Inside View from Ireland

Avoid Rogue iPhone Data Roaming

ALTHOUGH MOST AMERICANS who lament their use of their iPhones while roaming overseas have caused their own headaches, I think it's important to outline how it's possible for your iPhone to stick you with several hundreds of dollars of roaming charges even though you've switched off data roaming while overseas. I've made my observations while chatting with visitors to Peggy O'Neill's B&B and after hearing some reception staff tell stories about iPhone users connecting to their hotel wifi. The problem often starts when your American iPhone detects an unsecured, but not free WiFi hotspot. You're prompted to open Safari and then your browser takes you to the WiFi hotspot's login page. While you're logging in, the iPhone seems to think you're connected to WiFi (the service you want) but the poor phone cannot connect to the internet via wifi. So without asking, the iPhone reverts to 3G over-the-air pricey data roaming. I don't see that kind of behaviour on my Nokia handsets because I've set the data connection to "always ask" and they pop up nag screen every time I try to use a different data service. My advice to those traveling to Europe with an American handset: change the phones APN address--just add your initials to the end of the APN. Do that and it doesn't matter what you forget to switch off. Plus, you don't need to depend on your operating system picking up on whether you've changed data services. Then when you get home, just revert to the proper APN by removing your initials.

But if proper 3G data services are essential, get yourself a Maxroam SIM and know you'll be able to connect to wifi or 3G no matter where you're visiting in Europe.

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Photo of Peggy O'Neill's B&B down the street, comfort sleeping for all nationalities.

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Parknasilla 3G Outside

PARKNASILLA OFFERS EXCEPTIONAL SUMMER MOMENTS this week, mainly because of the lovely Irish summer that is pushing temperatures one degree Centigrade warmer each progressive day. I like the sounds of the water lapping along the lovely alcoves that are a two-minute walk away from the Parknasilla reception desk. I also like the 3G signal I enjoy all around the hotel--it's giving me seven megabits a second on my O2-Ireland dongle--that's fast enough for Online Meetings using synchronous video conferencing. That said, the technology is a sideshow. The main event is the lovely weather and striking scenery.

Scratch-and-sniff-boo

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Walking on rocks on 12seconds.tv

Bonus Link: Scratch-and-sniff-boo. Direct link to http://www.insideview.ie/files/scratch-and-sniff-boo.mp3

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Dial a Landline Number from a Mobile in Ireland

VARK ASKED ME, "How do you dial a landline number from a mobile phone in Ireland?" I get all sort of questions about Ireland from Vark nowadays but I used to get a lot more from 43 Places back in its heyday. I tell friends that their cell phones know they're in Ireland so if they want to dial a local number (i.e., a restaurant for a reservation), all they have to do is dial the number on the advertisement. Then I remember that many ads fail to include the city dialing code (01 for Dublin, 056 for Kilkenny) so you should consider firing up Google Maps on your cell to see the exact phone number. But remember, those overseas data packets could cost you a dollar a megabyte. Zooming down to a townland with a Google map might dump 50 MB of data onto your cell phone. It would pay to know the whole phone number of a venue, including its city phone codes.

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Wifi Underway in Ireland

INTER-CITY TRAVEL in Ireland has become much easier in the past 10 years, helped along by smooth surfaces on motorways, leather bus seats, newer Irish Rail carriages, and near-continuous high-speed internet access in seats. From personal experience while en route between Cashel and Dublin, I know it's possible to hold a continuous data signal. It's often down to the handset's antenna array and the number of connected people traveling along the same route. But I have to say that commuting on Irish Rail or Aircoach for 80 mile trips is much more productive than driving the same distance.

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Sent mail2blog using O2Ireland 3G Typepad service in County Laois.

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Parknasilla Loaded

I'M CONVINCED THERE ARE stories waiting to be told in Parknasilla, the first Victorian structure I knew before moving to Ireland. I don't think any of my Irish forebears had the resources to spend time in Parknasilla before they left County Clare for the States but they certainly had stories to reference the grand place. So I'm fulfilling my destiny by spending the weekend in County Kerry, not knowing what stories I'll find. The last two Americans who visited our place in Cashel spoke glowingly of their Kerry adventures. So did Bill Clinton when he hit the links at Ballybunnion. We'll collect a friend at the Kerry Airport and bed down in Parknasilla for a while. If I lose track of time, there will be no Qik Sunday News this weekend as a result. There are many worthwhile walks, sweeping scenic views and a very inviting swimming pool that will probably interfere with reading the Sunday papers. However, you'll be rewarded with several Qik updates from County Kerry instead.

Rocksilla

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Direct link to audio: http://www.insideview.ie/files/rocksilla.mp3

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Ten Years of Tate Modern

ON MAY 13, 2000, a disused power station on the south bank of London's River Thames started a new life as Tate Modern. It's one of my favourite spaces in London, hosting some of the best modern and contemporary art. There's something electric about the venue and it's especially noticeable at night when walking its hallways. Walking across the pedestrian bridge into the old structure is part of a pilgrimage that revitalises me. It's as though the empty shell of a building that used to lurk on the unfashionable side of the Thames symbolised Britain's industrial decline but now the fixture clearly marks the prominence of another, more subtle dominance of creativity and an economic engine in itself, generating £100m in economic benefits to London annually. Art matters to England and art grows in the Tate Modern. Visitor numbers in the tenth year of the Tate Modern outstrip many other cultural venues across the globe. Nearly 5m walked through Tate Modern in its first year and it averages 4.6m per year, making it one of the UK's top three tourist attractions. I'm one of the 2m people who have participated in Tate Modern's education programmes. We're overdue for a visit to Tate Modern, my favourite London building. There's no better time than a birthday to celebrate modern art.

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Photo of Kitty taking a break from walking the caverns in the Tate Modern.

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Booking a Bus on Twitter

BOOKING A BUS got easier with Twitter approaching critical mass in Ireland. An online message sent by Aidan O'Connell seeking two people to share a taxi from Barcelona to Cherbourg ended up with over 50 people sharing a bus on the same route.

Fake Places

RIGHT AFTER I FINISHED college, I would fly to and from Europe without a clear understanding of the lay of the land. I was confused by little things such as the latitude of Scotland, the position of the Channel Islands and the distance from Ireland to Iceland. It turns out that many college backpackers today are as confused as I was back then. According to a survey of 2,865 people conducted by www.sunshine.co.uk , 10% of young travellers in Britain deny the existence of Kazakhstan and 54% believe the West African town of Timbuktu is made-up. One respondent thought France was in Spain. The poll of people aged 18 to 30 showed 7% thought Africa was a country rather than a continent. Twelve per cent reckoned New Zealand was part of Australia and 37% believed Atlantis was a real place they could visit in Greece. I wouldn't pack my travel clothing by the expertise of the survey group because 11% reckoned the weather in Cambodia--close to the equator--was often cold.

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Bonus Research: "Pilot's Accent and Sex Affect How Safe UK Travelers Feel" from a 30 March 2010 item.

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Irish Immigration and Chinese

AS IF IT wasn't a challenging enough year for Irish tourism, the CEO of Ireland's Coach Tourism and Transport Council says "citizens of China, Russia or India who want to come to Ireland on holiday are required to provide six months of bank statements, a letter of invitation from someone in Ireland confirming accommodation, the marriage certificate, birth certificates of children even if they are not traveling, a notarised certificate showing they have no criminal record, three consecutive payslips, a letter from their employer showing they have been granted leave of absence, and a salary statement with duration of employment annotated." It's easier getting through US Cutoms with generic drugs in your bags.

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Sent mail2blog using Nokia E90 O2-Typepad service in The Curragh, Ireland. There are suspicious Arab faces at the other table but they have Irish passports.

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You Don't Fight Terrorism with Magical Thinking

I AM WITH Bruce Schneier about "magical thinking", the term he uses to describe the knee-jerk American response to terrorism. You won't beat terrorists by "overreacting to every terrorist video, stoking fear, demonizing ethnic groups, and treating the terrorists as if they were legitimate military opponents who could actually destroy a country or a way of life." And yet, the United States response is so predictably theatrical. Schneier has said it several times before. "We'd do much better by leveraging the inherent strengths of our modern democracies and the natural advantages we have over the terrorists: our adaptability and survivability, our international network of laws and law enforcement, and the freedoms and liberties that make our society so enviable." I had these thoughts when I stood outside a Dame Street shop in Dublin, Ireland, on the afternoon of 9/11. I wondered if the American President and the Mayor of New York would have the courage to point out that an open society will always overpower the oppressiveness of a terrorist agenda. I agree with Schneier. "The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don't think this way: They are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats." And that's happened again during the Christmas 2009 holiday travel season.

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Bruce Schneier -- "Is Aviation Security Mostly for Show?" on CNN, 29 Dec 09.

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