Dec 2008 31 st
2008 The year that was, 2009 the year that will…
Well 2008 has been a mixed bag for me. Lots of friends moved away from Cork and I have begun to pack too, however it was a great roller coaster of a year. Several memorable moments, but getting onto Tech Crunch was pretty cool for me as well as a great trip to Cuba.
But what about 2009? Well here are a few of my predictions.
1. Damien Mulley will go from strength to strength, I’d be expecting him to be on TV a lot more in 2009
2. Some type on pan European organization will kick off in earnest help European based start-ups. It will have some initial success but die because it will become populated by loud-mouthed egos that do nothing except talk themselves up all the time.
3. There will be a close passing of the Nice treaty in Ireland, very close, circa 1% margin
4. There will be an Irish election
5. Rush Hour will be launched
6. Twitter will grow and still not sell. Perhaps adverts will be added, but those on the service since the early days will begin to wander off
7. Google Friend Connect & Facebook Connect will battle it out for the identity market. MS will pimp their own and nobody will care about it. The Open ID and OAuth guys will step up and they shall prevail
8. Social network financials will slow down but investment in web utility ware will increase
9. Skype may be passed onto another company as Ebay focus on core operations
10. Credit squeeze will end in the summer as the Obama feel good factor kicks in, however banking systems will be worked on for years to prevent issues in the future
11. Irish start-ups will continue to be neglected by the government, however a private initiative will step up and take the bull by the horns.
12. International Telco’s will suffer large financial losses as the growth of VoIP apps become more visible in daily life
13. Apple will release new version of iPhone with better battery life. They’ll also introduce a touch screen computer
14. MS windows dominance will decline by 3% as alternatives are sought
15. Loic LeMeur will be proven right that video commenting works as Sessmic gains popularity, probably evolve into a messaging system similar to Twitter.
16. Facebook fatigue will kick in globally
17. Google App engine will support PHP, in fact it won’t be app engine anymore
18. Smaller Irish start-ups will join forces in a co-op style
19. Someone will finally start something to replace mail (SMTP) protocols
20. I’ll be living in Limerick
For 2008 I can’t say enough thanks to the following people who’ve helped me get through it,
- Justa - A great girl friend for letting me work those crazy hours
- Damien Mulley - Great at PR, Great honesty, Great thinker, Great Guy
- Pat Phelan - For someone I’ve meat for a total of 15 min, he has helped no end, a true gentleman
- Walter, James, Greg & Slawomir - Tweetrush would never have been without them
- Patrick Buttimer for just being yourself
- Adam for calming me down at times and putting what I want to say into a more reasonable, human friendly manner
- My friends, for keeping me going. Promise I’ll be over soon in .fr and .es
- Everyone else for taking some of my crazy ideas seriously and working them out with me
That’s it, look forward to 2009 and the challenges it will bring. Wish you and yours the best in 2009.
3 CommentsNov 2008 3 rd
AWS User Group Ireland - You Can Get Involved
Well, given my current situation, there is an upside. I get to spend time on projects and things I’ve been putting off for a long time. One of these things & something which I am very passionate about is Amazon Web Services.
As a web guy and sys admin, I’ve been using AWS for quite a while now, and I see the real advantages to its use in many different scenarios that many Irish developers encounter on a day to day basis.
I also often get asked by others about AWS and their plans for it, how to use it etc, and most of the time I find its just a case of the other person needing a sounding board to bounce their ideas off.
Add a commentNov 2008 3 rd
On the move - I’m back on the market
Yes, alas its very true. Owing to the current economic situation I am on the hunt for a new position after a long time spent with my current employer. November the 4th shall be my last day and end my tenure as IT manager for a great company. For the past month I’ve been submitting forms, CV’s and running through all sorts of hoops the recruitment agencies have in place while doing my final handover. Alas that magic position has thus far eluded me. I could write numerous posts on just the experiences I’ve had with agencies, some good, some just jaw dropping, but I won’t. Everyone has to do it, everyone knows how good or bad it can get.
So I am looking for a new home. When I say new home, I really do mean a new home! Work is like a glove. You either fit or you don’t. I like to fit into a place where I can contribute and help achieve, but also to learn. No matter who you are or what position you hold, there is always something or someone you can learn from (Especially true in IT). Work after all, is a two way street. You only get back what you put in. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some of the best people in many sectors over the years. I managed a few of them, they have managed me, but we’ve always been working together to achieve something we are passionate about & something great. Sure there have been highs and lows at times, but thats part of the process and I would never change any moment over the past few years.
Anyhow, if you have a position and you think I would be the glove that would fit your hand, do let me know, I’m very approachable and will be very happy to talk about any opportunity that may arise, if I am not the one well then I can tell you rather quickly. But I may know someone else who is ideal for you. Feel free to check me out on Linked In & I can of course provide first rate references. I posses too many skills to go into in a blog post, but my CV is only a few clicks and a send button away, so do reach out and contact me.
Finally, at a time like this, I have to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped me in my search. When my heads been wreaked by another bad recruiter experience, they have been a source of unmeasurable help and support. With a bit of time I’ll find my new hand and I will be treating those to something more than a pint or a few Yorkie bars. You know who you are and how you have helped. THANK YOU!!!!
Aj
Oct 2008 25 th
Slowly getting there - first tweetxt screen
Inspired by the Contrast Crew’s build an app in 5 days, I’ve spent my spare time this week playing a lot with the Twitter API. My aim here is to enable SMS and IM updates without hammering the Twitter servers for myself and my friends & to do so in as short a time as possible. To do this I am employing some fun and new ways of speaking with Twitter. In fact sometimes I don’t even have to speak to them, they speak to me!
I’ve managed to get SMS back up and running, it usually takes between 3 and 10 seconds to get to my phone after someone I follow updates. I am still fighting with some IM issues but it appears to work, but is rather flakey. I don’t know if thats Twitter or myself just yet. Anyhow see below a wee screen grab of where I am at.Yes I know it looks crap, but that because uber cool designer Walter is still on his honey moon. Once he gets his hands on it, he’ll sort out my dodgy photoshoping. In case Flickr is funny, the original is already there.
Oct 2008 21 st
Tweetrush update - now tracking the client stats
Just a quick one. We’ve released some updates to Tweetrush.com that has now enabled to the public, Twitter client stats.
While every attempt is made to validate our stats, there are some issues around source identification. However by and large the % totals should enable client developers to gauge the take up of their application. As an added bonus, we’ve also added the top 30 daily users of the client, just in case developers want to reach out and touch base with their most devoted users.
This release also marks an important milestone in the development of Rush Hour, our action and event based analytic engine. We’ve all been busy over the past few weeks, testing and adding new features. We expect to be on time for a version one release Q1 of next year. We’ve also had contact from some really cool companies wishing to use it, which for us is very flattering for us. But we’re also confident that our little app will more than meet their requirements and look forward to putting some really heavy hitting beats into place.
Right, back to work.
Oct 2008 18 th
Building a Simple PHP Twitter Client Without Twitter
Part One - Getting to Grips with GNIP
Okay so now I suppose I better start doing some geek stuff as its been far too long. What I’m going to try and accomplish is to build a simple Twitter client using PHP and GNIP and as little help from the Twitter API. Sure this may fail badly but we’ll learn something along the way. Why Twitter? Well I do lots of stuff with Twitter data, so why not. But I also want to demonstrate the power of GNIP to you as well as showing that there are ways to be friendly to Twitter & other providers without having to hammer their API’s.
Sep 2008 30 th
Irish Web Awards & IT@Cork Nominations
Well, I’ve been very busy of late converting Druid DNS over to Oggim DNS. That’s going well during the day and I am glad to say its coming along very nicely at present. Still have lots of work to do on the UI, but the port to Zend Framework is going very well.
At the same time I am busy writing Rush Hour, our brand spanking new whatever analytics package (which is moving leaps and bounds now). Out of the blue I got two rather surprising and humbling emails.
Sep 2008 11 th
The Utility Web
I’m watching the TechCrunch 50 and its great. Ustream.tv are doing a great job streaming and its a very impressive demonstration of their abilities.
I can’t remember who said it, but someone critiqued a company for not being the next FaceBook. This got me thinking about a David Heinemeier Hansson video from StartUp School 08.
I constantly keep hearing about someone planning to be the next Face Book or YouTube, all it seems to be about now is this beast that is the Social Web. While this is great I keep thinking the same thing.
WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER COOL STUFF?
In particular, what about the Utility Web?
What is the Utility Web I hear you say? Well its a mixture of all those cool web applications that sit quietly in the background actually doing something useful while you are buying someone a Han Solo on Face Book.
To be specific, they are apps such as Freshbooks, an online accounting package for freelancers and small business, our own Rush Hour and Oggim DNS service, Amazon AWS, data exchangers like Gnip or as in the Tech Crunch 50 case, Ustream.tv. This list is endless.
The thing about a utility web company, is that they are generally quite focused on solving a problem that exists and focus on one or two areas. They are not wanting to be the next Face Book, they don’t even want to be a Face Book for their given domain, but just good at what they do and profitable.
To use Hannson’s example, 2000 people paying you €50 a month equals €1.2 million in trade. Getting 2000 people to use your utility is the hardest part after you’ve built the killer app.
So don’t get hung up on trying to be the next Face Book, the real money is in being a utility provider to all those web 2.0 social startups.
1 CommentSep 2008 8 th
No more 5K phone bills.
Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I like to talk. I hate typing, I hate having to individually write each word. it interupts my stream of thought. This fondness for talking however has its drawbacks. Mostly is people switching off or me talking too quickly for them to understand what I am saying. Thats fine, I can live with that. But there is one thing I can’t live with;
€5123.00 MOBILE BILLS
I am lucky with my job, I get to travel from time to time. Mostly to the US and France, where we host various bits of infrastructure. But this willingness to talk costs when you are abroad. Our mobile provider, like so many others, knows that when I am away on buiness I am gonna be pressed for time to get the job done. They know I am gonna have my phone, be in a secnario where I need to use the 3G connection to collect my mail or check something out quickly. Heaven forbid you use a mobile mail server like Intelisync or Exchange for Mobile….
Its because the MSP’s know that I am at their mercy, they can get away with charging crazy prices for roaming data and calls. It really sucks when you come back from doing a job well only to have it highlighted that your expenses are crazy because you used you phone too much. But this is what we’ve trained staff to do. If there is a problem tell someone, don’t run and hide it, shout it out, get in touch with the person to have it fixed, not ignore the issue and don’t call them because it’ll cost a bloddy fortune!
However, all this now appears at an end. Recently we discovered something called MAXRoam, from another Cork based company. Why we’d never picked up on this before I will never know. We have 70 consultants who all do their fair share of globe trotting. Can you imagine what our monthly mobile bills are like?
This is where MAXRoam fits nicely. First things first its great to support another Irish company, second, its every better when they have a product that saves your company a lot of money. Their idea is simple. You get a SIM card, you divert your calls and map all the numbers you can be contacted on to it, jump on a plane, land in destination and wait for someone to call. When that ringer goes off, pick up the phone and talk away for as long as you want knowing that you are paying a very fair and reasonable price for your call while aborad. I mean its so much cheaper that using your own service provider whomever they be. Lets put it into cold hard numbers. If I go to the states with my Vodafone sim, its gonna cost me €1.09 according to the text I just sent Vodafone (Text 50221 ROAM USA to check for yourself, its free). So a five min call is €5.45. Using my MAXRoam sim, its gonna cost me €1.90 for the same five min call. Thats only 0.38 per min. WOW! DOn’t tell me this does not make financial sense. If your a startup and you want to save thats a lot of cash.
Now for the big news, Pat Phelan has just announed MAXRoam V2, that now as well as passing great savings on voice calls, saves you on your data charges too. More twittering, more email more surfing all for less. WOW!
I’m glad to say we’ll be siging the entire company up shortly, its quick, painless and saves you a tonne of cash, and in these times every bit helps.
Sep 2008 7 th
Why I bother if it all sucks!
So I decided to spend some time with my beautiful girlfriend this morning as I have hardly seen her recently. Beautiful Sunday morning it was too. First time in months there has been no computer activity first thing in the morning with a coffee in one hand, keyboard the other and reading the latest test results, writing up code or even catching up on email. But all morning something has been in the back of my mind. Its just pushing there and it won’t go away.
Its the question of why do I bother? Why do I bother when people like Robert Scoble, whom are generally well received and their opinions generally well read, can come along and in one swift move attempt to destroy someones, dreams and hard work with one misplaced and possibly thoughtless comment.
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