Technology Fast - Pass or fail?

Well as sad as I am to report this I failed. I couldn't go a whole 48 hours without the internet. I managed it on my phone but that could be primarily because I gave it to someone else.

It's very difficult to survive these days without Technology especially as a new graduate. All recruitment is essentially done online and you need access to an email account to complete most of these online applications. As said in a previous post I do believe we may be losing the human factor in life. There are no more advertisements in newspapers to call a HR department and generally you can't even contact the HR department of the place you are applying, it is all done through a third party. I think that if the world continues on this path we could all end up very recluse and without social skills as everything is done online.

I say bring back the old ways a little more. Give the computer you're sharing your life with a face. I wish I could have completed this fast because it would mean there's hope yet. Unfortunately I couldn't survive without technology, can you?

M-Commerce, whatever happened to privacy?

Many of you may not know what “M-Commerce” means but in a nut shell what I understand of it is buying something through your phone like when you buy books, clothes or products from sites such as E-bay and Amazon. BUT it’s not just that! I’ve been learning about it in class and from 1G (the much loved 088 phones) to the new and upcoming 4G the wireless accessibility options are becoming massive for M-commerce.

How many of you out there have ever bought something on your phone, I know I have. One in five people in the US are interested in buying through text messages!

Whatever happened to a good old non-traceable cash sale? Where did our privacy rights go? Everything you do online whether on your phone or on a computer is tracked and saved as data on a database of the websites you’ve visited. Details such as location even contact details can be generated from clicking into a website. You know all those spam messages you get, they’re there as a result of your web-surfing. For example, at the minute I’m job searching and every spam mail these days is from some “HR person” saying they have the perfect job for me. Now with m-commerce they have my phone details. Ever gotten an mms text advertising something from some random number? Has a local club, gym or shop text to advertise some sale or special offer? Well that’s m-commerce.

Now Amazon have adopted this “tracking” as a sales and marketing tool. Anyone that has an Amazon account will know that there will always be suggested purchases based around what you’ve bought before or the type of search you entered. Ingenious or freaky? I’m on the fence for this one. Sure it gives online shopping a personal feel but then you have to ask yourself will this new “fad” take over from real day to day, human to human interaction. Will these futuristic films prove true and the world becomes totally technology dependant? I think it’s on the way there already. There’s already advertising, sales and shopping through your phone. Soon there’ll be no more shops to go to, it will all be done online, and you won’t even have to leave your house. Second thoughts no longer on the fence, down with technology, I love “browsing the shops” :)

Web standards and the Iphone

So I went and bought myself an Iphone last October, pay as you go, and it was probably the best investment I ever made. I realise this even more so now that I've lost it. Devastating as that is its not the reason for this blog. I think if you ask many people who or what governs the make-up and design of a website they wouldn't know and normally I would be part of that crew but I've been learning about web standards and how they are used to adapt the internet and technology to the 21st century.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the web said that:
"The mobile web initiatives goal is to make browsing the web from mobile devices a reality"

i.e. adapting the internet and your website so it can be viewed on any device. I personally think its great and needed. I know a lot of websites out there that can't run on mobile devices so these web standards need to be put in place to change that. An example of a great website is gmail. It adapts for different devices and you can even load it in basic HTML for a slower network.

These web standards are a great idea and very prevalent for the future.

Eavesdropping, eternal free entertainment

You know its true. How many of us out there love to sit over a coffee, tea or a glass of wine and watch the world go by? I know I do and its quite funny some of the conversations you overhear or even the body language of an interaction at the next table.

I bet at one time or another you overheard part of a conversation and found yourself imagining the rest of the story around it. Of course what we imagine is probably completely absurd and unrealistic but entertaining all the same.

I remember sitting in a cafe with my aunt and we noticed this couple having coffee. Both had wedding rings on but were a little hesitant to hold hands. First we thought maybe they just aren't that public about their affection for each other. But then of course Colette and I started trying to figure the situation out. By the end of it we had decided the couple were just starting out an affair and so wanted to be all over each other but were terrified of how to act in case they got caught. We also said they were plotting where their next rendezvous would be when our thoughts were interrupted by two kids one about 5 the other around 8 running up to them shouting mammy, daddy, look what I found!!! Needless to say we were a little disappointed but great entertainment for our coffee break!

So what about you out there? Ever watched someone walk past and wonder what their story is? Or overhear someone's conversation and imagine how it plays out. Well loads of people have, you're not on your own out there! Check out overheard in Dublin, Cork, Ireland, New York, even in the office!

Watch this video, its hilarious and I guarantee you'll pay more attention to what people are saying around you!

University vs Institute? DkIT hands down!!!

Well its coming near the end of a seven year stint in third level education and i've just about had it. Now don't get me wrong its been great to be a student for so long but at this stage i'm tired of being poor and always feeling guilty when chilling on the couch because i'm not doing college work.

In my first two years of college I experienced the almighty Dublin City University and well to say the least I left unqualified and disheartened with the college system. You see DCU is a massive college and while the "academics" are supposed to be amazing I thought it was a whole load of crap for lack of a better word. I had to make and appointment to make an appointment (not a typo I really mean two appointments!) to meet a lecturer; there was over 300 in my classes and with a 40 hour timetable I was expected to do the same again in directed reading plus assignments, lab reports etc.; I often wondered where it would end. Then one of my lecturers screwed the whole class over for an exam which left 85% of the class repeating. At this i'd had enough and bailed asap.

So with no qualification and a basic job, I went to the Fitzwilliam Institute where I studied a diploma in event management which I paid for out of my own pocket as it was a private college. Grand introduction into the world of private teaching and the six month duration was enough to convince me to go for the full time course where I experienced DkIT in all its wonder.




I don't know about you but my experience here has been the best so far. I found it exhilarating that my lecturer would know me by first and last name and even more expect me to call them by their first name. Granted it was a rocky start what with it being a new course and all but I think I've learnt more here than I could in any fancy over priced private College or University. My internship was a dream come true. Who would have thought that college would send you to live in Florida for over eight months! The best part about it was and is my class. Ask any of our lecturers and we're the most close knit group you could meet. Granted we all have our close circle of friends but as a whole we all back each other up and in general get on well together. Can many say that from their college experience. I've met some amazing people through this experience, both within the college and outside of it, from close friends to long term work colleagues.

I even ran for student union president this year I like the college that much. Needless to say I was a little disheartened that I didn't win but I can say I did that, I tried to make a difference, a contribution.

There's some things in the college that suck like anywhere else but the positives far outweigh the negatives and I can safely say if you don't know where to go to college, try DkIT, I'm sure you'll love it! And if you do know where you're going and its not DkIT, look again!



A little dated but you get the idea :)

Survey help

hey everyone, so i'm doing a research paper on the of the tourism industry on Thailand. Would love if you could take a minute to fill this out.

Click here to take survey

Thanks :)

NAMA, good or bad......What do you think?

Ok so I’m not really or wasn't up to date on the in's and out's of NAMA so I thought I’d put the main points out here as a little guide. So what is it, what does N.A.M.A. mean and what does it mean for us as taxpayers?

Well NAMA means National Assest Management Company. They were setup when the economic crisis hit and their aim is to acquire all the good and bad loans from organisations participating. Over seven to ten years they aim to get the best possible return for the taxpayer on acquired loans. The Irish Times just published an article on the first loan transfers to NAMA. Take a look here. The picture here shows the prjected loan schedule.

The total of these loan transfers goes over €10 billion!!!!!!! The types of loans that can be absorbed by NAMA are generally for those large developers that can't pay the mortgage on the land/development they own. The other one is associated loans and that is something that is neither land nor development but can be used as collateral against other loans of that kind. In other words they (the developers) could possibly not lose their development even though they deserve too! They say this is to ensure no one gets out if it but I think it’s a skape goat for the developers.

So what do NAMA do with the loan then? They give a guarantee to the bank for the security of that money to keep the bank going and take over the management of the loan. This security amount is chosen by NAMA and then the person owing the loan must pay the full amount back to NAMA. But there is a lot of speculation as to whether that will happen or not.

How much will NAMA absorb and how much will it cost us? It won't be known until June 2010 how much NAMA will absorb or the price that they will pay the banks. We do know that the first loans taken over are at a discount of 47%. Not knowing the amount absorbed or the time period it will run for means the taxpayer could suffer with this for over a decade. I know I don't want to be saddled with this, do you?

Realistically the people can't pay their debt now what difference will it make transferring it from the bank to NAMA. The only difference is we as taxpayers now have to cover the bad debt instead of the greedy banks. It makes me so angry that we suffer because the banks and developers couldn't get enough. What do you think? If I’ve missed any points on it you have something to add please comment! :)

A basic guide to Search Engine Marketing

So I’ve been studying this in college and didn't really know what it was. Wikipedia says it "is a form of internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion."

So I asked myself exactly what does that mean?? Well I put together a little diagram to try and explain it for myself and hopefully it will help you too.

The diagram is based on Google's search options. The results window is always broken into three areas shown here. Certain areas you can pay for and others you can't. The one great thing about Google though is that each of the paid advertisements has to be relevant to the search to show up on the page. I think this is great number one for all the searchers out there as you get more access to relevant data and number two for the websites themselves as everyone has the chance to be viewed when relevant.

So that’s the search engine side of it. But for you budding website designers out there, do you know how to setup your website so it’s searchable??

Here's some basic do's and don'ts I’ve learnt:

Do's

1. Make your page as basic as possible without hindering the aesthetic view. What do I mean? Check out this page looks good and it’s easily readable by a search engine. http://uk.m.yahoo.com/
2. Ok if you feel your page doesn't have enough colour or is a little too much text then by all means throw in a few pics but remember to add an alt tag for each pic with the content of what it is. Google searches text only it can't read pics so adding the alt tag allows the picture to be searchable too.
3. Another great way is links. The more links you have for your page the better. There are ways to get other websites to link to your page like registering with yahoo or msn, sending press releases and ask major sites can you be a featured or sponsored link on their page. The more links of your page out there the higher Google ranks you.
4. Use keywords. There are websites out there to suggest the best keywords to use and wordtracker.com actually tells you which words are searched most and how many links show up. So what do you do when you have them? Add them to your Meta Keywords tag and then use them as much as possible in the text of your webpage.

Don'ts

1. Don't use tons of flash media and images. Google can't read them, they take forever to load and they don't work for text only pages that a blind person is reading.
2. Don't have your main page to text heavy either because once the reader clicks in they want to find what they need straight away or they'll move on to the next site.
3. Don't hire an SEO company if you can't afford it, it's just as easy to do it yourself if you just do a bit of research.
4. As for your keywords, don't choose very general ones as they'll yield too many results. Be a little selective without eliminating a huge market. And when inputting them to your pages don’t overdo it with loads of words because you can't deceive the user. You only have about 6 or 8 seconds to catch the user’s attention so make sure their search recommends you for a reason.

Here's a short video to demonstrate how to get started:



Hope this helps and I’d love your feedback and if I’ve missed something please add away through comments! :)