Inside View from Ireland

Happy Birthday Ethernet

TODAY MARKS the 25th birthday of the publication of standards for Ethernet. Intel and Xerox offered the spec for global review. It it is remarkable that the spec has lasted so long while being so essential. I had no ethernet connectivity back then but I enjoying another standard fare that turns 25 today as well: Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza.

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Wikipedia on Ethernet.

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Write It Down. Get Things Done.

GETTING THINGS DONE starts with writing things down. That is a major subtext of time management guru David Allen and a critical operating principle for me. I have remained true to my analogue Moleskine past and I am easily stereotyped by my cheap A5 copy books. The books give me a colour-coded way to prioritise actions. When transposed into a community wiki, my to-do lists affect dozens of collaborators. This is my first year of involving four years of students in my hand-rolled GTD wiki. In its second week of use, it appears it will become a major part of my life.

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David Allen -- "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" ISBN 0142000280
Robert Andrews -- "A Guide to Getting Things Done"
FACT: Google has 2.2m pages indexed about GTD.

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Fastest pulse point of Irishblogs

THE FASTEST way to see how memes ripple through Irishblogs is to use Rollyo to roll your own search engine for the sites you trust. Add a list of blogs to your personal search roll and you have a direct picture of who said what and when. I rolled a quick multiple site search during lunch and then used it to see what different Irish bloggers were saying about Eddie Hobbs. It delivered fast and accurate results--faster than a Google search with Fagan Finder.

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Recommended.

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My personal pensioner

BETWEEN TRIPS to the Inistioge Puppy Rescue, I have concluded that we care for a pensioner at home.He is rather low maintenance, eats while standing up, sleeps most of the day and has some infirmities. This morning I watched him bump into a glass door and then walk right into the front fender of our parked car. So he is losing sight along with his hearing. Nonetheless, Doggie is faithful and entertaining. He will probably tick over to the 100 year old mark. We plan to celebrate that event before the end of 2007 and are stockpiling candles along with trays of yogurt, his preferred breakfast meal.

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Picture of Doggie on our couch. Flickr photostream of homeless dogs.

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Authors Suing Google

ONE OF GOOGLE'S latest innovations--Google Print--has earned the wrath of the Authors Guild, even though Google is helping to solve "a huge problem for the publishing industry," says Tim O'Reilly. "Because no one knows who owns many of the works in question, Google's innovative deal with libraries is the only practical approach. It sweeps up all the loose ends of forgotten rights and ignored works. As the public discovers the value of these works, publishers and authors are incentivized to track down and assert their ownership in order to opt-in to the revenue sharing offered by the Google Print service".

From the New York Times:

Managing mailboxes

IT IS EASIER for me to manage email through my SE 910i than through my Nokia 9500. That's because the SonyEricsson phone handles mail headers more intelligently than any other mobile mail client I have used. However, it is far easier to compose mail on my Nokia 9500. I use Yahoo mail as my main storage for messages because of its effective spam controls, filters and forwarding features.

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Image of SonyEricsson P910i shot at sunrise.

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Puppy Rescue Walkabout

THE BEST WAY to spread compassion is to adopt an animal and in the sunny southeast (Ireland) that means visiting Inistioge Puppy Rescue for a walkabout among 30 homeless dogs. We have adopted five strays in six years so we're well-versed in sussing out the kind of personality best-suited for our lifestyle. At the moment, it's fluffy Pomeranian although my heart went out to several older dogs that Brenda Stone has in her kennels.

My fav parts of web 2.0

ALTHOUGH I KNOW when I mention "Web 2.0" many people have never even explored RSS or tags, I think it's important to note the places I go regularly to experience quality time through reliable Web 2.0 APIs. I use most of these sites at the very start of my daily browsing and I plan to comment extensively about them during next week's "blogoposium".

Playing CDs is a privilege

THROUGH MISTAKES I've made when shopping, I own a few copy-protected CDs. Tommi Kyyrä of IFPI Finland (the international equivalent of the RIAA) reminded me about my foolish purchase when he babbled on about about copy-protection of CDs. He writes:

Now, we need to understand that listening to music on your computer is an extra privilege. Normally people listen to music on their car or through their home stereos. If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player.

Googling for Passwords

LAST YEAR, I read a computer security checklist developed by Scott Granneman at Bryan Consulting. I was interested in his checklist because I watch at least two people an hour visit my blog site in search of address books, phone numbers and other data that could prove useful when making sales calls or bulk mailings. If you have a server in the office and you sync your phone’s address book onto the server, you’re someone with valuable information.