Inside View from Ireland

Drag and Drop on iPod

MY IPOD assumed another mission when I started using it as a drag-and-drop device. It still plays music as good as any MP3 device but knowing it's there with gigs of other stuff makes it more useful than a dumb music player.

For nearly a year, I used XPlay 2 from MediaFour when transferring MP3 files from intranet drives, removeable gigs of storage and even from mapped FTP locations. If Windows Explorer could see the space, XPlay 2 could drag-and-drop into it.

Two other things XPlay 2 did for me:

Learning real-time

ON A DAY WHEN colleagues from Digital Rights Ireland told me I would no longer enjoy a "private" status for web-accessible educational podcasts, I got an invitation to discuss strategies in a Learning Center wiki. I told Damien Mulley that I think I can avoid the wrath of IMRO by availing of a license spotted by John Handelaar. We need a license because ASCAP fees normally follow from podcasts distributed over the internet. Some of our educasts contain tracks harvested from students' MP3 players in real-time educasts made in college classrooms.

Your Digital Rights

I READ A PIECE FROM BEUC (Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs) the same day that I opened bulk mail promoting knowledge management. The two perspectives often conflict. Current international IPR policy, especially the concepts I read from the European Union, grate against my established rights as a consumers. As BEUC points out, "the ease of digital copies has challenged traditional business models by lowering the cost and effort of reproduction and distribution. Different business models for content delivery compete in a fast developing technological environment. As a result, values such as the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on the one hand and the protection of the private sphere and consumers on the other seem to be more and more at odds."

Playing with JRoller

AT TIPPERARY INSTITUTE we are trying to entice people towards best practise with technology without pushing them into technical things. While teaching transition year students how to blog, we discovered that if you pitch something as a part of a conversation, people start talking about it. We teach blogging that way--how to explore windows of people chatting about things that interest them. Then we show students how to join that conversation through blogging. It seems to work because every time we have a free week-long Schoolworks training session, the event is overbooked.

Irish Bloscars

NOMINATIONS HAVE OPENED for the Irish Blog Awards (termed the "Bloscars" by some readers) in 12 categories. If you wish to nominate yourself or someone else then you can email irishawards (at) gmail.com with a link to the blog and/or the post you want to nominate and for which category. 

Infertility Crisis

SINEAD GLEESON writes a heart-felt piece about infertility in Ireland. She explains, "Where multiple pregnancies were the norm up to a couple of decades ago, Ireland is facing a huge fertility problem in the future. The problem for women is that many of us want to have children, but biology dictates it must but within a certain timeframe whether that suits your life, career or financial situation. Factor in the idea that we all just assume we will be able to have children and it seems there may be much heartbreak for increased numbers of women on the horizon."

Relighting the Boiler (DIY)

THE IDIOT IN THE MIRROR failed to dip the oil tank until the Bank Holiday Monday when less than one inch of kerosene remained in the tank. You might guess what happened next. We focused our DIY energies on restarting our Riello 2.2 Firebird 120K boiler. Thanks to the ever-helpful neighbour Brian, a spanner, some newspaper and a slotted screwdriver, we cleared the line of an air block and restored heat to the house. Here is what we did:

A Matter of Semantics

WHY ARE MOST deaths on Irish roads "accidents" and not "mishaps" or "fatalities"? Why does mainstream Irish media propagate the myth that accidents by cars cause injuries instead of directly citing the current percentage of vehicular collisions that are driver error?

If Going to CES

IF I WAS GOING to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I would seek out a few things worth knowing. Since I need to set up a sitting room entertainment centre, I want to know how much each BluRay and HD DVD will cost. I don't imagine either is inexpensive. Having already seen how PCs can integrate media with a television, I wonder if Apple will display HDTV running with FrontRow. That would be a compelling reason to let Apple into my home. Although I am at least a month away from broadband, I know I cannot survive without VoIP. I wonder if any CES vendor is showing VoIP running with WebEx--exciting stuff that goes way beyond diverting my inbound Skype calls to my mobile.

Why you should avoid computers on Tuesday

THE STILL UNPATCHED WMF vulnerability could explode in everyone's face when Ireland starts powering up work computers on Tuesday. Mac users need not worry. When using a temporary patch, I discovered that my laptop's Internet Explorer is corrupt and locks me out of Windows Updates. The New Year begins with a technical headache for me. It's worse for around 45 people who visit here daily, using Windows 98.

First 06 car

I GOT MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF an 06-registered car just after noon on 1 January 2006 on the Golden Road in Cashel, County Tipperary. Since it's not a work day, I think the 06C BMW 5-series was a dealer's car. As it passed by, I thought the most important piece of the car that will help maintain its resale value was the satellite navigation system inside its cabin. When Ireland's major motorway system links up in 2009, I believe satnav will be as important in cars as mobile phones cradles are today. Funnily enough, there won't be any law against focusing on your moving map while you're driving. Everybody knows you can read your dashboard and drive safely, right? But the evidence shows you can't drive in one place while talking to someone in another place.

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Stips and Resolutions

I THINK IT'S GOOD TO review New Year's Resolutions before making new ones. So I went back to January 2005 and reviewed my goals. I cited three stipulations and five resolutions back then. The stips:

1. Maintain a healthier diet.
2. Exercise more regularly.
3. Get control of personal correspondence to friends and students.

I will endorse 2005 resolutions for this new year: