Oh and while I’m at it (actually reverse chronology doesn’t suit the title of this post)

Web2Ireland have a good competition on.

Unfortunately and unusually, I got nothin

HA!

I haven’t posted in ages due to technology issues in HQ(my sitting room). Broken laptop, broken modem. But glad to write on this farce.

HA!

and sure why not…

HA!

Funniest voice mail since the one my brother had of him quiting his job to the surprise of his boss.

Demobar preview continued

Lukulu : The website provides a brochure for the lukulu service which sounds very innovative. Something similar was availible at the Nokia Tends lab at the electric picnic. The problem with this venture might be that in normal circumstances people have bluetooth switched off and personally if I had it on I would find the service intrusive, but thats just me.

Tourist republic/Touristr: It’s hard to compete against the established tourist websites but to read location reviews from peers is a refreshing change. The format that Touristr uses gives a good sence of the location in question. I hope this site does well.

Pixenate: My favourite so far. I’ve always struggled with photoshop and it’s definately nice to stay online for the entire process. Putting the example photograph and the controls on the homepage is a stroke of genius too.

Demo Bar preview: Louder Voice

It’s Monday evening already so I’ll try and stick to my word and give the Demobar sites a quick once over….

LouderVoice: I like this site, very user friendly and not too much fanfare before you can get going. The thing that review sites need is scale, if you can’t find what you’re looking for on a review site then you’re gone. Loudervoice has a good chance of achieving this with the twitter interface, the blog review redirect feature and the mini-reviews, all of which are good ideas (with the possibility of being integrated into other sites?).

Mysay: Time will tell with this one. it is very professionally put together, the widget works excellently( I am familiar with it from the Irish election Blog). The question is whether the functionality that Mysay offers is relevant or not.

Glowday: In development

Nubiq : This looks really exiting. Mobile apps have been around in various guises for years now but I finally think the right blend of mobile phone/mobile connection and application exists now so that something truly usable can be delivered. The screen shots provided look smart and I’ll definitely be investigated this further in a few weeks when I get my N95.

JustRoutes: I could have used this last week but there’ll be other occasions I’m sure. It works really well and the bus fare feature is clever. I would definitely send people here before google maps. One thing I miss from Googlemaps is dragging the location marker but it’s no biggy.

I’ve just given these sites a really quick scan, they deserve much more which I will do after the demobar. I hope to preview the other sites tomorrow.

Going to Demo Bar

I haven’t posted in ages what with finishing college and starting work etc.

I’ll definitely be attending the demo bar being held in Ely next Thursday. It always interests me to hear about new ideas, how they were conceived and how they are going to be implemented. I usually have my own 2 cents to add to an idea which the demo-ists can take or leave.

Over the next few days I’m going to have a look at the list of companies and give their sites a once over.

More later……

Richard Linklater

Golden spider awards include blogging award

Electric Picnic Podcast from Nialler 9

Check your surroundings before sleeping with someones wife!

The war on democracy

John Pilgers’ documentary The war on democracy was the finest piece of television I have ever seen. The facts were presented beautifully giving the opposition (largely in the shape of ex-US CIA) every opportunity to defend their actions over the last few decades, something they were unable to do convincingly. It did not wreak of anti-Americanism but instead focused more on the positive attitudes of the repressed countries of central America. If you missed it, see it.

Abraham Linkon

R Kelly Sequel

Bike Vending machine

Amiina Album (link will expire)

The same thing happened to me at the palace a few years back.

Late night drinks

I was working last Monday, closing up the family bar we have near Dundalk when at about 1 o’ clock a resident from the B&B turned up for a late drink. I was pretty much finished so I wasn’t averse to the idea of staying up for a late drink either. The conversation started off with the usual banter of what took him to the area, he was supervising the building of a house nearby. At some point the conversation changed and the fact that he used to be a psychiatric nurse came up. The conversation then took an unexpected turn as he proceded to tell me that he was a whistle blower against abuse that took place in various mental hospitals. He told me how after he and a colleague of his brought this abuse to the attention of authoristies that the two men began to get verbal abuse from fellow colleagues and worst of all an official garda statement he made was leaked to a local drug dealer with the express purpose of putting his daughters in danger(their addresses in Dundalk were included with the statement). He went on in much more detail about his struggle against the very institutions of this country who should have been protecting and how they persecuted him over the past number of years including being jailed for 10 days in relation to a suspected drink driving incident.

While I didn’t doubt for a second what he had told me I did try to find out what press coverage his story had received by Google-ing his name. I found this recent article in SBP.

I forget many of the other details he told me and wouldn’t like to approximate such serious incidents, but wish him the best in his continuing fight for these patients who could not defend themselves

Start ups and entrepreneurialism

I’ve just read an interesting post on Damien Mulley asking whether or not Enterprise Ireland are helpful in fostering start-ups in Ireland in the long run. I think they probably are a necessary part of the process but may not be suitable for every type of venture. By going with enterprise Ireland entrepreneurs are certainly exposing themselves to a greater amount of monitoring activity by EI, however this is not necessarily a bad thing. By having a set of metrics or criteria to conform to an entrepreneur might retain a better sense of realism that might abandon him if unchecked.

For start-ups who want more freedom there are several options such as the incubation centers in Cork, Killarney, and at UCD. There are also a number of venture capitalists who are keen to hear from Irish entrepreneurs, Benchmark capital particularly spring to mind. I attended a talk by Barry Maloney who surprising said that he would easily invest in a person with nothing more than an idea and some self belief.

I don’t think EI are affecting the rate of new firm formation over here, I think why silicon valley is so successful is due to the proximity of the VC’s to the entrepreneurs and the confined nature of the entire process, making it all more tangible to the aspiring entrepreneur.