Apple to release light-weight notebooks for the ladies? says engadget. You’ve lifted a baby right? They’re frickin heavy. Women can lift notebooks without hassle for god’s sake. Making them more stylish though I can agree with. I wonder how many women buy IBMs compared to mac laptops?
Author Archive
Apple and notebooks for women -pah
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005Wyrd Systers and Brothers
Monday, December 19th, 2005Winds tagged me for the weird blog meme. 5 weird things about me.
- I park on the same quay in Cork city when I’m there in the evenings, if not then I park in the White Street carpark (which is free after 4.30pm and all Sat and Sun btw) and if not there I park in the multi-story carpark next to the City Hall. Hail rain or shine I park there though there are lots of places nearer to the City centre.
- I don’t use the word hate in conversations to talk about things. As an example I would never say “I hate that bloody song” or “I hate the way she does that.” I normally use “I detest” or “I can’t stand”. I have hate reserved for special people and special occasions.
- I abhor and have a thing about putting used ware in the kitchen sink and on the draining board. Not because the ware is dirty but I have this thing about bacteria and sinks being breeding grounds. I positively freak when someone puts meat or bread on the draining board to defrost.
- If I see someone wearing the same shirt, t-shirt, top or sweatshirt as I have, then I won’t wear that item of clothing again.
- I scrape and punch my knuckles against walls and other dense objects when bored and as a way of toughening up my knuckles. I’d advise not getting punched by me. Apparently it hurts!
Paying it forward to: Conor, Suzy, Robin, Dave, Donal and Stephen.
(yes I know it’s 6 not 5, sue me.)
Rules of the game:
The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,� and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged� (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
In or around Dublin? Still can’t get broadband? Want to be on De Telly?
Monday, December 19th, 2005RTE are looking for people that are based in and around Dublin that still cannot get broadband after trying for so long to get it. Are you willing to be interviewed this week? If so, email me at info AT irelandoffline.org
Details I need:
A brief summary of how you tried to get broadband and failed.
Where you live and where you work. (If you can get off work for a brief period to do this interview it would even be better.)
Contact details, both mobile and email.
Interviews and Conversations
Monday, December 19th, 2005The latest interview on Newsroom.ie is with Fergal O’Byrne from the IIA. I’m hoping to have interviews from Ina O’Murchu and Alex French online soon too. I’m also lining up a few more people who I’ll send e-mail interviews to over Christmas. I’m hoping to get a few of the local Cork companies that Donagh Kiernan mentioned in his interview. If anyone wants to suggest either Irish tech companies to interview then let me know.
I think it’s great that there are more interviews occuring, whether it be blogger interviews via the Disillusioned Lefties, international tech wizards interviews on PodLeaders or my own humble interviews with those involved in helping along Irish Business. I would think there’s a lot more space in the interviewing and conversations arena for another dozen or so niches.
To me, Irish people have a talent for talking and getting people talking and with the Internet linking us all up, we should as a people capitalise on this natural talent. Hell, for a few hundred years in the middle ages we were the light in the darkness and educated the rest of the world. Isn’t every interview and every conversation just one form of education?
Speaking of interviews, Robert Scoble has his own thoughts on them:
David Newberger is onto something. His blog has gotten much more interesting since he’s started doing interviews. has Mike Rundle CDO of the 9Rules Network; Doc Searls; me; VC Jeff Clavier; and recently had Jennifer DeGraffenreid on Native American Media. He doesn’t do podcasts or vlogs or anything like that. Just emails 10 questions and asks for answers.
January is going to be a fun time for .ie domains
Saturday, December 17th, 2005Get your RBNs at the ready. Blacknight are doing .ie domains for €30 ex vat for the whole of January.
Elections and blogging
Saturday, December 17th, 2005Progressive Ireland suggests an election super blog which is a pretty nifty idea. I’m sure there’ll be many people that would like to contribute to it. If you plan it right you may even get quite a lot of traffic for unique content.
Myself and Mr. Rants have had many an IM conversation about blogs and the election. From a blog post about it:
myself and Dave were discussing the upcoming Irish General Election and that an unbiased and neutral fact-checking site is needed. Monitor all the hot-air that comes from politicos and see does it match what they said and what they did. This might be a way of reeling in those that may not have had an interest until now to get involved in political debate. Certainly would help make politics more transparent.
I think something like this would be a nice companion piece to the Super Blog idea.
Named and Shamed – The Irish M.E.P.s who don’t give a damn about your privacy.
Saturday, December 17th, 2005Tuppenceworth.ie has put up a shame list of how our MEPs voted on the EU Spy Law which monitors and logs anything we do online. Can I suggest emailing those that voted against this and thanking them and writing to the rest and give out to them for not giving a damn about you as a citizen. A soon to be severely monitored citizen who will no doubt have to pay for it with a much higher Internet or mobile bill.
Dublin
Proinsias De Rossa (Lab- ESP)- For
Mary Lou McDonald (SF- GUE/NLG)- Against
Gay Mitchell (FG-EPP)- Against
Eoin Ryan (FF-UEN)- Abstained
East
Liam Aylward (FF-UEN)- Abstained
Avril Doyle (FG-EPP)- Abstained
Mairead McGuinness (FG-EPP)- Abstained
South
Simon Coveney (FG-EPP)- Abstained
Brian Crowley (FF-UEN)- Abstained
Kathy Sinnot (Ind-IDG)- Not Present
North West
Marian Harkin (Ind-ALDE)- Against
Jim Higgins (FG-EPP)- Abstained
Sean O’Neachtain (FF-UEN)- Not Present
Podcast Transcription Services
Saturday, December 17th, 2005Michael Arrington points out a podcast transcription service which priced at $10 for a half hour of audio is really really cheap, too cheap I think if someone wanted to make money from doing this. 30mins audio to me would mean around an hours work. $10 an hour is minimum wage in Ireland. How can someone hire a person to do this and make any money?
In the comments of the TechCrunch post people suggest that voice to text software be used and then someone goes over it to check for errors. That doesn’t make the work any faster as you still need a human to check the words and listen to the podcast.
I left the following in the comments of the TechCrunch post:
Perhaps if the transcriber had the right to sell on the transcriptions then she/he could recoup costs that way. Or another way of recouping costs and maybe using a free model would be to offer free transcriptions in return for a share of ad revenue on the page that hosts the transcription.
If I were a transcription company I’d be contacting the main podcasters and offering my services for free to them for 6 months in return for a link back to my service.
Tom, as a podcaster who is getting serious heavweights in the tech world to do interviews with you, would you be open to such an idea?
United Irelander – tut tut
Friday, December 16th, 2005I wanted United Irelander to email me for a chat but he wouldn’t for whatever reason and wanted me to state on his comments why I was looking for a chat. But the fact that I didn’t want the judges of the Irish Blog Awards to be disclosed for another while meant I had to ask a person to be a judge in private. Oh well UI. I’m sure your replacement will do just as well.
Yup. I’m on it now. James Corbett convinced me. If you want to add me please do. I’m damien AT this domain.