Anti Pinkertons Campaign Commences

Christmas Eve (or possibly Christmas Day) saw a new online helping from the Vultures crew in Kilkenny as the next-in-line trailer for episode four, The Case Of The Poisoned Dates, hit the web.

View the trailer above, or click here to visit the Vultures site.

Remember kids, say “no” to Pinkertons.

Merry Christmas To All

It’s Christmas at the lake, and unlike other years (and two weekends ago) there’s no sign of snow. In fact, all things considered, it’s quite mild.

I was going to schedule a blog post full of Christmas cheer for everyone but figured it would be nicer to type one up overlooking the lake, the O2 dongle firmly nailed to the edge of the window for better reception.

Christmas Day has arrived, the ham is done since last night (tastes great), turkey going into the oven about 11:30am, champagne for breakfast and all the family around – can’t ask for much more than that really.

I get to tinker with some new gadgets, immerse myself in a good book and generally flake out for the next few days, something I hope all of you get to do.

So from myself (and everyone at the lake), merry Christmas and I’ll see all of you (hopefully) in the New Year.

Save EUR250 On An iMac

photo credit: KnOizKi

You can save €250 on a brand new 24″ Apple iMac.

How?

By not buying from the Apple store, funnily enough. While I love the Apple store online, and enjoy walking around the physical properties as well, you can’t argue with a saving of €250.

In January of this year I told myself that by the end of the year I would add an iMac to the family. I’m looking for something to handle my workload and free up the MacBook Pro for home use. After saving a few pennies I figured I would go for the 24″ iMac.

Yes, one could stop at the 20″ model but I’d set my mind on the 24″ 2.8Ghz model, retailing on the Irish Apple Store at €1599 or €1316 ex VAT.

I loaded up the cart, hovered, hovered, hovered, and walked away.

Coming back, I said I’d try Dabs for the craic to see if they sell Apple goodies, which they do. Low and behold on Dabs4Work.ie they have the same 24″ iMac, brand spanking new, at €1065 ex VAT. Like apple, they also offer same-day / 24-hour dispatch. At a saving to me of €250-odd Euro.

After a slight delay in trying to verify the address of my office, everything is on the way. The way the Euro vs Pound is working now, it certainly makes more sense to buy from Dabs as opposed to Apple.

Case in point (as highlighted on Twitter yesterday) – you can buy an Apple iPod Touch (8Gb) on the Irish Apple Store for €219. The same piece of hardware is £165 on the UK Apple Store, now the equivalent of €175 (with the Euro trading at STG 0.9411 at time of writing).

If you’re buying Apple this Christmas, at least for the moment, take the time to shop around online. A €250 would pretty much pay the tax on my van for 12 months, well worth it.

ArtLinks Reaches The 1,000 Member Milestone

ArtLinks, a growing online community for artists of all walks of life, based in the South East (here in Kilkenny) celebrated a nice milestone yesterday as they’ve reached the 1,000 member mark.

I’ve been a member of and following the prior to its official launch in November 2007 and for the site to gain the ground it has since last November is largely down to the drive of the organisations director, Cathy Fitzgerald.

Cathy was an attendee of PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny in September 2007, moving up to be a speaker at CreativeCamp (March 2008), PodCamp Ireland II (September 2008) and more recently the Arts Council’s new media conference (November 2008). You can view the presentation here.

Online and offline ArtLinks has come a long way since its launch. Born out of ideas generated at a fantastic Artists Exchange day I attended in May 2006, ArtLinks operates as a partnership between the arts offices of Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County. By engaging with ArtLinks I’ve been able to open up new doors for theatre and music in Kilkenny as well as connect with some great creative-minded people in the region.

If you’re a involved in the arts in any way in the south east of Ireland, be it film, drama, music, writing, sculpture, painting – anything goes – drop along and register for free. Best of luck to Cathy and all the arts officers in 2009.

Disclaimer: I have worked as a consultant and advisor on ArtLinks, and have delivered a number of real-world courses for them.

Devious Theatre Do Online Video With Trainspotting

First came the podcast of The War Of The Worlds, now we’ve started to release clips from our production of Trainspotting in Kilkenny in 2008.

We put a lot of effort into the visual side of our productions. We hire a great video team for each show who will come in and do a two or three camera shoot. We also had a documentary produced a few months ago giving a fly-on-the-wall look at one of the nights of Trainspotting. However, we also understand and appreciate the power and the reach of the web for the arts and as such I’m expecting 2009 to be a great online year for The Devious Theatre Company.

To the end of December and into January and February (our quiet real-world months) we’re going to be releasing clips from our shows (recorded in HD), the documentary and much more.

To start with, here’s the first clip, as mentioned above it’s the opening scene from the Friday night of Trainspotting in Kilkenny. The crowd were already on their feet before the curtain opened – won’t be forgetting that feeling in a hurry.

Poll: Working With Clients Via SMS

There are plenty of ways to communicate with your clients these days – phone calls, Skype calls, email, fax, face time, letter, text message and more.

I’ve recently had a select number of clients looking to maintain contact via text message. Some clients it works for, others it doesn’t and I simply wouldn’t go for it. If they’re away from their desk and need notification of something, I’m happy to ping them with a text.

Of course, some people look for full conversations via text and if I see it coming I pick up the phone or arrange to meet them in person.

So I ask, are you happy to deal with clients via SMS? Cast a vote, leave your thoughts as a comment. Is texting too personal a connection to a client, or have you enjoyed a greater client relationship because you utilise text messages?

If you can’t see the poll above (using the new Polldaddy wordpress plugin), click here to access the poll via Polldaddy.com.

Talking Mice On The Radio

Seemingly, I’ll be heading over to the KCLR studio in a half hour (for an 11:40am slot) talking about mice. Not the run around and eat cheese kind but rather, the clicky kind.

The mouse, as we all know it and love it in its various shapes and sizes has celebrated its 40th birthday and I’ve been roped into talking for a few minutes about its life to date.

In case you didn’t know, the first computer mouse went public 40 years ago, back in 1968, demonstrated for the first time on December 9th at a conference in San Francisco. Xerox developed mice in the 70s before Apple acquired the license to manufacture mice in the 80s and things took off from there.

When you look at the likes of the voice commands, the iPhone, the Wii, and other gesture-based devices, things have come a long way.

Following The Apprentice Final, Live

I’ve found myself parked in front of the TV on a Monday night, working online, and happened upon The Apprentice, final. Admittedly I’ve only seen one or two weeks of the TV programming but there’s been a massive following on Twitter over the weeks.

That following has landed me on Darren’s blog where you’ll find himself and a host of others in Le Cirk tonight live blogging The Apprentice final on TV.

It’s a right flurry of activity over there…

10MB Broadband Sorted

Finally sorted the 10mb connection. Missed the upgrade form on the website, looks like UPCs upgrade isn’t totally automatic.

Things might run a little faster. The 1mb upstream will be a help on Skype calls anyway and streaming video anyway. 30 bucks a month… plus their ’standalone’ broadband charge (which is like a levy for not taking their TV package) of 6 bucks a month.

The War Of The Worlds Podcast

photo credit: mightyohm

After my two week break away, I’m getting back into the swing of things podcast-wise. While this week’s Playlist Mix and Sound System Podcast have to yet hit the web, there’s already one new podcast you can grab for yourself – The Devious Theatre Company’s version of HG Wells’ sci-fi classic, The War Of The Worlds.

We originally broadcast The War Of The Worlds on KCLR 96FM in Carlow / Kilkenny on Thursday October 30th of this year. Running at 54 minutes long, this original version which was adapted and localised to a Carlow / Kilkenny setting is now available on DeviousTheatre.com.

It also marks the start of a podcast run for The Devious Theatre Company. We’ve been stock piling audio bites between interviews on various radio stations and scenes from our productions over the past two and a half years. The War Of The Worlds marks the start of another big social media ball to roll for the theatre company.

If you want to grab the MP3 directly (about 50mb in size) you can click here. You can also listen to / stream the show from the audio player below or head over to DeviousTheatre.com to grab your copy.

The War Of The Worlds (Download @ 51mb)
[audio:http://www.devioustheatre.com/podpress_trac/web/644/0/podcast_001_wotw.mp3]

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