Jim Bytes! - An IT Blog

Moving Home

2007-06-01T22:30:00.000+01:00

Ok so May didn't go according to plan for the posting rate but I did accomplish one thing and it's finally decided. I'm sticking with the mirrored copy of this blog on WordPress.com and will no longer update on Blogger.

Please update your bookmarks / feed reader with the following:

Jim Bytes - Doing I.T. in Dublin!

RSS for Posts

RSS for Comments

With new themes, plugins and a more active development and user community WordPress is the place for me to be so bye bye Blogger.

See y'all on the other side!

P.S Blogger, the word verification and supposed auto-save for posts not working in my Firefox was the final straw.

WordPress Magic Button ....my arse!

2007-05-05T22:30:00.000+01:00

Oh the joys of blogging eh! Over the past few months I've gone from resisting a move to the new Blogger ( until forced ) to trying out WordPress 2.1 on a free hosting provider that said they supported PHP & MySQL (only to delete my test WordPress database after just a week for no apparent reason) to ending up mirrored on WordPress.com. Phew!!

While transferring the existing Blogger posts to WordPress I used the so called Magic Button and it worked sweet as a nut first time. A couple days later though I decided to try it again to bring in posts added since the original transfer ...man was that a mistake.

Here's what happened when I clicked the so called Magic Button for the second time.

I ended up with around 100 duplicated posts that had to be picked through and manually removed. I'd read about this problem about 6 weeks prior and with no update thought safe to assume that it had been sorted. I think Twenty had similar problems with his earlier move.

Bad form WordPress. With the rate the hosted offering is growing, these teething problems , particularly with transfers from the more popular platforms should be getting sorted a damn site quicker.

So, be warned, don't press the Magic Button twice!

Nope, not dead...just been taking a long break!

2007-04-27T16:30:00.000+01:00

Who said this blog was dead, eh? I've just been taking a really long break, mostly due to work.

So what have I been up to since early March? Well myself and Melloney spent almost a week in Galway on a nice getaway (though it was the second week of the still on-going drinking water crisis, so we had to be really careful!), the remainder of the month just flew by with work.

Early April saw me cross the pond with work for a week in the Boston area, well Burlington, about 30 mins from the city. I did get to spend Easter weekend in the city and despite the freezing temps managed to see a lot of the sites!

Since returning to work I've been upskilling in Crystal Reports and Business Objects (BOBJ)..exciting stuff! I've also mirrored this blog on Wordpress.com with a nice new look. Why you ask? Well it's all the fun of Wordpress without the hosting costs! I'll probably dual post for a while before an eventual changeover so update your bookmarks/feeds when I give the word!

That's all folks. Here's to more frequent May dated posts and a summer of happy blogging ;-)

technorati tags:Blogging,Personal, Galway, Boston, Crystal Reports, Business Objects, Wordpress.com
youtube myspace american idol google joost paris hilton marilee jones second life web 2.0 coda bebo galilea montijo joost invite redfin music

Friday Office Fun!

2007-03-02T12:53:00.000Z

Voting closes at 4.30 today !

Ringtones coming on iTunes ...or...Jobs is a Genius!

2007-02-25T22:15:00.000Z

The big TechCrunch story yesterday was the news that Apple are likely to start selling ringtones on iTunes to coincide with the release of the iPhone. I think it's a very natural step and the video linked provides some compelling evidence. Judge for yourselves.

Jobs really is a genius. Since dropping the Computers piece of the Apple name and rebranding as a media company, this would appear to be a killer move on their part to further dominate in the mobile media world.

As for Mike Arrington's dismissal of consumer opinion on the high pricing, well I wouldn't be so quick to do so.

This news comes as others are talking about the price of the iPhone, which studies are sayingis too high for consumers to stomach. My instincts tell me the studies are meaningless, though, and that Apple will sell these things as fast as they can produce them in Taiwan.

These pro bloggers eh, what happened to listening to the consumer? Yeah they'll sell, but not like the iPod, until the price drops, period.

technorati tags:Apple, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Ringtones, TechCrunch, Arrington, Consumer, Opinion, Survey

Antonella Barba Gmail Dell Myspace American Idol Joost Youtube Bebo Web 2.0 Britney Spears Google Studivz Ning Paris Hilton Essjay Beyonce Knowles Anna Nicole Smith WWE Internal Revenue Service Charlotte Church Limewire Lindsay Lohan Naruto Hi-5 Ghost Rider

Hey W3Counter ..when exactly is "early 2007"?

2007-02-16T21:15:00.000Z

BlogPatrol was down again today so while well and truly pissed off I thought I'd try sign up for what looks to be an excellent offering from W3Counter. Hey what do ya know, it's invitation only.

Despite the then black text in the form heading I filled out the usuals and clicked Submit, only to find the text gleefully turn RED (about the same time I did!) and I could almost hear it say "I cant let you do that Dave".

Answer me this W3Counter, just what do you call "early 2007" eh? And how do you choose who to invite? You have a great looking service, if only people could use it. If I'd tried to buy a pig in a bag and chosen the $4.95 a month Personal Account offering at signup would we be having this problem? I think not.

Shame how something great can be so easily ruined by lack of insight. How can you expect people to shell out for paid offerings before taking the test drive? Alienating customers at signup...pathetic.

technorati tags:W3, Counter, Web, Traffic, Stats, Analysis, Blog, BlogPatrol, Metrics, Visitors, Measurement

Tammy Nyp Britney Spears Myspace Web 2.0 Youtube Iphone Obama Yahoo Pipes Anna Nicole Smith Windows Vista Grey's Anatomy Google Michelle Manhart Tim Hardaway Second Life

Vista and beyond - Vienna for 2009 ?

2007-02-11T17:45:00.000Z

Vista is hardly out the doors but the Microsoft machine rolls on with word that the next gen OS, codenamed Vienna, is expected sometime in 2009, promising great things from virtualisation and a revolutionary new interface. We'll see eh!

Meanwhile, Vista developers are busy with the Fiji service pack, and rumour has it this will appear far earlier than originally planned. Take up of Vista must be good, that or Microsoft is resolved to further deliver on quality for Vista by getting the bundled fixes out the door faster than ever before.

Vista successor Vienna planned for Late 2009 - Engadget

Mac lovers, what do you think of Vista, and will Vienna be a Leopard clone?

technorati tags:Microsoft, Windows, Vista, Codename, Vienna, Apple, Tiger, Leopard, Virtualisation, GUI, Interface

Anna Nicole Smith Barack Obama Yahoo Pipes Youtube Vista Windows Vista
Erika Ortiz MySpace Kim Kardashian Amanda Marcotte Lift07

Apple vs Microsoft rages on - iTunes vs Vista

2007-02-06T23:00:00.000Z

What a day! On the day that saw Steve Jobs actually agree with Bill Gates on the fact that current DRM technology is the mother of evils and asking the music industry to make it disappear, Apple has asked iPod owners to steer clear of Vista for " a few more weeks" until they can release a fully Vista compatible build of the iTunes software.

Apparently iPod owners running Vista have been using the system tray USB tool to stop and remove the unit rather than ejecting it first from within the iTunes software an today's Apple statement suggests this can lead to corruption, rendering the device useless. Remember folks, it's not just your average USB key drive so you've got to treat it a little differently!

Microsoft has a team on the case and already released an update for Vista to allow iTunes downloads play correctly. It seems now Apple are the ones playing software catch up again!

Apple warns iPod users against Vista - Telegraph.co.uk

technorati tags:Apple, iPod, Microsoft, Windows, Vista, iTunes, DRM, MP3, Music, Industry, Bill, Gates, Steve, Jobs

Celebrate then get ready to deploy Windows Vista

2007-01-29T22:54:00.000Z

Celebrations are underway for all those at Microsoft around the world as today marks the public availability of Windows Vista. When the smoke clears tomorrow, once the bosses have seen the keynotes et all that has gone into the most recent $500 million marketing campaign and bought into it, many admins will no doubt start sweating as they ponder how to roll it out.

Sweat no more for all you need to know is already available via Technet. Find all you need on drivers, hardware compatibility and step by step deployment at the Vista TechCenter.

The Wow starts now ....indeed!

technorati tags:Windows, Vista, Microsoft, Launch, Wow, Starts, Now, Million, Dollar, Marketing, Launch, Gates, Keynote

BlogPatrol Sucks - Recommend a Counter?

2007-01-20T23:13:00.002Z

That's it, I'm sick to the teeth of BlogPatrol and it's inability to cope with connected users. I've used it since starting this blog simply because it was the first half decent looking free effort that I came across on a Google search for free counters. It seems every second time I try log onto it lately I get this error.

Can anyone suggest a free alternative counter that provides decent breakdowns of all relevant site stats ? I've just one requirement ... I must be able to start it off at changeover by setting it to my current count at the time.

BlogPatrol, if you read this maybe you could let us know what you plan to do about your traffic problems!

technorati tags:BlogPatrol, Blog, Counter, Traffic, Analysis, Visitor, Site, Metrics, Stats

Apple says Beatles on iTunes soon ...so what!

2007-01-20T22:55:00.000Z

I read earlier this week that Apple are planning a big ad during the upcoming Super Bowl to announce the availability of The Beatles catalog on their iTunes Store. Big deal!

Is anyone else tired of the remaining Beatles cashing in all the time ? Doesn't everyone who can rip or download MP3s already have at least one of their greatest hits albums, or that CD that has their entire catalog on 1 menu driven disc that was for sale underground a few years back ? Aren't we tired of making wrinkly McCartney richer by the day? After that fucking awful "Love" album last Christmas I say boycott the money grabbing asshole and if you must, download elsewhere and dont part with a red cent!

And to Apple, come on! Wake up and smell what Microsoft is actually getting right with the Zune. It's Zune Social site is higlighting lots of upcoming new acts, encouraging downloads of something different. What's your next move?

technorati tags:Apple, iTunes, iPod, Beatles, MP3, Downloads, Free, Zune, Social, Music, Upcoming, Acts, McCartney

Everything the iPhone could have been to all mankind ;-)

2007-01-14T18:21:00.000Z

Sunday = Funday so here's some humour. One of the most watched videos on YouTube at the moment, well executed by Conan and Co!

Enjoy!1. Iphone 2. Saddam 3. Trainwrecks 4. Michelle Manhar 5. Youtube
6. Tammy Nyp 7. Daniela Cicarel... 8. Britney Spears 9. Spocko 10. Studivz
11. Ron Paul 12. Shawn Hornbeck 13. Hey!watch 14. Bush Speech 15. Marketing

technorati tags:iPhone, Commercial, Parody, Comedy, Conan, O'Brien, Show, Apple

I WANT an iPhone!

2007-01-09T23:00:00.000Z

Well it's official, the worst kept secret of the second half of 2006 was confirmed, unveiled by Steve Jobs today. The iPhone is a reality and believe me you're gonna want one.

You can see details of the very impressive specs and all the launch photos you could ever wish to drool over here, courtesy of the Engadget story. By the way, it's running ...well what else ...OS X!

All other mobile vendors take note, this is some serious innovation and there's a definite long term vision behind all this that all of you are lacking. The intelligent decision to use an iTunes style interface when docked , coupled with an ever more familiar operating system, will help sway loyal iPod fans and eliminate that alien feeling you often get with a new mobile phone.

Will the performance of all the media functionality deliver ? It should do since we're talking technology from Apple but expect slow uptake in Europe initially if the unit launches in Q4 at the prices quoted.

Think, Steve. While we know the consumer has to pay for the innovation, many of us already have internet enabled phones and iPods. Drop the price and I'm sold for my next upgrade!

technorati tags:Apple, iPhone, 2007, Mobile, Technology, Vendors, Innovation, OS/X

Music Pick for 2007 - Paolo Nutini

2007-01-03T23:05:00.000Z

Forget James Blunt and James Morrison, there's another rising star you have to hear. Just a quick mention on Paolo Nutini, one of my picks for further stardom in 2007.

I've had his album "These Streets" on my iPod for the past week and been listening to it a lot. If you haven't heard any of the singles released to date check them out below, plus the title track, and go buy the album. You wont regret it!

1. Jenny Don’t Be Hasty	Listen
2. Last Request	Listen
3. Rewind	Listen
5. These Streets	Listen

technorati tags:Music, Picks, 2007, Paolo, Nutini, These, Streets, Amazon

Dont hold your breath for Zune in Ireland!

2007-01-03T22:51:00.000Z

Today's free Metro paper reports in a gadgets for 2007 feature that the Zune MP3 player and so called "iPod killer" from Microsoft wont be available in Ireland until next October so we've quite a wait to find out how rubbish it is or otherwise.

On the plus side, someone is listening as the Zune social site has showed some improvement since my last visit before the holidays, though it still takes too long for the flash to load. Kudos when and where it's due I guess!

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, MP3, Player, Availability, Ireland, iPod, Killer, Social, .Net, Zune.net

It's official ... Britney wants a Wang!

2006-12-29T15:59:00.000Z

Yeah it's completely off topic but I saw this earlier and couldn't resist the gag!

Britney wants to follow in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie and Madonna by adopting a boy called Wang from Bali, a child orphaned by the Asian tsunami of 2004.

Get the story here. Poor silly slapper!

technorati tags:Britney,Spears, Wang, Adoption, Angelina, Madonna, Slapper

Surprises on Amazon.com Best of 2006

2006-12-29T10:58:00.000Z

Amazon.com has just released it's Best of 2006, featuring sections like Best Sellers, Most Wanted and Favourite Gifts across all it's product ranges. You can view the release here.

It contains a few surprises to say the least and gives a good insight into the buying public, and the lousy gifts some people have ended up with this Christmas!

While it's no surprise that the various incarnations of iPod were top of the electronics list (note the distinct lack of a mention of Zune!), the popularity of the Nintendo DS Lite (in must have Polar White!) is a bit of a shocker, and who'd have thought the Tony Bennett album "Duets: An American Classic" would top the most popular music gift? Where's poor Britney? Oh yeah off somewhere flashing her goodies instead of in the studio making anything for Amazon shoppers ;-)

I'm a bit surprised our Snow Patrol or U2's "U218 Singles" didnt make top of the music lists. Has America bought enough U2 greatest hits albums ? Mmmm.

There's some weird stuff on there and no mistake...what's with the Pampers Cruisers? I would have thought the "Sims Pets" would have been on more people's wish list and not "Sims Open for Busines" as the pets are so damn cute !

You Americans eh!

technorati tags:Amazon,Best, 2006, List, Apple, iPod, Britney

Got Broadband for Christmas? How fast is it REALLY?

2006-12-27T22:44:00.000Z

Have you just got broadband connectivity over the Christmas period, maybe one of those plug and play "no wires and no fuss" jobs from Irish Broadband or ClearWire? Maybe you're finding it's not all it was made out to be as your movie and music downloads crawl?

I posted a few months ago about a site called Speedtest.net and that post still gets quite a few hits so if you haven't seen this site you might like to give it a go before reading any further.

Maybe you've already got some numbers from there, and now you're asking how we can improve on it and squeeze some more out of that line ( or widget if you're on a wireless gadget!). I just came across a piece of software called TweakMaster Pro and frankly it's a must have for anyone serious about getting some bang for your broadband bucks.

It boasts an impressive feature set and is the first application of this type I've tried that actually delivers on it's promises. Prior to installation, my connectivity tests from several sites including SpeedTest came out as follows :

Download : 1681 Kbps , Upload : 215 Kbps , Throughput : 113 Kbps

After a quick installation and just 1 run of the Connection Optimization Wizard, several test sites report a significant improvement in download speed and a throughput of 144Kbps, a gain of 31Kbps.

Now while that may not seem like a hell of a lot, it's not so long ago we were all living with that kinda speed on dial-ups everywhere ! Plus, this software lets you try 5 Wizard based configurations and allows manual tweaking for the hardcore folks out there who like to dig deeper, so there's lots more potential gains to be had when you have a little time to invest.

So, dont hang around, install TweakMaster Pro today and get that new connection humming!

Get the full version here.

technorati tags:Broadband, Speed, Boost, Tweak, Testing, Tweaking, Software, TweakMaster, Pro, Speedtest, .Net, Dial-up, Connection, Wizard, DNS, ClearWire, Irish, ISP, Provider

Now playing ...All the Britney you want for Zune on Vista !

2006-12-20T11:59:00.000Z

Now you can have all the Britney Spears you want for your Zune running on the RTM release of Vista. Yesterday Microsoft released a (long awaited in some cases) hefty software and firmware update to v1.2 that makes the Zune unit compatible on Windows Vista. Fixes include imrovements in video loading speed too apparently.

So if you've had a Zune stuck in a drawer since you bought it cos Vista wouldn't play nicely it's time to dust it off. You can get the update via the Windows Update service or via this direct link.

Note, this update is not for Vista RC releases, you'll have to wait til Jan 30th!

Full story here from ZuneInsider.com.

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, MP3, Player, Firmware, Update, Software, Windows, Britney, Spears, Audio, Video, Patch, Rockstartup

WebJam - A Glimpse of Web3.0 ?

2006-12-11T23:52:00.000Z

WebJam has just gone live and launched at the LeWeb3 event in Paris. Natali has the lowdown on it at TechCrunch.

You can get a feel for it's capabilities from the demo below. It looks like a Ning killer to me!

“It’s very powerful because it’s bringing the power of communicating tothe next level,” said Yann Motte, co-founder and managing director ofWebjam. “Sharing is fine, but so what? We will make people better byallowing them to build on the communities of what Webjam is doing. Ifyou have no clue on how to run a Web site, you can go to Webjam, pickone you like, and just replicated it.”

Is this the future of web based portals and user generated content type sites? There's been a lot of buzz about de-portalization this week (the death of portals) and this may just start a few new ones.

Give it a go and let me know what you think. Is it easy to learn and produce respectable looking results? Are we about to see an explosion of more imaginative user generated content sites pulled from all over the web? Is this the start of a copycat epidemic or the infancy of Web 3.0?

technorati tags:WebJam, Launch, LeWeb3, Conference, Social, Networking, Applications, Site, Builder, User, Generated, Content, Portal, Designer, Startup, Paris

Snooping Microsoft Zune marketing exec perhaps?

2006-12-11T12:15:00.000Z

It's funny sometimes what your visitor stats can reveal. A glance at mine this morning shows an early morning hit from a Microsoft Ireland employee reading my "Zune is Rubbish" related post.

I wonder if it's someone involved with European marketing of the Zune trying to gauge opinion / market perception of the unit from the blogosphere. I wonder if they're thinking about a different approach to it's marketing in Europe, particularly in Ireland where the iPod is so huge. Let's hope they get rid of those ridiculous "Join the social" ads. The Zune tag line just had to include the word "social" since the whole direction of the web changed with the social networking explosion of 2006 didn't it! Someone at Redmond thought so anyways.

Perhaps even more curious is the unknown Windows version registered for the same hit. Is BlogPatrol not registering hits from machines running Vista? Has Microsoft already (probably long since) rolled out Vista internally?

If you know, please leave a comment and let me know !

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, Marketing, Promotion, Vista, Blog

Ssshh dont tell but ...YouTube gets the Google Labs Treatment - TestTube

2006-12-09T22:17:00.000Z

Scroll down the end of the YouTube home page today and you'll find a new link. It seems Google is further helping to shape the direction and hone the creativity of YouTube development by giving it the Google Labs treatment with the release of Test Tube.

It's the same deal as Digg Labs and others, an incubation area for new site features. Unlike the main site though, you do need to sign up for a YouTube account to gain access.

Go sign up right now because the Stream idea just might be worth a look. Stream allows you to chat with the people online who are watching the same videos that you are. It's Flash based and slow to load (forgiveable for Beta!) but worth a look.

The odd thing about it is the very low key mention of it. I'd have had the logo on the main video site, but I guess Streams cant handle the traffic volume the main site gets on a daily basis right now, so don't tell too many folks ok!

technorati tags:YouTube, TestTube, Google, Labs, Digg, Streams, Beta, Site, Launch, Testing, Incubation

Topping Google with curiosity around Zune

2006-12-09T20:20:00.000Z

It looks like I'm finally getting the hang of the whole traffic generation / SEO deal. I just discovered a reader to my blog was referred by Google for the search term "Zune is rubbish" so I decided to replicate his search and find that I'm on top of Google ...YEAH!

That Zune related post has had a lot of traffic over the last few weeks with the Christmas shopping public doing their homework on the web. Thanks to all who have visited recently, my traffic is up 300% and more every day ( the "porn on your ipod" drew the crowds too!)

I hope you find an interesting opinion and keep coming back for more ;-)

technorati tags:Google, Zune, SEO, Search, Engine, Optimisation, Traffic, Generation, iPod, Porn

Vista finally here with Irish Launch Dec 5th!

2006-12-04T23:37:00.000Z

Hey all! Last Thursday saw the official launch of Windows Vista, and for the first time ever in Microsoft history, the simultaneous launch of Office 2007. Enough folks blogged about Steve Ballmer's speech in NY on the day so I wont bore you with it.

What you may not know is that tomorrow is the official launch of Vista in Ireland, and you can read the keynote etc on this specially created virtual launch site.

Get the full buzz from the horse's mouth - Technet Ireland Blog

technorati tags:Microsoft, Windows, Vista, Ireland, Irish, Launch, December, Office, 2007, Exchange, Groove, Infopath, Sharepoint

Would you like porn with your iPod?

2006-12-01T22:32:00.000Z

One of the top stories on Digg and other tech news sites today tells the story of a guy who bought a "refreshed" ( read refurbished ) laptop from a London based Apple store only to find a desktop folder full of porn images when he got home. Apparently an Apple tech didn't quite do his job right and the 11 year old intended owner had a lucky escape when dad had to reformat himself at home.

Apple sells refreshed laptop filled with porn to 11 Year Old Girl

It's a worrying trend as this is yet another example of standards slipping at Apple. It's only about 6 weeks since we saw about 1000 iPods ship infected with a Windows virus thanks to an infected pc at the manufacturing site.

Apple accessories are outselling Zune units themselves this week and Apple are struggling to keep up with the demand. It seems like the world and his dog wants an iPod this Christmas too. My concern is, after so much success in recent years, it would be a real shame to see more serious cock ups in the run up to the holidays, as they rush to stock the shelves and neglect the basics that's made their name, like build quality.

Let's hope nobody opens a video iPod under the tree this holiday season to find it preloaded with "Debbie does Dallas" or worse !

technorati tags:Apple, iPod, Porn, Quality, Slippage, Video, Zune, Accessories, Windows, Virus

Nike+iPod Surveillance - could you become a target?

2006-11-30T23:58:00.000Z

Now this is interesting reading, courtesy of Wired.It seems with a little know how the Nike+iPod training combo that folks raved about on it's release could allow others invade your privacy, tracking every step you take. Could your habitual lunch time jog be plotted for the world to see?

Apparently the RFID signal output from the Nike shoe back to the widget in the Nano is too strong, recievable up to 60 feet away and is thereby interceptable to other receivers and hacked hardware.

The fact that the trend looks set to continue with more of this type of device appearing all the time as folks continually research ubiquitous computing ( chips in clothing etc) is a tad worrying.

In their report, the researchers detail a scenario in which a stalkerwho wants to know when his ex-girlfriend is at home taps into her Nike+iPod system. He simply hides the gumstix device next to her door, andit registers her presence as she passes by in her Nike shoes. If headds a small "wifistix" antenna to the device, it can transmit thisinformation to any nearby Wi-Fi access point and alert him to herpresence via SMS or by plotting her location on Google Maps.

Nike+iPod=Surveillance - Wired (Check out the images, just like something from Bond!)

technorati tags:Nike+iPod, Nike, iPod, Security, RFID, Reciever, Signal, Gumstix, Surveillance, Target, Privacy, EFF

And you thought Windows was flawed...is this a record?

2006-11-29T23:26:00.000Z

This week Apple released an OS update containing no less than 22 fixes, 12 of which were security holes. Is this some kind of record I wonder ? The fixes address hacks like buffer overflows and remote code execution, attack methods that we've seen long since patched again and again for Windows. It's no different nor greater really is it ?

For more details on these vulnerabilities, check out the link below:

Apple patches 22 security holes in Mac OS X

technorati tags:Apple, Mac, vs, Windows, OS, security, patches, vulnerabilities, Vista, XP

Oh no they didn't ...it's a frickin PINK Zune

2006-11-28T22:05:00.000Z

Oh yes they did! At least there's only a few of them though..phew. Check out the CrunchGear story from the link below.

Apple got it right with the bright pink and green, the same shades of pink and green that made a name for Benetton years ago, and while I can see the girlie attraction, it just doesn't work on Zune IMHO.

Pink Zunes Surface at random

Does it matter? We all know it should be about ease of navigation and functionality and low cost add-ons that enhance the entertainment experience, but releasing the unit in the same colours (we'll ignore the shoe leather brown!) as the iPod is shameful plagiarism, a real disappointment and a sad reflection on the Zune Team. There's so much more imagination among all the talent at Microsoft that could have delivered so much more for this device in every way. Just look at what the Office 2007 team did with the new ribbon interface, fresh and innovative.

What's your experience with or opinion on Zune? Leave a comment.

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, Pink, MP3, Player, Portable, Audio, iPod, Design, Navigation

Your-15-Minutes.com - Get Famous with Free Exposure

2006-11-27T22:00:00.000Z

Here's a site you might not have seen on your travels. Your 15 Minutes.com could be one to watch, with the promise of 15 Minutes TV and Radio coming soon. Visit the site to upload your picture, video intro/pitch or flash demo of your product and the site guarantees to post you on the front page for at least 15 minutes, for free. How's that for promotion? The site supposedly changes 96 times a day so you'll get your turn.

Yeah it looks and probably sounds amateurish right now, with layout problems in Mozilla based browsers and the front page showing someone's cat, but with some imagination it could be a handy free advertising tool for startups. Damn it, post your logo or flash demo and see what happens eh ? Make sure whatever you post carries your website address so you can monitor referrals and any traffic boost that may happen.

technorati tags:15, minutes, Fame, Promotion, Free, Marketing, Advertising, SEO, Traffic, Generation

Zune is rubbish ...apparently.

2006-11-26T21:15:00.000Z

It seems like the more I read about the Zune from Microsoft, the better I feel about having gone with my iPod Nano a few weeks ago. I was really tempted to wait for the Zune launch (and maybe grab a bargain) but thought it best to go with the devil you know and all that. Man am I glad.

While I haven't played with one yet, everything I see and hear screams stay away, from that awful shoebox brown colour and the chunky casing to the dreary looking home, travel and car accessories packs, and worst of all, the awful attempt at a community website with Zune.net.

I think this post from David Galbraith says it all:

I just saw a Zune, and guess what? Its a piece of shit.

It's best to let a better writer than myself bury the Zune, however. Andy Ihnatko in the Chicago sun-Times lets rip:

Yes, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face."

Take the Zune off your Christmas list folks, even the Wi-Fi trickery (that was the key differentiator til they stupidly crippled it with the "3 plays or 3 days" DRM rules) wont save this lame duck.

technorati tags:Microsoft, Zune, MP3, Player, Design, Rubbish, iPod, Nano, Apple

If you thought 1 was funny, try 4!

2006-11-25T20:30:00.000Z

Tom Raftery had a great post a few days ago with a video of a laughing baby from YouTube. Well if you thought one cute baby laughing was funny, try these 4 for size!

technorati tags:YouTube, Google, GooTube, Tom, Raftery, Laughing, Baby, Babies, Comedy, Video

Back and ready to byte !

2006-11-21T00:12:00.000Z

Hey all! I'm back posting after an absence due to illness. I'd hoped nothing much would happen but wouldn't you know it there's been plenty to blog about, so I'll just mention a few key events of the last 10 days:

Vista went to RTM (released to manufacturing) - Early reports on finalised functionality are good and man I wish I had a pc fit to run the damn thing.The pirates raced to release it and the web is already flooded with copies, even the Ultimate edition hasn't been spared. The pirates are using a few keys that have been built into the RTM release for quick building so expect a patch soon to break these.

Office 2007 also went to RTM - I've been reading quite a bit on the next generation office release over the last few months and it sure looks impressive. I'll be getting hold of a copy soon so hang out for a verdict. I'm not so sure on the "ribbon interface" but innovation is always good, and the Business Intelligence and simplified reporting will surely be the key selling points for serious users.

Playstation 3 launched - Riots and all sorts of mayhem broke out in the US last Friday when the PS3 launched. We Europeans (and my girlfriend!) have to wait til March, that kinda sucks. A quick search on ebay.com today has 760 listings for PS3, such is the number of lousy gits who just bought a unit to resell for a quick profit. May all your thumbs fall off, and soon !!

I hope this week holds more excitement ;-)

technorati tags:Vista, RTM, Office, 2007, Windows, PS3, Playstation

Forget Jamster and co, save your cash with DIY Ringtones

2006-11-03T19:30:00.000Z

That's it, no more Crazy Frog or cute chicken or whatever is "in" this week. I'm so sick of kiddies down the back of every bus I get on blasting out their latest MP3 ringtone. Please kids, nobody wants to hear your idea of cool music, and everyone wants to know where you get the money for the damn downloads!

If you must have MP3 ringtones, put your cash in an online account (don't spend all your online lives on MySpace!) or the Credit Union, and heed the advice in this article to create your own ringtones, courtesy of Gina at LifeHacker.

Choose your tone wisely
It's totally up to you what song to use as your ringtone. However, do imagine yourself in different life scenarios and what it will be like when your phone starts randomly playing White and Nerdy. Sure, the Halo theme probably seems like a great ringtone today, but when you're standing on line at the bank next week, will you cringe when it goes off? The answer to this question is a personal one, but it must be asked.

Personally I like songs and sounds that already sound a bit ringtone-y. In the examples above I used the first 20 seconds of thePostal Services ' Such Great Heights. My new text message notification is the Jetson's doorbell.(Go ahead, make fun of me.) You can also use Audacity to record ANY sounds from your computer, so you could, in theory, record snippets of audio from, say, YouTube videos.

All you need is the free Audacity software, a favourite of mine for donkeys years now, and the right connection.

For those stateside who find themselves hitting a brick wall with a Motorola phone on Verizon, see the comments section for some excellent help on hacking it to load those tunes.

technorati tags:Mobile, Hacking, Phones, MP3, Ringtones, DIY, Audacity, Verizon, Motorola

So I started this site .....or ....Fishing for startups....

2006-10-30T16:00:00.000Z

... and in the spirit of "If you build it, they will come!", let's see if it takes off.

I read Sam Sethi's posting on TechCrunch about new entrepreneur matching service "AngelPitch" this morning, pondering if it would work (linking entrepreneurs with business angels / VCs via video-conferencing) or not. It was Sam's last comment that caught my attention.

Will Angelpitch work? I am not sure just yet as the $150 fee feels like a barrier to me but I would love to see a YouTube like video site where entrepreneurs pitch their business and Angels watch to find companies and entrepreneurs they like.

So, you know how it is, you get an idea, you run with it and ya see how it goes! I've started the ball rolling with the launch of MyStartupPitch.

Yeah it's hosted on Ning Video (for now!) rather than it's own swish domain but it's the idea that matters right? People invest in people and their ideas, not just the idea, so get your face in front of those that matter with just a little time and effort.

Are you a startup company, Irish or otherwise, looking for free exposure? If so post your video now, and tell your friends!

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think. Thanks!

technorati tags:MyStartupPitch, Videos, Startup, Blogging, VBlog, Entrepreneur, VC, Venture, Capital,Funding, Media, Exposure, Start-ups

pmeme.com- One to watch!

2006-10-28T10:30:00.000+01:00

Forget trawling your usual sites like Digg, TechMeme, TechCrunch and wherever else you might get your daily dose of IT news for a mention of what the big names are up to. With all the gems worth knowing on all the movers and shakers of the IT world, pmeme is definitely one to watch.

It gathers the news on all the big names like Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc etc from the ever expanding blogosphere and presents it all on one site for your consumption. Check it out !

technorati tags:pmeme, IT, News, Aggregator, Celebrities, Movers, Shakers, Digg, TechMeme, TechCrunch, Startups

Google Co-Op Custom Search released

2006-10-24T12:30:00.000+01:00

Since Yahoo, MSN and others have recently done it, it's not new, but Google have just launched the Co-Op CSE, a service that allows you to build a customised search engine to include on your site.

The cool thing about this is it allows you to index your own site, blog, wiki or wherever you put it plus others you might specify that have similar topic content to your own. You can prioritise the results and alter how the results page looks.

The real differentiator is the option to integrate Adsense and share the revenue. Is this any different to Adsense for Search and will it prove more popular and profitable ? We'll have to give it a whirl and see!

technorati tags:Google, Co-Op, CSE, Release, Adsense, Integration, Site, Creation, Customisation, SEO

Happy 5th Birthday to the iPod!

2006-10-23T15:30:00.000+01:00

The iPod is 5 today. See Steve Jobs on stage at the original launch here.

Congratulations to Apple on 5 years of leadership in consumer electronics and for bringing the joy of portable digital audio to the masses.

Meet the rest of the iPod family tree here.

For those who know me, the 80Gb video iPod is the one on my Christmas wishlist ;-)

technorati tags:Apple, iPod, 5th, Birthday, MP3, Portable,Digital, Audio

Secunia on the ball with Zero Day IE7 alert

2006-10-19T16:29:00.000+01:00

Well folks, after a long wait Internet Explorer 7 has arrived. The final release happened today and everyone has been blogging about it. The verdict is already mixed across the blogosphere and the news that the excellent Secunia have verifired a zero day vulnerability will not help persuade people to switch.

Secunia has verified an MHTML related vulnerability that, though low impact, is a disappointing start.

Description:
A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose potentially sensitive information.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the handling of redirections for URLs with the "mhtml:" URI handler. This can be exploited to access documents served from another web site.
Secunia has constructed a test, which is available at:
http://secunia.com/Internet_Explorer_Arbitrary_Content_Disclosure_Vulnerability_Test/

Some of the opinions I've read today express concern about switching back to IE from their beloved Firefox incarnation because it will not stand up to Firefox on funcionality (if you've got a plethora of FF plug-ins installed!). I'd encourage people to give it a go and find out as Microsoft seem to have got things properly covered for a change.
Any functionality they haven't taken from Firefox and Opera (tabbed browsing, feed reader etc) in the new base product could already be done via an add-on, and you might just find it at the IE Add-Ons site!

From another angle, some including Tom Raftery have expressed concerns that moving to IE7 will be a support nightmare. I think Microsoft have done sufficient release prep work to minimise this, providing enough information to the average user for a change so they can plan their upgrade properly.

With post-upgrade IE7 checklists for various levels of user and thorough Release Notes to check for potential application compatability issues etc before you ever run that setup.exe, there should be reduced amounts of tears and hair puling ;-)

technorati tags:Internet, Explorer, IE7, Release, Firefox, Secunia, Alerts,

Pingoat handy for traffic generation?

2006-10-15T21:01:00.000+01:00

Hey here's a service I stumbled on today that you might not have seen before called Pingoat. It allows you ping multiple listing services when you've updated your website or blog.

Nothing new there you say but what I liked about this is the ability to choose to ping non-English listing services right there on the same page with no fuss. So, if you've got the BabelFish translator widget on your site you can hope to attract a much larger no. of visitors.

If that's not enough, should your site regularly include Podcasts you can also choose to ping Podcast listing sites too!
I've just given it a go so we'll soon see if the desired hits boost happens!

technorati tags:Pingoat, Site, Promotion, Traffic, Generation, SEO, Ping, Services

YouTube buzz continues, cool kids searching for Jawed!

2006-10-14T22:00:00.000+01:00

The traffic buzz around the YouTube acquisition news from earlier this week continues. My own blog traffic is up about 300% and a surprise turned up in my stats this evening. It looks like the kids at Stanford University all want to know more about the millionaire celeb on campus, Jawed Karim, and they're going to Technorati to find all the juicy news!

I wonder if my hit was Jawed himself searching out what's being said about him ???

technorati tags:YouTube, Jawed, Karim, Stanford, Traffic

Google OS Part of the Master Plan ;-)

2006-10-13T23:53:00.000+01:00

I called it right in a post a while back. Now Robert Scoble has provided the evidence courtesy of contributors to his Scobleizer blog. This pic is a joke but I'm sure the thought crosses their minds regularly whether or not to do Goobuntu or whatever they might call a full blown Google OS.

The master plan is a whiteboard on display for all to see and goes some ways to demonstrating the humour and fun that's all part of working at Google. It's funny to read that someone recently erased it, kinda symbollic really, almost as if all bets are off as to what's coming next now that they've got hold of YouTube eh?

Check out the full size image of the Google Master Plan.

I'm off to check the Google vacancies, I could use a laugh ;-)

technorati tags:Google, Master, Plan, Humour, Fun, YouTube, Scoble, Scobleizer

YouTube silent third partner revealed ..or ...One lucky SOB!

2006-10-12T15:30:00.000+01:00

This is Jawed Karim, 27 and a student at Stanford. Thanks to Google's acquisition of YouTube he's become a multi-millionaire overnight. Talk about right place at the right time!

Karim met the other two faces of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steven Chen when he worked with them at PayPal, and spent many an evening dreaming up the next big web sensation with both guys.

At some stage those dreams spawned a video sharing site that became the biggest thing on the web this year, but when conceived Karim chose not to take up a job at YouTube with his mates, preferring to continue pursuit of his masters in Computer Science at Stanford.

He did however remain on the YouTube payroll as an advisor and that decision has secured his future to the tune of millions! You can read the full story below.
With YouTube, Grad Student Hits Jackpot Again

technorati tags:Google, YouTube, Buyout, Acquisition, Jawed, Karim, GooTube

Google / YouTube buyout a real traffic magnet.. or..Simple SEO Secrets!

2006-10-10T17:35:00.000+01:00

Wow , it seems like people love to follow every move Google makes and today it looks like people everywhere are reading all they can about the megabucks buyout. I normally get about 10 hits a day but I've had 10 in just 2 hours today thanks to the previous posting.

It seems the secrets to SEO and traffic generation are simple - write about what people want to read and keep it current! Oh and always use tagging, if only so you get your face on Technorati now and then ;-)

technorati tags:Google, YouTube, Acquisition, GooTube, SEO, Traffic, Secrets

Google snaps up YouTube ..what next?

2006-10-10T14:30:00.000+01:00

So boys and girls, despite all the rumours of all sorts of imminent lawsuits against YouTube for a myriad of copyright content type violations type offences (and failure to act to stop these), the Google machine has rolled in and taken over with an all shares deal worth $1.65BN ! That's a lot of shares eh ;-)

I'll write more on this later but the best opinion I've seen on it so far today, from Mark Cuban, respected tech speaker and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, can be read below.

I still think Google is crazy!

technorati tags:Google, YouTube, Acquisition, GooTube

Windows Vista is really close ... have you got the hardware ?

2006-10-08T23:19:00.000+01:00

The long awaited release of Vista is getting very close now, and man do I wish I could get me a new pc. Yeah we'll have to wait til January for the consumer releases but now is the time to prepare like all good scouts should! I keep reading mixed reports of what specs folks will need to experience Vista as intended, so the announcement of the Vista Upgrade Advisor will please many.

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Test Your Computer's Vista-Compatibility

One thing's for sure, my current work horse of almost 5 years wont fit the bill, so I'll be hoping for lots of room in Santa's sack ( or a lottery win!) for a shiny new case full of Vista ready hardware. Put one on your list too ;-)

technorati tags:Windows, Vista, Release, Upgrade, Advisor, Compatibility

IE7 anti-phishing comes out on top ..sort of!

2006-09-28T23:47:00.000+01:00

A Microsoft sponsored study by 3Sharp has found that the IE7 Anti-Phishing toolbar is the best blocker of all those nasty phishing sites you keep hearing about, well 100 of them anyway. You can read the full story below.

MS Anti-phishing tool wins MS Bakeoff

The Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog

Is just 100 sites a sufficient test of any piece of software in a time where 100+ variants of malware appear each day, including these badly behaved sites? I dont think so. I wonder how much Bill and Co shelled out for the self publicity.

Apparently they also found that Site Advisor from McAfee also kinda sucks, and here was I pondering giving it a go! McAfee claim the result is unfair as they dont claim it covers anti-phishing. I say if not why not folks! I guess it's just given away as a teaser for the full security suite, ya know anti-virus, anti-spyware, the works. I wonder how that would perform in the same study,mmmm !

Come on McAfee, you can do better than those dismal results and give a little more. Oh and talk to the Spyware Doctor folks about how they pull off their scanning at such speeds, your engine sucks IMHO.

technorati tags:Microsoft, IE7, Anti-phishing, Phishing, Security, McAfee, SiteAdvisor, 3Sharp

How times have changed at IBM !

2006-09-24T23:33:00.000+01:00

There was a time when some of us involved in working as Level 2 Product Specialists for the Aptiva PC support desk (Colin, Claude, Ciaran, Ger, Ian, anyone out there, anyone?)got a telling off if we so much as read the Unofficial Aptiva Forum or the pages it spawned at the time. Now IBM is embracing the blog for everything it is and actually actively encouraging employees to blog their merry little hearts out , aint that sweet!

For any ex-employees like myself who may want to catch up, or for the general public looking for some light-hearted expert opinions on everything from architecture to Web 2.0, there's something for all so have a gander! I recommend checking out Andy Piper's excellent page "The Lost Outpost"

IBM Bloggers Listing

technorati tags:IBM, Employees, Bloggers, Blogging, Experts

Blogged with Flock

Free speech not so Flock-ing Free in the Blogosphere?

2006-09-24T22:54:00.000+01:00

It's amazing the extent some will go with their comment moderation on their blog. About 10 days ago I posted a thank you on the Flock blog to say well done to all the guys for getting the memory leak that had annoyed so many users fixed and out in a reasonable length of time. Nothing major, just a few lines thanking Mike Dosik and all the team for their hard work on it. I checked the page and it had appeared ok alongside 1 other.

A couple of days later I signed up on the Flockstar roll call invitation page and filled in the info on my blog post links regarding Flock. Well now, some of these postings were related to testing after my install of the version with the memory leak (0.7.4.1), and although not scathing they were expressing a "keen interest" in getting a build drop with the fix.

Wouldn't ya know it, those in the newly opened Canadian Flock office (I know this from my counter stats) must have read said postings and decided that they didnt want me as a Flock star and removed my comment from the maintenance release (0.7.5.1) announcement posting. What a bunch of tossers, they actually removed a thank you comment so nobody would see the link back to my blog.

Let's just leave it at this, I'm gonna test Windows Live Writer cos I've been reading good things about it the last couple of days , and since I can post directly to Blogger from it maybe Flock can just Flock off my PC!

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Maintenance, Release, Free, Speech, Comment, Moderation, Blogger, Blogging

Blogged with Flock

Dont fancy this guy much as CTO..or..where have all the evangelists gone?

2006-09-18T23:08:00.000+01:00

Of all the places to pick to open his mouth, Bob Gleichauf, CTO of Cisco's Security Group has chosen a Gartner Security summit to say he is scared of the changes that Windows Vista will bring. What a bunch of scaremongering crap from someone who really should know better.

Vista will bring many innovations to the user desktop like TPM and Bitlocker, the combination of which has the entire security world cringing as it's arrival in the hands of the everyday user draws near. Mr. Gleichauf has spoken about the level of complexity that new Vista security measures brings, argues that there are 2 sides to the technology and expects to see the mostly bad in problematic early Vista implementations.

"Parts of Vista scare me," Gleichauf said at the Gartner Security Summit here on Monday. "Anything with that level of systems complexity will have new threats, as well as bringing new solutions."
Gleichauf told CNET News.com's sister site ZDNet UK that Cisco views the Microsoft operating system update, set for broad release in January, as a bearer of possible solutions to security problems, but also as a potential trigger of security issues.

"Vista will solve a lot of problems. But for every action, there's a reaction and unforeseen side-effects and mutations. Networks can become more brittle unintentionally," Gleichauf said.

Wake up Bob !! There's been a good and bad side to every technology breakthrough you or I could think of for the past 2 centuries, and advances like TPM and BitLocker will probably suffer the same fate sooner rather than later as they are hacked, cracked and generally abused. There's always that one guy who puts the good tool to bad use. But, rest assured, the truely great will push ever onwards and continue to innovate. There lies the challenge for all in this industry...incubate, make it great, then innovate!

As a major MS partner, this commentary is disappointing coming from a senior Cisco exec who should be passionate about the advances Microsoft have brought to the operating system, and be talking up the possibilities, evangelising every solution that could sit around a more secure MS operating system on Cisco secured networks, the perfect software/hardware partnership.
So quit the scare tactics and attempts to sell more boxes Bob and let's hear something valuable next time.

Cisco Exec - Windows Vista is Scary!

Microsoft should be very proud of what they've achieved in advancing the OS with Vista to date. If nothing else it's shown real initiative and imagination and a hunger and determination to lead that has been missing for a while.

technorati tags:Microsoft, Windows, Vista, Security, Cisco, Scaremongering, Gleichauf, austin, dwi,

Blogged with Flock

Remember when ThinkPads didn't explode or catch fire?

2006-09-16T23:00:00.000+01:00

I do! I've many fond memories of working at IBM and many a funny story, but none include the spontaneous combustion of laptop batteries causing bomb scares. I wonder what Chris, C.J, Big Mike and all who were Level 2 ThinkPad Product Specialists in my time would make of this story. Wherever you guys are, I hope this brings a smile.

ThinkPad explodes at LAX, ignites Bomb Scare

In a time when you're not even allowed to say the word "bomb" in anairport (hey, it's for good reason), it's got to be like, reallyfreaking embarrassing to have to run up the jetway at full speed,shoving other passengers out of the way as your flaming laptop explodeson the ground.

Are Lithium Ion batteries becoming unsafe? Is it time to find an alternative, or is manufacturing in this area just going downhill? Let me know what you think!

technorati tags:IBM, ThinkPad, Laptop, Battery, LAX, Bomb, Scare, Manufacturing, Safety

Blogged with Flock

SpeedTest.Net - 2 minute broadband speed test ..getting what YOU pay for?

2006-09-09T23:02:00.000+01:00

Ever wondered if your connection speed even comes close to what you pay for each month? I do. Given that I dont live in a too densely populated area, I seem to get a lot of contention on my connection so I was pleasantly surprised when I gave SpeedTest.Net a try.

It's quick and painless and although there's no choice of an Irish server, picking the one in London will give you a good idea of what's going on so give it a shot!

technorati tags:Broadband, Speed, Test, SpeedTest, .NET, Service, ISP

Blogged with Flock

Flock Memory Leak Fix Imminent...or ..Damn I missed the scoop!

2006-09-08T23:50:00.000+01:00

I've rapidly become a big fan of the Flock browser for a number of reasons, and you may have seen my recent post regarding my experiences with the memory leak problem others had noticed. Well blow me but who should post a comment on Wednesday evening but one of the Flock development team!!

No doubt thanks to my use of Technorati tagging while blogging with Flock, Jesse had found my post and given a heads up on the maintenance release before Mike Dosik posted the announcement of it's release early next week.

We are almost done. Pete has been working on it and you can see the progress in this bug.
We expect to release the new version early next week.
Posted by Jesse Andrews | 10:05 PM

That's 10:05pm on Wednesday evening Dublin time.Thanks to Jesse for taking the time to post, but with work being so hectic this week I missed the chance to post the scoop on this :-( Maybe next time!

Flock Maintenance Release Update by Mike Dosik

I cant wait to try it out folks, and you should too. Join the Flock today ;-)

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Memory, Bug, Maintenance, Release, Tagging, Blogging, Development, Team

Blogged with Flock

Kiko.com Online Calendaring going Cheap!

2006-09-06T09:54:00.000+01:00

I just read that the gang at Tucows, best known as one of the largest shareware download sites, has bought the Kiko.com online calendaring service, for the measly sum of $258,100! They plan to integrate it into their webmail offering.

Now maybe it's just me but that seems a small price to pay for a reasonably popular web service these days, given the amounts we see Google drop for their almost weekly acquisitions.

Congrats to Tucows I guess. They've acquired a great AJAX based app that should fit nicely and stands up well to Google's equivalent and others. Read the logic behind the acquisition below.

Why we bought Kiko.com

technorati tags:Kiko,
Tucows,
Online,
Calendaring, AJAX

Blogged with title="Flock">Flock

Some light relief is in order ....

2006-09-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

With the mad busy day I've had and all the sadness across the world at the death of TV icon Steve Irwin (rest in peace mate!), I think some comic relief is in order. So just a short post to mention 2 great cartoon sites . Their secret is in the simplicity I think but you be the judge. Give yourself a break, go check them out. Laugh a little, it helps a lot!

From GapingVoid.com

Til next time, keep smiling ;-)

technorati tags:Cartoons, Blogging, GapingVoid, BeingFive, Comic

Blogged with Flock

Flock doesn't like my style !

2006-09-03T23:36:00.000+01:00

A little something else for the guys at Flock HQ. I'm referring of course to the CSS used in my Blogger template. Has anyone else noticed that the current incarnation of Flock seems to interpret CSS in ways other browsers don't? If you have please let me know by posting a comment.

The above screens were captured as JPG and no colour loss has occurred. The shot on top is my blog on IE, the bottom is the same page on Flock. See how the white body does not appear. Also notice how the <blockquote> tag is treated differently. I think the shaded background on the quote looks far more presentable in IE.

Anyone spotted anything else ? Let me know!

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Bug, Style, CSS, Blogger, Blogging, Template, IE

Blogged with Flock

Oops! Not another failed US Government software system ?

2006-09-03T22:08:00.000+01:00

I wonder sometimes, because we export so much software to the rest of the world, if we Irish are the best out there when it comes to the all round delivery of any kind of software system. The only recent significant failure that comes to mind is the whole e-voting machines fiasco around the last election. Whoever decided to base them around an Access database should have been taken out and shot with balls of their own sh*t. Does anything else spring to mind? Leave a comment!

Following on from the recent FBI stories, you can read below all about the failure of a system used by the IRS to detect fraudulent tax claims that has ended up costing millions in overpaid refunds, again showcasing the mistakes made in managing contractor relations in major projects.

"This failure has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and has worked to the benefit of criminals who intentionally filed false returns to defraud the federal government," said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.). "Remarkably poor judgment riddled the project."

Software Delay Said to Cost IRS $318 Million in Overpaid Refunds

technorati tags:IRS, Software, Systems, Development, Failure, Management, Ireland, Export

Blogged with Flock

Bring on the Flock-ing Fixes !

2006-09-01T23:04:00.000+01:00

I've been using the Flock browser all week now and the memory leak bug is really starting to annoy. It's eating up anything from 40-100Mb on my work pc and probably more at home. I'm really looking forward to the release that sorts this out, due shortly.

Read all about the memory leak issue from the Flock Blog here - Flock eating your memory ? by Jesse Andrews.

I know it's still in Beta but I've also spotted that when you click back to the previous page the display does not jump back to the point you were at on the page as others do ...yet another annoyance I hope gets sorted soon.

Oh and (getting on a roll now!) has anyone else noticed that when the taskbar is full of other windows if you minimise the Flock window it tends to disappear rather than the others on the bar scaling to fit it in? You've got to alt-tab to switch to the application or call up Task Manager. I wonder if it happens on non-MS machines.

The things we must endure with betas eh!

See this post's geographical context

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Beta, Memory, Leak, Blogging, Blog, Geotagged

Blogged with Flock

Geotag anything ...almost ..or why BlockRocker Rocks !

2006-08-31T23:44:00.000+01:00

I came across the link to BlockRocker earlier today mentioned on Tom Raftery's Blog and just had to mention it. Why ? Well I thought my fellow Irish bloggers may be interested in the distinct lack of markers on our fair island and like to fill in the green!

BlockRocker generates geotags suitable for inclusion on your blog posts, your YouTube videos, Flickr photos and more besides. Think of the possibilities ...if blogging while travelling you can include the tags to show where you posted from or tag where your next video upload to YouTube was shot. I really like the latter idea. It again illustrates the trends of today's web users to do more and share more of what they love to do. A real bonus too is the fact that it makes use of Google Maps, I can even find Mountmellick on there (where I grew up!). I love it and hope others will too.

So what are ya waiting for? Go ahead, give it a go and show the world where you've been!

geo:tool=blockrocker.com
geotagged
geo:lat=53.317749
geo:lon=-6.1853027

technorati tags:BlockRocker, Geotagging, Geotag, Flickr, YouTube, Blogging, TravelBlogging, Google, Maps, Mountmellick, Dublin, Ireland

Blogged with Flock

FBI getting IT right again!

2006-08-30T23:45:00.000+01:00

I like to know and present all relevant sides of a story, so when I came across this today I thought it would make good reading for anyone who saw the recent story about the FBI getting it all wrong when it comes to software systems. It seems they're back on track with the recent unveiling of an investigative intelligence system that looks very impressive indeed.

In an effort to restore confidence in the agency as the 9/11 anniversary comes round again, they demoed the Investigative Data Warehouse which brings together data from 50 previously disparate systems, no mean feat.

Quote:

"Grigg said that before 2002, it would take 32,222 hours to run 1,000names and birth dates across 50 databases. Now agents can make such asearch in 30 minutes or less, he said."

Read the full article here, courtesy of the Washington Post.

technorati tags:FBI, Investigative, Data, Warehouse, Mining, IT, Software, Systems

Blogged with Flock

Over 1.2 Million Flickr files Geotagged in First 24 Hours!

2006-08-30T08:53:00.000+01:00

Wow that's a huge number! It marks a huge success for the Flickr team. I was astonished to read this figure this morning given such a short timeframe, but it just goes to show the popularity of geotagging. It seems the hottest thing on the web this week then is not YouTube then, nor anything to do with video, and the emergence of a new trend. People are no longer content to just share photos but they want to share where they took them too!

I havent actually tried out the tagging just yet but I notice some complaints about the quality / accuracy of maps outside the US and Canada. The good news is Flickr have already taken notice and released the Geo API so you can map on Google, MSN and others. Lets hope Yahoo also take note as quickly.

technorati tags:Flickr, Browser, Geotags, Geotagging, Services, Blogging, Ireland

Blogged with Flock

Flock - The best social network friendly browser and blogging tool ?

2006-08-29T21:35:00.000+01:00

Hey all!

As promised, a few more words on the Flock browser. It's been around in beta for almost a year but apparently is really maturing now and I've been trying it out for the past 2 days.

So far, almost every aspect of it seems excellent, though I find it a little slower to launch than Opera. That said , I dont have any extensions / plugins installed on Opera so maybe thats the delay in loading Flock.Once it's up and running it hums along at pace.

With direct links for posting to Flickr and PhotoBucket ,the ability to post to almost every blogging API out there (WordPress, Moveable Type, Blogger etc) and a speedy browser window and feed reader it really has it all. If thats not enough there's already loads of extensions for interests like geotagging to be downloaded too !

I suggest everyone go get Flocked right now !

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Geotagging, Opera, API, Blogger, Extensions, Beta, Photoblogging, Flickr, WordPress

Blogged with Flock

Test - Direct post to Blogger using Flock Browser!

2006-08-28T22:01:00.000+01:00

I "drag n dropped" this image from the Flock homepage just to test posting to Blogger!

Flock Browser beta 0.7.4 + Performancing extension!

Blogged with Flock

We've almost got a Google Office.... the rumoured OS cant be far away!

2006-08-28T14:59:00.000+01:00

Courtesy of TechCrunch :

"Google has deployed the first pieces of its upcoming Office suite. They’ve launched Google Apps for your Domain, a set of Google services targeted to small and mid sized companies. With the new service, companies can use Gmail, Talk, Calendar and Page Creator under a single control panel. Applications and data will be hosted by Google, for free, with ad support.

And that’s just the first move. According to Aaron Ricadela at InformationWeek, Google will soon add their Writely and Spreadsheet products to the suite, add collaboration tools that will work across platforms, and even provide technical support.

And when Gmail users send office documents, Google will prompt them to open the documents in Google’s new suite, allowing for collaboration and, presumably, making money from advertising."

With this launch from Google, can the web based OS be nearer than we might think. They've been readying their own suites or packs of apps for a while and once enough users have latched onto these services goodies they may just strike with the biggest sharpest tool in their arsenal.

Ongoing efforts from others to get a web based OS off the ground are also worth a look. Check out YouOS to see how things could shape up in the very near future!

* Posted while testing the Flock browser with Performancing extension, more on this to follow!

How NOT to implement software systems, BlipTV and Xcelsius!

2006-08-26T23:25:00.000+01:00

Well folks, after a hiatus of a couple of weeks due to dental pain I'm back, and with a question.

If I gave you a million to implement a new software system that gave me a paperless office how would you do? How about €10m or even €50? Well for all those out there in project management, systems design and related fields this may make interesting reading. Read how the FBI, yes the FBI tried to implement the mother of all filing systems at a cost of millions and continually got it wrong while bleeding money all the time.
I see crazy mistakes throughout the industry on an almost daily basis. Dont repeat the mistake of the FBI and others, wise up to proper project management methodologies and do it now!

The FBI's Upgrade That Wasn't from the Washington Post.

You can catch great coverage of state-side technology news, again from the Post here.

Next I have to mention BlipTV. I dont get what all the fuss is about with this lot. Personally I think the homepage is bloody annoying and obtrusive and the window you're expected to scroll through when choosing clips to watch ...WTF ? Someone there obviously thinks it's design is cool and cutting edge but they've apparently never heard of the "keep it simple" approach. Give me YouTube any day of the week. It's clear , easy and quick to search and enough community type content to keep you coming back without the intrusion of a limiting browsing method. That's my two cents on the debate. I know one langer who fancies himself as a new media expert who would disagree.

Finally, if you checked out Dashboard Spy from my last post, you'll like this.
I spent 4 days this week getting some training in Crystal Reports, Business Objects and Crystal Xcelsius and I advise everyone to learn Xcelsius now! Directors, especially state-side, have gone enterprise dashboards mad recently so if you cant design them now you're web based portal application that you thought was cutting edge is already way behind. You have been warned!

Technorati

technorati tags:Dashboards, BlipTV, BOBJ, Xcelsius, Crystal, Blogger, Blogging, IE

Blogged with Flock

MS Death Blows to Performance Management market space ?

2006-08-08T21:58:00.000+01:00

Hi all!

Not content with having incarnations of Windows, Office and Xbox in almost every home and office, over the years Microsoft have stuck their fingers in many pies, including some success with CRM. Now they've made a grab at what is still the infant market space that is Performance Management software systems.

With the release of Office 2007 versions will come the inclusion of Business Intelligence, available right from your new version of Excel. Will it be more than improved charting and ease of data manipulation (no more struggling with the black art of pivot tables) and will the buying public be able to distinguish between it's abilities and those of the "from the ground up" systems that cost 10 times the price? I wonder which option many businesses will go for and what the cost difference will really be when you factor in the need to implement Sharepoint and Business Intelligence servers needed to deliver these new all singing and dancing reports and metrics ....mmmmmmm.

Read all about it from these links:

MS Office 2007 BI

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

Staying with business scorecards, dashboards, enterprise applications and the likes, check out DashboadSpy for some inspiration on how to design an information dashboard for your next portal based application. It's got plenty of sample screenshots to inspire how to do dashboards right, and the odd one that gets it very wrong.

On a lighter note, check out the latest from the labs at Digg.com. They've been busy giving us a visual representation of all the breaking technology news and how they link and move up the popularity ranks to the Digg front page with the Stack and Swarm apps. Very cool !!

Finally, an apology for the recent lack of postings. I'm going through a process of getting my wisdom teeth out. My newly discovered dentist is a genius. I felt absolutely nothing when I had my first ever tooth out last week after almost a forthnight of agony, but I'm not saying where cos I'll never get an appointment if half of Dublin decides to visit!!

Bye for now.

Executive Decision !!

2006-07-31T13:10:00.000+01:00

OK, I've made something of an executive decision if you like. I wont be posting any more on our recent trip to Paris on here. From now on I'm going to stick to IT related stuff, providing links to tools resources and the odd opinion.

At some point myself and Melloney will do a "Paris in 5 Days" type guide with all the pics, tips for getting around etc, but probably on a seperate blog or other site. For the last 2 days the Blogger image upload has been acting up (too damn busy all the time ) as has my account at Image-Upload.net so I think this is what has to be done. We've got over 100 digital pics from our recent trip so I think a Flickr account is needed too.

We'll get organised and when it's done I'll post a link here. Meanwhile, you can see some of the pics Melloney put on Flickr here, including the round right tower of Saint Sulpice, the Arc De Triomphe and the spooky catacombs.
You could really cheer Mel up today if you surf on over and leave a nice comment on her blog or pics. Thanks ;-)

AJAX resources & What we did in Paris ..Day 1 & 2..

2006-07-30T21:56:00.000+01:00

OK folks, I've promised it so below is the details of what we did over our 5 days in Paris with some of the better pics.

Before that just a brief mention of the hottest technology topic on the web over the past 6 months or so, AJAX!!. Find out what it is and start learning how to harness it's power in your own sites and portal based apps at the new Sun Developer Network AJAX Developer Resource Center. For a quick start, watch the 15 mins introduction to AJAX and Java technology video (requires Realplayer).

On to our Paris trip :

Day 1 :

Visited Notre Dame, took the hour long boat trip originating from Pont Neuf, bought some prints and other gifts from les bouquinistes, visited La Samarataine area for some shopping and ended the evening at the Eiffel tower.

A view of the beautiful Musee D'Orsay from the boat we took our cruise down the Seine on. It mat not look it but man that sky was blue and it was hot!

Another view from our boat trip, this time as we passed the Eiffel Tower, marking the half way point of the trip. This was our second time taking this same boat tour, the first being a more gloomy day in July '04. It's worth doing every time you visit.<

Day 2 :

We started out just round the corner from our hotel at the market at Boulevard de Grenelle. It's there every Sunday and Wednesday and is a great place to pick up a gift and mingle with the locals.

We spent the remainder of Sunday morning strolling up and down the Champs Elysees taking in all the sights and shopping, including "Glups", a memorable sweet shop we found on our July '04 visit. We managed to locate it by spotting the "Bird Man" whistling outside the mall entrance. Watch out for him next time you're there and pop into Glups for the best pick 'n' mix in Paris! We made it to the Arc De Triomphe before mid day.

We spent the very hot Sunday afternoon visiting Saint Sulpice, which Da Vinci Code fans will be familiar with as the place that Silas searched for the keystone and murdered Sister Sandrine. It was just as described, and a stark contrast to the almost extravagant beauty of Notre Dame.

We ended the day strolling around Trocadero, taking in the evening crowds still queueing to climb the Eiffel Tower.

More details of our trip to follow...hopefully tomorrow!

Mashups, APIs, Developer cheat sheets and more...

2006-07-27T23:28:00.000+01:00

Hey all,
Just a quick update for today but I'm staying on subject with IT and have some gems for you !

Check out ProgrammableWeb for all the latest cutting edge APIs and how best to use them on your website or blog. Mashups and more all in one place with how-to guides and searchable listings, an excellent resource.

Keeping with coding, have a peep here for lots of handy cheat sheets for all you developers out there, including a very handy Google sheet with tips and URLs to tools you never knew existed on Google ...til now!

Finally, something that doesn't work on IE! For those of you who cant visit the Windows Update site for whatever reason ;-) check out WindizUpdate. Download the plug-in for Opera, Firefox (or both) and let it scan and fetch your missing updates.
Ingenius and well worth your time!

Thats all folks.

Back to work blues!

2006-07-24T21:28:00.000+01:00

Hi all!
I've been on a bit of a downer since we got back from Paris last Thursday, and really busy catching up so just a quick post this evening to say hey and pics and trip details etc to follow through the week.

For now, check out what good use fellow Irish man Gavin Joyce has made of the Digg APIs at Kick.ie, it's a bit short on content at the moment bu tgrowing all the time, so have a look and help out by posting all your news.

Bye for now!

Counting down the longest day ....

2006-07-14T14:25:00.000+01:00

As I said on Sunday, myself and Melloney have been counting down the days to our second trip to Paris. The bags are now packed and with just last minute checks to do tonight it's all go. It's been really quiet at work for me too so this week has dragged along :-(

I cant concentrate on anything today so here's just a quick mention of some IT news.

Microsoft releasing Dynamics online by end of the year - Steve Balmer says this'll be one of 20 Live services from Microsoft goign online over the next few months. Traditionally you installed Microsoft CRM on internal servers and client browsers connected to it, like so many other products. The product is now being forced to go online due to competition mainly from SalesForce.com The e-CRM arena could be about to get very interesting and I'll be watching like others how this giant fares against the excellent open source alternatives out there.

Worth a read, if only to kill Friday afternoon, is Dion Hinchcliffe's post on blogs and Web 2.0 as an apps platform. See it here.

Finally a mention for an excellent technical blog from a fellow Irish man - Tom Raftery’s I.T. Views

So Dark the Con of Man!

I'm off to see the sights of Paris, til next weekend it's au revoir folks ;-)

Get organised !

2006-07-13T09:10:00.000+01:00

I didn't get to post yesterday because as usual my lunch hour was way too short and I spent most of the evening packing for our Paris trip, now just 2 days away !! So I thought today the theme should be organisation and I'd mention some sites that will help others get organised in their daily grind. All are top class Web 2.0 sites and services.

43 Folders is a site about personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better.

Perhaps an even better site worth a look is Lifehack.org, a well presented daily digest of pointers on productivity, getting things done and lifehacks.

When you've decided what to do and when, stay organised and schedule it all at 30Boxes, a cleverly named top notch online calendaring service.

Finally, if short on inspiration or just bored at work, see what the rest of the world is doing on this curiously interesting site called What Everyone Does.

Thats it for now folks!

Funny errors and stuff

2006-07-11T13:10:00.000+01:00

Let's start the day with a laugh ...here's some funny error dialogs you're likely to see in your software and favourite websites when programmers and testers get lazy, courtesy of The Daily WTF.

Keeping with the laughs and cheer, Melloney is cheery today cos we've just discovered that one of her favourite childhood programmes is being shown on Nick Jnr.
She has very fond memories of "Button Moon", so I know what we'll be watching at 8.15 tonight!!

Finally, a pressie to keep the day ticking, tunes from the excellent Snow Patrol. Here's their performance from T in the Park in 2004.
Track List:
1. Spitting Games
2. You Are My Joy
3. How To Be Dead
4. Chocolate
5. Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking
6. Ways And Means
7. Run
8. Black and Blue
9. Post Punk Progression
10. Crazy In Love
11. Tiny Little Fractures

That's all folks!

Got eBooks?

2006-07-10T23:09:00.000+01:00

Hey!

It's been a bit quiet today so just a quick mention of some things I've seen.

It's the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenburg this year and to celebrate, from July 4th to August 4th they're giving free access to the public to the entire site. With everything from Shakespeare to Conan Doyle, including audio books and a tech section, you can search 330,000+ PDF classic eBook titles in 100+ languages. Worth a look!

From the classic to the just plain old, where do all those old pc parts go? Some folks find creative uses for them and here's the evidence. Enjoy the craziness of others !!

Til next time!

A new start !

2006-07-09T23:00:00.000+01:00

Hello all !
I thought this was as good a day as any to make a proper start on my blog. Since it's taken so much of my time lately, I've got to mention the World Cup, having just watched Italy win the final on penalties. Congrats to them and I'm sure a few will party hard in Dublin's "Little Italy" tonight! What a way for Zidane's career to come to an end, a real shame for an otherwise giant of the beautiful game. See what happened here

This week is going to be hectic, myself and Melloney are off to Paris on Saturday for a week. I'll hopefully have plenty of photos to post on my return.

Being a Da Vinci Code fan, the Louvre and Saint Sulpice are on the ever growing list of things to see and do this time ;-)

Finally, a mention of some things IT with some great new sites I've found recently.

See how Vista is coming along straight from the Windows Vista development team here.

Get the best breaking IT news from Digg.com.

Bye for now !

First test post !

2006-05-25T23:29:00.000+01:00

My first post to test how everything looks ;-)