you want to start something?

Damien Mulley just announced the nominations for the Irish Blog Awards 2009!

Go have a look!

“This is not the long list and it is not the short list, this is the Nominations List. Every one of these blogs will now be sent forward for judging. After this, a longlist will be released, followed by a short list. The winners will be announced on February 21st.”

Notable ones who I know well from the list:

Best Fashion Blog – Sponsored by Spinnakerpro
Dressjunkie: http://dressjunkie.com

Best Technology Blog/Blogger – Sponsored by Bitbuzz
Unwired: http://wimaxxed.blogspot.com
Michele Neylon: http://mneylon.com/blog
Digmo!: http://digmo.co.uk
Pat Phelan: Telecomms Disruptor: http://patphelan.net
Mj: http://cimota.com/blog – Yes, me. No, I didn’t self-nominate.

Best Newcomer – Sponsored by Teamworkpm.net
Lee Munroe’s Blog: http://leemunroe.com
Russellmcquillan.com: http://russellmcquillan.com
Ronster Munch – Blog: http://theronster.co.uk

Best Blog of a Business – Sponsored by RedCardinal.ie
No More Art Notepad: http://nomoreart.co.uk/notepad

Best Personal Blog – Sponsored by Microsoft Ireland’s Developer & Platform Group
Marramgrass : http://marramgrass.org.uk
Sickbiscuit: http://sickbiscuit.com/blog
Alan In Belfast: http://alaninbelfast.blogspot.com

Best Photo Blog – Sponsored by Pix.ie
Iced Coffee Photoblog: http://icedcoffee.ie

I’d suggest you have a click-through and see what’s happening in the big wide world of blogging in your region. There’s some real stars out there (and looking at the heavyweights I’m nominated alongside, I don’t fancy my chances!!!!)

[Edit: Also noticed The Ronster!]

Tags: Commentary, Cool, Made me laugh, News, Social by mj
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LaunchPad CoWorking
An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces:

Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it?
Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants and advance the cultural movement, then profit it is. Between the time and effort, money, and liability, we should be rewarded for that contribution and exposure. Besides, I didn’t know about coworking at all until I’d already started construction, so I was not “influenced” by the altruism.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a Co-Working site needs to be a ‘company’ as opposed to a ‘charity’.

I’ve seen lots of non-profits fall by the wayside due to the founders needing to move on and it’s hard to find people with the right mentality to take over. I’ve seen non-profits founder because without the extra edge of needing to make a profit (and reaping benefits thereof) the good will can vanish.

I’m well aware that people working at a non-profit can draw salaries and that the non-profit moniker has been used in order to attract attention while the ‘workers’ draw insanely large salaries. I guess I’m not comfortable hiding behind the tax benefits of a non-profit while engaged in something that is creating things ‘for profit’.

But let’s run with the current school of thought. That CoWorkingBelfast will be a non-profit organisation.

That said – if I have anything to do with it, CoWorkingBelfast will have to be a shining light and not just a damp squib. I want it to be excellent, a model place to work and not just a set of desks in a dreary room above a bank. It has to make enough money to survive and prosper and not just be a half-empty space which has to resort to arcane marketing schemes disguised as trade shows in order to generate a bit of coin.

Part of the Co-Working Belfast ethos should, in my opinion, to create ‘industry culture’ in Northern Ireland. That’s got to be more than just creating a web portal (and how many of those have sprung up in the last year or so) but the creation of a lasting legacy, a tradition of fostering creativity in the technology sector. CoWorking is not about technology itself – it’s about connecting people where they were not previously connected.

Part of the culture of CoWorking Belfast should not only be the opportunities and connections which are brought about by proximity but also the potential for fostering tomorrow’s industry (you know, the people who will be paying taxes when you and I are in a home for the elderly). I have a plan which consists of nothing more than a couple of pledges, a holding page on a web site and a monthly bill which I’ll work to find sponsorship for – which will be wholly dedicated to finding people with energy, be they young in body or just young in mind, and giving them a place to work and express their creativity as well as providing mentoring (by using and abusing the people housed in the CoWorking building) – more on this later.

Through this meandering post I’m convincing myself that CoWorkingBelfast can be a no-profit. What do you think?

Tags: CoWorking, Commentary, Do Something Now, News, Social, Startup by mj
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Every year we wait for the new and sparkly stuff from Apple and we often get it. The move to Intel. The iPhone. the 17″ and 12″ Powerbooks wayback when. This year is no different. We have a new subnotebook, software updates and a glimpse into Apple’s plans for everyone.

MacBook Air

Some correspondants on Damien’s blog don’t think it’s up to much (and this is before touching the device). One commenter wrote “Certainly it’s some kind of breakthrough, but then shit-flavoured ice cream would be, too.” I think that’s more than a bit harsh but then it explains why Apple always dips straight after MacWorld even if the product announcements have been insanely great. A lot of people were expecting Apple to go after the eee PC market and produce a subnote that was cheap. People, seriously. Subnotebooks are not cheap. If you don’t mind running a machine with a 7″ screen, that is light but bulky, only has a 2 hour battery and has barely enough storage for the OS plus any media files, then by all means run, don’t walk, and buy a eee PC. It’s ugly (and yes, I have one here).

The MacBook Air is aimed at people who would buy the Sony TZ series of subnotebooks. No-one would ever accuse Sony of being a cheap brand so I wonder why people expect Apple to suddenly, after years of being a premium brand, flood the market with £200 laptops. The Air would have to be beautiful, it would have to show something new and exciting and it would have to beat the best, not beat the cheapest. It’s thinner than the TZ and cheaper than the TZ.

My beefs with the MacBook air are simple. It’s only got one USB port. Though I seldom have more than one thing plugged into my MacBook Pro, there are times I have two. I might be charging my iPhone while playing Battlefield. And no, wireless mice are not good for the First Person Shooters. This happens infrequently enough that I’m not concerned about it. I’m also not worried about the lack of an ethernet port because, frankly, it’s been months since I plugged my laptop into ethernet and that was when I was at a client site. I usually carry a Airport Express with me if I’m unsure of wireless at the next location. I’m also not that concerned with the lack of RAM upgrades and the inability to remove the battery. 2 GB of RAM is a goodly amount for the target market for this device. I am curious that they didn’t bring out some sort of dock, I guess you plug in your USB hub, your power and your video out and just work on. It’s a sleek machine, underpowered for what I want (mostly in the graphics card department) but tempting. I don’t consider the multi-touch trackpad to be a big deal – if it’s not a touch laptop screen I don’t see the point. That said – touchscreens tend not to be thin if they are of any size.

In all, the MacBook Air is not for me. I’m not THAT much of a road warrior (heck, my laptop is 17″ and seldom leaves the house). It would serve a lot of people I know, probably more than they realise especially when they consider exactly how often do they plug anything into their laptop!

Lack of ethernet? Yes. I really wanted to drop over a grand on a laptop and then run wires all over my house, chaining me to certain parts of the room.

Scores 8/10 in my opinion. I’d have liked a 11″ machine.

iPhone update 1.1.3 (also for iPod touch)

We knew this was coming and it’s just like it said on the tin. Maps will now find your location pretty effectively using cell tower triangulation. You can move icons about. You can add bookmarks to the home screen for the bazillions of web apps out there. Texting to multiple persons doesn’t inspire me in the implementation but that’s a UI thing. Song lyrics? If I had any. iTunes rentals? If they were available in the UK I might care but I have Sky and more movies than I can watch anyway. And for iPod touch owners, $20 for the update isn’t a big deal. Sure, it’d be nice if you didn’t have to buy it but then 5 apps for $20 means apps are being targetted at around $4 each. Is Apple laying down expectations for pricing for iPhone apps bought through iTunes later this quarter?

A solid enough upgrade I guess – I don’t get lost very often though. 6/10

Apple TV update

This makes the Apple TV into an interactive device rather than just something to view media with. It becomes a realistic option for people who have broadband and don’t want to pay for cable or satellite TV or on-demand services. Of course, you can’t buy movies on iTunes in the UK and neither can we rent them via Apple TV. So if you’re in the UK, this is a useless update and another example of how if you’re in the UK, Apple doesn’t really care. Just keep buying their stuff. This is pretty much a 1/10

Time Capsule

The Airport Extreme with built-in hard drive is the only thing that really impressed her-indoors. Everyone should be backing up and with having to plug in disks, it can be a pain having to do so. This removes that pain. This I would place as the most impressive release in the show.

What does this tell me? Apple wants people to have more than one Mac. That seems obvious but Time Capsule is designed to back up multiple Macs. The MacBook Air is not designed as a standalone machine but rather as a portable machine which provides you with a companion to your powerful desktop at home. Leopard options like “Back to my Mac” show that being able to access one Mac from another Mac is an important part of their strategy. They’ve convinced a lot of people to buy one Mac so far and when you’ve managed that, getting them to buy another Mac is a no-brainer.

Time Capsule gets a rather spiffy 10/10 from me. Would have been 11 if it had AirTunes too.

Next?

We’re now counting down to the release of the iPhone SDK.

Tags: Commentary, Cool, Mac, News, Review, iPhone, infurious by mj
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A few weeks ago, Her Indoors made an off-hand comment about how I should do more for good causes. At the time I grunted as my attention was elsewhere but the statement didn’t leave me and I’ve been mulling it over for the last few days. The outcome of this internal debate is that I’m happy with my charitable contributions. I’ve helped a charity with their network issues when they had a fire and were forced to move. I’ve installed the wiring for a school left high and dry by C2K running out of budget. I’ve been running NiMUG for the best part of a decade for free and allegedly done heaps for Mac users in Northern Ireland (according to some of those Mac Users). I’ve done FOC house calls for some people who really couldn’t afford another option and Mac-Sys regularly donates to raffles for worthy causes. Infurious, though still just starting up, contributes patches back to the open source world and take it from me, if they were in a position to “give something back”, then they’d be doing a lot more than just that.

Today I set up a web page for a campaign for improving a playground. It’s based around Colby Park in Four Winds in Belfast. Have a look at the Campaign for Colby Playground. Sure, it’s just a little Wordpress install but it takes my time (and my money) to set these things up and the people doing this aren’t technical people. My kids won’t even see the benefit of this park as they don’t live anywhere near it, but I was asked and it’s a good cause.

If you have any knowhow in the political process or even know how to motivate people, get in touch with them. It’s not about what you can gain from it, but rather what will become of it on it’s own.

Tags: News, infurious, politics by mj
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Hot on the heels of the Open Social, Google has announced the Open Handset Alliance. Handset makers such as LG, HTC, Motorola and Samsung (essentially those who have had their lunch money stolen by Apple) are pledging to implement the software, based on a Linux OS. It’s also being supported by major carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile in the US, Europe’s Telefonica, and Japan’s KDDI and NTT DoCoMo (essentially another set of companies who’ve not got the iPhone for sale).

Damien had previously claimed that Google will release specs for mobiles and get someone to build them for as cheap as possible. That’s not exactly what’s happening here. Google is building an advertising platform here.

Get it: there is no gPhone.

This is the interesting bit.

… the OS will not be branded or charge users for each program. Google … will instead collect revenues from ads that appear on Android phones.

I’m not sure I’m really up for that. I already loathe software which spends half of the load time with a splash screen and the built-in software which is on my Sony Ericsson K800i is sluggish enough already and I hate the advertising splash screens it has.

They’re saying its all about making cellphones do whatever YOU want it to do. That’s a dirty marketing lie. This will be about making the cellphone give more nickels and dimes to Google. They’re saying it’s about choice, low cost, creativity, innovation. Their cast of people introducing the initiative want a phone which keeps tabs on their kids, shares a family calendar, does their taxes. Very funny.

I’ve always been a proponent of Google but this, combined with Open Social, just seems to be a rather greasy sweaty hand enclosing around areas that should be free. I mean free in terms of access all areas. Free from advertising.

The hardware manufacturers will probably be happy enough to build something but I predict this will be a Zune rather than an iPod, a ROKR rather than an iPhone. I dn’t think it’s possibly to build something with vision by handing people an SDK and saying “Go for it!” That’s not how the iPhone was built and it’s also not how Google was built.

Anyway, introducing Android:

At this point it’s an SDK. Sometime in late 2008 we might see a phone using it. Whether it will be any different to any currently shipping phones who knows. I think Google might just have invented the Myspace of Mobile Phone Operating Systems (for those who don’t get the reference: that’s a description of most Myspace pages. A hash of oddly placed components, clashing backgrounds and adverts. With a tiny smattering of content.).

Slashdot has it’s share of interesting ideas.

If you want data too, skip the GSM bugs and go for a full-feature GSM/GPRS module. It’s got all you could ask for. Just add an antenna and a battery to your board and you’re set. Add everything up and you will end up half the price of an iPhone. Best of all, it will run _Your Stuff_, and _Your Stuff_ Only.

Ahhh, yes. So you can have a cell phone that looks like one of the following:

Tags: Commentary, News, iPhone, infurious by mj
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