Inside View from Ireland

Exceptional Cameraphones

I CAN COUNT ON ONE hand the number of gadgets that were taken from my desk by people who admired what they saw. But when my SonyEricsson C905 went missing in the company of super-cameraman Tom Murphy, I knew something very important had occurred. Tom knows his cameras and he immediately appreciated the C905's clever operating capabilities along with its exceptional 8.1 megapixel resolution. He walked away with the solid-feeling phone while we were standing in front of the Cork Webworks, snapped a photo while walking across the River Lee towards a welcome cup of coffee, and recorded a short video with the phone in the rain. And he did all those things without using the manual, on a phone that had not been charged from the first time it left the box. My immediate first impression is that this piece of test equipment, valued at a little more than €500, needs to remain in my care. It's perfect for those cameraphone moments around the house, recording "first" things that our little daughter delights in doing. Within a week, I'll offer a more comprehensive review. For the moment, all I have to show are a few images shot with the most capable cameraphone I have ever used.

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Flickr isn't finding C905 images but I have a C905 set.

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Truly Green Conference

IN A CLEVER MOVE, it@cork sets aside a few inches to outline how its planners are trying to be as environmentally-aware in the ramping up of a 26 November Technology in Business Conference. But one very obvious omission from the organisers' tick-off list is virtual conferencing. There are paragraphs of information about memory sticks instead of paper printing, carbon offsets, a water buffalo (my term) instead of water bottles, and helpful pointers to public transport links. Some of these ideas are worthwhile suggestions for others to consider. However, I wonder why there's neither a mention of virtual conferencing as a service or as a pointer to how we've facilitated virtual attendance during Podcamp Ireland and during several meetings of Limerick OpenCoffee. From my position at the receiving end during ICS talks and as one of the occasional camera operators for Tipperary Institute, I know the technology we employ from Online Meeting Rooms is very robust and interactive. Perhaps the it@cork organisers should look into engaging one of our third level camera crews (seen in operation at left) for an afternoon session, if only to add another layer of social responsibility to this well-run event.

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it@cork -- "How we are making the event green" in the SAS Radisson, Little Island, Cork, Ireland.
Damien Mulley -- "GreenIT"

Five years ago: Bloggers in the Clarence. One has since passed away.

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Technicolour Dreaming

IN MY MASS COMMUNICATIONS class, we're reading research findings that suggest the type of television watched as a child has a profound effect on the colour of your dreams. All of my under-25 students dream in colour. However, my 80-something mom has monochrome dreams often. Her postcards and wedding albums were in black and white. Research from 1915 through to the 1950s suggested that the vast majority of dreams are in black and white but the tide turned in the sixties, and later results suggested that up to 83 per cent of dreams contain some colour. Eva Murzyn, a psychology student at Dundee University who carried out the study, points out, "What is even more interesting is that before the advent of black and white television all the evidence suggests we were dreaming in colour."

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Richard Alleyne -- " Black and white TV generation have monochrome dreams"

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OpenCoffee with Tom Murphy

PART OF LIMERICK OPENCOFFE today involves the work of Tom Murphy, a well-regarded camerman (at left) who is filming the story of the downturn of the Irish economy. The story folds into a bigger segment about the effects of globalisation on the western world, a PBS research piece. If you're attending OpenCoffee today, look for the crew in The Mall Room--it's big enough to hold the 20 people we expect to attend. If you want to join the conversation remotely, log into Online Meeting Rooms as a guest, typing in opencoffee as the name of the meeting. We're also discussing the use of interactive whiteboards in a session that connects Limerick technologists to Tipperary educators and Dublin solutions providers.

Accreditation Amalgamation

AFTER THE RECENT IRISH BUDGET comes the announcement that an amalgamated National Qualifications Authority of Ireland will fold both HETAC and FETAC into one agency for the external quality assurance review of the universities. This function is currently performed by the Irish Universities Quality Board and theHigher Education Authority. This could affect the role I have as an external curriculum specialist with the Higher Education Training and Awards Council of Ireland.

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Sunday News from Ireland

MOST OF THE SUNDAY papers in Ireland give pages and pages of coverage to the impending Irish budget announcement, something expected to be the most dramatic exercise in frugality in the history of the Celtic Tiger. The Tiger is well and truly buried now, so now it's time to start reducing government services and increasing tax levies. The side effect of this mood will affect technology companies in Ireland, by forcing a cash-conscious mood as a top priority. I recorded some of these ideas in today's 11-minute [30 MB 3GP file] Qik clip. If I can get onto Typepad.com through a web browser, I'll post the show notes. In the meantime, I'm merely e-mailing this post on my Nokia E90 phone, checking to see if the Six Apart publishing platform is working as normal. I think it's a routing problem with my Eircom and O2-Ireland services.

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