Archive for June, 2007
Give Donncha the vote in the PhotoBlog Awards
Posted on June 21, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging.
The fabulous Donncha is not just a new dad, the creator of Wordpress MU and from Cork, he is also a great photographer. Head on over to this site to give him the vote.
Between this and telling everyone at Soho Solo to setup their blogs on wordpress.com, he owes me at least a bottle of babycham.
2 Comments
Possible fraud and libel by City Jet Handling employee(s)
Posted on June 20, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Friends, Ireland.
My good buddy Damien had some harsh accurate words to say recently about City Jet Handling (previously known as Sky Handling Partners). It now appears to someone in that organisation has been using Damien’s details to sign up to gay dating sites. He has not received a satisfactory response from them and wonders what to do next. I think a Solicitor’s letter should be the first step. Anyone else?
2 Comments
Think you can review something in 140 characters or less?
Posted on June 13, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Reviews, Technology, Tweets.
Then LouderTweets are for you.
After a few late nights we’re now ready to let you send reviews from Twitter to LouderVoice. We’re calling them LouderTweets and they are 140 character mini-reviews you can send using Web, SMS or IM via Twitter to LouderVoice.
So far we’ve had reviews of chocolate, couscous, a conference, a lawnmower and many others. Make your Tweets Louder!
An important point is that you don’t have to be a LouderVoice member to send LouderTweets but you should join if you want to rate, bookmark and build/share useful collections of reviews and mini-reviews.
And how do you send LouderTweets as a Twitter user? It’s very simple:
- Add the Twitter “review” user as a friend here
- Wait until you get a confirmation that you have been added back as a friend
- Post reviews using this format on Twitter: @review RATING ITEM. REVIEW
- Example: @review 4 The Apprentice UK. A stonkingly good series that has thrown up plenty of surprises
- That format is very specific otherwise we won’t pick up the review. Rating is in the range 1-5. Full-stop/Period mandatory.
- Shortly afterwards that review can be found by searching on www.loudervoice.com (in an open community microformat called hreview)
You can see an example here:
Tweet: http://twitter.com/oldchapel/statuses/101344802
LouderVoice: http://www.loudervoice.com/search?q=tesco+chocolate
As with all tweets, you can send your review tweet using whatever tool you like: web-page, Google GTalk, SMS, Tweetr etc
Let us know what you think.
2 Comments
Review of Jacques Restaurant
Posted on June 10, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
JACQUES Restaurant,
Phoenix Street,
Cork City,
Co Cork,
Ireland
My birthday meal out this year was to Jacques in Cork City. I’ve heard lots of complimentary things about it over the years and both my sister and parents have had great meals there.It’s a little awkward to find being on a side-street of a side-street and it turned out to be much smaller than I expected and jammed full.
The room isn’t great. Very bright with spotlights on the ceiling and old pictures of the city on the walls. We both thought it lacked character and didn’t feel the place for a romantic quiet meal for two.
I loved the look of the menu and had a hard time deciding what to get. For starters I had lambs tongue which was quite tasty but nothing to go crazy about.
Catherine plumped for Asparagus and Gubbeen Salami which looked great and she really enjoyed.
Wine for the night was a decent 2005 Pouilly Fumee.
Mains were the big let down of the night. Catherine did better with some hake on greens. Nothing wrong with it, just utterly forgettable.
Mine was a bit of a disaster. I went with scallops on cauliflour puree. The scallops were ok if a bit insipid (frozen perhaps?) and the puree was good. But they burnt the potatoes in the stack and it ruined the plate. I know mistakes happen but when you burn something, you know you’ve burnt it, yet they still put it on a plate and served it to me.
I should have given it back and complained but I couldn’t be bothered. At that point we were both just disappointed with the whole experience.
Catherine wasn’t grabbed by any of the deserts and I went with dates on orange. Not too bad but a bit middle-of-the-road.
In fact I think that phrase defines the whole meal. Nothing massively wrong, just nothing to blow your socks off.
However, value was excellent, coming in cheaper than most meals we’ve eaten out in the past year.
Maybe we just got them on a bad night since I’ve only heard positive things about them but to be honest I doubt we’ll be back.
17 Comments
Anyone know who owns/controls the old Orange/Masonic building in Bandon?
Posted on June 10, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Ireland.
Someone has just suggested an awesome forward looking idea to me for it. Will collect my thoughts and blog it later.
3 Comments
Tons of peaches and no salad
Posted on June 9, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food.
I’ll admit I thought the wife was a bit mental when she bought a peach tree a few months back but I stuck it in the ground anyway. Yesterday she pointed this out to me:
I’m gobsmacked. Must get a lemon tree now!
Apples coming along nicely:
Goosegogs are flying:
Strawberries not too bad:
But what in the name of god is going on with my veg patch?
I planted a ton of lettuces, scallions, rocket, radishes and carrots. Nothing, not one fecking thing grew. I’ve never had total failure like that. Strangely, weeds are thin on the ground too. When it was built they said they put in rotted manure in the base. Any chance that is to blame? Or are the birds + slugs + local cats able to destroy every seed I planted?
Yesterday I stuck in some squash plants, tomato plants, basil and broccoli that I had been growing in the shed. I actually did the seeds months ago but the lack of light has matched my lack of activity and they are just perfect now for planting. Maybe they’ll all die too. I also took all the half used packets of salad seeds and scattered them willy-nilly. The zero-effort guide to gardening continues.
9 Comments
Review of Tesco Online Shopping
Posted on June 7, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
Both myself and Catherine have raved about Tesco home delivery in the past. For the first few weeks that we used it, they couldn’t put a foot wrong. Then about a month ago the rot started to set in. The man problem was that they were missing the delivery slots by over an hour in some cases.
Last night they hit rock bottom. When they got to over an hour late, Catherine rang to see what the hell was going on. Half an hour later the driver rang to say that the order had been cancelled by “someone” but he still had it and would deliver it. So for a 6pm-8pm slot, we got our stuff at 10pm. His litany of excuses were frankly ridiculous.
Then we saw the list of missing items. Who are they trying to kid? They obviously just gave up as they ran out of time. No Mince. Mince! FFS! Scallions? Nappies? Grapes? Come on,stop treating us like idiots.
Before I forget, the eggs were broken and the lettuce was under a carton of juice.
It looks to me like they have decided to take the RyanAir approach, have cut everything to the bone and are using too few staff for too big an area. Or worse, maybe it is just old school Ireland where shite is good enough.
It isn’t.
Oh and whilst it is possible to get through to phone support, both the online complaint form and the contact emails are broken.
UPDATE 1: Catherine rang Tesco and got through to Scotland who told her to ring Wilton. She finally got through to Home Shopping Manager who was courteous and deeply apologetic. She admitted last night was a total disaster and some orders had to be sent out by taxi. It does sound like they are trying to restructure things in there for the better. But the 1 star rating remains until things actualy improve.
9 Comments
Report problems in County Cork using this
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork.
So after a small amount of fiddling I have put together a simple system to allow people to report problems like water/gas/electricity outages and maybe car crashes and road blockages in Cork (other suggestions welcome).
This is by the residents and for the residents of the region.
Updates are always visible to everyone at The Cork Problems Page.
If you want to send reports then the setup will take you maybe two minutes. From then on you can report problems using a web-page, SMS or Instant Message.
You need to sign up to a U.S. based service called Twitter here. It’s very easy to do. Once you have signed-up, go to the CorkProbs Twitter Page here and add CorkProbs as a friend (simple link on the right hand side of page). Wait until you get an email saying that CorkProbs has also added you as a friend.
From then on, if you want to report a problem or a resolution/update then you can do the following: Go to twitter.com and type the problem into the wee box at the top of the screen. Make sure that the message starts with @CorkProbs followed by a space followed by what you want to say. Click Update.
Within a couple of minutes your message will appear on the Cork Problems Web Page here. You can check this page whenever you want to see what other updates people are posting. Techies can subscribe to the RSS feed.
If you like that, but want more flexibility, then you can set up your Twitter account so you send the problem reports via SMS. Just go to this settings page and tell them about your phone. From then on, you just send SMS messages to +447624801423 in the same style as before i.e. first bit is @CorkProbs
Note that number is a UK one (Twitter does not have an Irish one) so it’s a wee bit more expensive than sending it to an Irish number.
People on Google GTalk can also use that to send messages.
Let me know what you think or if you need any help getting set up. I hope we can create a useful resource for everyone in Cork in the absence of any notification system from Cork CoCo.
Of course there is nothing stopping their employees from signing up and sending updates to it!
5 Comments
Review of The Tipping Point
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book really rocketed him into worldwide fame. Everything he has done since has been eagerly awaited. I only got around to reading The Tipping Point on Thursday and I’m glad I finally did.
The basic idea behind the book is that there are identifiable conditions and actions which cause something to become wildly popular or successful - things that become epidemics (in the wider sense of the word). He describes each of these and then backs them up with a continuous stream of convincing examples.
Some of the examples given include the enormous sudden reduction in crime in New York in the late 90’s, the massive success of certain shoe brands and books, the global phenomena that were Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues and a ton of others.
He picks out common attributes, context and actors in each one. In the case of the actors in any success he identifies The Connector, The Maven and the Saleman. Each of these plays a different role in making something successful.
Some of the concepts he describes include:
- The Law of the Few
- Stickiness
- The Power of Context
- The Magic Number 150
- The New Product Cycle
I found his material on children, learning and kids TV programmes particularly interesting and accurate.
It’s a very light read and he race through it. Something useful or entertaining on every page.
Now I’d better go out and buy Blink.
No Comments
How to find about problems like the water situation in Bandon
Posted on June 3, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork.
We lost water around 2am Saturday and it returned dark brown at around 2pm. Does anyone know what the back story is and whether the water is safe to drink?
I would encourage Cork CoCo to immediately fire the arsehole at the end of the “All other emergencies” phone line listed in the Green Pages. My wife rang this cretin at 6am to report the water problem and find out what was wrong. She had already tried and failed to get through to the local engineers office. The bozo claimed that the number was only for reporting road problems. When asked for an alternative number he said she should check the Green Pages! No amount of arguing could convince this criminal waste of taxpayers money that she had rung the relevant listed number.
I headed to SuperValu to get bottled water at approx 11am to discover it was not just Old Chapel but all of Bandon that was out. Given that the incompetent fool at the end of the phone line is the only way we have of finding out the status of a problem like this, how does Cork CoCo propose to keep residents informed of problems, resolutions and warnings?
Maybe someone should tell them about this amazing new system called d’internet. If small Pacific Islands can set up web based warning systems for tsunamis, is it beyond the wit of Cork CoCo to have similar here? Of course they’d probably put the professionally negligent buffoon who mans the phone line in charge of it.
In the interim I am looking into putting together a very simple problem reporting and viewing system using something like Twitter or Jaiku. You would be able to send problems/resolutions using a web browser, SMS or Instant Message. e.g. broken water mains, ESB failures, car crashes etc.
3 Comments
