March 19, 2010
March 17, 2010
March 16, 2010
Dublin still pricey to live in
Well, we all know that, espec now. According to The Economist, Dublin is ranked 18th, down from 11th last year. Well, not sure if that makes me feel better about it, okay, maybe a teeny-weeny bit.
March 12, 2010
Flying is no fun anymore
Aside from all the security checks... unhappy staff, we now have even unhappier staff, especially since I'll be on an Aer Lingus flight to Boston in a fortnight. Why, with recent news of all cabin crew being laid off and
offered new contracts involving lower salary scales and changed work practices.
Yippee, we have other news that BA are actually striking for seven days.
They will strike for three days from 20 March and for four days from 27 March.
Sources:-
Bring back as much drink and cigs if travelling from EU countries
..so says the Revenue Commissioner. All well and good, but for the unfortunate travelers who travel by Ryanair, that's not going to work, stupid money-gougers. ;-)
March 06, 2010
Gowalla Vs Foursquare
Ok, first of all before I get into comparing the two apps, I do know of PleaseRobMe.com, and I am not stupid enough to put my home address on either apps. And if I catch anyone who posts our address, so help them, I'll be hitting them with a big stick.
Anyway, back on track with my experience of using the two apps. I first encoutered Foursquare from my friend Rory (he doesn't seem to use it much anymore). What I found annoying was, I didn't have a "smart phone", so I couldn't participate with checking in on places. Once I did get hold of an iPhone off my hubby, I started to check-in, I realise that the search is not that great and it's sort of slow. I did not cheat like that guy who is mayor of both North Pole and Antartic. I came across Gowalla when I was following the live stream from pycon.djangodose.com. The website was very pretty, and I installed the iPhone app, and guess what? It's pretty as well.
First of all, there's no such thing as mayor of something, which is great. My husband was wondering if you can assassinate a mayor of somewhere?!? Heehee, nice idea. With Gowalla, you just get stamps on places you've been to, and you can only check-in within the radius of the venue, unlike Foursquare, you can check-in to places no matter how far off you were (i.e. guy who's mayor of North Pole). It's not a race, you also get to find and/or pick up items after you check-in with Gowalla. You can drop items or swap them as well. One thing missing from Gowalla is the search feature in the iPhone app, they have it on the website though (unless I'm blind). One little problem checking in onsite is say, for example, my last experience was walking through Phoenix Park and it's huge, I couldn't check-in till I'm 4 clicks in to the location of whomever created the check-in point. I like the trips feature of Gowalla as well, i.e. pub crawl. It's overall and enjoyable app to use than FourSquare.
What I like about Gowalla is the fact it remembers your previous settings when you check-in, such as I don't want it to appear on my Twitter or Facebook profile news feed. Guess what, I have to turn both pings off whenever I need to check-in on Foursquare each time.
The only thing about Foursquare is that it's quite popular in Ireland (Dublin, in particular).
For me, it's great to see what tips/advice/reviews people have on certain cafés or restaurants nearby, this applies to both apps. I would recommend Gowalla over Foursquare just because it's much nicer to use, icons are pretty, and you don't have to jump into the madness of trying to outdo each other in becoming a mayor of somewhere.
March 05, 2010
links for 2010-03-04
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Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global—Ignite is all of these and more. It's a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global Ignite network, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city. And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world.
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Robots.ie was born fully grown to non-robotic parents. Doctors were baffled, society frowned upon it. Forced to leave home at a young age it walked the tubes of the internet doing monotonous odd jobs for hosting fees. Eventually robots.ie settled down at a domain which it egomaniacally named after itself. It had one dream hardwired into its circuits, to provide a place where the people of Ireland could share their robotic ideas, learn to build robots of their own and be blissfully happy. Previously it wanted to become self-aware and rule the people of Ireland as their robotic overlord, but an accidental brush with a giant magnet removed such ideas.
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March 04, 2010
Now this is geeky wedding invites!
Ooh, so geeky indeed - 8-bit video game wedding invitations! (via Offbeat Bride).
Smart cards for rail, but not quite there yet for trams and buses
It's good to see that from April, commuters have the option to use smart cards on trains, and it'll be cheaper as well. The smart cards can be used on buses and trams, but won't be available till 2011, and that's just greater Dublin. Read more....
(Source: Irish Independent)