Mayday!

Posted by Ronan on May 5, 2010 in LEAP, Seedcorn, ireland, software, startup, technology | 1 comment

Where does the time go? It’s absolutely flying by. Things are good  but I think I need a break.

Not so long ago the country was crippled by frost and ice – nobody could go anywhere.  Then the deadly ash cloud covered the country and again people were grounded & having to stay put. I’m just wondering what’s next to hit Ireland!? Dust storms? Locusts? Unlikely. They better stay away because I need a break. It’s been over 2 years since I went away for 10 days and switched off. (that means no laptop or blackberry) so it’s high time.

It’s hard to think this time last year I was UL worrying about lectures, students, papers, publishing etc. it’s now a distant memory. It was a tough decision to leave but I’m glad I did. Had I not, I’d still be in UL worrying about lectures, students, papers, publishing etc.

It’s been a terrific year for the Cauwill with things going from strength to strength. Just last week I was delighted to see two more hotels coming online and using the technology as part of their booking – it  made me smile.

The year has brought great challenges and we’ve been learning new (technical & business related) stuff  everyday. LEAP has been good too and I’m glad I did. The year has been a roller-coaster ride with lots of lows including sleepless nights, worrying, having minor-to-major panic attacks when something goes wrong, stressed to max, wondering when were  going to sign a customer, wondering if anyone would ever use the service. But of course on the flip side, the highs have been great including successfully delivery a quality product, securing and getting paid by customers,  receiving a thank-you note from users who love the service and of course let’s not forget InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn

Since we’ve won it’s been really busy.. for sure we’ve had some knock-backs but all-in-all it’s been positive.  You need to be able to take the highs with the lows in this game.

For those entering, I’ll be posting a blog on our experience last year, what we included in the business plan & presentation.

Anyway.. that’s for a little later in the meantime I need recommendations for a vacation! Answers on a postcard please

Installing Nokia Maps 3 on a Nokia N82

Posted by Ronan on Jan 31, 2010 in software, technology | 0 comments

Had loads of fun getting Nokia Maps on my n82. I had an original version and automatic updates would constantly give the error

Unable to Install. Component built in.

Grrr…

so after much reading around I’ve put the following together..  kudos to http://betalabs.nokia.com

DISCLAIMER:

The following will reset everything (EVERYTHING!!) and you will need to re-install apps again (ovi will help !). The following will  install Maps 3 and restore your contacts.

1. Sync contact list with Ovi
2. If you want – Back-up your memory card but exclude the Cities folder and qf file
3. Hard reset  - Enter  *#7370# on the standby screen (This could take up to 6 minutes to reset.. white screen for quite a bit.. be brave.. don’t remove the battery!)
4. Format memory card (you can do this via Tools>Utilities>Memory.. Options Format Card). Buhbye memory card.. THIS WILL WIPE EVERYTHING!

5. Get operator settings for network connectivity (02 will send them OTA to open use code is 1234) 
6. Open Maps and exit
7. Connect phone again via USB and Run Maps Updater. Update and wait for licence and voice navigation 
8. Open Maps after it’s updated. Make sure the application does open and it does the removal of old maps (which was created by step 6)
9. If Maps opens but shutdown by itself, remove memory card and open maps without memory card.
Then delete the cities and qf files using a PC. Put memory card back in and reopen maps.
10. Synch with OVI for contacts again 
11. Reinstall any application and settings you have previously
12. Download new maps..

Enjoy.

Voddler: Like spotify but for movies..

Posted by Ronan on Jan 17, 2010 in comment, innovation, movies, software, startup, technology | 1 comment

The blurb : With Voddler you can watch movies and TV shows the way you want, anytime. Voddler is easy, legal and available around the clock ..

Before I could it to work I had to configure the firewall correctly to allow inbound/outbound permissions but still it didn’t pass the startup test completely. It worked fine though.  The UI is a bit clunky but once you get the hang of it ..it’s fine. Enter and ESC with the nav keys pretty much do everything. You can see the UI designers have TVs in mind.. everything is BIG ! I kinda like it!

Because Voddler originates from Sweden  subtitles are on by default. You can turn them off in the settings.

The video quality of the movies is excellent as is the sound quality however the movie selection is s a bit limited at the moment but still I’d happily watch most of the movies currently listed.  Voddler also has TV series listed, I haven’t investigated them too much right now but from the first glance they looked to be a good mix of stuff.

The moves are listed as FREE and then there is a Premium section… as you would expect.

Before the movie starts you get to watch some advertisements, which is fine and understandable.  I haven’t watched a movie in it’s entirety to see if advertisements occur in the middle of it. If you exit a movie and come back in – it picks up where you left off (again with a few advertisements prior to it).

Overall – I like it! 8/10

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Spotify in Ireland Part 2

Posted by Ronan on Oct 6, 2009 in comment, software, technology | 4 comments

..  so I purchased spotify premium. Spotify Premium, like the free version, is awesome. So I’m thinking – “hey, let’s download Spotify to the  iPod touch and connect this to my 1930′s McMichael radio ” .. but alas not possible.  Is it because of connection problems I hear you ask? No the radio has a gramophone input I’ve re-wired for 3mm audio jack . Spotify, albeit listed in App Store, isn’t available in Ireland.. why oh why are you trying to thwart me!?

Anyone got a workaround to achieve the following.. but in Ireland?

On behalf of Gmail

Posted by Ronan on Aug 2, 2009 in comment, software, technology | 0 comments

Gmail is great. I love it. Use it all the time but one of the really annoying things about Gmail was the ‘On the behalf of’ message that would appear in some email clients, MS Outlook,  if I sent a message from a non-gmail account via Gmail. It looks a little unprofessional.

That in theory has been resolved with the new Settings to nominate you smtp server to send mail out other than Gmails smtp.

Finally says he! But Houston we have a problem. TLS is not supported.. so back to square one. Nice but no cigar Google! Can we now have the option to turn off TLS ??

BerryBuzz – What's the buzz man!?

Posted by Ronan on Jul 6, 2009 in comment, software, technology | 2 comments

What’s BerryBuzz?

It’s a tiny piece of software for BlackBerry phones that lights up the LED to notify you’ve got email.. so what’s the big deal? well BerryBuzz allows you to assign colours to the various email accounts. For example one email account could be set to green, another cyan, another orange, another blue and so on. You can also change the default colour for phone calls.

So at work/home I turn off all email programs (postbox mainly) and when the BlackBerry Lights up – a quick glance and I can determine whether I should check or not.. i.e. emails have been priortised. I’m sure you can do it with other (windows) programs but hey BerryBuzz does it so well.