Well here we are, late November 2012 and we're still testing the etouchOS Retail point of sale.
With help from the fellows at Il Toro and Subito the product is becoming much more stable and very user friendly.
Needless to say the Brother TD4000 printers haven't missed a beat. In fact, Jim at Il Toro has also been using the printer to produce his food labels for the prepared meals he creates.
Hard? Not at all, Jim removed the receipt paper and loaded his label roll and then created his labels in Brother's P-Touch software, and hey presto! Done.
A really simple process that gives Jim the productivity tools he needs. No need to have several printers dedicated to one function. Oh, he does have the fantastic Brother A3 printer for printing his menus. A huge saving, no traipsing off to the local printer, just do it yourself. A4 or A3, in colour. His choice.
Anyway, enough of the Brother cheer squad here.
Why is etouchOS Retail taking so long?
When we began, we were a bit naïve, well certainly I was, I'm sure my son realised that it was going to take more than I did to create a comprehensive Point of Sale solution.
The feedback I've been getting from Jim and Damian (Subito) is making the product more robust and better featured. Damian and Sam (his brother) had a two week period where they were unable to use a POS.
Their existing subscription with their previous supplier had expired and I still had a bit to do to get the network version of etouchOS Retail working. Damian tells me that they went back to the old manual paper dockets for that fortnight. Doesn't want to do it again!
I feel that I can quote Damian when he says that, "etouch Retail is the best POS he's ever used". So as the developer I feel that I'm heading in the right direction.
So, here's an offer, if you need POS (or want to update to the latest and greatest!), purchase a Brother TD4000 (or TD4100N) and we'll let you have the beta version of etouch Retail - and only bill you once it goes gold! You can purchase these printers through us or talk to your IT support to source them..
New features soon... street address lookup (Australia Only at this stage)..
Productivity
Anyone who knows me knows that I bang on about productivity all of the time. Even if you don't have a need for POS, checkout the Brother offers. Do it smarter not harder!
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Friday, 12 October 2012
etouchOS Retail Network Version
Well testing of etouchOS Retail Point of Sale is going well.
Our friends in Adelaide at Il Toro and at Subito have been putting the software through its paces. We're updating every couple of days now as we fix bugs and add in new features. There's still a fair bit to do, but the list is getting shorter.
Tomorrow (Saturday 13th Oct) we're going to install the beta network version at Subito, so fingers crossed! So far internal testing shows that the performance once loaded is very good.
We imported all of Subito's clients the other day from their old system using CSV (Microsoft Excel) format structure. In addition this next release incorporates the ability to set-up special offers and combo deals.
The one thing we haven't had to worry about is the Brother TD4000 printers. Ask any programmer what concerns them the most with business applications, and I'll bet that the majority will say "printing".
Our colleagues at Brother have lent us a Brother TD4100N for testing, it's the network version of the TD4000 and it's been a really good unit, no matter what errors have come from my keyboard, it's still churning away!
If you take advantage of our Brother special offer before the gold release of etouchOS Retail, we won't bill you until 3 months after the gold release for your etouchOS licence/s. (of course you will need to purchase the qualifying printers).
Drop us a line if you want to take up the special offer and you're feeling adventurous. We'll let you install the beta version of the software and participate in the joy (and pain) of creating a great product. (on the understanding that you know that the software is still in development and the software is designed for Australia).
Anyway, enough about the printers, I don't have to worry about them, although I still have a bit to do to provide the etouchOS link to Brother's P-Touch software for the label printing.
Thankfully Jim (Il Toro), Sam and Damian (Subito) have been run off their feet (my waist can attest to their excellent culinary skills) and haven't been in my ear about labelling yet.
If you're in Adelaide, look them up, home cooked food like mama used to make!
For the Geek within;
Our internal testing has shown that the network version performs as well as the single user version after the initial load. The approach I've taken is to cache everything in memory and only write new and changed records back to the server.
The initial load takes about 5 seconds on the network version, which should be acceptable. The response time is blisteringly fast once loaded (RAM is cheap these days). The downsides of this approach are;
The data server uses TCP/IP communication and transfers the records to the workstation in groups (packets) at a time. There is a real improvement in performance using this method rather than the traditional mapped network drive.
Because the data server is handling the file I/O there is no file locking occurring which makes a huge difference when writing data back. In addition this also means that you can locate you data server in a different location to the actual workstation if you need to. (Not that I'm suggesting that anyone should do that)
Our approach was to try and make it as easy as possible for our users to manage their systems as most of the people considering etouchOS Retail are not going to want the expense of installing and managing an SQL server. Although Microsoft (and others) do offer a very good free version of their SQL product, I think most users would find installing and maintaining SQL a bit daunting.
That said, should someone with a multi-site operation want to use etouchOS Retail we'll look at providing a connector that writes data (in the background) to an SQL server located at a head office.
The etouchOS suite is scalable.
Product: etouchOS Retail Point Of Sale (Beta)
User Interface: Australian English (en-au)
Input: Touch-screen * (works with standard screens as well)
Single User : Yes
Network Version : Yes
Data Server on Primary Workstation: Yes
SQL : No
Windows 32 bit: Yes
Addresses Extended RAM (4gb) : Yes
Programmed in Clarion
Supports Offline Mode : Not yet (planned)
Memory Caching for performance : Yes (Clarion In-Memory)
File Systems
Clarion Topspeed ISAM files
Clarion IP Data Server (Networked Version)
Clarion In-Memory File Driver
Limitations
File Size 2gb per file
Concurrent Users (Network Version) ~200 (depending upon server)
Designed for Windows 7 Desktop and Windows 8 Intel/AMD Tablet
Hardware
Processor : Works on an Atom processor. Recommended minimum Dual Core (Intel/AMD)
RAM (Memory) : Will work with the minimum supported by the operating system Recommended 4Gb+
Hard Disk : SSD or SATA 7200rpm+
Network Card : 1gb recommended.
Printers
Brother: TD4000/TD4100 series, RJ4030/40, Mobile A4/A6/A7
Our friends in Adelaide at Il Toro and at Subito have been putting the software through its paces. We're updating every couple of days now as we fix bugs and add in new features. There's still a fair bit to do, but the list is getting shorter.
Tomorrow (Saturday 13th Oct) we're going to install the beta network version at Subito, so fingers crossed! So far internal testing shows that the performance once loaded is very good.
We imported all of Subito's clients the other day from their old system using CSV (Microsoft Excel) format structure. In addition this next release incorporates the ability to set-up special offers and combo deals.
The one thing we haven't had to worry about is the Brother TD4000 printers. Ask any programmer what concerns them the most with business applications, and I'll bet that the majority will say "printing".
Our colleagues at Brother have lent us a Brother TD4100N for testing, it's the network version of the TD4000 and it's been a really good unit, no matter what errors have come from my keyboard, it's still churning away!
If you take advantage of our Brother special offer before the gold release of etouchOS Retail, we won't bill you until 3 months after the gold release for your etouchOS licence/s. (of course you will need to purchase the qualifying printers).
Drop us a line if you want to take up the special offer and you're feeling adventurous. We'll let you install the beta version of the software and participate in the joy (and pain) of creating a great product. (on the understanding that you know that the software is still in development and the software is designed for Australia).
Anyway, enough about the printers, I don't have to worry about them, although I still have a bit to do to provide the etouchOS link to Brother's P-Touch software for the label printing.
Thankfully Jim (Il Toro), Sam and Damian (Subito) have been run off their feet (my waist can attest to their excellent culinary skills) and haven't been in my ear about labelling yet.
If you're in Adelaide, look them up, home cooked food like mama used to make!
For the Geek within;
Our internal testing has shown that the network version performs as well as the single user version after the initial load. The approach I've taken is to cache everything in memory and only write new and changed records back to the server.
The initial load takes about 5 seconds on the network version, which should be acceptable. The response time is blisteringly fast once loaded (RAM is cheap these days). The downsides of this approach are;
- the loss of data if there is a power failure mid-sale
- unusable if the data server is unavailable
The data server uses TCP/IP communication and transfers the records to the workstation in groups (packets) at a time. There is a real improvement in performance using this method rather than the traditional mapped network drive.
Because the data server is handling the file I/O there is no file locking occurring which makes a huge difference when writing data back. In addition this also means that you can locate you data server in a different location to the actual workstation if you need to. (Not that I'm suggesting that anyone should do that)
Our approach was to try and make it as easy as possible for our users to manage their systems as most of the people considering etouchOS Retail are not going to want the expense of installing and managing an SQL server. Although Microsoft (and others) do offer a very good free version of their SQL product, I think most users would find installing and maintaining SQL a bit daunting.
That said, should someone with a multi-site operation want to use etouchOS Retail we'll look at providing a connector that writes data (in the background) to an SQL server located at a head office.
The etouchOS suite is scalable.
Product: etouchOS Retail Point Of Sale (Beta)
User Interface: Australian English (en-au)
Input: Touch-screen * (works with standard screens as well)
Single User : Yes
Network Version : Yes
Data Server on Primary Workstation: Yes
SQL : No
Windows 32 bit: Yes
Addresses Extended RAM (4gb) : Yes
Programmed in Clarion
Supports Offline Mode : Not yet (planned)
Memory Caching for performance : Yes (Clarion In-Memory)
File Systems
Clarion Topspeed ISAM files
Clarion IP Data Server (Networked Version)
Clarion In-Memory File Driver
Limitations
File Size 2gb per file
Concurrent Users (Network Version) ~200 (depending upon server)
Designed for Windows 7 Desktop and Windows 8 Intel/AMD Tablet
Hardware
Processor : Works on an Atom processor. Recommended minimum Dual Core (Intel/AMD)
RAM (Memory) : Will work with the minimum supported by the operating system Recommended 4Gb+
Hard Disk : SSD or SATA 7200rpm+
Network Card : 1gb recommended.
Printers
Brother: TD4000/TD4100 series, RJ4030/40, Mobile A4/A6/A7
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Fast Clean Web Sites
It's interesting reviewing the history of web sites. I remember when the Internet first became a mainstream option, we all rushed to put as much as possible on our web sites. More colour, good. More images, good. More text/content, good. Flash, good.
In the rush to load more and more onto our web sites we've forgotten that not everyone in the world has high speed Internet access. The more we load our web sites the more frustrating for those without high speed access.
It's become even more important with the advent of smart-phones and tablets to be aware of how long it takes to load a web site. In the era of instant gratification we need to have a compelling reason for people to wait while our digital "works of art" load.
So, why blog about it? Well we've just completed two new sites one for our own product Jobcard Tracking System and another one for our friends at Il Toro Espresso & Pasta Bar . Both sites have minimal graphics and a clean simple look. After all isn't that what we want to impart?
The over use of text and graphics tends to lose people on occasion, so it's better to do something clean and effective. An example is the page that explains our Brother special offer , clean and reasonably fast.
Our first "clean" site was for Euro Pizza in Adelaide.
By making a site clean and fast you make it easy for everyone to see what your story is whether they're at home, work or mobile.
In the rush to load more and more onto our web sites we've forgotten that not everyone in the world has high speed Internet access. The more we load our web sites the more frustrating for those without high speed access.
It's become even more important with the advent of smart-phones and tablets to be aware of how long it takes to load a web site. In the era of instant gratification we need to have a compelling reason for people to wait while our digital "works of art" load.
So, why blog about it? Well we've just completed two new sites one for our own product Jobcard Tracking System and another one for our friends at Il Toro Espresso & Pasta Bar . Both sites have minimal graphics and a clean simple look. After all isn't that what we want to impart?
The over use of text and graphics tends to lose people on occasion, so it's better to do something clean and effective. An example is the page that explains our Brother special offer , clean and reasonably fast.
Our first "clean" site was for Euro Pizza in Adelaide.
By making a site clean and fast you make it easy for everyone to see what your story is whether they're at home, work or mobile.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
etouchOS Retail - first install
"It's killa!"
That's the vote on our first etouchOS Retail beta installation. Extremely fast and very easy.
Where?
Il Toro Pasta & Espresso Bar,
321 North East Rd
Hampstead Gardens, SA 5086
Australia
First pass? Void button wasn't working (fixed now!)
The printer?
Originally we were planning for the receipts to be the Brother RD102mm size paper. Still on our todo list to get supply.
So, in the short term 80mm paper.
See, most POS printers have standard size paper. In other words, if the printer takes 76mm paper that's what you get for it. The TD4000 (read more here), well it lets YOU choose (up to 102mm) the size you want.
It printed. No error, just the alignment was not correct.
No problem except we hadn't told the printer that we had installed 80mm paper.
Now, this is where that TD4000 and Brother's printer software comes into its own. You can create your own paper size within the printer software. Let me just say that again, "YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN PAPER SIZE!"
We created a continuous roll with 80mm width in the Brother software. Save. Done. Print.
Simple! Thanks Brother über geeks!
We've got more to do with etouchOS Retail, but the printing is sorted!
That's the vote on our first etouchOS Retail beta installation. Extremely fast and very easy.
Where?
321 North East Rd
Hampstead Gardens, SA 5086
Australia
Not all smooth sailing
It would come as no surprise that we've had a few interesting moments along the way (with more to come no doubt).First pass? Void button wasn't working (fixed now!)
The printer?
Originally we were planning for the receipts to be the Brother RD102mm size paper. Still on our todo list to get supply.
So, in the short term 80mm paper.
See, most POS printers have standard size paper. In other words, if the printer takes 76mm paper that's what you get for it. The TD4000 (read more here), well it lets YOU choose (up to 102mm) the size you want.
It printed. No error, just the alignment was not correct.
No problem except we hadn't told the printer that we had installed 80mm paper.
Now, this is where that TD4000 and Brother's printer software comes into its own. You can create your own paper size within the printer software. Let me just say that again, "YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN PAPER SIZE!"
We created a continuous roll with 80mm width in the Brother software. Save. Done. Print.
We've got more to do with etouchOS Retail, but the printing is sorted!
etouchOS with Brother TD 4000
Some Background
Well it's been an interesting few weeks. For sometime, one of my sons has been on my case about writing a simple, fast Point of Sale system (POS). I had been quite dismissive of the idea until a couple of clients started to pressure me. They'd seen what I'd done with touch screen software with the original Windows Tablets and wanted me to do something for retail.
Enter Brother
I had a chat with my colleagues at Brother Printers as we'd been working together on my etouchOS Wholesale Sales and Ordering system and had successfully married Microsoft Windows 7 (and now Windows 8) Tablets with their range of mobile printers. They'd pointed me in the right direction when writing label printing from within my JobCardTS package as well.
Brother is one of those companies that everyone knows about. I do mean everyone, and the common theme? Their printers work. All the time and just about anywhere. No complaints.
The TD4000
So, what model printer?
The new TD4000 series (the TD4100N is net-workable)is a printer designed by the über printer geeks at Brother to allow for label and receipt printing. That's right! Label AND receipt printing!
Now I know printers are not the sexy part of IT, the sexy stuff; the iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, Window 7 etc etc etc that's where the news is. Until you need to print your work.
Back to the TD4000. Why?
etouchOS Retail
Today (20th Sept '12), it's still a work-in-progress (see the first installation story here) etouchOS Retail (it's that new that the web site is not done yet!)
We've got a bit more to do yet, but it works. And it's FAST, SIMPLE and VERY EASY to use. Thanks to my son. Whenever I strayed to the normal IT inclination of making it more complex, he stopped me. He designed the layout. Touch screen, user definable buttons. 24 to a screen. How many screens? As many as you want.
The other thing?
It has to work on anything from a Microsoft Windows PC to a Windows touch screen tablet. Yes, a tablet. And, it works on Microsoft Windows 8 (intel/amd).
That's why no serial ports. All usb or ethernet.
And the TD4000?
It works out of the box, install the software (Works with Windows 8 without missing a beat), plug it in and away you go.
As I said, nobody thinks about printers, until they stop working. These printers just keep on going.
The TD4000? Well the über geeks at Brother have designed it so you don't have to be a geek to get it to work, a major consideration for us.
The offer here.
More to come about etouchOS Retail later.
Well it's been an interesting few weeks. For sometime, one of my sons has been on my case about writing a simple, fast Point of Sale system (POS). I had been quite dismissive of the idea until a couple of clients started to pressure me. They'd seen what I'd done with touch screen software with the original Windows Tablets and wanted me to do something for retail.
Enter Brother
I had a chat with my colleagues at Brother Printers as we'd been working together on my etouchOS Wholesale Sales and Ordering system and had successfully married Microsoft Windows 7 (and now Windows 8) Tablets with their range of mobile printers. They'd pointed me in the right direction when writing label printing from within my JobCardTS package as well.
Brother is one of those companies that everyone knows about. I do mean everyone, and the common theme? Their printers work. All the time and just about anywhere. No complaints.
The TD4000
So, what model printer?
The new TD4000 series (the TD4100N is net-workable)is a printer designed by the über printer geeks at Brother to allow for label and receipt printing. That's right! Label AND receipt printing!
Now I know printers are not the sexy part of IT, the sexy stuff; the iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, Window 7 etc etc etc that's where the news is. Until you need to print your work.
Back to the TD4000. Why?
- Bring your own paper.
- Receipts up to 100mm wide
- Labels - yes labels. A compelling proposition when you're a small business owner and you can switch the receipt paper to print product/food labels.
- Brother P-touch software - make your own labels!
- No serial ports needed in your POS (more on that later)
etouchOS Retail
Today (20th Sept '12), it's still a work-in-progress (see the first installation story here) etouchOS Retail (it's that new that the web site is not done yet!)
We've got a bit more to do yet, but it works. And it's FAST, SIMPLE and VERY EASY to use. Thanks to my son. Whenever I strayed to the normal IT inclination of making it more complex, he stopped me. He designed the layout. Touch screen, user definable buttons. 24 to a screen. How many screens? As many as you want.
The other thing?
It has to work on anything from a Microsoft Windows PC to a Windows touch screen tablet. Yes, a tablet. And, it works on Microsoft Windows 8 (intel/amd).
That's why no serial ports. All usb or ethernet.
And the TD4000?
It works out of the box, install the software (Works with Windows 8 without missing a beat), plug it in and away you go.
As I said, nobody thinks about printers, until they stop working. These printers just keep on going.
The TD4000? Well the über geeks at Brother have designed it so you don't have to be a geek to get it to work, a major consideration for us.
The offer here.
More to come about etouchOS Retail later.
Thursday, 9 August 2012
The Hype and the Cloud
I was having an interesting conversation with one of my sons about the hype surrounding the cloud. We were musing on the constant chatter about how the IT industry is really pushing the idea of cloud based systems. Of course we also had a chuckle about how the IT industry convinced everyone that aeroplanes would fall out of the sky with the advent of year 2000. Great work if you can get it!
So, it's no wonder the IT industry is considered with some suspicion. Just consider all of the different IT projects that have cost millions and then been of little benefit. The most recent example is of course, the Queensland Health débâcle.
It was interesting to read the article by Asher Moses (Fairfax Group) Apple cloud burst: how hacker wiped Mat's 'life' 6th August, 2012. I'm not saying that we should not use cloud based services, I'm saying that you should not totally outsource everything to a third party. We have to accept some responsibility for the preservation of our own data. I'm a big fan of Google Apps (and use the professional business edition), but I would not rely on Google for everything that I do.
During our discussion both of us could not understand why people would trust third parties to manage "mission critical" applications and data. I know that the IT gurus will tell you that you can access your data from anywhere with Cloud based applications and services. That may be true, but there is nothing to stop you accessing your data on your personal computer or server. There are a number of technologies available from many companies that allow remote access. Microsoft, Citrix, XP Unlimited and Thinsoft all offer solutions to allow you to log-in remotely. If all you need is to access data then you can use SQL based database engines (Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MYSQL, Postgres, Firebird and so on.
Some of the software I develop uses a Data Server component developed by Soft Velocity named the Clarion IP Data Server. It's fast, works in most flavours of the Microsoft Operating Systems and just requires a broadband internet connection to be effective. So, you can create your own "cloud". Because that's all the "cloud" is. Someone's computer, somewhere else, hosting your data and maybe your applications. Are you confident that they'll care as much about your data and business as you do?
Back to the Asher Moses article. They key is that social engineering was used in this instance. But have you ever wondered how secure your passwords are?
I had a client who had forgotten his Windows 7 password. Stuck? Well yes, until I came across this handy little tool called Ophcrack which found the users and passwords within a second. I haven't tested its limitations yet, but apparently your password is only safe if it's more than 14 characters!
So, wrapping it up; think carefully about what risks you're willing to take with your applications and data, make informed decisions, backup, backup and oh yes, backup.
If you wouldn't give a stranger who knocked on your door, information and assets, why do it on-line without some careful thought.
So, it's no wonder the IT industry is considered with some suspicion. Just consider all of the different IT projects that have cost millions and then been of little benefit. The most recent example is of course, the Queensland Health débâcle.
It was interesting to read the article by Asher Moses (Fairfax Group) Apple cloud burst: how hacker wiped Mat's 'life' 6th August, 2012. I'm not saying that we should not use cloud based services, I'm saying that you should not totally outsource everything to a third party. We have to accept some responsibility for the preservation of our own data. I'm a big fan of Google Apps (and use the professional business edition), but I would not rely on Google for everything that I do.
During our discussion both of us could not understand why people would trust third parties to manage "mission critical" applications and data. I know that the IT gurus will tell you that you can access your data from anywhere with Cloud based applications and services. That may be true, but there is nothing to stop you accessing your data on your personal computer or server. There are a number of technologies available from many companies that allow remote access. Microsoft, Citrix, XP Unlimited and Thinsoft all offer solutions to allow you to log-in remotely. If all you need is to access data then you can use SQL based database engines (Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MYSQL, Postgres, Firebird and so on.
Some of the software I develop uses a Data Server component developed by Soft Velocity named the Clarion IP Data Server. It's fast, works in most flavours of the Microsoft Operating Systems and just requires a broadband internet connection to be effective. So, you can create your own "cloud". Because that's all the "cloud" is. Someone's computer, somewhere else, hosting your data and maybe your applications. Are you confident that they'll care as much about your data and business as you do?
Back to the Asher Moses article. They key is that social engineering was used in this instance. But have you ever wondered how secure your passwords are?
I had a client who had forgotten his Windows 7 password. Stuck? Well yes, until I came across this handy little tool called Ophcrack which found the users and passwords within a second. I haven't tested its limitations yet, but apparently your password is only safe if it's more than 14 characters!
So, wrapping it up; think carefully about what risks you're willing to take with your applications and data, make informed decisions, backup, backup and oh yes, backup.
If you wouldn't give a stranger who knocked on your door, information and assets, why do it on-line without some careful thought.
Friday, 2 March 2012
Windows 8 Preview and etouchOS
Finally the Internet is back after my house move.
Had a look at the new consumer preview edition of Windows 8 and I have to say I'm very impressed.
Just to see how much work there would be in one of my key products I installed the etouchOS client module. It works like a charm! I will say that we'll need to improve the graphics resolution of the buttons and icons, but it didn't miss a beat.
Nice to know! Of course at this stage etouchOS will only work on the Intel version of Windows 8 and not the ARM version. More on that at a later date.
You can download a free preview copy of http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview
I ran mine in a Virtual Box ( free from https://www.virtualbox.org/ )
I haven't really stress tested Windows 8, after all I was just assessing its ability to run my software.
Had a look at the new consumer preview edition of Windows 8 and I have to say I'm very impressed.
Just to see how much work there would be in one of my key products I installed the etouchOS client module. It works like a charm! I will say that we'll need to improve the graphics resolution of the buttons and icons, but it didn't miss a beat.
Nice to know! Of course at this stage etouchOS will only work on the Intel version of Windows 8 and not the ARM version. More on that at a later date.
You can download a free preview copy of http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview
I ran mine in a Virtual Box ( free from https://www.virtualbox.org/ )
I haven't really stress tested Windows 8, after all I was just assessing its ability to run my software.
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