Ken McGuire

Author: Ken McGuire

  • Canada: We’ve Landed

    After a near 7 hour flight we touched down in Toronto around 4am Irish time. Of course, typical airport style we were waiting well over an hour for the bags to get off the belt and out onto the concourse. Great flight all the same, have to hand it to Zoom airlines, they kept everyone fed and watered, handy in-flight meal and Belfast International is a pure breeze.

    If you EVER have to fly to Canada, head for Belfast. We got into the airport around 5:30, bags were put through at 5:35 and that was it. No queues, no grouchy passengers – straight to Starbucks for their caramel hot chocolate (two of them to be exact) and a quick look around the duty free before boarding around 8:30pm, flying out a half hour later.

    Nothing like doing 550mph at 34,000 feet. The trip itself was around 5,500km give or take. Tired as hell now this morning, ended up sitting in the house, two bottles of beer some cheese and crackers and off to bed around 7:30am Irish time.

    Its off to the Gourmet Food & Wine expo before taking in the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Bruins.

    Of course I’ve also discovered that the blog looks rather strange in IE7… what happened there?

  • Leaving For Canada (One Week)

    I’m off to Canada until next weekend where hopefully I’ll be able to blog from. Surely they’ll have internet cafés over there!

    Here’s to Toronto…

  • Away To Canada I Go

    Well not exactly just yet, my flight doesn’t leave until around 8 tonight but we’re going for a good breakfast, hitting the road for Belfast to get there in time for an evening bite to eat. Then, its off to Canada, arrving in Toronto around 10pm local time. Who knows what the blog situation will be like but now that I’ve actually uploaded photos to my flickr account I might just be tempted to snap a load of shots in Toronto and get some online.

    Ah I’m just looking forward to my first proper break away anywhere possibly since I started college back in ’01. Roll on the food, drink, sights, snow….

    Have a good week!

  • Online Duty-Free Scrapped

    RTE report this afternoon that proposed plans to allow the online sales of duty-free cigarettes and alcohol have been scrapped by the European Court of Justice. It would have been seen as a golden opportunity for Irish online shoppers (who would be smokers and drinkers) seen as the price of above items in Ireland is a tad on the ridiculous side.

    The ruling is a blow to Europeans hoping to buy cheap alcohol abroad via the internet.

    The Luxembourg-based court upheld the current interpretation of EU rules, which state that in order to benefit from cheaper taxes elsewhere, consumers have to travel to the EU country in question and pick up their purchases.

    I’m not a smoker myself and while I certainly enjoy a large bottle on the bar at the weekend, paying €5.30 a go (in the cheaper pubs) is a bit outlandish, even if most of the stuff we get in Kilkenny is brewed here in the town.

    Though, seen as the prices of flights continue to fall, you can likely pick up a flight for what would have been the cost of your shipping for heavier goods (beer) online…

  • Blogging Through Comments (Bad Blogging)

    When I heard that local soccer outfit Evergreen had started blogging I thought it was a great idea. Nice to see a club up and running online, the perfect way to keep everyone up to date with developments, games, results and match reports. But no.

    They launched the blog in August of this year and they’ve kept it up to date since then, game scores, draw results, club news – but all through comments.

    Every single update has been made as a comment on the original post (now totalling 164 comments). While the information is there, it is in no way shape or form reasonably managed or displayed and serves no real purpose for people looking for club news.

    For over a year now items such as fixtures, results, goalscorers, venues, whats new, fund-raising efforts, birthdays, weddings , training schdules, meeting notices, rumours, criticism and much more have been added.

    If they’re using Blogger and they’ve been pointed in the direction of blogging, why not just adhere to simple blogging ideas like making actual blog posts instead of posting comments? Plus, why not pick a slightly better user name for the blogger account… foreverandever1? Hmm…..

  • Tool Makes It Three

    Three gigs pour moi in The Point in the last two weeks. Paul Simon was fantastic, Bruce Springsteen (on his Seger Sessions tour) was out of this world – have never seen a stage performance quite like his and, last night Tool got their chance to impress and did they ever! 14 of us took off yesterday at 3pm, arrived at the gig around 6:30 and settled in for a drink (at extortionate prices). Still, in no way was I prepared for the quality of the gig. We were smack up the front (not the pit area) for the start of it but half way through the opening song walked right down the back of The Point to we could stand in sheer awe. Amazing visuals for each track and a full laser show complete with tracks old and new would be enough to convert anyone to a fan after last night.

    Cracking gig!

    Sure isn’t it always the way that you don’t get to a gig in The Point for ages and then along come three at once 🙂

    Update:Simon has the Tool setlist from The Point

  • Planning For Toronto

    I’m off to Toronto on Friday for a week or so, first proper break away since starting the business with Aidan last year. Came across a few things I wouldn’t mind getting to do. Anybody been there or have any tips for anything on during November 24th – December 2nd?

    As much as I want to do NOTHING when I get there, you’ve still got to get out and see a few places, and so far I’ve got the following…

    Anyone any tips?

  • How Things Are Looking For 3G World Wide

    Om Malik has a nice post on how things are shaping up globally for 3G use and support (via Giga Om). Personally, I’m still waiting for full on 3G from O2 and I’m hoping it will be soon as I’ve already considered moving networks twice within the last year to avail of 3G services elsewhere.

    Judging by the maps on Om’s post, I shouldn’t have any trouble accessing content or making use of the facility in Canada barring the fact that I know (and now Bernie knows) that O2’s roaming charges are ridiculous.

  • Whats With The Essays (Spam)?

    Picked up a spam comment yesterday – not your regular run of the mill casino gambling rubbish or random letters and numbers, but 12 A4 pages and 6,737 words (thank you MS Word) on why women are the favoured gender and “Christianity is a dumping ground for the disfavored” amongst other things. I’ve had two or three of these of late on this blog that slip past Akismet and have appeared on both LiverpoolAccess.com and TheFootballTimes.com. Anyone else in the same boat?

    Interesting point, while my post yesterday suggested that 90% of all email is spam, the Akismet site reports that 93% of all comments to blogs are now spam as well.

    Update: Looks like Rosanne (old college friend, female (yes, shock and awe of late!) blogger, fellow WIT BScIT/MM graduate!) is having the same problems… Rosanne is currently looking into weblogs as a learning tool as part of the masters, give it a read!

  • Help Yourself To Some Internet Advertising

    This month’s Help Yourself talk hosted by Aidan and Keith goes ahead tomorrow night (as opposed to next Wednesday). While Keith won’t be there on the night, Aidan will be taking attendees through using the internet to advertise your business, including a live demo of setting up an AdWords account on Google and setting up your first advertising campaign.

    Aidan will also be looking at some free tools to help you assess what keywords are suitable for your site, how to check your link popularity etc.

    If you’re interested, drop into Harry’s Bar in Langtons (67 John Street, Kilkenny) at 6pm tomorrow evening. The event itself is free of charge and sponsored in part by the Kilkenny County Enterprise Board.

  • 90% Of Email Now Spam

    Its me Jamie.

    Its me Lynette.

    Its me Justin.

    I’m getting sick and tired of these emails, the latest wave of junk mail passing through the office at the moment. Simple emails with random names after “its me” in the subject line just to add to my morning woes of clearing out the junk mail. Then again, these are just the latest addition to the high amounts of spam we already have to filter through.

    According to Digital Lifestyles now, the internet is truely under siege with “just over 90%” of email now junk mail. Figures estimate that the level of spam circling online has almost trebled from 2.5 billion mails in June to around 7 billion mails in November, still with a week left in the month.

    Thats some size of an increase over such a short period (5 months give or take), even with new spam legislation in place.

    Site Developer has a handy spam tutorial for users of Outlook, without delving into any additional software (though I know the source of the bulk of our spam and I’ll be putting an end to it within the next month) which is available here.

    While there are loads of commercial options available for beating spam, HelpYourself.ie (Aidan and Keith’s monthly talk) points to K9 as a free application to help you beat spam out of your inbox.

    Now, where did I leave my own spam beating stick?

  • Top Camera Phone On Flickr

    No no, its not a picture of the best camera phone, but Flickr have put together a little utility and published some results on the top camera phones being used by Flickr site members.

    Flickr Phones

    Interestingly enough, there’s a massive increase in the use of the Sony Ericsson K800i (which I’ve mentioned before that I’m now using myself) since the launch of the phone. Gotta hand to SE though, I’m not surprised in the sharp rise in figures as the quality of the 3.2mp cybershot camera in the phone is fantastic.

    Via.

  • Web Sites Not Liable – US

    People who claim they have been defamed online can go after the person who originally wrote the defamation article online but cannot chase the website (publisher or distributor) where it was published through the courts, whether the website is a company or individual – so says a unanimous Supreme Court verdict out in California.

    We acknowledge that recognizing broad immunity for defamatory republications on the Internet has some troubling consequences. Until Congress chooses to revise the settled law in this area, however, plaintiffs who contend they were defamed in an Internet posting may only seek recovery from the original source of the statement.

    Interesting for strong community based sites, no? Provided they’re not intentionally publishing comments that they KNOW are defamatory.

    Update: More here at Dane Carlson’s blog

  • Podcasting Tip For The Morning

    Sitting in the office at half eight absolutely wrecked. Following on from Sunday’s post, ‘Just Do It‘ in relation to podcasting, here’s a tip I should have added to the list.

    • Don’t wait until 1am to start recording an hour long show, especially if you’ve been working since 7am. The potential is there to add a sense of “tired comedy” to your content, you may mix up your tracklisting of bands and you may find yourself speaking on such distant topics to the show as global warming, the lotto on RTE and who would win in a fight between Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris amongst other things.

    Apart from that, when the show is released, likely this week, you’ll get to hear music from Itchy Trigger Finger, Panda Radical, 20 Bulls Each, Myp Et Jeep and Laminate.

  • Site Helps You To ‘Regift’

    What, you might ask, is regifting? Regifting, according to Wikipedia is “the act of taking a gift that has been received and giving it to somebody else in the guise of a new gift.” Many times has it been the subject of humour in TV and film (like Seinfeld, which I’ve finally started watching and ‘Old School’ with Will Ferrell which I caught on DVD lately) but I can’t say I would ever do it myself.

    Not only that, but seemingly there’s certain etiquette about it as well

    1. The primary rule is not to give a gift back to the person who gave it to you.
    2. Similarly, regifting to someone who knows the original giver carries the risk of exposing both your lack of attachment to the gift, and your failure to select and purchase a new gift for the recipient.
    3. One should remove any cards and other indicators that the gift was originally given to you.
    4. Finally, using the gift before regifting it — so that it is no longer “new” — is generally considered inappropriate.

    It is big around Christmas in relation to presents and certainly big in the US but starting to creep into Irish society a bit as well. So, Regiftable.com was established, to “help you get through the season with your budget and sanity intact”.

    But, if that’s what you’re into – regifting – you can find all about it on Regifting.com, including reading some success stories and garnering a few tips on how to pull it off.

    If you do regift – shame on you!

  • Get Yourself Banned From Live.com

    Check this out…

    Your site is acquiring links through posting to or exchanging links with sites unrelated to your site content. Techniques which attempt to acquire unrelated spam links in order to increase ranking are considered spam and your site has been excluded from our index as results. Please contact us once you’ve removed these links and we will reevaluate.

    Its an extract from an email sent by Live.com staff. This wasn’t sent to me, instead I picked it up here at seroundtable.com. Looks like Microsoft are coming down heavy on the use of link exchanges or gathering links from other sources to help boost your traffic / incoming links.

    Gotta love the new approach search engines are taking. “Sure, we let you search the web but you’re only going to find things that we want you to find”.

    I also noticed last night that Google are now filtering sites on their search engine result, clicking particular links (namely related to warez, cracks, anything illegal – no, it wasn’t on MY machine(s)) that you’re now taken to an interstitial warning you of the dangers of viewing such websites.

    A search for asta-killer.com on Google will bring it about when you click the first result. Very clever on their part. (edit – turns out that its old news but hey, I was only shown it yesterday)

  • Leading The Way In Online Legislation

    Just picked up on Adam Maguire‘s article for the Sunday Business Post on how ‘Ireland is a world leader in online legislation’ with focus on Bebo, its Irish use and its co-founder’s (Michael and wife Xochi) visit to Dublin last week for a meet and greet and a few presentations(which was also highlighted on the Bebo homepage recenty).

    One quote from Dr Rachel O’Connell states

    ‘Ireland has been a trailblazer in terms of changing the legislation. Sometimes there can be the perception that we’re following behind everyone else but in fact if you look at policy and regulation, this country has been leading the way in terms of changes

    Worth the read on your lunch break…

  • Podcasting – Just Do It

    All the talk of Bar Camps and Mini-bars of late got me reading into whats going on around the Barcamp scene at the moment, which is where I found Podcamp West, Barcamp for podcasters (or in this case aimed more specifically towards bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers).

    One site in particular, Silicon Valley Watcher (where Tom Foremski writes) had on good piece of advice after Tom dropped into the Podcamp West in San Francisco – “Just Do It”.

    Just do it. Don’t worry too much about the quality, just get it out there. A podcast can be any length, whatever is comfortable to you. Don’t let the technology get in the way, just get it done. Don’t worry about how many listeners you have. Find something you are passionate about. Don’t feud with other Podcasters. Keep doing it.

    He’s absolutely right too. I hummed and drummed about podcasting for ages but finally decided to get the ball rolling back at the beginning of October for KilkennyMusic.com (well, about the second week in anyway). Since then there have been three podcasts, with the fourth being recorded tonight night in the studio (look at us with our swanky gear 🙂 ) and we should have Sound System #5 and #6 on the web before Christmas. Not only that but we’ve also arranged a schedule for around 40 podcasts for 2007 (nothing like a little forward planning).

    It doesn’t take a whole lot to do – grab some free recording software, grab yourself a mic and get a plan together. We’re quickly developing our structure for the podcast and each time we record it becomes more and more relaxed and more natural to the point that after three podcasts we actually look forward to recording the next one and the one after that etc.

    You can’t discover where and when to find your feet until you actually start doing it – so just do it. If you think that podcasting will some way benefit those using your site or service and get started. All you need is the time and a little patience to put things together.

    Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that ALL the talks for Bar Camp South East should be recorded for podcast… whaddya think?

  • Occasional Roaming Costs NZ$5,000

    Computerworld reports a New Zealand Vodafone mobile customer was issued a bill last week for “two days occasional usage” of the Vodafone Vodem service for the princely sum of around NZ$5,000 – $2,000 of which was on a 69mb mobile download. The customer had been alerted to the fact that it could cost in the region of NZ$10 per megabyte downloaded for the use of the service but rather than connecting straight to Vodafone she instead hopped onto a roaming parter, instantly incurring Vodafone‘s costs and the roaming costs, shooting her NZ$10 per m/b up to NZ$30.

    Vodafone failed to issue the customer, Stephanie Guigou, with a written breakdown of her charges and instead phoned her back, a week after alerting her to the high fees due on her contract, to announce they were disconnecting here – without issuing a phone bill.

    I know roaming charges are pretty extreme, particularly when you incur charges from your domestic network and whatever foreign network you connect to byut five grand? Not nice for anyone!

  • Logo For Bar Camp South East

    Bar Camp South East Ireland

    Idea for the Bar Camp South East logo, found somewhere between the end of Part 7 of Band Of Brothers and the chinese arriving just in time to stick on ‘The Rock‘ on DVD 🙂