Inside View

2008 Seventh Most Valuable Tech Item

I RESPECT BLUETOOTH EQUIPMENT that just works by recognising new equipment I bring within range. We have used a set of SonyEricsson earbuds (at left) for over a year with several mobile phones. You can toggle tracks, change volume and handle phone calls with this sweet technology since it connects seamlessly by using the A2DP protocol. Sometimes we keep the Bluetooth phone downstairs while answering phone calls and listening to tracks upstairs. We also like Bluetooth in our car. Our phones connect to the car with a simple button press, allowing us to handle phone calls over the car's stereo speakers. And our laptops can detect my Nokia E90, letting me shift multimedia content back and forth to the phone while it sits somewhere else on a desk. When I first started this blog, I spent weeks trying to get Motorola Bluetooth working with several phones. Seven years later, Bluetooth just works, expanding the usefulness of several devices and reducing the time required to sync, back up or connect to work things.

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Recommended: SonyEricsson HBH DS980 earbuds.

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Throttling Up as Ireland Sleeps

UPDATE 2 JAN 09 WITH IMAGE.
DURING THE CHRISTMAS SEASON OF 1996, I looked at ways of creating an online presence. In Ireland, the 10 MB of space, URL, and FTP access would cost me more than 1500 Irish punts. I got the same service and more for 350 British pounds so I set up Topgold.com on Corpex. Years later, that domain is held under tight fist at Corpex, the subject of billing challenges. This year, as Ireland sleeps, I'm going to try to do the same thing--set up a discretionary domain. I'm asking Blacknight for help, with no guarantees as to what will happen. If I get what I request, the world will see Bernie Goldbach emerge on an education weblog and finally be able to judge whether there's anything from the hills of Tippeary of value in the edublogging realm. I'm holding my breath--between several Christmas feasts--not knowing where the new world will take us. Check back for updates. Or merely set a bookmark to Bern.ie and see if it lights up before the middle of January.

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Fewer than 1m Americans

AMERICAN TOURISTS visiting Ireland dropped below 1m in 2008, reflecting increased prices in Ireland, a general hassle around flying from commercial airports, and all-around recessionary pressures. "A EUR 200m drop in toursits revenue and a three per cent downturn in overseas visitors in 2008" was reported by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) in the Irish Times. Those depressed numbers meant fewer Americans traveling the Kilkenny train line (at left), fewer renting cars to experience boreens first-hand, and fewer tasting an Irish Breakfast first-hand. The ITIC sees 2009 as "gloomy" and calls for the Irish government to reduce VAT for one year. In my experience, it would take more than a 21% shaving of takeaway food prices before Ireland reached takeaway restaurant pricing with Germany. I ate meals in Berlin that cost at least 30% less than similar Chinese, McDonalds, or Steakhouse equivalents in Dublin. On the streets of Cashel where I live, it's easy to spot disapproval on the face of German and British tourists who glance at restaurant pricing listed outside some of my favourite places. So if I were the ITIC, I would encourage proprietors to push the edges of the envelope. Engage with a soft target--Irish tweeple by setting up storefronts in highly effective social spaces like IGO People, offer giveaways like Papa Bear Phelan, and set up free and open wifi that serves your smokers and your lappies. In the meantime, I'm off to Feehan's of Cashel to fight back at the recession. Drop in if you're flying by on the M8 and there's a pint for you behind the bar.

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Genevieve Carberry -- "Tourist revenue falls €200m this year" in Home News, The Irish Times, 23 December 2008.
Photos of free and open wifi zones.
Sent mail2blog using O2-EDGE service in O Tuama's cafe, Clonmel, Ireland.

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2008 Eighth Most Valuable Tech Item

AN OLD BUT RELIABLE microwave oven (at left) deserves mention as one of the ten most valuable technology items in my life. We use it several times a day when sterilising baby bottles, to heat food for our toddler, to make popcorn and to reheat portions as leftovers. When we were planning our kitchen, I omitted the idea for a built-in microwave, thinking we might not need to use space for that appliance. But truth be told, we use the microwave every day in a mission-essential manner. As I write these words, I'm reflecting on other items that form part of our daily routine. We have a dishwasher and a washing machine that work without question. We use a DECT cordless Skype phone that works up to 330 metres from the house. And we have smart dimmers that let us illuminate dark corners without incurring an energy penalty. All those acknowledged, I give fair recognition to the humble microwave as the eighth most valuable item of technology in my life. I can't imagine how my mom raised five sons without one.

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Gaelic Telecom Lied to Me

TRYING TO BE A GOOD citizen, I cautiously converted my eircom telephone services over to Gaelic Telecom. In so doing, a portion of my telephone charges would be donated to the Gaelic Athletic Association and also be earmarked for local athletic teams in Cashel, the town in County Tipperary where young Mia may play Gaelic games within five years. I should have merely worked out a direct debit to the GAA as a contribution from source. Because with Gaelic Telecom, a few things happened that made me reverse my decision.

2008 Ninth Most Valuable Tech Item

NOTHING HELPS ME MANAGE my commutes better than a boot that fits my stuff. That's a trunk (at left) that can handle an entire weekend's trip away from home. Some would think that it's hardly a technical achievement to create space in a car. But after a year of dragging a cot, a stroller and a riding horse in the car whenever we spend a few days away from home, I'm so very happy to know that the little cut-outs on the side of my BMW's trunk ensure there's an easy way of stowing the Maclaren stroller that we use to push Mia around different places. In some promotional brochures, the indentations shown in the photo are hailed as proof that the car can easily manage a golf bag. Carrying a golf bag in the boot of a BMW equates to carrying a stroller in its place. That convenient storage makes my batmobile trunk the ninth most valuable tech item in my life for 2008.

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Pictures of the batmobile.

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Tom Humphries and Unchecked Bloggers

I LIKE TOM HUMPHRIES when he talks from the locker room for the Irish Times. In today's Sports News, Tom writes about snotty-nosed bloggers (my term, although he does cite Ireland as a "snot-green republic") who seem to  be debasing sports journalism, since it appears that anybody with "text capability or emails gets on air or in print, not with inside dope but with their own opinions." Bloggers (and tweeple, if Tom had wanted to really point at the true culprits) are the pamphleteers of the 21st century. According to Tom Humphries, there are some big factors missing in the blog revolution. "There are some fine new voices whom it is a pleasure to read but they compete with the wretched tin-ears, with the permanently raw and the ever-itchy victimes of modern (male, mostly) anger, the voices who shout the loudest and the coarsest things, the athletes of the workplace laptop who can spring the fastest to hard conclusion." I can see Tom Humphries' point since I use his rubric to prune the list of people whose blogs I read. And I respect Tom Humphries as a journalist, just as I respect John Collins and Danny O'Brien, two journos in his paper who also happen to blog occasionally.

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Tom Humphries -- "Quality voices drowned out by blog revolution" in The Irish Times, 22 December 2008.

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2008 Tenth Most Valuable Tech Item

YOU CAN TELL THAT I have changed gears in my personal life because I believe the 10th most valuable technical item in my life is the Maclaren Baby Stroller. I make this point for readers like Tom Murphy and Liam Noonan, both soon to experience the continuing joy of fatherhood. In my case, the Maclaren Baby Stroller has survived fits of my frustration while also providing me a rolling desk station for my work. Young Mia feels really comfortable in her buggy and because it's so easily collapsible--I can fold this stroller with one hand while blindfolded--it deploys everywhere, including places that don't allow strollers in the front doors. We have walked Mia with impunity into premises while dragging the stroller behind, parking the thing near the umbrella rack or cigarette machine. If you're thinking about expanding your family, you need easy and reliable tech like the Maclaren Baby Stroller. We bought ours for EUR 210 in Kilkenny.

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Quooker

I NEVER KNEW you could flow 100 degree Centigrade boiling water from your kitchen tap. But yeserday, I saw an under-sink system from Quooker that combines vacuum insulation and thermos technology and allows you to make an instant hot pot of vegetable soup, sterilise baby bottles and blanche vegetables. Its resellers say it uses less energy than the greedy kettle sitting atop many Irish kitchen counters. Its standby power is 10W and a seven litre system uses up to 3000W to bring the water up to 100C.

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Qooker. The boiling water tap.

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Planning Edinburgh

IF WE DON'T make NYC in January, we plan to walk through the best of Auld Reekie and the New Town in Edinburgh. Our day-long walk starts by climbing to Edinburgh Castle and then strolling the long descending thoroughfare of the Royal Mile. I walked past those tall tenements of Auld Reekie, down by Holyrood Palace and then on to Calton Hill. But I haven't walked Princes Street, George Street, Queen Street and Charlotte Square. I need to roam this route for its neo-classical architecture, pubs and pie shops.

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