Damien Mulley

I met Treasa for coffee on Saturday and as I walked home past the Shell petrol station nearish to my house an idea sprang to mind. The station always seems to get new management or owners every two or three years, possibly due to lack of business. While walking past, there was this very cute girl in an enhancing top pouring petrol into a car for a guy who I guess was her father. Anyway it got me thinking that the petrol station could actually increase business if they had girls like that working at all the pumps. Ramp up the petrol prices by 15 cents a litre or more and away you go. Pay the girls just above minimum wage but allow and encourage tipping. Hooters for the filling station industry. The thing is we all bitch and moan about prices, but it’s only a rare few who will actually drive to the cheapest station.

Oh and don’t get me started on the carwash idea…

Oh and yeah I’m sure there can be stations that appeal to heterosexual women and gay men.

I finally got around to seeing Before Night Falls this weekend. It’s a lovely story about the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas and also gives another view to life under Castro. What really kept my attention was the voice of Javier Bardem reciting the poetic words of Arenas. The imagery from the words and not the cinematography itself had greater effect for me. Lines such as:

Cubans are defined by noise, it’s their nature, they need to bother others, they can neither enjoy or suffer in silence

did more to introduce me to the Cubans than any Lonely Planet guide. Still, I’m not knocking some of the beautiful cinematography, such as the prison scene with hundreds of balls of soap, tied with long strings, spinning from the cages that the prisoners were kept in. It seems Arenas survived in there by writing letters for the prisoners in return for soap and cigarettes. In the film a transvestite played by Johnny Depp (with all the usual Depp flare) smuggled a novel he wrote out but apparently that did not happen in realitywhere seems they caught him trying to smuggle out his writings.

Shame I took 6 years to get round to seeing this movie as it is well worth a view and I’m annoyed now that I recently returned “The Sea Inside” without watching it. Anyway, I recommend.

via

01:24:44 Yes, it’s my book, now it’s yours.

01:24:50 Thanks.

01:25:20 Why do you write?

01:25:25 Revenge.

01:25:35 Could you teach me how to write?

Just so you know. Although Gale Harold is playing Wyatt Earp in this.

Like Tom I seem to be having email issues. If you’ve sent me email in the pastt week, can you send it again or send it to Damien.Mulley < at > Gmail. Also for whoever reads this, can you send a test mail to Damien < at > mulley < dot > net and if it gets sent back can you post the error message in the comments? Thanks.

Business Post on Lieberman’s fight for survival:

The Connecticut contest is also widely regarded as a test of the strength of the so-called ‘blogosphere’. The term refers to the politically orientated web logs – or blogs – that have proliferated in recent years. On the liberal side, the blogs have provided a new forum for activists dissatisfied with the moderate Democratic leadership. Many of the blogs have campaigned vigorously for Lamont – a victory for the challenger would therefore be seen as a feather in their cap.

‘‘There are a lot of elements in this race,� Doug Muzzio, a public affairs professor at the City University of New York told The Sunday Business Post. ‘‘The most obvious is Lieberman’s position on the war and his closeness to Republicans. “But the deeper element is the role of bloggers. The way the opposition is organised and the way it communicates is different to how it was before.� Tuesday’s vote should provide more evidence on the question of how effective the bloggers really are.

Expect a slight increase in journalists interested in Irish political blogs if Lieberman crashes out. Are you listening Cian and Simon?

Both Mark Tighe in the Sunday Times and Kathleen Barrington in the Business Post cover the fact that the new owners of eircom have said in typical Aussie fashion that the network is shit. Something IrelandOffline have been saying for years, because it’s true. When the Oireachtas Committee on Broadband asked Isolde Goggin the head of ComReg about it, she instead decided to answer a different question.

Durkan asked the question: “I draw her attention to line failure in broadband. We were not able to get information on the extent of that line failure because it is supposed to be commercially sensitive. Is ComReg aware of the extent of line failure resulting in an inability to provide broadband services?”

Goggin said to question:
“We get information from Eircom about the rate of line failure and the time to repair, and issues regarding repeat faults and so on. Our experience of the number of lines connected to a broadband-enabled exchange that will fail the test appears to be in line with that in other countries. The experience in Northern Ireland, for example, bears that out. “

Let me be quite clear on this. The line failure rate on exchanges in the Republic of Ireland is around 20%. In Northern Ireland it is 0.84%. Our regulator knows this but told an official Oireachtas Committee:

the number of lines connected to a broadband-enabled exchange that will fail the test appears to be in line with that in other countries. The experience in Northern Ireland, for example, bears that out.

Anyone recommend a book from Amazon on how to count?

Watch out for one guys builders cleavage though. Not nice first thing in the morning.

While waiting (and saving) for my Antarctica trip I’ve been looking at other things to do. This Freefall University in Madrid looks like a fun thing to do for a week. Cheap enough too.

Update: I was just chatting to one of the staff from FreeFall University who called me after seeing this blog post. He answered all my questions and gave lots more information as well as some tips about Skydiving in Ireland. Now that’s customer service. He also pointed out that Aer Lingus are starting their Cork to Madrid service very soon. I might just go for my birthday now.

Ido Kenan mentions the idea an Israeli political party had:

Israeli right-wing party National Union launched a Million Orange Dots site, where surfers can add an orange dot with their name and political message.

Nice variation of the Million Dollar Pixel idea. I wonder could we do the same over here for questions we want canvassers at the next election to answer. For example Treasa has one this evening on party policies on property crashes. People can log in, and ask a non-party specific question, fill in their contact details, and they’ll be emailed a direct url to their question. All parties can be forwarded a database of questions they can answer if they wish and answers will be put online. Anyone want to build a “Million Political Questions” website?

Attention West Wing fans. Studio 60 is the new show created by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. It airs September 18th in the States and we’ll no doubt get to see it a few week or months after. It’s an inside view of how the TV industry works from the viewpoint of a show like Saturday night live. The West Wing but in Hollywood. It stars Bradley Whitford, Matthew and a very hot Amanda Peet. The pilot has been leaked online and I watched it there. DAMN. It’s like watching a Sorkin episode of West Wing. I’m hooked and sold on this. The leaked pilot is also on YouTube, the first part is below. Bound to get removed unless it was a cool marketing ploy. Watch as a guy loses it live on air. This is going to be great. Matthew Perry is already going to win an Emmy. And Sorkin.

Jaysus lads, could it be anymore male centric? Looking at the attendees list shows that Clare Dillon is the only female going to BarCamp Ireland so far. Clare certainly is no token but it could easily appear that way. Is the tech sector that male heavy in Ireland? I said male heavy, not heavy males. Where are all these women in tech? Where are the role models if someone wants to be a techy? Role models are about people you identify with, right?