Damien Mulley

Update: Just got invites.

Posted this on the IrelandOffline forum too.

IrelandOffline have not been invited to a DCMNR conference on September 21st in Dublin. ComReg are apparently running this conference on behalf of the DCMNR. It’s not unusual for us to be left out of these events. I guess it’s hard to stay professional when IrelandOffline constantly points out your bullshit. Oh wait, hang on, regulators are meant to act like professionals and not be so petty as to leave one of the key stakeholders out of events like these. Pity this is the third ComReg event where we’ve been excluded. Clerical errors were blamed before. I sure hope the invites weren’t lost in the post. ComReg can’t use that excuse or at least I hope they won’t use it, since they regulate the postal system too.

As you may know from my many rants on this blog, I get quite annoyed with the various excuses eircom, the telecoms poodle and DCMNR use for explaining why we’re second last in the EU15 for broadband penetration. PC Penetration or the lack of PCs in this country is one excuse used.

An EU report (7Mb PDF) released on friday had loads of different stats on mobile usage, TV usage and Internet usage. (Pat Phelan mentions other stats from it) It was nice to finally have stats on EU wide pc penetration (see around page 30) because we can now see that excusing our poor takeup of broadband on PC penetration is flawed. Ireland has a household pc penetration rate of 44% and a broadband penetration rate of 7% (about 8% now since the report used older data). Using the logic of the excuse makers you’d expect that countries with a lower PC penetration rate would have a lower broadband penetration rate. Nope. Some yes but a lot have better rates such as:

The New Member states have an average PC penetration rate of 40% and an average broadband penetration rate of 12%.
Czech Republic: PC penetration rate of 41%, broadband penetration rate of 10%.
Poland: PC penetration rate of 41%, broadband penetration rate of 13%.
Lithuania: PC penetration rate of 36%, broadband penetration rate of 9%
Hungary: PC penetration rate of 36%, broadband penetration rate of 11%
Latvia: PC penetration rate of 35%, broadband penetration rate of 13%
Portugal: PC penetration rate of 34%, broadband penetration rate of 13%

But even those countries with a slightly better PC penetration rate have much better broadband penetration rates

Italy: PC penetration rate of 47%, broadband penetration rate of 12%
Spain: PC penetration rate of 46%, broadband penetration rate of 16%
Estonia: PC penetration rate of 45%, broadband penetration rate of 32%

Estonia has 1% more on us for PC penetration and yet has a broadband penetration rate that’s 4 times as much as us.

I look forward to knocking back your next broadband excuses guys.

The quote below from Dave Winer sums up most of the latest tech fads too:

We were excited about WAP in January 2000, and we (UserLand) made it so Manila automatically generated WAP and WML from each site’s home page. Where did that go? Nowhere, because no one was using mobile stuff then, they were just having conferences about it.

They’ve turned Megatron into the Shrike.

Durex ads are always fun.

Sebastien Schuller – Go listen to his stuff. Weeping Willow is a beautiful song.

How firefox prevents websites sneakily installing malicious software on your machine.

540 degree slam dunk:

It may be a BMW ad but the artist and his kinetic piece of art are worth watching:

Jarvis Cocker – Cunts are still running the world. Give the video a chance. There’s 3-4 false starts before he launches into a working version of the song. The start of this song is kind of dodgy but ends really well. You can also hear the song on Jarvis’s MySpace.

Here are the lyrics:

Well did you hear, there’s a natural order.
Those most deserving will end up with the most.
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,
Well I say: Shit floats.
If you thought things had changed,
Friend you’d better think again,
Bluntly put in the fewest of words,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Now the working classes are obsolete,
They are surplus to societies needs,
So let ‘em all kill each other,
And get it made overseas.
That’s the word don’t you know,
From the guys thats running the show,
Lets be perfectly clear boys and girls,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Oh feed your children on Cray fish and Lobster tails,
Find a school near the top of the league,
In theory I respect your right to exist,
I will kill ya if you move in next to me,
Ah it stinks, it sucks, it’s anthropologically unjust,
But the takings are up by a third, Oh So
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Your free market is perfectly natural,
Or do you think that I’m some kind of dummy,
It’s the ideal way to order the world,
Fuck the morals, does it make any money?
And if you don’t like it? Then leave.
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah, use your rights but don’t imagine that it’s heard, Oh no no,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Hi Gordon,

re: your comment

you’re one sad git. You obviously have little else to be doing.

You’d be wrong. I have a lot more to do, I have a very busy day each and every day and don’t like it when I have to take the time out to read emails I did not ask for and then after that I have to go and ask for these emails to be stopped. Then the same happens again and again.

I also do not like having to take the time to fill out a report to the Data Protection Commissioner but there is a law and I am allowed exercise my duty to have this breach investigated. Would you say nothing if someone constantly started dumping rubbish bags into your front garden? I wouldn’t.

Via Adam’s not a blog is news that Justin Mason is now a married man. Congrats to yourself and the wife. Big extra coolness points go to Justin for linking to the below video on his blog post announcing his marriage. Via le liga!

Chargrilled red snapper, green ratatouille , balsamic & roast pepper crispy leaves. €5.50.

Test your trivia knowledge with Blufr. A new site from Answers.com Handy resource for pub quizes.

America’s drunkest cities. I love this quote:

more than 70% of adult Milwaukeeans reported that they had had at least one alcoholic drink within the past 30 days–the highest percentage on our list. Twenty-two percent of Milwaukee respondents confessed to binge drinking, or having five or more drinks on one occasion–also the highest on our list.

They’d best not come to Ireland then. Which Irish cities are the drunkest? Where could one get these facts? CSO? JNLR?

Create ipod readable documents with this site. Could prove very useful as a way of storing todo lists or even reading mobile version of websites.

The Bacon Wallet. Mmmm rashers.

iScorch – save your lighters. No need to bring lighters to a concert with this. Now bring your iPod and have a flame flickering on the screen. Will they do what that TV station in the states did and have a video of a fire lighting too?

A nice PR person sent me this link to the Bad Pitch Blog where PR people point out what not to do as well as what to do as a PR person. The 10 tips on how to work with journalists is quite useful for anyone that wants to pitch stories to the press and doesn’t know how. Equally valid for not PR people.

God does play dice with the universe. You just can’t see the dice because they’re so small.

Kevin Burton points out that there is now an app you can use as a lie detector for skype calls. Brilliant. Tom should use this for his podleader interviews. 🙂

One lucky helicopter pilot and passenger. Newschopper gets into difficulty and crashes in a dense residential area. Note to the UPS helicopter pilot who flew very close to my office yesterday: It’s not very bright to have your helicopter fly within ten feet of overhead powerlines. Cop the fuck on, you’re not in Airwolf.

Julian is considering inviting bloggers to a wine tasting event. Now I’m sure it’s not a chance to get locked but it’s good to see companies consider bloggers. Now if there were only an ice cream tasting event… or smoked salmon and eel … or ducati road testing events…

Post title is inspired by a line from Def Leppard – Let’s get rocked. Hairspray and big hair is optional for this Bubble Brothers event I should think.