Ken McGuire

Tag: computers

  • Let The Tech Investments Roll

    Just Some of the Social Networks SocialGrow Loves
    Creative Commons License photo credit: SocialGrow

    PayPal. eBay. Facebook. LinkedIn and, now, IBM. Between them in recent months they’ve announced hundreds of new jobs.

    PayPal had announced recently that they were adding 200 to their Dublin base, Brian Cowen had a smile on his face when he let the news out that eBay would be creating up to 150 jobs, Facebook had announced they would double their Irish-based workforce from 70 to 140 after only one year here while LinkedIn announced yesterday that they were setting up their European HQ in Dublin to link up with new offices in London and the Netherlands. This morning saw The Irish Times carry a story on IBM creating up to 200 new jobs in Dublin.

    When I started in college in 2001 we were told we’d be lucky to get any kind of a job in the technology sector. Particularly anything to do with the internet.

    If I was sitting back in the canteen in WIT reading the business section of this morning’s national papers I reckon I’d be doing so with a smile on my face. If the big hitters keep investing and reinvesting, something has to be going right somewhere, yes? That said, those hoping to apply for new positions created by the companies would do well to register for their services and brush up on how everything works.

    I would be interested to see the figures on LinkedIn’s plans for job creation or its expansion into Ireland but if the big companies keep on coming, how many more from the picture above will we see open doors here? Anyone taking odds on a Dublin-based European HQ for Twitter?

  • That New Home Workstation

    New home workstation

    So there were a few people asking for a photo for the recent DIY job I did in the house, namely in putting a new workstation into one of the rooms here.

    Et, voila.

    Moving office late last year I wound up with a large desk (one I had originally custom made to fit the first office) that wound up be recycled to construct this one. The desk itself went up in a day, the shelving and stands on the desk itself cut from the old desk top (made to order by a gifted Sligo carpenter) and the rest was down to myself.

    I’ve been producing a series of podcasts for the Kilkenny Arts Festival this week so fitted the retractable mic stand to the desk this week to finish things off. Turns out to be a great workstation for the audio / video combo, with the PC (right) used more on the entertainment front (music, streaming video etc.)

    The artwork on the walls are pretty much all from Devious Theatre productions.