A very Happy New Year to all readers of this post (and those that don't read it, if that's possible).

Due to the crazy weather here at the moment we've been unable to make it into the office for the last few days. Working from home has given me the chance to update everyone with a post.

The last few months of 2009 were an extremely busy time for us and the start of 2010 doesn't look any different. Not that we're complaining of course, the more work the better so please keep piling it on us! We're continuing to get ourselves established as a web and online marketing agency. Developing our marketing literature is next on the agenda, we hope to get that out by the end of the month.

We were very pleased to meet the guys at Fhoke not too long ago. Being big fans of their work we're pleased to have met them and now feel confident of using them as suppliers of design work when suitable projects require their skills.

We are now also doing some work with Launchpad Platform, a local social media company supporting businesses through social media solutions. We hope to build a long lasting association with them to benefit both sets of clients.

I personally am still learning Ruby on Rails, I must admit I have been a little slack with it though. It has been unsurprisingly difficult to find time to learn with such a heavy work load. Although the breaks do give me time to digest what I have been learning so maybe that's a good thing.

Over the next few coming weeks will see the launch of two client web sites and the start of an Ecommerce project for a new client. The first is for a local charity we have become involved with and the second is for a client we have a very good relationship with, you can see a shot on our Flickr photostream.

A final note on the work front, we're having more and more success promoting local businesses using Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing campaigns. It has been fantastic for us, we now have a target of 40 - 50 PPC clients by the end of 2010. Gathering data from the campaigns has given us a fascinating insight into search and the way people search. This will help us improve the way we build web sites and incorporate search engine optimisation SEO into our products.

Let's hope we can get into the office next week, it hasn't snowed today so there's every chance.

Finally check us out on Last.fm (outofcuriosity). We've created a profile and added some artists to our library. We've also created a group titled Music for the Creative so check it out, join it and have some fun!

Since discovering Twitter a few years ago, we have been massive fans of the Ruby on Rails framework. It's clean, flexible, scalable, and extremely easy to use. We've watched as other agencies have built some fantastic apps which are being used all over the world. In that time, I personally have bought book after book with no real time to learn from them. Time has now finally been set aside each day to tackle the great subject. This will hopefully enable us to offer a back-end development service within the agency.

Coming from a non programmer background it has been hard to grasp aspects of programming, the shear size of the task has been off-putting. In the past I have tackled Asp, then Asp.Net with neither sinking in. Ruby & Rails on the other hand is different. In the short time i've been dabbling with the idea of learning i've been able to understand the Rails framework, MVC architecture, the DRY & Convention over Configuration terms so knew this was a language and framework I could get on with. Rails just makes sense.

What is clear though, in order to get the most from Rails, not only understanding what is happening but also to know how to alter code nested deep within the framework, I will need to know Ruby. Pretty obvious really, Rails is written in Ruby, when you write Rails code you are in effect writing Ruby code. So putting my impatience aside I intend to start with Ruby and work towards Rails.

The first book from the agency library, Ruby for Rails. This book looks like the perfect starting point to work from Ruby to Rails with that goal in mind. Along the way I intend to put the coding examples into practice by creating one or more small web apps. I haven't decided what yet though. If anyone has done a similar thing and wants to suggest a small app or two, i'd welcome the suggestion.

Finally, I have just decided where I can I will write an article or two as I go through the put, trying to document my understanding of the chapter, code example, Ruby or Rails term.

Firstly, I do apologise, it has been a while since our last post. It's been a very busy time for us here at Out Of Curiosity HQ, what with developing our own brand & website (which is coming very soon) to networking and getting our name out there. I am in the office early today though so writing a follow up to my previous post "Have Apple Failed The Mac User With Their New Mouse?"

Two Weekends ago I was in John Lewis with my girlfriend as she had vouchers and wanted a Sony laptop, whilst looking for a suitable one I spotted the new Apple 27 inch iMac, which obviously drew me towards it like a magnet. What a great looking machine, Apple have refined what is already a great iMac. I'm looking forward to getting one of those in the future.

Anyway, back to the mouse. The new Apple Magic Mouse was sitting there ready to use with the iMac so I had a play with it. I am pleased to say my previous post (in my opinion) was not wrong. I just couldn't hold the mouse, it was extremely low, to use the trackpad on the top I found myself having to fold the mouse with my thumb one side and just a single finger the other. It was a very awkward experience. I certainly couldn't use it for 8 - 10 hours a day.

I'd love to know your thoughts? Do you have one? How often are you using it? How could Apple improve it? Is it perfect?

Sapient has topped the new media age Top 100 Interactive Agencies 2009 guide as the directory of digital agencies enters its tenth year.

The first item we'd like to mention is our new office move. The office is now ready for us to move straight into so we'll be making the move later this week. There's a lot of equipment, files and stationery to pack so we've got a busy few days ahead. We'll post a few photos via Twitter as we're setting up so keep a look out for those at twitter.com/unnamedagency.

We've had an extremely busy couple of weeks with 7 Client meetings, all mostly successful. A number of Clients have commissioned new work from us. AGI Kitchens have asked us to manage a number of Pay Per Click Google Campaigns to increase their customer reach. That was something we've been wanting to do for a while now so we're very pleased we've finally got the chance.

Energie Fitness Club in Woodley have just today agreed on our proposal for a website. The website will include features like downloading one-day passes to the gym, taking advantage of special offers as well as a small ecommerce system to sell some of the products the club stocks.

I had a nasty cold all of last week but still managed to work through, nearly recovered, still can't shake off the cough. Night Nurse is working wonders though, i've slept like a baby for the last 3 nights.

And lastly for the round-up, we now have a great following of around 325 Twitter following and counting. Thank you to all of your who have decided to follow us, we hope you find our tweets interesting.