale on at the moment, so what are you waiting for?

Only one entrepreneur managed to gain investment from any of the Dragons this week, but another came extremely close. Here are the main pitches to this week’s show:

Cleanpass - http://www.cleanpass.ie/

Key people: Lisa O’ Connell

First into the Dragon’s Den this week was Lisa O’ Connell who brought in her business, Cleanpass, for the health service providers. Lisa explained that the Cleanpass was a training qualification for those working in hospitals and health services, whether they are nurses or cleaners or anyone working in the environment, giving a standards approach to people being adequately trained to combat the spread of diseases such as MRSA and VRE infections, which hospitals and care facilities are prone to spread.

Lisa was looking for €130,000 of an investment and offering 12% equity. The Cleanpass training has been developed over a number of years and Dr Maeve Harburn and nurse Ann Byrne, who both work in the health care service, helped develop the training curriculum but the company does still belong to Lisa O’ Connell.

At present the Cleanpass is the only training course on offer to hospitals and medical care facilities. Although Lisa was reluctant throughout the pitch to provide exact cost of the training, she did indulge in the fact that 300 people have so far done the training and with 10 people per class, she estimated from that, her projected turnover this year would be €350,000.

Bobby introduces himself and asked is the course recognised by the HSE (Health Service Executive), and after trying to side step the question and explaining that this is what her objective is, she admits that the HSE is looking for a Fetac qualification, with that Bobby declares himself out.

Sarah then introduces herself and asks if someone like herself went into a hospital job without any previous experience would she not be given some in house training to explain the job in some form, Lisa responded that there wouldn’t necessarily be a standard approach to induction throughout every facility, Sarah felt that she needed to get accredited more for Cleanpass to have more of an impact and declared herself out.

Gavin enquired more about the issue regarding cost of a training session and Lisa again, continued to try and explain that it was sensitive commercial information and she couldn’t divulge it at present, Gavin seemed to get frustrated at this point and was not finding a reason why Lisa needed to be so secretive and declared himself out. Niall also agrees with Gavin’s point about the unnecessary secrecy and declared himself out.

Sean comes in and begins to discuss with Lisa about a possible proposition, Lisa rose her 12% equity to a possible 20%, Sean makes an offer of the full €130,000 but now looking for 35%, Lisa retaliates with the equity going down to 30% but with a kick back clause where in three years time, if the company has reached their estimated turnover that Sean would have 20% of the business. Sean is not happy with this and agrees to go down to the 30% but would not agree to any kickback clause, Lisa declined the offer. Sean stated that he had a lot of contacts in the HSE and is very influential with training and would be a great asset to her and finally declares himself out.

Cordelia

Key people: Tim Rowe

Next into the Dragon’s Den was Tim Rowe with his product ‘Cordelia’. Tim Rowe came up with the unique device called Cordelia in which a mechanism is attached to the strings of the guitar making it so the player doesn’t have to learn the exact cords and instead only having to press down on a button, in my opinion taking away the whole beauty and art of guitar playing as how else can you come up with new and unique sounds to impress the world (obviously I’m a bit a of music lover).

While at the moment Tim only was able to show a rough prototype that did have the essence of working, he projected that the actual product would be ready in a couple of months and it would cost him €30 to make and would sell them on for €100. The selling point of the product was that it can make anyone into a guitar player and it also takes the hard work out of playing the guitar as it no longer hurts the tips of your fingers as your learning.

Niall immediately declares himself out as he feels there would be no return for his investment. Sean comments that he feels that €100 is quite expensive, Tim explains that if you take into consideration the amount of money you pay on lessons for the guitar, €100 isn’t alot and your guaranteed to be able to play songs afterwards, Sean made the point that you do learn a skill with the lessons where you don’t with Cordelia and declared himself out.

Bobby enquired about the patent, Tim explained that for almost 100 years people have been trying to come up with this device and have failed. Bobby understood but continued to declare himself out as he felt there wasn’t a huge market for it.

Gavin wishes Tim good luck but states himself out and Sarah follows declaring herself out too. No Investment for Tim. A comment was made by the dragons that the device would do very well within a special needs environment and I have to agree, otherwise people are false musicians!

Sentinel Fuel Products – http://www.sentinelfuelproducts.com/

Key people: Kurt Reinhardt, Carl Denby

Kurt Reinhardt and Carl Denby came into the Den next with their business, Sentinel Fuel Products. They were looking for €100,000 and offering just 5% of their business. They stated that since 2003, the Garda reported that there has been a rise of 264% of fuel theft in Ireland. They came up with this device as one of them was a victim of fuel theft themselves and felt that it was ironic as he was employed in the security sector.

They explained that their device comes in several options, the standard alerts the customer to when their oil is being stolen via by text alert, with each upgrade the variations range from the simple text alert to the house alarm going off and then right up to the Gardai being alerted that oil is being stolen. The device also monitors when you need an oil fill or if there is a possible oil leak. There was confusion surrounding the patent as initially it was stated that it was patented and then it later was disclosed that it was patent pending, this fueled Gavin and he accused the two men of misleading the Dragon’s, but they denied and stated it a mistake on their part. Gavin then declared himself out.

Niall takes a further look at the product and enquired about the possibility of a down turn in the market as Gas is a huge competitor for the oil trade. It was explained that people in rural areas continue to use Kerosene and there continues to be a good market. They valued the company at 2 million euro. Bobby goes through what happens when oil is running low or a possible leak and enquires about whether he actually wanted an alarm going off and how many texts he would receive.

Sarah enquires about the warranty and safety approvals of the product and the response is that it has yet to go through the approvals. Gavin comes in and states that there is a ‘leak’ in their credibility as they initially stated a worldwide patent but it actually is patent pending and declared himself out. Niall declares himself out even though they haven’t even gone through the finances yet. Bobby declares himself out and Sarah follows soon after stating she’s not convinced. Sean comes in at the end saying that he knows of other products in the marketplace that offer something similar and declares himself out.

Sourcing product design – http://sourcingproductdesign.com/

Key people: Darren Louet-Feisser

The last entrepreneur into the Dragon’s Den this evening was Darren Louet-Feisser who presents his company ‘Sourcing product design’. He already has an existing company ‘Louet design‘, which is a year and a half old and has already dealt with a number of companies and Darren hopes to take it to the next level and go further than just offering product design and engineering, he hopes to manufacture it and distribute the products.

Darren has a partner in the business who is an engineer who would continue to be a partner in the new company. They also have a partnership with a company in China but they have no equity in the company. Gavin states that he feels he’s all over the place with his ideas and declares himself out. Sarah then states that she feels she would have little to contribute to this company and declares herself out.

An enquiry came in about projected profits for the next 12 months and Darren explained that he projected a €200,000 net profit. Bobby enquired about whether there are any ‘Skeletons’ in the closet of ‘Louet Designs’, and Darren assured him there were none. Sean comes in and makes an offer of half the investment… but for 15%. Niall and Bobby then come in on the bidding and make a suggestion that the three of them, Niall, Bobby and Sean all come in on the investment and each of them receiving 15% of the business, meaning that Darren has to give 45% of his business away, three times the amount initially on offer. Darren comments that he would be happier to leave it at 35% of the equity but is happy that he has three Dragons in his corner and accepts the offer of three dragons giving him €75,000 and in return giving 15% to each of the three dragons of his business.

Today I was chatting with my girlfriend about the recession and how rip off Ireland is still alive and well. The prices we spend on products/services on this little island is absolutely shocking to say the least and we all know it. Take today for example, we went off to do some shopping in the Kildare Outlet store and went into Starbucks to take a load off.

A grande coffee, a hot chocolate, a scone and a banana muffin all for a grande total of €11.50! – Now €11.50 is a pretty “normal” price for what we ordered, but I guess I just seen it from a different angle today and thought “what the hell, why should we pay this? because everybody else does and we should just live with it? – Things have to change here and fast.

So I got thinking about other types of businesses that charge relatively high and could well afford to cut down on a few percent in their prices, especially in these “uncertain times”. So Aoife and myself began (jokingly at first) trying to think up business ideas. We came up with some pretty funny ones, like a toast cafe, where all you can eat is… you guessed it toast, with a choice of toppings but Aoife, I believe thought up an absolute gem that has real potential. There are a good few of these businesses in Ireland and throughout the world already and not uncommon, but they charge a lot for their product and I think I could quite frankly do better in terms of price and customer service.

I think to have an extremely good price point for the customers and compete with the big boys I would need to source the product from overseas such as Asia and maybe have to travel there to suppliers to work out the details? I don’t know how I would begin to undertake any of that but I’m sure I could learn and pick some people’s brains who have done this already.

This type of business would require alot of resources such as:

• Capital.
• Importing the product from Asia.
• Retail space.
• Manager / Employees.
• Branding.
• Marketing / Advertising.

I’m going to mull it over for another day and make a decision to act on it or leave it as just an idea. It is exciting though.

An expression is a phrase of JavaScript that a JavaScript interpreter can evaluate to produce a value.

• 1.5 // Numeric literal
• “Keith Donean” // String literal
• true // Boolean literal
• null // Null literal value
• /java/ A regular expression literal
• { x:2, y:2 } // An object literal
• [2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13] // An array literal
• function(x) { return x+x; } // A functionliteral
• a //The variable a

What an absolutely cracking fight this evening!! Bernard Dunne gave 110% against Ricardo Cordoba for the WBA Super Bantam-weight title. The atmosphere in the O2 area looked incredible and the crowd singing Olé, Olé was the cherry on the icing on the cake.

Bernard was the underdog for the fight, but you wouldn’t think it to watch it. He fought with all his heart and destroyed Cordoba by Knock-out.

Cordoba was still down after about 10 minutes after the fight, he took some serious punishment.

What a night for Irish boxing and Rugby , congrats to Bernard and his team.

Update: Cordoba has been taken to hospital, I hope he’s ok and wish him a speedy recovery.

Here are the main pitches to this week’s show:

Buttons - http://elainesarahdesigns.com/

Key people: Elaine-Sarah Comerford

The first entrepreneur into the Dragon’s Den this evening was trained goldsmith Elaine-Sarah Comerford who came with the idea of ‘Buttons’, white gold bracelets and necklaces that have pieces shaped like buttons which have the potential to be engraved to mark special occasions and can be used in a form of a charm bracelet.

Elaine-Sarah was looking for €45,000 and offering 30% of her business. She explained that her market was women aged 30 years and up, and her product was aimed at the top end of the market in Ireland and can be later made into an international expansion.

Niall stated that he was an official silversmith and knew something about the business and enquired about the cost of the pieces. Elaine-Sarah explained that the cost of making each piece was €40 and it was sold to the retailer for €75, and then finally sold onto the customer for €180. Bobby then asked about what the €45,000 investment would go towards and Elaine-Sarah said that €5,000 would go on manufacturing costs, €5,000 would go on packaging and another €5,000 would go on magazines ads and the rest of the money would go on marketing for the product.

Gavin introduces himself and enquires about how would the business go from the small regional market to an explosive international one as she was manufacturing the product herself. Elaine-Sarah explained that it would not be that difficult as it would be easy to make the buttons in large quantities, it’s only the cleaning of them that takes time but would still not be a major issue.

Sean discussed the issue that the jewellery market was very competitive and declared himself out. Niall enquired about the fact that she had to stop working on the product during the year and Elaine-Sarah explained that due to a personal sickness she was unable to continue working on it and it caused a knock on her self-confidence and it wasn’t until now that she felt confident enough to get it back up and running.

Sarah commented that she really liked the product and can really see the attractiveness of it and puts in a bold offer of the full amount… but for 51% of the business as she feels they would work well together but that Sarah would need more stability than the 30% on offer, Elaine-Sarah says that she would be happy to work alongside Sarah but would be uncomfortable in giving someone else the majority share hold.

Niall then makes an offer of the full amount for 45% giving Elaine-Sarah the majority share hold. Gavin then intervenes saying he wants to offer a 4% on either of the offers as someone that would look out for both parties, Sarah is baffled by this offer and immediately says that she will not go in on an offer like that. Niall comments that Gavin is simply trying to ‘Get on the band wagon’. Elaine-Sarah has a think and accepts Niall’s offer.

An OK pitch from Elaine-Sarah Comerford, but an honest and warm one, she did a great job of answering the Dragon’s questions and the jewellery looks top notch indeed!

Leprechaun Hair

Key people: Gary Paul

The next pitch in the Dragon’s Den came from Gary Paul from Dublin who works in the printing business and came with the idea of Leprechaun Hair sold as tourist memorabilia from Ireland, sold both in tourist shops in Ireland as well as sold online through EBay to other countries.

Gary has already had interest from the USA, UK and other countries such as Sweden and has sold a 100 units at €2 a piece. Gary showed the product to the Dragons, it was basically a small card with some writing and pictures of leprechauns with a small plastic bag with synthetic hair in it “leprechaun hair”.

Gary was looking for €10,000 and offering 15% of the business. Gavin introduces himself and enquires about how long it takes to make up a 1,000 pieces, and Gary said it would take about 5 hours. Sean comments that he feels that Gary made a very poor attempt on his appearance in representing himself on the Den and doesn’t feel he’s made enough of an effort.

Niall immediately picks up on when Gary comments that the product was initially made as a joke and Niall felt the whole thing was a joke and stated he shouldn’t leave his job in the printing business and declares himself out. Sean also comments that it’s a disappointment and declares himself out. The other Dragons make various comments about the poorness of the product and how it does little for the Irish name and they all declare themselves out, no investment at all!

Fax Cop - http://www.blockthatfax.com/

Key people: Ken McFeeters

Next into the Den is Ken McFeeters from County Down with his invention ‘Fax Cop’, looking for €85,000 and offering just 10% of his business. Ken explained that fax cop was a small device that sat between the telephone line and the fax machine. It’s unique selling point is that it cuts down on unwanted faxes hence reducing unnecessary ink and paper usage.

Ken put an estimated 10 billion as a potential market projection. Both Gavin and Sean enquire about how the device works and Ken simply states that he is willing to divulge that information only under a non disclosure agreement and not on the show. Sean stated that he felt that Ken may have come too late as emails are being used more often now than faxes, Ken stated that faxes are continuing to be used even though emails exist. Niall comments that he felt that if Ken had come in 1990 it would be an extremely attractive product but he feels it’s too late and unnecessary and declared himself out. Bobby enquires again about how the device operates and again Ken reiterates that only under a non disclosure agreement could he explain, Bobby is not impressed with the cloak and dagger approach and declares himself out. Sarah simply states that it’s too late in the market and declares herself out. Sean comes back to Ken saying that he is interested in the company as he understands the potential market due to the set backs of electronic signatures being secured online and offers half the money for 20%. Gavin says that he feels that he is interested in the product but would like to know more about the operation of it, once again Ken side steps the answer, Gavin was not impressed and declared himself out.

When the focus goes back to Sean he states that Ken over estimated the potential market and wouldn’t feel safe enough to give the whole amount and declared himself out. Very Close but no investment from any of the Dragons. Ken if you’re reading this, What the hell where you thinking, I would have took their hand off?

Green me - http://www.greenme.ie/

Key people: Gina Geagan, Jo Nash

The last pitch into the Den this evening was Gina Geagan and Jo Nash presenting their business ‘Greenme.ie’, a website offering consumers a greener way of life in all shapes and forms.

They stated that over the past two months they made sales of €55,000 and they were looking for a €100,000 investment and offering 10% of their business. Niall enquiries about where the money came from and who were the customers. They explained that at present their main source of income was from their directory on the site which offered businesses inclusion for a fee (and also free, depending on the membership package).

Niall commented that it basically is a greener version of the yellow pages but they explained yes but more as there was more on the site than just the directory but at the moment that was primarily their source of income. It’s the company’s advertising their ‘green’ businesses that have to pay, there are four packages, the first which costs nothing and simply offers a listing of the business and the next three bronze, silver and gold, the company has to pay. The gold option is the highest price and businesses have to pay €5,000 to get in.

Bobby asks about celebrity Duncan Stewart’s role in the business and they explained that he is a non-executive director of the company and owns 20% of the shares in the company as he invested a large amount of time in the business and lent his credibility to Green Me. The Dragons enquired about the potential to sell items online and the two women explained that it is projected in year two to begin an ecommerce platform and they would act as an agent to companies for consumers. Bobby declared himself out as he felt that the credibility of the site could easily be put at jeopardy as anyone could potential buy themselves into the site because at the end of the day they have to make money off the business.

Sarah stated that they were overvaluing the company and declared herself out. Sean enquires about revenue projections and after a while enquires about a better percentage on offer and the two women come back with 25% as the new offer, Sean continues to feel it’s too high and declares himself out. In the afterthought, it came through that they had a hidden agenda of achieving exposure through the show and their only goal was not just a potential investment!

Getting sick and tired of fixing websites for Internet Explorer 6? Maybe you should try this alternative approach to users using this terrible browser that has made so many developers cry like little girls: Hugs for Monsters.

Every time a JavaScript program creates a string, array or object, the JavaScript interpreter allocates memory to store one of the three. When memory is dynamically allocated like this, it must eventually be freed up.

With Programming languages like C and C++, the programmer must manually destroy the objects when they are no longer needed.

JavaScript is different, instead of manually freeing up memory by the programmer, It uses a technique called garbage Collection. The JavaScript interpreter can detect when an object will never be used again in the program and frees up the allocated memory used by that object.