Inside View from Ireland: Qik Look at Sunday Tech

WE TAKE A FEW MINUTES to glance at technology in the inserts inside today's Sunday papers in Ireland, like the camera reviews (underwater one gets the index finger) shown at left. The Observer Magazine has a few advertisements worth noting, the Tribune Magazine spotlights a teenaged podcaster, Computers in Business mentions a lot of interesting content, the typical "new products", some deep thoughts from Adrian Weckler about Next Generation Networks (not what they are made out to be), and an illustrated piece involving several Irish bloggers (not the usual suspects) in an article about business blogging. In the Sunday Observer, John Naughton explains why Amazon has got it right. All these things in my Qik video (also as a 3GP file), with links to content shown below.

Cian McMahon, Podcaster. Teenaged podcaster Cian McMahon told the Sunday Tribune magazine, "I'm not bored. I spend a lot of time preparing these shows. I never fet under my family's feet." [1]

Adrian Weckler on Next Generation Networks. Like several other analysts, Computer in Business editor Adrian Weckler wonders how a data connection providing no more than three megabits per second can actually be a next generation network. "The truth is that there is not one Irish operator offering anything close to what is internationally known as a next generation network." [2]

Asus M70. The Asus M70 packs one terabyte into its 17" model. It also sports a Blu-Ray DVD drive with full HD playback and HDMI port to link it to an HD-ready TV. The M70 sells for €2100. [3]

How to get on the MAN. I know one person who connected to the State-funded Metropolitan Area Network. With 66 small to medium-sized town set to get State-funded broadband infrastructure, "fibre will be laid down to connect the small towns to a national backhaul reserve." [4]

Ideas from James Dyson. "Without wanting to sound like a Luddite, I didn't have the benefit of the internet when I first started out," says James Dyson. "I think that we are sometimes too quick to go straight to the web for inspiration or to look something up, so much so that we forget to take a look around our environment and take inspiration from that." Dyson's logic is one reason behind my offline journaling with Moleskines. [5]

Brainy Ideas from Ireland. Adrian Weckler pens a lot of items in Computers in Business, some really good work. He examines how "today's brightest young intellects (are) seemingly more interested in working for banks and mobile phone companies." One of those interviewed--Justin Mason--gets played in an argument with James Dyson. Mason argues that "barriers to making inventive leaps are lower than ever" but Dyson doesn't agree that it's that easy. [6]

1. Patrick Freyne and Claire O'Mahony -- "Schools's Out" in the Sunday Tribune Magazine, 6 July 2008
2. Adrian Weckler -- "Platform" in Computers in Business, July 2008.
3. "New Products" in Computers in Business, July 2008.
4. Murray Kerchavel -- "Small/medium towns to get state-funded broadband" in Computers in Business, July 2008.
5. Adrian Weckler -- "The evolution of invention" in Computers in Business, July 2008.
6. Adrian Weckler -- "Brain Drain" in Computers in Business, July 2008.