Inside View

Hard Slog Digging and Filling

Bernie Goldbach in Tipperary | Digging snapped with iTouch  

I AM HELPING in a survey that may result in the reinstallation of some of the sewage lines outside a home and it's not easy. I already lost a weekend to this priority.

Some of the suspect 4" pipes expect water to flow uphill. You can actually see discrepancies in the starting and ending elevations of the lines without using any special laser equipment.

During the past month, several plumbers have measured the difference in elevation between start and ending points wherever the suspect sewage lines turn corners. One of the plumbers thinks the current pipe does not drop 1/4" per foot. In fact, one six metre section of pipe falls backwards.

I'm helping to dig up and reinstall the pipes but it's actually a job for a qualified engineer, so we're looking at Tradesmen.ie for ideas. I think the job requires a crew with construction laser measurement that corrects the current errors in the way the pipes lay in the ground. Too steep a drop and water flows over solid sewage instead of pushing it out into the main line.

Should Have Read the Architect's Final Report

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Schematic from DIY Doctor  

AN ARCHITECT REQUIRED several cuts in our roof to manage ventilation of toilets before we moved into our home. Because plumbers didn't do the work, we have problems seven years later.

We didn't cross-check the work done in the final architect's report and now we're smelling the results. Like all homes, we have toilets with waste that passes through traps on large diameter Wavin pipes. The traps hold water in the bend of Wavin pipes. Our current problem is the main sewage pipes are venting foul air from outside of our home, largely because our unfinished housing estate has clogged drain runs and manholes that show a massive accumulation of waste from 82 homes.

Normally the water sitting in the curve of the Wavin pipes under the toilets stops the back blast of bad air. And when toilets flush, water and waste enters the bowl, flows down the pipe and leaves the house.

In our case, the soil pipe is not venting correctly. It is supposed to carry foul gasses up to and beyond the roof but it terminates in our attic and runs horizontally. This is wrong on so many levels.

My Local My Tipp

I LIVE AND WORK in County Tipperary, Ireland so I'm interested in what that means to distant friends, potential collaborators and to my local community. The South Tipperary County Council have a video that pushes home the message of working in Tipperary. Since my creative multimedia students would be in the crosshairs of multinational companies setting up shop in our area, we've combed through the video to see how it reflects reality on the ground. I'll publish the results after the May exams because I plan to feature a question about the video on the public relations exam. I want to read how students would revise the video or reframe the message. Here is a direct link to the video: http://vimeo.com/21315538

Interviewing Redundant Dell Workers

JUST BEYOND the blue coat rack (at left) is The Mall, a meeting room inside the Absolute Hotel where I will interview 18 redundant Dell employees today for possible entry to a programme run by the Limerick Institute of Technology. The ex-Dell workers want to use money from the European Globalisation Fund to embark on a very structured higher education path that leads to a Certificate in Web Promotion. It's a challenging course with lots of hands-on field work. The eerie thing about the interview venue is that it is the same place used by Jeffrey Kaye several years ago to chat with people in Limerick about the closing of the Dell factory. Kaye went on to air a PBS segment on the visit and to write a book about the fall of manufacturing in Ireland. From their application forms, it appears that 12 of the people taking the Web Promotion for Business Course were directly involved in the manufacturing and packaging of Dell components in Limerick. The education programme we have set up for these people will be one of the most innovative things I've done as an adult educator. Upon successful completion, graduates will be able to leverage mobile tools (an Android phone and a webcam-equipped laptop) when producing field reports that promote local businesses in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. I expect several of them will make guest posts to my blog as they explain facets of their 12-week journey in higher education.

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Jeffrey Kaye -- Moving Millions ISBN 9780470423349

"Irish Jobs Polish Jobs" from two years ago (with video).

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Learning about eBay Turnover

A FEW YEARS AGO, I listened to John and Patrick Collison explain how power sellers leveraged eBay through the use of smart software. The recession has been good news for many businesses selling on eBay. Jonathan Moules has seen data that suggests "the number of £1m-plus turnover companies trading on the online marketplace is set to double this year." Moules looked at eBay UK and the numbers say "66 businesses turned over more than £1m last year." The trendline is promising: "eBay expects this total to rise to 127 £1m-plus compnaies by the end of this year, with an average increase in turnover of about £600,000 per business." The Financial Times Weekend profiles Jeremy Wicks who started his business as an 18-year-old. He sells B-stock, pre-owned and ex-display electronic equipment now, under the brand Why Buy New UK. He dispatches about 400 eBay orders per week, selling stock at a fixed price, rather than using eBay's traditional auction service.

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Jonathan Moules -- "Turnover boon for eBay businesses" in the FT Weekend, 21 August 2010.

Reduced prices on Behringer gear.

 

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PHP Guru Needed

BLACKNIGHT SOLUTIONS NEEDS a PHP guru for an inhouse project. This job would fit someone with a good knowledge of PHP5, experience with MySQL and hands-on work with GD. You would also need to know your way around SVN. If you don't know those abbreviations, this job isn't for you. The employment starts immediately and the programmer can work from home.

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Apply here.

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Google Doesn't Headhunt Bloggers

SPENCER STUART has taken out full page advertisements throughout European mainstream print publications in its search for "a senior European government affairs and public policy leader," someone who is "an experienced, articulate leader to assume the mantle of Google's Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Europe. This is a high-profile position, and the key issues you will address on Google's behalf--and on behalf of a free and open global Internet--include privacy and data protection, free expression, intellectual property reform, and efforts to regulate online content, advertising and technology." Since Google is blogphobic from top to bottom, I doubt that anyone who has a compelling online weblog would be shortlisted for this position.

 

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Quotation taken from The Economist, 24 June 2006. Image nicked from Spencer Stuart.

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