Seedcorn 2009

Posted by Ronan on Jun 30, 2009 in innovation, ireland | 0 comments

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!

Bord Gais, Security and things in perspective

Posted by Ronan on Jun 22, 2009 in comment | 4 comments

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 on Jun 21, 2009 in comment | 0 comments

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..

Firefox 3.5

Posted by Ronan on Jun 14, 2009 in technology | 3 comments

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 on Jun 5, 2009 in comment, software, technology | 2 comments

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:

1. Click the Office Button
2. Click Word/PowerPoint Options (bottom of the menu)
3. Click the Save feature at the left pane
4. Under the Preserve fidelity when sharing this document section
5. Check Embed fonts in file and Embed only the characters used in the document options
6. Click OK
7. Save the documen

Twitter – good, bad, indifferent?

Posted by Ronan on Jun 3, 2009 in random, web 2.0 | 3 comments

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