Author Archive

Sunday Morning Inspiration

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

Check out this 30 minute presentation from Paul Graham about how benevolent startups succeed.

Then have a read of this Malcolm Gladwell article about inventions not being unique and that all inventions are inevitable. He also goes on about getting the right crew together can cause a lot more inventions to happen. Inspiring.

The Irish Web Awards – Judging Criteria

Friday, May 16th, 2008

I may have mentioned the Irish Web Awards before. They’re in Dublin on October 11th. A Web awards based on the structure of the Blog Awards (free nominations, all nominations are judged etc.) and since this is an Awards not about the sponsors but those taking part I’d like to get the feedback of the public on how they think a website should be judged. I’ve asked a few folk privately about what the think the criteria should be for judging websites but I want as many opinions as possible. The feedback here will shape what the criteria for the judges of the Web Awards will be.

There’s all the usual ideas of marks for functionality, design, utility and so forth. I was wondering should there be any mandatory criteria for a website to get nominated such as HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 compliant but some have pointed out that many sites that are full of browser hacks to get them to look nice will probably not validate but extra marks should perhaps be given if they look well in many browsers AND validate.

So should there be points out of 10 for the basics like design, utility, functionality and then extra marks for usability, conformance to WAI WCAG AA, HTML 4.01 compliance?

I do of course understand that there will never be full agreement on the criteria so will try and make it fair and balanced. But not the Fox news style of fair and balanced.

Bingo
Photo from Tub Gurnard

Half day Business Blogging Course in Galway – June 5th

Friday, May 16th, 2008

More self-promotion. Another hugely subsidised Blogging Course, this time in Galway on June 5th. Me again, this time in association with the Galway Executive Skillnet folks.

Venue: Westbic, IDA Business Park, Mervue, Galway
Time: 9.30 – 1pm
Fee for non members is €32

Anyone interested can email info < at > galwayexecutiveskillnet.com Or ring 091 755736

Eyre Square, Galway
Photo owned by wjmarnoch (cc)

Fluffy Links – Friday May 16th 2008

Friday, May 16th, 2008

What are Ticketmaster trying to say?

Lineup for the Cork Midsummer Festival.

Some of the talks at Interesting 2008.

New blog: Irish Negative Equity Blog.

And another: Xbox4Nappyrash, he explains how he rolls.

Some Unofficial code to stick on your posts if you want them nominated for Blog Post of the Month.

Sinéad does not like Tate on Who. I love her on it.

They want to make traffic go slower on the M50?

Spongebob Rectal Thermometer.

A crucifix mp3 player. I’m going to put “My Own Personal Jesus” on this to start with.

Via You Ain’t Grime Music. Wiley – My Rolex, for Sir Paul

Vodafone Customers – Check your account

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Seems Vodafone accidently double billed some credit card paying customers and will eventually rebate them. Looks like they haven’t told their customers about the snafu though.

The bit that interests me is the crappy customer service that Conor got. I own the pretty much dead blog IWillNotHold.com (Which is coming back as a different service later this Summer) and this is the kind of customer care you should not have to deal with.

Got this from Conor Byrne:

Have you heard about Vodafones double charging of customers who have paid by credit card. I am one of those customers. When I discovered the charge I rang Visa and was told to ring Vodafone. I rang Vodafone and the girl in Customer Care (thats a joke) told me that no there was no double charge on my account. I was looking at the charge and explained to her I didnt care what her screen was telling her, that I WAS double charged. She then went off to “speak to a supervisor” (God I hate that line) and then told me to fax the proof. I had to prove to them! I said I had no access to a fax machine and could I email it….no there was no email address (really an organisation the size of Vodafone has no staff emails?). Eventually I got an email. That was 11 days ago. And there is still no refund on my account. I have had to email Vodafone 4 times to see what is going on before I even got a reply…and this is the reply I got:

Vodafone email:

It has been discovered that due to a technical error, some credit card payments made on My Vodafone by a small number of customers were duplicated for each paying customer.

Some customers who made CC payments between the 23rd of April and the 11th of May were charged on a duplicate basis.

The issue is currently still under investigation and a rebate will be applied shortly.

Unfortunately I wish I could give you more information than this, but this is all I know at the moment. I do know that a rebate is going to be applied but not the exact date when this will happen, and I am not in a position to refund the card myself as this is being dealt with at a higher level.

It kind of gets better, they haven’t actually informed customers about this. They need to figure it out themselves:

When I asked to speak to the person who would know (the higher level person) what was going on I was told to call Customer Care on 1907!!

Do Vodafone just not care. They didnt communicate with me to tell me this had happened, didnt assure me that it would be resolved quickly, didnt call me (lets face it they have my number) or email me (and everyone else) to tell us what the latest was.

Circle of life
Photo owned by Robyn Gallagher (cc)

Holy Mux

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Muxtapes. They’re online Mixtapes. Upload your favourite mp3s, arrange them in an order of your choose and share them with the world on Muxtape where the songs will play on a single webpage with pretty where the songs play one after the other.

Some nice Muxtapes I like are Redstamp, State Magazine‘s one and the official one from Asthmatic Kitty.

It also works on the iPhone. And you can save em on your dock on MacOS. And you can make coverflow versions too.

Do you use Muxtape, have you favourites?

Also see Cassette from my Ex, another interesting project.

emily kruse mix tape avail live track listing
Photo owned by veganstraightedge (cc)

Fluffy Links – Thursday May 15th 2008

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

New blogger on the block – Chancing My Arm.

And another: Darragh Buffini’s blog.

Woo. New Indie night in Dublin. In Spy. SoundCheck.

Had a nice lunch at the Natural Foods Bakery in Blackrock, Cork yesterday. So many tempting cakes too. But I was good.

Now this is a loveletter to Brian Lenihan. I can’t believe he’s older than Brian Cowen.

Rope for homosexuals. For sale in Dunnes.

Toki Doki Irish Online Store.

I love this idea. Solar Lilypads in Glasgow.

Fantastic guide to finding images online.

A playground isn’t just for human kids.

Via YANP: My Morning Jacket – “Evil Urges”

Irish Company turns your mobile into an online News Station

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Not quite death of the Newsroom but Wexford Software company Ubcam have developed software for a whole load of Nokias, Sony Ericsson’s and some other brands (but not the iPhone) that will turn your phone into a live video streaming device. It’s like the well-recognised service from QIK except more phones can run the Ubcam software than can run QIK.

I chatted to a TV crew from RTE recently about QIK and they were amazed that a simple mobile phone could empower the average punter into becoming a live news broadcaster. Wouldn’t they have been impressive during the Dublin riots?

Camera crew
Photo owned by MShades (cc)

Business Blogging Training Course in Waterford – June 3rd

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

I’m doing a Business Blogging training Course in the ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre in the WIT Carriganore Campus on June 3rd. It’s a full day course with lunch and refreshments and all that thrown in. The cost of the course is a considerably reduced price of €120 per person for the day and Arc Labs were on to me to say there are some places open for the public if you want to attend.

Blurb:

A 1-day workshop on using blogs to enhance communications with your customer how can blogging help your business?

Amongst other things I’ll be covering:

* Using your blog to boost your search engine rankings

* Using your blog to mark you out as an expert in your field

* Showing how blogging improves your overall communications with customers

* How to use your blog as an R&D resource

* How to write and phrase the content on your blog, how best to interact with those that read it and how to get your blog noticed

The theory is disposed of quite quickly as I’ll have those attending logging into blogs and composing blog posts as soon as we have an understanding of the basics.

Give Mary Fearon a call on 051-302900 or email her on mfearon@WIT.ie if you want to book a place.

Waterford
Photo owned by bea&txm (cc)

Fluffy Links – Wednesday May 14th 2007

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

BarCamp Belfast – June 21st.

Don’t forget to nominate the Blog Post of the Month for April and May.

Things Younger than John McCain. Alaska!

Fun with notes.

Steven Seagal and emotion. Reminded of Krusty the Clown’s acting prowess.

Nice breakdown of how Get Satisfaction is designed and how simple it works.

Bertie Still beats Cowen on Google at least.

Bank of Ireland must have leaked this after the Financial Regulator smacked their handies.

Cool GAA App for Facebook.

So did Microsoft really block links to YouTube?

Via Burkie, Food Feed clever use of Twitter to log what people are munching on.

The Black Keys – Strange Times: