Vacation In Ireland

I created  site recently which I plan to put a lot of content in the new year on vacations nd holidays in Ireland.  I think a lot of people buy guide books read them before the holidays nd during but don't actually do half the things they plan to do when they get there. http://www.wheretovacationinireland.com/ will help people with bite sized content on holiday breaks in Ireland with trips, sites to see and some accomodation tips.

If you have any ideas for it then leave me a comment and I will add to the site if helpful.

Link to Google Maps

I got some good updates to my WIFI map and here is the actual link as opposed to the map.

Cork WIFI Map

Blog Catalog

Free WIFI Google Map of Cork

I started this Google Map of free wireless internat locations in Cork. Drop me a note if you know any and I will update it. Coming soon is the cheapest pints in Cork and cheapest grub so you can visit on a budget.

Improve my Blogging - Christmas Plans

I like to blog - I don't to it to make money from paid links really and I don't even think anyone visits my sites.  But I use it as an online notebook for my thoughts and for links that I find like this one about how to improve your blog.  Nicely written and with some relevant information.  This Christmas I plan to blog more than normal and look into social networking a bit more to see what that can give me.

Iphone - White Screen of Death

I was out the other evening with my trusty Iphone and surfing the web in a local pub when suddenly it went completly white.  Aaargh I cried (I actually did cry Aaargh and some other words).  Complete white screen.  What worse I had some incoming call at the same time from another friend so could hear it ringing but couldn't answer.  And my phone doesn't ring that often as it is more a device for mail and web than making calls. Nothing I did made a difference.

I went online that night and couldn't find much information so in the end with some trepidation I hit restore in Itunes.  For my Ipod this erases everything but for the Iphone I now know that it makes a regular backup so when I was complete I had everything back to normal.  I was so relieved.  I need to research WHY this happens but for the moment I am glad that my Iphone is back in action.

Free Wi-Fi

As I have now bought an Iphone I am interested in where in Cork there is free Wi-Fi.

Here is a list of what I know about (not definitive but a start)

• Both Douglas Court Centres
• Courthouse (if you can stand in the rain!)
• Frankfield Golf Club
  
• Old Oak Pub
• Clarion Hotel - Lapps Quay
• MacDonalds in Blackpool
• Topaz Gas/Petrol Station end of Grange Rd near Airport roundabout - tried this Oct 13-08 and it didn't pick up the signal.
  
• Bus Station
  
• East Village Bar in Douglas
• Barrys Bar (I think)
• Bodega (I think need to confirm)
  

TV On The Radio - Check it Out

Album of the Week / Day / Moment

TV on the Radio - Dear Science.... Very retro cool sound brings back lots of vibe like Heaven 17, Gery Numan, mid 80s when Numan was cool and Tubeway Army was fresh.

Here is the Emusic link where I downloaded it.  Need to upgrade that car radio to MP3 as my CDs are overflowing and there is too much great music to listen to before I head for the brown box..

Boney M

I am in shock.  I downloaded Boney M's greatest hits last night and always thought it was "Brown Girl in the Rain" - Nope its in the Ring. Need to have a strong coffee to recover. As for what I downloaded Boney M for that's another story.

Scribefire and Flickr

I use Scribefire with Firefox to write my Blog entries and they post them to whichever Blog I want (scribefire sits at the bottom of my browser).  It has a feature that allows you put in an image from Flickr by just searching.

[Vespa from Flickr]

Album of the Day - 10 September 2008

I have been too busy in the past couple of days to listen to much music in work but the current album in heavy rotation on the earphones is Okkervil River's new offering The Stand Ins. Saying that one of the kick ass tunes that I have heard this week is Fedde Le Grande - Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. Found this track when browsing DNA Lounge's mix tape by jwz. He has some interesting stuff there that I sometimes download and listen to.

Billy Bragg is coming to Cork

[Billy Bragg is coming to Cork -Image from Flickr]

Freemind

I have started using Freemind again after a break. It is an open source mind mapping tool and I used it in the past for studying for my MBA. You can save it as HTML as well and put it on web sites (not sure how on a blog but wait and see). I have started using it to track tasks in work and for any other computer based project like the web sites I work on or blogs that I have created and am working on.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

So there I am wondering what I should listen to and download and surfing and looking and around and then I just revert to basics. I love Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ... excellent lyrics - great beat - singer rocks - they are back on my always play list with Massive Attack and BMRC.. I will travel to see them when they hit Ireland again for sure and Paudie is coming with me.

Album of the Day - Sep 2nd

Listening to Thursten Moore at the moment. Never a Sonic Youth fan but this 2007 album Trees Outside the Academy is really solid listen. The Shape is in a Trance is my favourite track on the album by far but overall it is a real cool feel good album to listen to. I have burned it to CD as my Ipod radio transmitter does not do it justice in the car - note to go look at replacement stereos.. Pitchfork gave it a 7.9 when it came out - read the review here

Trying to listen to the August downloads that I didn't listen to. Plan to download even more this month - go a bit back into the 90s and dig up some of the classics that I just didn't get to due to life, kids and travel. Watch this space for the September download list.

Mobile Phones

I notice more and more that people walk around gripping their cell/mobile phones in their hands as if they are going to ring any minute. I don't think so!! For instance my phone rang twice last weekend (yes the whole weekend). How many times did yours?

What does this mean ? I think it means to me that the need for an easy to use all in one device such as the Iphone makes sense as taking a picture or listening to music are things that we do more of than actually receiving or making calls.

I accept that SMS/texting is more popular but to the era of taking a picture and being able to send it through your phone easily is coming more and more th the fore. I can do it on my phone but to be honest the picture is small and hard to see.

Flickr Uploader

I used the Flickr Uploader for the first time this morning. I know everyone and their granny uses it but one of my resolutions recently was to take more photos and indeed I have done that and this helps me get them uploaded and share with people. I might even reach my unpaid Flickr limit !!

Music This Month [August]

Recently I was speaking to brud Paudie about how much music I downloaded and how many actual full length albums (do people still call the albums?) I downloaded or burnt to my PC in a month. So here is what I have on my hard drive for August (not listened to mind but downloaded). In bold is actually what I listened to properly. So in total 25 Albums in the months of August. Scary really and not enough time in the day to listen to them all. But I will try!

1. Lee Scratch Perry - Voodooism
2. Ben Allison - Riding The Nuclear Tiger
3. Fela Kuti - Music Is The Weapon Of The Future
4. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
5. The First Chapters - http://tinyurl.com/5psgkw Early Rave Album
6. Monkey (Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett)
7. The Walkmen- You & Me
8. Truckasauras - Tea Parties, Guns & Valor
9. Black Uhuru - Black Sounds of Freedom
10. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
11. The Bug - London Zoo
12. Earth - The Bees Made Honey
13. OM
14. Muse - All their Albums
15. Shearwater - Rock
16. The Moldy Peaches
17. Harvey Milk
18. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us
19. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
20. Sigur Ros-( )
21. The Verve - Forth
22. OM - Pilgrimage
23. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
24. The Frank and the Walters - Fight
25. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
    

Of course you can always check this out on my Last FM Profile