February 2013 News

Jack Knight of Knight Time Creations who is known to Shadowcat as the young artist responsible for our Steampunk Themed images we are using on promotional material has started a KickStarter project and we at Shadowcat Towers are pleased to add our name to the backers.

Jack is a talented artist with an interesting way of looking at things, we are fond of his bold use of colours and perspective. We are really impressed with some of the artwork he has produced for the company. It was therefore natural that we should want to be involved as a backer of his first gallery exhibition.

We encourage you to also back this project and spur some more success for Jack, and if not for that then for the wonderful rewards that are on offer.

With luck we will be able to attend the opening night, and if schedules prevent that then we will attend the gallery exhibition while it is on display.

Jack the Knight
He's a brave young artist...
He's a Knight, do it right...

“being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away.”

It was recently announced on the YAPC::NA blog that Shadowcat's own Mark Keating will be presenting the opening keynote for this year's American perl conference in Austin, Texas on 3rd June.

The topic of the talk will focus on the first 25 years of Perl, and to add a literary theme it is called 'The Perl of Christmas Past'. Keynotes on the following two days of the event will be called Perl of Christmas Present and Future respectively.

It is an enormous privilege for Mark and Shadowcat to be associated with the event and for Mark to open the proceedings with the keynote.

Shadowcat Systems recently started to offer consultancy, development and support for cPanel and WHM. We now have a simple form where you can submit requests if you have a business need or a project in mind.

As usual we can provide a number of services from business integration requirements to project goals.

1. Systems installation, configuration, management;
2. Support for modern perl development, including CPAN library installation and use;
3. Creation of business frameworks, with a paticular expertise deploying Catalyst and related libraries;
4. Full database management using ORM/DBI technology such as DBIx::Class, with expertise in:
1. MongoDB;
2. MySQL;
3. PostgreSQL and other database systems;
5. Development architecture consulting, including:
1. project breakdown;
2. design;
3. revision control;
4. release management process;
5. deployment automation;
6. Custom software implementation of web applications, network services and automated provisioning systems.

The desire to support, promote and utilise highly visible perl projects, to see them adopted, configured and utilised by commercial interests, has been at the heart of our business strategy for a number of years. It is the reason we are involved with interests such as the Enlightened (Modern) Perl movements, supporters of Perl community events and hosts of projects, modules and libraries.

cPanel and WHM support is the first visible stage of our evolving business focus and product support. In the coming months we will be launching several other Perl, and non-Perl, specific product packages. Email info@shadowcat.co.uk for more information or fill out the form

To celebrate the birthday of Shadowcat Systems (we will be a nicely rounded 8 in early April) we at Castle Shadowcat have decided to sponsor the Lancaster And Morecambe Round Table as part of the Lancaster Beer Festival.

The money we have sponsored will be used by the organisation to support several notable charity efforts in the coming year, which makes it a worthwhile cause.

of no less importance to the denizens of Castle Shadowcat is the fact that it gives us sponsorship of a specific beer, which we will partake of, and some beer tokens and commemorative glasses on the evening which we shall add to with more beer tokens and food tokens so that we might have a rather spiffing night out.

The Beer Festival will be held at the Town Hall between 7th-9th March, we will be attending the Thursday night, en masse, and it is likely that there will be little work done on the Friday following this. Our clients will no doubt understand and we shall do all we can to lock Murphy into a box so that he shall not strike.

If you are in the area on that night we hope to see you there.

This Thursday Shadowcat will once again host the Lune Lab which is the monthly meeting of what can be known as the Lancaster and Morecambe Makers*.

The venue is the Shadowcat Offices at 131-3 The Barracks, White Cross, Lancaster. We will be opening the doors from 18:30 onwards (though if you need to arrive earlier or later then just let us know) by emailing info@shadowcat.co.uk.

The L&M Makers are a new group formed at the end of 2012 who started meeting regularly in 2013. We welcome anyone to our events no matter what their previous skil or experience levels. The idea is to come and work on your own projects, work on group projects, and to share skills with other people and help them to achieve their projects.

Shadowcat will also provide soft drinks, tea, coffee, sweets and biscuits.

* There has been no official decision as to what to call the group as yet. ian Norton suggested the idea of calling it the Lancaster and Morecambe Makers for the time being to not only reflect the district but the fact that we want to welcome anyone who makes things. So any craft, any skill or hobby is welcome, his isn't just a technology group but a group for creative crafters of any form.