I didn’t pay much attention to it before but recently (in last 3 or 4 years) I’ve become more aware of the beginning of a new year. It’s definitely a time to reflect on the past 12 months but you can’t live in the past - you live in the present and wonder about the future. 2009 is going to be a very interesting year for me - that’s for sure. I’m going to be way outside my comfort area for most of it, I’m going to stop writing (thesis/papers/journals/books chapters etc.) for the first time in 8 years, I’m going to start thinking about things that are bigger than work, soccer, Internet etc., I’m also going to do things I’ve put on the long finger for way too long.

stay tuned.

Now he did a couple of things during our short encounter - he basically secured another 2 customers, got some free advertising (this blog entry) and showed me what good and simple customer service can do for a business. After last nights Prime Time (Service with a Snarl) on RTE 1 - a lot of companies need a lesson or two!!

1. Go to your dashboard.
2. Navigate to Appearance -> Extras.

Tada!

The first thing you notice on picking up the laptop is that it’s light but yet very sturdy - it’s not made with flimsy plastic (which I often felt Dell laptops were ). Opening the lid you noticed something borrowed from Apple. It has a mac’esq keyboard which I love - I suffer from stubbyfingeritis which means I mash and bash most keyboards. Not so with the Sony. The keys are very well spaced out and I haven’t hit a wrong key yet!!

The screen is insanely thin - but with metal back it feels solid and cool to the touch. There is no catch or lock for the screen - it simply closes and stays closed. With a 13.3inch widescreen it’s plenty big for most things.

The mouse pad is sweet - although I would like the mouse buttons to ‘clunk’ a little less. The fingerprint reader works well and can double up as a means of scrolling through pages - although the mouse pad has the right hand side and bottom edge as a scroll bar so I don’t use the fingerprint reader much.

The motion eye camera and inbuilt microphone is clear with skype/gtalk - people haven’t notice much of difference.

The one thing I love is the eery green power button in the hinge - very cool..very distinctive.

- it flashes orange when the lid is closed or in standby.

Elsewhere around the chassis it has the usual wifi on/off switch, SD flash card reader, pro magic reader, 2 usb ports, vga out (no digital out - booo),  headphone & external mic, modem and ethernet port (hidden behind a plastic cover!)

Software:
It comes with Vista Business and it runs fine but I’d rather XP over Vista any day. Also bundled is Adobe Acrobat 8 which would normally cost 200 euros. You get a trial of 60 days of office which is more annoying than helpful. But even more annoying than office is mcafee antivirus. I hate mcafee so it was the first thing to be removed.. how can Mcafee consistently produce software that cripples every machine?? I was happy to find out there was no real other bloatware apart from mcaffe.

The only downside I’ve had with the laptop is I keep pressing the cd eject button when I pick it up - this should have been a slotin CD type drive.

All in all a super laptop. 4.5/5 stars!

AIB came in and talked to us about the various banking tools/loans/facilities- which was great because if you want to manage your cash then you need to be able to access and view it in realtime. I personally use the personal online banking and I know I couldn’t go with out it - from what I see the commercial tool will be vital going forward. They also offer free SFA Membership and currently running a Business Current Account Fee Offer.

On Saturday most of the participants did a presentation. The quality and standard was fantastic. It’s amazing how the group dynamic changed from the first evening we went in - some people were like fresh clams, closed and not giving anything away. By the end of the course they have opened up and presenting the idea with passion. Amazing - I think that’s a lot to do with interacting with the group and the encouragement from Graham and Donncha.

I have a much better idea of the products and services from the presentations and rest assured a couple will go on to big things.

Was the course worth it ? In a word, yes.

Should you do it ? If you have an idea and want to find out what  you can do with it.. then it could be the best 36 hours you’ll ever spend in a room.

With that, a big thanks to Graham Royce and Donncha Hughes for their sterling effort, organising all the speakers, staying way after 10pm on Friday evening, getting up early on Saturday morning, connecting us with people that inspire and others that can help us on our journey.

If you don’t feel like fasting, remember, you can always make a donation to the fast – every €1 can make a difference to those in need.

Cash flow -  the balance of the amounts of cash being received and paid by a business during a defined period of time

The second presenter of the night, Eoin Kierse from www.youbookin.com came in to share his story on how they got their software company up and running (2006). What was key for them starting out was EI’s feasibility grant. During the feasibility they realised their business idea would struggle in their target market,  but their feasibility uncovered one aspect of their initial ideal to be their way forward as a business. So at the end of the feasibility they changed direction and focussed on a different market - appointment booking. In 2007 they developed youbookonline.com, released it in beta form, got invaluable feedback and are currently incorporating the feedback into the product. I like the idea and I think there is a market - I do feel the barrier to entry is low so it would be important to gain a good customer base and grow from there.  I wish them all the best.

The money theme continued Saturday morning with Pat Clune from Enterprise Ireland coming in and talking about funding and support - needless to say EI have a lot of support for potential companies and even more for those that are trying to achieve HPSU status. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Pat again sometime soon…

Week #6 is the last week (the 6 weeks have flown by!) and we get to present our ideas.. should be fun.

Shiny new themes that don’t kill Gmail - like stylish.

Log into gmail and Click Settings.. there you will find Themes - pick your favourite (shiny is my current fav).  I’m sure it won’t be long until the user community can contribute and add new themes.

Thank you Gmail