Author Archives: Donncha

Two million Blogs

2m blogs on WordPress.com

The number of blogs on WordPress.com passed 2 million late last night. I think that’s just amazing and wonderful!

Links …

  • Frank asks for the facts behind the cocaine deaths in Ireland recently. I wondered what the odds of dying from cocaine are. Is it really as low as between 0.1% and 1%? How does that compare to road deaths?
  • Can you heat a room with a 100w bulb? Sounds too good to be true …
  • Dickie Rock looks scary!
  • Red Mum found a Far Too Much Bertie sticker. Haven’t seen any myself but I haven’t been in town in ages.
  • 2 million blogs. That’s quite a community. The next social network could be WordPress. Looks like I’m not the only one who’d rather be blogging!

    In contrast to social networking, blogging offers a person-centric way for individuals to come online. A social network like Facebook gives you your own place online, but it’s not really your own place. As Copyblogger Brian Clark recently said in a blog post, “For me, there’s really no appeal in spending a lot of time creating ‘user-generated’ content via a social networking application. That’s like remodeling the kitchen in a house you rent.”

    Clark was responding to an ongoing conversation launched by blogger and cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, who proposed that blogging is far more important to him than social networking. Bloggers including Stowe Boyd and Darren Rowse seconded the idea. This growing disenchantment with social networking and return to blogging suggests that in the future we could see a migration, at least among tech bloggers, towards more distributed social networking — along the lines of what Messina envisions.

  • Gavin complained that he couldn’t copy/paste the Mahon Tribunal transcripts. I was able to do just that using Gnome app Evince. Here’s day 328. Anyone want to help copy them into a DRM free format? Our tax payers money paid for them after all.

Zardoz – Sean Connery in red speedos

Did I forget the knee high boots? Offthemeatrack resurrects this unusual 1974 film. I think I saw a few minutes of it on tv a few years ago. Just goes to show what an impression it made.
Warning, don’t click the link unless you want the Sean Connery as James Bond image to be ruined for you ..

  • How to price prints? Paul Butzi considers this question, and again. I’ve been asked by two people about prints from Inphotos.org as Christmas presents so this is on my mind. Must get back to them this evening ..
  • Gordon took a great self portrait of himself.
  • 88mileshome says nice things about one of my photos. Thanks!
  • Funny Islam via referrers.
  • Thank you Richard Best of InsideoutLegal who kindly donated his WordPress.com blog for a project I’m working on!
view_from_the_top.jpg

(via)

I'd rather be blogging

What is your most precious commodity? Mine is time. That’s why I’d rather be blogging than twittering.

  • 85 great photography sites suggested by the readers of DIY Photography, including my photoblog. Thanks for the link!
  • Mark celebrates the 25th birthday of the Commodore 64. Is it that old? Wow. commodore_64.jpg
    More: Wired Gallery, Interview with Jack Tramiel, Apple rejected by Commodore? (phew!)

    With no money to build thousands of Apple II machines, Wozniak and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs both approached Commodore with the Apple II. “Chuck Peddle from Commodore came to the garage and he was one of about three people we showed the Apple II prototype ever,” Wozniak said.

  • Mark welcomes MTOS. (sort of)

PS. almost forgot, Alan Whelan of Trocaire emailed to ask me to mention their ethical Global Gift campaign to help, “poor families around the world this Christmas.” While we’re on the topic of Christmas charity, by supporting Bothar you can help send cows to needy families. A bizarre item on the radio a few days ago involved a reporter accusing Bothar of keeping poor people poor. He reasoned that Bothar need poor people to operate. Weird stuff.

Subscribe to comments?

Pass the word around. If you use the very popular Subscribe to Comments plugin by Mark Jaquith, you should download version 2.1.1 download the development version instead. (thanks Baris!)

The previous version has a small but annoying bug. If you approve comments from several posts at one time, everyone subscribed to those posts will get notifications for all the approved comments! Mark applied my patch 3 weeks ago but people are slow to update.

In the last 3 days I’ve received extra notifications from 2 blogs. I emailed the first blog owner, but then Pat moderated some comments this morning and I decided this was the easiest way to get the word out!

Go on, update your plugin! Your blog visitors will thank you!

Fair use of photos on Youtube?

You probably remember the Web 2.0 bubble video that did the rounds recently. Funny wasn’t it? Unfortunately the authors of that video never asked for permission to use many of the photos featured in it. Jim asks if that was fair? Lane Hartwell is one of those photographers. She wrote of her frustration with people stealing her work. The video is viral in nature, and features the website of the creators at the end so it’s got commercial value for them.

Unfortunately the video is not available any more. Doesn’t that suck? If only they had respected the rights of the photographers involved.

Links …

  • I finally upgraded Blogs.linux.ie to the very latest WordPress MU, with caching by WP Super Cache. The version that was on there was so old the table names still used blognames, rather than blog_ids. A small shell script I wrote and a database backup made it easy to script the upgrade. Registration is disabled for the moment, and email me if you have problems logging in. On another note, if you use Tribby Board, add a few indexes to the board table. That app dragged the whole of linux.ie down with all the spam that was going into it.
  • Movabletype went GPL yesterday! That’s great news for the MT community!
  • Did you know that RTE Radio 1 is for sale? Going cheap at a 1 Euro. (via Kae)
    rteradio1forsale
  • Oh oh. mbr love note. Thanks nikolay!
  • The WordPress Podcast gave my super cache plugin a glowing review. Charles did murder my surname, but I’ll forgive him. Must put an mp3 of me saying my name on the about page or something.
  • Two amazing photos from flak photo: Moving—Eric and Many Shades of Pink

How to find cocaine in Ireland

It’s easy to find cocaine in Ireland:

I wish the how to make cocaine video was still online.

Here’s the Podge and Rodge interview with Katy French from earlier this year. I remember this. I didn’t know who she was either!

More discussion on Politics.ie, An Fear Rua, and Peoples Republic of Cork.

Here’s my favourite quote, and a short poem from the PRC forum.

heres a better tip.dont touch the shite fullstop.then you wont have any worries and wont have to crouch in a toilet cubicle sniffing fuck knows what off a piss and shit stained toilet

My name is Cocaine – call me Coke for short.
I entered this country without a passport.
Ever since then I’ve made lots of scum rich.
Some have been murdered and found in a ditch.
I’m more valued than diamonds, more treasured than gold.
Use me just once and you too will be sold.
I’ll make a schoolboy forget his books.
I’ll make a beauty queen forget her looks.
I’ll take renowned speaker and make a bore.
I’ll take a mother and make her a whore.
I’ll make a schoolteacher forget how to teach.
I’ll make a preacher not want to preach.
I’ll take all your rent money and you’ll get evicted.
I’ll murder your babies or they’ll be born addicted.
I’ll make you rob and steal and kill.
When you’re under my power you have no will.
Remember my friend my name is ” Big C “.
If you try me just one time you may never be free.
I’ve destroyed actors, politicians and many a hero.
I’ve decreased bank accounts from millions to zero.
I make shooting and stabbing a common affair.
Once I take charge you won’t have a prayer.
Now that you know me what will you do ?
You’ll have to decide, It’s all up to you.
The day you agree to sit in my saddle.
The decision is one that no one can straddle.
Listen to me, and please listen well.
When you ride with cocaine you are headed for hell !!!

The US Dollar is now worth

The US Dollar has been steadily falling in value against practically every other currency for the last few years. This is the 5 year chart for the Euro vs US Dollar. Depressing isn’t it? If you’re selling into the US you would have to raise your prices by 30% just to make the same income you did in 2003, and that’s ignoring inflation. That Google Adsense cheque is worth less and less every month!

usvseuro

In preparation for the day when the US Dollar is worth practically nothing, a new bill will be introduced. The Zero Dollar bill will make it easier for US residents to realise how much buying power their currency has.

zero

It’s the perfect currency really. The Fed can print billions of these bills and it won’t affect the Forex markets. It is expected that the US will attempt to adopt the Euro as it’s primary currency shortly afterwards but will be rejected because their national deficit is above the 3% required for membership. (via)

Blogs in Plain English

What’s the big deal about blogs? Haydn rang me this morning because he’s doing research on blogs and I remembered Joseph mentioned this video on IRC. This is a reminder from the Common Craft folk that not everyone knows what a blog is, or why they’re a great communication tool.

If you’re reading this and thinking about setting up your own website, watch this short three minute video and you may well decide to start a blog. Nice to see WordPress.com get a mention too!

Wacky Waiters

Wacky Waiters was one of the first games I played on the Commodore Vic-20. Hands up if you ever played it? No. I’m not surprised. I’m sure there are people reading this post that were born after it was released in 1982 ..

  • John Breslin lists some of the Web 2.0 Corkonians! I wouldn’t go so far as to say I cofounded Automattic, I was the first employee though!
  • The old and new testaments compared.
  • Treasa’s amazing photo of a kite surfer flying over her head.
  • Walter announced Self Notes, an online note taker. Here’s my obligatory Hello World message.
  • Haydn wonders who has time to explore social software like Facebook.
  • I went down to the gallery in Kinsale recently and signed a few more prints there. It’s wonderful what time away from the prints does. I get a whole new perspective and appreciation for them all over again. They look wonderful! (even if I do say so myself!)
  • Asok died but they brought him back. Good thing he studied shape shifting ..
  • How to create your own planet with the GIMP or Photoshop. (via DSLR Blog)
  • The days are getting shorter as Winter sets in. Here’s some interesting ways to use shadows. That inspired me yesterday to take a couple of unusual shots.
  • Acquia is a new startup focusing on Drupal development. Another GPL project gets corporate support. Great! Good luck with the venture.
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