Now we are into 2010 where are RWAP Services?

We have been busy integrating new modifications to the Enuuk auction platform, and expanding our thoughts on the dedicated Enuuk Auction Platform user forums as well as sharing several free modifications to the software, which we hope will eventually be incorporated within the main release.  We have released paid for modifications, including SEO improvements (such as Google Base, Google sitemap and Twitter submission) and enhancements to the messaging system used within Enuuk to allow users to message each other.

We have also moved our own auction website SellMyRetro.com - which concentrates on the retro and vintage computer / electronics market to a new even faster and more reliable server.

For the Sinclair fans out there, we have also now nearly sold all of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum DivIDE Plus hard disk interfaces which we had delivered before Christmas - at last count, there were 6 left.

Finally, we also reflected on our year for 2009 - again another profitable year for the business, with turnover increased to over £25,000 for the year, despite the world wide recession.  This means that we remain a viable business looking forward, there to continue our support for the retro computing scene and bring plenty more exciting products to the market.

With SellMyRetro and the Enuuk PHP Auction Platform starting to find their feet in the market place, we have now launched an unofficial Enuuk Auction Plaform forum for webmasters and developers to meet and discuss the Enuuk Auction Platform and share modifications.

Taking account that SellMyRetro.com has only been in existence for a few weeks, we are pleased to see that we are getting over 100+ visitors per day.

We are currently in the process of persuading traders to open a webstore - there is a great advantage in having a free page advertising their own site on SellMyRetro.com, a site which is squarely aimed at users and collectors of retro electronics and computers,  and therefore people eager to find out more information on these items of equipment and how they can buy more for their collection.   For example, plenty of people are visiting the website looking for Atari 2600 games for example, and it would be great if, even if no items are listed on the site which they are interested in, they could quickly find out the other traders in Atari 2600 games.

Traders have to be mindful that any publicity is good publicity - they can have a free webstore and just link back to their own site, so that people interested in the Atari 2600 for example, can find traders who deal in that games console.  If traders want to list items on the site for sale also, they can either list them as a standard auction, a reverse auction, or a fixed price item.  Fixed price items even get included on Google Base - with no listing fees at present, what do you have to lose?



Come on - support the retro computing and electronics scene by signing up and joining SellMyRetro.com

What a difference a host makes

As we have added more auction items to our website - sellmyretro.com, we had become increasingly disappointed with the performance of the site.

We looked at the worst performing areas of the Enuuk auction platform code and managed to shave about 70% off the time to generate some of the pages -essential now that we have added a wiki to each category - our skills from programming the Sinclair ZX81 and QL really showing off there on how to squeeze the last ounce of speed out of a system.

However, the pages were still terribly slow - we therefore took the plunge to try a different web hosting company and having looked at the competition and features provided, decided to use MagmaHost, which must be one of the best hosts around for running PHP based websites. Not only did the page loading times get slashed by around 90%, but we found the MagmaHost allow you to load additional PEAR packages. It also comes with Zend Optimiser and eAccelerator ready installed to truly drive the best out of the PHP interpreter.

Well worth the switch - we wish we had known about MagmaHost earlier.

29 DivIDE Plus interfaces due to arrive Friday 27th November 2009

Well, the good news is that the next batch of interfaces have arrived, just in time to get them out before Christmas.

To celebrate this, we are selling some on our website - www.rwapsoftware.co.uk and some on our new auction website - www.sellmyretro.com

They will sell out fast, so if you want something fun to open on Christmas Day, get your order in now!

Looks like Father Christmas will be busy again this year...

Dear Santa,
This year, I would like some retro computing equipment - in particular, a nice new DivIDE Plus compact flash / IDE interface for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, complete with through connector and pre-loaded firmware, all built into a nice case...

Anonymous Speccy User.

Thankfully, I recently got a call from a Mr Claus asking where we were with these interfaces and I could confidently tell him that the backlog had now been cleared and in fact we had shipped 19 interfaces only this week, with another 20 due in next week (week commencing 16th November 2009).

Looks like he will be placing an order or two via our website:
http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk/spectrum/spectrum_storage.html

SellMyRetro.com - a new website to bring collectors, traders and users of retro equipment together.

We are still working on a new website - Sell My Retro - which will provide a trading platform akin to the reknown auction site, ebay, but specifically aimed at users, traders and collectors of retro computers, calculators, video, audio and other electronics equipment.

We welcome comments on the new site - listed auctions are available to bid on now, but we are developing new features as the site develops.

The site has been based on the new Enuuk auction platform from well known auction software provider phpAuction. Although there have been issues with the early versions of Enuuk, we report and get bugs fixed and have also developed our own range of add-on modules which other Enuuk adopters may be interested in installing.