Dear Sky, don't threaten me

#“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. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

Google Places Problem-Riddled vs Facebook Places Doing It Right

#“Google Places Problem-Riddled vs Facebook Places Doing It Right” This post has been in my head for a very long time and it'll probably still not get expressed correctly, but here goes. I am convinced that Google is heading in a disastrous direction with their Local efforts and it is bad for businesses, bad for users and bad for Google. Fanboi I have been an unapologetic Google fanboi since the day I first entered a search term when they were on the Stanford domain and I immediately stopped using Altavista, Yahoo and Excite forever. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

One guy in Netherlands vs Nokia+Microsoft

#“One guy in Netherlands vs Nokia+Microsoft” Wow, it looks like I was the only person on the planet to write anything nice about Nokia moving to Windows Phone 7. One point I did make was that they have to move fast. A phone by the summer really is a necessity. But Nokia's problems in recent years have always seemed to boil down to execution. Strategy by the bucket-full but bugger-all follow-through. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

Developers Developers Developers ---> Nokia + Windows Phone 7

#“Developers Developers Developers —> Nokia + Windows Phone 7” I'll leave all the industry analysis to the experts and insta-experts on Twitter. I'm just looking at the Nokia and Microsoft deal from the perspective of a punter and someone who might consider getting apps built for Nokia+WP7. So as a punter I liked the look of Windows Phone 7 and I love the industrial design of the Nokia N8. I'm also sick to death of the shitty cameras that HTC, Samsung et all are putting in their Android phones. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

Sorry Foursquare, Forget Europe, Facebook Wins

#“Sorry Foursquare, Forget Europe, Facebook Wins” I normally wouldn't call a result a few days after a new release but bloody hell, Facebook Places has gone mental in Ireland in less than a week. And I'm not talking about geeks. Most of the people I am friends with on Facebook have never heard of Foursquare or Gowalla and yet they are checking in all over the place on FB. It's amazing to watch. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

My 368 Days of Posterous - The Stats

#“My 368 Days of Posterous - The Stats” Hard to believe it's been a full year since I started on Posterous. The idea behind it was simple - I was scatter-gunning techie posts across several blogs and they just didn't belong there mixed in with foodie stuff and business. I wanted somewhere I could completely geek-out but with zero effort. Over the year I think most posts have taken 5 minutes to write and the bulk of them were sent by email when I was killing some time or on a lazy Saturday. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

Sugru Shoes

#“Sugru Shoes” My mum bought some very funny flamenco dresses for my two girls recently in Spain. Total spotty horrors but the girls loved them. She just topped that by getting them spotty flamenco shoes with big stomping wedge heels on them. As they were bought in a local mini-mart in Torremolinos, the quality ain't great, to put it mildly. Síofra popped the clasp rivet on hers within a couple of hours and left too big a hole to just pop it back in. »

Author image Conor O'Neill

A new lease of life for the Nokia N95-8GB

#“A new lease of life for the Nokia N95-8GB” The only use my old and much loved N95-8GB has had in the past year has been as the backup phone for my Voda SIM when I go to the UK. But I hate seeing still-good tech lay unused.My 11 y/o son is massively into magic at the moment and is damned impressive at doing sleight of hand card tricks. Himself and his best friend have started making videos and posting them on YouTube (hands only! »

Author image Conor O'Neill