Author Archive

Sunday the 13th links

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

Via the Irish Art Blog is news that Liverpool Registry office is removing heteronormative* art from their walls so as not to offend gays. Fucks sake. Bit overboard if you ask me.

The city, which has over recent years become one of the most gay friendly in Britain, is removing two paintings because they are too associated with straight marriage. One is of a young bride signing the register and the other is of Romeo and Juliet on a swing.

* always wanted to use that silly word.

Chile Presidential Candidates answer questions from blog readers. Another way of conversing with the public. Will we see the parties using blogs before the next election? and using them to actually converse with people and not talk at people without listening, as is the current case.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart). This makes me sad for a few reasons.

Torrent of Sigur Ros on Jools Holland playing hoppípolla and með blóðnasir. Saw them live in the Olympia on Friday night. Sinéad has a review here. Additionally read what memories are swirled up when she listens to them.

Store Pandora streams to your hd.

Girl from tomorrow type bracelet. ‘Embrace “interactive braceletâ€? concept includes LCD display, Bluetooth, camera.’

Ferrari Joyride around Paris.

Table with conveyor belt to get rid of the crap on it.

10 most powerful women in the blogosphere. We need more women in the Irish bloggersphere. We need more non techies too.

Adds to my Christmas wishlist.

Scoble does a Ballmer – Throws a chair at a blogger

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

Attacking a rival company is bad. Attacking the company by attacking an employees personal blog is really bad. Even if the information was right (which it wasn’t) it was still unprofessional and just plain petty.

Scoble made a post and quickly erased it from his own blog which personally attacked a blogger because of who he worked for. For a guy writing a book on Business Blogging it appears he still doesn’t get some of the lessons to be learned from the book. It reminded me of that Forbes Article. Prime example really. The post was entitled “Google employees push sites that only work with one browser” mirrors are here and here. Since so many of Scoble’s regular readers read him via RSS, they are still going to get a copy of this in their feed. D’oh. In fairness Scoble apologised and if there’s one thing about Scoble it’s that he’s genuine. A good lesson is that once the “Publish” is pressed you simply cannot erase what you said, even when you pull it off your site a few seconds later. There were links before going around about how not to write angry emails and angry forum posts. When I go into rant mode against some fuckwit I write a draft post and leave it for a few hours or even a day and then come back and see do I want to still want to publish it. Stick that in the book Rob.

But if you look at the Google employee’s blog entry he doesn’t condone blocking IE from sites. He stated:

Not to mention a bit violent sounding for people like me who just want to advocate a faster web experience.

and from that Scoble stated:

Google is pushing a single-browser solution. And their employees are advocating putting code on your site that’ll turn off Internet Explorer.

Eh no. He saw the code and reworked it so users could detect IE and then display the Google Firefox Ad. It makes you wonder though if Scoble just let the mask slip this time and these are the real feelings he has for Google. You know what though? Scoble is still a great blogger and a real person. He’s made us all like Microsoft a bit more. Maybe not right now but Google will need their own version of Scoble in a few years time.

I have a spare ticket to Sigur Ros for tonight

Friday, November 11th, 2005

Seems my 4th ticket just can’t keep on to an owner. Anyone in the Irish Blogs want a Sigur Ros ticket?

Callcosts.ie – Thoughts

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

So today ComReg launches Callcosts.ie a website for Irish consumers to check mobile costs. I was asked by one or two journalists for comments on it. Dermott Jewell was on TodayFM last night saying how fantastic the site is as he got a preview. Dermott is also on the ComReg Consumer Panel.

I’ve written about my views on telecom prices in Ireland already. A website is a good idea to help people check tariffs besides having to go to 4 different sites to compare and contrast. However, this “shop around” excuse that people are given is to be quite blunt – bollox. The mobile companies are in a cosy cartel and a website which can only be reached by at most half of the population will not make significant impact. This was put to Jewell last night and he seemed to justify it by saying that at least people will know about the high prices. Right, like we don’t read our bills or go to the local shop and pay out on credit every day.

Here is a comparison of EU countries from a recent ComReg report. Ignore the Switzerland red herring, stuck in there to make Ireland look slightly better. Switzerland is not in the EU.

Click to enlarge.
EU Mobile Prices

If you compare Ireland to the EU average we are €17 a month more expensive. €17! A website ain’t going to bring that down. Regulation might. Better and stronger regulation. So while the site is a very good idea, the fact that it is supported by all the mobile companies should start to make you go hmmmm.

Funny thing is the site is being launched by Eddie Hobbs, I wonder what he’ll have to say about the telecoms market in Ireland and how it’s regulated? I also wonder can the website be accessed via WAP, GPRS and 3G?

Every time you blog, God kills a CEO

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Via Doc Searls which came via Saintperle which came from Pinko Feminist Hellcat. It is another piece ripping that Forbes article on bloggers into bits. The more the merrier. Loving the sarcasm in it though. The title is brilliant though.

Closing tabs – Thu 10th Nov

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Via James is a link to the Del.icio.us inline MP3 player

Going to http://del.icio.us/tag/system:filetype:mp3+irish will get you all mp3s with the tag “Irish”. Click on the ickle blue triangle on the left and the file will start playing. Inline media players are becoming quite popular. I really like the Google Video one, it appears to load really fast. Wonder will we see a Web 2.0 version of the Microsoft Media Player?

Via MeFi is a link to the Wikipedia entry on Michael Power – a Guinness marketing persona who has starred in his own movie to drive the Guinness brand in Africa. Not a fan of marketing but this seems like quite an interesting idea and it payed off hugely.

The campaign worked. Guinness led the African beer market by 50% in 2000. Brand recognition reached a reported 95%, and volume growth rose up to 50% in some markets.

kevin Burton on how Memeorandum can be rigged so easily. What is it with peoples love of that site? It’s so fucking ugly. It doesn’t seem to have the newest news more than the news everyone thinks is new.

BoingBoing talks about the Red paperclip meme. This started with a red paperclip and swapped it for something slightly greater in value. He wants to keep going til he gets a house. I wish him the best of luck. Like this quote:

About 100 people visited the site yesterday, and about 20 000 showed up today.

I’d buy an iPod just for these covers.

Family Law – Rights Vs Reality

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Think I’ll drop in and see this when I’m up in Dublin:

Family Law – Rights Vs Reality

Public meeting sponsored by Labour Equality and Labour Women.

Saturday November 12th, 10.45am sharp- 1.30pm
Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
Map

10.45am Registration/ Tea or Coffee
11.00am Official Opening: Liz Mc Manus TD, Deputy Leader, Labour
Party.

First session chairperson:
Senator Joanna Tuffy, Labour Party.

Panel 1.
Frances Byrne (OPEN) – ’Lone parents and the Family law courts – the reality’
Norah Gibbons (Barnardos) – ‘Children’s Rights – Myth or Reality’
Fergus Ryan (One Family) – ‘Modernising Irish Family Law – Rhetoric and Reality’
Mark Lacey (Gay and Lesbian Unions Eire)

11.30am Questions and Answers

12.00pm Second session chairperson: Joe Costello TD, Labour Party

Panel 2.
Ann Gallagher, solicitor (Labour Women) – ‘Practical issues in Family Law’
Francesca Lundstrom (Age Action Ireland) – Grandparent Rights’
Aisling Reidy (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) – ‘Parent’s Rights – a focus on fathers and the gaps in the law’

12.30pm Questions and Answers

1pm Closing Mags O’Brien,Chair, Labour Equality.

Newsvine – as intro’d by Om

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Om Mailk talks about an interesting new News service on his blog. They’re called Newsvine. Says Om of them:

So what these guys have done is basically mashed-up traditional online news site with About.com, Del.icio.us and OhMyNews and created a rather interesting blend of citizen journalism.

Newsvine from what I gather take in newsfeeds from Assoicated Press and the like, allow tagging and allow you to add your own commmentary which will share space with the “professional” stuff. Adds Om:

So if you are a LA Lakers fan, then your columns could be featured right next to AP copy on a URL that will essentially look like Newsvine.com/Lakers.

But wait, this goes a step further and doesn’t just appeal to your vanity as it could make you money too:

you get a piece of the advertising that is sold against content you generated

This is good. There are a good deal of bloggers out there who are far better than some of the press release rewriters. Perhaps some could make a career out of this but I would think many will just make extra beer money but if they write about what they are passionate about and are under no pressure jobwise or financially to talk about crap they don’t care about, then we don’t see it.

I’m still ruminating the Newsroom.ie idea and it being a hub of citizen journalism. This could be a way to do it.

Update 10-11-05:
Mike Davidson just unveiled a helluva lot more details about Newsvine. Nice tagline:

At Newsvine, we feel strongly that an article’s life only begins the second it is published.

Do as James says or else!

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Irish users of del.icio.us pay attention.

Unrelated. No, really! Hello Kitty Stormtrooper.

Irish woman gets top EU job. An Irish woman has been appointed as Secretary General to the European Commission. Well done Catherine. I’m delighted for you. It is well deserved. (That really looked like I know who she is. I have no clue who she is.)

Suing me Suing you, ah hah. Online Free Speech costs more than you think.

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Tom started a discussion about online libel and a few others such as Gavin picked up on it and asked:

I think you can claim to be a ‘man of straw’ and inability to pay

Anyone care to give him the good and bad news?

Given the fact that a fairly well known blogger around these parts got a cease and desist letter followed by a summons to the High Court over postings on his blog, I think the emerging Irish bloggersphere needs to realise the rules of this new world we are playing in. We’re free to post what we want but people and companies are also free to sue us over it. Digital Rights Ireland has put together the Digital Rights Ireland Pamphlet on Libel which every blogger, webforum owner, webforum poster and website owner should read and print off and attach to the side of their monitor.

Now, none of us in the group as far as I know are graphic designers, so if a logo expert or graphic designer would like to take the text and tart it up into a cute and stylish pamphlet then come talk to the DRI group.