24 hours as a Porsche driver
Posted: April 27, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, car business, Do something Now is good, Interesting, Network Scouts, Northern Ireland, OpenCoffee, Personal posts, vRS | Tags: 911, 914, 924, 944, 977, Belfast, boxster, cars, fun, Hannah, Lyndsey McQuillan, personal, Porsche, Porsche belfast, vRS Leave a comment
I had the great pleasure over Friday and Saturday of driving and owning (for 24 hours) the new 2010 Porsche Boxster, kindly lend to me by the good people of Porsche Centre Belfast. I have been a fan of Porsche since a boy and whilst all my pals had dreams of winning the lottery and buying up Ferrari’s, Lambos and Astons, my eye was always on a Porsche, and not as a lottery winners car either, I wanted one for an every day car.
I have driven a few other the years and been taken out in others, every week I look at 924s and 944’s in the paper and think, wouldn’t that be a great weekender………… alas I never end up buying one. Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook cans Facebook lite
Posted: April 22, 2010 Filed under: Business, Interesting, Internet, Social Networking, Web 2.0 | Tags: facebook, facebook light, Social Media, Web 2.0 2 Comments
No, its not a low calorie beer. Facebook lite ‘was’ the slimming down version of Facebook designed for people with low bandwidth and slow Internet connections. The stream you saw when you signed in was status updates, photos and not much else so no Mafia Wars, Farm Town and the various other apps that pollute many peoples Facebook stream.
It was in many respects the Facebook of 2006 before all the changes. It’s simple failure was that no one used it, no one used it because very little people knew about it, it wasn’t advertised, promoted or even really communicated to users. There was no ‘try Facebook Lite’ if your connection was slow or even mention of it on the home page therefor it was destined to fail. Read the rest of this entry »
Wi-Fi takes to the air ……. literally
Posted: April 21, 2010 Filed under: Interesting, Internet, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: airborn, aircell, gogo, gogo planes, ipass inflight, ipass takes to the air, plane wifi, Wi-Fi, wi-fi planes wifi Leave a comment
With all the bad news coming out of the Airline industry lately it is great to see things are still moving on and my friends at iPass have picked a great time to launch their new in-flight Wi-Fi service in partnership with GoGo. Initially only avialable on domestic US flights I am certain iPass will be seeking ways to take this global soon.
So you no longer have to watch the boring in flight movies, you can stream you own content, catch up on email, browse, skype call people and whatever else you cool kids get up to online. All we need now are charging points !
Here is iPass speaking about the new deal Read the rest of this entry »
Nobody beats Laser ! except the banks off course
Posted: April 21, 2010 Filed under: Business, Government, Interesting, Northern Ireland, Retail | Tags: Belfast, currys, harvey norman northern ireland, laser bargin, laser bust, laser direct, laser electrical northern ireland, laser midnight sale, laser sale, lasr bankfupt, Northern Ireland, who will buy laser ? 3 Comments
The stark news hit just at the Start of this month that Laser Electrical had gone into Administration. Usually when this happens the administrators try to trade the stores until a buyer or a way forward can be found. Sadly with Laser things were grimmer than most, just hours after the receivers took control of the business the stores were closed and days later the firm was placed into full liquidation. The final nail in the coffin for the ailing retailer.
But why did things go so wrong ?
Quite simply the business model had not worked for a number of years, 2008 /2009 accounts showed a profit of only £34,177, not what you would call great for a retailer with 10 prime locations, good cachment areas and 140 staff. There was however a few ways this business could have been saved.
As I said, the business model had not been working for a number of years. Currys and Harvey Norman have better buying power and better terms with the bank for getting consumers finance. What Laser needed to do was to create more ways of doing business rather than sticking to the tradional ‘waiting for people to come in the door approach’ Read the rest of this entry »
This volcano business is all getting a bit serious
Posted: April 19, 2010 Filed under: Business, Interesting, Scouting, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: nonsense, Rant, volcano 1 Comment
Is there anyone that is not effected ?
I have heard all the stories about people going into survival mode in a bid to get home, buses, cars, trains, boats (oh my!) John Cleese grabbed a taxi from Brussels to France for 3k ! My buddies wife is stuck in Brussels, I spoke to a guy on Friday who was busing it from Dublin to Belfast to get a ferry to Scotland and then head on down to London to get home. I read another story about a guy who picked up some random people and between them they got his car onto a ferry, he is now arranged to go a date with one of the girls he chipped in with (result!).
That said, to me I thought I was largely unaffected by the whole this and put it down to ‘just a decent news story’ That is until I actually thought about it in a bit more detail and the various knock on things that will be effected. Read the rest of this entry »
The People's Manifesto – an attack on 4×4 drivers !
Posted: April 15, 2010 Filed under: 4wdni, 4x4, Belfast, car business, Government, Interesting, Northern Ireland | Tags: 4x4, 4x4 response team northern ireland, alan in belfast, peoples manifesto, Rant 1 Comment
Alan in Belfast talks about Mark Thomas new book, the People’s Manifesto. Its a good post, read it. The book looks good to, like a common sense approach to politics.
I just want to pull a few points from the book though,
“4×4 drivers should be forced to drive everywhere off-road, even to Sainsburys.”
That would sadly be illegal, most of the land (over 80% in Northern Ireland) is owned farmland and as such driving across it is trespassing.
“Anyone with a 4×4 in a city must also volunteer for the nearest mountain rescue service.”
On the UK Mainland their is such a thing as ‘The 4×4 response team’ which is a voluntary organisation and they do great work. Sadly in Northern Ireland this does not exist and no one I spoke to in local council seemed overly bother about setting one up.
I am off course, picking holes. I am for the 4×4 driver ! The correct 4×4 driver that is, I don’t have a 4×4 at present however when I did own one, I drove it off road. I stopped to pull fallen tree’s from the road and I pulled car’s from ditches. 4x4s are not a bad thing however the large % of 4x4s on our roads are nothing more than cars ferrying kids to school and mums to shops and these people do not know how to drive a 4×4 correctly !
I will buy a 4×4 again and I will take it off road ! (legally)
Rant over
Russell
Is twitter a valid newsroom for Northern Ireland ?
Posted: April 14, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, Business, Government, Interesting, Internet, Northern Ireland, Telecoms, Web 2.0 | Tags: bbc, belfast bomb, dissident bombs, ira, new twitter, real ira, troubles, utv 6 Comments
Since the dawn of Newspapers people have rushed to the local store to grab the morning headlines, then came along radio and people could tune in hourly to get their fix of local and national news. During war time people stayed glued to their radio’s to find out where the Natzi’s had bombed next and how the troops were getting on in Europe.
One thing has remained constant forever, people crave news and people want to be the first to know.
We had it really good there for a while, were we could hop on to numerous news sites and grab our fix but times are changing and newspapers are at the advent of charging for online content. So were do we look to get our news fix ? Read the rest of this entry »
When Politions try and fail …… to understand social media
Posted: April 12, 2010 Filed under: Business, Government, Interesting, Internet, politics, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: facebook fail politics, twitter fail 1 CommentProof read anyone ?
Really, if you don’t get it just stay the hell away from it !
Sexy new Complimentary Wi-Fi co-branding with Costa !
Posted: April 9, 2010 Filed under: Business, Interesting, Internet, Retail, Telecoms, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: costa coffee, deals done, Free Wi-Fi, Northern Ireland, Wi-Fi 1 Comment
50p Broadband Tax, gone …….. but not forgotten !
Posted: April 8, 2010 Filed under: Business, Government, Interesting, Internet, Northern Ireland, OpenCoffee, Social Networking, Tech, Telecoms, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: 50p tax, broadband tax, governement, Internet, line rental tax, radio, tv budget 2 Comments
I won’t get bogged down with talking about the digital economy bill or whatever other title’s that have been thrown about for what is effectively the EU Data Retention Directive re-packaged to suit the British Government. I can’t, as an ISP, I’m too close to it and the outcome of whatever does eventually pass through law effects not only my company but my clients and end users as well. When the time is right however, you will hear my thoughts !
What I can talk about though is this 50p line rental tax. What Labour proposes is that a tax of 50p per month per line is strapped onto every phone line in the UK, the money it says will fuel a new super fast broadband product available to all, well not quite superfast….. What we are actually talking about here is 2meg minimum in rural areas (that is anyone not in a ‘big’ city) Read the rest of this entry »
Russell McQuillan 