Archive for July, 2008

Fluffy Links – Friday 18th July 2008

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Haha:

Jesus feckin Christ, who the hell rings up a random Internet Café looking for escort numbers???

Stereotyping. I’ve never seen this blog in my life your honour. Well, I don’t think I have, yet it’s around for aages. (Internet time)

We should have Internet Rangers here too. I can’t see BT Ireland going for it.

Want a cheap SSD drive? Jason shows how.

Kurt Vonnegut talks about how to write with style. All those tips equally apply to blogging. Fantastic.


Muphry’s Law
.

Hmm.

The Colbert Bounce. It’s not slashdotting or DIGG is it?

Cylon Toasters. We all knew it was gonna happen.

Via Fabulist: WOON (jamie woon) – Spirits

Marketing on YouTube: Spammers always find new marketing methods. Good.

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

From email marketing and clever subject fields to hooking people via YouTube, spammers always are the ones trying new ways of getting attention. The two screenshots below show a clever way of using the YouTube “Annotations” option that is now in YouTube to get attention. When I first saw this I thought YouTube had finally found a way of doing proper ads. Not so much.

So we see an offer of sending a song to anyone that subscribes to the channel. Use a spellchecker next time son. But hell yeah, why not add an annotation to ask for subscriptions and some genuine free offer?

YouTube Spam

We also see an annotation to look at another video that you can click on. Great idea.

YouTube Spam

Why not create a video with compelling content and then an option to learn more about your company at the end of the video instead of just a pure sell video? Or do a general overview video of a new phone and then additional videos to get into the detailed stuff for each part of the product? “Want to learn more about this menu on our phone? Click here” “Want to learn about this next feature? Click here”. YouTube themselves recommend games via videos. “Click here to see if Mary makes Choice 1”, “Click here if you want Mary to make Choice 2”

Start using YouTube folks.

  • 1. It’s free.
  • 2. There’s lots of people on it who can find your video via related videos or searching.
  • 3. Your videos can be embedded on YouTube so that means blogs, discussion forums and the much hated but massively used Bebo can spread your product videos.

No Annotations in this video (tut tut) but a great video from Sophos visually explaining security issues on Facebook. People will no doubt watch a video where they would not have read a security whitepaper or walkthrough:

More from the Dáil Archives on the Dept of Comms

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Via here:

Deputy Enda Kenny asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the names, titles and annual salaries of each of the political advisers, press officers, assistants or other staff appointed by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28162/07]

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Deputy Eamon Ryan): The names, titles, and annual salaries of each of the political advisors, press officers, assistants or other staff appointed by me are as follows:

Mr … Special Adviser Principal Officer (Higher) salary scale (modified PRSI) €88,261(min) to €102,305 (max)
Ms … Press Adviser Principal Officer (Standard) salary scale (modified PRSI) €82,016 (min) to €95,363 (max)
Ms … Political Adviser/Coordinator with Minister of State Mr Tony Killeen, T.D. Principal Officer (Standard) salary scale (modified PRSI) €82,016 (min) to €95,363 (max)
Ms … Personal Assistant HEO salary scale (modified PRSI) €44,314 (min) to €52,379 (max)
Ms … Personal Secretary Secretarial Assistant salary scale €22,064 (min) to €41,019 (max)

Fluffy Links – Thursday July 17th 2008

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Via PaulIrish Driving Test Tips. Handy resource for learner drivers. Crappy drivers also take note.

AJ Mckee has a blog.

So does Walter Wynne.

Jim’s blog post on Kraftwerk quickly descends into a coversation about the Irish music scene and the shite bands it appears to laud.

Adrian sent an email to the new community TV station in Dublin and got some feedback. This TV station sounds great. Start your own community TV show just like Wayne’s World. S’yeah.

Movies.ie says Wicked is going silver screen.

10 Marketing lessons for conferences. Good points for the most part.

Via Green Ink:
bad cops bad cops

Via Chewing Gum For the Soul and forgive me for playing pop music here:
Lady GaGa – Just Dance

Christian Right Wing Agenda at work – Turn the gay men into women kissers

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

We all know there’s the Gay Agenda and the Homosexual Agenda and now it seems the Christian Rightwingers are obviously deploying the same sneaky subliminal tactics as the gay agendaistas.

Evidence? The latest pop video from a female pop sensation is all about kissing girls. Now, 99% of pop music by female stars is listened to by gay men, with the other 0.5% listened to by prepubescent girls before they discover bad moods and wearing black and the other 0.5% by “Other”. Everyone knows this. Well everyone that’s not dumb. You saying you’re dumb, eh?

So remember, if you’re a gay man and watch this, it’s all about trying to turn you away from kissing boys and kissing girls. And we all know where that will lead! So be careful out there. I guess we’ll expect even more fag hags hanging around gay clubs now. Hoping. Just hoping. Maybe he’ll like you now. Cos of the song. One more week to keep that hope going.

But worry not, you can always regay yourself with the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, now called Gaze. Starts July 31st. I really hope they don’t have Norris again talking shite at it.

A follow-up to Eamon Ryan’s Broadband Promises….

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

More light has been shed by Eamon Ryan on his Broadband Promises:

From more Dáil debates:

Remember the one about schools? Tender doesn’t start until 2009 and there is no end date…

Deputy Eamon Ryan: Each school has broadband connection. The intention is to continue the current broadband connectivity and, on a phased basis, where schools currently have in the order of from half a megabit to two megabits they will be replaced with 100 megabits and local area connectivity networks so that within the school each classroom can be connected.

As I said in the report and today, that will be done on a phased basis starting in 2009. I do not want to be prescriptive on the timing because we must go into a detailed competitive tendering process that must be worked out.

Deputy Eamon Ryan: The word “phased” implies that I will not give a specific completion date because I must work with the industry to ensure a competitive tendering process to see which technologies will best apply. Following the completion of that, we will have the complete outcome of the actual phases.

And on the NBS map and areas where service providers told fibs about, seems they made a better map:

Service providers were given until 30 June 2008 to act on their stated intentions to roll out broadband in the blue areas of the map. As the end of June 2008 has now passed, any blue area where a service provider has failed to roll out services has been changed to white to reflect the fact that no service is available in the area. Any blue area where a service provider now provides a service has been changed to red to reflect the fact that the service is available in the area.

Consequently, the NBS map is now being updated and the next iteration of the map will show areas that are served, red areas and areas where no service is available, white areas. The map will reflect the red and white areas as they stood on 30 June 2008. There will be no blue areas in the next iteration of the map, which will be the final map that will issue with the invitation to tender.

On the MANs:

Phase 1 of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) programme provided open access, high-speed broadband networks to 27 towns and cities throughout the country. The MANs were co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund. All 27 MANs from Phase 1 have been successfully handed over to eNet, whose role is to manage, maintain, market and operate the MANs on behalf of the State. The networks are offered to telecommunication service providers on a wholesale basis to allow them to provide services without the need to build their own networks in the various cities and towns. The cost of the Phase 1 MANs Programme was just over €84 million.

Phase 2 of the MANs programme is almost complete. The estimated cost of the Phase 2 MANs Programme, which will provide an additional 60 MANs covering 66 towns, is €90 million.

MANs Projects in 28 towns under Phase 2 were suspended, pending consideration of the findings of a Value for Money and Policy Review of the Phase 1 Programme and a Next Generation Broadband Policy Paper both of which were published last week.

Future investment decisions including any investment in MANs will be guided by the outcome of the consultation on Next Generation Broadband; the recommendations of the Value for Money and Policy Review and other analyses as appropriate.

PR and Media training for Irish Tech companies / startups

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

The three biggest threats to a company that want to get media coverage are these:

Copy and paste

The Control (or command) key, the C key and the V key. In other words copying and pasting.

Forget the idea about some journalist wearing down shoe leather, wearing a hat with a press card on it and beating down doors trying to find your companyjust because it’s amazing. Journalists these days have much more to do than ever before and have press releases clogging up their inboxes twenty four hours a day. Look at the amount of downsizing in newsrooms and the increasing reliance on syndication.

If you are a startup and you are run by geniuses, you still need to market yourself and you still need to get the attention of the press to aid in the marketing of your company. Why should a journalist give you coverage if you sit in your office and expect them to find you via some magic journalistic yellow pages?

With that in mind and via repeated suggestions from a few parties :), I’m going to run a half-day paid workshop on dealing with the media/doing PR from a Tech company perspective. If there’s interest of course. Maximum of 11 per session. Minimum of 9.

We’ll go through how Irish media works (from my perspective), how to approach journalists and build a working relationship with them, what makes good press copy, how to run a combined media campaign and some basic interview skills training for print and radio.

Interested? Then leave a comment or send me an email with a preference for Cork or Dublin.

Fluffy Links – Wednesday July 16th 2008

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Annie’s Yellow photos rock.

I had these links partially in draft for a while and never normally include two links to the same Fluffy links but this is a lovely piece of writing from Annie on relationships that deserves attention. Annie is a writer. One of these real-life talented folks who can reach that place in your brain that makes chemicals change. No she’s not LSD. I’m certain in the next while she’ll get some kind of writing gig or gig that uses her talent at storytelling. Go Annie.

See, I like this. Practical stuff from MJ on starting your business. All the basics you need to know.

Seriously. What the fuck? Kids’ Light sabres banned by UK airport cops. Please DIGG this.

Was in London yesterday playing with a Lenovo Thinkpad x200. One of them small laptop yolks. Lovely machine with built-in 3G.

The story of Off We Go publishing (Limerick company). Fantastic. Mother decides to publish her own books for her son.

James Cridland is not so enthusiastic about the new iPhone 3g.

Via Despod – Family Guy – Over

The Cool Curve – A hot new concept like the Long Tail or Tipping Point?

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

I was going to put this into a Fluffy link but think this deserves a full post by itself. Toby Moores gave a presentation on the idea of the cool curve. I got the video via Sizemore.

Moores is the CEO of SleepyDog, makers of the Playstation game amongst other creative projects. In the video he talks about being creative and matching your output and work to an audience and potential clients. He talks about Van Gogh being highly talented but his curve did not align with potential audiences of his time. It’s a fascinating talk and concept and might help people to guide their own work so as to tie into a paying audience. All without becoming a sell out. Worth watching.

The Tuesday Push – July 15th 2008 – 1Time

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Today’s Tuesday Pushee is 1Time.

1Time

Blurb:

1time is a web-based time and expense tracking application that allows you to easily keep track of real time project costs. It reduces non-billable time in your company and keeps everyone up to date. Each employee gets their own login and reminders so you don’t have to micro-manage recording timesheets. It is ideally suited to anyone who has a need to record time for billing or project cost analysis.

You can get a 30 day trial with them. It looks like a good and useful product for businesses and those who work for themselves. There’s nothing worse than trying to figure out AFTER the project what you spent on it timewise.

1Time added more features recently allowing you to give your clients access to their timesheets. Which while I’m sure would benefit the clients is probably a passive way of making you actually fill those sheets in and keep you motivated. Well that’s what I’d use it for. 🙂

More features too are on the way. Great to see a working product that is useful to existing businesses. Well done to Derek Organ.

Please spread the word about 1Time and blog about them. If you want your company/product mentioned, please fill in this linked form