Damien Mulley

Why on earth are there Corrib Gas ads from Shell in my GMail?

I wonder what keywords are triggering it? CorribGas.ie redirects to a Shell corporate website.

Irish Bloggers can make money from blogging. Congrats John.

A social diary for Cork. Christ. Next we’ll have doggy mags.

Interesting “toy” on Amazon. Read the reviews!

Handy Technorati widget for showing what blogs are linking to each blog post. Who needs trackbacks!

Mike Tyson is a whore for money. No, really.

Possibly morbid but now we might see tombstones connected to the grid which can give a visitor to a grave a multimedia overview of the deceased’s life.

Leverage points. Super nodes. Areas to spend most energy on? Reminds me of the book “Linked“.

Just when you have hope for mankind, you read this upsetting report from the Congo.

How to sell vapourware.

How code can make the world a little greener.

Via BoingBoing: Skateboarding Mannequins

KLF – 3am Eternal:

The IT@Cork 2006 conference is on Wednesday the 29th of November. If you are in Cork or near Cork I suggest you get yourself along to this event. Lots of high-calibre speakers and lots of people to network with.

If you can’t afford the cost of the ticket (it’s probably worth paying for it in my view) then don’t forget about the pre-event dinner where the cost of some grub will connect you with some of the local people going to the event, as well as some of the speakers who fly in early.

I did a video search for some of the speakers but not many of them are available, here are a few:

Here’s a video of Hugh Macleod:

Here’s a video of Marc Canter talking in an MTV stylee video about People Aggregator:

Quick TechCrunch video with Salim Ismail and tonnes more people:I couldn’t find Eddie Hobbs on YouTube but Podge and Rodge talk a little about SSIAs:

Oh someone doesn’t like our beloved Twenty. Diddums didn’t get his own award. Awww.

A very handy open source flash mp3 player.

A piggy bank moulded from an actual piggy. Pricey though.

The head of Carphone Warehouse has a blog though it was quite silent for the past while when the company was getting a lot of flask about their broadband offering.

Via William Gibson is Zadie Smith’s take on readers and how they are meant to be like musicians interpreting your work more than people being passively entertained. Wonderful viewpoint.

Watch all of Michael Moore’s Roger and Me on Google Video.

Via Eoghan: This scared the crap out of me.

Bob Dylan – Hurricane:

I’m being shipped off to Aberdeen to do some work-related training all of next week. I actually leave via Dublin on Sunday. Anyone been there and want to recommend places to go eating and drinking? I’m staying in the city centre. I’ve been told to prepare to be cold.

I asked five people I know and who have their own business to share 5 tips they’d give people when starting out. Below are the results.

Joe Drumgoole:

1. Find a business partner: Startups are lonely work and there is lots to do, a business partner will keep you sane, shoulder half the work and help stamp out some of your more loopy ideas
2. Ensure your financial security: Most businesses take at least 1 year to get to a point where either a) you start to make money or b) you can raise investment. Its very difficult to focus on your business if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from.
3. Don’t consult full time: Many people imagine they can start a new business while consulting full time, but its practically impossible to do this unless you are some kind of superman. Its just to hard to do both well. You either get fired as a consultant or end up with a lousy business.
4. Ask everybody for advice: Most people have useful feedback and will give it graciously if asked in a genuine way.
5. Meet your customers : The best validation of any business idea is obtained by meeting customers. This should be job one for any entrepreneur. At least three of my business ideas have gone down the crapper after meeting several customers who slipped into a stupor as I told them how I was going to change their lives.

Walter Higgins:

1. Don’t give up your day-job.
2. Do try to attend conferences – bonus points if you can demo your software at said conference. Do try to network – (if you believe ‘network’ should never be used as a verb – at least mingle).
3. Stay lean. Bootstrap for as long as you can. Sales is the best type of funding.
4. Give something away. Make a free version of your product / service – it will get people talking about / linking to your site/service which will help your page-rank which will help your sales.
5. Be personal. Don’t put on the airs of a big company. Being small means you can be more personal and human when talking to customers and potential customers. You can also offer better support than a larger company would. Customers really appreciate this.

Pat Phelan:

1. Do something you love and are completely kknowledgeable about.
2. Think of how much funds you need and double it.
3. Just because you work 20hrs a day don’t expect others to be as committed.
4. Google and YouTube are the exceptions rather than the rule.
5. You won’t be driving a Bentley this time next year

Conor O’Neill:

1. Talk to as many people who can advise you as possible both in and out of your business area. Most people are happy to help and advise.
2. Planning is important but don’t fall into the analysis paralysis trap. If in doubt, just do it. Carpe Diem.
3. Have a strong vision but be prepared to admit you are wrong. If the market doesn’t bite, you are the problem, not them.
4. There is plenty of state help out there. Engage with them as early as possible. Don’t wait until you are “ready”
5. It is as stressful as hell but you should still be enjoying it. If you aren’t, then question your motivations.

Alan O’Rourke:
1. Business.
Contracts! For added emphases I will say it again, contracts, contracts, contracts!
2. Clients
Treat the good ones well as they are the best advertising source you will ever need.
3. Finding an employee.
Nothing I can ever advise would be better then the gold contained within this article. If you are looking to hire someone read it. It helped me find two of the best guys I could ever hope for.
4. Cash flow
You have heard it a million times but Ryan Carson put together a practical example. Use it!
5. Design (of course I had to mention it )
Do you want your business to look like the BMW it is or to stick the BMW engine in the shell of a Lada. Both will get you on the road but which pulls the ladies. Look like the business you want to attract.

If anyone else has additional tips they want to suggest, then leave them in the comments.

There really are some dumb people out there. Yes, jumping out of the car is wise.

What a pic!

The Big Gay Development Plan.

Oooh and: What’s gay today?

France taxing countries that don’t like Kyoto. Australia is pissed.

More wisdom from Semper Idem.

Make “Gold” by Spandau Ballet the UK National Anthem.

Via Jason Kottke: Human beatbox Lasse Gjertsen makes a song and video by sampling bits of a video of him playing the piano and drums.

Exploding laptop batteries. This is why the Dell recall was so big:

I’ve been a subscriber to the ShinyShiny blog for the past while and the take on gadgets by some UK girls is quite refreshing compared to the stateside gadget blogs. I was delighted to read that Susi Weaser has been hired by a BBC production company after a producer read the ShinyShiny blog and watched the one minute reviews that they post on Youtube. Well done Susi!

I wonder will we something like that here in Ireland? Maybe the Beaut.ie ladies will be regularly seen on our TV screens soon?