Inside View

Mac Mini under TV

PBS -- Bob Cringely thinks the Mac Mini looks good in sitting rooms next to televisions and if his musings are correct, that's exactly the location deigned by Apple and Sony. After all, the Mini is a basic media PC, making it the logical next step for Apple by extending iTunes to selling and distributing movies. It has no analog adapter but Apple offers one. You can also plug in an Apple DVD burner. The Mini's DVI connector can plug into HDTVs from Sony. What I need to do this summer is plumb broadband directly into the phone jack behind the television so we're configured for the arrival of iFlix.

Rob ist kaput

ROBLOG -- The first Irish blog fatality of 2005 is Rob O'Connor. Rob ruthlessly pulled the plug on his blog at Waterford today but he plans to keep his music site thumping. That means he's not really going away, you know. Slan leat.

---

Rob O'Connor -- "All good things"
x_ref1256

Jeremy Clarkson on A380

SUNDAY TIMES -- You probably won't see Jeremy Clarkson aboard the Airbus A380 because he doesn't like sardine tins, especially when he's inside one of them. He makes this point in his Clarkson style in a brilliant piece of writing for the Sunday Times.

History of Call Centers

KILKENNY -- I had a contract several years ago that involved promoting Dublin as a destination for people from eastern Europe. The idea was that they would come looking on the internet for cool places to hang out after finishing college and they would parachute into Dublin where they might need to pay the rent. They might be easy targets for call center employment. The concept worked for nearly eight months, then Dublin entered the upper tier of inflationary pressures. It's simply much more difficult to slum around in Dublin than in Berlin, Prague, or Budapest. Irish graduates know that and they're filling airline seats to those destinations where they often find free accommodation at the end of the runway. You can squat with impunity in Berlin. That kind of lifestyle used to work in Temple Bar, before it was sucked into the development plan by the Irish government.

Never trust Harp

KILKENNY -- This blog generates e-mail requests for information about Ireland at least three times a month. So, in a move to pre-empt a question about Irish beer, I offer this important advice: Avoid Harp Beer. It's awful. Stick with real Guinness or Smithwick's or any international yellow beer.  No matter how old you are, a proper bar will ask for your ID if you ask for a Harp. The staff need to know the crazies by name.

---

x_ref17

Sunday Snippets

KILKENNY -- I spend an hour reading three Sunday newspapers each week, entertained by the repetition between the titles. I buy the three separate papers to read columns by journalists I have come to know over the years. Their insight often provides me a sanity check on my perspective of current events.

Closet Spongebob

BBC -- I keep my Spongebob in my closet and now it turns out he's gay. I hope that my treatment of my loyal Spongebob Squarepants did not contribute to a change in personality and have to say that from the way Spongebob has always treated me and Ruth, his warm and open nature is a welcome part to our Irish home. This may alarm some Christian fundamentalists who believe Spongebob is not a good role model because he holds hands with Patrick, a character from his animated series. I am stunned by the reaction because when I was a Cub Scout between the ages of 8 and 10, we were told to hold hands with our buddies when walking in amusement parks and queuing for mass transport. What replaces safe hand-holding today? If Spongebob in his Boy Scout uniform isn't safe, what is? I had a look at Focus on the Family for an approved alternative to hand-holding and there's none to be found.

Back on MAVIS

TEMPLE BAR -- The start of the autumn academic term means MAVIS (Master of Arts in Visual Arts Practise) is back and running in Studio 6. From our perch point overlooking Temple Bar Square, we have a full circle of 25 students. Lump those in with the usual complement of guest lecturers and visiting speakers and you don't need heat in the white cube space where classes meet. Put them on the road for gallery visits when many travel with partners and you fill a tour bus. This is an impressive congress of visual art talent.

Suspended by eBay

The first significant event of 2005 to mark my digital life comes from eBay. They have suspended me from selling or buying things on eBay. I am not alone--according to Google, more than 3800 people have been "suspended from ebay". Their suspension stems from a pissing contest I have with Paypal, the extortionists aligned with eBay who have refused during the past eight months to disburse $810 of my funds into a real world checking account. Paypal has sentenced me to a revolving door where there are no real people to reconcile my questions. They simply do not give a damn about my situation, refuse to talk to me, and will undoubtedly keep my money under the terms and conditions signed over to them when I set up my seller account. This sucks and will probably mean launching a court case against eBay in Ireland.

Sealed off

NYT -- As years have gone by, each Presidential event lays on increasing amounts of security that effectively closes down whole cities. In Washington, D.C., large segments of the Metro are closed to entry or exit. This is more than "heightened awareness". You get a police state when you thought you were getting an inaugaration. I don't think that's healthy for a democracy and it certainly does not bring to mind the concept of a "freedom dividend".