#“Google Cloud Picker? New?” I just tried inserting an image in a Google Doc and got this new dialog. Interesting! Of course it didn't bloody work. When I tried to Sign-in, it said "The feature you requested is currently unavailable. Please try again later.". I assume due to the usual Google Apps Accounts vs Normal Google Accounts messing that seems to have got worse rather than better since they " »
#“Xbox 360 Wireless on the cheap” Our eldest was thrilled to be able to buy an old Xbox 360 from his cousin for 40. It's a pretty impressive piece of kit and a big upgrade over the old-skule Xboxen we use as XBMC media players. I still prefer the Wii tho :-) Surprisingly it comes with a LAN connector rather than Wifi. The official Wifi adapter is 43 on Amazon.co.uk. i. »
#“OMG has Apple bought Google?” »
#“How we’ll watch election counts from now on? #ge11” Traditional TV is playing a very small part in my watching of the Irish General Election 2011 outcome. But the TV is. This is a rough version of the sort of setup that will be the default in General Election 2015: So a lot less of the "experts" repeating themsleves ad-nauseam for the next 72 hours: And a lot more crowd-sourced reporting, analysis and opinion: »
#“Standing Desk Update” The standing desk experiment is ongoing and the news has not all been good. I've had on-weeks and off-weeks and I'm still not 100% comfortable. But at the moment I'm on an on-week and things are much improved. It's down to the fact that I decided to fashion a thick mat out of materials around the house. This is it: It's made from a never-used Lidl camping foam mat folded in three, sitting on top of an exercise mat (Duct Tape implied). »
#“Is Google Insane? Blocking Facebook Contacts Sync on Nexus S” That's an absolutely killer feature of Android. Blocking it shows just how scared they are of FB.Of course if they'd listened to me and all the geeks on Jaiku back in the day before they launched Android…… But then I'm just repeating myself for the thousandth time.Luckily there is a strong Developer community on FB and a strong one on Android too. »
#“How to get a US Phone Number for your Irish Business for Free” I was reminded of our phone setup yesterday when asked how we have implemented our US number. The easiest way is obviously to pay Blueface VOIP or Skype for a US number. But you can actually do it for zero cost which is how we have done it. The basic setup is as follows: Google Voice US number (We chose a Palo Alto area code, cos, wellllll, cos) That GV number is forwarded to a free IPKall Washington State VOIP number (GV will only forward to US number and the old Gizmo tricks don't seem to work since Google bought them) That IPKall number forwarded for free via SIP to our Irish Blueface number If you get a PAYG account with Blueface then none of the above costs you anything for inbound calls. »
#“Maybe those Google AdWords Vouchers can avoid being wasted” Yes it's that regular arrival in the post of a Google AdWords voucher that I can't use because we already have an AdWords account. Now they are offering 75 and it's a nice plastic card. I'd love to know how much money is spent on this vs the resulting new revenue. Possible alternatives I can think of are: Send them to every startup incubation centre in Irelandto hand out to start-upsSend them to Enterprise Ireland to hand out to start-upsSend them to the County Enterprise Boardsto hand out to start-ups Send them to every tech course in colleges around the country to give to studentsSend them to every OpenCoffee in IrelandSend them to every Chamber of CommerceSponsor a BarCamp and send a few hundred of them down Sponsor a BizCamp and send a few hundred of them downAny other ones you can think of? »
#“Google Delicious Importer Tool - But which Google Bookmarks?” via techcrunch.com Good idea for Google to offer this service. I use Google Bookmarks as a dumping ground for stuff I might need to check later. It's rubbish. In fact, it's so bad, when the Chrome team went to build a Bookmark Sync tool for the browser, they built their own using Google Docs! It needs an API and it needs some features. »
#“Dear Sky, don’t threaten me” We disconnected the phone lines from our Sky boxes over a year ago. That plus removing all extension wiring got us another 1Mbs on our shitty Eircom "7 Mbs" ADSL line. We have both a Sky HD and the old Sky+ for the kids in "multi-room" setup. Sky just mailed us to bitch that they can't confirm where those boxes are and that we might be doing something naughty like using them in Ulan Bator to watch I'm A Celebrity. »