Inside View

How to Program a Dream

PSYCHOLOGIST GAYLE DELANEY, author of Living Your Dreams, suggests five steps you should use to dream about a specific thing.

Ears for Music

IRISH PASSENGERS headed to foreign countries often go to shop (wonderful exchange rates at the moment), for dental work (the so-called dental tourists) and now for a form of plastic surgery sure to enhance the next generation iPod listening experience. From the website of Hungarian plastic surgeon Dr Lajos Nagy comes the revelation that "ears pointed as a result of plastic surgery not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music". In Ireland, a mainstream television advertisement features women with large, pointy ears and from the sounds of this emerging trend, those actresses would fit into Faun-Clubs in New York where entrance is only allowed with pointed ears.

---

Book Now! Make your hearing perfect! Accentuate your personality! Be amongst the first music fauns in Europe!

x_ref125mw

Eirepreneur Pronunciation

FRESH TO THE CHALLENGE of some confused voices in Silicon Valley, several creative multimedia students set aside a few minutes to help those searching for a way to correctly say "eirepreneur".

---

Apologies to James Corbett in advance. (Slim MP3 audio also available.)

x_ref1256

Resetting Nokia E61

FROM BRENDAN COLEMAN and Russell Beattie comes instructions on how to reset a Nokia E61. You may need to follow these steps if your E61 starts acting more like a brick than a phone. 

1. Unplug the charger from the phone and take out the battery. Then put the battery back in. Do not connect mains power to the phone.

2. Hold the Green key, 3 and * keys down while you power up the E61. The 3 and * are the same keys as the Y and U. You don't have to "shift" or anything. The Green key is *under* the left soft key.

3. Wait for approximately 20 seconds for your phone to reboot. During that time, keep holding all the keys and the power until the screen returns to normal. The screen should show that new firmware has been installed.

I've seen Brendan Coleman perform this trick several times a month when I'm in his shop in Thurles. If the steps fail to work, Brendan has a technician handy who can reset the phone, perhaps by reflashing it in the back of his shop.

UPDATED: Brendan Coleman is in the Baker Street laneway off Friar Street in Thurles. His Nokia repair service is the best one-stop service point for Nokia phones. in County Tipperary, Ireland.

---

Brendan Coleman, Baker Street, Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland.
Russell Beattie -- "Recovering your Nokia e61 after a firmware upgrade mishap"
Nokia Forum -- "E61 Firmware Failure"

x_ref125mw08

Comparing Jaiku to Twitter

AS JYRI ENGESTROM, front man for Jaiku, showed Google's business development team an inside view of Jaiku, Pat Phelan asked the Jaiku community to explain why he should migrate from Twitter to Jaiku. The resultant commentary provides an insightful picture of microblogging. Behind all the reasons sit the people who connect and follow each other by using free and easy text-friendly means of communicating. The three biggest microblogging communities revolve around Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce (listed in probable order of their sizes). Each community includes people who maintain accounts in all three systems. After playing with Twitter and Jaiku for nearly 2000 messages in each community, I have throttled back Twitter and will stay active with Jaiku. It feels like I'm leaving friends at the roadside and driving away but I know another bus is right behind--the one with the Twitter logo on the side. All three buses (Jaiku, Twitter and Pownce) have plenty of room inside but most people admit they prefer the wiggle room or amenities or the friendly chatter in one over any other. In my case, I have conversations worth following in Jaiku because they incorporate threads of discussion that have already evolved into business deals. I also have a limited amount of time for follow-up and don't want people to think I will respond to banter on Twitter as quickly as I will respond to a text from Jaiku. I trust Jaiku to push content directly to my mobile phone. I tried that experiment with Twitter and the result messed up my phone for more than a week. As with any other technology, people opt to use the system in ways that suits them best. I'm happy knowing that without any special configuration, Jaiku and its community of regulars slots into my lifestyle with less hassle than any other microblogging system. So I'm a converted resident of Jaikustan. Here are some other reasons I've made the move from Twitter to Jaiku.

What the Sunday Papers Say

MY SUNDAY READING has ground to a halt due a little person still sleeping (at left), but not before I spotted some interesting things today in the Sunday papers. I bought the Sunday Tribune for Mr. Mulley but couldn't find his words or his face in the Sunday broadsheet today. No worries--plenty of broadband stories there to pass the time. (Comments invited.) I thought the little one would appreciate hearing about things that used to be part of life in 2007 when she gets old enough to type her own review of the Sunday papers. Here are some of those things I have noticed, from berries alongside walking paths, to pay packets, along with petrolheads, texting, cartoons, airliners, eco-living, and pledges that make for perfect living.

When Google Becomes Your Best Friend

IN HIS REPORT for the Sunday Times Magazine, John Arlidge advises readers to precede with caution before embracing an all-encompassing Google-aware lifestyle. Google offers plenty of free things that encourage many of my colleagues to connect their work lives--and personal affairs as well--to the search tools used by Google to make life simpler. But are your secrets safe with Google? Maybe not.

Another Cautionary Tale About Attachments

MOST PEOPLE ROLL their eyes when I tell them not to send me attachments to my email. I have good reasons for this, and it turns out that one of the reasons relates to the current embarrassment felt by the Irish Minister for Transport. One of his civil servants failed to open an email attachment and thus did not see an item marked "for the Minister's information" on 13 June 2007. Minister Dempsey was not told the Shannon-Heathrow service was in danger until weeks later, at which point he immediately arranged to meet Aer Lingus management. It is not uncommon for attachments to remain on mail servers for checking and for the email body to pass through directly to a mail queue. However, if the person sending the email fails to summarise the attachment, the email can lose its impact.

Irish Football on Wikipedia

THE CURRENT STATE of Irish football (soccer) is depressing because of the amateur handling of management and strategy. Significant damage has been inflicted on the sport, its professional players and its followers by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the current coach, Steve Staunton. Yet this is not my opinion--these are facts according to Wikipedia. One Wikipedia pages describes FAI Chief Executive John Delaney as "the worst manager in the history of Irish football", and saying he should be "hung, drawn, and quartered" due to Ireland's poor performances, was removed yesterday although a telling comment still remains. "I would suggest including an abuse/POV section for this article - just so we can hurl it at this incompetent donkey. No? Well, it was worth a shot."

Football pundit Eamon Dunphy has led the charge against beleaguered team manager Steve Staunton, likening Staunton to an unqualified train driver. Team Ireland has descended dramatically since the duo of Staunton and Delaney have failed to deliver world class support standards for the Irish national soccer team. Pat Nugent says, "We're stuck on a pot-holed country byway with moss growing down the centre and that yokel who gave us dud directions at the last crossroads looked suspiciously like John Delaney." In the meantime, web-savvy fans have vented their venom creatively in several of the archived and deleted edits of Staunton's career on Wikipedia. Recommended reading.

---

Isabel Hayes -- "FAI Chief's Wiki Page Vandalised" in The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.
Pat Nugent -- "Mob's anger gives way to depression" in the sport section of The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.

x_ref125pr profile

Free Access to Eircom Wifi

A FEW YEARS AGO, I could sit aboard buses throughout Dublin and connect for free by using Eircom hotspots. From tomorrow, Eircom customers will have free access to 1100 wireless hotspots as the company opens up access to its wifi services.