Golfshake.com - Press Release July 2008

Golfshake.com is an online golfing community that offers a free golf score tracking and golf handicap service.

With golfshake.com, you can get a golf handicap in minutes with a free and easy to use online service and fully track your scores, analyse your game and mark in your game statistics to help improve your play. golfshake has a worldwide golf course directory of 30,000 courses, with up to date course information, maps and over 10,000 user reviews, so you can check out the course without leaving your home. There is also an active community, were you can participate in forums, blogs, upload videos, find playing partners and play in competitions - it allows you to connect with golfers all over the world.

As the leading online golf community website, golfshake.com has come a long way in a short space of time. From its origins as a golf handicap and score tracker, the site now has over 40,000 members and a host of features linking golfers across the UK and beyond through one community. 

“The site is now set up around community interaction, in a similar way to many online community sites, but purely for golfers” says Darren Ramowski, Managing Director of golfshake.com. “Members invite their friends to join, create their own golfing groups and compare scores with each other. Everyone has their own personal news feeds that allow golfers to comment and debate each other’s performances.

The site is continuing to expand and retains its core elements of handicap and score tracking which remain fundamental, as well as launching the latest product an offline handicap card, the best news of all though is the standard service still remains completely free of charge!

Platinum Account Card Service

The Platinum Account Handicap Card Service is the latest service from golfshake.com. It features a credit card sized golf handicap certificate that you can keep in your wallet at all times. Ideal if you are ever asked to produce proof of handicap, play golf overseas, or want to play in golf events and competitions.

Course Directory

Our worldwide golf course directory contains details of over 30,000 golf clubs worldwide including course information, pictures, course maps, news, directions, contact details and user tips, plus thousands of user reviews.

Members are constantly updating the information provided and adding new course reviews which is now over 10,000. If you have played a course that isn’t yet reviewed then let us know.

Member Newsfeed

All members and groups now get their own dedicated newsfeed. Detailing the information form their buddies and the site on the latest rounds, handicap changes, new photos, videos and everything golf.

New Member Offer

As an introductory offer, if you register yourself or invite your friends or members to golfshake.com you will all get 3 months’ free Premium Membership. Just signup and quote code gst02

REGISTER HERE - to redeem offer

Can a golf score tracking website help improve your golf handicap?

If your a pro or very low handicap golfer than chances are you have a fairly good idea of your playing level, official golf handicap and an idea of where your game needs tweaking. For the rest of us in the large majority then chances are you are looking to get help where ever you can.

Can technology and a website help you ? why not. Many top golfers already use performance software to track, analyse and manage their golf game, so why not you.

Using an online golf handicap calculator such as golfshake.com will get you started and provide you within an idea of your playing level in terms of golf handicap for all golfers from anywhere in the world. Plus you get access to a golf handicap certificate.

The golf score tracker system can then be used to really get into your game and see how you stack up against other golfers, see where your weak areas are and provide you with your own career stats. Is it your Par 3, Par 4 or Par 5 scoring average that is letting you down? just by tracking your golf scores the golfshake.com golf score tracker will provide this information and so much more.

If there is a drawback then it’s down to you, the system can only be as good as your golf round tracking and the rounds you record. Plus are you happy with statistics? thankfully the site makes all this easy for you.

For those that really want to get into their game then the system allows for advance round information to be tracked such as fairways in regulation, greens in regulation, bunkers, sand saves, putts and penalties. If this is for you then this is something that can really get into your game and provide you with valuable information on where your golf game is it.

Obviously there are many benefits to tracking you golf scores; getting a golf handicap, improving your golf game and comparing your scores with your mates. Most of us may think we have little need of this type of system but what better way to provide yourself with the incentive to improve your golf handicap and all round golf game. You many feel like things are improving on the course but what better way to prove it by seeing your own golf stats online.

So start tracking your golf rounds and stats today and hopefully you will start to see your golf game improve, lower your golf handicap and have more fun.

Remember this, at the end of the day for most of us golf is a game and something that is fun. Hopefully tracking your scores won’t take this away!

Time to post again :)

Hmmm, never keep up with my personal blog.

Let’s see how I do this time.

Quick data geocoding (batch upload)

Following on from the 2 previous articles on geocoding locations and use of the google maps api. The following site is a really great tool.

http://www.batchgeocode.com/

One thing to mention is who knows how long it will last, let me know if I am wrong but I’m sure this is in direct conflict with the google maps api terms of service which states :

Also, you may not use Google Maps in a manner which gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of numerical latitude and longitude coordinates.

Distance calculations with latitude and longitude

Following on from this post about obtaining latitude and longitude values for postal, area or address data using the Google Maps API, I have included below some good resources on distance calulations with examples in PHP.

http://sniptools.com/latitudeLongitude.php

http://www.zipcodeworld.com/samples/distance.php.html

Enjoy.

Darren.

Geocoding UK data (latitude & longitude) using Google maps API with PHP

Quick post if anyone is interested.

I currently have an out of date script running on my golf website golfshake.com which allows people to search for golf courses within a particular distance of a postal code in the UK. This is done by taking the latitude and longitude of a postal code and running a spatial query to find the golf courses within my database. This worked great until the free web services I was using for lat and lon postal code lookups was turned off unfortunately in the UK the postal data, including latitude and longitude values, is held by the Royal Mail and only available for some riduculous charge.

I’ve been meaning to fix this for some time and had bookmarked this site which had a neat script for extracting the longitude and latitude from postal codes in the UK using the Google maps API. This is great but it’s a UK only solution and works only on postal codes.

Well I’m glad to say that Google annouced at the beginning of July that UK geocoding is now available which extends to postal codes, addresses and locations.

Great I can now use the google API via a HTTP call to retrieve XML data for any location in the world but how can I use it in a PHP script ?

http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=90210&output=xml&key=ENTER_YOUR_API_KEY

This will return an KML file containing; search term, full address, country, area, locality, longitude and latitude etc

Obviously I could use XML functions in PHP to browse the XML DOM, great article on this exact topic, but unfortunately PHP is limited in XML functionality in versions below PHP 5. You can even use CURL if it’s installed.

Thankfully the Google maps API is quite extensive and does not just provide XML output. One simple change of the output method to csv, will output simple data in CSV comma delimited format like :

200,5,34.099558,-118.411512

Therefore for simple latitude and longitude data retriveal the PHP code is very simple indeed and is just a case of retrieving the URL and exploding the data into an array for use within your PHP code.

$address = urlencode($postal);
$url = “http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=$address&output=csv&key=YOUR_API_KEY”;
$content = file_get_contents($url);
$data = explode(”,”,$content );

Then you can use array calls to retrieve the data ie $data[2] will get the lat and $data[3] the lon.

Just had to post : proud father

My wife gave birth to our second child yesterday, Benjamin Solomon Ramowski.

All doing fine.

Proud father.

Darren.

Google maps conflict with CSS - max-width

Recently I’ve noticed that my golf maps built with google maps within Firefox have been rendering just a grey background but have been fine in IE, if that’s possible

After a bit of debugging and rebuilding my google maps code I realised that it was being caused by a CSS style issue. Immediately this pointed me to a fix I have in place for resolving large images that are posted with my forums or blogs on my golf site.

To resolve issues with large images within my DIV layout design I have implemented the following code which basically sets the images maximum size to 100% of the container DIV within FF or if IE and greater than 400 to a maximum width of 600.

img {
max-width: 100%;
width: expression(this.width > 400 ? 600: true);
}

This all worked great for fixing layout issues, although I had noticed a few images weren’t rendered if they were within a container with no specified width. This was a minor bug on my to do list

This post talks about similar issues with google maps and wordpress templates but the resolution was to remove or change the code. Obviously if I remove the max-width or set to none then the maps work but large images knock out my blog or forums.

Thankfully there is a solution I’ve now included a CSS update that sets the img style specific to my DIV container for maps based on the ID.

#map img {
max-width: none;
}

My DIV container is based on the standard google examples and the ID is always just map :

< div id= " map " style="width: 465px; height: 245px " >< / div>

Home office network - Part 2 (cabling 2nd phase/connection)

When I first moved into my house I had my cable internet connection installed in the back bedroom, recently I paid £25 to have this moved into a front bedroom which I was using as a temporary office. The cable company never bothered to remove the old cable so I was able remove this from the back and side of the house and reattach around the front of the house, through the garage, down the electrical trunking to the point where I plan to house the data cabinet. Thankfully the cable was long enough and it was very easy to reconnect a COAX Ftype connector and thankfully the other end was already connected at the junction box but this would just have been a case of unscrewing the existing cable and reconnecting the new cable. All in all a very good job saving me £25.

This meant I’ve been able to reconnect my cable internet connection, router and a small NAS device. I’ve done this very makeshift until my new data cabinet arrives and patch panel.

And I made my first mistake ! I’ve cabled up the access points in the office using 568a method and the other end using 568b, all still works but using a cable tester the light sync is all out. Anyone interested in how to patch up CAT6 check out this great tutorial.

So now I’ve have the first part of my home office working, connected PC, VOIP phone and a small network device. I’ve still some decorating to do and waiting for skirtingboards to be fitted and a floor to be laid but atleast I now have a working space.

And for any techies my comms area is now starting to get some lights

Home office network - Part 1 (cabling 1st phase)

Following on from this recent article, here is the first installment of my home office network setup.

The following information will serve to be a step by step review of my home office network installation and configuration, focusing on network cable installation, infrastructure, network architecture, PC and server configuration and anything else related.

My office is connected to the side of the house and has been built at the back of the garage, with the short term plan to partition off part of the garage into a utility/store room where I will also house the core network equipment and internet connection. The following image is not exact measurements but a rough guide on the layout and my planned set-up.

I’ve decided to use CAT6 cabling basically for performance over CAT5/5e, this was ran around the walls and connected flush to the walls using standard backplates which will then be cabled up to standard CAT6 outlets which are available from most tech shops.

Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any photos from the outset but I was lucky enough to be having a purpose built conservatory which meant I was able to run the network cables alongside the electrician cables to ensure a nice neat look once the walls had been plastered.

I’ve patched up two access points on the right side which will be where my desk will be for my PC connection and VOIIP phone. 2 further points, on the left frame, will be used for spares and laptop connectivty. The cables have been connected through the wall and into the garage where they run along trunking to a location for my data cabinet.

I plan to also connect through my NTL broadband connection to be located central where I will house the main network data cabinet and network kit, which will initially comprise of the patch panel, switch, router, broadband connection, NAS and possible print server. Hopefully I should be able to use the same trunking as used for the electrical cable and reuse an old cable connection which I’ll move from the back of the house, round the front, through the garage and finish in the utlity/store room, which should save me the £25 charge for a new access point !

More to follow once I actually start connecting things and get to the good part :)