Ken McGuire

Category: Technology

Sometimes its good to know how to do something!

  • Learn More About Online Marketing, For Free

    In checking the email this morning I was delighted to find a copy of Damien Mulley’s Online Market Document in my inbox. Through Mulley.ie, Damien recently posted he would be giving away his online marketing notes, usually reserved for those attending the courses he runs and while I’ve not been to any of his courses I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious what the courses, or course notes in particular would entail. I’m also not the only one as it would take a minimum 103 comments on the blog post to get the notes published online.

    While I’ll save the reading until lunch time or this evening, on first glace of the document you’ll be given an insight to marketing tips for your site both onsite and offsite, the use of Google Adwords, advertising on Facebook (and monitoring the results), YouTube and more.

    The Online Marketing Document will be available to download via Mulley.ie from this morning (check the link at the bottom of the post).

    Thanks for the mail, Damien.

  • Last Call For TeenCamp Ireland

    Don’t forget that TeenCamp Ireland takes place tomorrow at Filmbase in Temple Bar in Dublin.

    Over on the TeenCamp Ireland blog they’ve posted the essentials of TeenCamp.

    If you’re in the area tomorrow, do head along. While it’s a teen focused event, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind some of the older / more experienced / veteran barcamp-type eventgoers turning up!

    Kickoff is set for 1pm with the day running until 7pm. Alan Costello and Enda Crowley are behind the running of the event and you can follow TeenCamp on Twitter, a stream which will hopefully get a few updates during the day tomorrow.

  • This Is Where The Magic Happens

    Lough Talt, Co. Sligo

    This is where the magic happens. Thought I’d pop this one into the blog as it’s a shot I’ve taken to rather quickly (and currently resides on my desktop as a wallpaper), one snapped over the Christmas period.

    This is where the magic happens. Not the work life, not the music life, not the theatre life, but the unwinding part of life. Get in the kayak, hit the lake, top to bottom. Bliss.

    In Collateral, Jamie Foxx would take a breather on the job by looking at the photo of the island he kept on his visor in the taxi. Me, I keep a picture of a lake on the desktop. It’s rare I get to see it during the day with all the windows and tabs open, but when I do I’m reminded that there are simpler things in life and that there are places you can go to get away from it all.

    So when I’m tweeting about hitting the road to Sligo or sitting amongst mountains, this is where I’m hiding out. I think the next time I’m up is the weekend before the Blog Awards but you can be sure that if I’m up, I’ll be hitting the water.

  • Next Kilkenny Open Coffee

    While I think of it, the next Kilkenny Open Coffee is taking place on Wednesday February 4th. The venue is the same – Kilkenny Cafe, Market Cross, High Street, Kilkenny and people are gathering for 11:30am. We took two tables in The Meeting Room up at the back of the coffee shop last time around and will likely swing for the same again, numbers depending.

    You can track conversations from the group here on IGOpeople.

    John Keyes has a nice writeup on the first one here. There’s also a new Kilkenny Open Coffee group on Ning.

  • Lending A Hand, It’s What We’re Good At


    Pic via

    Job losses.

    Everyone’s talking about them.

    You can sit around all day and talk, but until you do action the talking, that’s all it will be – talk. The chains are closing down. Zavvi. Land of Leather. Woolworths. I heard M&S was in trouble recently. Retail is taking a hit.

    Crafts and technology are taking a hit too. Dell are on the way out. 1,900 job losses announced to be phased up to January 2010 then it’s off to Poland with them. Waterford Wedgewood are going, going, gone.

    For some people, it’s the end of a working life. Maybe redundancy is an option, early retirement. Some people simply have to work. Mortgages to pay off, pension funds to keep up, children to put through school, families to feed.

    We’re great at coming up with ideas. We’re an entrepreneurial nation. We’re also great at lending a hand when times get tough. Through Open Coffee Club Limerick, Evert Bopp has followed a lead from Chris Byrne and is offering free startup advice to those impacted by the recent job losses at Dell. While a redundancy payment might help with the bills, when the money runs out, what does one do? More specifically, what does one do with the skills, knowledge and training they now have? One option, is to look towards going into business for yourself and indeed, turning a bad thing around.

    BarCamps, CreativeCamps, PodCamps, Open Coffee Club mornings, meetups, tweetups and more. All of these free-to-attend events boast an incredible number of people who are giving up their time, their knowledge, their expertise for the benefit of others. We’ve recently set about getting Kilkenny Open Coffee off the ground as well, something that we hope will grow over time and again increase the knowledge sharing. The offer from Evert to those who have recently lost their jobs from Dell (or are about to) to attend Open Coffee Limerick and connected with those who can provide you with startup advice and support is one that should strongly be considered.

    But, as I said, we’re good at lending a hand when it counts and so conversation on Wednesday morning turned to what each of us would or could do for people in that position.

    Krishna announced recently that she’s going to give over six hours of her time between now and the end of February, three to the US and three to Irish people (one hour for each person). That time can be used for career coaching and job search support. You can look at your resumé, your online profile, your networking strategy – anything you want – on a one hour call via Skype or landline.

    Bernie, in conjunction with Tipperary Institute will look at LinkedIn.com enhancements for your online profile and networking opportunities.

    When quizzed on what I would consider doing myself I also looked to the web. For those considering starting their own business I’m happy to discuss options and provide assistance in getting you up and running online. Let’s get your logo in place, lets get you up and running with a website or blog (or both) and lets get you seen and heard. I’ve gone through the startup process myself for a number of different ventures over the past 3-4 years, all of which are currently active and currently generating income. All of which rely on the web and the visibility it can provide in order to succeed.

    I’m sure too that these aren’t the only offers on the table to people. Everyone is feeling a pinch at the moment but that doesn’t mean you sit down and do nothing. You stand up, work your way through it and if you can, you lend a hand to those around you at the same time.

    If you want to get connected, you can also join me at LinkedIn here. Come meet me and the network of people I’m connected to. Maybe they can help as well.

  • Is Your Personal Name Or Business Name Taken Online?

    Weird News — No. 4
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Caveman 92223

    Just off the latest PodCamp Ireland podcast on Blogtalk Radio where, when looking over activities of the past week, we got around to talking about protecting your username, personal name or business name online when it comes to web services.

    This stems from a blog post Pat Phelan published recently about brands and their use of Twitter and the check comes, possibly, from a tweet by Tom Raftery.

    UsernameCheck.com is a service which allows you to see if your preferred username for your person, business or brand is available on a multitude of webservices. You don’t need to enter a password, just your chosen username and the site will check whether or not the name is available on everywhere from 12seconds.tv to Digg, eBay, Flickr, Last.fm, Typepad, Twitter, Youtube and a whole host more.

    Given that “93 of top 100 brands don’t control their Twitter name” (taken from Pat’s post) if you’re worried about control of your brand name on the web, whether Twitter or elsewhere, I’d get checking via UsernameCheck.com sooner rather than later.

  • People Still Get Blue Screens, Unmountable Boot Volumes

    Crashed train station display
    Creative Commons License photo credit: sethschoen

    One of my most popular blog posts of 2008, judging by comments and hits on the post overall, was this one – Unmountable Boot Volume (Dell, Fix) – where I outlined in October 2007 some steps that can be used to get around that boot volume blue screen error on Windows XP.

    Since I published the post, I haven’t had a blue screen error. Primarily because I moved over to a Mac and started using OSX, but that’s another thing altogether.

    I’m amazed at how many people still get the issue – but moreso by some of the comments. Specifically people being told by customer support and technical support agents that the hard drive must be fried, people will lose all their data and they really have no hope.

    I’ve been there. I’ve worked in a call centre. I’ve read the instructions from the screen as you step through the case. But I’ve also used my initiative and given people a few “off the books” instructions that would see them right, because you’ve experienced something similar yourself.

    To those of who who managed to repair your drive from the steps included in the blog post and went on to become a regular reader and commenter in other areas, I’m glad I was of some assistance to you. To those people who seek out advice from blog posts and the web and get their own second opinion online, more power to you.

    Sure enough, in the long run your hard drive might kick the bucket, but at least you’ve taken the initiative to seek out a solution online. Hopefully, when you arrive on it, it works for you too.

    If you’re having an unmountable boot volume issue, click here for some steps to help you through it.

  • D-Day For Dell?

    Update: Following the action on Twitter and again via RTE, Dell are to cut 1900 employees from the Limerick plant with job losses phased between April 2009 and January 2010. That’s a serious casualty for jobs both in Limerick and technology in general in Ireland.

    —

    I was listening to Newstalk on the way into work earlier this morning, and have it on here in the office but it looks like it’s D-Day for Dell. Or, on the official line, workers in the Limerick plant have been called in to a meeting due to start a few minutes ago.

    The possible closure and loss of jobs in four figures has long been whispered. I knew that Dell were manufacturing in Poland but didn’t realise that Irish orders through Dell.ie, which I thought were being manufactured in Limerick, were actually coming from Eastern Europe.

    This goes back to one of the deliveries I was waiting on (which kept me in Kilkenny a few days longer than anticipated at Christmas) with my brother awaiting a delivery of a laptop from Dell, out for delivery on the morning of the 18th of December. Knowing Interlink carry the Dell deliveries coming this direction I had thought I’d be able to collect the laptop on the 19th (Friday) and get on the road. Nothing on the 19th, nothing the following Monday and you should have seen the look of surprise on my face when I rang Dell only to find out they were waiting on the delivery to come in from Poland before it hit the road in Ireland.

    I still found it incredible that given it’s a manufacturing plant in Limerick, they’ve got to send all the way to Poland and back for an order that’s only going two hours up the road. Do laptops ordered for delivery in Limerick go to Poland as well?

    RTE reports that the manufacturing staff are meeting first, with the IT, legal and marketing meeting at 10am.

    Looks like today we’ll know the true reality of the situation in the Limerick plant.

  • Merry Christmas To All

    Lough Talt

    It’s Christmas at the lake, and unlike other years (and two weekends ago) there’s no sign of snow. In fact, all things considered, it’s quite mild.

    I was going to schedule a blog post full of Christmas cheer for everyone but figured it would be nicer to type one up overlooking the lake, the O2 dongle firmly nailed to the edge of the window for better reception.

    Christmas Day has arrived, the ham is done since last night (tastes great), turkey going into the oven about 11:30am, champagne for breakfast and all the family around – can’t ask for much more than that really.

    I get to tinker with some new gadgets, immerse myself in a good book and generally flake out for the next few days, something I hope all of you get to do.

    So from myself (and everyone at the lake), merry Christmas and I’ll see all of you (hopefully) in the New Year.

  • Save EUR250 On An iMac

    iMac
    Creative Commons License photo credit: KnOizKi

    You can save €250 on a brand new 24″ Apple iMac.

    How?

    By not buying from the Apple store, funnily enough. While I love the Apple store online, and enjoy walking around the physical properties as well, you can’t argue with a saving of €250.

    In January of this year I told myself that by the end of the year I would add an iMac to the family. I’m looking for something to handle my workload and free up the MacBook Pro for home use. After saving a few pennies I figured I would go for the 24″ iMac.

    Yes, one could stop at the 20″ model but I’d set my mind on the 24″ 2.8Ghz model, retailing on the Irish Apple Store at €1599 or €1316 ex VAT.

    I loaded up the cart, hovered, hovered, hovered, and walked away.

    Coming back, I said I’d try Dabs for the craic to see if they sell Apple goodies, which they do. Low and behold on Dabs4Work.ie they have the same 24″ iMac, brand spanking new, at €1065 ex VAT. Like apple, they also offer same-day / 24-hour dispatch. At a saving to me of €250-odd Euro.

    After a slight delay in trying to verify the address of my office, everything is on the way. The way the Euro vs Pound is working now, it certainly makes more sense to buy from Dabs as opposed to Apple.

    Case in point (as highlighted on Twitter yesterday) – you can buy an Apple iPod Touch (8Gb) on the Irish Apple Store for €219. The same piece of hardware is £165 on the UK Apple Store, now the equivalent of €175 (with the Euro trading at STG 0.9411 at time of writing).

    If you’re buying Apple this Christmas, at least for the moment, take the time to shop around online. A €250 would pretty much pay the tax on my van for 12 months, well worth it.

  • Devious Theatre Do Online Video With Trainspotting

    First came the podcast of The War Of The Worlds, now we’ve started to release clips from our production of Trainspotting in Kilkenny in 2008.

    We put a lot of effort into the visual side of our productions. We hire a great video team for each show who will come in and do a two or three camera shoot. We also had a documentary produced a few months ago giving a fly-on-the-wall look at one of the nights of Trainspotting. However, we also understand and appreciate the power and the reach of the web for the arts and as such I’m expecting 2009 to be a great online year for The Devious Theatre Company.

    To the end of December and into January and February (our quiet real-world months) we’re going to be releasing clips from our shows (recorded in HD), the documentary and much more.

    To start with, here’s the first clip, as mentioned above it’s the opening scene from the Friday night of Trainspotting in Kilkenny. The crowd were already on their feet before the curtain opened – won’t be forgetting that feeling in a hurry.

  • Talking Mice On The Radio

    Seemingly, I’ll be heading over to the KCLR studio in a half hour (for an 11:40am slot) talking about mice. Not the run around and eat cheese kind but rather, the clicky kind.

    The mouse, as we all know it and love it in its various shapes and sizes has celebrated its 40th birthday and I’ve been roped into talking for a few minutes about its life to date.

    In case you didn’t know, the first computer mouse went public 40 years ago, back in 1968, demonstrated for the first time on December 9th at a conference in San Francisco. Xerox developed mice in the 70s before Apple acquired the license to manufacture mice in the 80s and things took off from there.

    When you look at the likes of the voice commands, the iPhone, the Wii, and other gesture-based devices, things have come a long way.

  • Following The Apprentice Final, Live

    I’ve found myself parked in front of the TV on a Monday night, working online, and happened upon The Apprentice, final. Admittedly I’ve only seen one or two weeks of the TV programming but there’s been a massive following on Twitter over the weeks.

    That following has landed me on Darren’s blog where you’ll find himself and a host of others in Le Cirk tonight live blogging The Apprentice final on TV.

    It’s a right flurry of activity over there…

  • 10MB Broadband Sorted

    Finally sorted the 10mb connection. Missed the upgrade form on the website, looks like UPCs upgrade isn’t totally automatic.

    Things might run a little faster. The 1mb upstream will be a help on Skype calls anyway and streaming video anyway. 30 bucks a month… plus their ‘standalone’ broadband charge (which is like a levy for not taking their TV package) of 6 bucks a month.

  • Blogs Banned In Dubai

    Blog Banned In Dubai?

    I thought this might happen…

    I ran a search on Google earlier this morning for ‘blogging in Dubai’, to see what bloggers in this neck of the woods are up to. While some of them opened, others presented the above note…

    Du is one of the country’s mobile operators and I’m guessing one of their internet providers as well. Browsing in general in the country goes through a national proxy in order to filter out inappropriate content but everything else I’ve been doing so far – my own blog, KilkennyMusic.com, flickr, twitter, the Irish Times, and a lot of my regular web haunts don’t flag anything… yet.

    Note: managed to get a few more pics up on Flickr from the N95.

  • Breaking 100 Podcasts

    Ken McGuire's home podcasting setup

    I started podcasting on a monthly basis back in November 2006 (though it could have been every three weeks to coincide with the One Take Sessions).

    The monthly turned tri-weekly, turned fortnightly, back to tri-weekly and now weekly. That’s just with KilkennyMusic.com who during the week (yesterday in fact) managed to deliver the 61st Sound System Podcast. Admittedly, if we kept the same schedule throughout the year and didn’t take a summer break we’d be a lot closer to the one hundred mark for that particular podcast.

    In March 2007 I started the Playlist Mix, abandoning the podcast after three shows. PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny (September 2007) gave me the much needed inspiration to set out a regular podcast schedule for that show, and as of this Tuesday night gone (again, incorporating a summer break due to a hectic three-show schedule with The Devious Theatre Company) the Playlist Mix has reached show number 39.

    Put the two together – you get 100 podcasts, which considering the average lengths of the podcasts (45 minutes and 30 minutes respectively) you’re looking at over 65 hours of podcast content, chat and music.

    Then I got involved in the weekly PodCamp Ireland podcasts as well, but that’s another story altogether.

    There’s an awful lot of learning in producing 100 podcasts, something I’m putting into the production of a further two podcasts (one monthly show due to start in November) and something that has also opened the doors to professional work through podcasting. Both podcasts have settled into a nice groove and with the Sound System Podcast in particular (which went from a four-host show to a two-host show) I’m delighted that it’s taken on a life of it’s own, something these two gents know all to well about in recent weeks.

    So for this week, why not check out the 61st Sound System Podcast (download) or the 39th Playlist Mix (download) and let me know what you think.

  • Tuesday Push For DownloadMusic.ie

    DownloadMusic.ie

    It’s about time I offered up a post for the Tuesday Push and I’m happy to see my first one being for DownloadMusic.ie.

    With almost 900 artists on the books and close on 45,000 legal music downloads – which, by the way, contribute to standings in the Irish music charts – DownloadMusic.ie has become the place to be seen for independent Irish acts looking to make any kind of a name for themselves.

    I’ll admit, I’ve never purchased music from the site. However, I use the site from the other side, as an artist and promoter helping other acts to get online and start selling their music.

    While anyone can go online and purchase music via credit card or online payment, it’s nice to see DownloadMusic.ie give bands the chance to sell their music via text message. In a mobile-hungry country where mobile handset saturation exceeds 100% (I know myself I’ve got three active handsets on three different numbers with two spare handsets just in case), the service seems ideal. We are a texting nation. We’re possibly there-or-there abouts for phone calls, but we’re certainly there for texting.

    Texting is where it’s at for DownloadMusic.ie. Fans of the bands can send a short code to 57501 e.g. ‘music XYZ’. They’ll be charged just a Euro for the text with the revenue split between the operator, DownloadMusic.ie (DownloadMusic.ie don’t actually take any money, leaving more to the artist again), the bulk going to the band (yes, IMRO are in there too looking for their percentage if you’re IMRO registered). The result is a text link and password for a secure download area to grab your new track and in the process of doing so you’re helping a band move one step closer to inclusion in the national music charts.

    There’s no doubt that the majority of acts I work with through KilkennyMusic.com and under the One Take Sessions gig series have a presence on DownloadMusic.ie. Vesta Varro (were due in Kilkenny on Saturday), currently touring in support of new single ‘Believe’ are the featured artist on the DownloadMusic.ie homepage.

    Local favourites Saving J, Myp Et Jeep and The Fundamentals are there too. At the last One Take Sessions in Kilkenny, Carlow performer Joe Cleere made a great point of asking people to text his shortcode to the DownloadMusic.ie number (57501) to buy his new single ‘Queue’.

    CDs at gigs will shortly become a thing of the past. Further proof to this is the relase of DownloadMusic.ie’s first USB album (I was on the panel of judges asked to select the acts for inclusion), which is also registered for the Irish music charts and features the likes of Dirty Epics, Vesta Varro, Ro Tierney, Codes and more – €12.99 for a 1gb USB key with 15 tracks included isn’t a bad deal at all.

    But you can get so much more – browse artists, get gig listings, check out the DownloadMusic.ie blog and there’s also the future possibility of bands selling tickets for gigs, band merch and more.

    DownloadMusic.ie is an absolute credit to the independent Irish music scene and long may the service continue.

  • Online Pizza Ordering Arrives In Kilkenny

    Extreme Pizza Online Ordering

    Ordering a pizza in Kilkenny just got a whole lot easier. On Friday (and again on Saturday) I tried the new online ordering system from ExtremePizza.com, the US-based pizza company, Kilkenny being the first Irish franchise location.

    The flier in the door suggested online ordering was available so I clicked on over to the website about 5:55pm, made a custom pizza ticking off all the extras I wanted, placed the order around 6pm and was emailed a receipt and told the average delivery time would be 45 minutes.

    Being one of the first houses in the estate, taxi and delivery drivers often skip past my own place and head for the bulk of the houses to seek out my address – but at least they listened to the ‘special instructions’ part of the order. At 6:45pm I get a phone call from the driver saying he’d got the message, was in the driveway and described the house before approaching the door.

    Instead of opting to open a company account or pay by credit card online (even more convenient), I had the cash ready from the receipt and – unlike some other pizza delivery companies I’ve heard tales of in Kilkenny – what you see on the receipt is what you pay.

    In discussing the merits of online pizza ordering over a few beers on Saturday night, we put it to the test again, different house further across town, different order combination and all with the same results – order goes in, pizza confirmation emailed, 45 minutes later your internet order is at the door.

    If they could knock the time down to 30 minute it’d be nice and handy but it’s great to see the whole system works and I’d hope that other places in Kilkenny catch on soon.

    See my LouderVoice.com review here.

  • Wifi Breakfast Gives Food For Thought

    Wifi Breakfast In Kilkenny

    For the last six weeks or so, maybe a little more, I’ve been making more time to get out of the office when it comes to planning on projects, dealing with client emails or any of the music and theatre related activities.

    I’ll either pencil a morning in at home or I’ll take to a coffee shop in Kilkenny. During the recent Smitten run with The Devious Theatre Company I spent some time working from a corner of ‘The Barn’ (theatre venue), Crotty’s coffee shop on Kieran Street, The Field on High Street (great grub) and now the Kilkenny Cafe at Market Cross.

    While the O2 broadband connection in my bag here beside me will allow me to work online from relatively anywhere in Kilkenny, the Kilkenny Cafe (as I mentioned in this video this morning) offer a ‘Meeting Room’ facility, having changed the upper level of the cafe to provide free wifi access (you don’t need a card or key) and powerpoints for your laptop / mobile phone.

    So twice in two weeks I’ve found myself sitting here, breakfast on one side, laptop on the other, plenty of food for thought.

    When you spend as long in the office as I tend to do, it does good get out of there every now and again and take the work with me.

    Plus, the tea isn’t too bad either.

    Note: The Asus EEE PC above isn’t mine, but I did have the joy of setting it up and getting to tinker around with it for a while. Works well in a wire-free environment.

  • Podcamp Ireland Podcasting Setup




    Podcamp Ireland Podcasting Setup

    Originally uploaded by kenmc

    I meant to get this posted to the blog a week ago or so – my podcasting set up for the Wednesday morning call for PodCamp Ireland.

    In the run up to PodCamp on the 27th in Kilkenny (this month) myself, Bernie Goldbach and Krishna De have been chatting every Wednesday morning at 9am for a one-hour podcast show.

    There’s regular interviews, some banter between ourselves, a hosting/domain tip from Blacknight’s Michele Neylon and a few other bits thrown in for good measure.

    So while you might hear me on a Wednesday morning, this is what I’m looking at in one corner of my office.

    Note: the description was actually in the flickr profile but the jist of what you’re looking at (outside of the laptop and second monitor) is a shielded Shure SM58 (stand cut into the desk) feeding through a Digidesign Mbox 2, connected via USB to the MacBook Pro. All audio for the MacBook on the call is routed through the Mbox, allowing me to use the SM58 with Skype.