A Happy New Year everyone!

2007 was a busy year for us - our busiest yet - with our public courses, private courses at Well House Manor and on site private courses all thriving - and we start the new year with a busy schedule with a few places available on most courses. Our business hotel enjoyed an excellent first year too, with many returning guests and "booking by recommendation" becoming something of the norm.

So I'm not messing with a winning formula this New Year's day with any big announcements for 2008. But I would like to tell you of a few refinements and updates which will help us move towards results - for our customers as well as ourselves - that are as good (or even better) in 2008 than they were in 2007.

• Computer Equipment

We have a new fleet of laptops that will be available for delegates to use on ALL of our courses - public and private - in the UK and Western Europe. We're finding that an increasing proportion (but not the majority) of our delegates prefer to use their own laptops in place of, or in addition to ours, and they'll continue to be welcome to do so throughout 2008 - connecting in to our networks and making use of our servers and internet connection as required.

• Software

Delegate's laptops are running Windows Vista, with Cygwin installed to provide a Linux look and feel. For users who prefer to work in a full Linux / Unix environment, they're dual boot ... with a choice of Novell SuSE, Red Hat Fedora or Ubuntu distributions. We also have Apple laptops running Mac OS X.

The subjects we teach - especially the programming languages - don't actually change all that quickly. You wouldn't want them to - after all, you want to safeguard your code development, don't you? So we have loaded our systems with the latest generally available releases, with significant older versions also to hand where they are still in common use. Major new generally available releases will be loaded through the year, but we do not track minor releases where they make little difference to the subject being taught.

• Course Subjects

We have run Java courses for many years, but with the wide variety of other providers available for public courses in this field, and our own setup being designed to handle niche subjects, we have been running private courses only on Java for the last year or two. However, many of our customers want to return to us to learn Java and - taking the most appropriate of our modules - we are introducing the following two public courses:

Java Bootcamp - An intesnse 4 day introduction to programming in Java.
Java Programming for the web - 5 days covering the "bootcamp" schedule plus databases, servlets and JSP

Java-related (for staff who will be deploying Java applications written by others) we continue to offer Deploying Apache httpd and Tomcat which is a two day course, and a five day course for users running Tomcat on Unix or Linux systems and new to those operating systems too - "Deploying Java applications on Linux and Unix".

But Java is just a very small part of our business! Our "bread and butter" programming courses are in Perl, PHP, Tcl/Tk and Python. Outside the programming area, our other courses include Linux and Web server topics and the MySQL database. To complete the list, less frequent courses are offered on C anc C++ and on Ruby

• How the courses run

We continue to run courses in three ways - public courses at our training centre (schedule), private courses at our centre (great for groups of 3 to 8 trainees) and on site which is ideal for a larger group of up to about 12.

We still write and maintain all of our material (and that's NOT about to change) and the course is presented by one of the people instrumental in that writing and maintenance - and who is a full time employee (and that's not about to change EITHER!) Group sizes on our public courses are limited to 8 delegates to ensure that everyone has plenty of time for questions, and more than enough access to the tutor if they need extra help. That's something else that won't be changing!

Delegates are welcome to attend our public courses on a residential or non residential basis. As most delegates choose to stay with us (and a lot of the others say "I wish I had known / how good your rooms are"), we are now listing the public course prices showing residential first ... it adds £60.00 per night for bed, breakfast, a room to what has been described as 4 star quality, unlimited soft drinks and coffee, unlimited internet access ... which we feel is a real bargain. And it means that you can continue practicals in the evening if you wish, socialize with other delegates, and save yourself the need to commute to our training centre.

On private courses on site, all you need to provide is a room and the students, and we'll do the rest - equipment (UK / Europe only) , notes, projector, tutor all arriving about an hour before the course starts on the first morning.

• Hotel

Well House Manor has become a popular overnight stop for visitors to Melksham coming to meetings as local businesses in the area. Our high quality rooms, bundled breakfast, internet access, etc, price us out of the "cheap bed for the night" market - but then that's not a market we ever intended to service, and before the lull over Christmas we were getting full on at least a weekly basis.

"Making business a pleasure" is our motto on the business hotel side, to which I might add "quiet quality". No major announcements here, but do note that if you want an early breakfast or a lift to or from the local station, or advise on what's what locally, we're happy to oblige.

• Events

At Well House Manor, we let our training and meeting rooms out to other companies and organisations - from training sessions, to interviews, through committee meetings to customer presentation sessions. We've been surprised as the widely differing range of uses our facilities have been put to - with groups sizes from 2 to 50! Please get in touch to let us know about your requirements and we can advise accordingly.

• Prices

We review our prices, annually, on 1st January. But they don't inevitably go up year on year, and this New Year's day (2008 in case anyone find an archived copy in years to come) I'm delighted to announce that we've held all of our prices, save for the expenses we charge when running a private on site course - these particular items are priced to reflect costs such as fuel and the cost of us staying away, both of which have risen sharply.

So that means:

Hotel rooms - double occupancy £95.00, single occupancy £80.00
These are the rates per night, including breakfast, internet access and VAT.

1 day course - £410.00 (residential), £350.00 (day delegate)
2 day course - £720.00 (residential), £600.00 (day delegate)
3 day course - £1030.00 (residential), £850.00 (day delegate)
4 day course - £1340.00 (residential), £1100.00 (day delegate)
5 day course - £1650.00 (residential), £1350.00 (day delegate)
A second and subsequent delegate booked on the same course (running same dates, same purchase order) attracts a discount of £100.00. These course prices do NOT include VAT.

 

For private courses at Well House Manor, we have a pricing matrix available, and if you would like a quotation for a private course on your site, please enter your postcode (UK), county (Ireland), country (rest of Europe) or zip code (USA) here:

 
(written 2008-01-01, updated 2008-01-08)

 M100 - Introduction to Well House Manor
  [512] Exciting futures - the Well House Manor project - (2005-11-30)
  [571] Well House Manor - (2006-01-21)
  [677] Sympathetic development - (2006-04-09)
  [756] Seeing the bricks for the trees - (2006-06-11)
  [793] The Wilts and Berks Canal - (2006-07-05)
  [891] Well House Manor Hotel, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2006-10-10)
  [902] Brand new hotel and training centre, Melksham - (2006-10-22)
  [940] Winter at Well House Manor - Open Houses - (2006-11-23)
  [978] Wellhouse Manor, Hotel, Melksham - (2006-12-10)
  [1002] Meet the neighbours - (2006-12-20)
  [1018] Open Source Courses and Business Hotel - products and prices for 2007 - (2007-01-01)
  [1069] Rail trouble forced me to buy hotel - (2007-02-07)
  [1072] Well House Manor in the Snow - (2007-02-09)
  [1112] Bank Holiday country breaks in Melksham, Wiltshire - (2007-03-17)
  [1132] Well House Manor, Melksham, Art Gallery - (2007-04-02)
  [1211] A lot has happened in a year - (2007-05-31)
  [1261] High summer at Well House Manor - (2007-07-08)
  [1332] Melksham Hotel - Five Star Kitchen! - (2007-09-04)
  [1371] Hotel in Melksham at Christmas - (2007-09-29)
  [1384] An email update for past guests and delegates - (2007-10-08)
  [1388] Well House Manor - a year on - (2007-10-12)
  [1706] The Story of Well House Manor - (2008-07-12)
  [1866] What a difference a day made - (2008-11-02)
  [1968] Review of 2008 - (2008-12-31)
  [1975] Well House Manor Hotel - on plan for 2009 business guests - (2009-01-03)
  [2076] A New Advert for Well House Manor - (2009-03-11)
  [2119] Make your business a DESTINATION business - (2009-04-05)
  [2125] We have lost a regular business guest - (2009-04-10)
  [2425] Weekend and Christmas Promotion - Well House Manor Hotel, Melksham - (2009-09-26)
  [2923] Fresh air and beautiful places in Wiltshire - (2010-08-15)
  [2941] Wedding season in Melksham - somewhere good to stay - (2010-08-31)
  [2978] Christmas 2010 - Well House Manor, Melksham, Hotel - (2010-10-01)
  [3014] Well House Manor - the next six years - (2010-10-24)
  [3115] Perl, Python, PHP, Lua, Linux, and more - and business hotel too. Menu for 2011 - (2010-12-31)
  [3202] Telling you something about us in just one line - (2011-03-15)
  [3611] A customer thanks Well House Manor - (2012-02-13)
  [3765] Christmas in June? Melksham hotel bookings and Santa train - (2012-06-15)
  [3800] Fancy a weekend away? Try Well House Manor in Melksham, Wiltshire - (2012-07-09)
  [3864] Guest Guide for Well House Manor and Melksham - (2012-09-18)
  [3985] Special weekend at Well House Manor - come and see Wiltshire - (2013-01-20)
  [4147] A hidden hotel gem in Melksham - (2013-07-31)
  [4299] The Best Bed and Breakfast in Melksham? - (2014-09-19)
  [4613] Our best hotel customers help us ... to help them ... be our best customers. - (2016-01-04)
  [4715] Well House Manor - Still five out of five! - (2016-10-30)

G999 - Well House Consultants - Keynote
  [164] Well House Consultants - review of 2004 - (2004-12-31)
  [225] 10 years and counting - (2005-02-23)
  [295] Pricing strategy - simple and fair - (2005-04-29)
  [360] Spring turns to Summer - (2005-06-26)
  [419] Most popular courses - (2005-08-19)
  [428] Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury train service - (2005-08-29)
  [452] Is enough enough? - (2005-09-27)
  [464] Technical Loneliness - (2005-10-14)
  [549] 2005 - Come as a student, leave as a friend - (2005-12-31)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [695] In the hospitality business - (2006-04-23)
  [774] Bed and Breakfast, or Hotel? - (2006-06-22)
  [845] Course scheduling and Geekmas - are they traditions yet? - (2006-08-26)
  [890] Open - (2006-10-09)
  [898] Courses at Well House Manor - (2006-10-19)
  [929] Presenting Melksham - for a weekend away in Wiltshire - (2006-11-17)
  [1079] Wilts and Berks - two conference / training rooms in Melksham - (2007-02-14)
  [1161] A contrast in room rates and facilities - (2007-04-25)
  [1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
  [1317] 2008 course schedule - Perl, Python, PHP, Linux, Java Deployment, Ruby and more - (2007-08-23)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1414] What we teach - expained for the non-technical - (2007-10-28)
  [1481] The Christmas Letter - (2007-12-22)
  [1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)
  [1615] PHP training courses every month - (2008-04-18)
  [1676] A warm welcome for visitors from the USA - (2008-06-14)
  [1748] Hotel room prices - Melksham, Wiltshire - (2008-08-11)
  [1773] The Longest Possible Day - (2008-08-26)
  [1857] November and December Public Course Schedule - (2008-10-27)
  [1859] Wiltshire at dawn - the tourist trail - (2008-10-29)
  [1929] 2009 - Hotel, Meeting, Training Course prices - (2008-12-07)
  [1955] How to avoid duplicating web page maintainance - (2008-12-20)
  [2144] Looking for a career change - Physician to Web Site Designer - (2009-04-28)
  [2216] Past Delegate Offer - Summer Holiday / Weekend Break - (2009-06-03)
  [2228] Where do I start when writing a program? - (2009-06-11)
  [2326] Learn a new programming language this summer. - (2009-08-06)
  [2384] Looking ahead to the Autumn season of training and accommodation - (2009-08-28)
  [2483] Clustering on Tomcat - (2009-10-30)
  [2537] Faster network, but not faster browsing until ... - (2009-12-14)
  [3164] Brown - or Mrs Sally Brown, accountant from Whitstable? - (2011-02-10)
  [4588] What teach you in a week stays with you for a decade - (2015-11-29)

G203 - Well House Consultants - Training course prices
  [101] Good value, low cost, cheap. - (2004-10-27)
  [163] Introduction fees, bonuses, commissions, kickbacks - (2004-12-29)
  [499] Good IT training cannot be cheap - (2005-11-18)
  [1912] Book now for 2009 - (2008-11-29)
  [2003] Discount Training Courses - PHP, Perl, Python - (2009-01-21)
  [2311] Floor to ceiling - (2009-07-30)
  [2541] VAT Changes - (2009-12-19)
  [2560] Training comparison to QA Training, Learning Tree, GB Direct. - (2010-01-02)
  [3107] Hotel and Training Course prices - the effect of the VAT rise on 4th January 2011 - (2010-12-26)
  [3196] No news is good news. - (2011-03-07)
  [4082] Training around the world - easy payment in pounds Sterling - (2013-05-10)
  [4230] Well House Consultants - course prices for 2014 - (2013-12-26)
  [4246] Python, PHP, Ruby, C, Lua, etc ... course prices held for the rest of 2014 - (2014-03-08)
  [4379] Well House Consultants / Well House Manor - Prices for 2015 - (2015-01-01)
  [4416] Challenging the IT course business model - (2015-02-05)
  [4602] Training course and hotel room prices - 2016 - (2015-12-31)

G200 - Well House Consultants - Course and Company information
  [13] Mobile Office revamp - (2004-08-13)
  [181] Maximum number of trainees on a course - (2005-01-18)
  [234] How to get the best from your supplier - (2005-03-03)
  [277] Fire drill - (2005-04-12)
  [504] We are about Open Source programming courses in the UK - (2005-11-24)
  [550] 2006 - Making business a pleasure - (2006-01-01)
  [564] Open Source training from Well House Consultants - (2006-01-14)
  [1087] Telling a story in different ways - (2007-02-20)
  [1102] A Reference - (2007-03-08)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1565] Languages compared - based on developer community size - (2008-03-05)
  [1577] Spring and early summer training courses - (2008-03-15)
  [1623] PHP Techniques - a workshop - (2008-04-26)
  [1629] A short introduction to our courses - (2008-05-03)
  [2041] httpd, Tomcat and PHP course enhancements - (2009-02-14)
  [2118] Spring Sprung - (2009-04-05)
  [2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
  [2227] Learning PHP, Ruby, Lua and Python - upcoming courses - (2009-06-11)
  [2278] First courses for 2010 - (2009-07-10)
  [2332] Formation, des langages Open Source - (2009-08-09)
  [2333] Formaci[83][c2]ón, de los lenguajes de c[83][c2]ódigo abierto - (2009-08-09)
  [2334] Formazione, Open Source computer lingue - (2009-08-09)
  [2335] Ausbildung, die Open-Source-Sprachen - (2009-08-09)
  [2336] Forma[83][c2]ç[83][c2]ão, Open Source computador l[83][c2]ínguas - (2009-08-09)
  [2337] Opleiding, Open Source computertalen - (2009-08-09)
  [2338] Uddannelse, Open Source computer sprog - (2009-08-09)
  [2339] Oppl[83][c2]æring, Open Source datamaskinen spr[83][c2]åk - (2009-08-09)
  [2340] ldning, Open Source dator spr[83][c2]åk - (2009-08-09)
  [2341] Koulutus, Open Source tietokone kielill[83][c2]ä - (2009-08-09)
  [2350] Ten years in Melksham - looking forward to ten more. - (2009-08-11)
  [2354] Training, Open Source computer languages - (2009-08-13)
  [2400] Are you wanting to learn PHP? - (2009-09-08)
  [2505] I almost put the bins out this morning - (2009-11-16)
  [2558] Happy new decade - and course and hotel prices for 2010 - (2010-01-01)
  [2637] Courses - Melksham and elsewhere - until the end of April - (2010-02-16)
  [2659] New numbers, as 01225 707126 and 01225 709638 are being retired - (2010-03-04)
  [2661] Current Public Courses - (2010-03-05)
  [2762] Well House - Mission and Policy summaries - (2010-05-13)
  [2777] Blowing our own trumpet - (2010-05-23)
  [2838] Respecting our customers anonimity - (2010-06-29)
  [2925] Well House - the pictures - (2010-08-16)
  [2935] 01225 707126 to 01225 344596 to 01225 899360 - Well House Fax - (2010-08-26)
  [3112] Public and private courses - subjects available for 2011 - (2010-12-29)
  [3235] How we make our programming courses both time and cost effective - (2011-04-09)
  [3816] Want to escape the Olympics? Learn to program in the countryside! - (2012-07-23)
  [3935] Whether you have programmed before or not, we can teach you Python - (2012-11-25)
  [4172] Public courses - Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, C and C++ - autumn 2013 and through 2014 - (2013-09-13)
  [4305] Learning to program in Java - yes, we can help. - (2014-09-26)
  [4518] Open source programming courses - October to December 2015 - (2015-09-27)
  [4519] Course Schedule - October 2015 to June 2016 - (2015-09-27)
  [4564] Perl, PHP, Python, Lua, Tcl, C++, Ruby - final public courses for 2015 - (2015-10-30)

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PHP / Web 2 logging
Single login and single threaded models - Java and PHP
A time to update pictures
Comparison - cellpadding versus cellspacing
Well House Consultants Training and Hotel - 2008 news
Apple Mac Operating System OS X - code names and version numbers
Software to record day to day events and keep an action list
Pictures of December
New trainee laptop fleet for our Open Source courses
Efficient PHP applications - framework and example