Dog Almighty Website

Dog Almighty | Professional Dog WalkerDog Almighty is run by Rachel Smith.  She started dog walking professionally in 2007, after leaving a career in education and teaching, to spend more time with her own dogs.  Over the years she has developed a holistic approach to dog care, focusing on modern force free training; behavioural issues; mental stimulation; breed specific requirements; injury prevention and rehabilitation; physical/medical issues; rescue dogs; sporting dogs; canine law; health and nutrition.

Each long walk with Rachel will take in the sights, smells and sounds that every dog loves — fields, water and woodland will ensure your doggy is in seventh heaven!  Dogs can enjoy the freedom of running free and enjoy play and socialisation with other dogs.  You can relax, safe in the knowledge that Rachel’s skills are used to create an encompassing care package – with action packed, energetic, varied and stimulating walks!

Rachel had run a website to promote here business for many years (since 2009).  The content and design, which had been tweaked little a bit over the years, was very dated.  More importantly the site didn’t work too well on modern devices, such as mobile phones, and was penalised in Google searches because of this.  She now has a modern website built using WordPress and sufficient knowledge to keep it up to date on a regular basis in the future.

The new Dog Almighty website developed by AWP was launched on Tuesday 15th November 2016.

Visit the Dog Almighty websitewww.dog-almighty.co.uk

 

Headway Preston & Chorley

Headway Preston & ChorleyHeadway (Preston & Chorley) aim to provide a wide range of support to meet the individual needs of people with an acquired brain injury, their families and carers. They also promote awareness of acquired brain injury by means of information, advice and training throughout our local community.

Headway Preston and Chorley began meeting in June 2010 and following a number of meetings, it was decided that Headway Preston & Chorley should be established and based in Preston. A Committee of professionals from legal, financial and rehabilitation backgrounds, family members and people who have an acquired brain injury was formed.

They’re based at PNE stadium like Heartbeat NWCC, another local charity that we work with.

We recently published a newly created version of the Headway Preston & Chorley website.  The website can be edited by Headway’s staff and is built on the popular WordPress open source content management system (CMS). We were engaged to help Headway rebuild their website to help improve the charity’s profile and take advantage of some funding available for the project. AWP Computer Services also helped Headway with some basic WordPress training, so the staff who currently work on the website had a better understanding of the editing process.

The new Headway Preston & Chorley website developed by AWP was launched on Friday 28th October 2016.

Visit the Headway Preston & Chorley websitewww.headwayprestonandchorley.org.uk

 

 

Ribble Valley Cycling and Racing Club

RVCRC logoRibble Valley Cycling and Racing Club is one of Preston’s foremost Cycling Clubs, and they have a tradition of providing cycling opportunities for people of all ages for more than 60 years. Whether you’re an experienced rider, or someone who wants a leisurely hobby to take part in, they’re sure to have something for you.

The club currently has well over 100 members and the cycling activities they take part in include Road Racing, Time Trialling, Mountain Biking, Weekly Club Runs, Social Rides, Touring, Audax, Sportives, Track Cycling at the Velodrome, Cyclo-Cross, Training Rides, Spinning and more…

We have recently finished the Ribble Valley Cycling and Racing Club’s new website.  Although this will be an ongoing project, as Ashley is a member, on the club’s committee (currently the Vice Chairman) and maintains the website on a voluntary basis, with the help of other committee members.  The website is built using the WordPress popular CMS (Content Mamangenet Sysyem) software and has moved to a .org.uk domain in the process.  AWP also host the website through our hosting partner, Vidahost.

Visit the Ribble Valley Cycling and Racing Club website: www.ribblevalleycrc.org.uk

Solid-State Drives (SSDs)

A solid-state drive (SSD, also known as a solid-state disk) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. SSD technology uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/output (I/O) hard disk drives, which permit simple replacements in common applications. Additionally, new I/O interfaces, like SATA Express, have been designed to address specific requirements of the SSD technology.

SSDs do not have any moving (mechanical) components. This sets them apart from traditional electromechanical magnetic disks, such as hard disk drives (HDDs) or floppy disks, which contain spinning disks and movable read/write heads. Compared with electromechanical disks, SSDs are typically more resistant to physical shock, run silently, have lower access time, and less latency. However, while the price of SSDs has continued to decline over time, consumer-grade SSDs are still more expensive per unit of storage than consumer-grade HDDs.

 

Crucial 2.5 inch SSD Solid-State Drive

 

Same Computer Only Faster

If you’re happy with your current computer, have everything the way you like it, and have all the programs you need installed, fitting an SSD can give the convenience of keeping everything exactly the way is was before except from the fact that the device will work many times faster.  Where you have now probably become accustomed to sitting around waiting for things to load, a computer with an SSD fitted will seem to be responding to your requests straight away.  This should make your time spent on the device much more productive!

 

Perfomance Benefits

SSD drives can read and write information up to ten times as fast as a traditional mechanical HDD, and in some cases up to 15 times, which can give your system performance benefits.  As an example, we fitted a Crucial (brand) SSD into a (about) 4 year old HP Pavilion laptop, which had recently upgraded to Windows 10.  From power on, through log-on to actual use the device was taking in the region of four to five minutes to start up.  After fitting the SSD this process was taking just a few seconds over one minute.  In actual use after that the system was very noticeably quicker (applications opened mush quicker and files saved quicker etc.)

Storage Space

As previously mentioned, the price of SSDs has continued to decline over time, consumer-grade SSDs are still more expensive per unit of storage than consumer-grade HDDs.  However, the nature of computing is changing (particularly in the area of file storage) with many consumers chosing to store their data on external hard drives or uploading them to ‘the Cloud’.  This means that is may be possible to consider reducing the size (storage capacity) of the new SSD compared to the size of the old HDD.  This will ultimately mean that the cost of the new SSD will be significantly reduced.

 

Upgrading to an SSD

Upgrading your computer from an old HDD (Mechanical, magnetic disk Hard Drive) is a relatively straightforward process.  You can either reinstall the Operating System, such as Windows, onto the new SSD if you have access to the original installation media or take the information exactly as it is from your old HDD to the new SSD by a process of duplication known as ‘cloning’.  SSD manufactures often bundle new SSDs with cloning software, but this can be tricky to use in practice.

In our opinion it is more effective to carry out the cloning process by attaching both the old and new drives to a totally separate system, as opposed to attaching the new hard drive (via USB caddy, or similar) to the original computer.  This gets around problems of file locking, where system may not give access permission to the necessary files.  Having access to a totally stand-alone computer for the process may not always be an option.

If you are upgrading a laptop then generally the casing for the new SSD will be exactly the same size as the original HDD, and the connections the same (SATA standard).  This makes the physical swap very easy.  In same cases your original disk may be a few mm (millimetres) thicker than the new one, but manufactures often supply a spacer.  Conversely, when installing the smaller SSD into a desktop computer you may have to consider a cradle or caddy to hold the 2.5 form factor disk in the space normally occupied by a 3.5 form factor disk.

 

Need help, advice or assistance?

Please feel free to give us a call on 01772 698078 or contact us through our web site if you need any advice or would like us to do the upgrade your you.

If we collect the device then the upgrade will be £80.00 plus the price of the hardware.  If you can bring your computer to us than it will be £60.00 plus the price of the hardware.

We normally fit Crucial SSD drives and the 250Gb fastest read/write speed model we have been fitting currently retails at about £80.00.  This means that work can be done for £140.00 dependant on collection/delivery options.

 

For more information and hardware prices we can recommend looking at SSDs on the EBuyer website:

 

 

 

 

Heartbeat

Heartbeat are the North Wests leading cardiac rehabilitation charity, and provide services for over 500 people every week. Heartbeat is committed to the fight to reduce the impact of coronary heart disease in all our communities within the North West through rehabilitation, information and advice, education and lifestyle support.

AWP Computer Services helped Heartbeat with their website (January 2015) ahead of their move to their new premisis at Preston North End (in what used to be the National Football Museum). The website can be edited by Heartbeat’s staff and is built on the popular WordPress open source content management system (CMS). We were engaged to help Heartbeat rebuild their website after they suspected the old version had been hacked. AWP Computer Services also helped Heartbeat with some basic WordPress training, so the staff who currently work on the website had a better understanding of the editing process.

The new Heartbeat NWCC website developed by AWP was launched on Monday 14th September 2015.

Visit the Heartbeat website: www.heartbeat-nwcc.org.uk

 

Clarriots Care (Lancashire South)

Clarriots Care (Lancashire South)

Clarriots Care (Lancashire South) is owned and managed by Alastair and Michelle Richardson. Clarriots Care is a leading national provider of home care in the UK. They provide a high standard of service to their customers, regularly achieving over 95% satisfaction rating. Their care services range from short visits of 1 hour up to 24-hour live-in care. They provide a wide range of services to people within their own homes.

AWP Computer Services have worked with Clarriots Care (Lancashire South) at their offices in Bamber Bridge and also provide IT support remotely. At the end of 2014, we helped them migrate their office email and documents to Microsoft Office 365 using their own domain name. We also provide a complete IT support service for them, including Anti-Virus, remote monitoring, PC upgardes, software management and back-ups.

Visit the Clarriots Care website: www.clarriotshomecare.co.uk

 

Certax Accounting Preston

Certax Accounting Preston

Certax Accounting Preston is run by Edward Murty and provides a personalised service to local business owners and individuals. Certax Accounting’s aim is to provide you with the best value for your accountancy fees. For help with any of your accountancy and tax needs, please give Certax Accounting Preston a call (01772 751135). All initial consultations are free of charge.

AWP Computer Services have helped Certax Accounting Preston with various aspects of IT in their office in Penwortham. This ranges from hardware support, PC tune-ups and computer upgrades to network configuration and onsite backups.

Visit the Certax Accounting Preston website: www.accountant-in-preston.co.uk

 

Brides Gallery

 

Mercantile Financial Services (North West Limited)

Mercantile Financial Services (North West Limited) bannerMercantile Financial Services is based in Preston and has been trading since 1973. Their Managing Director, Mr Cuthbert Culshaw, has over 30 years of experience in the financial planning sector. This allows them to draw from a large amount of knowledge, and gives their company an experienced as well as professional approach to financial advice.

They are an honest and open organisation, who work with their clients long-term to achieve their goals, whilst respecting the confidentiality of the client/company relationship. With Mercantile Financial Services you will always receive genuine advice in a friendly manner.

AWP have been working with Mercantile Financial Services since December 2015 and provide IT support for their small office, which includes a Windows Domain network running from a Small Business Server.  The service is provided under an ongoing support agreement and covers MS Office Application support, hardware & device support, email & website hosting and online cloud backup.

Visit the Mercantile Financial Services website: www.mercantilefs.co.uk

 

 

MAD First Aid Limited

MAD First Aid Ltd logoM.A.D. (…which stands for Make A Difference) are a first aid training company based Walmer Bridge who deliver courses all over the North West of England.  Be taught by medical professionals.  With the right training and support provided by M.A.D. First Aid’s dedicated team you will have the confidence to Make A Difference in a time of need.

Their expertise and extensive experience has developed from many years working within the NHS ambulance service as HCPC registered Paramedics.  Through this they share their knowledge to empower people with the right skills to deal with real life emergency situations.

AWP have worked with MAD on their website and helped them getting set up with Google Apps for Work.  The new MAD First Aid Limited website, which was developed by AWP and is based on a popular CMS (Content Management System) called WordPress, went live on in October 2015.

Visit the new MAD First Aid Limited  website: https://www.madfirstaid.co.uk/

 

 

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