The Nutter Lottery

During the Panel discussion at Barcamp Dublin, the Kathy Sierra incident came up...

"Every [blog] reader is a lottery ticket... but a lottery you don't want to win" -- Ryan Alexander

"If you offer yor opinions to the world, people will offer theirs back" -- Darren Barefoot
"There used to be a level of fame starting with A-List and ending with the college professor with a few hundred students that knew him. Well thanks to blogs, you can have more readers than that traditional bottom level" -- Darren Barefoot

"Far worse happens on a software development board than ever happened on a social blog" -- Karlin Lillington

tags :
overheard, Barcamp, Barcamp Dublin, Kathy Sierra, Ryan Alexander, Darren Barefoot, Karlin Lillington

A pride of islands?

And we're off...

As speculated Bertie Ahern requested that Mary McAleese disolve the 29th dáil today (about 30 mins ago).

Jounalists recieved phone calls at 6am to be in position at Áras...
... so it's planned.

The election for Dáil 30 will be on May 24th 2007.
The manifestos are being delivered now... Pity, I woundered if we could have set up the Irish Bloggers Party for the election (no problems getting access to the count if you're a candidate).

Take care,
Will

politics, irish, dail, election

It's alive I tell you

"things live for ever on the web, the internet never forgets"

"blogs are authentic and transparent, but corporate blogs rarely are"

Darren Barefoot

tags
overheard, Darren Barefoot, Barcamp

Can we have flutes at the next BarCamp?

BarCamp Ireland 3 (or BarCamp Dublin as everyone know it has been and gone (and with O'Leary in the digital archive).

For me its fun as there are certain people I only ever seem to meet at a BarCamp its almost a reunion to me. This is something I'll explain much better next week.

The main problem with BarCamp is you have to choose. Your blog and the law, SAAS (I still don't know what it stands for) or JPython. All three talks on at the same time... you have to pick one and that's it.

In fairness, this time the schedule didn't change much between talks, but still when there are a few things you want to see at the same time; its a pity.

Ans when there are two separate talks which should have been together. Krishna De and Darren Barefoot have got to do a talk together.

I'll go through my notes myself (not sharing sorry) and I'll have to thank the people who put the whole thing together: Joe Drumgoole (even if he got my name wrong... I'm not Scott), Elly Parker, Paul Walsh, Eoghan McCabe and Paul Browne.

I'd also like to thank whoever left the tab at the bar... there were a lot of sore heads afterwards....

take care,
Will


Barcamp, Barcamp Ireland 3, Barcamp Dublin

Forget the world, since you've gone

I've girded myself up to spray another spurt of text across the net again. I sort of have to get in the habit of posting more often, but ...

I'll do a Barcamp report shortly, but I've been looking at my own blog, and there will be changes soon.

For those of you visiting (as opposed to RSS reading) you'll see a long blogroll of bands on the Left hand side. It's going to go away soon.
I've been using the wonders of "MyBlogLog" to see that, with the exceptions of Snow Patrol and The Frames those links go largely ignored.

Which makes sense since it's been a long time since I've blogged about music and gigs.

So I'll offer this... a shared google calendar of Cork Gigs. If you have any gigs or events you would like to see included, just e-mail me the details with "GIG" in the title so the spam filter doesn't eat it up.

I'm surprised that various venues don't offer their own shared calendar of events.

Not exactly a European Irish listing but...

And typing of Snow Patrol... (and the frequent search for "john marr - toxic rhythm" which lands on the blog due the mashup and Bootie weakness I have) I'll thank Rick O'Shea for this mashup... (I'll give it a week before YouTube take it down).

The Police Vs. Snow Patrol - "Every Car You Chase"


and to return the favour

John Marr - Ain't No Other Man Can Get Get Down




take care,
Will

tags :
changes, blogroll, MyBlogLog, Snow Patrol, The Frames, music, gigs, calendar, gig guide, Cork Gigs, European Irish, john marr, Rick O'Shea, mashup, bootie, The Police, Every Car You Chase, Ain't No Other Man Can Get Get Down

Something mug like this way comes

I've just won BFI swag from the Guardian film Podcast.
And no it wasn't sucking up, its due to hearing the podcasts weeks late.

Then again, I really have to go to the Kino again.

tags : Cork, Guardian, BFI, British Film Institute, swag

Twitter making life easier

Finally American Hell shows how Twitter can make your life easier.

And meet Edward

barcamp Dublin and of course The Lord Edward pub here I come...

Will

And Rome brings Norway

I would like to thank Dec's Rambles for letting me know about the new Irish 2 Euro coin celebrating the Treaty of Rome.

But I'm wondering if it's legal tender.

I have one of them in front of me... and Norway is on the map on the common side.
It sounds odd but up till now the common side of the Euro coin has not included Norway, go take a look (prompting the soft currency joke).

Now it's there...

But is it now not a legal coin?

take care,
Will

tags: Dec's Rambles, Treaty of Rome, Rome, Europe, Euro, Euro coin, legal tender, Norway

What the best dressed spartan is wearing

No doubt the 300 movie has had an effect on most people. Usually that effect is wondering why there wasn't a pool given that most of the cast was running around in trunks and a thin layer of CGI baby oil.

By accident I discovered what Spartan King Leonidas and the Greece Hoplite / Spartan warriors should have been wearing.

Not as sexy, but the six-pack is still there, metal but there.
On the other hand, who would pay €50 for an Action Man? And this is coming from the guy with the Transformers collection.

tags :
300, big bad toy store, Spartan King Leonidas, Greece Hoplite, Spartan warriors, costume, action figures, Action Man, Time Silhouette

she verbed his adjective adjective noun

She verbed his adjective adjective noun
He verbed adverbially
She verbed back
Then they verbed adverbially like simile

I remember a brilliant clip like this on the first Comic Relief. Please let me know that there is a clip of this somewhere...

What brings it to mind is this Romantic Writing competition on RTE radio (yeah, its Pat Kenny, that's why you didn't hear about it) in conjunction with Harlequin Mills and Boon (when did they combine?).

Given Twenty's entry in to the book world I think I might be able to squeeze a short story out of me.
Sometimes I can't resist a good verb.

Will


tags : verb, Comic Relief, today with pat kenny, Romantic Writing, competition, RTE, Harlequin, Mills and Boon, twenty major

Review of "Cell" by Stephen King - novel

A page turner that starts with a bang, but becomes a whimper.

Review of product: "Cell" by Stephen King - novel

Rated as 2/5 on Apr 03 2007 by Will Knott

I’ll admit that having worked in mobile telecoms, the idea of a cell phone turning people in to ghouls or zombies in a 28 Days Later (and soon 28 Weeks Later) way seemed an interesting way to create a panic. If something happens, you’l call the emergency services. If something happens on the street, you’l use your mobile phone… and become one of the infected. Silly of course, but an interesting idea.

In the 1970’s the defining moment of the disaster movie was the moment things went wrong, usually at the 20 minute mark after you get to know the main players in the disaster.In this book the main character, a young comic book artist, Clayton Riddell is introduced at 3pm (EST) having made a deal and waiting for his wife to get home around around 3:45pm so he can call her and tell her that he’s closed a major deal. At 3:03pm “the pulse” which plunges the hero in to action starts. You don’t get to know him until after the explosion start.

Then the movie quickly becomes a zombie flick, then a road movie, then “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (or “The Tommyknockers”), then a stalker type thriller with shades of “Children of the Corn”, then … It changes a lot.

Which is actually the theme of the book.

Which is part of the problem.

An aside to this is that Stephen King is turning his “Dark Tower series in to a comic book / graphic novel. This is probably why the lead is no longer a novelist. It’s also why this book is a let down. Cell looks like being this next Dark Tower…

I’ll spoil it for some people when I say that the book does not end. It stops. It ends on what could be described as a cliffhanger. It waiting for a sequel. This follows a book which has changed it’s coat so many times, almost not too sure what it wants to become, that it feels plain wrong.

The first half is brilliant and driving. Then after all the coat changes, it splutters out and crawls to a stop.

LouderVoice Tags: book, cell, novel, stephen king

Rate this review at LouderVoice

Physician: cut yourself?

Could your blood chemistry get you to cut yourself?
Or rather is it possible for the chemical imbalance caused by haemochromatosis to trigger a self harm response?

For the record, I'm NOT advising you find out!

Its something which a Steven D. Levitt could answer (you can tell I've just finished reading Freakonomics).

What started this is the New Scientist podcast and article about the survival of the sickest. The gist of the article is that haemochromatosis is a disease which causes too much iron to be stored by the body, but it has an odd side effect. If you have the condition, its harder for you to pick up certain diseases... like the black death. This may explain why the disease is especially common in people of "northern European extraction". In this way Haemochromatosis may be a benefit with a bad effect in the same way that Sickle-cell disease helps the carrier be resistant to malaria.

The treatment for haemochromatosis is to have a blood donation. There is an anecdotal story in the article about Sharon Moalem's (the author of the article and the papers) grandfather feeling better after a blood donation. It may also explain why the medicinal leech was used so much in Europe as a treatment. The patient felt better after their regular blood letting.

Which brings me to self harm, and cutting in particular. While the "relief" brought about by the cutting is from the actual cutting and very little blood is lost, is there a correlation between cutters (or former cutters) and haemochromatosis sufferers?

Dumb question, but that's why I'm the idiot.
Will

tags :

blood, blood chemistry, cut yourself, chemical imbalance, haemochromatosis, self-injury, self harm, Steven D. Levitt, Levitt, Freakonomics, Sharon Moalem, New Scientist, survival of the sickest, iron, black death, Sickle-cell, blood donation, leech, correlation, cutter

Less than meets the eye

It appears that the live action Transformers Movie saved a bit too much on the budget if this clip is anything to go by.

Thanks to Aaron Williams for the link

take care,
Will

tags :
transformers, movie, transformers movie, Aaron Williams