Teknovis

I heard a review of the papers on the radio this morning that referenced this article: ‘Cloud’ postgrad course a world first. In summary, CIT is to run some third and fourth level taught courses focusing specifically on Cloud Computing. For more details see Cloud Computing @ Cork Institute of Technology.

I think this is a really great idea for two reasons:

• They are great courses from a publicity point-of-view! This should help to attract good calibre students and partners.
• The subjects look very relevant (although the critical aspect is the execution). I think that these subjects could be offered as part of many different courses, but the common branding of the course title certainly helps!

I bet the other institutions are regretting that they did not think of this first! To me, the key issue should be that all courses are sufficiently fresh and up-to-date to allow successful students to go into any area that is currently in demand!

The unfortunate thing for CIT was that the homepage of its website contained no mention of these courses at the time :| It does now – see CIT partners with EMC to deliver world’s first degree in Cloud Computing :o

Tags: CIT

I just read that Marketo is to setup in Dublin, and in the process create 125 new jobs. See Silicon Valley cloud player Marketo creates 125 jobs in Dublin. It is great news, although from what I have read I do not think that it is really a true cloud computing player.

The other thing that concerned me was the following motivation in coming to Dublin:

Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of Marketo, explained the company selected Ireland because it needed a European hub with a large talent pool of skilled people.

I really hope that Marketo does not experience the same problems as many other companies here are experiencing (for example, see Demonware boss warns of skills gap in Irish computer science courses in the media this morning).

Tags: Ireland, Marketo

I read a very interesting article about technology vacancies in Ireland. See While chips down in many sectors, IT struggles to fill jobs.

The technology industry has, according to some of its leading figures and industry groups, several thousand of jobs lying open. The sector has also created about 1,250 jobs since the start of the year, according to IDA Ireland. These are “smart economy” jobs, available from the big multinationals, established indigenous technology companies and hot new tech start-ups.

…

For some reason, this serious issue is ignored – I suspect because the public has wanted to hear about new job creation schemes from a new Government, new initiatives and new vision. But to my mind, new vision means looking at the underlying reasons why jobs are not being taken up by the existing population, many of them graduates obviously qualified to do so, and why companies also cannot easily get the employees they need from outside.

…

However, it also indicates the education system may not be producing graduates of the calibre or skillsets that companies here need. Google, for one, has said so. This is a serious education issue requiring deep examination.

My experiences fully support the arguments made here! Indeed, unless something is done to change things I think Ireland will not have any hope of being a knowledge economy!

Tags: Ireland

Wow – I heard this mentioned today:

By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books – hardcover and paperback – combined.

The full press is release is Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books.

It is interesting timing, because in the last month I have been talking to two people who were giving away their Kindles because they use their iPads instead. Maybe it is in evolutionary process :)

Tags: Amazon

Congratulations to CTVR for securing 24€ million!

For more information see Minister Sherlock announces €24million boost for telecommunications research centre.

Tags: CTVR

I have been made aware (thanks) of some interesting web client-server developments recently, so I will group them all together in this post!

• Do you find HTTP too slow? Then you might want to try SPDY! I am actually really impressed that it is already in use in Chrome! For more details see Life beyond HTTP 1.1: Google’s SPDY.
• Are you developing a web site with sensitive information? Then perhaps you should consider HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)! See Strict Transport Security and Public Key Pinning for more interesting details! Actually, after reading DPI Doubts Deepen recently I am more convinced than ever of the need for using security!
• Finally, do you need to classify all of the APIs that you use? Yes – then look at Classification of HTTP-based APIs.

There are a lot of exciting developments there!

Tags: Chrome, HSTS, HTTP, SPDY

This is a fascinating story – After Amazon And Google, Masterobjects Sues Microsoft Over Instant Search Patent.

I think that MasterObjects have a very valuable patent :)

Tags: MasterObjects

I recently wrote about the first electric car that is really exciting me (see Nissan Leaf). This week I read about some interesting wireless charging technology in Toyota invests in wireless car charging.

It seems very interesting, although I am not sure if its benefits (convenience and perhaps security) outweigh the loss of efficiency. Certainly one of my main considerations in purchasing an electric car would be to obtain the maximum efficiency possible!

I received this humorous, if not somewhat innovate, spam email promoting a casino today:

hi bud, ok I`ll give you my trick but if you give it someone else I`ll fuckin kill you :)

you know in roulette you can bet on blacks or reds. If you bet $1 on black and it goes black you win $1 but if it goes red you loose your $1.

but I found a way you can win everytime:

bet $1 on black if it goes black you win $1

now again bet $1 on black, if it goes red bet $3 on black, if it goes red again bet $8 on black, if red again bet $20 on black, red again bet $52 on black (always multiple you previous lost bet around 2.5x), if now is black you win $52 so you have $104 and you bet:

$1 + $3 + $8 + $20 + $52 = $84 So you just won $20 :)

now when you won you start with $1 on blacks again etc etc. its always bound to go black eventually (it`s 50/50) so that way you eventually always win. But there`s a catch. If you start winning too much (like $1000 a day) casino will finally notice something and can ban

you. I was banned once on royal casino. So don`t be too greedy and don`t win more then $300 a day and you can do it for years. I think bigger casinos know that trick so I play for real money on smaller ones, right now I play on vip casino www.casino-url-removed.com for more

then 6 months, I win $200-$300 a day and my account still works. You`ll find roulette there when you log in go to “specialty” section. And don`t you dare talling about it anyone else, if too many people knows about it casinos will finally found a way to block that trick. If you have any questions just drop me a line here or on skype.

c ya

Cool – so the Roulette tables at the mentioned web sites have no green squares!

Now where did I leave my credit card…

Tags: Spam

Wow – I just discovered that Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media, is Irish!

Tags: Ireland, O'Reilly