Inside View

Yahoo Go Review

MY NOKIA N70 works in Ireland with Yahoo! Mobile. It runs the 515k downloadable Yahoo! Go service. It knows me, my preferences, my photostream and recent comments to my photos, my unread email, and the temperature in Cashel--all after I gave it my Yahoo! sign-in details. It gets smarter when I refine my preferences for news, sports, finance and entertainment. When I selected "popular searches" its oneSearch widget showed me what I knew--Britney was the mane search item. I used it to search "irishblogs" and it returned links to IrishBlogs.ie, the Flickr group irishblogs and the WAP side of Holy Shmoly! So I went to the WAP side and a little rotating set of dots took me to a "Error 403 Bad Behavior" message for http://ocaoimh.ie/feed/ and after I saw that, I wondered how difficult it would be to push a podcast into the number three position on Y!GO. Would Donncha convert his WAP feed to a podfeed? If he did, I could use Y!GO to send text messages to remind subscribers of new content. Yahoo! pays for the text messages sent to an Irish mobile phone.

Irish Internet Slows at 6

DAMIEN MULLEY has announced one reason all connectivity on the Irish internet will slow down at the 6PM Angelus on Sunday 18 February. "Irish Blog Awards 2007 Shortlist Announcement at 6pm". Click here to see the Irish Blog Awards 2007 Shortlist. Or look below the fold.

Thanks for voting us to the shortlist!

Cannot find the phonebook entry

EVER SINCE loading up software for my 3G Sierra card, I get intermittent pop-ups telling me "the system cannot find the phonebook entry for this connection" which is a modem message. The software comes with a modem DUN stack and I have to remember to kill it since I don't need it. It's irritating--like spam--and it hurts because it will occasionally launch a blocking pop-up that prevents me from downloading files or browsing. The problem is solved when I remove the O2 modem connection installed by the Sierra software.

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Ireland Should Run the Numbers

IRISH CONCERN about waste and the by-product of our consumption patterns could borrow some inspiration from "Running the Numbers", Chris Jordan's new series running in the States that looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something. Americans use 15m sheets of office paper in five minutes every work day. Americans toss aside 106,000 aluminum cans every 30 seconds. When you represent the waste of a society in terms of quantities, people tend to sit up and wonder how many more holes they will have to dig to bury their waste, where they will agree to locate the next incinerator and whether a native industry to reclaim and reuse materials should be subsidised.

Gaining Inspiration from Joi

IN MY EARBUDS resonates the oft-repeated confession of Jason Calacanis who tells the world he is fat. He also tells listeners that Scoble is fat. In my newsreader comes inspiration from Joi Ito who doesn't look fat in pictures but he has shared experiences from his latest personal start-up. It's a personal health regime. From Joi's writing comes inspiration for me on my personal journey.

"In my current journey pushing my limits for improving my heath, I've noticed significant changes in my mental state. I'm often euphoric, generally happy, have a much higher tolerance for stressful situations, am sleeping well and am generally extremely energetic. I have moments of strange memories like being reminded of my high school self when waiting for a train in nice weather."

Four Digit Tom

WELL DONE to Tom Raftery for cresting into four digits for his Feedburner statistics. His numbers were helped along by the Google Reader effect.  I think Tom's readership, both subscription and page reads, easily tops any other Irish blogger. There should be some kind of award for that and those charged with promoting savvy Irish technology should chat with Tom and learn how to reach a targeted audience. Better yet, they should pay Tom Raftery to teach them how to do the business because his reach gives more value for money than the typical glad-handing Irish trade delegation. Effective promotion of technology does not have to be totally glowing in coverage. See below the line for a well-read item that proves that point.

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Rick Klau -- "The Google Effect"
Bonus Link: Irish government fails to invest in education.

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120K for a Wiki

FANCY GETTING EUR 120,000 to set up a wiki that jump-starts innovation and creativity? Point your boat to the National Science Foundation. The world needs more wikis. There is a growing community of life scientists using a mediawiki-based site to record, share, and discuss their research on a daily basis at OpenWetWare.org and a small group of Irish educators using the PB Wiki at Educamp-Ireland.

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National Science Foundation -- Award #0709304: A New Generation Wiki for Supporting a Research Community in Creativity and IT

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Vista Forecasts Too Aggressive

MICROSOFT SHARES dropped more than 2.5 percent on 16 Feb 07 after Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said analysts' forecasts for fiscal 2008 revenue for Windows Vista were "overly aggressive." The Friday closing is Microsoft's biggest drop in nine months.

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Reuters -- "Microsoft shares tumble on CEO comments"

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News You Might Have Missed

ON THE DAY Britney went bald, you might have missed the story that President George W. Bush had two moles removed from his forehead. Now you know, in case you missed the coverage on Irish blogs.

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Looking Better through Feeds

IF YOU ATTRACT readers through Google Reader, you might learn how to pimp your feed by reading some of the tips on the Google Reader for Publishers page. Google's developers explain best practise for newsfeeds, common implementation pitfalls, and various ways to promote your feeds.