I will admit that it is important, although the chaos that resulted after Gmail went down for an hour or so (for some, longer) last night was quite surreal. Thousands of tweets, widespread panic, and even an article to mark the occasion.
“productivity up of 20 million people” - Techcrunch
Though for many people, this quote is completely untrue. So many of us rely on Gmail. What do we do when it goes down? Should this make us think about having backups of our backups?
We all assume Google’s servers are safe for hundreds of years, but are they? Maybe they are, but sometimes things go wrong, even just for a short period of time. They tell us that although something has gone wrong, all our stuff is still safe - reassuring, but what if it wasn’t.
There wouldn’t be...
What is Barcamp?
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.
Interested? Belfast Barcamp is being held tomorrow, Saturday 21st June at Queens University Belfast, Peter Froggatt Centre, from 9am-5pm.
To date 62 people have registered their attendance and 19 to give a talk on chosen subject ranging from coffee shop working, webcasting, open source trends, web design, networking, blogging, new music technology and hand gesture recognition.
For further details and to register your attendance check the Barcamp Belfast Wiki.
9:00 - 10:00 - Session-setup...
So as you probably know, I recently made the transition from Windows to MacOSX. Having only used friends’ Macs, very infrequently and only first in late 2007, I managed to be convinced that ‘mac-is-best’ fairly quickly. Having used Windows for all these years (im going with since I was 8, so at least 14 years), there comes a time when you just get fed up with such a god-awful system.
For the last year and a half or so I have been desperately hoping for a system of reliability and simplicity to do the simple tasks that I need to do. Then problem after problem kept happening. Far too many scares; almost losing everything, not enough backups and too many complications with a terrible operating system.
Of course I did really enjoy being a Windows user before. In fact I...
The majority of my hardware concerns stem from the fact that it is a laptop - which is not the fault of Apple Inc. I have mostly disliked laptops in general for a few reasons, but now I find that having a laptop will prove much more beneficial.
The keyboards are difficult to get used to and near impossible to upgrade, at least that’s what I have always been lead to believe - correct me if I’m wrong.
Starting with the Keyboard:
a) So much less pressing of the keys is required than regular keyboards. This annoys me.
b) Buttons are in the wrong places.
c) No number pad on the right
Then there’s the differences in Mac and Win keyboards. So Command = Ctrl? and Option = Alt?
Why can’t they be in the same place as their windows equivalent? After at least (estimate) 15...
The next hurdle is part software part hardware - the ability to play all-region DVDs. Not completely necessary, but certainly a nice thing to have. Even if I have only done it once - The Bourne Supremacy which I bought in NYC in the Summer, but t hen I got the trilogy for Christmas.
It’s more the fact that if I wanted to play a DVD that wasn’t region 2 I could. It is a laptop after all, I may travel the world now, but I won’t be able to watch DVDs outside Europe when I do.
I currently use DVDXPlayer, a great multi-region media player, for Windows only. Why is it impossible to get around this problem with Macs?
================================================
I don’t think I will find any other software compatibility problems:
Firefox - check
Photoshop - check
MSN...
The Macbook Pro has been dispatched. In a matter of days it will be mine! There are many things I am looking forward to, as well as many Windows habits I’m not looking forward to trying to kick. So lets see what these are:
Software
Of course I know that with my Mac I will be able to do everything I’m used to (and more?), only slightly differently. There will be certain things I will miss greatly though. The first is a nice little program called Winamp, which I have used for at least 8 years. I like everything about it; its simple layout, those sweet skins (having used the same ‘Flying Circles’ skin for many years), the plugins and its general functionality.
Most of all I will miss the ‘J’ and ‘Q’ functions - simply hit J on the keyboard...
The Macbook Pro has been dispatched. In a matter of days it will be mine! There are many things I am looking forward to, as well as many Windows habits I’m not looking forward to trying to kick. So lets see what these are:
Software
Of course I know that with my Mac I will be able to do everything I’m used to (and more?), only slightly differently. There will be certain things I will miss greatly though. The first is a nice little program called Winamp, which I have used for at least 8 years. I like everything about it; its simple layout, those sweet skins (having used the same ‘Flying Circles’ skin for many years), the plugins and its general functionality.
Most of all I will miss the ‘J’ and ‘Q’ functions - simply hit J on the keyboard...
When I first heard of Twitter I thought it was so totally ridiculous. Sending and receiving txt messages is not new. It’s distinctly old technology. So I signed up.
After receiving some useless messages from some people I had added - the sort of messages that said, “Just got the kids to bed, now gonna have lots of hot sex with the wife” or “Monday mornings suck, I hate my job”, or “I hate technology and computers. What’s a blog?”
As well as the usual mutterings of new technology ideas, crazy entrepreneurs telling us their new money-making scheme, conferences in Cork, Seminars in Limerick, photo meets in Dublin and sheep giving birth to deformed creatures from hell with a Tinyurl linking to a picture.
So 11 months after getting bored and...
Here is an email I received 30mins ago.
I’m not genius at tracing mail but it seems like it is coming from Godtube. This was in the original/detailed message:
Received: from FE4.exchange.rackspace.com ([10.244.5.57])
by FE4.exchange.rackspace.com with Microsoft
SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);
Tue, 4 Mar 2008 18:49:48 -0600
Received: from admin.godtube.com ([67.192.33.245]) by
FE4.exchange.rackspace.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);...
Having realised that I’m spending at least £20 topping up my phone each month and getting very little beyond txts for that cost I thought it was time to get a contract. I went for the £25/ month deal with O2 - 200mins, 200 txts. Its not much more than what I was spending and there are a lot more benefits. Including of course I nice new phone, which was unexpected.
The nokia 6500 Slide is a beautiful phone. The slider is smooth and navigation is clean and simple. Having always been a fan of Nokia phones, I am pleased with this upgrade from my 3100 bought in Nov 2006.
It’s the first time I’ve used the icon/grid menu view - it wasn’t the default view on the previous phone, and I didn’t realise it was possible until the girl in the O2 shop told me. Having said...
Here is the message I was greeted with via instant message when I arrived home yesterday evening:
J - im sitting here reading, and i quote “The fund has already started for my MACbook!”
J - DUDE
J - wtf?
J - wwwwwwwtttttttttffffffffffffff
J - tyin u up to a life of apple that. unservicable parts, overpriced hardware, increase in viruses due to the amount of wabs usin them
J - ur warrenty will die and it will die
J - within teh same week
J - guaranteed
J - where havvvvvv ur balls gone?
J - y dont u jst get a decent laptop?
J - same price bt with all the jazz of windows and actually feelin ur a part of wat urdoin
And so it seems some people aren’t so fond of the idea of me getting a Mac.
Is there any truth in what I’m being told?...
I am always in search of gig guides, and to know where my favourite bands are without having to launch their Myspace page. The answer came to me a couple of weeks ago. Sceptical at first, assuming it was just another web 2.0 hopeful, I turned out to be quite wrong once I delved into the recently launched Showclix.com.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, this could be the key to accessing information about live music anywhere in the world, by bringing the social aspects of the web to the forefront. Showclix is a search engine for gigs and concerts, as well as a ticket provider - a definite competitor to Ticketmaster.
Simply key the name of a city in the search box to find artists stopping by on their tour. There is a profile page for each concert date which draws in related information...
After six days without a functioning computer and having to enjoy a few home comforts as I stayed at my parents’ house in order to get work done on my Dad’s PC, I finally have my own back again.
Thankfully we have lots of spare parts from all the computers and upgrades my Dad and I have gone through over the years. After trying his graphics card followed by hard drive, we deduced that the problem was with the motherboard. With a couple of spares lying around we went for my old one. This board uses a different type of CPU but one was found. Hooked it all up and now I’m back online - a little less processing power than before, but hopefully not for long.
The fund has already started for my MACbook!...
Being a bit of a nerd as I am I have always enjoyed doing nerdy stuff on my PC, but the time has come where that seems pretty irrelevant. All I want is to be able to edit photographs, browse the net, watch movies and listen to music.
I have problems with my pc so often that now it its just not proving reliable enough right now when I really need it. I’m finding more and more than I actually want a Mac. I can barely believe I’m actually saying this.
There will be many things that I will miss about windows, but it will be a new fun experience. I will sit on patches of grass and find wireless connections and have lots of fun understanding how it all works, my iLife will be transformed.
I have used a few Macs recently, for short periods at a time, gradually coming to like them. My...
As everyone is probably fully aware, the Apple iPhone was released on Friday 9th November. So naturally BBC News had a poll on the homepage asking “Are you going to buy an iPhone.” The question everyone has been saying lately. The question is then often rephrased, would you if you could afford it? Followed by, do you mind being stuck with O2 for 18 months.
Its pending arrival has been much talked about on blogs and newspapers for the last few weeks, and now, 5 months since its release in the United States, it can be purchased in the UK.
I could be oh so cynical about it all, believe me its taking a lot for me not to, but I can’t because I want one. The reason I don’t have one is that I cannot afford anything at such a cost right now.
Phones are phones - used for...
Those who know me may know by now that I have quite a love-hate relationship with computers. I love using them, but things go wrong so often. It makes me so sad.
As I have been planning for a few weeks, I finally got around to reformatting my computer and reinstalling windows. Everything went fine until I came to switching on my 250gb external hard drive. Nothing. I tried a million times and a million approaches. Still the same. What worried me most was the strange ’struggling’ sound from the hard drive.
It was at this point that my heart raced. I was scared. Very scared. Later I met my brother and we pondered the predicament. Though not before spotting some strange behaviour around the City Hall. Vikings!
He suggested disconnecting the drive from all the USB circuitry. A...
A few people were kind enough to offer some advice as to why I have display problems with Internet Explorer as mentioned yesterday.
Jennifer Farley said, “It happens to me when I place an image that is wider than the main column in the post.“
Im not entirely sure if this happens for me, but I always make sure my images are less than the width of the main column (about 470px).
nerd tells me “fixed width is bad” - I barely know what that is. I think is it something about how the width moves according to different resolutions?
The most interesting is that the tags could be causing the problems, according to McAWilliams. In his comment he included a link to the results of my blog after hit had been put through the W3.org XHTML Validator.
I’m not sure how valid...
Apparently Rocketboom.com is contemplating charging users to to view the show. Show producer Andrew Baron believes that going down this path with bring in much more money than the show currently makes. That’s probably very true. What I have a problem with is the whole ‘paying’ thing.
When you have 350,000 views a day and 200,000 downloads a day there is a lot of potential for rolling in the big bucks. Currently Rocketboom charges $60,000 for a weeks worth of advertising. $60,000! But they need more. They want to charge the users! Surely thats just not right.
Cannot they not be satisfied with the amount being made from advertisers. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that the vast majority of it is free. Particularly a these new community and social aspects...
Strangely, typing “What is Digg“ into Google produces the definition for the word ‘dig’, via Wikipedia, meaning:
“Excavation is the best-known and most commonly used technique within the science of archaeology. Individual excavations are normally referred to simply as “digs” by those who participate, this being an over-literal description of the process. An excavation concerns itself with a specific archaeological site or connected series of sites, and may be carried on over a number of years, since the work tends to be seasonal.”
The Digg I’m talking, however, is Digg.com, the web 2.0 community-based popularity website which was started in October 2004 by Kevin Rose as an experiment to create a news site where everything on the home...
“The biggest global experiment to take place on the internet” is the idea of Denis Bystrov and Michael Taylor, they have proposed tomorrow, 24th March 2007, as International Shutdown Day, challenging the world to switch off their computers for a whole day. In this age of computer dependency is this possible for many people to do?
The website has two buttons, “I can” and “I can’t”. Its safe to say that “I can” is in the lead. But will it work?
How sneaky to have it on a Saturday. No work, so more time to spend online. I was hoping to have a camera to play with tomorrow, and to take part, though there was a slight problem with my order, so although the camera has arrived and is safely in my parents house, I have no lens until next week....
For some reason I never quite caught on to email. I get plenty, though most are not from real people, instead I get more forum reply notifications, blog comment notifications, and newsletters from Slashdot, Play.com etc.
The last person I person I wrote an email to was my domain host’s support team asking them to update my wordpress, which they kindly did.
Don’t worry, I’m not looking for sympathy, its just the way it is. If I wanted it to change I gotta change things myself. In a way I do want things to change; I know they should.
Besides not initiating much interaction through email my other problem is replying to the rare personal email I do get. I should be so excited at receiving an email from someone and immediately start writing a reply. The fact that they have...
“Hi Mum - I’m using my new Skype phone!”
“Oh good, maybe we will get one”
“Yeah you should, then we could talk to free!”
We spent 40 minutes chatting away, everything was going great. I was enjoying watching my credit drop by a penny (1.4p) each time the minutes tick by. Then…
“What..? What? What did you say? Philip? Are you there?”
I could here her perfectly, but I could no be heard. This was just as I was trying to tell Mum my SkypeIn number I had purchased a day before.
There were long gaps of silence where I couldn’t be heard at a ll, or my voice was stuttered. This made me very sad. I was looking forward to calling Amy in the States on Sunday, and generally making lots and lots of calls (I can dream).
I told Ronan my...
Having spent the last 2 weeks trying to find the best reasonably priced VoIP/Skype phone, I finally ordered one.I think it was about 2 years ago that I heard about Skype and immediately thought wow even if I did live my with parents and didn’t call people very often. Two years later, I no longer live with my parents and have friends in America. I absolutely despise the high cost of mobile calls and ensure that I don’t top-up my phone with more than £10 each month. That is just the amount that I need in order to get free txts that last me through the month. I don’t make that many calls either though the credit normally lasts 3 to 4 weeks anyway.
At first I wanted to get a headset, it seems to be the most talked about device for using with VOIP services. I did get one...
Voting closes at 5pm this evening! In one last attempt to WIN I am going to ask everyone who reads (or stumbles across) this blog to VOTE FOR ME.
Its so easy.
Go to THE VOTING PAGE
Fill in your name and email address
Scroll down a little until you find ‘Best Photo Blog’
Select Iced Coffee
Submit
And you’re done. You will make me very happy :)
Copyright Phil O’Kane © 2006-2007This feed is indended for personal use only. If you are not reading it in your feed reader please let me know....
Its that time of year again, for the 2nd time. Voting has begun for the Irish Blog Awards, and those nominated are using a variety of tactics to get through to the shortlist. Theres the The negative approach, the prepared, the cleavage, helping others, pleading, singing, shock, honest, subtle, animated, non-existent, pity, stunned, grateful, child marketing, the cynical, and lots more begging.
And of course, that wonderful logo is emblazoned across many blogs
As for me. I’m not really expecting much this year unfortunately.
My site Iced Coffee has been nominated for best Photo Blog, though I’m not expecting a win unfortunately. The reason being due to my super-sporadic posting over the last few months. Although, if you can have some sympathy for me and show understanding of...
I, like many people do not like using my mobile phone to make calls, not when I get free txts at least. In fact, let me rephrase that - I do like making calls rather than sending txts, the reason I don’t most of the time is often due to the high cost of mobile calls.
I have heard of a great invention by the name of voice-over IP. Apparently through software applications, such as Skype, can make cheap to free calls anywhere in the world.
I have heard some people referring to it as ‘VOIP’, pronouncing it phonetically, but I think that just sounds silly.
Unfortunately it also needs some hardware in the form of a microphone, or a headset, which seems to be the more popular, and more practical method. However, I have a problem with these headsets. Each one I have tried...
I’m really having a lot of trouble getting a WordPress theme I really like. The one I have at the minute ‘Andreas04 2.0‘ was beginning to grow on me, but I’ve just discovered that in each entry page the title (in the top title bar) says the words “Andreas04: Close to Attraction’. My unfortunate lack of coding knowledge means that I will have to find another one. I just can’t find the perfect theme.
I do have some ideas of my ‘perfect theme’ - qualities if you will.
I don’t want it to stretch the whole width of the page. Really just enough for 500px width pictures in posts.
2 columns
A header picture (I don’t know how to alter the code myself to put one in).
No crazy bright colours
Ideally, the date at the top
The...
As you may have noticed, I haven’t updated my Photo blog in quite a while. There are two main reasons for this.
Since starting to photograph gigs, bands and other local activities I just didn’t have the time to get a photograph ready to post every day.
My camera hasn’t been working for the last 3 months, therefore no new photographs.
It was, however, brought to my attention 2 days ago that one of my entries had received over 400 comments. All of this spam had been placed in my gmail spam folder. This was both a good and bad thing. Good in that Google nicely spotted all the spam correctly - bad ‘cos I didn’t know about it to delete from the blog. I changed the setting on Movable Type’s Junk Score Threshold, though it really didn’t seem to do much...
For some reason I didn’t think Apple’s iPhone would actually be worth all the fuss of the last couple of days. But then I saw this, and now I want one too!
The Folks at Mozilla had a meeting about Firefox 3 - Here are some of the planned features
Somebody had a hell of a lot of time on their hands
Meet Summer, she’s a rocket scientist - no no, really!
Share......