Jun 21 2009
I noticed during the week that tinyurl.ie will soon cease to exist! I find this a bit surprising because it cannot have cost much to operate. Also, there is probably greater demand now for URL shortening services than ever before!
Strange :|
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Jun 20 2009
I was delighted to read that the first Galileo contracts were awarded during the week in Contracts give impetus to Galileo. There should be plenty of business opportunities for companies working in this area as the work progresses and sub-contractors are required.
However, I think that the most significant business opportunities will arise when the system is operational. In my opinion there are two significant benefits of Galileo compared to GPS:
It certainly should be an interesting space in which to work in the near future!
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Jun 19 2009
There seem to be a lot of laptops being stolen this week in Ireland! See Inquiry after HSE laptops are stolen and Bord Gáis customer details on stolen laptops for details and video reports. The greatest concern in both of these cases is the sensitive data that might now be used maliciously. Hopefully, they were all stolen for the value of the hardware, and nothing more will come of this!
However, it does make me wonder how many more incidents like this will need to happen before companies decide to encrypt all data on all laptops! Apparently, I am not the only person wondering this! The main opposition political party in Ireland now wants to make encryption mandatory according to Mandatory encryption for laptops needed. In practice I do not think that this is very practical. For example, how strong must the encryption be? How must the keys be stored? Will the legislation try to cover these details?
Politicians trying to legislate technology :|
I also wonder if all of this data really needs to be stored locally on laptops!
I do not have any sensitive data on my laptop, and hence I do not use any encryption software. However, I have heard good things about TrueCrypt. It is open source, and available for all major operating systems.
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Jun 18 2009
Mobile 2.0 Europe started today in Barcelona. Both the Developer Day and the Speakers seem really interesting!
I wish that I was there!
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Jun 17 2009
I saw an interesting article on the news this evening describing how the Irish Government is currently investigating the issue of mobile phone bullying. For more details about this, including video footage, see Criticism of delay in mobile bullying measures.
The facility to block communication from certain numbers does not currently exist because there has not been a need for it until recently. This facility would be part of general policy management, and I expect that there will be many advancements in this area in the near future. There are many companies currently developing solutions in this area, including two Irish companies:
So there should be policy management solutions deployed by the mobile phone network operators in Ireland very soon.
It really annoys me to hear politicians giving the impression that that know what they are talking about when it comes to technology!
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Jun 15 2009
Science Foundation Ireland has announced the creation of a new fund to commercialise existing research that it is funding. The fund is called the Technology and Innovation Development Award (TIDA), and you can read more about it in Technology and Innovation Development Award (TIDA).
The maximum grant size is 100,000€ over 12 months. I think that is a really significant amount, and it should be enough to determine if existing research has commercial potential.
I am actually surprised that Science Foundation Ireland is doing this, because I thought that commercialisation was under the remit of Enterprise Ireland.
Jun 13 2009
I read about a really exciting new programming language during the week called C# Application Markup Language (CSAML). It is basically the merging of C# and XML to create a totally new programming language! You can read more about it in C# Application Markup Language (CSAML): An Evolutionary Leap.
It is even more interesting to see that a few people have actually been discussing this on bulletin boards!
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Jun 11 2009
I had a Kit Kat Chunky after lunch today. It was delicious! I was reading the packaging as I was munching, and the following caught my attention:
Contact us FREE
0800 604 604 (UK)
00800 6378 5385 (ROI)
The UK freephone number prefix is what I expect (0800), but the Irish (ROI) freephone number is not! I was expecting a 1800 prefix :o
After some brief investigation, I discovered that the 00800 prefix is for Universal International Freephone Numbers. It was my first time to see one of these numbers!
While I was reading about these UIFNs I also came across the European Telephony Numbering Space. I have never seen any of these numbers, but I think that they are a great idea!
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Jun 09 2009
The online version of the print version of The Irish Times is very impressive: http://irishtimes.newspaperdirect.com/
Unfortunately it is not free, but most of the content can be found on its main web site :o
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Jun 08 2009
I have another web site that is unrelated to this one. I have had it for approximately a year. However, I now need to use Twitter in conjunction with this web site.
Unfortunately, the Twitter account name that matches my domain name has already been registered :( However, it was registered almost 2 years ago, contains 1 post, is not following anybody, and has no followers. So it is as inactive or as disused as possible!
I tried searching the Internet for advice from people who were in similar situations. I did not find a lot of information, and the best article I found was How to Secure an Unused Twitter Account. I was initially very optimistic when I read that Twitter releases unused accounts if requested. However, Twitter no longer provides this service according to Help Resources/Terms of Service and Rules policies/Name Squatting :( Twitter might release inactive accounts, although its policy is contradictory:
Accounts that are inactive for more than 6 months may be removed without further notice. Twitter is not currently releasing inactive/squatter accounts unless in cases of infringement.
I have followed the advice given in the first article, and I will update this blog with my progress!
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