Blinks.org.uk our Free Links Directory continues to go from strength to strength and is slowly but surely building up a lot of listings – since the registration proceedures and members areas of Blinks.org.uk and Art-Thing are essentially the same this is great news.

Recently we’ve been working on www.science-fictions.co.uk – which as you may well guess is a Science Fiction and Fantasy Online Bookshop – and the engine of which will form another important part of Art-Thing.

SciFi and fantasy Books Online

After a lot of diversions we should get back on track with Art Thing.  Workload over the past year has been crazy, but now with a bit of breathing space we have had time to finnish our diversionary project - http://www.blinks.org.uk – our new  online business directory

Blinks is bulit on the fabulous CakePHP framework, and is a bit of a testbed for all kinds of bits and pieces particularly relating to areas like Caching to speed up responsiveness. This is particularly important right now while the application is being tested and it is sitting on a fairly low spec shared server.

Blinks.org.uk is now live!

And we are looking for businesses and services based in the UK to sign up and give it a whirl. The site is still in Beta at the moment while we find bugs and make tweaks but if you sign up now your listing will always be top of the list in your category. The business directory could be of interest to web designers and people interested in SEO as you can mange multiple businesses from a single account.

To register visit http://www.blinks.org.uk/users/register

I can’t wait to get on with some art.

Lately we have taken a little bit of time out from Art-Thing and have been working on a smaller side project called www.blinks.org.uk

We’ve been using this as a bit of a test bed for various aspects of Art-Thing but it is also a fun little project in its own right. AND even better it should be ready very soon, it is a directory of UK businesses and services with a pretty flat structure based on tagging and regions. Fast, easy to use and fun (if a business directory can be fun).

Here is a sneak preview:

We have decided to move from the existing system we have used in development up until now over to the CakePHP Geocoding component based on the Mashup API.

In the last week we have moved development of the site onto the CakePHP 1.2 framework -  CakePHP is a MVC (Model View Controller) based application development framework written in the popular PHP programming language.

Since the move we are now beginning to make significant progress again and you should expect to see something soon.

(Exciting times!)

Art-thing is a new website currently under development. It will be a place to come to find galleries, a place to hear about exhibitions, to read reviews and to share your opinions. Come along, get the low-down on events and see what’s on.

Galleries

You will be able to add your gallery to our directory and link back to your own website. Art-Thing will be a place where you can let more people know about what’s on in your gallery and generally promote yourself. You will be able to advertise your exhibitions and events in our listings guide, upload your press releases and promote your gallery free of charge.

Artists

As an artist it is important to make  sure that the public know about your work, right now with the internet, this is easier than ever, but you also run the risk of simply disappearing, just another drop in the ocean. When you exhibit make sure the exhibition is in our listings guide. If you are looking for opportunities make sure you check here regularly, you never know what you might find.