Archive for January, 2008

Fanny Waters is at it again

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Fanny Waters, once again is being, as Twenty termed it – a fanny. Daragh O’Brien has a very good blog post (Edit: site is taking forever to load due to some script) on what Fanny was saying again on Newstalk this morning. Seems he demanded/decreed that Newstalk wheel some idiot blogger on to the show (we’re all idiots you see) so he can debate them. Fanny doesn’t read blogs but just knows that we are clueless and can’t string three sentences together. And once again his obsession with sex comes through with saying that most of the Internet is porn. Depends on what you search and look for Fanny.

Anyway, Fanny is probably upset that now anyone can be a crank and get a soapbox or a pulpit. The Internet is full of porn and it’s also full of headcases who write shitty lyrics to woeful songs. It’s hard to be unique on the Internet unless you have a specific niche, one which Fanny no longer has. His lot are a dime a doze. So should he be engaged? I think not. I think we should all talk about him and write about him but why give John the oxygen he craves? If he were a blogger (and I think he will be in time) we’d shun him by not linking to him. That’s the sting of online shunning. Delinking. Let him shout his challenges on Newstalk and give bloggers free advertising. I like Kevin Myers more anyway. He didn’t cry for Katy.

Also, we have a Fake Steve Jobs, I wonder can we have a Fake Fanny Waters? Edit: That was fast: Fanny Waters blog.

Super extra bonus edit: That’s Ireland on Fanny Waters from last year.

My badges arrived

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Fluffy badges

I’ll let you know the plan for em later.

● Fluffy Links – Wednesday January 16th 2008

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Rob has created Webfrigerator. Have fun with it by using lots of inappropriate words.

Via Gav. Lorcan, our mate from yesterday’s fluffies has a Bebo.

Michael Lynn can’t get away from Suzy, can he?

Do it.

Going on the PhotoWalk before the Blog Awards?

Des shows off an app that makes web videos out of your photos. Love the music Des.

Like the idea of the design police but trouble is lots of the self-imposed enforcers in Ireland are more graduates of police academy.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is playing Whelan’s on March 9th. So so there.

Should Yahoo! join Open Social?

More ways of imposing crap on your blog readers.

Right so we all know Tom Cruise is the crazy and it seems his chat up line to Jennifer Garner was “Do you know what freedom is?” but have you seen the leaked scientology video that he’s in? It keeps appearing and disappearing off YouTube but Gawker has it here.

Yael Naim – Puppet

“The World’s Thinnest Notebook” – MacBook Air – Fits inside envelope

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Via

Image from Gizmodo
MacBook Air

MacBook air goes from 0.76 inches down to 0.16 inches at the thin end. It’s 3lbs. It fits inside an envelope.
Magnetic latch, 13.3″ widescreen display
Multi-touch trackpad
Display is LED backlit. iSight is built-in. MacBook-like keyboard, but with an ambient light sensor
Otellini from Intel: The processor is as thick as a nickle and as wide as a dime.
1.6 GHz Standard Intel Core 2 Duo
80 GB hard disk standard, or 64 GB solid state if you are loaded
1.8″ Hard Drive
802.11n + Bluetooth
2GB memory standard
Price: $1799.
Music from the new ad for the MacBook Air is done by Yael Naim.

Yael Naim – New Soul

● Fluffy Links – Tuesday January 15th 2008

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Alexia has two videos from the Young Scientist Exhibition 2008 and both are well worth watching. The Web browser for the colourblind was my pick of the event.

Robin shows we are still very much geographically limited. World ain’t flat yet.

Via Anton Emily Dickinson – I’m Nobody

The sponsors for the Irish Blog Awards 2008 are…

Via Anthony. Seriously. What the Fuck!

Best comment on Mark Zuckerberg on 60 minutes came from Jeremiah Owyang

Also, how well did you do as a 23 year old on national TV?

The Blog of Anthony McIntyre:

Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s.

More business models for giving away free content.

Via Mick:
Logitech Webcams – Working Late

Via an email: If Carlsberg did speed bumps

We can bullshit for you wholesale – The DCMNR and TIF edition (again)

Monday, January 14th, 2008

Broadband in schools and the people that exploit schoolkids to make themselves look good, an ongoing series…

So TIF (Telecoms Internet Federation) aka eircom’s mouthpiece have been talking up broadband in schools. Right. The unchallenged bullshit that was peddled in SiliconRepublic is that 98% of schools in Ireland now have broadband. BULLSHIT. First I do not believe anything TIF sends out so doubt it is 98% and second, half of schools have a satellite dish that gives them 512k Internet speed. That’s not broadband and this connection is shared between a whole school. That’s if schools actually use their broadband connections or have teachers trained to use the connections. Once again I see Eamon Ryan tacking on his crap to a TIF release too. Good man Eamon, that’ll really help the future of our country by perpetuating lies. Not everyone can go or afford to go to Gonzaga like yourself.

Events dear boy, events

Monday, January 14th, 2008

TechLudd (despise the name, love the concept) is happening on January 24th in Dublin. You know you want to.

Before the annual third national world Irish Blog Awards on March the 1st there’s going to be a “but I’m a lady” bloggers meetup. You know you want to, but maybe a different want. Now, will there be a lads get together too?

Staying on the ladies theme, my offer of a free blogging course in Dublin and Cork has gone well. Dublin is full and it seems a load of women want to do the course in Cork but no males have applied so the Cork event is going to be ladies only. Except me. Still space, just waiting on a venue confirm and date!

Fluffy Links – Monday January 14th 2008

Monday, January 14th, 2008

Blog Awards stats: 500 people have made nominations so far. And 541 different blogs have now gotten nominations.

We still need lots and lots of judges. Apply if interested.

Check out the LouderVoice competition.

Twenty nails it. Waters is a fanny.

More ways of making money from your free services/content.

Britt talks about vomit comets.

Weaker sex?

Blogging the Qur’ an. I’d sub to this and others if I got a daily word of the day or verse of the day and an explanation of it. Great way to learn.

Via Niall Larkin, when we visted Loopt, the guys from the company did a cover of Eleanor Rigby, a great cover actually:

Yet another Britney cover but this is a damned fine cover by Yael Naim

Discovery Orders now cover electronic data and creation of data from larger sources?

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

Something that is slightly interesting (maybe more for me and some law nerds) is a recent Supreme Court decision which if I interpret this corrently now means that under discovery you can request the creation of documents and the filtering of data to create new datasets/documents. eircom and Dome Telecom had a nice banging of heads in the Courts and one argument about getting stuff under discovery went all the way upstairs to the Supreme Court. Both the High Court and Supreme Court said that yes, under discovery you can demand the creation of documents and data sets from much larger sets and while a document did not exist, you can in fact have one created so you can get the data extracted that is needed for your case. Apparently this is the first time that electronic data on harddrives can be requested under discovery. Sounds like an awful amount of work too for eircom.

Here’s what eircom were arguing. Severe legalese alert:

In bringing this appeal the defendant argues that the learned High Court judge erred in law or in fact, or on a mixed question of law and fact, in holding:-

(1) That the power of the High Court to order discovery of documents extends to directing a party to create documents for the purpose of the within proceedings

(2) That the power of the High Court to order discovery of documents extends to directing a party to create documents that do not exist at the time the said order is made.

(3) That the creation of the documents directed by the High Court does not impose a disproportionate burden on the defendant /appellant where in order to comply with the said order it would be required:

• To extract in excess of 20 billion call data records from the tapes on which they are currently stored

• To record the said records onto a parallel database

• To collate and analyse the records on the parallel database in order to collate them with the 1800 freephone numbers the subject matter of the said order for discovery

• To create therefrom a document containing a report of the total monthly volume of freephone minutes trafficked per month from 31st day of August 1999 to 23rd day of December, 2003, in respect of each 1800 number by reference to access method by the defendant to international carriers- limited for the time being to those identified and set forth in the schedule hereto where the volume of minutes trafficked to that international carrier in any given month exceeded 5,000 minutes;

Win! Irish Student gets parody vids on YouTube Restored

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

Owen Gallagher was the student that did the Bertie on Dragon’s Den parody video and also Enda on American Idol. He also did a few more parody/remix vids as part of his college project. Anyway, the Beeb, Paramount and 20th Century Fox took exception with some of the videos, claimed copyright infringement and his YouTube account was suspended.

Owen filed counter claims and the BBC were the only ones to reply, his pleaded his case with evidence and they agreed to let the video be seen. Paramount and Fox never replied and so his appeal was upheld. Account is live again. Hooray for the small guy.

Here’s Bertie being Bertie: