A Lineal engineer has climbed to the world-famous Southern ‘base camp’ of Mount Everest, to a height of 17,598 feet (28°0′26″N 86°51′34″E).

Lineal’s Martyn Kay, a senior support engineer, reached base camp (via Kathmandu) as part of a team of 6 intrepid explorers, flying to Lukla (in what appeared to be a modified rickshaw) before a climb of more than 5,300 feet to base camp itself. On the way they crossed one of the worlds highest mountain passes and summited 3 Himalayan peaks above 16,000 feet.

Affected by the thin atmosphere at an altitude in excess of 18,000 feet, Martyn described the symptoms of altitude sickness as constantly fighting to catch your breath accompanied by pounding headaches.

Following in the footsteps of Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953, the team reached the Southern base camp on 18/4/18 under snowy, sub-zero weather conditions.

Despite encountering other teams in difficulty, Martyn and team completed their 100 mile expedition and returned safely from the life-changing experience – bringing home local Nepalese delicacies for the Lineal team.

Scale new heights with Lineal! Contact our team today.

network overhaul

Lineal recently rescued a London-based business from its own private cabling nightmare, with a complete network overhaul.

In a 48-hour marathon rebuild, network engineers from Lineal replaced dozens of faulty cables, analysed every area of the network, adding new switches and other network equipment.

The picture above shows just one of several cabinets, before (left) and after (right) Lineal’s rebuild. The equipment had previously been patched and re-patched over ten years without clear planning, resulting in slower internet access and overheating rooms.

Network engineer Martyn Kay explained: “This company rightly realised that they had to address the problem rather than ignore it – and fortunately we were able to overhaul the entire system.”

The team quickly discovered other unexpected problems, including mystery fibre-optic cables that led nowhere, stray power cables, long-dead switches and improvised cabling ‘borrowing’ internet access from neighbouring departments.

Lineal reconnected every cabinet, replaced every cable with new lines, standardised the colour scheme for data and phones, and added reliable backup switches to improve network resilience and business continuity.

For expert network, cabling and IT infrastructure support, click here.

We at Lineal are proud to be the first sponsors of Ilfracombe Academy U14 Girls football team!

The high-flying team who have been Devon County Champions for the past two years running, will play in the new blue ‘Lineal’ team kit, produced by MJM Sportswear of Bideford, as they seek to continue their winning streak.

Lisa Norris, second in PE at Ilfracombe Academy thanked Lineal: “We’re delighted with the kit. We really promote girls getting into and continuing to participate in all types of PE. Having a fantastic kit (which they don’t have to share with the boys!) gives them a real sense of pride and is a real boost for the team. They have already had superb success in winning the North Devon Friendly Tournament, and we have no doubt that there’s no stopping them now!”

Terry Schofield, Managing Director at MJM Sports explained ‘’The kit is a very technical fabric used by some professional Clubs. We are delighted Lineal selected us as their preferred supplier, and we wish Ilfracombe Academy further success in the future’’

Mike Matthews, Managing Director at Lineal, praised the team: “We wanted to give something back to Ilfracombe Academy and sponsoring new kit for this fantastic team was perfect – they are yet to lose a single league match! Lineal have personal connections to the academy through our own staff, and via the North Devon Employment Skills Board: we think local businesses ought to do more to kick-off engagement with young people.”

“We wish the whole team the very best of luck at the Devon County Finals.”

Lineal Software Solutions have launched of our new website for our SQLWorks Business Management Software (www.sqlworks.co.uk).

Managing Director of Lineal, Mike Matthews, explained: “This is a big year for SQLWorks, as we’re due to release Version 8 in conjunction with the release of Omnis 8, and we wanted to overhaul our SQLWorks website too.”

“We always aim for our software to work how you work: we’ll now be offering 3 different delivery models to suit different businesses’ needs, with SQLWorks available in on-premise, hosted and cloud versions.”

SQLWorks, Lineal’s leading software for Accounting, CRM & Stock Control was first developed for manufacturing in 1983, and has evolved substantially over 33 years.

Keeping up with the times, the new website has been designed to be fully responsive, for use on mobile and tablet devices. More and more people will use SQLWorks on the move in the future, from a variety of devices, so the SQLWorks website should mirror this.

Existing SQLWorks users will also receive additional support, accessing learning materials via the SQLWorks News page. Extra features, including a live SQLWorks demo and our SQLWorks help guide, will be available soon – watch this space!

Discover SQLWorks today: visit www.sqlworks.co.uk or call 01271 375999

Over Christmas 2015/16, Lineal launched a technical trial to provide free, public-access Wifi across Barnstaple Town Centre.

The pilot scheme, which took place during the busiest shopping period of the year, saw our team solve a number of technical challenges: scoping sites for Wifi access points, installing suitable hardware and managing network connectivity for shoppers and visitors to the town.

With generous support from Barnstaple Town Centre Management (BTCM), North Devon Council and M&E Alarms, we delivered a free wifi network connected to by more than 400 people each day at peak usage.

To build the network itself, we used Cisco Meraki MR-66 ruggedised outdoor routers, fixing a ‘mesh’ grid of interconnected access points high on selected buildings owned by local businesses who agreed to take part. Visitors to the town could connect from any smartphone or other wirelessely enabled device, via a special ‘splash’ page.

Managing Director of Lineal, Mike Matthews, explained: “We wanted to attempt an ambitious project which would benefit our local area. Wider connectivity opens up new ways for people to find out information about upcoming events, for local businesses to advertise, and for visitors to our town to share their enjoyment of Barnstaple with friends and family over social media. There are many possibilities.”

Throughout the trial period each access point also collected anonymised location data in real-time. With as many as 20,000 wirelessly enabled devices moving within Barnstaple town centre during a 24 hour period, the free Wifi Project was also successfully used to measure footfall patterns in public places, which could one day be used to help local authorities plan for busy periods.

Although the pilot project has now ended, team members from Lineal presented the initial findings to the Barnstaple Town Centre Management, North Devon Council and Devon County Council in February 2016, with a view to launching the network as a more permanent asset for the town in the near future.

For more information on cabling & network infrastructure services from Lineal: click here or call us today on 01271 375999

Education tracking software LearnSprout has been bought by Apple, in a purchase expected to extend the computing giant’s reach into the education sector.

American software platform LearnSprout, already used across 42 states in over 2500 schools, is an analytics dashboard that allows teachers to monitor pupil’s performance and results, attendance, student health and more.

LearnSprout’s developers argue that by aggregating data, schools can help study trends for promoting better teaching, improving readiness for higher education and ensure a more efficient use of resources.

This is the second announcement in recent weeks about Apple investing heavily in technology for the education sector, following the January launch of Apple’s Education package and iPad modifications designed for classroom use. It’s unlikely to be the last.

For education sector IT support – talk to Lineal today: 01271 375999

3D Touch technology shows potential

Apple’s iPhone 6S pressure sensitive 3D Touch screen can even be used to weigh small quantities of materials using a third-party application, users have discovered.

An iPhone 6S screen can be used to hold a measuring container, re-calibrated to zero with a tare function via a web app, and set to display the mass of ingredients placed in the container by measuring the downforce they exert on the 3D Touch screen.

An interesting proof of concept, expect to see this useful bit of technology spread beyond Apple’s iPhone – rumours have been circulating online that Samsung’s next flagship smartphone will also have a pressure sensitive screen.

For now the technology is not necessarily practical for actual cooking (unfortunately illegal uses might be entirely possible) because the maximum accurate weight is only 385 grams.

Expect to see more sensitive screens and wider measurement ranges in future iterations of the 3D Touch, and similar screens from rival smartphone makers as a new standard feature.

Now if only it could mix the ingredients too!

With over 25 years of experience – contact Lineal today for Apple IT Support: 01271 375999 or [email protected]

Bloxx to become part of Akamai Technologies

Web filtering provider Bloxx have announced that they will be ceasing support for their products and services, following a shock email from the company’s Chief Executive.

The move comes as part of a cash deal takeover bid by cloud services firm Akamai Technologies, announced on 2^nd November 2015, and will see an end to the sale of all Bloxx products.

Bloxx has a good reputation in the UK and beyond for delivering a strong feature set in their appliances that are used to filter online content delivered in sensitive environments. Their products are commonly implemented by educators, healthcare providers, local authorities and businesses.

Although existing contracts will be honoured, those who have invested in physical Bloxx hardware may well find the lifespans are now limited, with little indication of whether Akamai will offer suitable replacements.

Bloxx’s impressive record has drawn the attention of national media before, with the Edinburgh based-company receiving hate mail from teenagers unable to access restricted websites on school computers even with a range of proxies.

With online security stories dominating the news in recent weeks, wider awareness of the need for web, social media and email monitoring is likely to only increase demand for such products. It remains to be seen whether interested parties will consider a cloud-based offering from Akamai to be sufficient, especially when it comes to security and bandwidth management.

Need help with online content filtering and network security for your organisation? Speak to Lineal today: call 01271 375999 or email [email protected]