I’m getting some phone updates during the day from the IIA Congress… Is anyone actually blogging it? Or can it be done? Rumour has it there’s wireless access going…. 😉
Update: Michele is blogging from the Conference, while Aidan is filling me in via google talk 🙂
Text Link Ads (affiliate link) have added a calculator to their service, detailing what you can expect to get from them finance-wise if your ad space sells. Interesting to see the combination of pagerank and content category (e.g. gambling earns more than real estate which earns more than technology). Check it out here (not an affiliate link). Interesting what it throws up…
So here I was gearing up a lovely music tech piece and I read Keith’s post, kudos to Mr. Bohanna for also unearthing this gem.
For the first time ever a music artist has launched an entire album exclusively on a mobile phone. Majella, has preloaded her new album “Brave New World” on the Sony Ericsson Z530i available exclusively from O2 Ireland. The album, which includes three live acoustic tracks will not go on general digital release until July 2006. Speaking in Dublin today, Pat Hughes, Sony Ericsson, said, “As a world first, both Sony Ericsson and O2 are delighted to play a role in launching Majella Murphy’s album exclusively via mobile phone. This marks an exciting time for the collaboration of music and mobile phones. Partnering with mobile technology provides a vital opportunity for gifted artists such as Majella to connect with audiences in new and more immediate ways”.
Its been a busy year to date for Ms. Murphy, launching her website (ColdFusion based) back in February, coupled with appearances in the Olympia and at the IRMAs. Plus, she’s from Kilkenny (my lovely hometown) – yet not featured on KilkennyMusic.com, will have to have words there.
Personally, I think its a fantastic move in the right direction for both mobile technology and Irish music. Its great to see artists and creative minds branching out and making the most of the technology thats available, in particular mobile services. Beats the hell out of a tacky free DVD.
If you’re up for a listen, her current single is also available to download directly from MajellaMurphy.com and is well worth the listen.
Update (Tuesday) – To announce this release Majella will be in studio with Pat Kenny (RTE Radio 1) this morning (10am-12noon) talking about recording “Brave New World” her deal with Sony Ericsson and O2.
If you’ve decided that blogging for your business is just for you… or you’re STILL debating whether or not to do it, then try a read of this article. I’m in the throws of starting blogs for a few different groups in my spare time (what little of it I have) and they’re all seeing the upsides of it.
All things said, its always useful to have something to refer to….
How do the Irish stand out?
Seemingly kenmc.com will fetch me $14,702 if I’m lucky (any other Ken Mc’s interested in blowing 14k on a domain, email me)…. KilkennyMusic.com should fetch me €16,854….. Damien Mulley is looking at over $48,000 for his domain (happy days…)
Fancy pricing your own, with yet another domain appraisal service – though this time its a freebie…. Check out LeapFish.
Update – the ball has started rolling and long may it continue… seems like he’s managed to rope in a few extra jumpers as well!
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Off the topic today and for a good reason too -Â John is doing some fund raising for a most tremendous cause to help raise finance for a course of treatment for his girlfriend who suffers from a rare degenerative disease called Freidreichs Ataxia.
Anyway, Mr. Butler is going to throw himself out of a plane (with a parachute) to start the proceedings and has set up a website, CharityFeelsGood.com to take donations. If you’re interested, and I hope that you are, you can contribute $2 via PayPal or sponsor more if you wish.
There’s a long road to go in trying to raise the total amount given a complete lack of funding by the HSE or Irish Government so hopefully this will set things on its way.
You can read John’s own post here, or visit CharityFeelsGood.com
Launching the business last year we spent a certain amount on repeat advertising in the local press – black and white ads, full colour ads, single column, double column, large ads, front page, back page…. it all adds up and doesn’t get you a real return. I don’t really agree with newspaper advertising to be fair, I see it more like a necessary evil. Papers gotta fill space, you gotta advertise your services.
With Kilkenny Music, I keep the advertising spend to near null. It might cost me 20 euro to financially promote an event or gig where I can generate several hundred euro in return (providing people turn up of course). I could look at running promotion in the newspaper of course, and pay up to several hundred euro and still end up with the same amount of people in the venue.
So the numbers might be a bit different. Small business, with big products, and another venture with small products but massive repeat business and massive longevity.
So Dane Carson’s recent article, guest authored by Matthew Lesko in his crazy blue question mark suit raises a point…
“Anybody Can Spend Money On Advertising But Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Pay Rate Card, And If They’re Real Clever, They Figure Out A Way Not To Pay Anything Up Front At All”
While I consider myself a beginner to the world of business and looking after your own business ventures, I like the final quote. If there is a way not to pay anything up front at all – or anything at all for that matter – you will find it, and should find it.
Go out and get a little creative if you can! Or just read the article…. goes down well with a cup of tea and some of those large Cadbury’s cookies we got this morning 🙂
OK… so this may be a little more applicable to US phone models, but despite the difference in numbering, checking out the pictures you will likely recognise some of these phones from passing your local Carphone Warehouse or O2 store…. (not to implicate either I might add…).
But, a recent study has revealed the ten highest radiation mobile phones, in the US, and low and behold – Motorola are up there with 8 out of 10 phones. (Insert applause here). I see the Treo 650 made its way onto the list as well for you PDA fans…
Check out the list here…
Surprised that it has an ‘er’ at the end and not just an ‘r’?
Textorizer takes a raster image in a format such as png, jpeg or gif, detects edges using a Sobel convolution filter and replaces them with supplied lines of text. The output from textorizer is in SVG, which can be viewed directly in the Firefox 1.5 browser or using the Adobe SVG Plugin.
Had a play around with it earlier on and took a look at some of John’s images all textorized and its pretty damn impressive with what it can do! Give it a lash yourself.
Reading a post from Piaras Kelly this morning on twelve observations on Irish society, it was point number 9 that clicked big with me…
9. Bebo is the most popular website in Ireland – The most important thing about Bebo is that it will ultimately drive a higher adoption of broadband in Ireland.
He’s absolutely right.
There’s a cousin of mine (one of a few) who regularly drops in during the week after school instead of going home to her own house. Straight up the stairs she goes to the study, unhooks my computer from the network in the other room, and parks herself in front of Bebo for an hour or two.
“Ugh…. you can’t Bebo on dialup”
“We’ll have to get broadband…. I can talk to people all night”
And so the story continues. Fair play, I also make use of Bebo, strictly with people I know of course, majority of people I’m in contact with I’ve actually had or currently have some social involvement with. I received a few messages via their service from people on my “Friends List” telling me that they in need of help setting up broadband, so they can spend even more time on Bebo.
Parents will give in. Save a few pennies, keep the kids occupied for the night talking with all their school friends they’ve only seen a few hours ago, drawing crazy pictures on the ‘whiteboard’ and more.
The government and Eircom/Digiweb/Smart/Metro/Chorus/etc. must be looking at Bebo as a blessing in disguise. Teenagers whining for broadband to get their Bebo fix will get this country up that European Broadband League….
Whats this now? Before you go getting excited, it’s not gonna happen in Ireland – at least not in the near future anyway.
Skype have announced that they are to provide free calls to traditional landlines and mobile phones throught the US and Canada. I had made a post a few months ago stating that if it ever happened in Ireland I would happily rip out the home phone, now it looks like our American / Canadian counterparts are going to get to experience it first hand.
In a move thats likely to shake up the telecoms industry in the US, at least temporarily, Skype users will be able to make free calls via the SkypeOut service until the end of 2006, a move intended to increase Skype penetration in both regions. Could you imagine though, the amount of money lost to the main telco providers if EVERYONE jumped on board until the end of the year? Some craic…
Its not actually available yet, but it will be on Wednesday morning… Windows Media Player 11 is about to hit the net (link live on May 17th) in a new wave of Microsoft releases, and after some serious ass-whipping of late by iTunes, Microsoft now says “No More”. (via)
With all the comings and goings of various media players – iTunes, WinAMP, Sonique etc. I’ve always returned to Windows Media Player. Does exactly what I want to do, play music, no real frills required (though there’s a huge store of plugins for it), hooks up to various streams for me and its simple to use. Now its about to get an upgrade.
MP11 itself will “act as a repository for all your music, video, and images”, something which iTunes isn’t capable of doing at the moment. The interface seems to be one of the biggest overhauls, with the chance to navigate your entire music collection by artwork with improved artwork functionality over past versions of MP. Syncing with portable players (of which I don’t use the Apple variety) has also improved so thats something to look forward to I guess!
Anyway, the above link goes live on Wednesday morning or you can get an indepth review here from ABC. If you can’t wait, there’s already torrents floating around of the preview-beta release. You’ve got to pass the Geniune test mind you…
So the LAPD have started blogging, (via), think there’s any future in it for the good folks behind Garda.ie?
Our online journal is an interactive tool that we use to deliver real-time, unfiltered information. We invite you to take a look inside the Department to learn more about the men and women in blue who have sworn to protect and to serve you.
They’ve already missed out on a Typepad and Blogspot address…. Garda.blogs.ie is up for grabs mind you….
Just came across this one today…. Podcasting Ireland, lead by Helen Shaw (former Director of Radio at RTÉ). Damn nice site too….
We are a new and dynamic Irish company. Digicast Ltd aims to exploit digital technology to fully maximise its potential to transform content creation and communications. We have created www.podcastingireland.ie as a portal for all things relating to podcasting in Ireland as well as a portal for new podcasting channels like Making Waves (free music podcast).
Seems to be on top of things when it comes to providing useful information. With free podcasts available from the site, there is also help available for those looking to start podcasting themselves…
Podcastingireland.ie provides free podcasts for all its members. Just register with some basic details to help us provide you with what you want, and then you can listen when you want. Programmes range from features on up and coming musicians in Ireland, to the best comedy antics from Irelands favourite comedians, to educational podcasts.
As well as listening to our content we can help you create your own podcasts. We also have a Podcasting Directory which will help you navigate the world of Podcasting. Here we have links to other Irish podcasts and popular global podcasting websites along with our top 10 podcasts for the week.
Certainly one to throw down in the del.icio.us bookmarks. Not sure when it launched…. but theres a great music selection in there (my main interest, given my podcasting plans). Nice to see how it works out as a free service…
Not the end of MySpace by any means but James Corbett’s article this evening certainly has my attention!
Is there anyone out there using SugarCRM for a small Irish business…. 2-3 employees who may use it as well? Pretty much looking for some light feedback to be honest, just an experience or two from either using it in the past or currently using it… I’m currently trying it for a week or so around KilkennyMusic.com as things begin to adapt and develop there – more contacts, more gigs, more opportunities, more contacts, more paperwork! But having watched its name get touted quite a bit recently I said I’d give it a whirl.
Given that the people involved in are in different locations on a daily basis, it comes across as a great way to centralise a lot of internal workings…
Anyway, if you’ve any thoughts (Irish or otherwise), I’m all ears….
The BBC have launched a new API aptly dubbed ‘BBC Web API (beta)‘ and have created a series of widgets drawing on their TV-Anytime database for Yahoo and Google services.
“The purpose of this API is to allow people greater access to our content and information about our content. Two words sum up what this API is about: simple and TV-Anytime. The API is built on a TV-Anytime database and you can use it to extract information in TV-Anytime format. We have also provided a simple response format, giving quick and easy access to information.”
Interesting in their first step of adopting an entire Web 2.0 approach to running the Beebs online runnings….
As I did a little deeper in preparation for podcasting for KilkennyMusic.com I’ve happened upon the Podcasting Legal Guide recently released by the Berkman Centre Clinical Program in Cyberlaw and the Stanford Centre for Internet & Society.
Fair enough, the guide only focuses on the American side of the law but nevertheless includes some points that should be considered when it comes to copyright law and publicity rights. Give it a read, could be worth your while if you’re unfamiliar with copyright in relation to recordings.
DigForIt is on sale…. on eBay no less. I’m not overly worried since I still only turn up number 3 on their search rankings (drawing references from Google, MSN and Yahoo). Must really work on turning up the search engine heat on my own sites.
Anyway, DigForIt is a meta search engine, catering for searches on news items, images, audio, video, blogs, jobs and more. It is an AJAX-style web application that retrieves web results and suggestions as-you-type. Begin typing in search results and automatically you will receive suggestions based on the letters you have entered. (Learn a bit more).
Via Techcrunch, the auction is live on eBay and can be found here. Interesting to keep an eye on it to see how much a service like DigForIt goes for.
WordPress users can bask in the new adsense optimised theme, Ads Minded, which utilises what the author has dubbed ‘QuickSense’, providing a high CTR AdSense layout, support for various styles and shapes of AdSense ad units including link units, banners, skyscrapers via a three-column layout, with an optional square ad position which can be switch on and off. Coupled with several handy plugins, for those of you interested in blogging for money, this could be something to look at….
Or at least something for me to get my hands on and improve the looks of… 😉