newmediacuts

Image Gallery Online

I decided to shift some of my photographs online and every day I will upload a couple more. Autumn has come to Lusk so you can see some of the spectacular days we're having H E R E .

Isabel Live Blog

Well I guess it had to happen - a live Typepad blog has opened up at Tom Bridge's site detailing an eyewitness account of what some are calling 'the perfect storm'. One of the beauties of Typepad is the unlimited blogs that you can publish - each with individual feeds and properties.

I've mailed Tom and wished him the best of luck, and how happy we are that the hurricane isn't heading in the other direction ;p

LAST POSTCARD FROM COSTA DEL BLOG

William Gibson, author of 'Pattern Recognition' and 'Neuromancer', and darling of the CyberPunk technorati, has signed off blogging. In his 'ENDBLOG' post, he writes --

Time for me to get back to my day job, which means that it’s time for me to stop blogging.

I’ve found blogging to be a low-impact activity, mildly narcotic and mostly quite convivial, but the thing I’ve most enjoyed about it is how it never fails to underline the fact that if I’m doing this I’m definitely not writing a novel – that is, if I’m still blogging, I’m definitely still on vacation. I’ve always known, somehow, that it would get in the way of writing fiction, and that I wouldn’t want to be trying to do both at once.

The bits and pieces that Joseph Cornell assembled in his shadow-boxes wouldn’t have seemed nearly as interesting if he’d simply left them arrayed on the bench of some picnic-table –- and they certainly wouldn’t still be there.

I crave the sweet and crazy-making difficulties that can only be imposed by the box, the Cornellian stage, the frame, of a formal narrative.

So I’m out of here, as of this installment, and wish to thank everyone who in any way furthered my ‘tween-books holiday. It’s been ludic, as the anarchist says.

Perhaps I’ll be back, one day, somewhere on the far side of whatever it is I’m about to start writing.

Adios, then, to all.

And onward!

[Source: Williamgibson.com]

IT college applicant numbers fall

Several Irish newspapers reported today that applications for college IT places in Ireland have sharply fallen. Some colleges only report three or four students have accepted their places. 100 000 are currently employed in the IT industry in Ireland - a large percentage for a small country.

Scanning the Evening Herald for job placements in computing only yields a few vacancies each week - that's why the numbers have fallen. People's perception of computing and IT as a passport to the future has taken a real hammering - if people don't see the jobs being advertised they'll move to where the jobs are being offered.

Outsourcing from these shores has become a much-talked about topic of late - thousands of jobs have been outsourced to India and Pakistan - often with the help of Enterprise Ireland monies. Here, software shops will manufacture the code at a fraction of the price of Ireland, where the wages are of course much higher.

The politicians may keep on talking about the requirement that Ireland 'remains competitive and doesn't price itself out of the market'. Let's face it, the housing costs over here alone are enough to price any worker out of the market. How much is left at the end of the day? Don't we just ask for what we can get by on? Haven't we all worked our butts off for Ireland PLC?

Rather than the workers settling for less, it is time for interventionist policy and practice to be actioned by the Irish Government. They can start by ensuring that no more Enterprise Ireland monies are siphoned off to companies outsourcing large chunks of work overseas away from indigenous Irish companies. They can continue by opening up the technology parks that are lying empty around the country to Irish companies that show promise, not just the cheque books of their multinational parents. They can start getting serious about the availability of broadband to rural areas, where we genuinely do have lower living costs, and come good on their promises of cheap Internet access for all, instead of providing lip service to the voter and fat expenses to their overpopulated advisory committees.

There is amazing talent within Ireland, and centres of excellence can be developed with the right nurturing and foresight. We can take the world on and win. Give us the starting blocks.