Recently in Blacknight Category

Several of us have iPhones in the office, so one of the guys was asking this morning if we could get an iPhone wallpaper..

So now we have these:


We're still playing around with the positioning etc.,, so if you're an iPhone user please download them and let us know what you think.

Grey version of the wallpaper is below:

Since I'm a bit of a coffee addict (as are a lot of our staff) I decided the time had come to upgrade our office coffee machine.

If you recall, we got ourselves quite a nice machine nearly two years ago.

Unfortunately that machine, while excellent in its own right, simply could not cope with our expanded numbers (our staff numbers have gone up quite a bit since we got it).

So I started shopping around for a new machine. Eventually we settled on the Jura Impressa X7. Like the other machine it's "bean to cup". The difference is that the Jura is a lot bigger and can be plumbed in. It also handles capuccino and latte directly ie. no more messing about with steamer nozzles etc.,

The only downside to the new machine is that our office milk consumption has sky rocketed!

Note the tube for the milk on the left of the machine (milk cooler has been ordered):
The coffee we're using at the moment came from Discount Coffee, who offer a good range of coffees at reasonable prices. As you can see in the photo above, the Jura has not one, but two spaces for beans, which means you don't have to refill it as often and you could even try mixing types of coffee if you were adventurous.

So what about mugs?

A few months ago we ordered a batch of mugs from Owen in Mug Revolution. We got mugs for all our own staff and for some clients / friends / partners etc.,

Like so many of these "silly" ideas the feedback has blown me away.

Yes, they are really nice mugs, but I wasn't honestly expecting so many people to be so passionate about them.

One person who got one sent me an email thanking us and, to be perfectly honest, it made it all worthwhile:

Thank You for the great coffee mug!!  It is twice the size of any of our mugs at home, which saves me the back and forth trip when I'm comfortable on the couch watching football. (Only a company run by guys could understand that benefit)

We have a couple of mugs left that we will probably give away in a competition at some point in the next couple of weeks,  but if you want to get your own mug you don't need to wait. Owen, who is a really cool guy, is now offering the Blacknight mug for sale on his site!

If you'd like to find out more about how the mugs are made, then have a look at some of Owen's videos on Youtube. Owen makes really nice mugs, but what's totally captivating from my point of view is his passion for his craft. If you exchange emails with him you'll be impressed with his attitude, but it's only when you actually see him talking about his work that you can get a real feel for it, so I'd recommend you take a minute or two to watch his videos. (And yes - I am a big fan of his work!)

UPDATE 28/2: New screenshot added below
The Blacknight hosting platform is very powerful and has a lot of fantastic features.

However, the control panel is not perfect and we are all too aware of this.

The control panel vendors, Parallels, have been working closely with us to improve aspects of the system so that:

• You are happier
• We are happier
• We all have a more pleasant life

Unfortunately we cannot read people's minds, so we're going to be asking YOU, our clients,   for feedback on certain aspects of the system in the coming months.

We will do our best to take all the feedback that we receive back to the control panel vendors and get as many of the changes implemented as possible.

One of the areas that we know people have been having issues with is the billing section of the control panel.

We've held several conference calls with Parallels and our staff over the last few weeks and they've come up with a draft view of how it *could* look moving forward. (NB: there are plans to for an extensive reworking of the billing side of the system in the pipeline, but that could be over 12 months away)

So here is a preview (click to enlarge):

Do you think this is better than the current display?

Is it worse?

How could it be improved?

What would you like to see here?

Do you want to see this information in this way?

Is there something on the billing side that isn't clear (with this screenshot)?

Any and all feedback is welcome, though please try to give us something to work with! Comments like "I hate it" may be valid, but they won't help us improve it.

You can leave comments here or if you prefer feel free to email management@blacknight.com with your feelings.

Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback - we really do appreciate it.

UPDATE: We have received several very helpful emails from clients with quite detailed feedback. Please keep it coming!

UPDATE 2 - Parallels have made some changes based on feedback from us, you and other clients. They've supplied an updated screenshot (click to enlarge):
All feedback welcome as before

Thanks!

We've just posted a new job vacancy (or vacancies) here.

This time round we're looking for multilingual customer service / technical support staff.

Let's see how we do with CVs ..

Further details and how to apply here

NO AGENCIES OF ANY KIND

The tragedy that struck Haiti a few days ago has shocked the world.

So we've decided to try and raise some cash for what we consider to be a worthy charity - Médecins Sans Frontières.

We've setup a donation site which uses the mycharity.ie system, so the funds go to the charity we've chosen - NOT us.

The target we've set is currently €10000 (ten thousand euro) and we've added a little twist. We've thrown €1000 into the pot to start things going.

For every €5000 raised we'll release a €5 discount on IE domain registrations - so if you can help us reach our target we'll be slicing €10 of the cost of registration. And, if you're all really generous, we'll end up giving away IE domains for a purely nominal fee..


So what are you waiting for? Get donating!

About the Charity:


Médecins Sans Frontières is an international organisation that helps provide emergency medical assistance to people in over 70 countries worldwide.

You can find out more about the organisation from either their international site or the Irish one.

As most people are probably aware, Europe is currently experiencing some pretty nasty weather.

Ireland, where we are based, has been having severe frost, ice and snow since the week before Christmas.

Unfortunately the local authorities haven't been able to treat the roads, so they are becoming more and more unsafe. (I think someone referred to the main road as being worse than an ice rink .. )

As result of this and in the interest of our staff's wellbeing, we will not be operating from our offices until further notice and so our phonelines will probably be closed for most of the day. Some of our staff are able to access the phone system remotely, but not all.

Our staff will be dealing with queries via email and Live Chat as normal.

Here are the contact points you may use:

For technical support queries use: support@blacknight.com

For questions related to billing / invoices use: accounts@blacknight.com

For queries related to domain names or buying products and services from us, please use: sales@blacknight.com

UPDATE:

The road conditions in Carlow / Kilkenny are, for lack of a better word, terrible. AA RoadWatch are reporting many roads to be either dangerous or impassible

On behalf of everyone at Blacknight have a Happy New Year!

Let's hope it's a good one for everyone.