Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Wednesday 27 August 2008
Photosynth play
I had my first play with photosynth. I have to say I was looking forward to this for a while. My base images are of the castle in Ballinskelligs, Kerry, Ireland. I have visited there on two separate occasions in the past 2 years and taken a few pictures. While there are a lot of matches between many images photosynth has the lot broken up in a number of different groups. This means photosynth could not relate all the groups together, even though they are for a fact in the same location. It's good now that it is out I just hope that microsoft build on it, rather than put it on the shelf and forget it like a bad idea. I have a stack of images I took for stitching I have to run through to see how it performs.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Dustin the turkey refuses to pull Out of Eurosong contest
While living overseas usually a day doesn't go by when you aren't asked something about where you are from. Most of the time the questions are easy, for example why is Ireland so green? Easy, it rains all the time. Other times the questions can be hard like why did Ireland rejected the Treaty of Nice the first time around, eh... Slavery?However this one is going to be real hard. What! Has Ireland entered a puppet turkey into the Eurovision Song contest? Eh ... I believe to understand this, one must first consider the socio-political situation that led to World War I...
Well not yet, but Ireland's own, Dustin the Turkey, has gotten down to the final six and on February 23rd it will go to the nation to pick who they feel should represent Ireland in Serbia. The other final five competitors are up in arms, because there is a very real chance that they could lose.
Three of the country's top music men, songwriter Phil Coulter, Frank McNamara and Eurovision veteran Shay Healy, all criticised the decision by an RTE committee to select the popular bird as one of the six finalists for Ireland's entry.However it may not be the end of the world. Dustin has been an ambassador for Ireland before, in my travels I have seen him on American TV (I believe he was running for president) and more recently on aussie TV. I still remember the first time Dustin appeared on the Den, who would have thought he was last this long?
Sunday 9 September 2007
Irish Racism? or just culture.
I don't get too topical or political most of the time but my interest has been piqued by the recent view of Kevin Myers on immigration and racism in Ireland into Ireland over the past 5 years Ireland is experiencing huge immigration with new cultures living side by side with the existing one. Some people don't like this and it not uncommon for names to be thrown about. However the call of racism may not be entirely accurate. Long before Ireland became a country people wanted to immigrate into it was pretty much full of just Irish people, there were some exceptions, God Bless Phil Lynott usually credited as Ireland first black man.
Back then, and even now it was not enough to just be Irish. As a Cork/Dublin hybrid I have experienced the Irish life style of the "Eternal Blow In", I'm not bitter mind but it did give me some perspective on the country that loves to make a lot out of people's difference, even if it is just your accent. I have done a fair bit of travelling, a few years in the states and currently residing in Sydney, Australia. In that time I have met many travelling or resident Paddies. Guaranteed, every time, less than 5 minutes into the first introductory conversation with an Irish person the question comes up : "Where are you from?" and it is always to place you, to put you in some county related box, or if your are from the same county what part of it. It is never enough to just be Irish and be done with it. I know/knew an Irish girl that made assumption about you based on how well your county was doing the either the gaelic football or the hurling. After travelling for years my accent has been cleaned up (some times kicking and screaming), I no longer say "Turty Fuhve" after been ribbed too much it has become "Thirty Five" which is even more source for the title of "Eternal Blow-In" any time I return home. Even comedians get great mileage out of making fun of people from different parts of the country, Tommy Tiernans assessment of Cork people while funny isn't too far of the mark as covered in this segment from his Cracked DVD:
I have made the observation amongst friends that you only really become Irish once you leave Ireland until then you better have picked a place to be from. A lot has been made of the Irish being very friendly and a land of a Hundred Thousand welcomes (Céad míle fáilte). While working with a french co-op student in Ireland 8 years ago he pointed out to me that people he worked with were very friendly when out for a few jars in the pub but the next day they would barely talk to him.
So now here we are almost one complete decade into the 21st Century, the Ireland of today is not the one I grew up with 30 years ago. Back then it was the Dubs against the Culchies, north side versus south side, Kerry versus Cork, Munster versus Leinster etc. on and on. Face it, we (the Irish) were just looking for difference so that we could break away into little Travis Bickle tribes and hate "Them" for being different. So now into this incestuous maelstrom walk immigrants that actual are different, they speak different, they look different, they have different religion, different culture. They don't stand a chance against the old guard. They don't have to work hard to find a difference so that they can make fun or, heaven forbid, hate "Them".
To see how far we have come or have yet to go I would direct the reader (any left?) to the first episode of the third season of Father Ted, "Are You Right There, Father Ted" . Part of the hilarity was that there is a Chinatown section on Craggy Island. Now it doesn't seem to too far off base.
Back then, and even now it was not enough to just be Irish. As a Cork/Dublin hybrid I have experienced the Irish life style of the "Eternal Blow In", I'm not bitter mind but it did give me some perspective on the country that loves to make a lot out of people's difference, even if it is just your accent. I have done a fair bit of travelling, a few years in the states and currently residing in Sydney, Australia. In that time I have met many travelling or resident Paddies. Guaranteed, every time, less than 5 minutes into the first introductory conversation with an Irish person the question comes up : "Where are you from?" and it is always to place you, to put you in some county related box, or if your are from the same county what part of it. It is never enough to just be Irish and be done with it. I know/knew an Irish girl that made assumption about you based on how well your county was doing the either the gaelic football or the hurling. After travelling for years my accent has been cleaned up (some times kicking and screaming), I no longer say "Turty Fuhve" after been ribbed too much it has become "Thirty Five" which is even more source for the title of "Eternal Blow-In" any time I return home. Even comedians get great mileage out of making fun of people from different parts of the country, Tommy Tiernans assessment of Cork people while funny isn't too far of the mark as covered in this segment from his Cracked DVD:
I have made the observation amongst friends that you only really become Irish once you leave Ireland until then you better have picked a place to be from. A lot has been made of the Irish being very friendly and a land of a Hundred Thousand welcomes (Céad míle fáilte). While working with a french co-op student in Ireland 8 years ago he pointed out to me that people he worked with were very friendly when out for a few jars in the pub but the next day they would barely talk to him.
So now here we are almost one complete decade into the 21st Century, the Ireland of today is not the one I grew up with 30 years ago. Back then it was the Dubs against the Culchies, north side versus south side, Kerry versus Cork, Munster versus Leinster etc. on and on. Face it, we (the Irish) were just looking for difference so that we could break away into little Travis Bickle tribes and hate "Them" for being different. So now into this incestuous maelstrom walk immigrants that actual are different, they speak different, they look different, they have different religion, different culture. They don't stand a chance against the old guard. They don't have to work hard to find a difference so that they can make fun or, heaven forbid, hate "Them".
To see how far we have come or have yet to go I would direct the reader (any left?) to the first episode of the third season of Father Ted, "Are You Right There, Father Ted" . Part of the hilarity was that there is a Chinatown section on Craggy Island. Now it doesn't seem to too far off base.
Thursday 9 August 2007
Dynamic mp3 pricing - Good idea, wrong way
A strange entry on slashdot today with a company, AmieStreet.com, announcing a partner ship which Amazon where they want to introduce a demand based pricing model. They are proposing that the price of an mp3 goes up the more popular it is, to a capped value of $0.98. This on the face of it is an interesting concept.
However those of us that lived through the first internet bubble might recognise this as the nonsense that pervaded before the bust (gardens.com was my favourite loser). Surprisingly enough this model exists already in different operator sectors. Some toll operators of tunnels and roads will change at different parts of the day. This however is not to generate revenue (though a lot of them are in the business to do this), it is also to act as a deterrent and give people an added incentive to avoid the tolled section unless you really have to.
Secondly this deterrent is required due to the physical nature of the non digital world. It is more preferable to find ways for people to use the resources more efficiently that to build new roads or power stations. I grew up in the Ireland, the ESB (the national electrical supply board) were always putting out ads for energy saving lagging jackets and power saving heaters. Why would a power company go out of its way to help you use less electricity (and thus save you money)? It's simple when it is that or build a brand new power station, they ain't cheap!
The digital world is not as constrained. A few years ago you may want to deter the download of a popular song because you server and/or bandwidth couldn't keep up. This has pretty much been resolved, the rise of Flickr and YouTube are example of this.
However I think that there may be something in dynamic pricing, but the opposite of what AmieStreet.com are suggesting, the more popular the song the cheaper it gets. You start at $0.50 and the price decreases at $0.05 at sales increase you decrease it on some logarithmic scale. $0.05 decrease after the first 100 sales, then another $0.05 after a 1000, and so on.
That means the is stil a premium for music that exists in the long tail, which is reasonable it does cost money at some point to track it down, rip it, host it and make it available. If Amazon want to enter into a pricing deal with me, given me a call.
However those of us that lived through the first internet bubble might recognise this as the nonsense that pervaded before the bust (gardens.com was my favourite loser). Surprisingly enough this model exists already in different operator sectors. Some toll operators of tunnels and roads will change at different parts of the day. This however is not to generate revenue (though a lot of them are in the business to do this), it is also to act as a deterrent and give people an added incentive to avoid the tolled section unless you really have to.
Secondly this deterrent is required due to the physical nature of the non digital world. It is more preferable to find ways for people to use the resources more efficiently that to build new roads or power stations. I grew up in the Ireland, the ESB (the national electrical supply board) were always putting out ads for energy saving lagging jackets and power saving heaters. Why would a power company go out of its way to help you use less electricity (and thus save you money)? It's simple when it is that or build a brand new power station, they ain't cheap!
The digital world is not as constrained. A few years ago you may want to deter the download of a popular song because you server and/or bandwidth couldn't keep up. This has pretty much been resolved, the rise of Flickr and YouTube are example of this.
However I think that there may be something in dynamic pricing, but the opposite of what AmieStreet.com are suggesting, the more popular the song the cheaper it gets. You start at $0.50 and the price decreases at $0.05 at sales increase you decrease it on some logarithmic scale. $0.05 decrease after the first 100 sales, then another $0.05 after a 1000, and so on.
That means the is stil a premium for music that exists in the long tail, which is reasonable it does cost money at some point to track it down, rip it, host it and make it available. If Amazon want to enter into a pricing deal with me, given me a call.
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