Dec 15 2009
Vodafone has updated its Irish website recently. The two changes that excite me the most are:
The timing of these changes is perfect for me to send all my Christmas greetings :)
Comments Off on Updated Vodafone Ireland Website
Dec 13 2009
I have almost completed my Christmas shopping for 2009. I did all of this online for the second year in a row! (Last year’s shopping is described in Online Christmas Shopping 2008.)
I did not buy a single item in Ireland this year, and this was mainly due to the ridiculously high costs. I understand that part of this is due to the higher VAT on items in Ireland (see Online Shopping just got Cheaper), but I also think that retailers are still ripping-off consumers. Indeed, the most expensive single item I bought was a piece of Japanese electronics. The Irish price was over 50% more expensive than the price I bought it for abroad!
While I am writing about shopping, I came across a very entertaining online shop – http://producten.hema.nl/ (You need sound, and a small amount of patience, for this :D )
Comments Off on Online Christmas Shopping 2009
Dec 11 2009
I noticed that INEX had record traffic levels last Wednesday afternoon of approximately 8.7Gbits/s according to the INEX traffic statistics.
I assume that this record was due to people watching the Irish Minister for Finance announce the annual budget for 2010 online thanks to RTE.
Hourly Graph (aggregate/bits) (Copyright INEX)
I described the previous INEX records in Record Traffic For Irish Budget 2009 Announcement and Record Traffic For Second Irish Budget 2009.
Yearly Graph (aggregate/bits) (Copyright INEX)
Comments Off on Record Traffic For Irish Budget 2010 Announcement
Sep 20 2009
There were two interesting conferences on in Dublin this week.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to attend either conference :( (Even if I did have time, I would not have been invited to one of them :D )
Comments Off on Conferences in Dublin
Aug 04 2009
I have been very busy recently, so I did not have enough time to blog regularly :( One of the reasons I was busy was that I had to appear in court :o (Luckily I was a witness, and not a defendant! Ultimately, I did not have to testify, because the defendant pleaded guilty :o)
I found the whole experience fascinating on many levels, and not something that I would like to experience regularly!
I was also struck by the complete lack of technology! This manifested itself in two ways:
I wonder will this be any different in 100 years!
Comments Off on Technology in Irish Courts
Jul 21 2009
The Irish Government will implement 17 of the suggestions from the Ideas Campaign, as described in Recession ideas to be acted upon.
There were two ideas that caught my attention. The first idea is:
Provide a one-stop-shop virtual helpdesk for start-ups with advice on legal, HR, patents, accountancy issues etc.
I think that is a great idea, and I can easily imagine it being very useful. I guess that funding it will be a problem :(
The second idea that caught my attention is:
Teach business skills as part of all PhD education as a means of promoting the knowledge economy
This sounds great, but I seriously doubt that many PhD students would be interested in this :o Generally, PhD students just want to focus on their research, and they generally dislike attending classes of any type :o
Comments Off on Accepted Ideas from the Ideas Campaign
Jul 11 2009
During the week I had a meeting with a company in The Digital Hub in Dublin. It was my fist time there in over a year, and it was my first time ever there in daylight.
I must admit that I was extremely disappointed with the area. I was expecting it to have a very high-tech feeling. Instead my overall impression is that it is the epicentre of low budget 1€ Shops in Dublin!
Most of the old buildings look run-down and unmaintained. This then attracts a certain type of bottom-of-the-market type shop.
The area was very busy, and it had a lively feeling. However, this was due to the fact that the majority of the people there are visiting the Guinness Storehouse :o
I have heard a rumour that one of the large ICT companies that are currently located in the area are moving out later this year. This company is rumoured to be relocating to a new office development in a different, and more prestigious, part of the city :o Apparently, the cost per square metre is far lower in the new location :o
Comments Off on The Digital Hub Dublin
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.
Comments Off on Stolen Laptops
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!
Comments Off on Mobile Phone Policy Management
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!
Comments Off on Universal International Freephone Numbers
