Archive for the ‘blogs’ Category

Fluffy Links – Monday September 10th 2007

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Offer to review wine is still open. Some nice feedback so far.

Happy Christmas.

Nice post by Harry McGee on the ageing Labour Party.

For those that don’t like clowns. Slushies in Clown brains.

Interviewing for google? Try these fantastic questions.

Hilarious. Nathaniel from I’m Guess I’m Floating plays Valerie by Steve Winwood and people think he’s playing a cover of Call on me by Eric Prydz:

“Dude, this is a sweet cover.”
“Who is this? Covering a techno song takes balls!”

Oh dear.

A bondage duckie. So want.

Via Ben Hammersley, nice idea of making open areas more sociable. Add coffee cup holders to lampposts.

Via the Cybercom blog, remember this Tango ad?

Via Huffington Post, the new Naoimi Klein docu:

Top 60 most viewed sites in Ireland for July 2007

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

As per Cybercom‘s ComScore data: Numbers are in 1000s, for the stickiest websites(ones people spend most time on), see here:

Rank | Site Name | Unique Visitors |Average Daily Visitors (000)

1 GOOGLE.IE 894 288
2 MSN.COM 752 164
3 BEBO.COM 650 211
4 GOOGLE.COM 565 104
5 YAHOO.COM 521 112
6 HOTMAIL.COM 424 89
7 MSN.IE 396 99
8 RYANAIR.COM 366 25
9 YAHOO.CO.UK 359 67
10 MICROSOFT.COM 353 21
11 BOOKRYANAIR.COM 323 21
12 YOUTUBE.COM 322 48
13 EIRCOM.NET 319 87
14 EBAY.IE 278 26
15 WIKIPEDIA.ORG 276 26
16 AERLINGUS.COM 267 21
17 RTE.IE 232 22
18 AIB.IE 225 37
19 EBAY.COM 185 11
20 BLOGGER.COM 175 11
21 O2ONLINE.IE 175 23
22 BBC.CO.UK 174 18
23 888.COM 173 13
24 DAFT.IE 173 16
25 GOOGLE.CO.UK 166 26
26 EBAY.CO.UK 166 13
27 CARZONE.IE 165 17
28 METEOR.IE 157 13
29 MSN.CO.UK 155 28
30 AMAZON.COM 155 9
31 APPLE.COM 153 9
32 ABOUT.COM 151 7
33 VODAFONE.IE 147 19
34 MYMETEOR.IE 145 14
35 MYSPACE.COM 145 13
36 FALCONHOLIDAYS.IE 143 7
37 TRIPADVISOR.COM 131 8
38 BUDGETTRAVEL.IE 130 9
39 ADOBE.COM 128 5
40 AOL.COM 120 8
41 IOL.IE 120 10
42 IMDB.COM 118 9
43 365ONLINE.COM 116 20
44 AMAZON.CO.UK 113 9
45 ROCKYOU.COM 104 6
46 FALCONHOLIDAYS.CO.UK 102 5
47 GEOCITIES.COM 101 5
48 TICKETMASTER.IE 98 7
49 EIRCOM.IE 97 6
50 FAS.IE 96 9
55 GUMTREE.IE 96 5
56 MYHOME.IE 96 7
57 BOARDS.IE 95 6
58 YAHOO.IE 90 14
59 AUTOTRADER.IE 87 6
60 GOLDENPAGES.IE 84 5

ComReg think Skype is part-reason for 4% drop in landline voicecalls. Please.

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

Fixed call traffic in Q2 2007 was just over 2.35bn minutes, a decrease of 4% since Q1 2007, and a fall of 9% since Q2 2006. Figure 2.3.1 illustrates trends in fixed voice call minutes since Q2 2005. This decrease in fixed line minutes could be due to the increased use of mobile phones for voice telephony. Another factor which may impact fixed voice volumes over the telecoms network is the use of voice over internet services, such as those offered by Skype.

The year-on-year decrease in total fixed line traffic reported by operators is primarily a result of a fall in absolute volumes of total domestic traffic minutes between Q2 2006 and Q2 2007.

Domestic traffic, right, so we’re going to go on the computer and ring our neighbour or friend up the country on Skype? If we use Skype I bet IM will do instead most of the time. Landline traffic is going down cos it’s a damned ripoff still and people are using mobiles more and more. Dear ComReg, stop throwing buzzwords and the like into your analysis and use actual figures.

Sent this out to a few press contacts too:
The ComReg report is available from here: http://url.ie/5g9

Summary:

* Highest mobile costs in entire EU. €14.67 per month per customer higher than EU average. French talk more than Irish yet pay almost €10 less per month

* Addition of mobile “broadband” numbers is too early. Market is too unsettled with massive ongoing problems with some networks and 100s if not 1000s of customers having severe connectivity issues with speeds just faster than ISDN.

* Line rental once again distinctly missing from fixed line comparisons, making Ireland look much better than what the average Irish phone bill actually reflects.

1. Highest mobile costs in entire EU
Pg 35 and 36 of ComReg survey

The APRU (Average revenue per user) is an indication of average monthly revenue generated by mobile subscribers in each country. Mobile ARPU in Ireland is estimated at €44.07 per user per month.

The EU average for APRU is €29.40, this is €14.67 per month per customer higher than EU average.

Meanwhile the average APRU in Germany is €19.73 a month, well over half compared to Ireland, some €24.34 a month cheaper.

Talk time. Do the Irish talk most and so have highest spend? NO

ComReg compare talktime versus spend in Figure 4.4.2 on page 38 of their report. It only samples a few countries, none of which are the talkative Scandinavian countries, however even in this tiny sample it shows France talks more than Ireland yet pay €34.66 a month for mobile bills. €9.41 cheaper a month per user than Ireland

2. Addition of mobile “broadband” numbers is too early.
See Page 23 and 24 of ComReg survey

While mobile broadband growth has been nothing short of fantastic, it appears the networks have been having problems with the unforeseen demand. Three Ireland have had numerous problems with their network with 100s of people complaining about slower than dialup speeds and blackouts. ComReg have no cut-off points which will remove a slow or disconnected “broadband” product from the stats.

Owning a dead broadband modem should not be shown as a working broadband connection on ComReg statistics as it is not a true reflection of broadband in Ireland. ComReg does not address this.

Obfuscation of satellite numbers is unwelcome

Bundling of “satellite” and “fibre” into a single number (8,900) does not show the low numbers of fibre connections and the high number of an inferior satellite product which continue to grow. Satellite Internet is a last straw “broadband” solution for those desperate for a high speed Internet connection. Install costs range from 700 euros up to 2000 euros with monthly costs ranging from 80 euros to 200 euros. ComReg need to disclose these numbers in a transparent manner in their main report.

3. Line rental once again distinctly missing from fixed line comparisons
Page 16

Line rental is not included in the ComReg landline bill comparisons. Were it included, the pricing would dramatically change, making Ireland appear as one of the countries in Europe with the highest actual phone bills for landline users. Why does ComReg leave out line rental when it contributes to the highest static cost in an Irish phone bill?

Line rental can be found in an old ComReg report here: http://comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0628.pdf (page 17) Since that report, Irish line rental has increased again to €25.36 a month for Ireland.

When last measured, the EU average was €15.10 Making Ireland €10.2 euros more expensive than EU average per month for line rental. Almost €6 more expensive than second most expensive country.

Google Maps Ireland Update and Google Local Ireland?

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

So says John Handelaar. You can now search for pizza in Cork on Google maps and all the other stuff too.

600k – Thanks

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

The site reached 600k visitors a few minutes ago. The counter has been ticking away since June 11th 2005. Thanks to all those that visit and especially those that return on a regular basis.

Websites that Irish people spend most time on

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

Thanks to Cybercom, they have released ComScore stats on the Top 50 Irish Websites and the amount of time spent on each website. You can read the Top 50 somewhere else later this weekend *cough* but I thought I’d share the top websites in Ireland according to amount of time spent on each site per visit. Search engines are low, of course, with Google.ie having people stay with them on average of 2.3 minutes.

Top ten “stickiest” websites are:
Bebo.com – 25.2 mins
Daft.ie – 18 mins
Amazon.co.uk – 17.5 mins
Carzone.ie – 17.3 mins
Ebay.ie – 16.4 mins
Youtube.com – 15.7 mins
Fas.ie – 11.6 mins
MyMeteor.ie – 9.6 mins
BudgetTravel.ie – 8.8 mins
Vodafone.ie – 8.6 mins

Update: Above are the stickiest sites subset of the top 50 most visted sites in Ireland in July 2007 but for a list of the top 50 sites which people spent the most time on, per visit, then the below list is what is correct. Seems to make sense that betting, kids and social networking sites are in fact the ones that most time is spent on:

PADDYPOWERPOKER.COM – 58.7 minutes
KING.COM – 30.4
DISNEY.CO.UK -27.8
BEBO.COM 25.2
NIH.GOV 24.0
HMV.CO.UK 22.9
MATCH.COM 22.1
STARDOLL.COM 21.4
DEVIANTART.COM 21.3
LITTLEWOODSIRELAND.IE 20.4
PREMIERLEAGUE.COM 20.1
FURNITURE.IE 18.1
DAFT.IE 18.0
UCD.IE 17.6
AMAZON.CO.UK 17.5
CARZONE.IE 17.3
NICK.CO.UK 17.1
NICK.COM 16.9
ANOTHERFRIEND.COM 16.8
EBAY.IE 16.4
YOUTUBE.COM 15.7
NHS.UK 15.4
TESCO.COM 15.3
AUTOTRADER.CO.UK 14.9
BETFAIR.COM 14.6
WP.PL 14.6
QUINN-SECURE.COM 14.4
MYHOME.IE 14.1
CAO.IE 13.9
PROPERTYNEWS.COM 13.9
GAMEFAQS.COM 13.8
CARSIRELAND.IE 13.5
BRATZPACK.COM 13.5
BOI-BOL.COM 13.3
DRIVINGTEST.IE 13.2
PLAY.COM 13.1
MINICLIP.COM 13.0
REACHSERVICES.IE 12.6
MAKEFRIENDSONLINE.COM 12.5
LOADZAJOBS.IE 12.3
ASOS.COM 11.8
FAS.IE 11.6
TOYOTA.IE 11.6
FLIXSTER.COM 11.4
ZWINKY.COM 11.3
CLUBPENGUIN.COM 11.1
GO.COM 10.7
MOUSEBREAKER.COM 10.7
CBG.IE 10.6
AKUMIITTI.COM 10.5
TICKLE.COM 10.4

Like his aul fella, Ardal did actually have political notions

Friday, September 7th, 2007

Nice story from Irish KC about Ardal going for SU President during his college days. Also a chance to win his election pamphlet:

Inside is an introduction, a cartoon, a list of 21 election promises (e.e. #12 I promise to collect people’s grannies at Heuston Station when they come up for the weekend), and then there’s some blurb before finishing with a campaign slogan or two, including Don’t Be A Goat, Give O’Hanlon Your Vote, and An Fear Is Fearr.

You know you want to.

Last night a Phantom DJ didn’t necessarily save my life but a puntastic post title seemed clever at the time but on second thoughts maybe I shouldn’t have tried to be funny. Ah brevity.

Friday, September 7th, 2007

I’ve become a massive Phantom FM fanboy in the past few weeks. It’s a seriously good station, for my eclectic tastes anyway and they certainly do an amazing job of promoting local talent too. I’ve not found loads of new Irish bands because of them and I’m very grateful for that. The DJs and the management also seem to *get* the idea of social networking sites and blogs and web forums with strong presences on Bebo, Facebook, Boards.ie and their various DJ blogs. All good but, the influence on my musical tastes from the station means I am listening to more new music than ever before after I had given up on other radio stations. Up to my Phantom epiphany, it was Sinead, Nialler, Una, Torture Garden, HiFi Popcorn and American music blogs that influenced me and one colleague in work who has great taste. I’m finding I’m listening less to my mp3 collection and instead I’m just tuning into Phantom, except the mid-morning and lunchtime slots. Sorry guys 🙂

But my gushing about Phantom is leading somewhere. I’d love to have a device, not necessarily a phone, with a 3g connection which allow me to bring Phantom with me as I travel about, with an additional “Want” button which will allow me to find out more info about the song playing and add it to a wishlist on my blog and which can plug into iTunes and every other music store too. I think I wouldn’t be too pushed about local storage anymore on a device, once it has a net connection and I can stream my own music and radio stations. Fits in a pocket with ease too. Last week Universal Music at the Nokia Go Play event said subscription services are on their way very soon and if so, where the hell is the capabilities in music devices for them? The latest iPod line missed out on that and Jobs seems to make bitchy statements about 3G:

WiFi, as you may know, is faster than any 3G cellular network, so it’s really fast.

It will take more than WiFi to have a proper streaming device if you want to walk around the streets listening to a radio stations 100s or 1000s of miles away.

Who will buy Beaut.ie? I can’t afford it

Friday, September 7th, 2007

Beaut.ie is celebrating their first birthday and have released a few stats:

Beaut.ie is read by up to 6,000 people a day (unique visitors to the site per day) and boasts over 150k hits on an average day. The sisters have clocked up almost 2000 posts (articles) on topics covering every aspect of the beauty industry – from facials to lipgloss, waxing, and latest beauty trends

The blog has received well over 50,000 comments so far from site visitors.

1 year and 50,000 comments. Holy fucking crapola! So will it be the Irish Times or the Indo or someone else?

Congrats Aisling and Kirstie, you both rock!

Karlin Lillington Challenge: She denies she said theres 90% coverage, yet I have the mp3

Friday, September 7th, 2007

Still day 3 and since Karlin Lillington continues to selectively quote me on her blog but refuses to let my comments through, I’d like to point out that she cannot even recall what she said on her Newstalk slot the other day. Now she is backing away from the 90% broadband coverage statement on her blog saying she never said that:

In addition, let me make this very clear: I did NOT state the there was 90% coverage in Ireland, and I did NOT accept this statement either. However I was NOT the interviewer for the piece, and I do not ever control the direction of interviews or shows

If you listen to the mp3 of the tech slot, she says the following around 4 minutes 15 seconds.

A question that goes a long way with this whole issue of coverage and the takeup and our low takeup is whether there isn’t a larger question of why we don’t have the penetration despite a 90% coverage