AUGUST IS TRADITIONALLY a silly month for real news in Ireland and the paucity of tech-related news in the Sunday broadsheets reinforces that finding. Nonetheless, I think there's good value in taking a five-minute Qik flick through the Sunday Times in Ireland, spotting a few items that friends on another continent might enjoy learning. You can see things on a page and learn the context of a story by its placement. My shaky, handheld cameraphone perspective, along with some marginalia, give viewers a short take of current affairs, technology and commentary. Before I offer shownotes below the break, let me spotlight the Snooper My-Track SPT200, a matchbox-sized piece GPS tracker that won five stars on the InGear Test Bench. Snooper's matchbox-size tracking device has a GPS receiver and a SIM card. If you call the SIM, it keys off a request to send you a text with GPS co-ordinates. If I put those co-ordinates into my Nokia E90, I can get directions from my phone to the tracker. This little device is a simple but effective tracker.
Building Industry Meltdown. The top story in the Sunday Times, my Sunday paper of choice mainly because it rarely caves into the tabloid content favoured by the Sunday Independent, concerns how the National Asset Management Agency will write off close to €30 billion of the €90 billion in property loans it buys from Irish banks when it completes the process of revaluing the debt over the next 12 months. Some of these property loans arose in the Celtic Tiger economy, now suspect. [1] The Irish government is bailing out the banks at the same time that it cannot afford to ensure all its primary schools have hot running water in the toilets.
Cautionary Notes About Social Media. It's interesting to see how social networking sites are infiltrating the mainstream press. Two stories make the Sunday Times about the boxer Kenny Egan giving up Twitter. [2] The backlash against Spinvox also gets 20 inches but with no mention of James Whatley, Spinvox' social media guru. [3] Another social media guru, Damien Mulley, gets mentioned for his take on bundled broadband options. [4] As in the case of all consumer options, communications products fit best where they're know to work. In my South Tipperary catchment area, the Meteor and 3 broadband options are not satisfactory for video streaming services. For those who connect to social sites using applications that download new capabilities onto phones, some caution is advised against viruses. [5]
Beating the Drink Driving Rap. It's very Irish to figure out ways around drink-driving cases. Breath-testing technology has made convictions simple, and some solicitors are trying a "pee stream defence" as a way of getting their clients off the hook. It seems you can absorb alcohol into your system by smelling your booze-filled urine while in the loo. [6]
Green Homes. Developers may be willing to pay the price and shun a UK demand that new homes must be carbon neutral by 2016. [7]
The Fine Print in the Microsoft-Yahoo Deal. I have used Yahoo! longer than I've used a bank card. I pay for its mail and keep a two-year subscription pre-paid for Flickr. I like its IM service and the way del.icio.us works. Those things remain with Yahoo while the search business just headed north to Microsoft. In the fine print, there's a little detail about a patented Yahoo technology that some suspect is being used by Google. If true, that means Google may have to pay Microsoft a royalty for the way its Adwords program currently runs. [8]
1. Colin Coyle -- "Ahern told to drop the Tiger" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
2. Richard Oakley -- "Egan's fight against fame" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
3. Andrew Davidson -- "Technology startlet in a spin but pedaling hard" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
4. Niall Brady -- "Ring the changes to save cash" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
5. John Arlidge -- "Scientists warn of Terminator threat from robots" in the News section of the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
6. Mark Tighe -- Driving Rings Around the Law" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
7. Andrew Stone -- "Green homes pledge in peril" in the Sunday Times Energy and Environment pages, 2 August 2009.
8. Dominic Rushe -- "Ballmer's sweet deal to take on web king" in the Sunday Times, 2 August 2009.
Direct link to Qik video: http://www.qik.com/video/2385450
