Cross Dominant

#“I know what the 3 y/o is getting for her birthday this year.” via mashable.com Fisher Price iXL. Finally we can retire the Dora laptop. »

#“Half maths teachers not qualified” Only 16 per cent of Leaving Cert students sit the higher-level paper, the lowest figure for any honours subject. via irishtimes.com Any politician who comes out with that old claptrap about Ireland having a highly educated young workforce should be forced to read and recite this. 16%. 16% No wonder we had an economic bubble, no-one in charge can bloody add. »

#“Google Buzz Team. Stop. Now.” Google Buzz just gave me screen after screen of tweets spread over a few hours from people I follow, all in one go. Buzz is broken. Pretty much every user-impacting decision they made was wrong. Google built an application where Employee of the Month went to whoever could rattle off the largest number of Open Standards inthirtyseconds. Open blahblahblah blah blah blah, Activity blah blah, rel=yawn, federated blah blah blah, semantic circlejerk 3. »

#“British bishops as congenitally stupid as their Irish peers” include eating by candlelight, cutting meat and vegetables thinner so they cook faster via irishtimes.com As if we needed any more ammunition against the church, British bishops want us to slice our vegetables thinner for Lent. I guess the princes' housekeepers will do that for them. »

#“Dr Cooper explains how new Buzz messages appear” The most infuriating aspect of Buzz (and boy are there lots of them) is how a comment by some random stranger on a message by some stranger you follow, is considered so urgently important that it immediately jumps to the top of your page. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this product could never have been tested by anyone with more than about 3 friends. »

#“Google ChromeOS Flow is a speedy wee thing” Yep, still Alpha, still very rough, but any OS that boots in a few seconds (faster than my phone in fact) and has me online a few seconds later has something going for it Looking forward to seeing it tweaked for a tablet. HTML5 annnnnd Flash. http://qik.com/video/4944281 To try it out, all you need is a 2GB thumbdrive and pretty much any standard netbook. »

#“Here’s hoping that bunch stay in Rome” via youtube.com Or are all arrested on their return for criminal conspiracy to cover up child rape over decades. Stephen Fry, as always, expresses the anger we all feel better than we could ourselves. »

#“Teic.ie - Irish company Jivo make biodegradable iPhone case” Irish company Jivo has unveiled its biodegradable iPhone case the Jivo Leaf which is both designed and manufactured in Ireland. The company says it has already secured 1m orders for the case which will retail for 20 in Irish shops. via teic.ie The Jivo guys rock. Brilliant business. »

#“I will not vote for Fianna Fail again as long as Mary Coughlan is in cabinet” Ryanair has claimed that the Government's refusal to upset the DAA by considering an application from the budget airline led it to open a maintenance facility in Prestwick, Scotland with the creation of 200 jobs. via irishtimes.com Of course a lot of this particular story is Ryanair spin but Mary Couglan is simply not competent as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and is an active impediment to the economic recovery of this country. »

#“Nokia fightin' back” via engadget.com I thought the N810 was the final nail in the coffin of Maemo since there was no senior management support for it. So I was thrilled they released the N900. Now everyone knows that high-end Nokia Smartphones will all eventually be Maemo even if Nokia can't admit it yet. Meego is a really smart move. A genuine fully-open competitor to Android that runs on a wide range of devices with two giants behind it. »