Free online e-commerce platforms

The last week I’ve done some research on what free e-commerce system that’s out there. There are quite a few to choose from and and it could be difficult to choose.  Apart from the free ones there is also the possibility to choose the commercial ones where you pay a monthly fee for the shop and then some of the extra features and modules cost extra.

The web shop at blacknwhite.dk (closed) is running on the oscommerce platform. It is quite old and hasn’t been updated and during the autumn it was under serious attacks from hackers.

With the experience from this platform I made a wish list:

  • User friendly front end and back end – prefer to see most of the information on one page instead of many, like tabs.
  • Newsletter subscribe/unsubscribe – WYSIWYG newsletter designer, overview of subscribers
  • Swedish and danish language pack
  • Swedish and Danish currency
  • Payment gateway to Swedish to hosts like wannafind, payer (se), epay, payson etc.
  • Easy to design in CSS files, template files or HTML files
  • Easy to create extra information pages with WYSIWYG editing
  • Product description with WYSIWYG editor
  • Easy cross sell feature
  • Free templates for download and easy installation
  • More than one image on the description
  • Lightbox display of images – fast, neat and editable
  • Who’s online feature – real time view of who is visiting, are they registered customer, what they buy, where they come from etc.
  • For the future a Live help feature

Find reviews on all (more or less) shopping cart systems on shopping-cart-reviews.com. The web sites webappers.com and tripwiremagazine.com have created a list each of 15 popular ones. The two lists differ a little bit from each other but the most popular are:

Other ones are:

The platforms listed above all are PHP and runs on a MySQL database. An asp.net/ MS SQL alternativ is nopcommerce.com.

This blog platform is WordPress and it’s possible to install e-commerce plugin for this.  On tripwiremagazine.com you find a list of a couple of other WP plugins to create a blog/web shop.

Historien om tomträtten

This  blog post is about the “Tomträtt” (“rent of the ground”) and an article in the “Sydsvenskan” south Swedish news paper. Sorry it’s in Swedish.

Historien är att vi 2006 köpte vårt nuvarande hus på Limhamn, Malmö. Vid visningen av huset hörde vi om att det hade tomträtt – var inte friköpt tomt. Vi frågade mäklaren vad det betydde och fick besked på att man inte ägde tomten utan bara huset och hyran var sek 180,-/år. Vi skulle inte tänka över på det och det hade inte någon större betydelse förrän om flera år. Köpsprocessen gick mycket snabbt och det var svårt att få reda på något om vad tomrätt betydde och litade på mäklaren.

När vi fick beskedet av kommunen hur mycket markvärdet var och hur mycket vi skulle betala i sk. tomträttsavgäld (November 2009) startade vi en grupp på Facebook, Tomträtt nej tack, och hittade senare också Villaägarnas Facebook grupp  Stoppa marknadshyrorna mot tomträtter – NU.

Den 2 Januari 2011 var vi med i en artikel i Sydsvenskan angående vår situation i förhållande till den 18 000% hyreshöjning av tomträtten vi råkat ut för och som började gälla från den 1 Januari 2011. Kjell Sollbe, jurist på fastighetskontoret, kommenterade i artiklen att kommunen informerat tillräckligt och att folk inte alltid fått korrekt information från mäklaren. Kjell menar också att det borde vara en prisskillnad på en friköpt tomt och hus med tomträtt. Jag skrev en mail till honom för att följa upp på hans kommentarer:

“Jag har tidigare frågat Malmö kommun hur ni räknar ut marknadsvärdet på en tomt med ett hus på?
Finns där andra köpare till en sån tomt än de som äger huset? Om det inte finns andra köpare så burde väl marknadsvärdet vara 0? Eller blivit absorberat i huset…
När vi köpte huset hösten 2006 var tomträtten 188 kr/år och ingen vi kände visste hur mycket den skulle ändras i 2011. Det fick vi besked på i 2009. Hur skulle vi kunna föhandla eller argumentera för att köpa huset billigare i 2006 p.g.a. tomrätten eftersom den var marginell vid det tidspunkt?
Det verkar som att där inte är några gemensamma regler som gäller för de olika kommuner som har tomträtter. Det är tydligen upp till varje kommun hur mycket marknadsvärdet är, hur många % tomträttsavgälden skall vara osv. Detta verkar mycket oseriöst och jag kunde tänka mig en förklaring på hur det kan vara sån, om det är riktigt och vem som bestämmer vad som gäller?
På 40-talet “uppfanns” tomträtten för att hjälpa invånarna så de hade råd att bosätta sig, men nu är det tvärtom. Jag uppfattar det som att Malmö kommun använder det som en extra inkomstkälla på bekostnad av oss husägare som råkat hamna i fel avtalsperiod och att de beslut som fattats inte löser eller hjälper på tomträttsproblemen.”

Kjell Solbe svarade:

“Hej

Tomträttsinstitutet är från slutet av 1800-talet och fick sin egentliga utformning under början av 1900-talet och med en genomgripande reform under början av 1950-talet och som nu tillämpas. Högestadsgatan 15 var tidigare upplåten enligt äldre bestämmelser före 1954. Gällande lagstiftning återfinns i 13 kap. jordabalken och här finns också reglerna för bl.a. avgäldsregleringar.

Avgälden bestäms efter det värde marken har vid tiden för omprövningen och med en räntefaktor (avgäldsränta). Kommunen tillämpar för närvarande 65 % av gällande marktaxeringsvärde och räntesatsen 3,0 procentenheter. Att marken skulle vara värdelös och sättas till 0 kronor håller jag för helt uteslutet. Tomten har ett värde i avröjt skick.  Skatteverkets åsatta marktaxeringsvärde motsvarar 75 % av marknadsvärdet och är bestämd efter principen att byggnaden inte finns, dvs. en obebyggd tomt.

Som köpare finns det en undersökningsplikt och framför allt att göra sig underkunnigAr om vad det är för fastighet som förvärvas. Även om avgälden fr.o.m. den  1 januari 2011 inte exakt kunde anges år 2006 så fanns ändå möjligheten att använda 2006 års marktaxeringsvärde (100 %) och då gällande räntesats som var 3,5 procentenheter. Och därmed fått en fingervisning om kommande avgäldsreglering.  Avgälden för Högestadsgatan 15 har varit oförändrad sedan 1943 och fram t.o.m. 2010. Tomträtten har således varit subventionerad under lång tid och med många möjligheter till friköp. Av tidigare avtal framgår att tomträtten upphörde den 31 december 2010 och ska ersättas med ett tilläggsavtal för fortsatt upplåtelse, så har också skett.

Tekniska nämnden (politiskt sammansatt) beslutar varje år hur avgäldsregleringarna ska genomföras beträffande kommunens tomträtter, som vid denna tidpunkt är föremål för ny avgäld.

Med vänlig hälsning
Kjell Sollbe
Avdelningschef/chefsjurist
Malmö stad, Fastighetskontoret
Fastighetsjuridiska avdelningen”

För dig som vill veta mer:

Activity level

No, I have not completely stopped training. After a spring with a rather high activity level for me with training for and completing the Brolopp in June and lot’s of roller skating with Friday Night Skate during the summer, some of my joints (not the smoking type) have been a little bit congested. One of my coaches suggested to take a break with the jogging and do some fitness training. The plan is to do this program, that I got from a instructor at Novo Nordisk, 2 times a week.

Download as PDF. You are welcome to use it if you like.

Since floorball is such great fun, I continue to play that, even if it probably would be better not to 😉

In January I start a running program again to prepare for Göteborgsvarvet May 21.

The FNS experience

During the summer, every 2nd Friday, a special event has been arranged in Copenhagen city – Friday Night Skate. I had the pleasure to attended the last 3 occasions, after I found out about it and had the opportunity to attend.

The Copenhagen version of Friday Night Skate started in 1999 with inspiration from similar events in other cities around the world. You find a collection of links to other cities on fns-cph.dk. It’s a social event and not a competition. You skate together with 300-700 fellow skaters. There are in liners, roller skates and even skateboards. Some have brought the baby jogger incl. baby. Some babies/kids have even safety belt and helmet on but not all. I didn’t hear about any accidents either so that’s lucky. But a MC police hit the road with his bike on the last trip. Nothing serious happened…

The procedure is that you normally meet up at the same place and same time every time, skate around 20 km on the streets of Copenhagen, escorted by MC police and with help from blockers that are volunteers that block the side streets so we can pass safely. It’s a special feeling to skate on the streets, passing red lights and with police escort – and it’s free.

Thanks to all those people that spend time to arrange these kind of events! I’m looking forward to spend more Friday nights skating around Copenhagen next year…

FNS on Denmark.dk| FNS video by me on YouTube | FNS website | FNS on Facebook

Camp Bridge 2010

The 11 of January I started my training for the ½ marathon over the Öresund bridge. It started with  an “agreement” with our neighbor over a glass of wine some time  in the autumn 2009. During the long winter I have followed a program i got from smarts.se, some Swedish guys that used to give advice on how to train.

During the training period I suffered from aching ankles and one of my coaches meant it could be a combination with “little” bit overweight and running on ice, snow and other difficult “street texture”. The feet and ankles have to compensate for the “insecure” foundation with some micro movements. Instead of  running I did some cycling and rollerskating instead.

The smarts.se training was much about time and intensity. To find out the intensity for 80% intensity: 0,80 x (max pulse – rest pulse) + rest pulse.

The training started with 45 minutes jog with 70% intensity (for me at the time: 0.7 x (195-80) + 80 = 160 bpm) for the first 3 weeks. Then 60 min. for 2 weeks.

Phase 2 was 80% intensity 2 times a week and 1 time rush training. During the process I was recommended to  try a competition week that included a ½ marathon, just to get the feeling of  how long 21 km really is.

The last 5 weeks I have been using a program from jogg.se called “formtoppa” that I found more alternate (sorry, but can’t find the link to “formtoppa” anymore).

22 weeks later, that means Saturday June 12, the big day arrived and we, x colleague Søren, neighbor Catrine and Håkan and I took the bus to Kastrup, Denmark. It started to piss down and I got the feeling that if this continue it is not going to be fun. Just as fast the rain came, just as fast came the sun and everything was fine again.

The waiting time was a bit long at Kastrup Beach park and then we walked a few kilometers before the actual start line. The first experience was the planes just flying over us, “waving” with their wings, at least thats was we thought. Next we entered the tunnel and was VERY warm but the “sound waves” was great. On the bridge we had lots of sun, great view and lots of tail wind – a fantastic experience. After reaching land again, people had gathered to cheer and at some places along the way there was music. After 21,1 km I was VERY happy to see the finish line. Was feeling a bit dizzy after passing the line and it was very crowded to get to the water depoes , get a medal and something to eat. Then I had to find the luggage that had been put on a lorry in Denmark.

We finished of in style with a great (and late) after run dinner at Casa Swedanes. Thank to all the participants for making this a day to remember.

The “Brolöp” was unique in different ways. It is the only race that pass both under and over water and that start in one country and finish in another.

My time?  2 hours 11 minutes.

cool slide show from the finish line, made by Sydsvenskan.
Swedish blog that describe the day quite well, made by Linda Andersson.

Hyper Realistic Art

When I used to paint I used acrylic paint and brush or water color and pencils. I use photos as reference and like to be as realistic as possible and sometimes exaggerate details.

On Moderskeppets blogg I just red about Bert Monroy who take it to the extreme using Photoshop and Illustrator to make Hyper Realistic Art. Bert also share his knowledge on Revision 3.com.

His latest project is a “painting” of Times Square, NYC.

Color Scheme Designer

Wednesdays I attend a class, Interface design and Digital Estetics, where I learn about different aspects on web design. Thought it was about time to get a proper education in this area 😉

At one of this classes we were introduced to Color Scheme Designer. It’s a cool and useful tool that helps you find a matching color scheme for your web site. Very easy to use and lots of adjustments, try it…

Color Scheme Designer

The reason we take the class:

Playing with Photoshop

Photoshop is my favourite software. Some play computer games, I play Photoshop. The “dark” side is that once started playing I can use hours trying different things. And soon Photoshop CS5 is released with some really cool features. Just wish I had unlimited time…

Today I gone through some of the Quick tips on “Moderskeppets” website, learning new stuff trying some of them, thanks Moderskeppet for sharing.

On this photo I’ve been trying Gradient Map, Lens Vignette and other adjustment layers.
This is Nicolai…

Skiing

Skiing is one of the best thing I know. Unfortunatly I only manage to have one week a year in the white stuff the last couple of years.

The other weekend I looked through our photo archive and found some nice photos that I scanned and created a little web album and here is the story behind some of the photos:

In the late 80’s I spent more hours on the slopes. Two years as a ski bum in Ischgl, Austria and the winter season 1987/’88 Vibe and I spent in Meribel, Les Trois Vallées, France that bills itself as one of  the largest ski able areas in the world.

It is a massive interconnected ski region, consisting of three main resorts and eight villages in three valleys:
Vallée de Courchevel – Courchevel 1,300, 1,550, 1,650 and 1,850 meters.
Vallée de Méribel – Méribel, Mottaret are in the middle of Les Trois Vallées and provides the most convenient access to the area.
Vallée des Belleville – Les Menuires, Val Thorens that is the highest village in Les Trois Vallées (2,300m) and the highest ski resort in Europe.

On our tour around the world in 1989-1991, we visited Treble Cone, Wanaka, New Zealand. Treble Cone ski area is located in the Matukituki Valley, 28 km west of Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island. Driving time is about 30 minutes from Wanaka and 100 minutes from Queenstown, a major tourist resort.

The skiarea faces northeast, giving the field protection from cold southerly winds and providing lots of sunshine.

Treble Cone offers the largest lift-served vertical drop on the South Island and is voted having one of the best views in the world.

See all the images ::>

Floppy R.I.P.

Finally my floppy disks are copied to the computer to be burned on a CD…
They are destroyed and ready for the graveyard – may you rest in peace…

While working with these old school storage utilities I thought a little bit about how storage of data has changed during the last decade and what the future will bring.

The floppy disks could hold some 2 MB each and you needed several of them to copy data and for applications.  On a CD you can burn 700 MB (350 floppy disks), a DVD around 4 GB and a USB flash drive can these days contain up to 256 GB!

What’s next? More data on smaller utilities. The challenge is maybe that the USB slot USB Flash Drivesize is too big 😉 or are we going to use small data cards looking like SIM cards for the mobile? What’s the limit?

In the future the  storage utilities are maybe so small that we have difficulties handling them, we misplace them and can’t find them, a baby, dog or cat swallow them, there isn’t room for the label :-)…



Found this self portrait on one of the floppies…