Lost and Found Pets Ireland – Now Without Borders

January 17th, 2010

Just a very quick post to announce that we are now accepting UK mobile numbers for lost and found listings which means our friends in Northern Ireland can now post their listings. I had originally intended to do this as you can see from the counties displayed on the site but somehow the validation of the phone numbers got put on the long finger with everything else that has been going on. Pets don’t pay much attention to borders and I think that’s a pretty sensible position.

Anyway, spurred on by Evie from North West Pet Rescue and having consulted the relevant Ofcom document on the matter, I have enabled numbers starting with the digits 071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 077, 078 and 079 to be submitted.

If anyone in Northern Ireland has any problems submitting with their particular UK mobile number they can contact me and I will do my best to resolve the issue.

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Our Lost & Found Pet Posters Get High-Tech with QR Codes

January 16th, 2010

Over the course of the past 6 months it has become apparent that while all the tech and social media facilities for sharing listings are all very well and good, often the most effective means of getting pets reunited with owners is via the traditional lost and found pet poster.  Indeed it was the way I managed to locate the owner of the dog I found myself which inspired this website.

Since we launched we have offered a facility on the site to print out a custom lost or found pet poster you can distribute locally but now we are bringing a little tech from the website right onto the poster by including QRcodes.

The QRCode containing our URLThese codes work a little like barcodes – with a suitable application on your phone, you can point your camera at one and the information contained within is transferred automatically to your phone, whether it be (as in the case of our posters) a web address to store on your phone, a phone number to dial or just a simple text message.

So today we score another first as these barcodes have gone live on all posters and you can view and test an example above which contains simply the web address for this site.

Depending on the make and model of your phone, there are a number of (usually free) scanning applications available.  I have listed some below for your convenience.

I-nigma reader, by 3GVision
Install via mobile browser: http://www.i-nigma.mobi
or download to a computer and transfer it to your mobile device from
www.i-nigma.com

NeoReader, by NeoMedia Technologies / Gavitec AG – mobile digit
Install via mobile browser: http://get.neoreader.com

UpCode reader, by UPC
Install via mobile browser: http://www.upcode.fi
or download to a computer and transfer it to your mobile device from
www.upc.fi/en/upcode/instructions/download

Semacode reader, by Semacode
Install via mobile browser: http://semacode.org/ota
or download to a computer and transfer it to your mobile device from
semacode.org/software/

QuickMark reader
Download to a computer and transfer it to your mobile device from
www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/index.asp

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New iGoogle Gadget Published

January 2nd, 2010

The Lost and Found Pets Ireland Latest Listings iGoogle GadgetThe Lost and Found Pets Ireland Latest Listing gadget is now published for all those using a customised iGoogle homepage. The gadget automatically lists up to 5 of the latest listings on the site and the listings displayed can be filtered by status (lost or found), county and pet type.

It is also worth mentioning that this kind of Google gadget can be embedded in any other web page with just a couple of lines of cut n’ paste code.

For more see The Lost and Found Latest Listings Gadget page in the iGoogle Content Directory.

Live Gadget Preview

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Irish Lost & Found Pets Now on Google Wave

December 27th, 2009

More as an experiment at this point than anything else, given the limited user base on Google Wave at this point, I have started certainly Ireland’s and possibly the world’s first ‘Lost & Found Pets’ public Google Wave.

I’m hoping those using Google Wave will use this wave as a resource for sharing information on lost, missing, stolen and found dogs, cats and other pets in their particular area. Time will tell how useful this resource will be.

You can jump on this wave now by heading to The Lost and Found Pets Ireland Public Google Wave.

As always, let us know what you think and if you have any ideas for features you would like to see on the Wave, let us know.

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Download Free Screensaver for Lost & Found Pets on Your PC

October 28th, 2009

Another quick post to announce that I have released the Lost and Found Pets Ireland screensaver (for Windows). Its another attempt to bring the listings here to the widest possible audience. The screensaver displays photos of pets listed on the site with a short summary of the listing and includes the facility to click through on the photo to a particular pet’s listing.

Installation:
Installation is easy. Simply download the free screensaver (Filesize: 148KB) and save it to the folder of your choice. Right click on the downloaded file (lostandfoundpets.scr) and choose either ‘Test’ to give the screensaver a trial run or ‘Install’ to install it as your default screensaver.

System Requirements:
Basically, all you need is a PC with an up-to-date configuration. Specifically:
Operating System: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 5+
You will also need the dotnet framework installed (3.0 minimum) which comes standard on all Windows machines now but is also available for download.

As always I am interested in hearing any feedback users may have.

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