Recession Nostalgia

I just bought my first vinyl record in 25years from that Dublin institution 'Tower Records'.

Is it just me or is there something really comforting about flicking through endless album covers... I didn't realise how I'd missed the experience of looking at album covers that are works of art in their own right.

I always thought those CD's were just a passing fad (LOL) and am delighted that Tower Records didn't cave in and re-brand themselves as 'Tower CDs', their doggedness has paid off.

Christmas Cheer in Dublin

I couldn't help but smile; despite all the economic doom and gloom, carol singers raised €38,000 for the homeless while singing on O'Connell Street 4th December.

What a great achievement!

World Taxi Meter is great

I have just come across WorldTaxiMeter, http://www.worldtaximeter.com
What a good service - who writes this stuff

Social Media Buzz

There seems to be an awful lot of buzz about the fact that Facebook now delivers more pages than Google (March 2010).

Here's a buzzing YouTube video with plenty of good stats

Linked in is just plain scary

Linked in is right up there with the 'scary invasion of privacy gang'. I deleted my account a long time ago... around the time the home page started to ask me 'what are you working on today?'

A month later I repented and set up a fake account so that I could still access the network, this time however I went out of my way to minimise the information I gave linked-in and definitely didn't give them access to my email address list. I didn't connect to anybody.

This was fine for a year... and then last night I recieved an email...'Dear So&So, We think you might know the following people, would you like to connect with them?' They had a 70% match rate, people I hadn't even spoken to for years.

Big brother is watching you.. and you... and you!

I just had a quick look on the web... it seems there are people who question the model of giving away your privacy and creativity
Linked In and Techpitch.com are Evil

Smart Banner

Couldn't resist adding a 'Smart Banner' to the left hand side of the blog, especially when you set the category to cats. I find the ads posted on www.donedeal.ie are UGC in the best sense of the word; 'she is a chocolate persian that is singing' - whatever that is!

Maulin around from Crone Wood

If anybody is looking for some fresh air and 2.5hrs of exercise.... then you'll get great value out of the walk over the top of Maulin, this assumes that you are based in Dublin, Ireland.
To get there, drive south from Dublin to Enniskerry, go through Enniskerry and follow the signs for Powerscourt waterfall. Go past the waterfall entrance and park in the Crone Wood Carpark about 2km later.
The easiest route is to follow the forest path to the left... just saty on this track and you will rise up and follow the ridge towards the Powerscourt waterfall.
Follow this track all the way to the stone wall and then turn right... now follow this easy track to the top of Maulin and savour the great views north to Lambay Island or east Greystones (it's great for the kids geography lessons!).
From the summit, carry on and descend to the north west. At the forest line, you'll find a gate and stile. Just follow the most used looking forest tracks until you find yourself back at the car park.
It's about 7km long and took us 3:10min although we did stop for lunch. Had 6yr, 8yr and 11yr hikers with us and all went well.