Damien Mulley

Speaking of the telecoms poodle, a little while back I applied for a job with them. Today they sent me a letter saying other people were better qualified and they will be interviewed. Best of luck to them. I’m sure I’ll be “interacting” with them soon enough.

Now, I must admit I cannot read balance sheets but on page 51 of this document on the accounts for year ending June 2005, it seems from reading it that ComReg blow 20M a year on “stuff”. Such as:

• Staff Costs 8.719Million (They have 112 staff)
• Technical Advice (Consultants) 4.115Million
• Legal Expenses 4.451Million
• Advertising 23,000
• Administrative Expenses 2.277Million
• Auditors’ Remuneration 12,000
• Premises and Related Expenses 1.249Million
• Depreciation 244,000
• Subscriptions to International Organisations 630,000

Unfortunately we cannot see 2006 because they are allowed bury it until the year after they give it to the Minister. Handy that.

Details for the next ShareIT. This one will be in Dublin. Still sticking with the basics which is what most people seemed to want at the last one in Cork. Still tying up one or two loose ends for this but all is looking good so far. Details on how to sign up are on the Business Advisory website. While the talks might be focused for IT startups, they’re still basic enough to appeal to anyone starting a business.

So where should the next one be held?:) About time ShareIT got a logo I think.

20% sugar, a touch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and a little flour. But enough about my secret icing ingredients. Read Primal Sneeze. There’ll be a test after on what you read.

Not exactly making the Bionic Woman. Or the bionic dog. A very nice niche blog and a welcome addition to the Irish blogging community. Embedded in Cork.

The Best DJ that ever played the Irish Blog Awards. A huge troublemaker, though I think the PC term now is “socialist”. A podcaster since before podcasts existed. It’s the Brian Greene show! Feedburner feed.

Take part in this, if you can. Daithí Mac Síthigh is asking for some help:

I’m looking for people (bloggers or non-bloggers, lawyers or (especially) non-lawyers, techies or non-techies) to write a few words (or produce a presentation, podcast, whatever!) on a particular proposal for law reform that you’d like to see in Ireland (and this can include EU law, where appropriate).

See, I like the new one. It is much simpler and cleaner looking.

From the makers of Tailrank is Spinn3r. Outsource your blog spidering to someone else. Could prove handy.

How to make an e-book. Some useful points.

Conn got DMCA’d. Takedown of his interview on TG4. Someone is quite protective. Cos really, the best thing for TG4 to do to help spread use of the Irish language is to have single-vendor lock-in of their content online.

Been on many blogs but damn this is good. Suzy is right, the games have begun, I hope this continues:

My goodness. They’d come up with any word these days wouldn’t they? Such as nowness or integrity. Novelty words are all the rage these days, just like giving your kid whacky names, like Patrick or QuantumMechanic. Thank god poetry sets it all out and gives us the rules we can live by and what is not allowed. Have a look at PoetBloggs.net.

You can return to Cookie Mountain. You can return to Neverland. You can return to Oz. You can even return to sender. Check out Neil Dorgan‘s site. Mostly photography but other bits and pieces too.

We’ll get all serious for a teeny tiny moment to plug Ask Direct. We can resume normal programming in Five, four, three…

Peerside. Not about filesharing and not even about voyeurism. Trade descriptions act coming at ya!

Should you need a link and nobody else can help, maybe you should ask for some link love?

Most of the slides from ShareIT on March 24th are now available.

Nialler9 examines how Daft Punk really are a remix band given the huge chunks of songs they sample for their songs.

My mate Charlie’s pet project is a site for collaborative text art called Texticles. It’s like a text art Wiki. Just like a Wiki though, someone can come along and wipe everything.

Poison Dart Machine Hidden at Hong Kong Race Track. WTF?

I see because of this Kathy Sierra hoopla people are talking about blocking annoymous comments on blogs, shutting down their blogs for a week and also some people want a blogger code of conduct. Defamation, libel and assault laws work and work well. If someone defames you, sue them, if they libel you, sue them, if they threaten you, ring the police and let them handle it. Remember, a death threat or a threat which makes you think you will be harmed, is assault. Use existing laws. If a blogger attacks you on their blog, then don’t link to them and have everyone else remove their links to them. Ignoring is best in the blogging world. Don’t feed the trolls. If you think the threats are serious then call the police. If you feel defamed, call a lawyer.

When I see companies starting up codes of conduct I think ISO certification, I think of these astroturfing “plan english” campaigns which charge organisations A LOT to write better documents. What happened to Kathy Sierra was horrible but this hysteria does nobody any good and it is sickening to see business people pitch their products at such a moment.

Follow netiquette, follow good manners, be civil, or don’t. I really hope that something like this doesn’t spawn some elitist bully-boy standards or code body that does nothing more than charge an admin fee and bully people into signing up. That’s what unions are for. Freedom of speech should not be cut back on because of a few assholes. Why on earth do we need to impose guidelines on ourselves online when we don’t need to offline? A blogging community won’t tolerate people like those that attacked Kathy and will de-link from them and will just shun them and then don’t need a checklist to do so.

If you want to sign up to a code of conduct and cut off your own balls, work away, but why not just sign up to the press council instead?

James has a post on SoHo Solo and co-working today. There’s been a bit of chatter about co-working of late around the Irish blogs. The idea of co-working is sharing a friendly work space with other creative tech types who might not be part of your company/group. One definition is:

Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.

In the States with lots of the San Fran crowd spending their days in coffee boutiques/shops, loading up on caffeine and cakes and taking advantage of the free power and WiFi, there is already that idea. Now with the cafes starting to shoo these people out to make way for more customers, these nomads need somewhere to go. There’s a blog about Co-working here and a Wiki too.

Here in Ireland people are coming from the other side. One person operations, working from home mostly who probably can’t afford a whole office in some centre but would like to work alongside other tech types and have a sense of community. It’s a very good idea in my view. Good way to get inspiration, help and encouragement from people and to do more networking. Going back to James’ post though, he talks about going on holiday-like trips to work in co-working spaces in other countries as a way of getting away from the usual workspace and getting inspiration in a new one and enjoying a holiday after the workday ends. Why not start twinning with the various co-working places worldwide?

We have cities that are twinned with each other. Cork does it with a different city every few years I think, so why not do the same with these co-working facilities? I wonder could a FON model work for something like this? Or something like the Couch Surfing model?

In some cultures, it is believed that having your photo taken means your soul has been captured and part of you dies. If only that were true, I’d be like those Japanese tourists with half a dozen cameras hanging off my neck. But enough about me. John Williams is a bloody amazing photographer. He gave me a great photo of Jelly Babies taking over the world. Were those old style United Colours of Benetton ads still about, that photo could be used.

Just like the knee bone is connected to the head bone and the shortest route between two points is not as long as other routes, the Ball*istic blog is a sister publication of the RTE Guide. Now with more guideyness.

Kim Wilde. Kids in America. Remember the song. G’wan. Humm it, sing it. Now think of Ireland beating the absolute crap of someone on the rugby pitch. Doesn’t really suit does it? Thank god Tom and his sports blog thinks the same. Song is in your bloody head now though. Hate that.

Paige reminds me of Atlantic 252 in the evening time when it was still around. She comes along in waves and gives us great posts and then retreats into the ether again and then back again and then gone again. (For extra emphasis, rock slowly back and forth in your chair.) See? She feels guilty about this and should not. Give Paige a visit.

Should you need a link and nobody else can help, maybe you should ask for some link love?