Swashbuckling is an activity normally carried out on the high seas.

But piracy is as rife as ever online.

Notice anything familiar about these screenshots?

You’d be forgiven for thinking someone had got their hands on our carefully crafted creations but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

After a quick trawl of the Internet, our research revealed there are plenty of websites out there imitating both our www.dpivision.com and www.cannybill.com.

It’s just a good job we’re all flattered by it here!

dpivision.com Ltd – Original

Pirate Site 1

Now this person really hasn’t bothered to change very much at all!

Pirate Site 2

And again, another company taking our design and just adding their logo but worst of all, doing a terrible job of it!

CannyBill – Original Site

Pirate Site 1

Well again not much effort has been put in to change our original design. They’ve changed the logo and some text but that’s about it!

Pirate Site 2

Well this is not a pirate site as such, just someone taking our CannyBill and Tradingeye sites and featuring them in their own portfolio!

Come and meet and greet the Dpivision.com Ltd team as we host the after hours fun to a day with a top designer.

Designer and author Andy Clark from Stuff and Nonsense is stopping off in Newcastle to host an Advanced CSS Styling workshop at the Copthorne Hotel in October.

And we have joined forces with him to host and sponsor an evening of socialising at The Salsa Club, giving people the chance to unwind, swap top tips and beef up their contacts book.

The one-day masterclass offers ideas on how to use the most up-to-date CSS techniques of the moment, including:

- How to design balanced, inspired layouts using advanced CSS positioning techniques
- New ways to work with colour using RGBa
- Using multiple background and border images
- How to use text and box shadows
- About CSS gradients, reflections and transitions

Places are running out very quickly so book your place now!

http://forabeautifulweb.com/announcing/newcastle_upon_tyne_2009/

For the CannyBill sponsored after party, we are extending the invitation to our customers.

So come along and say hello to the team at The Salsa Club, West Gate Road, Newcastle on October 30 from 6.30pm onwards and fill yourself up with some of the tastiest free nachos and best Mexican beer.

Just so we know how much free food and booze to order, drop us a line to say you’ll be coming at info@dpivision.com.

We have been invited to join some of the country’s most prestigious digital people at an exclusive event.

Next week, we will be heading to the capital with one of just six North East-based businesses selected to attend the High Growth conference.

As part of the conference, which aims to give software and technology-based businesses the chance to explore strategic partnering, flotation or equity finance, we will be meeting with top bods at Microsoft, Google and Silicone Valley businesses.

We will also be given the chance to meet some potential corporate customers and be given advice on how to develop our business.

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, project manager, said: “This is another great chance to spread the word about the work we do to some of the world’s biggest companies.”

Looking after our customers has always been a top priority for us and to say a big thank you for all our hard work, Steve, of Singleframe Media, sent us a treat to help us pile on the pounds.

He sent a whole box of Cadbury Cream Eggs to head office, which were all troughed within seconds by the hungry hordes at Dpi towers.

We were all over the moon when the box, complete with the note:

“Just a little thank you to all the guys for the hard work and the support over the past year! Kind Regards Steve Fairhurst Singleframe Media”,

Thanks Steve – not only did you help us fill our faces, the lads were so stuffed they couldn’t leave their desks to take their lunch break

After almost a year of development, testing and refinement, the latest release of the standards-based online shopping cart system www.tradingeye.com is finally here, and available for purchase.

The reboot of the award-winning software brings many new user-requested features, such as language packs, an Ebay feed, a new zone-based postage system, many extra shipping promotions, and both Google and Yahoo XML site maps for search engine submissions.

http://www.tradingeye.com/feature-list.php

As well as a completely redesigned admin panel, this latest release of Tradingeye adds multiple image galleries, a reworked navigation system and a new one-page checkout process, allowing even easier online shopping for your customers.

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Managing Director at dpivision.com Ltd., the Newcastle upon Tyne-based software development team behind the product states “Version 6 offers a lot more than the highly-regarded version 5, and will appeal to a much wider market. We have built on the success of version 5 and added many more features to benefit not only retailers looking to get into e-commerce, but also web development companies.”

For more information of the software, check out the all-new www.tradingeye.com site, where you’ll find out all you need to know, including a full feature list, live online demo, and our revised pricing plans.

Competition was fierce at this year’s North East Digital Awards.

We made it into the finals of the competition after receiving support from customers and supporters who wanted to see us scoop the top spot.

But despite being short-listed in three categories in the digital innovators section, we narrowly missed out.

Unfortunately, the best example of accessibility category, which we won last year, was withdrawn due to not enough entries and Cannybill.com was pipped to the post in the best use of advanced practices in web development and best use if API.

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Managing Director, said: “There were a lot of good entries this year and it was a tough competition.

“We were really pleased to make it into the finals and will be back next year.”

The North East Digital Awards was launched in 2007 to celebrate the growing digital industry in the region by show-casing the best digital talent.

You can also look at some photos below which we took on the night:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpivision/sets/72157615839118067/

British web geeks took over Texas when the South By South West Interactive Festival came to town.

And we were part of the digital mission’s five-days of action in Austin.

Our creative juices were sent into overdrive as we mingled with more than 9,000 of the industry’s top bods, swapping hints and tips on the way we work.

We spread the word about our latest project, CannyBill, through our stand at the Digital Mission Expo event, dishing out hundreds of flyers and leaflets along the way.

And we paid a visit to London’s renowned weekly social media gathering, The Tuttle Club, which landed at the event and gave us the chance to get together with other internet bods.

An intimate tour of the city was polished off with a meet and greet session with Austin’s governor and other secretary of states.

And we attended plenty of master classes about doing business stateside, learned from top speakers and networked with high-profile companies at the trade stalls.

But it wasn’t all work. The Block Party gave us the chance to unwind and chill with fellow digital bosses.

And although the Great British Breakfast made us miss home, we were able to swap stories and meet investors, other companies and the press while munching on our bacon butties and scrambled eggs.

Take a look at what we got up to by visiting:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpivision/sets/72157615840620492/

You can also see an interview with Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine at the festival by visiting:

http://techfluff.tv/2009/03/17/techflufftv-sxsw-day-4/

Our unique way of thinking has secured us a place on the Crossover 4iP Lab.

Channel 4 is challenging the region’s top digital entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas at a three day conference in Newcastle this week.

They are on the hunt for inspirational and fresh ways of engaging with the public through various media platforms.

And the best ideas will receive a cash injection from Channel 4 to help launch them.

Crossover is an international programme designed to explore the creative and the commercial challenges of developing content and services for digital media.

During the three days, the series of creative laboratories will see experienced and talented professionals from different sectors of the audio-visual industries work alongside international experts and mentors to develop ideas for innovative cross-platform programmes, products or services.

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, project manager at Dpivision said:

“We are delighted to have been selected to take part in this event and look forward to contributing with some of the North East’s most talented companies.”

“This year has already proven to be a very exciting for us with our company having been chosen to take part in the UK Digital Mission trip to Texas and been selected for the finals of the European Startup Awards. We can’t wait to get stuck in!””

For more information, log onto www.crossoverlabs.org and www.4ip.org.uk.

CannyBill, the much anticipated new application from dpivision.com Ltd is now live and the paid plans are available.

www.cannybill.com

CannyBill is a complete invoicing, billing and web hosting automation system – it sounds complicated, but really it couldn’t be simpler.

CannyBill streamlines the whole modern web design and development ‘admin’ side of things; from tracking invoices and taking payments, managing subscription-based services to selling domain names, web hosting accounts and SSL Certificates all via web based order forms.

CannyBill will cut hours of tedious, repetitive toil from your working week – leaving you to do what you do best!

It’s taken one and a half years of planning, preparation and of course hard work, but it’s finally here. We hope you enjoy our new product, and we trust it really will streamline your working day.

Visit the www.cannybill.com website for more information, and to sign up to your own free account!

The team at dpivision.com Ltd

PRESS RELEASES:

http://www.cannybill.com/press_releases.html

It’s official – our creative talents are beautiful and inspiring.

Our carefully crafted website has caught the eyes of top designers once again.

Our website, www.dpivision.com, has been listed in the top 22 most inspiring website navigation ideas.

http://www.wbdesignideas.com/2008/12/10/22-most-inspiring-website-navigation-ideas/

After searching the internet, Wbdesignideas, stumbled across ours and has listed it as one of its favourites.

Described as breath-taking, unique and artistic.

Commenting on their quest, Wbdesignideas said: “Ahh, the beautiful navigation…

“Apart from being one of the most important technical elements of a website, website navigation can also be beautiful, pleasant to look at, sometimes even breathtaking.

“I dug through a lot of websites and picked out these 22 navigation designs that I find to be the most inspiring, whether is will be for the artistic expression, uniqueness or just a good idea.

“There are more brewing for later but here are the 22 that I have ready to drool over.”

Our logo also made it onto a recommended list of logos to inspire designers before getting stuck into a project.

http://completephotoshop.blogspot.com/2009/01/32-beautiful-website-logos.html

Commenting on the project, Completephotoshop said: “After staring at the computer for hours and going through close to two hundred websites I picked out these awesome looking logos.

“This is a good list of logos to look through when you need to get inspired before working on a website logo project.”