Variables contain values and these values can be any number of datatypes such as a string or boolean etc. these datatypes can be organised into two groups: Primtive & Reference.

Primitive Types: Numbers, Boolean values and the Null and undefined types

A primitive type has a fixed size in memory. A number occupies eight bytes of memory and a boolean value occupies one bit for example. The number type is the largest of the primitive types.

Reference Types: Objects, arrays and functions.

A reference type can be of any size, so it cannot be stored in the eight bytes of memory asociated with each variable. Instead, the variable stores a reference to the value.

The scope of a variable is the region of your program in which it is defined. For example, a global variable has global scope and can be accessed anywhere in your script. A variable defined in a function cannot be accessed outside the function it was created.

Before you start using variables in Javascript, you have to declare them first by adding the keyword var before the variable name.

Example

var name = "Keith Donegan";

You can also declare multiple with only one var keyword

Example

var name, num, customer;

JavaScript is an untyped language, this means that a variable in JavaScript can hold a value of any data-type such as a number, string or boolean etc after it has been declared.

Example

var = 7;
var = true;

Lovely little site I stumbled upon today via @DanOliver.

Red Nose Day has a beautiful design, no doubt, but what makes it a little different, is the site’s attention to detail and all the quirky stuff going on. From the main nav menu items having a little “funky fit” on rollover – to the slick buttons and input boxes, the sketchy style of the site and overall neatness of the layout. Kudos to the designers and developers, great job guys!

Here are the main Pitches from this week’s episode of Ireland’s Dragons Den

Bags of Fashion - http://bagsoffashion.ie/

Key people: Ana Derham

The first entrepreneur on the Dragon’s Den was Ana Derham who brought with her, her ecommerce business ‘Bagsoffashion’. Ana was looking for €150,000 investment and offering 30% of her business to the Dragon’s.

Ana has already secured 12 design companies to design the bags for her business. The main unique selling point of this business is that the bags are for hire but also for sale. As Bags of Fashion is to be facilitated as an online business, Ana stressed that her overheads would be lower than the usual brick and mortar businesses. Ana also highlighted that her business had four income streams through sales, memberships, hiring and bagit (recycle bags – discounted bags from damaged bags).

The target market was Irish consumers and that eventually spreading to the UK and further on. The projected sales figures Ana stated was €530,000 in the first year.

Bobby commented that he felt that there was a flaw in this business as bags are easily damaged and the bags could be stolen so they would be unsuitable to further customers and declared himself out. Gavin positively commented on how Ana took the constructive criticism and was impressed by this but felt that she had been working on this idea for a year and felt it could go no further. Sarah commented that she felt that expensive bags were no longer a high priority in today’s society and declared herself out. Neither Niall or Sean made an offer and Ana Derham left empty handed.

The Grass Carver - http://www.grasscarver.com/

Key people: Adrian, Adam Channing

Next up on the Dragon’s Den was father and son duo Adrian and Adam Channing. They came with their product “The Grass Carver”, which was essentially a snowboard which was designed to go on grass, gravel and many more surfaces.

Their target market was anyone who wanted to try it as Adrian (father) came up with the idea after trying snowboarding for the first time on holidays a few years back and felt that it was something that Irish society are missing out due to no snow fall and thought of a way to do a similar activity but on grass, sand or gravel.

Adrian did point out that the boards have reached up to 80 Km even though they had not attended to reach this speed. They were looking for €50,000 and were offering 40% of their business to a potential Dragon. Adrian also highlighted that although at present it is costing €200 to manufacture the product and retails it at €400, in mass production he would expect this to be reduced radically.

Bobby enquired about the appearance of the product as he felt that it was quite crude looking, Adam stated that it is still in it’s raw stage of prototype and it would eventually be more attractive and appealing to customers, bobby continued to say that he had no interest in the product and felt he could do little for it and declared himself out.

The Dragons enquired about safety standards for the product and Adrian stated that some of the investment would go towards safety standards. Another enquiry was about what else was the business looking from the Dragons and Adrian commented that he had little business experience and needed help in that area but that he was fully committed to the product. Sarah stressed concerns about the product being possibly banned from area’s such as the beach due to the speed it can reach and declared herself out. Niall commented that he was not willing to run the business for them and declared himself out. Gavin stated that he felt that product needed alot more work and may have come too early to the den and declared himself out. Neither Bobby or Sean made an offer and Adrian and Adam left without an investor.

The Night light Kneeler - http://carfriendly.net/

Key people: Pat Sheridan

Pat Sheridan was next into the Dragon’s Den with his product “The night light Kneeler”. Pat explained that the product had been developed and been put on the market 10 years ago but due to issues with the light going out of production and personal reasons, Pat had to ‘step back’ from the product and commented that when he heard about the Dragons Den he felt it was time to get it back into action.

The product consisted of a black triangular shaped box that has grooves for knees to rest on while changing a tire and a light that swivels up when it is dark out. Pat pointed out that the attractiveness of the product is that even in the rain, you don’t have to kneel on the ground in the wet as this would raise you off the ground. The box also contained a rain protector, gloves and a first aid kit. Pat stated that it cost €7 to manufacture the product, €14 to sell to retailers and it would then be retailed at €30.

Gavin enquired about how was he trading 10 years ago and Pat stated as a sole trader, later Gavin declared himself out after he pointed a flaw where he felt the knee grooves were spaced to closely to get enough energy to take the wheel off. Bobby enquired about the turnover projections and Pat explained that if he could reach 5% of the market of 75,000 units in the first year the product would expand from there. Sarah felt that a car manufacture could wipe him out quite easily by rectifying the product slightly and also felt that he over estimated on the future projections.

The Dragons enquired about whether Pat had a website and Pat stated that the product was displayed on http://carfriendly.net/, it was commented that the website had a good name but as it only sold ‘The night light kneeler’ it wasn’t reaching it’s full potential. Sean commented that he felt that Pat had only begun to reinvest his time in this product because of the show and also felt that the product couldn’t be patented and declared himself out. All the dragons declared themselves out and the issue relating to the product being 10 years old was a consistent issue for the Dragons and Pat throughout.

TileGo - http://tilego.com/

Key people: Cathal Lenard

Cathal Lenard was the last entrepreneur to enter the Dragon’s Den with his product “Tilego”. Cathal explained that he had been working in the area of tiling in the Uk, USA and Ireland for the past number of years. He was looking for a €60,000 worth of investment and was offering 15% of shares in his business.

Cathal demonstrated the practicalities of the product where on a average basis, a baton had to be either nailed or glued to a wall in order to achieve balanced and even tiling on a wall. Cathal pointed out that this can be very time consuming and dangerous (if nails are used) as there are often wires and plumbing in the walls that can be disturbed.

Cathal demonstrated that with “Tilego” there are adhesive strips that just stick to the wall and a click on leveler is attached to assure the tiles are level, there are several adhesive strips so the “Tilego” can be used a few times on one job. Sarah pointed out that when her tiles were being done, the tiler simply tiled from the floor upwards not needing a leveler of any sort but Cathal jumped in swiftly and pointed out that in alot of homes that method will not work effectively as not all floors are level.

Niall enquired about the cost of the product and Cathal stated that it would be sold to retailers at €12 and retailed to customers at €25, each pack containing 3×3 foot sticks with a clip on leveller. Initially Niall felt that this costed more than the ‘old fashioned’ way but Cathal pointed out that it didn’t in the long run as no nails, screws or batons were needed and it was less time consuming which would cost less for customers.

Bobby enquired about the finanical projections and Cathal stated that in the first year based on UK sales and on 1.5% of the potential market and 48,000 sales the gross would be £550,000 and a profit of £130,000 and by year three £5.5 million and a profit of roughly 3.7 million.

Gavin went straight in and offered the full €60,000 but requested 35% of the business and asked a few questions about the patent, it was patent pending from the UK. Gavin also was intrigued about Cathal’s commitment to the product and business sense. (Cathal explained that he had left Clondalkin at the age of 18 and by 21 owned his own business with some high profile clientele .) Sean enquired about what happened to the busniess and Cathal stated issues with Cash flow. Bobby worried about the estimation on the sales figures and declared himself out.

Sarah, Sean and Niall all declared themselves out. Cathal then attempted to bring down the amount of shares to 30% for Gavin but Gavin stuck to his offer as he felt that he was making an investment in Cathal and not just the business and felt that it may be at times a tough going and felt he needed his money’s worth. Cathal agreed to the offer.

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Well this just gets better and better. Best episode yet! Here are the pitches of tonight’s Dragon’s Den.

The Hangout – http://www.thehangout.ie/

Key people: Eddie O’ Brien

Eddie O’ Brien from Tipperary came to the Dragons Den with his product ‘The Hangout‘, this was a cleverly designed clothes air dryer that is disguised as an out door wooden gazebo with a table attached, so there could be multiple uses to the product.

Although there were initial reservations from Gavin Duffy who pondered about it becoming a large bird house, Eddie stole that idea away, assuring the Dragon’s that it would not be an issue. Sean Gallagher felt that the patent was irrelevant as it could be easily recreated in a similar but slightly different way and declared himself out early on.

As Eddie’s pitch continued he discussed that he had sold 25 already from trade shows, both Bobby and Niall made an offer of €37,500 each and both receiving 10% of the business. As there were no counter offer from Sarah and Gavin as they felt they could not offer anything better, Eddie snapped up the offer of investment from Bobby and Niall, and left the Dragon’s Den with the €75,000 he came for and giving only 20% of his business away. Great Idea and super pitch, Well done Eddie!

Curtain Cosy – http://www.curtaincosy.com/

Key People: Colm Stundon, Pat O’Shaughnessy

Two potential investees entered the Den next, Colm Stundon and Pat O’Shaughnessy from Limerick presented their product the ‘Curtain Cosy’. They claimed in their pitch that the product was energy efficient as it extended the window out and left room for the curtains to rest on while the curtains were closed in order so that the heat from the radiators continued to be released into the room and not get trapped behind closed curtains and causing condensation to form on the window and mould on the curtains.

It was a quick fix device costing €5 to manufacture and to be sold at €10. They initially claimed that the product’s potential market was for every home owner but when Gavin pointed out that the product could cause quality curtains to be creased, they stated that it may not suit homes with expensive curtains. Throughout this pitch, Sarah found it difficult to compose herself and after stating that she found little demand for the product, she declared herself out. Sean enquired about other ideas that they may have come up with and Pat showed a possible new way of keeping heat in the house rather than having heat go out through the walls by using pipes that are on the outside walls covered up which would be more heat efficient to a home. This idea got many of the Dragon’s interested but as it was not the product presented today and it was not completely developed yet they could not consider it.

Sean, Gavin, Bobby and Niall all declared themselves out as they felt that there was not a huge market for ‘Curtain Cosy’ but wished the two men luck with developing the second product!

The Fashion Shed – http://www.thefashionshed.com/

Key People: Paula Rabbit, Fiona Forde

Paula Rabbit and Fiona Forde entered the Dragon’s Den to present their business ‘The Fashion Shed’, a fashion business which entailed offering the public a personal stylist in keeping up with today’s fashion as well as an online business selling clothes designed by ‘The Fashion Shed’.

They were asking for €100,000 of an investment and offering 15% of their business. The two ladies described their business as having the potential to become not only a nationwide business but also a global one through their online potential.

Paula and Fiona had already held 60 styling parties where in which they would give advice to buyers about their styles and how to hide unwanted shapes in their bodies. They projected to train other women in how to help buyers in their styling options and to run future styling parties but Sarah Newman stated that this would be a difficult fete as it can take years for someone to be trained in design and styling. Paula stated that the potential target market was for women between the age of 24 -36 as they felt that the younger generation are more interested in their styles of designs, Sarah also stated that as this was their potential market and she was 39 years old, she was already out of their demographic and declared herself out.

When it was requested as to what would they do with the €100,000 investment, it was explained that €45,000 was to increase there existing stock, €30,000 was for online marketing and a further €25,000 was for offline marketing. When one of the Dragon’s pointed out that their niche was to offer potential buyers a personal styling service and doing styling parties to offer clients advice about fashion styles and how to hide their unwanted shape, a global market was unrealistic as this service would not be possible. The Dragon’s then all declared themselves out as they felt that other than a local business success, the potential was not there. I think the girls did a great job in their pitch and come across very warm and intelligent. We will be hearing from these two again.

Paddy Games – http://www.paddygames.ie/

Key People: Colin Carroll

Colin Carroll was the last presenter into the Dragon’s Den with his business idea of paddy games. An event to be hosted with sports games with a difference, i.e. three legend race and running backwards etc… Colin caught the Dragon’s eye’s with his luminous yellow suit and the Dragon’s struggled to take the presentation seriously.

Colin presented an interesting and entertaining video to illustrate his point about what the paddy games was about but it wasn’t until he disclosed that other sponsors were interested that the Dragon’s began to perk up and taking the presentation seriously. Sarah asked about what the investment of a €100,000 would be used for, Colin explained that it would be to help in the hosting of an event to take place in August 2009, staging the event in Cork where he expected about 200 – 300 contestants would take part although he said that there was a huge potential for it to be bigger but he felt initially he wanted to keep it small for the first time round.

Gavin stated that he felt that this event would be bad for the Irish reputation and felt that Paddy wackery was already over used and gave bad publicity to the Irish, Gavin also felt that Colin had an alternative motive on coming on the Dragon’s Den, dressed in an luminous suit in an effort for publicity and air time on television and his goal was not necessarily an investment from the Dragon’s and declared himself out. Sarah went onto say that she felt that he had completely over estimated on the potential of profit from the business as she could not see the numbers adding up and declared herself out. Niall and Bobby both declared themselves out as they felt that they would not like to be associated with an event like this. Sean then stated that he also did not want to be associated with this and reiterated what Gavin had stated about bad publicity for the Irish and felt Colin needed more help than an offer from the Dragon’s and declared himself out.

A passionate man with big dreams, who knows he may be the man laughing at the Dragons for not investing.