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Steve Jobs has Fake Steve Jobs. Shel Israel has a puppet. Paul Walsh has Walsh Watch.

It seems I've now got the next best thing - my own "wikipedia" page courtesy of Mr Eoin Costello. (He was in the news earlier this week when his hosting company was swallowed up)

I must say I am impressed. I didn't realise that Eoin was such a talented wit and not a bad graphic artist either.

It must have taken a couple of hours to put it all together. So maybe we'll see more of these little works of art now that he isn't distracted by his "booming" business.

Of course if he'd spent more time on his business maybe he would still be a "player" and not another footnote ...

Here's a screenshot of the page in case Mr Costello removes it.

You'll have to excuse the horrible photo, but I haven't had a chance to even plugin my new "toy". It arrived by courier late this morning, but I got caught up in client meetings for most of the afternoon...

For the last couple of years I've been forced to maintain a Windows PC in the office so that I could access AIB's online banking service. While it was possible to "bludgeon" it into working with Ubuntu it was a lot "saner" to use Windows. Fortunately AIB finally upgraded to using a proper JVM recently and made their business banking completely cross-platform and cross-browser (it probably doesn't work with lynx, but that's hardly a good example, is it? :) )

So I've no more need for my Windows desktop.

I would have considered simply rebuilding my existing PC with either pure Ubuntu or a dualboot, but since I've become quite fond of OS X I decided that I'd move to it completely. Of course moving to Apple entirely while an attractive proposition isn't exactly economical, as a decent spec iMac can set you back more than several "normal" PCs.

Thank God for eBay!

I hope to start the migration tomorrow... Or maybe Monday (time permitting!)

I'm currently considering getting a Blackberry or similar device. Much as I love my N95 it's lack of a full keyboard wouldn't make it my ideal choice for email "on the go".

Since we're with Vodafone I naturally thought that checking their site would be a good idea.

How wrong could I be!

There is simply no sane way to see a list of available phones on their site.

Sure. You can lie and say you are a new client and get "a" list, but if you are an existing bill pay client you will end up looking elsewhere in frustration, as the site simply does not work.

You can't see the phones unless you login.

So, you login.

Can you now see the phones? No. That would be far too logical. Not only does it ask you to login (even though the top right of the page shows that you are already logged in) but it starts asking you irrelevant questions about upgrades.
Did I say I wanted an upgrade?
Do I even care if I am eligible?
No.
All I want to know is what phones are available and roughly how much they cost.
Is that too much to ask?

Sorry about the rant!

I feel calmer now! 

I think I'll just head over to ebay instead...

I'll be heading over to Los Angeles towards the end of next month for the ICANN meeting which is being held close to LAX.

I'm still finalising my travel details, but I expect to be over there for about a week or so.

Since Aer Lingus planes are like sardine cans I'll probably be flying with British Airways this time round. Virgin Atlantic would have been nice, but I don't think there's an easy way to book all the way through from Ireland and getting stranded somewhere if a connecting flight is late or whatever would really upset me.

If anyone is planning on going to ICANN in LA and wants to meetup for beers etc., let me know

IQ Content (one of those companies that does cool stuff (tm) ) is on the look out for a project manager Why do I mention this? Well they asked me nicely, so I couldn't think of any reason not to mention it! Contrary to popular opinion I can be nice at times .... On a not wholly unrelated topic, we're still looking for staff as always.. We've currently got openings in both technical support and sales, so if you'd like to work with a dynamic fast growing innovative company (I was running out of adjectives!) then pop your CV in PDF or RTF format to management@blacknight.ie

The 2007 Irish Internet Association Net Visionary awards are now open for nominations. People I'd like to see win this year:

1. Alan O Rourke
2. Conn
3. Red Cardinal
4. 2Bscene
5. Damien Mulley
6. Dave Davis

The category list is below: Social Contribution Technology Journalist Innovation eGovernment Internet Marketer Web Designer Web Developer Online Trader Educational Contribution Internet Entrepreneur Mobile Internet Application Best Online Banking Service Best Podcaster Best Blogger I'll try to put together a proper list of people I'd nominate under each category over the next couple of days ...

Nothing like a bit of self promotion :) Full story here: Eurid accredits Blacknight Solutions

There have been a few threads about print advertising on the Irish Webmaster Forum over the last year or so and if you look at the most recent one you can spot a trend. A lot of web professionals are unfamiliar with print media and those that are doing print advertising probably aren't too comfortable sharing details of pricing etc., Up until 2003 I had never bought print advertising in my life. I'd been involved in negotiations about it in a previous job, but I'd never been the one making the decision and spending their own money. Print media advertising is very different to online advertising. It's a completely different world. A few things I have learnt over the years:

• Don't expect your first ad to have a huge impact
• Rate cards are open to negotiation
• Don't let them design the ad for you
• Don't take their stats at face value
• If the price isn't right walk away
• If you've never heard of the publication or seen it be careful

If you buy banner advertising or PPC you're probably used to dealing with relatively tangible figures. If someone clicks on your advert you can track that click all the way to the checkout and see how much it earned you (or didn't). When you do print advertising it's not that easy. Even if you ask every single person who rings up where they heard about your services / goods you will always find that a lot of them won't actually remember. (I've been told that we ran ads in publications we've never dealt with more than once!) You can, however, use things like custom landing pagers or coupon codes. Rate cards are always an interesting one. When I first started out I actually thought that people were semi-serious about them, but you soon discover that you can simply treat them as a guideline - though if you're a shy wallflower you may not be able to negotiate as good a price as someone tougher. Like anything - the more you buy the cheaper it becomes. If you buy a series of ads the cost per unit will drop the longer the series is. So the list price for a single ad could be a hell of a lot more than the price of a series of ads! Our first adverts were naive. We didn't have a lot of money to throw around and we thought it would be a good idea to let the magazines design the ads for us inhouse. Bad idea! Every time your company / business name is used in public - especially in an advert - it is a direct reflection on your business' perception. If the ad looks cheap and tacky, what kind of impression are you going to give? (there is a cynical counter-argument to that of course - just because the ad is slick doesn't mean that the service / product is going to be as slick as promised!) It may seem expensive to hire a professional designer, but it will pay dividends! Don't forget - you can reuse an ad. Readership statistics can be abused by a good sales person quite easily. You can either waste a lot of time trying to analyse the data they're giving you, or go with your gut. After you've spoken to a few advertising sales people you'll probably realise that they ALL consider their publication to be the best in its niche and that their readership is worth a fortune. Things to watch out for - actual sales vs. freebies One Irish publication I know of has a circulation of thousands, but only actually sells about a 100 copies per issue. Maybe a fraction of the people who get free copies are actually interested in the publication, but since none of them asked for it I'd have to wonder.... Choosing the correct publication for your ads is not going to be easy, but try to put yourself in the mind of the reader. If you buy a magazine specialising in making model cars you're probably not that interested in an advert for eye liner... Don't be afraid to say no. Sales people succeed, in most cases, by building up a rapport with their clients and prospects. By charming them to some degree. If they're doing their job you may feel slightly guilty when you don't buy. Don't. If the price isn't right or the product doesn't fit your market, walk away. Don't be afraid to ask for sample copies of publications that you aren't familiar with. If the content style doesn't seem to fit then you probably shouldn't be buying advertising space with it.

One of my pet peeves is misleading advertising. In some cases it's a matter of reading the fine print. In other cases it's simply a matter of the advertiser "chancing their arm". At present this site, and several others I run, are displaying adds from a particular company that claim to offer "the best", "the cheapest" etc., etc. Of course they don't, but it does make you wonder about people's buying decisions. Are they really influenced by a company's own claims? Should companies sell themselves as being the "best" etc?

In another one of the sidenote style posts ..... We've currently got about 4 positions open!! That's mad! It wasn't that long ago that we had 4 staff! Anyway, we're looking for the following:

• Sales Staff
• Technical Support
• Php programming

If you feel that you are suitable pop your CV over to management@blacknight.ie in PDF or RTF format.