Bluestop began as a business in 1995 in Loughborough, Leicestershire, providing services to business and home PC users, based on many years of experience in scientific computing, PC building, technical support and maintenance, and also computer programming and photographic services.
Officially registered as a sole-trader business in February 1996, Bluestop added web site design, web programming and web site promotion to its portfolio of services, and began providing cost effective web solutions primarily to start-up and small businesses throughout the U.K.
In October 1998, Bluestop was relocated to Earith, Cambridgeshire, from where it has since operated. Business was expanded to include web site management services, Java programming, and a range of management and administration services for small computer systems and networks.
In March 2001, Bluestop was officially registered as a limited company (Registered in England & Wales No.: 4180801) and continues to provide a wide range of business services throughout the U.K. and recently Europe.
Earith is a small village, of pre-Roman origin, which lies at the very edge of the East Anglian Fenlands. It is flanked to the North by many small freshwater lakes, while along the South of the village runs the River Great Ouse. The region forms one of the most important wildfowl and wetland areas in Europe.
Earith lies approximately 10 miles east of Huntingdon, and 10 miles north-west of Cambridge. The major routes into Earith are:
From Junction 19 of the M1, take the A14 to Huntingdon, then follow the A1123 east, passing through St. Ives and Bluntisham, entering Earith High Street from the west.
From Cambridge take the A10 north towards Ely, turning left onto the A1123 at Stretham, passing through Wilburton and Haddenham, entering Earith High Street over the bridge from the east.
Company Name: Bluestop Ltd
Incorporation Date: 15th March 2001
Company Number: 4180801
VAT registration No.: 660 5141 61Name: Michael Burford
Title: Mr
Position: Managing Director
Functions: Company IT and Internet Services
Experience: Computer, IT and Internet services since 1985
Qualifications: BSc(Hons)Name: Julie Gill
Title: Dr
Position: Company Secretary
Functions: Company Sales and Marketing
Experience: Sales and Marketing services since 1996
Qualifications: BSc(Hons), PhD(Chem.)
Bluestop offers a comprehensive range of advice and consultancy services covering many aspects of both business and personal computing.
With experience in computer and information technology gained since 1980, we can provide you with the required knowledge and advice you will need to successfully plan and implement the PC solution which is right for you or your business.
Whether you simply want to setup Internet access for your PC at home, or design your own custom-built PC, or create a complete, networked-computer office environment for your new business, we can supply you with the answers and the expertise to turn your ideas into reality.
Contact Bluestop to find out how we can help your business prosper with computer solutions which are designed to enhance the potential of your business without putting a stranglehold on either your time or finances.
Bluestop will supply computer system upgrade and repair services for small business and home PC users.
All upgrade and repair services are carried out at the Bluestop premises, although on-site work can be arranged by negotiation. Please note that we do not provide any guaranteed same or next day emergency repairs, nor any formal on-site hardware maintenance contracts. Our repairs cover main PC system components, based on Intel/Win32 or similar platforms, but only upgrades to monitors, printers and other peripherals are carried out.
For a small fee, we can arrange to collect and return any equipment for which you require an upgrade or repair. If a quote is required prior to any work being carried out, we will charge an assessment fee to cover the time and work involved in providing the quote. If the quote is subsequently accepted, the assessment fee will be deducted from the final bill.
In addition to the basic repair services, we can provide other fault-finding or troubleshooting services not only for hardware but also software and networks.
Bluestop can supply all the necessary advice, expertise and hardware for designing and installing small PC system networks
Our networking services are aimed at the small or start-up business which is looking to build a computer networked office installation.
We can design systems for businesses requiring single site networks of up to 10 PCs. We will also install simple networks for home users with two or three PCs.
We will work closely with you to provide the most appropriate hardware and software solutions for your business, including networked Internet and Web access.
At Bluestop, we can build PC systems to your exact specifications.
If your PC system requirements are special or unusual, and you are unable to find the exact PC specification anywhere else through the traditional channels, then try contacting Bluestop.
We can help you build the computer system you want, with the software you want, to enable you to carry out the functions you want. In short, a fully customised PC solution from Bluestop.
We will ensure that all PC components are sourced from reliable, very high quality manufacturers.
All Bluestop bespoke PC systems will be provided with extensive support and service.
Please contact Bluestop for further information on our bespoke PC systems.
Our web site design services can provide a cost effective Internet presence for any business wishing to expand commercial activities beyond its local community, or wanting to reach a much wider audience for advertising and marketing purposes.
Our web design services start at £450.00 (plus third-party fees or charges), and work will be quoted at a fixed price after an initial design consultation with the client and an agreement on a project description and timeframe. Costs for very small web site design projects, or single web pages, are open to negotiation.
All our web site projects require 50% of the quoted fee to be paid in advance and the balance will become due on project completion. Where costs are incurred for additional services provided and charged for by a third party, these will be added to the outstanding design fee.
Completion times are by arrangement, but must always allow for content gathering, data exchange and third-party lead times.
Bluestop can provide a complete Internet Presence Management (IPM) service for your business to maximise your web sales potential.
Our IPM service meets the needs of businesses without the experience, expertise or dedicated Internet support staff to manage a company web site. The IPM Service starts at £125.00 per month (minimum contract period is 12 months), and provides:
Please contact Bluestop for more information on our IPM service.
The success of your web site depends most on successful promotion and without it your web site will remain unknown and unseen, while others take the web business. As the number of web sites increases, so the competition becomes much tougher. It is essential that your web site is promoted in the in the right places to ensure the greatest investment benefit.
At Bluestop we provide efficient and cost effective web promotion as part of our web design and IPMservices, but we can also promote your web site independently of these services.
The Bluestop web promotion service starts at £125.00 (plus third-party fees).
The service begins with a thorough web site analysis, including elimination of HTML and JavaScript coding errors, validation of hyperlinks, META, TITLE and ALT tag analysis and keyword optimisation for frequency and relevance. We will then submit your web site to all the major search engines.
Please contact Bluestop for more information on our web promotion service.
Bluestop can provide experienced coding services for all aspects of computer, web, intranet or Internet programming. Any reasonably sized project will be considered, ranging from simple JavaScript web animations to more complex text processing or data conversions.
We can tackle a wide range of programming work at Bluestop, covering various techniques and methods, including:
Contact Bluestop for effective computer programming solutions.
Bluestop will arrange web hosting and domainname registration services for your business or personal use, whether or not you have your web site design or management services through us.
We supply various hosting and domainname services, including:
In addition, we can provide administration and management services for many Internet functions.
Please contact us for further details of our hosting and domainname services.
As a fully independent computer specialist with experience in the Computing and Information Technology fields since 1985, I am well qualified to undertake a wide range of jobs or functions within many IT areas.
I am available for contract work, either on-site or via home or tele-working, within the following preferred areas:
If you would like further information on contract work, please contact Michael Burford at Bluestop.
Bluestop has set its contract work rates to be competitive within the UK and our rates are lower than many other similar offerings.
These lower rates reflect not only the wide range of skills available, but also the fact that we aim our contract services at the small or start-up business. Small businesses do not necessarily have the funds available to employ teams of expert specialists to implement their IT projects and may prefer to use the general skills of an individual contract worker as a more cost effective solution to their requirements. By choosing Bluestop, small businesses will also save the costs associated with employing through a recruitment agency.
Rates are exclusive of UK Value Added Tax (VAT).
Other contract work periods, or contract work at locations outside the U.K., are open to negotiation.
I have many years of experience within the scientific computing and information technology fields, and I have also gained extensive knowledge over the years with various programming languages, computing platforms and operating systems. My experience includes:
Please contact Michael Burford at Bluestop using the Contact Options page if you would like to receive a copy of my CV.
If you require full information on my availability for contract work of any duration at any times, please contact me using the information provided in the "Contact Options" section.
Alternatively, you may complete the General Enquiries on-line form which can also be found in the "Contact Options" section, under General Enquiries.
Bluestop has always been prepared to extend any of its specialist services to private, home PC and Internet users with special rates and arrangements for anyone within the local community. We will make on-site visits, collect and return PC systems for upgrade or repair and many other service arrangements, and if you fall within our defined catchment area, we will not charge any call-out fees.
We are based in Earith, Cambridgeshire and we define the local community as any location within a 10 mile radius of our premises. This catchment area includes many small villages as well as some of the larger towns.
North: Somersham, Warboys, Ramsey and Chatteris areas.
East: Sutton, Haddenham and Wilburton areas.
South: Willingham, Over, Cottenham, Histon and Cambridge areas.
West: Bluntisham, Needingworth, St. Ives and Huntingdon areas.
For other nearby locations, there may be a small charge for travelling costs and time.
Bluestop will provide a no-fix, no-fee service for all home users in the our local community catchment area for any Internet or Web related problems you may encounter.
The Bluestop Home No-Fix, No-Fee service is just £25.00 including VAT. If a repair or upgrade is possible, and you accept our repair quote, then the service fee will be deducted from the final bill, which will include the costs of all replacement or upgrade parts plus any other delivery, package or posting charges.
We can help you with a wide range of home PC problems or issues, e.g.:
If you have any problems with your home PC, contact Bluestop for a solution.
Bluestop can provide help and advice services for all people in our local community catchment area.
These services are designed for home PC, Internet and web users, or anyone who is considering buying their first PC, or who are thinking of connecting to the Internet to use the World Wide Web.
Even if you already own a PC and have an Internet connection, if you simply want some help or advice on any aspect of computing, networking, the Internet or the web then please contact Bluestop.
We will do all we can to help you and provide you with a solution to your problem or an answer to your query.
| Postal Address: | Bluestop Ltd 13 High Street Earith Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE28 3PP |
| Telephone: | +44 (0) 1487 841216 |
| Fax: | +44 (0) 1487 841244 |
| Email: | info@bluestop.com |
If you want to make any general enquiries please click on the "Open form" icon below (or select the "Open form" link below).
This will open a new window with a link to the general enquiry form on the Bluestop web server and will allow you to send an email message to Bluestop.
Please use this form to:
This web site demonstrates the results of on-going web development work on an application programming interface (API) for the fast design and coding of dynamic web sites.
The development of this dynamic API system was, from the outset, subject to very strict design goals and functional objectives:
1. Full compliance with W3CDOM, ECMAScript, and CSS-2 standards.
2. The total separation of design elements from textual content.
3. Compatibility with the latest and 4th generation web browsers.
4. The creation of small web files for fast download times.
5. The creation of web sites which serve as their own text-only versions.
6. No reliance on proprietary code (e.g. Flash(tm)) for dynamic web effects.
Overall, the project was successful, meeting or exceeding the design goals. Bluestop can now design web sites which are compact, faster to download, faster to render, compatible with most modern web browsers, and capable of reaching a much larger web audience.
The Bluestop web site was created to be compatible with as many web browsers as possible and, without modification, backwards compatible with non-W3CDOM Standard web browsers, including text-only browsers. Compatibility tests were done using various platforms/browsers.
Platforms:
Intel Win32 Pentium I/II/III, AMD Athlon and Apple Macintosh II
Operating System:
Windows 98, Windows 2000
RedHat Linux V7+ (Apache Web Server)
MacOS 7+
Web Browsers:
Netscape 4.75, Netscape 6.01, Netscape 6.1, Netscape 7.0
Internet Explorer 4+, Internet Explorer 5+, Internet Explorer 6+
Opera 6.01, Opera 6.05, Opera 7.0, Opera 7.02
Mozilla 1.2+, Konqueror 3.0+, Galeon 1.2+, Lynx 2.8+
It is planned to develop the Bluestop dynamic web design API further, as a number of problematic compromises in function and usability were required for compatibility with the Netscape 4 Layers document object model (DOM).
Support for this outdated DOM will be dropped and the API developed to fully support compliance with W3CDOM, ECMAScript and CSS-2 standards.
This will provide much greater flexibility in web design and function and allow the creation of fast, dynamic web sites without the need to compromise design to accommodate the limited Netscape Layers DOM. This will also remove the on-going problems with earlier versions of the Opera browser which had incomplete W3CDOM implementations.
Bluestop plans to release a number of traditional games on-line, developed entirely with its new API, to demonstrate the powerful capabilities of the W3CDOM, CSS-2 and ECMAScript initiatives. These releases will be available in a new Portfolio section of this web site.
Bluestop guarantees that no personal or confidential information about its clients, or prospective clients, will be released or sold to any third party, nor published in any form either on any Bluestop web site or any other publishing medium in use by Bluestop, unless prior informed consent is first obtained from the client concerned.
Bluestop reserves the right to refuse to release personal or confidential information regarding any of its clients to any third party which may claim the authorisation to gather such information, unless confirmation of such rights is first obtained from the client.
This policy is designed to protect both Bluestop and its clients from businesses or individuals attempting to obtain confidential data by means of bogus claims or credentials.
Bluestop exercises an aggressive policy toward unsolicited email (SPAM) and the businesses and individuals who are responsible for distributing such email.
As a consequence of this policy, ALL email received by Bluestop containing email attachments or which contain certain keywords or phrases are automatically quarantined for the purpose of scanning for virus infection. This may result in some delays in responding to those emails which are from genuine sources.
The email addresses used by Bluestop are no longer published directly in any Bluestop web sites. Anyone wishing to contact Bluestop in the first instance must do so by using the contact forms provided on the web site.
This policy is designed to stop unscrupulous businesses and individuals on the web using automated email address harvesting software to collect email addresses and using them to send unsolicited email.
Except where specifically noted, the entire contents of this web site is copyright (c) Michael Burford & Bluestop Ltd. All rights reserved.
All trademarks or registered trademarks used in this web site are the property of their respective owners. All materials on this web site, including all software, all documentation and all photographic, video or other images are protected by copyright. Ownership is retained by the copyright holder and is not transferred to you.
The reproduction or redistribution of the contents of this web site is prohibited by copyright law, unless permission has been previously obtained from Bluestop. If you wish to reproduce or redistribute materials contained in this web site you should obtain permission from Bluestop.
All information on this web site and legal access to this web site is subject to British law and may also be subject to the laws of the country where you normally reside. All information contained in the Bluestop web site is subject to change without prior notice.
Bluestop makes no guarantee, express or implied, of the accuracy or reliability of any information obtained from third party sources or web sites, irrespective of the perceived reliability of the third party concerned.
Neither Bluestop, nor any representative of Bluestop, accepts any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage which may arise, now or at any future date, from any use of this web site or any other web sites, the use of electronic mail or any use of links to other web sites or data sources.
Bluestop gives no guarantees as to the nature of the content found on any web sites listed herein or elsewhere, and has no control over the content of such web sites or the services available through them. Links to web sites are only for the information of visitors to the Bluestop web site.
Any link to a web site provided by Bluestop does not constitute an endorsement of that web site, its products or services, nor does it suggest any form of business link between Bluestop and the web site concerned.