December 2007 Archives

Happy Christmas To You All

December 21, 2007 By Ken McGuire 3 Comments

I’m done for the Christmas, the office is closed, voice mail is changed, vacation autoresponders done and dusted and I’m set to enjoy some time with the family!

I’ve no blog posts scheduled and in a way, it’s liberating.

Eircom, on the other hand, seriously busted my balls yesterday and I’ve a post to piece together once I get over how untrained and unresponsive their staff are. Bar one guy I spoke to (out of seven – Eamon – actually made an effort to understand my problem with hotspot registration yesterday, fair play to him), the hour spent department hopping in the call centre was one I’ll never get back.

So, barring my topped-up Meteor mobile (Nokia E50 I’m using for Jaiku / Twitter), I’m cutting myself off for a week and before I do I wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas!

To everyone I’ve spoken to during the year, those who I’ve conversed with over email, Jaiku, Twitter, IMs, to everyone who reads the blog via RSS, and everyone I’ve had the pleasure of meeting during the year (from BarCamp in January through to PodCamp in September) or ArtLinks work through to December. To all who attended performances by The Devious Theatre Company and to my terrific company of actors and friends to the most talented bunch of individuals at KKM and in the office (past and present), I say this..

Happy Christmas to you all and may your New Year “be only savage…”

Here’s to meeting many more faces in 2008!

Filed Under: Notes

Creative Camp Gets Colour

December 19, 2007 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

Creative Camp

Creative Camp has gotten a little colour, and a tagline to match.

This is the logo we’ll be using for Creative Camp. I think ‘Business – Technology – Creativity’ encompasses the spirit of the day and of the event. On the creative side of things I’ll be speaking with ArtLinks in Kilkenny in the New Year about their involvement in the event.

Offers to participate at an early stage are quite good with some nice ideas coming from the Waterford contingent in relation to design talks and workshops. We’re currently awaiting hosting and once it kicks in I’ll be tackling the blog end of things.

The three strands of activities have been pretty much decided, as have the caterers, the venue (The Parade Tower at Kilkenny Castle) and of course the date – Saturday March 8th.

As Creative Camp is operating in place of “Bar Camp Southeast” and is subject to portability (as in moving out of Kilkenny), it was decided not to localise the logo (like Galway ran with the claddagh and Dublin ran with the castle).

If anyone would like a high resolution copy of the logo (300 dpi JPG, 300 dpi transparent PNG or Adobe Illustrator), feel free to contact me.

Filed Under: Bar Camp

Mark All As Read

December 18, 2007 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

I’m gearing up for a Christmas period without internet use. Podcasts will wait, blogs will wait and the world will keep on spinning.

So, over lunch today, I pressed the lovely ‘mark all as read’ button in Google Reader. Sure, I went through all my Irish blog subscriptions, skipping daily links, browsing over the meaty posts and at the end I abandoned every one of my tech blogs, podcast blogs, football blogs, music blogs by pressing that nice grey button at the top of Google Reader.

At least now maybe I’ve a chance to catch up with stuff, or keep abreast of new blog posts. I’ve been swamped in the last fortnight, flat out busy in all directions. I’ve started blogging about Euro 2008, I moved and revamped Liverpool Access (which got re-ranked on request) and behind the scenes I’ve been working more with some local bands and putting spare time into getting a plan of attack together for Devious Theatre next year.

And all the time, the unread messages count in Google Reader keeps climbing, and climbing.

It is likely that the same will happen over Christmas, a week’s worth of activity from some daily news sources can mount up. Not finding the time to pour over all my subscriptions of late I’ve been using Google Alerts, while keeping a daily eye on activity in the land of Jaiku (where I can filter subscriptions people publish).

I’m sure the mobile text alerts will keep me going over the holiday period. While I’m telling myself I’ll nip into town over Christmas for some coffees and an hour or two on the laptop, I’ll likely be more inclined to spend some time on the lake with my new kayak (arriving this Saturday) or spending time in the pub catching up with the McGuire clan.

Mark all as read – just a good a feeling as cleaning your desk before leaving the office for Christmas.

Filed Under: Blogging

Podcasting Over Christmas

December 18, 2007 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

I’ve got three podcasts left to do before January, starting with Sound System Podcast #37. Under the KilkennyMusic.com umbrella we’ll have all the staff on board for the show, the intention on looking back at what 2007 has meant to us (a lot). The podcast should be an hour long and will feature music from a selection of Irish bands who we’ve worked with through 2007.

The Sound System Podcast is into it’s second year of production, varying between music news and chat to recaps of the One Take Sessions (every three weeks). This podcast has been a learning experience for all involved and with a change of approach to it’s delivery back in the September/October it seems to have found more of a grounding, again something that will be developed through 2008. The final podcast of 2007 records this Thursday night (December 20th) and should be available online on Friday December 21st.

The Playlist Mix, which I’ve been using to both hone my own approach to podcasting and develop contacts with bands overseas has two shows left this year, one this week (likely online before midnight tonight) and one scheduled to go up Christmas week. The latter will feature a selection of bands heard across the last thirteen podcasts and again should hit close to the hour mark. I reckon between the two podcasts I’ll at least have enough musical content to get me from Kilkenny to Athlone on Saturday.

The Sound System Podcast takes a break Christmas week, returning with show 38 likely on January 4th, while the 16th Playlist Mix should arrive the day previous.

I’ve been talking to a few people in music circles about producing a limited number of shows for a new project in 2008, something going on my New Years Resolution list (which I tend to get done). I’m hoping my Eircom hotspot access arrives via email before heading off to Sligo, the O2 store promising us that they wouldn’t have any mobile broadband coverage close to the lake so I’ll be looking for good WiFi coffee spots in Ballina and Tubbercurry over Christmas!

Filed Under: Podcasting

Microfilms & The Kris Kringle Konundrum

December 17, 2007 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

Tomorrow morning I’ll be making a cameo appearance with Microfilms, a new production company established in Kilkenny by some good friends of mine. If you’re in Kilkenny tomorrow morning, I’ll be the one freezing in a Santa suit on Kieran street, making a quick appearance as a decoy Santa before hitting the office for my day’s work.

It is great to see more of the creative talents in Kilkenny hard at work.

Microfilms are, as their MySpace suggests

… a filmmaking collective in Kilkenny operating with the intention to create new short films, music videos, animation, features (fingers crossed). We want to utilise the talents of many of our local filmmaking brethren and create top quality entertainment produce geared towards internet distribution.

Because sometimes, just sometimes, Irish films don’t need to be about men chasing cows around fields to fiddle music.

Our first production is VULTURES and it’s currently into it’s second week of shooting. It’s a web based sitcom following a hapless trio of private detectives as they run a humdrum business in a small Irish town. Our first online episode is entitled THE KRIS KRINGLE KONUNDRUM and will be aired around Christmas 2007. It’s preceded by a promotional trailer for Vulture Private Investigations which can be viewed above.

I’m sure that discussing the development of ‘webisodes’ and the video production sequence for the online market would be a welcome addition to the billing at CreativeCamp in Kilkenny come March.

Filed Under: Online Video

Remote Desktop Mac To PC (Windows)

December 12, 2007 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

I picked up the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac last week and immediately thought ‘where have you been all my life’.

Connecting to the PC (or any number of PC’s) is a breeze, entering the machine name or IP address on the network, you’re pretty much good to go. The majority of my remote desktop work comes with managing an Apache install on a windows box in the office. Since I upgraded the RAM in my Macbook Pro a few months back I’ve been doing the majority of my office work on the laptop. Yet every time I want to make changes on the server I’m logging into another PC, remoting into the server PC (no physical display unit) and then going back to the Mac.

Not any more says he.

It is a beta product, and it does expire at the end of next March but it does exactly what it says on the tin and means I’m doing less moving around the office to get simple server changes done.

The DMG installer is about 4mb, give it a whirl if you’re a Mac user looking for a remote desktop connection to a Windows based PC.

Filed Under: Software

Creative Camp For Kilkenny (And It’s In A Castle)

December 5, 2007 By Ken McGuire 3 Comments

As Keith outlined earlier in the week, we’re set for Creative Camp in Kilkenny on Saturday March 8th. Formerly trading as Bar Camp South East, we’ve a bit of work to do yet in terms of the brand, URLs etc (I’m keen to try out the previously suggested barcamp subdomain idea and get the ball rolling there) but we’ve got a lock on March 8th with the venue set to be the ‘creatively inspiring’ Parade Tower at Kilkenny Castle.

I’ve been going back and forth with Keith and Tom (Corcoran, WIT) over the last few weeks and we’re looking at locking down the theme for the day, interweaving the traditional BarCamp elements of technology and business with the creative flair so ripe in Kilkenny.

Some good feedback came out of the inaugural PodCamp, held here in Kilkenny at the end of September which we hope to carry forward to Creative Camp. While three of us have been in discussion organising sponsors, caterers, the venue and theme, don’t hesitate to have your say or get involved in the day! Drop one of us a shout (knowing I’ve already had a great chat with Bernie and Keith has been speaking to others).

I’m looking forward to the fact that it’s in the Parade Tower. I know the venue quite well (having been involved with another event held there only last week). The main room would sit 120 quite comfortably, has it’s own bar area, full sound booth, several in-house wireless microphones and one seriously large projector. Several breakout / boardrooms are also available, all in keeping with the original decor of the castle itself.

The castle itself has also gone WiFi in recent months and we’re currently talking with the team there in relation to getting a WiFi network opened up for the day.

If anything – you get to hang out in a castle for the day and experience Kilkenny at a good time of the year! Keep March 8th in your diary for Creative Camp in Kilkenny.

Filed Under: Bar Camp

Videos From Paddy Valley

December 4, 2007 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

Jan Blanchard is busy with the video camera (Damien’s camera, he did say he was packing one?) and now, for those of you interested in what’s happening on the Paddy Valley trip to Silicon Valley.

Last night was due to see Tourist Republic, Putplace, Nubiq, Spoiltchild and Pix.ie all pitching in front of some VC panelists after a panel discussion on raising cash for Irish Web 2.0 companies hitting Silicon Valley. The videos though, available here, are giving a little insight as to what is happening the far side of the world for the week the Irish invade.

If you’re a Jaiku user, I would suggest tracking Damien Mulley for the week to catch his updates direct on the tour.

Filed Under: Paddys Valley