Justin Mason has just launched Irish Pulse. An aggregator for Irish Twitter users.
I think it is a nice tool. It lets me see what other Irish people are saying (beyond the 70 or so that I follow). It shows me replies that don’t show up in my feed, and I’m guessing that it also shows a bunch of mysterious missing tweets, because I’m sure I don’t see half of this stuff that I should be getting.
One concern for me is that the pure convenience of an aggregator like this might discourage new people from joining the conversation. I originally signed up to Twitter to follow breaking news and tap into the information that is out there (e.g., Blacknight downtime over Christmas). By actually immersing myself into the stream of consciousness, joining Twitter, adding all of these people that I “kind of” knew, the system came to life and suddenly it all made sense.
Irish Pulse is like reading an IRC log without actually being in the channel, a bunch of uninteresting one-liners from faceless people with stupid names, with the occasional nugget of value here and there. Irish Pulse collapses Twitterspace, flattening it into the log of an IRC channel during a netsplit (a lot of the participants can’t really see each other). People who hate Twitter are not going to change their minds. People who aren’t familiar with Twitter, or are considering creating an account might feel that this meets their needs, and miss out on Twitter’s extra dimensions.
I like Irish Pulse, and I recommend that everyone does what Justin suggests: “read it: bookmark and take a look now and again.” It gives you an opportunity to step out of the crowd for a moment and take a look around from the balcony. But if you haven’t yet created a Twitter account and seen it from the inside, then I would advise you not to rely on Irish Pulse as anything more than another buzz aggregator.
If you’re an Apple fanboy like me, you have waited all this time for the iPhone to arrive. Not a dirty hacked iPhone, but the real deal. It comes courtesy of O2, as expected. You check the price tag and see that they are not bumping up the price of the phone significantly compared to in the UK, surprisingly. Good stuff. Then you see the Paddy tax. Rip-off Ireland lives on in O2’s call charges. I think I might take Pat up on that bus to the north to get an unlocked iPhone.
“There is no excuse for paying such high prices and getting so little in return. The minutes, the text bundles and the data package are completely inappropriate for Irish people and the massive difference in what Irish and UK and Northern people get for the same price suggests that they’ll throw any old scraps at the stupid Paddys.”
A very unusual film, without the first word of dialogue spoken until 14 and a half minutes in. Not much of a plot, it is all about one thing: the character of Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) - an oil man who becomes consumed by his mean and greedy streak. “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.”
As a film overall, it was lacking some of the critical elements that make up a great flick, and deservedly played second fiddle to the superior No Country For Old Men. There Will Be Blood did manage to land two awards (Best Actor, Cinematography), and to say Day-Lewis deserved his would be a huge understatement. Some great scenes, especially the moments involving Eli that make the audience guilty of Daniel’s own admission: “there are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.”
Noticed this thread of appreciation for Nick Cave on boards.ie, it was the first time I’ve seen his letter to MTV declining his nomination for the MTV Music Awards from years ago.
TO ALL THOSE AT MTV,
I WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OVER RECENT YEARS AND I AM BOTH GRATEFUL AND FLATTERED BY THE NOMINATIONS THAT I HAVE RECEIVED FOR BEST MALE ARTIST. THE AIR PLAY GIVEN TO BOTH THE KYLIE MINOGUE AND P. J. HARVEY DUETS FROM MY LATEST ALBUM MURDER BALLADS HAS NOT GONE UNNOTICED AND HAS BEEN GREATLY APPRECIATED. SO AGAIN MY SINCERE THANKS.
HAVING SAID THAT, I FEEL THAT IT’S NECESSARY FOR ME TO REQUEST THAT MY NOMINATION FOR BEST MALE ARTIST BE WITHDRAWN AND FURTHERMORE ANY AWARDS OR NOMINATIONS FOR SUCH AWARDS THAT MAY ARISE IN LATER YEARS BE PRESENTED TO THOSE WHO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THESE AWARD CEREMONIES. I MYSELF, DO NOT. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF THE OPINION THAT MY MUSIC IS UNIQUE AND INDIVIDUAL AND EXISTS BEYOND THE REALMS INHABITED BY THOSE WHO WOULD REDUCE THINGS TO MERE MEASURING. I AM IN COMPETITION WITH NO-ONE.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY MUSE IS A DELICATE ONE AT THE BEST OF TIMES AND I FEEL THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO PROTECT HER FROM INFLUENCES THAT MAY OFFEND HER FRAGILE NATURE.
SHE COMES TO ME WITH THE GIFT OF SONG AND IN RETURN I TREAT HER WITH THE RESPECT I FEEL SHE DESERVES - IN THIS CASE THIS MEANS NOT SUBJECTING HER TO THE INDIGNITIES OF JUDGEMENT AND COMPETITION. MY MUSE IS NOT A HORSE AND I AM IN NO HORSE RACE AND IF INDEED SHE WAS, STILL I WOULD NOT HARNESS HER TO THIS TUMBREL - THIS BLOODY CART OF SEVERED HEADS AND GLITTERING PRIZES. MY MUSE MAY SPOOK! MAY BOLT! MAY ABANDON ME COMPLETELY!
SO ONCE AGAIN, TO THE PEOPLE AT MTV, I APPRECIATE THE ZEAL AND ENERGY THAT WAS PUT BEHIND MY LAST RECORD, I TRULY DO AND SAY THANK YOU AND AGAIN I SAY THANK YOU BUT NO…NO THANK YOU.
YOURS SINCERELY, NICK CAVE 21 OCT 96.
You never know if the guy is completely taking the piss out of you or not, but it is great stuff either way. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds will be playing in Dublin Castle in a couple of days, it is disappointing that they didn’t make it to Cork, especially with The Marquee looking well below par this summer.
Occasionally I see fit to throw a bone to the frantic Googlers out there looking for tech support answers. Here’s an easy one for anyone who forked out on this wifi range extender that they sell in Maplin and is currently finding it completely unusable. The firmware that it comes with quite simply does not work. In my case, the unit stays connected for a few minutes at most before requiring a reboot. Upgrading to this firmware did the trick OK.
I can’t believe a product could be released that is so obviously broken. I’ve seen lots of dodgy firmware versions for routers in the past that will choke up due to syn floods or viruses or whatever, but out here on a quiet private network in the middle of the country side there is no excuse for keeling over, straight out of the box. Got to say though, this has been rock solid since upgrading.
Quake Live, the newest in the Quake series by ID Software, is now accepting beta testers. You can sign up with your email address on the website. Quake Live is a free game, based on Quake 3, fully focused on the multiplayer side of things. Multiplayer games have strayed far from the tried and trusted “just point and shoot” mantra of Quake, so it is good to have another game that does not require you to twirl around three times and tap you heels before planting a bomb on the VIP.
I saw Rescue Dawn last night, a movie starring Christian Bale about the German American navy pilot, Dieter Dengler, who crash landed in North Vietnam during the war and was held in a prison camp. Rescue Dawn had some good points, but it was not quite up to Bale’s high standards, and definitely not worthy of the high rating I’ve seen it get on the internet. I was suspicious of a few plot holes and inconsistencies, since this is meant to be a true story, and Google turned up this site built by some friends and relative of the prisoners with a 12 page account of the escape told by the other survivor, Pisidhi. The site has video clips of Pisidhi and Dieter, and others, and offers a new perspective on the story - particularly on the character “Eugene” who was apparently portrayed very unfairly in the film.
I am from Cork, Ireland. A fan of the Big Lebowski, Mac OS X, Linux, Cork hurling, Munster rugby, Irish football. Interests include QuakeWorld, Python (lately Django), network security, web applications and technology in general.
Leave a comment if you come across something that interests you. My contact details are here. Alternatively, you can connect on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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