December 31, 2008
Archive | December, 2008
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December 29, 2008
Christmas Cinema Overdose
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Since I arrived in Cork last week I’ve been doing some serious catching up on films. Carlow has a cinema, but it’s not exactly “amazing” (the new one is still not open!!)
This morning I took advantage of the 11am showing’s really low price (€3) to see Inkheart, while over the last few days I’ve also seen and Bedtime Stories.
It sure beats driving all the way to Dublin to catch a film!
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December 27, 2008
Andy McNab’s Brute Force
I’d read a couple of Andy McNab’s earlier books and found them to be reasonable reads, so when Brute Force appeared on a list I grabbed a copy.
I’m not convinced that it was a wise move.
The story follows one of McNab’s characters – Nick Stone. Stone used to be in the UK special forces, but is now in retirement when he comes under attack. The rest of the book is Stone trying to find out who wants him dead.
While the basic plot is okay, the book’s pace is really really annoying. McNab seems to relish boring the reader to tears with overly detailed prose. Do we really need to experience each and every sensation of the character? I don’t think so.
The other problem is that the chapters are incredibly short. Whoever edited the manuscript must have had the attention span of a goldfish, as the chapters in many cases run to a mere two or three pages, so they serve very little purpose.
Worth reading?
If you can’t find anything else – yes, but don’t get a new copy. Borrow it from a friend or grab a secondhand copy.
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December 26, 2008
Post-Christmas Sales Are Hurting My Wallet
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I knew that this year’s post-Christmas sales would be tempting, but I didn’t really expect to end up grabbing deals before I’d even had breakfast!
AllPosters are running a clearance sale
, so I picked up a framed Iron Man poster this morning with a 40% discount!
I’ve also got a few emails from other places, such as Amazon, with details of other crazy discounts. The next couple of weeks could really hurt my wallet!
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December 25, 2008
Moblogging Software For Nokia E71?
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Since upgrading to the E71 I’ve found myself using online services on my phone a LOT more. There are two reasons for this:
- The data plan we are now makes it a loss expensive to use and abuse web services
- The full QWERTY keyboard
One of the things that I would love to be able to do is blog directly from my E71.
For some odd reason Nokia did away with the LifeBlog application in their newer phones, so I haven’t had much luck finding a usable replacement.
Most of the Symbian software options for blogging are either ancient and don’t work with MovableType 4.* or simply are not compatible with MT at all.
There probably are some wonderful software tools out there that are compatible with both the E71 and Movable Type, but I haven’t had much luck in finding them.
If anyone knows of any solutions please let me know!
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December 24, 2008
Twas The Night Before Christmas..
Twas the night before Christmas … and there’s nothing on TV, but I’ve got a nice glass of red wine beside me and am enjoying the fire.
I could lie and say that I intended to spend the next few days away from computers etc., but I’ll probably potter away at a few things that I’ve been meaning to get round to for months.
So Happy Christmas everyone!
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December 23, 2008
Printing Digital Photos Online
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While I may use Flickr to store a lot of my photos I also like to have hard copies. Call me traditional if you will, but you can’t put a Flickr photo in your wallet, for example, unless you print it out (not that I have any photos in my wallet at the moment…)
I currently have 3 cameras that I use when I’m “out and about”:
- my phone’s camera (currently the E71 – so the quality isn’t exactly stellar!)
- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170, which I tend to leave in my jacket most of the time (logic being that if I have it with me I might actually use it!)
- Canon EOS 400D – great camera, but it’s a bit bulky to carry around the place
So where can you get your photos printed?
Donncha did a round up a few years ago, but it’s a bit out of date (if he’s done another one please let me know!)
So who is economical these days?
I did a bit of digging around over the weekend and compiled a short list. All pricing is based on 6″ x 4″ prints, as they seem to be the most common.
A lot of the services offer discounts if you pre-purchase credits, so if you’re planning on printing 500+ photos at once the cost per photo will drop quite a bit compared to the price of printing 30.
All pricing is based on their normal price without any extra discounts for bulk purchases or pre-orders, as I am unlikely to print hundreds of photos at one go.
UK pricing is currently close to parity with the Euro, but check the rates as they will change
Foto.com – 10cm x 15cm (6″ x 4″) 9c
BonusPrint – 6″ x 4″ 9c
MyPix (Pixmania) 6″ x 4″ 14c
Snapfish (HP) 6″ x 4″ 14c
Spectra 25c (drops to 15c on large orders)
DigiPrints.co.uk 9p
Photobox 6″ x 4″ 10p (drops to 5p if you order more than 500 prints)
Based on the pricing above it looks like the best deals can be got from Foto.com or Bonusprint, so I will definitely be using one of them for my next batch of snaps!
If anyone knows of any other companies offering these services that ship to Ireland please let me know
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December 22, 2008
More Christmas Giveaways
Damien might not be able to match Pat’s $1500 phone, but he is offering a couple of nice ones over on his site.
It’s all in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation, who can help you recycle your old mobile phones in aid of charity.
Just say I sent you!
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December 22, 2008
Adwords Fail
If you’re going to spend money on PPC advertising you really need to make sure that your website is working for you:
The site I decided to check obviously won’t deliver anything for me:
What a waste of advertising spend!
And of course this isn’t an isolated incident – if you spend enough time looking for products and services online you will find hundreds of these scenarios!
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