Jul 302009 Tagged with , , — 0 Responses

girlfriend bought a car

These past couple of weeks, i haven’t been online much and one of the reasons for that is because i’ve been looking at cars for my girlfriend. One thing that hit me straight away was how FEW second hand cars there are for sale in garages.

12 months ago, forecorts would have been full, but these days they seem to have cut way back. It might not be a good time to be selling, but it’s equally as difficult when buying (due to lack of second hand cars for sale through garages).

Some dealers we’d go to would literally have maybe half a dozen second hand cars for sale – the rest just brand new… We’d looked at & test driven a peugot 107, peugot 307, renault clio, ford fiesta, nissan micra and a few others. Yesterday, we viewed a 2004 nissan micra intending to buy it and ended up buying a 2006 Suzuki Swift.

suzuki swift 1.3GL

suzuki swift 1.3GL

suzuki swift 1.3l GL

The Suzuki Swift is a poor man’s mini (a car that’s always been on my wish list) but it is a really aggressive, hyper little car, just like the mini.

I don’t like 2 doors (especially when i’m stuck in the back of them) and it’s the only downside to this car… apart from that, it’s perfect for a first car, a run around and a fun one at that.

Insurance was working out at over €1600 for two people (girlfriend and her mother), but i managed to get it online at the last minute for just over €1200 for the entire family + me as a named driver fully comp :smile: So i drove it home from cavan today and got a good test drive out of it (about a 1 hour drive).

Jul 292009 Tagged with , , , — 0 Responses

microsoft and yahoo to tag team google

Today, Yahoo and Microsoft announced a partnership designed to compete with google’s search engine. Whilst they won’t say that, that’s what they’re thinking and everyone BUT microsoft and yahoo know that won’t happen.

Remember This?
Creative Commons License photo credit: negatendo

Last year Microsoft tabled a $45 BILLION offer for yahoo which yahoo foolishly rejected. Today is basically the day when Yahoo conceded defeat (as a search engine) to both google and microsoft.

Demoing Bing @ SemTech
Creative Commons License photo credit: official_powerset

Microsoft’s bing has been hyped up to no end but have any of you switched to bing from google? I’d hazard a guess not one of you have. It has a few cool features but the main problem with bing is that it’s not google.

That’s harsh, very harsh, but it’s the truth. Google has become so huge, it’s a verb and it’s also the definition of a search engine to non tech people.

What can bing do to compete with google? Nothing. It’s too late… much like google is too late on to the scene with it’s operating system and to a lesser extent it’s chrome browser. All bing can do is keep chipping away and hope google shoot themselves in the foot at some stage.

Windows 7 will be a success – no doubt about it. But in europe, it won’t come with ie8 which means bing is, for want of a better word, screwed. Not many people will download ie8 over firefox in europe… not many people know what ie8 or firefox are….

So guess what… they’re gonna ask friends and work buddies ‘how do i get on to the internet?’ and guess what’s going to be recommended or given to them? Firefox. So microsoft won’t be able to promote bing the way they’d like to in europe.

The only way bing will triumph is if google do something stupid, and we all know that’s highly unlikely. Google do need to be challenged and competition is healthy for them and for us and for technology in general, but right now google are invincible when it comes to search.

Jul 282009 Tagged with , , , — 1 Response

New site launching this saturday

This saturday, August 1st, i’ll be launching a new website with enda of iliveontheweb.com. We’re working on several projects together and this will be the first new project to go live. I’m not going to give away too much but let’s just say this website is a real gamble ;-)

Fortune teller
Creative Commons License photo credit: mag3737

It’s a .ie and we’ll be aiming it at us irish only, although i’m sure it’ll provide entertainment and prove to be of *some* value for international visitors also. This is very much a fun website, and one i know we’re both going to enjoy ‘working’ on.

It will involve myself and Enda competing against each other on a monthly basis and if we get enough interest, we may even get more people involved and build a community around this site.

Stay tuned for the official launch this saturday ;-)

Jul 272009 Tagged with , , , , , — 0 Responses

working to deadlines

I love deadlines. Without them, work just drags on. This post is being composed because of a deadline. I have 20 minutes to publish it, otherwise i’ve missed my own deadline.

Time travel prototype
Creative Commons License photo credit: hartboy

I’m hoping to blog for 260 days consecutively… and if i don’t publish this post within the next 20 minutes, i’ll fail (This will be post 103 by the way). Normally, i’m a lot more organised than this and i’ll have published posts well before my 11.59pm deadline but because i’m taking things easier these days, i find myself getting dangerously close to these deadlines.

There is nobody but myself applying pressure… i came up with the target, i set the deadlines so in a way, there is zero pressure on me in that i could miss a day and nobody would notice, or care. Even if they did, they can’t do anything about it – i’m not working for anyone or i don’t owe them anything…

But because it’s a personal target, failing to reach it also becomes personal. It’s very important that you set targets and hit them. As many as possible. Doesn’t matter how big or how small. I apply that same attitude when working on projects… take things one step at a time.

It’s extremely difficult to hit targets one after the other, day by day without fail, but secretly i know it’s not about the failing… it’s about the discipline and structure. That said, i never like failing at anything and because i’ve set down a goal in public, you guys are my motivation. I know for a fact there’ll be one or two waiting in the wings should i miss a day of blogging and i’m determined not to let you get that satisfaction :smile:

Jul 262009 Tagged with , , , , — 0 Responses

not losing the hunger

I’ve been taking it easy now for over a week (since i went to london). I wouldn’t call it holidays, but i suppose it’s the closest i’ll get to them :smile: July has really flown past and we’re almost in to august which means i’ve got tonnes of stuff to do now and the pressure is very much on.

My island, my cloud, my life - Meine Insel, meine Wolke, mein Leben
Creative Commons License photo credit: alles-schlumpf

There’ll be about 3 new sites launched in august and probably another 3 in september. I then have to sort out my skydive (money is already sorted), and i’ve also been approached to do some ‘teaching’ or mentoring with regards to wordpress / seo / social media etc… so i’ve at least two jobs lined up for august.

It’s amazing the way everything just seems to fall in to place when one or two things start going your way. Although i’ll never be able to prove it, i think that free logo offer was the smartest thing i’ve ever done online as i’ve got loads of work since i first announced it plus i’m reasonably confident there’ll be more work coming my way too.

I keep saying it, but i really have to update my portfolio because what’s on it now is only about half of the work i’ve actually completed…

Anyway, now that we’re moving in to august you should see me really step it up a few gears as BeerChief gets redeveloped and i put the boot down on as many projects as possible. Now that i know college is looming once again, i’m determined to get everything developed and up and running so that once i hit college in september, i can work more on promotion and admin work, rather than development and design work.

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