LEAPing!
Posted by Ronan | Filed under LEAP, Limerick, startup
So I’ve finished up with the University this week and moved into the EAC based on the LIT campus. Cauwill secured a place on LEAP - Limerick Enterprise Acceleration Platform . The office isn’t bad - table, chair, phone, cabinets, internet (works nice and quick) and the best thing about the office is the window! Yes folks you’ve read it right.. a window. 10 years in an office with no windows does strange things to people!!
Had a great meeting with Graham from the EAC - he is cracking the whip already which is great (Thanks!). So July is going to be a busy month as we have a load of things to get out the door, so the head will be down for a while and no holidays until at least early August!
So we are LEAPing - who knows what the next couple of years will bring for Cauwill and PinPoints .. but I have a good feeling about it 
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.ronanskehill.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
Seedcorn 2009
Posted by Ronan | Filed under innovation, ireland
Seedcorn is open for applications..!
You’ve dreamed it. You’ve built it. Now give your business lift-off with the 2009 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Business Competition.
Get the funding to give your business lift-off. This year the competition is offering the biggest ever cash prize fund of €360,000 spread across 9 cash prizes to help the brightest new business stars across the whole island.
And that’s not all………..
Enter and you’ll get expert help on becoming investor-ready, make valuable contacts and get expert help to become investor-ready. We provide online support and workshops, so you’re all set to impress with your business pitch. Because the Seedcorn Competition is all about matching businesses with investors the BENEFITS are more than the cash prize: -
- Accelerate the development of your business idea
- Learn how to pitch your business plan to investors
- Gain exposure with venture capitalists and other investors
- Get feedback on your business plan
- Increase the profile of your business
In every way, it’s a top-flight opportunity!
Tags: Seedcorn
Bord Gais, Security and things in perspective
Posted by Ronan | Filed under comment
Got some post from Bord Gais today. They had 4 laptops stolen. One of the laptops wasn’t encrypted. Coincidentally that laptop had all the names, addresses and bank details for 75,000 new customers. Yes you could feel quite angry with this happening and yes you could feel worried with the possibility that someone could try to empty your bank account - but I don’t. There are bigger things in life to be concerned about - worrying about something that may or may not happen isn’t helpful. It’s funny.. the things you take for granted are the things you need to appreciate the most… e.g your family. Anyhoo..
Longest Day..
Posted by Ronan | Filed under comment
On or around June 21 each year, the rays of the sun will be perpendicular to the Tropic of Cancer at 23°30′ North latitude. This day is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
On this day, the earth’s “circle of illumination” will be from the Arctic Circle on the far side of the earth (in relation to the sun) to the Antarctic Circle on the near side of the earth. The equator receives twelve hours of daylight, there’s 24 hours of daylight at the North Pole and areas north of 66°30′ N, and there’s 24 hours of darkness at the South Pole and areas south of 66°30′ S.
June 20-21 is start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere but simultaneously the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s also the start of other things too..
Tags: longest day
Firefox 3.5
Posted by Ronan | Filed under firefox, technology
wow.. FireFox 3.5 beta 4 is super quick, it beats the pants off firefox 3.0.11 (latest). Is it as quick as Chrome.. no - but you don’t have add-ons in Chrome..
Ok so some of the addons are not supported but all the good ones are .. including PinPoints
ps - have you seen PostBox ? A new email client built on Thunderbird ? It rocks!
Embedding Fonts into Presentations - Office 2007
Posted by Ronan | Filed under comment, software, technology
If you decide to use different fonts in presentation you have to assume other computers won’t have them installed.. so embed them.
Here is the HowTo:
- Click the Office Button
- Click Word/PowerPoint Options (bottom of the menu)
- Click the Save feature at the left pane
- Under the Preserve fidelity when sharing this document section
- Check Embed fonts in file and Embed only the characters used in the document options
- Click OK
- Save the documen
Tags: embed, fonts, powerpoint
Twitter - good, bad, indifferent?
Posted by Ronan | Filed under random, web 2.0
I like twitter - I sometimes use it to set a status in both Facebook and twitter, but recently I’ve been questioning why am I using it at all? What purpose does it serve? What am I getting out of twitter? At the moment not a lot - it’s a bit of fun. Full Stop.
As an experiment I recently posted a string of words including ’soccer’ ‘insurance’ and ‘limerick’. Within in 20 minutes I had people aka insurance sales people, football sites following me and ‘Castletroy’ following me - all their tweets were trying to sell me stuff. Not impressed.
I can see twitter been useful for PinPoints - get a tweet if there is an update to an addon or new feature added, or just to let know the users we are alive and well and actively working to improve the service.
Another question, can you get hooked on twitter? I think you can - some people are hooked and go over the top every day, tweeting 20+ times a day - you know who you are! It just make twitter noisy. How can you compete with someone tweeting and retweeting (RT) rubbish all day long?
Is twitter friend or foe? Mostly friend but it has it’s ulgy side too.
O (Fluffy) sent me this..
And I found this on despair.com - nice summary of the social networks
Tags: twitter
Easter Egg.. Timmy the Tractor
Posted by Ronan | Filed under random
I got the munchies last week .. the cupboards where kinda empty but I remembered there was an Easter egg left over.. not from this year.. but last year.
So here we have it.. the pros and cons:
- it’s WAY out of date..(27/05/08)
- it’s organic chocolate
- it’s marks and sparks
- it’s wrong to eat it.. coz it’s not my Easter egg (it’s L-Mans from P)
- it’s Timmy the Tractor.. I like tractors
So should I eat it? Or maybe let it mature a little more?
Where would you draw the line in eating chocolate that’s out of date.. does it go off?
Tags: chocolate, easter egg
Limerick Open Coffee
Posted by Ronan | Filed under Limerick, event, ireland, locc
After last months well attended event, LOCC is back again.. where does the month go? I dunno.
This month, following last months excellent talks, Nora Klaver, Author, Speaker, Executive Coach and Radio Host is talking to us on Thursday.
To be honest, don’t know much about her so it should be interesting to see what Nora has to say.
Remember LOCC is 1st Thursday of the month, 11 am in the Absolute Hotel Limerick.
Tags: Nora Klaver
New Day
Posted by Ronan | Filed under concern, innovation, ireland, mini tour of county clare, software, startup, web 2.0
Well today was first day of LEAP.. 14 new companies walked into the boardroom of EAC in LIT at 9am this morning and we started our adventure. It was great to see quite a few of the STARTERS on LEAP and of course it was good to meet some new faces. As I left, I wondered - where will we be in 12 months? What state of mind will be in? What will the be the state of our companies? Will we have customers? Will we be standing on our own, or will we have created partnerships and be driving to the next level? Who knows.. but one thing for certain the next 12 months will be filled with lots of highs and lows. The road will be rocky that’s for sure but I’m hoping to balance out the high with the lows on all fronts. Of course there will be time for coffee to discuss the rocky road
Tags: LEAP
