Ken McGuire

Author: Ken McGuire

  • To The Theatrical Entrepreneurs, My Thanks For Last Week

    The cast of Heart Shaped Vinyl
    The cast of Devious Theatre’s Heart Shaped Vinyl

    As I mentioned before the weekend, I’ve been intermittent with the blog posts, thanks very largely in part to a hectic schedule for the past week.
    Saturday night saw the curtain fall on Heart Shaped Vinyl after four consecutive sold-out nights. More amazing was the amount of people we had to turn away from the show.

    While I’ve posted on DeviousTheatre.com some thanks on behalf of the cast and crew I’d like to step aside and thank the cast and the core off Devious Theatre, the committee. A pure bunch of professionals are John Morton, Kevin Mooney, David Thompson, Niamh Moroney and new additions Paddy Dunne and Amy Dunne, not only pure professionals but every single one a delight to work with, eat with, drink with.

    I enjoyed the show last year, doing something quite new and very different for the Kilkenny scene. A year onwards and we’ve learned an awful lot. Although not having been to any of the Opencoffee mornings around the country, I would liken our Sunday morning coffees and meetings to them in the sense of being a great opportunity to chat, discuss new ideas, develop plans, forge new beginnings and most importantly to learn from one another. We each work different jobs, different times, some shift work, some study so Sunday is a great opportunity for us to meet together.

    For me it has been a real learning experience. I’ve been in and out of theatre over the years, college placing some restrictions on me which I’m trying to make up for but since the formation of the group it has been non-stop work on the theatre. There’s no pay involved but yes, we were privileged to receive some arts funding this year to help with the mammoth cost (looking at a potential five figure sum for our summer programme). 4,000 Euro is a drop in the ocean to larger companies but its a pot of gold to us and we’ll be using it to part finance the development of Cannibal! The Musical, rehearsals of which commence tomorrow (Tuesday).

    I see us as theatrical entrepreneurs. Developing new ideas, committing our time, resources, energy – no fear of taking the risk to pull off daring shows. We’ve got the budgeting down too, using the best of our connections, knowledge from studies and jobs and every free resources thats going. Everyone has a role and the jobs all get done. This last week it certainly paid off.

    With all that said, I want to reiterate my thanks to the bunch that meet on Sunday mornings, without who The Devious Theatre Company would not be standing. May we continue to be as daring and long may we continue to stuff ourselves stupid in The Coffee Club on Sunday mornings. The long hours, sleepless nights and my now completely shot voice and horrendous lack of energy were soooo worth it.

  • The iPhone Launches Today

    Come 6pm in the US I’m expecting to see a flurry of activity online with initial end-user reviews of the Apple iPhone. Sure enough there’s plenty of reviews floating around the web from people who’ve had two weeks with the phone, a month with the phone, testing the ins and outs of every feature given thats what they do every day!

    I’m more interested in seeing how the average mobile user gets on with the phone, those who will use the phone for a phone’s sake, those who carry it in their pocket, fling it in the end of their bag, try to dump their entire iTunes collection on it – some serious road testing.

    If you’re buying an iPhone (which if it was being released in Ireland on any given calendar I’d likely do) why not click here to download the iPhone guided tour video. Its a big’un at around 175mb. Alternatively, check out the Apple guide on how to use an iPhone.

    Apple employees won’t have to splash the cash however with word that full time Apple employees and part-timers who have been working for Apple for a year or more will receive a free iPhone in July. Damn.

  • Intermissions This Week (I’m Away)

    The blogging this week is a little stop-start. For those of you reading via RSS and who haven’t seen the note running at the top of kenmc.com or been tracking my tweets from during the week, I’m on stage every night this week with The Devious Theatre Company for our second run of Heart Shaped Vinyl in as many years.

    Its been going great so far – the last two nights (public) sold out and tonight’s show is also sold out also leaving some tickets for Saturday’s run. I cut myself off from the internet around 4pm to get down to the theatre. I’ve also taken the mad step of deleting the internet profiles on my phone so I’m not tempted to check in, send emails, all of that kind of thing. Coupled with the RSS diet I started a while back its affording me some nice time to switch off! You’d sometimes forget just how much work there is in running a theatre production!

  • 2 Chances For Networking This Week

    There’s two free events on this week that should a) educate you and b) give you the chance to catch up with some like minded people and make a few connections.

    First up is the next series of the Help Yourself seminars in Carlow which Aidan and Keith are running. The series has been extended of late from Kilkenny into Carlow and until recently the Carlow talks have been looking at internet marketing. This week Keith is taking the lead through a discussion on free software for your business, software that will afford you the same functionality of the bigger mainstream commercial packages but you can avail of for free. There’s a chance for networking pre and post session and the hour long meet in the Carlow County Enterprise Board building (on O’Brien Road) takes place tomorrow (Thursday) at 1pm.

    If you’re up for a drive (which I won’t be as I’ll be on the stage with The Devious Theatre Company), Queens University Belfast plays host to BarCamp Belfast, the first of the cross-border BarCamps. I missed the Dublin one courtesy of being tied up with KilkennyMusic.com and certainly won’t be making the Belfast one but if you’re thinking of attending, check out all the details here. The list of attendees looks a bit lower than previous events (Cork, Waterford, Dublin etc), possibly due to the event being held in Belfast and I would assume there’d be a larger northern contingent heading.

    Names I do recognise in attendance include John Breslin who is flying up to speak on the “Semantic Web 2.0”, Ina O’Murchu and Derek Organ. I’ve only been to Belfast twice in the last year or so, the first time for a gig and the second to head to the airport (cheaper to drive to and fly from Belfast to Toronto than go to Dublin) but its a nice city, QUB is a great establishment and should make for a good setting for the BarCamp so best of luck to everyone going, enjoy it!

  • Sony Ericsson K800i Speakerphone

    An open question to any owner or user of the Sony Ericsson K800i – is there any way (that I’m missing) of upping the speakerphone volume on the K800i? I’ve got the phone sitting in a cradle in the van just on the dashboard unless I move the phone to right under my chin (while not driving), the speakerphone function is useless to me. I’ve the called volume maxed on the phone when I’m in the van and would rather be able to use the speakerphone in the current cradle as opposed to splashing out on a bluetooth setup for the van.

    Is there a possible firmware hack or anything of upping the speakerphone volume? Anyone else having extreme difficulties with it? I’ve had the phone since last October and love it to bits, from a review point of view the speakerphone volume is the only bad point I can raise about the K800i even at this stage.

  • Sky Box Office Just Too Easy

    Purchasing something through Sky Box Office is way too easy.

    After what has been a hectic weekend away from the internet (thanks largely in part to working non-stop with The Devious Theatre Company ahead of the show opening this week, coupled with The Guggenheim Grotto appearing with KilkennyMusic.com on Saturday) I managed to find some down time last night. Of course, I should have been asleep but there was a few of us who needed some unwinding before stepping into the technical fray tonight in the theatre. As such, I decided all spur-of-the-moment like that it would be a great idea to watch WWE Vengeance on PPV.

    Six guys gearing up for a night of wrestling which only started on Sky Box Office at 1am. Thoughts of beer, loud music, roaring and shouting – but no. Winding down was more like popcorn, m&m’s and a load of tea until 4am this morning.

    The thing is, ordering on Box Office was way too easy. You press the box office button on your Sky remote, select what you want to watch on PPV and press ‘select’ to order it. Within 3-4 button presses from start to finish you can order what you want. I’m assuming of course that last night’s charge (€21.95) will get tacked on to my direct debit at the end of next month but I am just surprised at how easy it is.

    I would have been plenty happy to have to enter a series of codes, magic password, credit card details, something that required some element of security – but no, Sky have just made it WAY too easy for me to do this in the future. Thankfully of course there aren’t any curious PPV folk at home or children crying out for the latest release on Sky Movies but if there was I reckon I’d be in trouble.

    The easy process of course made for a great night, the Sky box switched over automatically at 1am and we all settled in for a three hour fest that was more like a ten-year-old’s birthday party. Talk about reliving parts of your lost youth! Yet so enjoyable was last night that we’ve decided to make it a regular thing. There’s not much better than hanging out with great friends for a few hours watching mindless TV – even if it is at four in the morning!

  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update – Wha?

    There’s something I wasn’t expecting to see – another update to OSX before the release of Leopard later this year. Not only that but the 50 meg update (10.4.10) brings up version ten of my preferred OS.

    Mac OS X TigerThere’s improvements made in the handling and mounting of external USB drives, new RAW support for Leica users and those shooting the budget Nikon D40x, the problem with random frames being dropped on a DV cam import is fixed and there’s a few ‘security’ upgrades in there as well. Doesn’t seem all that long ago since 10.4.9 and I would have thought that the next logical step was 10.5 but I guess Apple can do what they like with version numbers – who said they have to stop at 9!

    Update to Mac OS X 10.4.10 now.

  • Revenge Through Spamming

    I can see a head rolling for this one but by the looks of things, someone at CityJet (possibly but not 100% confirmed) is up shit’s creek with their IP logged as registering Damien Mulley for several dating sites, writing up untrue and possible libellous profiles. Bad form on their part in a big way, all likely stemming from a recent post on IWillNotHold.com about Sky Handling Partners, set up to provide a space to rant on customer service in our fair country.

    No so fair by the looks of this wouldn’t you think?

    If I was one of their web folk lurking around registering someone who has a bone to pick with your company for a very valid reason I’d be cowering about now….. Bloody childish carry on if you ask me.

  • Open Source Food

    Thought this one deserves a mention on the blog – Open Source Food. Now, its not food for thought in an open source programming kind of way – more along the lines of Open Source recipes, community-driven food from around the world.

    I’m a massive lover of foreign foods, any country in the world, and I love spending time in the kitchen (when I have time that is), messing around with different fresh ingredients, cooking up a storm for one, two or a load of people. I’ve been doing some restaurant work of late in Kilkenny (for a client) and I’ve been slowly building a food project of my own since August 2005 (one of those serious back-burner things that should be coming to light in a month or two) but this site is a pleasure to trip around. Hell, the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo in Toronto last year was a good highlight for me.

    Big full colour photos of meals prepared by community users, full ingredients, step-by-step guides and a really easy navigation (easier than getting around the kitchen or leafing through a tiny-print cookbook with fancy studio shots). How about some Japanese noodles made in China, some spring onion and ginger crabs, or a banana muffin for that morning coffee?

    Give it look, try something out!

  • Tagged: Charity Link Meme

    I’m all for charity and charitable causes and Gavin at Ireland SEO Marketing has tagged me in relation to ‘passing the juice’ for an ongoing charity link meme.

    The rules are simple, copy the list of charities and links (grab it from whomever tags you) and add your 5 favourite charities or non-profit organizations to the end (link to their sites with anchor text of the causes they champion). Of course finish things off by tagging 5 other webmasters/bloggers and then publishing the post or the webpage.

    So, here is my own list of five anyway which don’t also appear on Gavin’s list. I’ve chosen the five for personal reasons as well as the fact that they’re five great organisations in Ireland.

    And here’s Gavin’s own list (and original list)…

    So, after all that I’ve got to tag five bloggers… in that vein I nominate the following…

  • YouTube Mobile Launched

    One of the problems of my recent RSS diet is that I miss out on certain news stories – this one in particular from Saturday when it was announced that the Verizon exclusive control over YouTube Mobile (m.youtube.com) has passed and the service is now open to the public. Of course, if you flick open the address in your mobile you’re likely to be greeted by

    YouTube Mobile is a data intensive application. We highly recommend that you upgrade to an unlimited data plan with your mobile service provider to avoid additional charges.

    but in saying that, if you’re on a flat-rate data plan or mobile wifi service then you’ll be pretty happy. Although I mention it here I’ve yet to try the mobile service – 1) having only discovered this morning that it is gone live and 2) I’m making an effort to cut down my mobile bill, not increase it. Good news for mobile users though is that handset support is pretty extensive with all videos for YouTube Mobile encoded in the 3GP format.

    At present there’s only a small portion of YouTube’s current content available on the mobile service but if you’re a YouTube junkie then there’s more than enough to get you started.

  • Loving Google Calendar

    After toying around with Google Calendar for a while, I can finally say I’m loving it, especially the freedom I’m getting in integrating it with KilkennyMusic.com. Using a modified version of the gCalJSON its a breeze to pull out all the calendar details, format them however you want without the need for a WordPress plugin.

    If you’re looking to integrate a calendar feed into your blog or any other web site, give gCalJSON a look, have a toy around with the script, throw in 3-4 lines of code to call it out (including your full Google calendar feed) and you’ll have your dates straight away. I’ve been doing some work on KKM over the last week, tying a few services together and adding Google calendar to back the gigs was a bit of a no-brainer.

    The use of Google Calendar is perfect for KilkennyMusic.com though as the access to the calendar is shared between four of us, allowing gig and event updates by any of us from any location. Seen as we all use Google Talk to communicate during the week, everyone’s Google ID gets added to the Calendar admin (invitation) and everyone can get involved. It also helps in taking an iCal output of the calendar as well to allow us keep local copies (3/4 of us are Mac users). Allowing HTML in the gig descriptions is a bonus as well in terms of providing links to bands and venues. Just gotta get some co-ordinates in there and plot the gigs on a map and away we go.

    Its damn easy to use as well if you haven’t tried it before…. give it a lash.

  • Getting OSX In Your Pocket (Before the iPhone)

    If you’re an owner of a Sony Vaio UX then you’re in for a treat as the handheld-pocket-fitting device will now run a copy of OSX thanks to some tasty modifications (nothing dangerous).

    Not only is it possible, but there’s a full picture-heavy tutorial on how to get the job done as well. Nice one.

  • Photosynth & Flickr (Video)

    Sure, the news might be a little old but having been introduced to this video at lunch time today I figure its worth a blog, if only for me to come back later and watch it again and again. Having been tracking recent Surface developments, I was given a link to this TED presentation on Photosynth (out of Microsoft Live Labs)

    Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. “Perhaps the most amazing demo I’ve seen this year,” wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

    The video is a presentation by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, working at Microsoft Live Labs. I figure, if you combine something like this with something like Surface, you’re asking for trouble (in a damn good way).

    If you’ve not seen the video already, give it a watch, you might well be impressed. The integration alone with Flickr is quite outstanding.

  • I’m On An RSS Diet

    At the weekend I did something I’ve been threatening to do for a long time – move all my RSS feeds (live bookmarks) from my Firefox bookmark toolbar into Google Reader.

    Now, I don’t know whats going on in the world.

    Or if I do I’m about three days behind in the times.

    I figure Google Reader is a safe bet for me hopping between four computers daily with different feeds sitting on each toolbar – log in with your gMail address, fire in your feeds and start reading. If you haven’t already tried it I suggest giving it a go (Google Reader that is). The hard part for me at this point is keeping up. During the day I would flick through ALL the feeds on the toolbar to see what the recent headlines were – something new, I’d jump in or if it didn’t grab my attention I’d skip it. But I’m a toolbar RSS addict – I’d do this one thing countless times during the day, a process that might take me all of 30 seconds but nevertheless a big distraction. So, I put myself on the RSS diet.

    Four machines, four fresh looking Firefox toolbars, not a hint of a live bookmark in sight.

    Of course if I miss checking in on feeds in the evening (as has happened twice this week) you wind up with someone going “Did you see what X blogger is after doing… Jesus….”.

    No, I didn’t.

    Damn.

  • Music To Start A Business By

    Here’s an open question, one I just put out via Twitter. Is there any album you listened to again and again while starting a business?

    I found that all my Event Ireland planning (between myself and Aidan) as well as the first month or two of business were spent with Air’s Talkie Walkie (affiliate link through CDWow.ie). Any time I settle down to do anything business-wise with Kilkenny Music I’m listening to the soundtrack to The Animatrix (not an affiliate link).

    It took us a few months to get things together for EI in 2005 and I think I can safely say that Talkie Walkie stands out as the album that got us through everything, the late nights, the early morning coffees, the first weeks in the new office, so I figure it is good music to start a business by. Sure why not! To be honest I didn’t listen to Air an awful lot before that, maybe a small bit in college but it was that summer I got completely hooked on the album.

    So, I ask, has anyone a particular album that they played to near-death while setting up a business? Find songs or albums that inspired you through paperwork, idea generation, late night battles with presentations and proposals?

  • Best Of Luck To You School People

    Verdict in the office is – “wouldn’t wish it on my own worst enemy”. The state exams start today with over 100,000 students going to sit the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate. Now, I’ve got no fear of exams or anything but there’s no way you’d get me to re-sit the Leaving Cert. Its been 7 years (I think) since I sat mine and the feelings you get on the morning of the first exam can’t have changed much.

    One or two of the younger cast involved with Devious Theatre‘s two shows this year are sitting the Leaving Cert while a cousin of mine is sitting the Junior Cert. All I can say is – the best of luck. While you have plenty to do after the Junior Cert if you’re not set of the Leaving Cert at this stage you won’t be. You’ve done enough so get out, do your best, take it one exam at a time and all that craic.

    Still, wouldn’t do it again for all the tea in China. Or the UK. Or the Maxol garage around the corner.

  • Aha! An iPhone Release Date!

    Been nice to get away from the blogs and computers for a weekend – immersing myself in the Cat Laughs comedy festival but get back to things on a bank holiday Monday evening and it looks like there’s a release date for the iPhone.

    Apple iPhonePresumably Vodafone will be the Irish carrier – if we get an Irish carrier. But reading up at Bloomberg this evening and there is news that the Apple iPhone is going to be released on June 29th. Amazon.co.uk has to catch up yet, advertising the phone for release on August 20th (unless Europe gets a later release date).

    The Guardian business section looks at the UK setup…

    Mr Jobs said that it would ship in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year, but there has been speculation that the date could slip into 2008. One mobile phone operator said today they had “no idea” when the iPhone would arrive. As yet, Apple has not said which UK mobile operators will offer the phone, although one recent report said T-Mobile was a frontrunner.

    The European pricetag has been estimated at anywhere between €400 and €700 and while it has been delayed already this year, it is nice to finally see a release date.

  • 40 Euro Flight Costs 322 Euro – Some sale!

    So Aer Lingus are having a sale, cheap seats if you book before June 1st to fly between October and December. I figure it would be a nice time to get a four day break away so I chalk in the first Sunday in October and the seat is a fiver. I need a return date so go for the Thursday, low and behold the seat is a fiver – sorted.

    The fare is one way, so you pay a fiver out and a fiver back. Four of us went in April, so I figure four seats would be grand – 4 * (5*2) = 40.

    Total cost of the flight? €322. To the penny. Taxes and charges per person are 64.59 making your flight €74.59 before you leave the airport. Then you’ve got a “handling fee”, presumably the way Ticketmaster have handling fee – PER TICKET – of six bucks, so now you’re on €80.59 before you add bags. If each person brings a bag out and back we’re nearing the 400 quid mark.

    Not exactly a fiver now is it? Didn’t get around to clicking that ‘confirm’ button in the end.

  • Jan Blanchard Podleaders Video Interview




    Jan Blanchard Podleaders Interview

    Originally uploaded by kenmc

    Hey Tom – it works on the video iPod. Currently watching the second video podcast from Podleaders.com featuring Jan Blanchard chatting with Tom Raftery about TouristR.com, currently in private beta for another two days or so before being launched at the end of the week at Reboot 9.0.

    While Tom mentions that the video has been optimised for the iPod, you’ll have to convert the download yourself in order to get it into iTunes (download available as .FLV). I used iSquint for my conversion which dumps the FLV out to MP4 and automatically inserts it into your iTunes video library. A quick sync and you’re set to go.

    I will say that its a great improvement on the first video podcast, the interview appears much more natural with the ‘over the shoulder’ look; the camera has been locked down for the demo; the branding works well on the screen and isn’t overly intrusive and it is much more enjoyable to watch as a whole.

    One thing I might watch out for (and I’m particular about my own podcasts) is the sound quality – some clip mics, or a boom mic or a cheap wireless kit could do well at capturing sound rather than relying on the camera’s internal mic.

    Other than that I say kudos on the second video podcast.