Horse's Mouth

September 02, 2010

Our facilities to support Well House Consultants Courses

It stuck me as I was reviewing web pages that I often talk about our courses, I often talk about the hotel ... but I rarely talk about about some of the facilities at and around the hotel to support our courses.

Our library includes some 700 books on the subjects we teach - here is a selection. What book is going to suit you? It's a hard question to ask mail-order, but at Well House Manor you can browse our shelves and say "I like this book - I get on with it well, and I'll order it online". Not all our books are the very latest editions (and we certainly don't deal in books) but never the less they're a very useful resource. Although technology moves on very quickly, the programming languages behind the technology doesn't - and that's because companies and programmers want to write logic that will last for years, through several generations of technology. Programming is very much the calm at the eye of the storm!

Our training centre IS a hotel. Not because we base ourselves in someone else's hotel - but because we have added a hotel for the technical business visitor to our training facilities. With niche subjects, delegates come from far and wide and very few could commute no matter where we are. The picture here shows our reception - manned by professional hotel staff, ready to check you in any time from 3 p.m. on the evening before your course starts, to make you comfortable, ensure you make yourself at home ... and that you're online and know where the coffee machine is!

Accommodation - the rooms - is to a five star standard. We don't offer a night porter, nor a bar, and so we couldn't be five star overall - we're different; we're tailored to the delegates. Delegate have access to the library, to the training room, to our systems 24 hours a day while they're with us. All beds are at least king, all room spacious and we positively encourage you to take your training machine up to you room - and / or plug in your own laptop too. Our 50Mb connection is available, unlimited save by our AUP, to all.

Here's a full course in our "Wilts" training room. Each delegate has substantial desk space, their own notes and systems to use, and an excellent view. By keeping the group sizes small, we maximize everyone's learning.

There are times when a slick presentation works. And there are times (such as in this example here) where it does NOT. Here. I was teaching Object Oriented Design, and a set of diagrams worked through with the class shows not only what the final result is but - much more importantly for system designers and programmers - it shows in steps the mindset behind the design - how the design was reached, and why!

At Well House Manor in Melksham - shown in this article - we run courses on programming in Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, C, C++ and Java. We also cover Linux, MySQL, and httpd and Tomcat web server deployment.

Posted by gje at 08:08 PM | Comments (0)
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August 31, 2010

Open Source Programming - Training Course Schedule

I'm pleased to update you, as the autumn "season" starts, with our schedule of available, public, Open Source training courses for this autumn [2010]. Each course in the list below has a link leading you to the full description, and the further dates that it's scheduled through 2011 - so this page will provide a good starting point even when the dates listed below have happened.

Public courses run at our purpose fitted Melksham, Wiltshire, England training centre and last from one to five days depending on the curriculum. They're open to any delegate who wishes to attend - from companies, government organizations, educational establishments, or privately - subject only to your fluency in English and (in the case of the more advanced course) your fulfilling the pre-requisites. The first course listed in each section is a "learning to ..." course which is for beginners - it assumes no prior knowledge. We also have hotel quality accommodation at our training centre, so that you can stay on site with the other delegates and make the very best of your time with us.

All courses are written by, and presented by, our own employees. They typically run with 4 to 6 delegates (maximum 8) to ensure that every delegate gets the best of attention to his/her own specific requirements, but there's no minimum number. So you're assured, once you book, that the course will run at the venue and on the dates you have chosen (this might seem an odd thing to have to say, but regrettably it's not an industry standard).

Dates given are start dates of course which at the time of writing have places available on them.

Perl
 Learning to program in Perl - 13th September and 13th December
 Perl Programming - 13th September and 13th December
 Perl for Larger Projects - 20th December
 using Perl on the Web - 20th December
 Regular Expressions - 19th November

PHP
 Learning to program in PHP - 31st October then 16th January 2011
 PHP Programming - 1st November
 Object Oriented Programming in PHP - 5th November
 PHP Techniques Workshop - 18th November
 Regular Expressions - 19th November

Python
 Learning to program in Python - 5th December (ask about 21st September)
 Python Programming - 6th December (ask about 22nd September)
 Regular Expressions - 19th November

Ruby
 Learning to program in Ruby - 27th September then 4th January 2011
 Ruby Programming - 28th September then 5th January 2011
 Introduction to Ruby on Rails - 1st October then 8th January 2011
 Regular Expressions - 19th November

Lua
 Learning to program in Lua - 31st August and 14th November
 Lua Programming - 1st September and 15th November

Java
 Learning to Program in Java - 8th November
 Java Programming - 9th November
 Deploying Apache / Tomcat - 14th October and 9th December

C
 Learning to Program in C - 15th November
 C Programming - 16th November

C++
 Learning to Program in C++ - 15th November
 C and C++ programming - 16th November
 C++ for C Programmers - 18th November

Tcl
 Learning to Program in Tcl - 14th November
 Tcl Programming - 15th November
 The Tk GUI for Tcl - 28th October and 20th December
 Regular Expressions - 19th November

MySQL
 MySQL Programming and Admin - 18th November

Linux
 LAMP Deployment - 15th November
 Linux Basics - 15th November
 Introduction to Linux Admin - 16th November
 Linux Web Server (Apache httpd) - 17th November
 Deploying Apache / Tomcat - 14th October and 9th December

There is plenty of further information at the individual course pages (links above); more general information is available [here] and if you want to know how long it will take you to drive to Melksham, see [here]. We also have train and long distance coach services, and we encourage you to use public transport, arranging complimentary collection from the local station to encourage its use. The accommodation web site (we run the hotel too!) is [here].

But even with all that further information, you may have more questions - often about whether the course is what you need in terms of your current knowledge and target application(s) of the knowledge you'll gain. And I'm going to encourage you to get in touch with me, personally, as the tutor to check that it's right for you. There's a web form you can use [here] - or you can email graham@wellho.net or phone - 01225 708225 or 0800 043 8225. Please bare in mind that I'm very often training, so you'll find that you're very likely to have to leave a message for me to return your call during a break.

If you have a group of delegates who require the same course at the same time, we can arrange a private course - either at our training centre, or on site "at your place". Such courses account for around 40% of our business and we can travel almost anywhere to present them, usually provide all the equipment that's needed to you just book us, and provide a room and the students. We do the rest. As our courses are modular, we tailor private courses to meet the needs of the individual company - you're not limited to the curricula linked above, and dates are arranged to be mutually convenient.

Posted by gje at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
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Wedding season in Melksham - somewhere good to stay

On Spring and Summer weekends, Well House Manor is either packed or quiet - it's the love and wedding season. With great aunts and uncles coming into town from all over the country, and / or with the groom's parents and the best man showing up too, there's little room at the bride's place for them all to stay and the bride - being local - is likely to know what an ideal spot we are. Being business accommodation that's mainly associated with our open source courses, we do little conventional advertising and so we're quieter at weekends, but we certainly can't justify something approaching a four figure sum to get an "AA" rating just to fill five rooms over the summer season of weekends. I'm pleased to report that this weekend - once again - the guests who filled the place were delighted.

We've found another niche within the wedding market too - with the happy couple very often coming back to Well House Manor after a long and eventful day, spending the night with us before heading off the next day - be it for an exotic holiday, or in some cases, alas, to rejoin their unit.

The typical wedding guest visitor is very different to the typical businessman ... who in turn varies somewhat from the typical course delegate. And variety is the spice of life; those of you who know me will know that I enjoy my curry very spicy, so you'll know just how much I welcome the variety in customers. The business guest is more likely to be concerned at getting on line and borrowing adapters for our UK sockets, the delegate will be very interested in the technical library and the coffee machine, and the weekend / wedding guest will often arrive very early or very late (so we have a chart of travel times to help them) and need a taxi at short notice to the Assembly Hall (it's quicker to walk, by the way), Cleeve House, Semington Village Hall, Shaw Church or some other venue near Melksham.

I should add - we do not limit our guests to business people, delegates and wedding parties - if you're visiting the area to see what's around (Bath, Lacock, Caen Hill, Avebury, Westbury, Longleat, Stonehenge ...) we're an excellent base - and we love this area and can offer you some tips too. We're a bit different to most - we compare our rooms to the five star standard of a hotel, but we don't offer accommodation for Children, nor a bar, nor do we have a chef to cook you an evening meal on site. If that's the combination that takes your fancy, please do try us out.

Posted by gje at 02:05 AM | Comments (0)
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August 30, 2010

Training course locations - Melksham, UK; Buxton, UK; Lake Constance, Germany; Venice Italy, the USA and India

Many years ago, when I was at First Alternative, I suggested that we run public courses in a holiday location - giving delegates a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and to learn in a relaxed environment. We chose Buxton in Derbyshire as a location, arranged the hotel and venue, and advertised what turned out to be ... a complete flop.

For my own training - where I go to the "next level" of expert to ensure that I know the subjects that I teach really well, I'll travel wherever is necessary. That's included places as diverse as Longmont, Colorado, USA and Venice, in Italy. Longmont is one of those places that people seem to accept as a legitimate business destination, but say "Venice" and they get the feel of what I might call a "jolly" - that somehow I wasn't going to learn very much in Venice, but rather it was going to be an excuse for a holiday at my company's expense.

And I think that's one of the reasons that the Buxton experiment failed - because the potential delegates and their immediate technical managers found it hard to justify within their organizations a trip to a lovely place where the headline is "tourism", overlooking the fact that out of season such places are such a natural venue for courses, training sessions and the like. The facilities and the infrastructure are there, available, and at a sensible price. In hindsight, I'm was the more sure that the leisure nature of the destination had been a problem with regards to bookings when I see "how to convince you manager, and your manager's manager" pages on the web site that supported the Venice event.

So - I'm really rather glad the Well House Consultants is in Melksham rather than Bournemouth, or Weston-super-mare, Harrogate or Portrush. Wherever we were / are located, the real difference that the venue makes for our delegates depends on us having the right course, tutor, facilities, environment, accommodation and travel logistics. And I can look at each of those against our product and say: Yes - that's right. People will book "naturally" rather than having to convince their boss that they're off on a skive!

For much longer duration courses, we've noticed a trend for people to be heading off to India these days. For four to six weeks of training, the overhead of injections, medical / travel insurance costs and time can be offset against a cheaper per-day accommodation and training rate that can be offered in the UK or Europe.

I was reminded about the Buxton experiment overnight; I have received an email from a training company based on Lake Constance, and suggesting that we might work with them in some way. And it struck me how very much they're selling their courses based on their beautiful location. And I found myself wondering if the market has changed and "popular holiday spot" is now a sales-positive, or if the German market is different. Certainly Lake Constance is beautiful - I've trained within 1km of the lake (as well as at numerous other German locations) and I would be happy to present the occasional niche course for them there.

More generally, if you've come to this page looking for courses in Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Lua, Tcl or our other subjects - for a group of delegates in Germany, we can help at YOUR location too. See [here] for a pricing chart; you'll find that it makes economic sense if you've got four or more people who need the same course at the same time. Less than that - send them to us on our public courses, or if you're close to Lake Constance drop me a note and I'll pass on details if you're looking for a subject where we overlap.

Illustration - Venice. Real purpose of trip - to listen to (and learn from) Larry Wall, Rasmus Lerdorf, Monty Widenius, and hosts of others. See [newsletter - Spring 2004]. And what a worthwhile and educational trip it was too - as well as being perhaps the hardest week's work I had done in a very long time.

Posted by gje at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
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August 29, 2010

Protecting your images from use out of context

If you want to prevent your images from being "hotlinked" from someone else's site ... why not feed them out via a PHP script that checks the referrer? ... If you've arrived at this article via "www.wellho.net", you should see a clean image - and the image is at the url "http://www.wellho.net/demo/doggypic.php". However - if you go to the URL directly, or you access it embedded within another website - you'll see an image with the words "picture only available within web pages at http://www.wellho/net" overlaid onto it.

The script is a simple one:

<?php
header("Content-type: image/jpeg");
if (preg_match('/www\.wellho\.net/',$_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER])) {
  $file = "doginfield.jpg";
} else {
  $file = "dogstolenfromfield.jpg";
}
$stuff = file_get_contents($file);
print $stuff;
?>

... in fact, that's oversimple in the demo (and if you read it, you could find the images directly!!) and you would for a security script locate your .jpg files away from the document root ...

Posted by gje at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
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August 28, 2010

An opportunity to join our team!

We're looking for help - willing, paid, responsible help. We're already busy with hotel and training bookings through to December of this year, and with one of our small team unwell at present, and to become a father in a couple of months, we've got a bit of a gap in our staffing. And in the longer term, we could do with a broader based team too.

Who are we looking for?

We're looking someone (or perhaps sometwo) who's reliable, enthusiastic, able to stick on task, a good team player, and good with customers. We're looking for someone who's available at all sorts of odd hours, and can get to and from Spa Road, Melksham routinely even at times of day that there's no public transport running. We're looking for someone who's willing to learn and wants to learn - some things we do, we do a bit differently so prior experience isn't necessarily important, but common sense and ability to adapt is.

We're an I.T. training company. So you'll need to be regularly checking your email, reachable on line, and comfortable reaching us online; our main communication tool around the team is our internet status page and it's vital that you're going to be able to use that.

What's the work involved?

We're a hotel with a small team. So there's no single task you'll be doing all the time. Through the day, there's "opening", breakfast to prepare and serve (continental buffet) and replenish. Guests to help with their travel plans and other needs, and to check out. Then there's breakfast to clear, rooms to tidy or change and prepare for the next guests. Come the late afternoon and evening, other guests are arriving to be checked in and helped - although we don't have an onsite restaurant. The afternoon and evening shift also involves preparing room cards, preparing the kitchen for breakfast the following morning, and laundry - from running the washer and dryer through ironing and storing for next use. Occasionally, the final person on duty needs to "extend" to await late arrivals prior to closing.

There are other tasks too outside of the daily routine - stocking and ordering of supplies, deep cleaning cycles to ensure that the place remains looking at its best and cleanest, ongoing maintenance, etc. And if you're the sort of person it suits, we've also got a whole raft of filing and admin to keep up to date on at our HQ, which is just up the road.

We believe that you should enjoy what you do ... we make our work fun, and we look for square pegs for square holes, and round pegs for round ones. For sure, we all have some tasks we don't enjoy, but we want those to be a small minority.

Are there long term prospects?

I don't know yet - but it's very likely indeed that there are. For the moment, we're looking for cover for a few months, but during that time we will be investing in training up the right person / people, and it would be a shame for that to be just short term. As a high technology training company, there are other avenues where you can learn too - and indeed our current team (and potential future long term additions to it) spend a great deal of their time on technical / IT work, servicing hotel needs between updating web sites, preparing notes and setting up computers.

I'm interested - how do I find out more?

Have a look around our web sites www.wellho.net and www.wellhousemanor.co.uk if you want to learn a little more about us. Think how you might fit with some of the things I've written about above. Then send me an email, or pop in to see us at Well House Manor.

Oh - and if you're not a person who's able to help but you know someone who might be, please pass on a link to this page. I'm going to be potentially having a whole group of people we can call on - some occasionally - so don't be afraid to get in touch even if this posting is a month old by the time it's brought to your attention.

Posted by gje at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
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