I’m still gunning for Twitter with lasers but James has produced another mix from the Eireprenuer web-blender with a Twazer of co-worker twitter feeds (web workers) based on postings by Conor O’Neill and Chris Messina.
So much social acitivites of late, some real eye openers coming along, makes for a great time for internet startups and simply suporting fellow web-workers. Interesting times ahead… as ever!
It was around this time last week that I was disappointed with the Skype video call quality in a KKM online meet but tonight it was the turn of Xbox live, yet again.
I had previously tried the whole ‘Live’ experience with a month’s free trial in January and I let it expire after playing just one or two rounds of Pro Evolution 6 online. I decided to give it another bash earlier tonight, this time testing WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007. Now, while connections with players overseas seemed to work well enough gamewise (France, Germany, US), the audio quality and hideous latency and echoes struck again which really does hinder the in-game banter. This was noticed playing locally, moreso than across foreign waters.
Out of four local games (as in connecting to someone literally a two minute drive up the road), the first game ended in a draw and signed the other player out of Xbox Live, the second game sent him back to the menu and crashed my console, the third game experienced some mild lags in gameplay while the gameplay was fine for the fourth but for the almost complete lack of audio for conversation.
Does anyone get much enjoyment or pleasure out of Xbox Live? While it is a good service, there are some things I do like to do face to face with someone and console gaming is included in those things. I shelled out 20 quid to renew the subscription earlier this evening but on the back of taking a while to get started, battling through the incessant ‘button bashers’ I’d question whether I’ll do it again in three months, or even get the full use out of the 20 quid.
Mind you, you could have sold a house full of tickets for the final match we had when it finally took off. I’d consider myself a wrestling fan, more along the lines of the late 80s, early 90s before TV really took over but when myself and this particular player get together you can be promised an electric game. Single match clock counter ran to 33 minutes before we finally got a winner but after that I was done.
I can tolerate a small lag in a network game when played online (you would be used to it after years of Championship Manager and Football Manager) but it is the audio part that really annoyed me. In the end I resorted to the mobile phone as I at least knew the phone would carry a conversation. Maybe its just the game in particular, maybe its just me but I’ll give it one more go during the week. Bad enough that the games cost an arm and a leg and you still have to pay up to sixty quid a year for access to the online gaming environment but its worse still when the games lag (even on a 3mb connection) and the audio is unbearable.
Any Chorus 360 gamers around or NTL 360 gamers around with any tips?
Thought I was having an odd problem with Chorus not being able to display blogger blogs over the weekend, this morning, or still as I type, and didn’t have to look far to see that Twenty is having the same problem with NTL. Of course, NTL being the proud parents of little baby Chorus, everyone ends up missing out. So here I am at home with a load of blogger-based blogs I want to read and regularly read and instead I’m going to twiddle my thumbs and bill Chorus for the time.
Well maybe not, but it does get annoying! I remember Eircom having a similar problem last year where I ended up going through X & Y different proxies to get to certain sites but for a problem to run the bones of a week is a bit of a joke.
And Twenty, I used to work in one of those broadband support call centres (though not NTL) and I’ll agree with everything you’ve said. Nice that they sorted it ten minutes after the blog post but still no blogspot access in Kilkenny! White screens and dropped connections for Kilkenny. Any of you Chorus people locally on the same issue?
I’ve started to upload some photos from the blog awards, I know Ross has a couple as well so I’ll see if I can steal those from him. Here’s Daw and Phil at the bar, prior to heading in to plonk ourselves down for the show.
@Conor – There’s pics of Ross in there too – check the hair!
So……..
Back to the grindstone after the weekend away in Dublinia, gotta say – some craic.I caught Bernie’s post last night on ‘whats the craic’ and there was certainly more than a few pints had in the local! Sure, we didn’t win Best Music, and muchos congratulations to Niall for doing so but I think Ross summed it up really well for the four of us at KilkennyMusic.com when he said
Tonight is the first time in a year and a half that the four of us are actually out together not working. A year and a half of working our asses off for free and we’re finally gonna get pissed together and just relax.
…and we certainly took care of both of those.
Serious congratulations due to all who scored awards on the night, tip of the hat to the girls from Beaut.ie, if the awards show had gone on any longer it is quite possible they would have just kept on winning. Major kudos goes to Mr. Damien Mulley though and there’s nobody in the room who could have complained when Bernie handed his ‘Best Contribution’ award over to Damien.
Got to catch up with a few people, had a few words with Phil, Ronan, Niall, Bernie (never did that elevator podcast and I hope I didn’t ramble incoherently about FeedBurner for you!), Will (thanks for the tip and sorry didn’t chat longer, or even properly introduce myself – shame on me), good yarn with Keith about the highs and lows of Vista and the fact that I still haven’t posted my iPAQ 6515 review (have a place in mind for that one) but overall it was just a brilliant night for the four of us to unwind, gather a bit of feedback, and drink way too much beer.
We skipped out of the show shortly after the close of the awards ceremony itself and made tracks for The Lower Deck in Portobello to catch a few bands who had played with KilkennyMusic.com over the past year or so but the KKM blog itself is going to pick that post up from here.
Again, thanks to everyone who was there, everyone who I spoke to, all the winners, all the nominees, the organisers, the Alexander Hotel, the Mount Herbert Hotel and that poor taxi driver who took us from Camden Street back to the hotel, one lunatic in particular singing “To the left, to the left” all the way home at the top of his voice….
We’ll be back in force next year 🙂
PS: Only realised now that I’ve still got that ‘I’m blogging this’ badge glued to my hat…. I’m also going to get some pics up on Flickr today and see what I can salvage that can actually be displayed online without us winding up in court for some reason.
Update: PAUL!!!! Still gonna hold you to that pint, my fault for not seeking it out earlier in the night and getting a chat with you before we left!
Currently loading up the iPod ahead of the roadtrip to Dublin tomorrow lunchtime. Reckon we (the four of us travelling for KilkennyMusic.com) should hit the Big Smoke by 3 or 4pm, out to the hotel to freshen up before letting loose at the bar in the Alexander. As far as I know, I’ll have the camera with me (or at least one of us will) and I’m bringing a digital recorder / digital dictaphone with me as well. Figure we may as well get a KKM podcast made out of the occasion.
One or two things to sort out but I’m looking forward to the night and delighted to be a part of it.
Simple as that. Needed to make a few calls to companies in the US this afternoon, said I’d give All Free Calls a whirl and try save a few pennies. Rang the 1890 number on the landline and within a half minute was connected through the operator the first company of the US.
Now, that particular company could learn a thing from All Free Calls. You ring a number, you get a simple instruction in 4-5 seconds and away you go. You ring the US, direct to a technical department, you’re bombarded with sales adverts for things you’re looking for support on – not needing to buy again – and so spend a few minutes before actually starting to navigate through the menu.
If it has saved me a few pennies, I give it a thumbs up. Purely for efficiency and ease of use if not just for the fact that it works, exactly like it says on the tin.
Watching this just makes me want it even more…. So long as it doesn’t turn out to be the flop that my iPAQ 6515 did I’ll be happy.
The recent Australia Day (well, fair enough, it was a month ago) saw Google update their images of Sydney for Google Earth and Google Maps. Gotta say, it looks impressive in high-resolution!
Really wish they’d get Ireland mapped to that degree…. we can but live in hope.
Spent the bones of three hours on a video chat between myself, Daw (of KilkennyMusic.com) and James Doran (Itchy Trigger Finger, a Kilkenny band). Results of which can be seen on my photo blog today.
We had been working (between myself and Daw) on a funding application for KilkennyMusic.com and thought we’d jump into Google Talk for a while, as normal, IMing back and forth. Of course, Mr Dawson has just splashed the cash on a 17″ Mac Book Pro so we thought Skype would be a good alternative, use the video chat.
Whatever it was though, Skype was awful. Stuttering video, massive feedback, echoes, the whole lot. Queue a quick search for instructions on connecting to Google Talk via iChat and away we go. So good was the quality of the service that kept going for around 3 hours or so, no interruptions, no noticeable lag and one of the greatest alternatives to IMing I’ve had the pleasure of, fact.
I’ll certainly be looking at doing this again in the future for our regular meetings, often is the the problem that people (even between the four of us), need to be in a certain place, don’t want to get up away from the computer, or its raining and you don’t want to walk, spring for a taxi or go to the hassle of finding parking in town. Not that we’ll be taking away the personal side of going to meetings but, novice as I am to video chat, I’m going to be pushing for it a hell of a lot more.
If you’re online, the ‘Over To You’ show is about to start on KCLR with the four of us from KilkennyMusic.com on it. Runs from 8pm to 9pm, you can get a live stream from KCLR96FM.com as well. I’m hoping to have a copy of the show on CD to stick up on the site over the next week or so.
Been looking for reasons to go to Windows Vista (not that I will, but I’m just looking….) and came across Chris Pirillo’s post from the wee hours this morning who it seems is breaking up with Windows Vista.
Greatest thing about it, I think, is this little quote….
When I know I have time, I’m “upgrading†from Windows Vista to Windows XP
That about sums it up….
Had been hoping this one would turn up online… then it did. (edit: Pat’s also got it – the ad that is!)
Word at the weekend was once the iPhone hits the US it will likely be in the $300-$400 contract price bracket. I know that US contracts work a little different, many starting out in the minimum-24-months category but that price sounds the phone will be a little more affordable. Highly doubt that any Irish network will carry the phone which means you could end up forking out anywhere up to 700 quid for it when it reaches European shores, sim-free that is. Now might be a good time to start saving those pennies.
In a change to plans for this week, we’re going to be pre-recording a KilkennyMusic.com show for KCLR tonight which airs tomorrow on KCLR 96FM (Kilkenny / Carlow) from 8pm to 9pm.
The four of us should be in the studio and we’ll be looking at upcoming gigs, plans for the few months ahead and we’ll be taking some music from bands who have appeared under the KilkennyMusic.com banner in the past year. We’ll also be looking ahead to the Irish Blog Awards which (for those who don’t already know) will be taking place this coming Saturday evening in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin.
Should be a laugh anyway. Was hoping for a live show but there you go!
I’ve got a .eu domain, more as a novelty than anything else as it is used simply as a redirect to kenmc.com and the name itself (kenmc.eu) certainly isn’t promoted in any circles. Tens of thousands of people applied over the Sunrise period for .eu registration a year ago or so. A lot of people got the domains they were looking for. Of course, hundreds of domain registrars were created and used during the landrush once the gates opened for public registration and many people lost out on domains and the whole registrations process turned into one big farce.
Without any decent controls in place from the outset, what was deemed a good TLD and a good idea at the time for European businesses and individuals has become a domain joke.
In an effort to correct or prevent further disputes and also guide the public on choosing a .eu registrar, the .EU Code Of Conduct has been launched.
In broad terms, the .eu registrar Code of Conduct describes what principles subscribing registrars are to adhere to when registering domain names on behalf of their customers. It also details the level of service quality they are to provide, the data privacy policies they are to adhere to and the conditions surrounding the use of the official Code of Conduct Affiliate logo.
Home come this wasn’t laid out at the very start? EURID has already lowered the base cost of registering a .eu domain, supposed to be 5 Euro but I’ve yet to see a registrar bending to this price.
The document in full, the .EU Code of Conduct can be downloaded here (.pdf) or view the website.
Just out of interest, if you serve ads on your blog, who or what is your preferred means of advertising excluding Google’s Adsense…?
Personally, I prefer AdSense out of the lot, always seems to produce the better, more targeted ads. If I was to go beyond that I’d say Amazon. But thats just me…
I’ve been mulling over the Arts Act Grant application for 2007 for Devious Theatre since this morning and it has only just occurred to me that there is no means by which to submit the application electronically. Forms can be emailed out or picked up from the Arts office but as of yet there’s no means to register your interests online and submit your application for review.
The Arts Council itself doesn’t have this problem – for their revenue grant at the end of 2006 we were able to pick up application forms online, log in to a secure area on the Arts Council‘s own site and upload our finished forms for approval on or before the deadline date.
So why can’t local Arts offices do the same? The Kilkenny County Council‘s own website was the recent subject of a massive overhaul and why it has come on leaps and bounds (believe me, the previous iteration was a disaster of a site and I’ve no problems in saying that) but it still lacks in certain areas – filing grant applications is one of them.
Instead, we’ve got to rely on our trusty postal system to deliver the goods. Fingers crossed we’ll be successful in the application, worked wonders for KilkennyMusic.com last year as we hope will happen this year – the funding really does help to keep the whole thing alive – and with costs already seriously mounting for Devious Theatre in 2007 we hope that we’ll be just as successful there too.
So attention Kilkenny County Council – sort it out!
If you see a decent price for a seat on a plane online, don’t wait around to make up your mind!!
Just booked flights to Amsterdam for myself and my brother, his girlfriend and a friend and, by my reckoning, because we waited until after just after midnight to make the booking, having started looking around on AerLingus.com about a half hour previous, the price of the seats went up by EUR30 each outbound and E25 each inbound.
Some pain in the arse!
Almost as bad as the nightclubs are these airlines!
As James pointed out earlier on, Grazr themes are now available, coming in twelve tasty flavours. I had been looking at my own style for it (although never got around to implementing it) but have to say that I’m quite impressed with the new offering.
If you take a look at the sidebar on the blog you’ll notice my own Grazr window is the new milk_white theme, fits perfectly into the blog and if I may say so looks a hell of a lot nicer than the previous iteration. Fair play lads, ye did a bang up job.
Courtesy of redmum