Inside View from Ireland

When Google Becomes Your Best Friend

IN HIS REPORT for the Sunday Times Magazine, John Arlidge advises readers to precede with caution before embracing an all-encompassing Google-aware lifestyle. Google offers plenty of free things that encourage many of my colleagues to connect their work lives--and personal affairs as well--to the search tools used by Google to make life simpler. But are your secrets safe with Google? Maybe not.

Another Cautionary Tale About Attachments

MOST PEOPLE ROLL their eyes when I tell them not to send me attachments to my email. I have good reasons for this, and it turns out that one of the reasons relates to the current embarrassment felt by the Irish Minister for Transport. One of his civil servants failed to open an email attachment and thus did not see an item marked "for the Minister's information" on 13 June 2007. Minister Dempsey was not told the Shannon-Heathrow service was in danger until weeks later, at which point he immediately arranged to meet Aer Lingus management. It is not uncommon for attachments to remain on mail servers for checking and for the email body to pass through directly to a mail queue. However, if the person sending the email fails to summarise the attachment, the email can lose its impact.

Irish Football on Wikipedia

THE CURRENT STATE of Irish football (soccer) is depressing because of the amateur handling of management and strategy. Significant damage has been inflicted on the sport, its professional players and its followers by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the current coach, Steve Staunton. Yet this is not my opinion--these are facts according to Wikipedia. One Wikipedia pages describes FAI Chief Executive John Delaney as "the worst manager in the history of Irish football", and saying he should be "hung, drawn, and quartered" due to Ireland's poor performances, was removed yesterday although a telling comment still remains. "I would suggest including an abuse/POV section for this article - just so we can hurl it at this incompetent donkey. No? Well, it was worth a shot."

Football pundit Eamon Dunphy has led the charge against beleaguered team manager Steve Staunton, likening Staunton to an unqualified train driver. Team Ireland has descended dramatically since the duo of Staunton and Delaney have failed to deliver world class support standards for the Irish national soccer team. Pat Nugent says, "We're stuck on a pot-holed country byway with moss growing down the centre and that yokel who gave us dud directions at the last crossroads looked suspiciously like John Delaney." In the meantime, web-savvy fans have vented their venom creatively in several of the archived and deleted edits of Staunton's career on Wikipedia. Recommended reading.

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Isabel Hayes -- "FAI Chief's Wiki Page Vandalised" in The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.
Pat Nugent -- "Mob's anger gives way to depression" in the sport section of The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.

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Free Access to Eircom Wifi

A FEW YEARS AGO, I could sit aboard buses throughout Dublin and connect for free by using Eircom hotspots. From tomorrow, Eircom customers will have free access to 1100 wireless hotspots as the company opens up access to its wifi services.

Use Case for Lifestreaming

WHILE EXPLAINING THE CONCEPT of lifestreaming to a class filled with thoughtful fourth year creative multimedia students, I shared a screenshot of an upcoming trip that we will make to Limerick.

During the ensuing discussion, I pointed out the value of sharing travel, accommodation and event information. This functionality goes way beyond hitching rides in carpools. If you set yourself up on Dopplr and Jaiku, then talk about your requirements, you will be rewarded with helpful tips from friends inside your own social network and from passersby who often give you the inside view on where to maximise the quality of your time.

Agency Work in Ireland

ALTHOUGH I WOULD NOT normally endorse a union's perspective as the one worth following, there are dozens of Poles in my neighbourhood who can relate experiences close to the one I remember while pulling my weight at the bottom of the Irish wage table. An issue now in front of many commentators concerns how Ireland treats temporary workers. I now agree with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on the matter and want to give over the rest of this post to Esther Lynch and her conclusion that Ireland needs to replace its 1970s agency work legislation.

When Lent Comes Early on Facebook

LIKE MANY IN THE RICK O'SHEA posse, I have given up Facebook for a week. I heard Rick utter his challenge on Irish national radio last week and was a non-believer because no DJ is more rabid a social networker than Rick. But when he started reading out text and email comments from listeners today, I realised he was serious. So even though it interferes with several continuous assessments I have proscribed prescribed for my third level creative multimedia students, I have given up Facebook for a week. It feels like Lent has come early for me.

For those who follow me because they're students, go ahead and poke Rick, or send him mail that explains what he's missing on Facebook this week. You can reach him here: rick AT rte.ie or through texting him in Ireland on 51552 or ringing 1850 715 922. Then document your activities as part of the essay assignment due at the end of the academic term.

InsideView of Google Subscribers

ANYONE WHO VALUES their marketing campaign, brand name or syndicated reach will occasionally ego-surf and start looking at where they appear. For years, I have used Bloglines as my thermometer of activity and over the years, I have watched blog subscribers slowly head downwards. That's to be expected since my blogging activity has decreased in order to give me time to create photostreams and podcasts. Plus there's the day job that needs serious attention as well. People in the day job like to see where they fit into the online conversation and that means going beyond a query count, Page Rank or inbound link harvest. To see where you fit into the online conversation, you should start with your number of newsfeed subscribers and calculate readership across the universe. I glanced at Google Reader this morning and spotted some interesting facts worth sharing.

Castlecomer Clean Coal Technology

WHILE LIVING A few miles from the former coal mines in Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, I occasionally thought about coal gasification. The coal mines are now shut but the coal reserves still remain intact in the hills surrounding Castlecomer and I wonder if it's possible to use carbon capture and storage to remove or intercept CO₂ from coal and store it deep underground.Richard Girling says "it can be done before combustion by a gasification process, or afterwards by stripping carbon from the flue gas."

Between Feeds

IF PAST EXPERIENCE can be trusted, I have another 42 minutes remaining between feeds and that's more than enough to plough through a few Sunday broadsheets to find things worth mentioning in the Irish newspapers today. A few months ago, "feeds" meant electronically delivered streams of information. Now things have changed and incorporate the little face in the photo at left. There is time for a few things worth mentioning.