What’s going on? CIE is talking about cutting services and 400 jobs, yet the private bus operators (like Matthews Coaches) are waiting (since last year) for official permission to run express services down the M1 and through the port tunnel.
Pump all the money into the banks that you want, behaviour like that isn’t going to get us out of this downturn.
I’ve just tried to make a donation via the SVP website.
Unfortunately the site does not work with non IE Web browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome). That means about 1/4 of the people wishing to donate are being locked out.
Normally at this point I’d rant about whatever corporate decision maker let this one through. But I’m just sad - a deserving charity, always stretched for cash, is 25% down due to some simple (JavaScript) errors.
I’ve emailed the address given, but I’m likely to viewed as some random web lunatic (and maybe that’s not far from the truth). So what can I do to help? All suggestions welcome.
Update: I got a fairly quick email back from SVP acknowledging the problem - better than many commercial organisations in that regard. But the question remains - how can somebody with technical skills volunteer to help a charity without coming across as a nutcase?
Update 2: A further update from SVP within 10 days - test the site again - appears to work normally.
Just watching the X-Factor (long story) and it hit me - the solution for Irish Democracy (or at least getting people to vote) is to merge it with the TV Show.
The X-Factor is incredibly popular in the UK , so there must be something to it. What do you think - Is fact stranger than fiction?
‘Credit Crunch’ might be the favourite buzzword of the moment, but ‘Security’ and ‘Software as a Service’ are not very far behind. Ok, they’re a long way behind ‘will I lose my house’ or ‘will I have a job tomorrow’, but you get the idea. So I’m proud to associated by this article by Max and Chicco, even in a very minor way (as a reviewer).
Here’s the 2 minute overview of Securing a multi-tenant SAAS Appliction, just published on IBM Developerworks.
Of course, I’m not going to spill the beans on how exactly they do it; for that you’re going to have to hotfoot it over to the IBM Developerworks website.
What if Ireland really did get a chance to vote Obama or McCain in the forthcoming US Presidential election? While this Irish Times article suggests that we’re more Memphis than Massachusetts (think about that - Dana as an Irish version of Sarah Palin), now we’re going to find out what would really happen if we got to vote.
No, I’ve not found some ‘back door’ to allow us to take part, but the Economist is running an online poll to find out what would happen if the US President was choosen by worldwide vote.
Hmm … looks like Obama is leading 8,375 to 15. Those 15 come from Georgia (wondered what happened there recently) and Macedonia (next door to Kosovo with large scale Nato intervention).
Life’s unfair with McCain getting tarred with the legacy of 8 years of Bush. Especially after what happened him in the 2000 election (South Carolina Primary) where Bush hit him with some very low attack ads alleging that McCains wife had an affair (in reality, the couple have a daughter adopted from overseas).
Warning: This blog has a 100% failure rate when it comes to forecasting politics.
I knew it was going to be bad but I didn’t think it was going to be as bad as this. And personally, I’m disgusted at bailing out the banks. The same banks that threw suitcases of cash at the housing developers that made first time buyers life hell during the boom years.
The first problem – it’s a bailout but people are pretending it’s not real money
Ah-hah, you say – it’s not really a bailout. The state is guaranteeing the deposits in banks (some Euro 400 Bn worth, or 300,000 Euro for every taxpayer in the country) – but no money has changed hands. What a stroke by the Paddys - not.
No money has changed hands - ‘yet’. Experience in the US (who have been through this a couple of times in recent decades) suggests that 20% of the loan book will go bad. Because of gearing banks can lend out far more money than it takes in deposits, so 20% of bad loans = a lot more than 20% of our deposits needing rescued.
If the banks were hunky-dory, then why are other banks refusing to lend to them? Why couldn’t they go to their shareholders for more funds (like Royal Bank of Scotland did in recent months, raising 12 Billon Sterling)? And if these two groups (who know far more about banking than I or the average taxpayer does) are refusing to lend, then why should we? Fear is one factor, but fear is normally there for a good reason.
The second problem: Meet the new boss of the six largest banks in the country.
I’m sure Mr Lenihan is a fine man, competent and full of integrity. He’s got a good CV – politician, lawyer, family man. Strange that – no mention of banking on his CV.
The new boss of Irish banks – minister for finance Brian Lenihan - image from Agent Provocateur
If the state is underwriting the banks, then they’ll be kept on such a short leash that they can’t go to the toilet without asking permission. And if they’re not being kept on a short leash, then why not – that’s 300 grand of my money that they’re playing with. So Mr Lenihan, as the person making the guarantee, is now the ultimate boss of not one, but six Irish banks.
Bit of a dilemma there: Who will run the Banks the best? The current management who made the loans to developers that got us into this mess? Or a politician without any banking experience (although I’m sure he’s learning fast)? Answers in the comments section at the bottom please.
The third problem: Moral Hazard
When we get through this and growth starts again (and despite my pessimism, we will get through this pain, with Ireland coming out in a competitive position) we now have a problem; The very same bankers that we are now supporting / bailing out will start making loans again. And making risky loans, knowing that the state will (probably) bail them out if they fail. So the state intervention now means that Mr Lenihan and his successor politicians will be regulating the heart of the banking system for years to come.
And who do you think will win? Well intentioned regulators on a fixed salary, or highly paid highly motivated bankers who get paid bonuses for finding new ways of bending the rules?
The finale
Can we roll out all the estate agents / politicians / brokers / other talking heads that popped up on TV predicting a ‘soft landing’? Yep, the same ones that critisied those who dared sound a warning as unpatriotic and ‘talking down the economy’?
(Tumbleweed)
Do I have any better answers? No. But it would be good to stop pretending that this bank rescue carries no cost to the Irish Taxpayer.
Update: Actually , this thing might be cost free - but in a beggar-my-neighbour kind of way. Loads of capital is flowing into Irish Banks and out of UK and European Financial institutions. Great for Irish banks (loads of lovely money to fund existing loans), but I can’t see the other countries being too happy about it if the withdrawals cause a collapse there. Still, it will stop them complaining about our low 12.5% corporate tax rate.
Apologies for not gettting this posted by the closing date. But the ‘closing’ date on these things tend to be flexible, so if you’re interested if worth checking out the NEPP site. Mulley has already blogged about similar programmes at hothouse (docklands), sepp (south east) and m50 (Tallaght IT) if you’re located outside of the North-East.
Our claim to fame is that FirstPartners.net went through this program in 2003. And failed. But failed quickly - we realised within months that the mad business idea (selling open source technology to accountants) wasn’t going anywhere. We were able to bring the lessons learned back into the main consulting business. Far better than a lingering , drawn out half-life.
More information is here (pdf format)
Enterprise Platform Programme
Enterprise Support for Innovative Knowledge based, High Tech and Information Technology StartupsIntroduction
The Novation Enterprise Platform Programme (NEPP) is a programme of support for graduate entrepreneurs with an innovative business idea in the Knowledge Based, High Tech or IT sectors.The main objective of the programme is to develop the commercial and job creation potential of the participant businesses. The programme delivers comprehensive training in business and management to equip participants to successfully start up and manage a new business. The
programme assists participants in the achievement of personal and business development goals in relation to the project. It also assists participants in the completion of market or technical feasibility studies and/or the preparation of a business plan.Past Participants
Since its conception in 2001, over 70 entrepreneurs have participated on the Programme. A survey conducted recently confirmed that over 54 businesses have been established by NEPP participants resulting in total employment of 311 people and sales of €27million per annum.
Participants have also raised over €39 million in VC funds.The programme will be managed by the Regional Development Centre, on the campus of Dundalk Institute of Technology. Participants may choose to be based in the professional, entrepreneurial environment of the Regional Development Centre, and will have access to the laboratories, equipment and resources of Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Eligible participants receive a consultancy / travel allowance of approximately €1150. Eligible participants may also apply for funding through Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation of Research and Development (CORD) grants, whereby they can receive up to 50% of their previous year’s verifiable income (the grant in total will be capped at a maximum of €38,000).
The Novation EPP is a comprehensive package of business development
support including:
IT@Cork have got good speakers from Eclipse, Springsource and Sun, and a Bargain at 130 Euro .. More details are available here.
Java@cork 2008
Tuesday, September 9, Radisson SAS Hotel, Little Island, Cork
Featuring speakers from SpringSource, Sun Microsystems, Eclipse Foundation and much more…
Agenda
Fee: €80pp for members. €130pp for non members. Students fee is €40.
Registration: email admin@itcork.ie or visit www.itcork.ie
I recently got into a conversation about corporate blogging. The sort of conversation that starts with ‘what is a blog?’ and ends with ‘it’ll never work here’. And, as always, the killer argument for corporate blogging popped into my head 5 minutes too late.
A tractor in a field yesterday
Many years ago, I used to work for Case, the company that builds big red tractors. It was great work, especially as people understood what you did - none of this ‘I work in computers’ malarchy. Only problem was that we were working in Navan Ireland, with most of our colleagues based in Racine, just north of Chicago.
Not too much of a problem for the first 15 or so people - people who worked out of Chicago for the first 4 or 5 months. We were able to build up personal relationships with a colleagues. We could ask later ‘how are the kids?’ or ‘are you still playing football?’. Small things, but make the real work discussions a lot easier.
The problem came with employees 15-100 - the ones that didn’t spend any amount of time in the US. Technically great people, but didn’t ‘click’ in the same way with Chicago. As a result, small misunderstandings became big misunderstandings, and projects got delayed.
And that’s where corporate blogging comes in. It allows people in far flung offices to connect. Doesn’t matter what you blog about - personal life, or some small project that’s happening in your local office. Chances are somebody else in the company will pick up on it and vital connections will be made.
And if you’re in the market for a big red tractor, click on the photo above. 125 BHP, Diesel Engine, a bargain at 16,500 Euro.
Heard on the Doirt
Girl 1: I can’t believe my car is only worth 15 thousand but the car loan is still 20. It’s so unfair.
Girl 2: What colour is it?
Girl 1: Red
Girl 2: That’s ok then.
And women are normally more careful with money. We’re all doomed.
Stressed? No time to talk to people? Losing sleep over tomorrow’s work? You don’t have a lot of time to read this, so I’ll keep this short.
Adjust steps 1,2, and 3 as required. Get as fancy or as simple as you want. Don’t aim for perfect, so you’ll be flexible enough when you need to change. Works for me. What works for you?
And yes, it’s probably already covered in ‘Getting things done‘.
There is one small change I’d like them to make - you have only the black or white option of either showing , or hiding your connections.
I think there should be a third option: ‘Show mine if you show me yours’. I’ve only met a handful of people that hide their connections; I’m still happy to connect to them - I typically scan my LinkedIn list when asked to recommend people. But there’s no incentive for them to open their list - they get a free ride no matter what they choose.
It may be co-incidence, but all of the people with hidden connections make their living from their professional network (e.g. recruiters, high end management consultants).
What do you think? Are these people being business savvy, or just parasites stealing our networking time?
I thought I was good at shameless self publicity. But Alan O’Rourke is even better at it. And he’s got a great business idea in Toddle (a very easy to use tool that allows people to send out dramatic, relevant emails).
The above picture is from the Irish Independent writeup on Toddle. And if you want to check out Alan’s mad-take-over-the-world-ideas , he blogs at PinStripe.
I’ll almost forgive him for being from ‘the faaaaaar soide’ - that’s the Meath side of Drogheda if you don’t follow our local tradition of ignoring people from the other side of the River Boyne.
I’ve been very lucky in the 9 years that I’ve been working for myself. Lucky in the opportunities to travel and the people that I’ve met. Lucky in I’m doing something I love - playing with and building the latest technologies. Lucky on the financial side of things that it’s given me a wide range of choices.
So, it’s surprised the people I’ve told that I’m now going to be doing something completely different.
Why?
No it’s not the economy. I can see the effects of the slowdown but I’m one of the most ‘low maintenance’ people I know (anybody who lives in Drogheda and drives a ‘98 Toyota isn’t exactly into bling!) I’d be ok. And the uptick (in 18months - 2 years time) is the most profitable bit of the economic cycle.
No , it’s not through lack of clients. One of the most painful parts of the decision have been the 3 prospective projects that I’ve had to turn down. The sort of ideal projects that I’d working to land for the previous 2 years.
No, it’s not through lack of choices. Two other ‘life changing’ choices I had to turn down were to scale inside a well known consultancy, or specialise in one tool and go international (you know who you are guys, thanks for making the final decision so hard 
So why then?
The basic reason is that I’m enjoying this now (as in big smile on Monday mornings), but can see that I might not be enjoying it in 3 years time. And chances like this one don’t come along every day. That, and I’m fascinated by the new area and people that these guys are working with.
And what you’re doing is?
This is a big change for me, so a bit nervous about it and will blog about the new job (and it is very much a job, rather than being self-employed) in due course. It will either be the very best, or very worst thing that I’ve done.
Luckily it’s still dealing with People and Technology so no need to change the blog title … and I’m still a techie at heart (in that I’ll play with the stuff even if I’m not paid to) so expect more in that area!
Don’t you hate it when you spend months (or years) working on a pet project / book / mad take over the world idea, then somebody comes out with something even better?
Yep, it’s just happened to me. Years working on the idea of the ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ (even prior to web 2.0 in the shape of Red-Piranha). Month’s working on a Masters Dissertation on applying Web 2 techniques to the Finance industry (pdf link). And somebody comes out and does it even better.
Not just better. But much much better. The sort of better as in ‘If I had this earlier, I’d have just copied it and changed the words around a bit’. The book is available from Manning as ‘Collective Intelligence in Action‘. A free, first chapter (Understanding Collective Intelligence) is available here (pdf).
So what’s it about? We’ve all heard about the Wisdom of Crowds idea. But what if you need to actually implement it on your website? This book shows you how to (using both concepts and practical code, as well as the theory behind all of it that I was missing). It includes
Disclaimer:Manning provided me with a free review copy of the book - but no strings attached. And , maybe if I’m nice enough to the Author (Satnam), I can persuade him to talk about making millions using JBoss Drools and Complex Event processing in the book.
From the BBC.
The best quote from the news report:
The driver of the Lexus declined to be interviewed.
You know the Irish Economy is hurting when Sainsbury’s Supermarket in Newry (in Northern Ireland) has to close it’s doors at 7.30pm on a Saturday due to too many shoppers from the south trying to get in.
For those of you that don’t understand the above line: It’s unusual for an island as small as Ireland to be blessed / cursed with an international border running through the middle. Bad for politics , good for shoppers as it’s much cheaper to travel from the southern part (in the Euro zone) to the northern bit (where they use Sterling) to save up to half on your weekly grocery bill.
Travel to Sainsbury’s supermarket in Newry on the last Saturday before Christmas and you’ll see something just short of a riot as southern punters fight over the last bottle of (cheap) beer. But they’ve never closed the door due to too many people before - which is what happened last Saturday evening. Even more unusual in that June / July are normally very quiet months for shopping in the North.
Now discuss (in less than 100 words): Did this happen because …
Web 2.0 is great - it allows users to get involved on your website.
Allthetopbananas.com shows not how to do it. Just be lazy and not bother to tell your website that Cork is not near Drogheda (for our non-Irish-based readers, they’re at opposite ends of the country, about a 4-5hr commute!).
Why should I bother to report to you that ‘Cork is not Drogheda’ if you haven’t done your basic research and looked at the map? Save your ‘wisdom of crowds’ stuff for items that you can’t find anywhere else.
In a reminder that it’s now been more than 1 year since Barcamp Dublin, Barcamp Belfast is on this Saturday, 21st June. Looks like it’s going to be bigger and better than last year’s event.
Belfast hasn’t moved any further away from Dublin in the last 12 months, so I can safely recycle last year’s plug for the event.
For most people in Dublin , the Belfast Barcamp is nearer than the forthcoming Galway and Tipp events. It’s 2 hours by train from Dublin (with the venue pretty close to both the Central and Botanic rail stations) and about the same by Car , with Motorway for all but 15 miles of the journey.
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