Michele Neylon :: Pensieri

More Dead Trees Courtesy of Grandad

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:25:20 -0600

Richard O'Connor, aka "Grandad", got a book deal about a year ago with Mercier press and the book itself will be out in the new year. When exactly I don't honestly know, but it's already available for pre-order on Amazon.

The cover image isn't available on Amazon at the moment, but Grandad posted it the other day, so here it is (I'm saving on his bandwidth bills by stealing a copy - he can sue me later!):
I really like the subtitle!

So who do I have to kill to get a signed copy I wonder....

Tshirt Hell Sale

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:11:39 -0600

I've mentioned Tshirt Hell quite a few times in the past, as I think their tshirts are brilliant. (I also love Despair.com's selection!)

If you're not on the Tshirt Hell mailing list you may not be aware of their sale that's on until Sunday November 30th 2008 at midnight EST. Just use the coupon code: IMBLACK when paying to get 30% off

Of course they would announce a tshirt sale on one of the coldest days of the year!

Hampers Don't Need To Be Boring!

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:39:16 -0600

As it's nearly that time of the year again I'm currently looking at options for hampers to send friends and relatives overseas.

While I do like the options from 4GiftsDirect, Gifts.ie etc., what about something a bit different?
It's a chocolate pizza!!

It's not just ordinary chocolate - it's high quality gourmet Belgian chocolate!

If I wasn't on a diet I'd order one!

More info here (if anyone gets one do let me know what it's like!)

24 Redemption

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:27:43 -0600

Image via Wikipedia

24 Redemption was shown on Sky 1 earlier this evening, as a two hour "special event", as I mentioned earlier.

Without ruining the story for those of you who missed it...

Jack Bauer is still Jack Bauer, but there's no CTU (as my mother reminded me!), so it's a lot more focussed on the "lone wolf" than the previous series.

Of course it's also nearly 22 hours shorter than a normal 24 series, so you can't really expect it to be anything like the normal series.

While watching it I was wondering how they'd manage to come up with a "full" story in 2 hours, when they're used to doing a real time story that lasts 24 hours... I needn't have worried - it works. It may not be a chef d'oeuvre, but it's still damn fine tv entertainment.

Jack Bauer Fans Delight

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:05:39 -0600

Image via Wikipedia

24 Redemption is being shown on Sky tonight.

24 Redemption is a 2 hour feature length special that is meant to bridge the gap between day 6 and day 7 (series 6 and series 7 in non-24 speak). It aired on US television last night, so I suspect quite a few people will already have downloaded a torrent version. Personally I prefer watching things on my TV if I have the choice ie. if I don't have to wait 6 months!

Mackers SMS Script Rocks!

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:56:53 -0600

I've used the Mackers SMS script on and off over the last couple of years, but I don't think I've ever mentioned how cool and useful it is.

I tried to get the OSX desktop widget to work, but it threw a rather annoying and unhelpful error message. Fortunately the Debian / Ubuntu version is a total breeze to install, so I was up and running again in a couple of minutes.

I'm not a very heavy texter, but I can't see the point in paying for something if I don't have to ie. I get a certain number of free texts every month, so I might as well use them!

Pet Hates - Being Ignored In Shops

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:35:05 -0600

Sales assistants in shops seem to fall into two broad categories.

They're either incredibly pushy ie. as soon as you walk in the door and before you've even had a chance to look at anything they're right beside you trying to "help" you.

Or you have the complete opposite extreme that ignores you entirely. You know the type, they're too "busy" chatting with other staff to bother selling you anything.

This afternoon I was hoping to buy some sports gear so that I can go to the gym (no I'm not going to turn into a fitness freak). There were a couple of things I wanted to get and a few others that I might have got if I'd been in the mood ie. if the shop assistants had been anyway helpful.

I wandered around the shop looking at things, but even though I tried to subtly catch their eye, not one of the shops staff (I counted at least 6) made even the slightest effort to assist me.

Now what about those shops where they actually look after you? One of my local menswear shops gets all my business for one simple reason: they care. I wandered in there yesterday afternoon hoping to get one or two shirts and came out of there with six shirts, three trousers, a jumper and a belt! Why? Because they made it easy for me to buy from them. They aren't pushy sales people, but they know how to upsell to me, so I'm more than happy to spend money with them.

Considering all the tales of woe about retail I've been reading in the media in the last couple of months you'd think that the retailers would actually be trying to sell stuff, wouldn't you?

I'll probably end up buying the sports wear I was looking for from an online retailer, as at least that way I won't feel ignored!

Maybe I Should Move To Florida

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:40:12 -0600

A couple of months ago there was an article in the Sunday Business Post about US properties for sale on eBay. Some of the figures were insane - you basically could buy a house for a few thousand dollars!

This weekend's Sunday Business Post has another article on the same subject and is listing houses for sale at prices so low that you could probably get them based on a personal loan or a very small affordable mortgage (by Irish standards).

Maybe I need to move to Florida?

About Adam For 99p!

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:12:15 -0600

About Adam, which stars Stuart Townsend and Kate Hudson, is a good bit of fun.

You can pick it up on MoreDiscs for a mere 99p (+ postage)!

Updating Your Address Book Can Be A Bit Traumatic

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:46:17 -0600

While I love playing with technology, that doesn't necessarily mean that I get it right all of the time (or even a lot of the time!)

In my efforts to keep my phonebook backed up I managed to duplicate most of the contacts on my phone (some people appeared 5 times!!)

Oddly enough my phone didn't know what to do with multiple instances of the same contact, so I never had a clue who was ringing me or sending me texts.

This evening, while watching TV, I decided to nuke all the duplicates.

In so doing I came across a lot of contact names that meant absolutely nothing to me, which I promptly removed, but I also came across one that did - my grandfather's mobile phone number.

I have to say my feelings were really mixed.

On the one hand I was sort of amused, as I know he managed to lose the phone months before he passed away, while on the other it was a sad moment to think that he's gone.

My grandfather was a wonderful character and most people he came into contact with were very taken with him.

I know he'd have loved to see me married off to a "good woman", though paradoxically he never took any interest in any of my girlfriends until "after the fact" (He once famously asked me how a "lovely girl" was about 18 months after I'd broken up with her!)

When it came to technology he was always willing to "give it a go" and managed to email some of us from time to time, while also working on his memoirs on his PC (I think he wrote most of them longhand, however). I've no idea which of his friends or relatives gave him a mobile phone, as I strongly suspect it was rarely charged (or even with him).

He's gone now, but as I unbox books and other stuff that I had left stored in various relatives' houses (long boring story!) I keep "bumping into him". I find little letters he wrote me over the years in his very particular handwriting.

Of course part of his legacy lives on in me. Though I'm not sure if the hoarding of newspapers is the main bit I want to remember him for!

Namesco / Register365 Takes Rip Off Ireland To New Extremes

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:14:18 -0600

Remember 365 selling to UK company Names.co.uk?
Well seemingly Names.co.uk like to overcharge their clients ...

I already mentioned their pricing policy on co.uk transfers out, but they've since gone on to expand that to include com/net/org/info/biz domains. Don't believe me?

Check out this screenshot from the Register365 / Namesco control panel (click to enlarge):

Or how about this invoice a client paid recently for the "right" to move his domain elsewhere (click to enlarge):

So in simple terms if you are NOT happy with their service and want to change provider you will get billed for changing YOUR domains to a new provider.

Aren't they great?

Companies behaving in this manner give a bad name to the entire industry and really make me sick. While I may have had my differences with the previous owners of register365 I somehow doubt that they'd have stooped this low!

And to make matters all the more interesting ..

I'm getting reports from some clients that the charges are being imposed, while others are being told that they can leave without having to pay - what about the people who don't question charges?

NB: Yes I have a vested interest in the hosting and domain industry and I don't hide it. On the other hand I would never be interested in running a company that abused registrants in this manner - there are plenty of ways to make money, messing your clients about isn't one of them

Using And Abusing Social Media (a little)

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:55:14 -0600

First there was Jaiku, then there was twitter (and again)...

Now I've setup a Blacknight thing on Facebook...

If you're on Facebook then why not join us - I'll probably push out a few "special" promotions to our facebook fans in the coming weeks, but I want to get at least 100 fans on there before I consider it (setting goals makes it easier in some ways ....)

And if anyone who knows anything about managing Facebook pages has any tips please do share !!

Why I Won't Be Attending The Golden Spiders

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:14:35 -0600

Although the company blog has been shortlisted for a Golden Spider this year I will not be attending the event.

Why?

Put simply the event's organisers appear to have serious communication issues.

To start with we had to be told by a third party that we'd actually made the shortlist.

Seemingly they contacted some of those shortlisted, but not all of them.

Why?

God only knows.

Then I got an email from one of their staff to my personal email address asking me if I would be attending or not. (We're shortlisted for the company blog - not one of my personal ones)

At the same time a different member of their staff was in contact with our offices to offer us a ticket for the night. They then followed up shortly afterwards to say that they had two tickets for us.

Cool!

So I then proceeded to organise a "date" for the evening, letting them know that yes we'd go but that we'd confirm the second person's name after the weekend. (Fortunately I hadn't booked hotel rooms etc., at this stage - being a bit disorganised can pay dividends at times!)

So I'm beginning to feel vaguely warm fuzzy feelings towards Golden Spiders at this stage (I've criticised them quite a bit in the past)

With me so far?
It's not particularly complicated.

So when we contacted them to confirm everything today they did an "about turn" and now say that there's only one ticket and there had been a mistake.

I'm sorry, but that's not good enough.

You don't invite people to an event and then uninvite them a couple of days later.

Maybe they screwed up, but they should standover the screw up.

There is no way I am going to bother wasting my time attending an event that is that badly organised.

No way.

Crazy Audiovisual Clock

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:21:10 -0600

Hangovers

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:53:29 -0600

I love parties and other social gatherings. They're great.

What I don't love is the next day.

The dreaded hangover.

There's no point in complaining about hangovers, as they're entirely self-inflicted and I should know better (of course I don't!)

Thankfully I have plenty of strong coffee to hand, so the effects will wear off .... eventually...