Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Out of sorts
Well! I am definitly out of sorts now I had a nice little video clip to add to the blog. It wouldn't load for me! Could it be my broadband width is not sufficent !
Premium text messages - Are you being overcharged?
Check out this article
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/pricewatch/2009/1116/1224258920098.html
Are you being overcharged for premium text messages? Check your bill!
Pay attention! By law now you can claim a refund for incorrect billing under the new communications bill. If you experience any problems contact www.regtel.ie
Regtel has the power to instruct the network company to hold onto any monies on behalf of a rogue trader. Regtel will then insure that the company in question toe’s the line or Regtel will take them to court. You might be interested to know the bill nearly got passed without provision for refunds. All very last minute .com. Like we don’t have enough problems in this country at the moment lets make it a free for all for rogue traders. The ringtone business is worth 5billion world wide and the telephone companies get roughly 45% of the cost. Apparently with meteor you have to pay them €60 up front just to receive premium calls. Why would you bother. The potential for scams and huge profits here is quite frightening using premium numbers. It is very profitable for both the trader and the network company. Do we really need the football scores? The expression money for old rope comes to mind.
Ah!! But people are getting wise now with the recession watching there pennies and mobile phone bills are going down. We are getting competitive and asking who is the cheapest? Lots of networks offer free calls if you are on the same network. We have some newcomers into the mobile market like Tescos who are actually offering quite competitive rates I might change over my self now. Check out askcom they do an unbiased review of Mobile, Landline & Broadband deals.
Links
Askcom.reg http://www.callcosts.ie/home/default.asp
How come mobile phone bills are so much cheaper in the Uk and Europe?
Should we compare the mobile phone companies with the banks? Are they being very greedy just because they can. Sky high prices are attached to many phone services and the ease which people can sign up for them have led to many complaints to industry watchdogs. Meteor for example have a English Irish dictionary for €5 but be warned they fail to tell you it cost €7 to down load it. We are letting these companies away with it by spending a euro on a lame joke or an equally lame horoscope. It maybe small money at a euro a pop but it adds up to 76million messages a year in the republic alone that is a lot of text messages for a country with a population of 3.5million people.
Personally I don’t get premium rate services at all I am far too mean to give the phone companies 1cent more that I have too. And I shall be definitely changing over to Tesco’s.
Who are you with? Which company would you recommend? I would love to hear your comments?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/pricewatch/2009/1116/1224258920098.html
Are you being overcharged for premium text messages? Check your bill!
Pay attention! By law now you can claim a refund for incorrect billing under the new communications bill. If you experience any problems contact www.regtel.ie
Regtel has the power to instruct the network company to hold onto any monies on behalf of a rogue trader. Regtel will then insure that the company in question toe’s the line or Regtel will take them to court. You might be interested to know the bill nearly got passed without provision for refunds. All very last minute .com. Like we don’t have enough problems in this country at the moment lets make it a free for all for rogue traders. The ringtone business is worth 5billion world wide and the telephone companies get roughly 45% of the cost. Apparently with meteor you have to pay them €60 up front just to receive premium calls. Why would you bother. The potential for scams and huge profits here is quite frightening using premium numbers. It is very profitable for both the trader and the network company. Do we really need the football scores? The expression money for old rope comes to mind.
Ah!! But people are getting wise now with the recession watching there pennies and mobile phone bills are going down. We are getting competitive and asking who is the cheapest? Lots of networks offer free calls if you are on the same network. We have some newcomers into the mobile market like Tescos who are actually offering quite competitive rates I might change over my self now. Check out askcom they do an unbiased review of Mobile, Landline & Broadband deals.
Links
Askcom.reg http://www.callcosts.ie/home/default.asp
How come mobile phone bills are so much cheaper in the Uk and Europe?
Should we compare the mobile phone companies with the banks? Are they being very greedy just because they can. Sky high prices are attached to many phone services and the ease which people can sign up for them have led to many complaints to industry watchdogs. Meteor for example have a English Irish dictionary for €5 but be warned they fail to tell you it cost €7 to down load it. We are letting these companies away with it by spending a euro on a lame joke or an equally lame horoscope. It maybe small money at a euro a pop but it adds up to 76million messages a year in the republic alone that is a lot of text messages for a country with a population of 3.5million people.
Personally I don’t get premium rate services at all I am far too mean to give the phone companies 1cent more that I have too. And I shall be definitely changing over to Tesco’s.
Who are you with? Which company would you recommend? I would love to hear your comments?
God help us all when generation text are running the country.
Check out this article
http://www.mailonsunday.ie/sciencetech/article-1205924/God-help-Generation-Text-running-country.html
Baroness Susan Greenfield, the writer of this article is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords Susan Greenfield. Greenfield, specializes is the physiology of the brain, her research has brought attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Her view is a result of many years of study in the field of the mind.
She is reporting on studies done in Australia by Professor Jameson and his team quote “predictive texting promotes a general tendency towards inaccuracy”
Does predictive texting promote attention deficit disorders? As the writer suggests there is an absence of evidence however what does your gut tell you? Well my gut is very chatty to-day and is definitely in agreement with this article but goes one step further and suggests that we have become quicker and faster at many tasks and we do things so quickly we barely have time to monitor what we are doing. The human mind is very easily distracted. For thousands of years the challenge has been discipline. They great minds of our times had this in common disciplined minds. In current times the buzz words we hear are "focus". Focus on the issue. This can be challenging when we are multitasking and constantly distracted by the next gadget or advertising. Even I have a Nintendo Ds. We barely have time to stop think and have an opinion. We are on information overload. However I am not sure that it is predictive texting alone that is responsible for our inaccuracies.
The human mind is already prone to distraction and never before has there been a time in our evolution when we have had so much to distract us. Our minds are like monkeys swinging from branch to branch from thought to thought, sadly the same thoughts, going round in circles in the same patch of jungle, money, possessions, gadgets, brands, materialism, etc . I wonder is that why we have had such huge numbers of people wanting to grow their own vegetables and make their own clothes recently. Surely not to save the money! I think it actually costs more to make your clothes or grow your own vegetables. Maybe people just want to slow down their minds,take their time and do things carefully and properly enjoying the fruits of there labour. Have we gone so far out of balance that we are finally swinging back in the other direction. I hope so!
The brain is like a muscle that develops according to how it is used I think I heard that said in one of my classes. How are we teaching young people to use there brains.
In the article Susan talks about soldiers in WW1 and WW11 She compares us to soldiers writing love letters home. These letters were often pages expressing the sentiment I love you and I miss you. Were is the depth in a short abbreviated text? I have to agree with her.
It does feel like generation text are making decisions quicker and faster and possibly not putting the thought into things. Lets face it generation text is 90% of the country. Who doesn’t have a phone. There is a sense of urgency save the fonts, abbreviate, make the point and move on. This paralleled with materialism promotes a rather shallow view of the world. Which I sense a growing weariness towards. A 150 people turned up to a meeting in Bray which was poorly advertised. This was a GIY meeting Grow It Yourself. I am hopeful this symbolises a move toward a deeper meaningfull thoughts and actions.
http://www.mailonsunday.ie/sciencetech/article-1205924/God-help-Generation-Text-running-country.html
Baroness Susan Greenfield, the writer of this article is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords Susan Greenfield. Greenfield, specializes is the physiology of the brain, her research has brought attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Her view is a result of many years of study in the field of the mind.
She is reporting on studies done in Australia by Professor Jameson and his team quote “predictive texting promotes a general tendency towards inaccuracy”
Does predictive texting promote attention deficit disorders? As the writer suggests there is an absence of evidence however what does your gut tell you? Well my gut is very chatty to-day and is definitely in agreement with this article but goes one step further and suggests that we have become quicker and faster at many tasks and we do things so quickly we barely have time to monitor what we are doing. The human mind is very easily distracted. For thousands of years the challenge has been discipline. They great minds of our times had this in common disciplined minds. In current times the buzz words we hear are "focus". Focus on the issue. This can be challenging when we are multitasking and constantly distracted by the next gadget or advertising. Even I have a Nintendo Ds. We barely have time to stop think and have an opinion. We are on information overload. However I am not sure that it is predictive texting alone that is responsible for our inaccuracies.
The human mind is already prone to distraction and never before has there been a time in our evolution when we have had so much to distract us. Our minds are like monkeys swinging from branch to branch from thought to thought, sadly the same thoughts, going round in circles in the same patch of jungle, money, possessions, gadgets, brands, materialism, etc . I wonder is that why we have had such huge numbers of people wanting to grow their own vegetables and make their own clothes recently. Surely not to save the money! I think it actually costs more to make your clothes or grow your own vegetables. Maybe people just want to slow down their minds,take their time and do things carefully and properly enjoying the fruits of there labour. Have we gone so far out of balance that we are finally swinging back in the other direction. I hope so!
The brain is like a muscle that develops according to how it is used I think I heard that said in one of my classes. How are we teaching young people to use there brains.
In the article Susan talks about soldiers in WW1 and WW11 She compares us to soldiers writing love letters home. These letters were often pages expressing the sentiment I love you and I miss you. Were is the depth in a short abbreviated text? I have to agree with her.
It does feel like generation text are making decisions quicker and faster and possibly not putting the thought into things. Lets face it generation text is 90% of the country. Who doesn’t have a phone. There is a sense of urgency save the fonts, abbreviate, make the point and move on. This paralleled with materialism promotes a rather shallow view of the world. Which I sense a growing weariness towards. A 150 people turned up to a meeting in Bray which was poorly advertised. This was a GIY meeting Grow It Yourself. I am hopeful this symbolises a move toward a deeper meaningfull thoughts and actions.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Useful Links
Useful links -
The notebook I purchased
http://gizmodo.com/5038298/leaked-dell-inspiron-910-mini-note-specs-and-release-date
However I bought mine from a local independent supplier of laptops in Dublin – whom I can highly recommend – software he throws that in (latest version of excel,outlook powerpoint). No hastle he will replace or fix any model you purchase from him. www.zianinternational.com
AVG free which everyone should have to protect your laptop from viruses,
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/download_splash.cfm/avg_free_edition
And free crap cleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/download
The notebook I purchased
http://gizmodo.com/5038298/leaked-dell-inspiron-910-mini-note-specs-and-release-date
However I bought mine from a local independent supplier of laptops in Dublin – whom I can highly recommend – software he throws that in (latest version of excel,outlook powerpoint). No hastle he will replace or fix any model you purchase from him. www.zianinternational.com
AVG free which everyone should have to protect your laptop from viruses,
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/download_splash.cfm/avg_free_edition
And free crap cleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/download
Buyng a Pc
When buying a laptop for your course there are number of things you might like to consider.
I have highlighted some quality questions you might like to ask your self.
The first thing you need to consider Do I want a Mac operating system or a Windows based system? What does your college use? Macs are traditionally used for Art based and design courses and Windows for more academic and business courses. The Mac is probably more flexible. Certainly in IADT they are always available in the library. However they are more expensive. Then again you pay for quality.
The next question. Is weight an issue? Personally I don’t fancy carrying around a large brick in my bag so when I was reviewing the purchase of a new laptop for college I looked at the range of new lightweight notebooks available. If the truth be told I was just looking for an excuse to buy one. They are available in 7” or 9” screen resolution 1200 X 1600. The issue really is weight versus screen size. Personally if I want to work on Adobe I want a big powerful desktop, a big screen and a sensitive mouse as these programmes use a lot of memory.
Specification- Do I want a single core or a dual core? Dual core is quicker and more efficient if speed is a priority for you.
As a student you will be using your laptop for Word, Excel, Power point, Email and the Internet. A web cam might be important for keeping in touch with classmates when you are working on group projects via video conferencing calls. So you might want a built in webcam and microphone.
If you are into your music you might want to check you have quality speakers. Bring your music with you in the form of an mp3. File and you can check the sound quality in the shop.
A comfortable of key board. Check out how the key board feels get one that fits your fingers notice how do the keys feel . Are the keys well spaced?
Does your new laptop have sufficient Usb ports? Can you buy a spare battery ?
I chose a Dell mini notebook link below. If you do choose a notebook make sure you are comfortable with the smaller screen, and the smaller keyboard. These notebooks now come with very high specs. You have a choice of hard drives, typically 160gb. I decided not to get hung up on the memory as memory is cheap. I wanted something durable and hardy as it will be constantly on the move in and out of bags, cars, and coffee shops. The traditional hard drives have moveable parts meaning they don’t like to be moved. Not really ideal for college life. So I chose a notebook with a hard solid state drive – these have no moveable parts. It is solid rather like a USB key. Unfortunately it has the memory of a USB key a mere 16gb. It also has 3 Usb slots and a slot for my SSD memory card that’s another 64gb if I needed it. However with the rate at which memory is developing and the falling prices on USB keys I doubt this will be an issue down the road. Currently I have a 16gb USB key and a 16GB SSD card all bought on Amazon great prices. The benefits for me outweigh the downside. This laptop is less likely to be damaged from bumps or sudden impact. This type of hardrive also allows much faster access times, data transfers and is more reliable. It uses less power therefore has a longer battery life and easier and quicker to re-charge. Recharging from flat in about 25mins – a coffee break. Also it is less likely to overheat. It is not that long ago that are standard laptops only had a memory of 16gb and 20gb. I chose to stay away from Vista for obvious reasons. I find windows XP is sufficient and it is not greedy on memory.
And No I don’t have a vested interest in sales and I am not particularly a fan of Dell either. Here is a link of the laptop I purchased
I have highlighted some quality questions you might like to ask your self.
The first thing you need to consider Do I want a Mac operating system or a Windows based system? What does your college use? Macs are traditionally used for Art based and design courses and Windows for more academic and business courses. The Mac is probably more flexible. Certainly in IADT they are always available in the library. However they are more expensive. Then again you pay for quality.
The next question. Is weight an issue? Personally I don’t fancy carrying around a large brick in my bag so when I was reviewing the purchase of a new laptop for college I looked at the range of new lightweight notebooks available. If the truth be told I was just looking for an excuse to buy one. They are available in 7” or 9” screen resolution 1200 X 1600. The issue really is weight versus screen size. Personally if I want to work on Adobe I want a big powerful desktop, a big screen and a sensitive mouse as these programmes use a lot of memory.
Specification- Do I want a single core or a dual core? Dual core is quicker and more efficient if speed is a priority for you.
As a student you will be using your laptop for Word, Excel, Power point, Email and the Internet. A web cam might be important for keeping in touch with classmates when you are working on group projects via video conferencing calls. So you might want a built in webcam and microphone.
If you are into your music you might want to check you have quality speakers. Bring your music with you in the form of an mp3. File and you can check the sound quality in the shop.
A comfortable of key board. Check out how the key board feels get one that fits your fingers notice how do the keys feel . Are the keys well spaced?
Does your new laptop have sufficient Usb ports? Can you buy a spare battery ?
I chose a Dell mini notebook link below. If you do choose a notebook make sure you are comfortable with the smaller screen, and the smaller keyboard. These notebooks now come with very high specs. You have a choice of hard drives, typically 160gb. I decided not to get hung up on the memory as memory is cheap. I wanted something durable and hardy as it will be constantly on the move in and out of bags, cars, and coffee shops. The traditional hard drives have moveable parts meaning they don’t like to be moved. Not really ideal for college life. So I chose a notebook with a hard solid state drive – these have no moveable parts. It is solid rather like a USB key. Unfortunately it has the memory of a USB key a mere 16gb. It also has 3 Usb slots and a slot for my SSD memory card that’s another 64gb if I needed it. However with the rate at which memory is developing and the falling prices on USB keys I doubt this will be an issue down the road. Currently I have a 16gb USB key and a 16GB SSD card all bought on Amazon great prices. The benefits for me outweigh the downside. This laptop is less likely to be damaged from bumps or sudden impact. This type of hardrive also allows much faster access times, data transfers and is more reliable. It uses less power therefore has a longer battery life and easier and quicker to re-charge. Recharging from flat in about 25mins – a coffee break. Also it is less likely to overheat. It is not that long ago that are standard laptops only had a memory of 16gb and 20gb. I chose to stay away from Vista for obvious reasons. I find windows XP is sufficient and it is not greedy on memory.
And No I don’t have a vested interest in sales and I am not particularly a fan of Dell either. Here is a link of the laptop I purchased
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