My colleague at the Irish Examiner, Adrian Russell, has finally started blogging. It only took nearly three years of badgering to get him to agree to the idea. He will mainly be blogging about sports.
He expects lots of traffic from me, so please do go take a gander.
I made it here this morning and am updating on Twitter with the hashtag #gp09. You can also follow over at Scribble.
12.30: Got a good picture of Senator Dan Boyle playing with an iPhone before he takes to the stage shortly.
15.40: Someone in the Green party has apparently let slip that the date of the emergency budget will be April 2. A government spokesman refused to confirm the date. The date might be changed now.
15.55: Uploaded the Patricia McKenna video:
16.00: Eamon Ryan comes into the press room to answer questions. Towards the end of the clip he is asked about the April 2 budget date. Video up:
Mary White tee up:
Gormley as he leaves:
Everyone stops to watch RTE news, including de hacks:
I had a listen to Damien, Suzy and Val on the Tubridy show earlier. And I have to say, I felt embarrassed for Mr Tubridy.
Last time I checked the year was 2009.
But it was as if Tubridy was in 2004 or 2005 and blogging was still all new and shiny. I was asked similar questions on radio shows four years ago. In fact over the years I’ve been asked to go on the radio and explain what blogging is a few times, and once even on television with Richard and Mick and others.
And the questions were understandable back then, blogging was in its infancy, and it was right to pose some of those questions. But even back then the questions weren’t near as juvenile as Tubridy’s rather uneducated questions. Blogging has moved on since the early days, as has the internet.
Blogging, especially in the US because it really started there, has matured immensely. All of the top political journals and magazines, national daily papers, weeklies… almost everything, uses daily updated blogs to engage with their readers. Because it’s a no brainer. Just like it’s a no brainer for George Hook to engage with listeners on Twitter. And just like it’s a no brainer for Tubridy to engage with his listeners and viewers, if he understood it.
But Tubridy goes back to the usual silly questions despite blogging having evolved and moved on, leaving Tubridy behind. He simply doesn’t get it, it really is that simple. And I have to wonder, if he hasn’t got it by now, will he ever get it? Will he always be scared of the internets?
Damien, Suzy and Val did a good job not rising to what seemed to me to be rather silly attempts at creating controversy where there is none.
I have to ask this because I was showing some of my fellow bloggers at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis the figures. How many people were following the liveblogging exactly? It’s not an easy thing to measure, but some of the indications are pretty surprising.
I was taking photos with my iPhone and tweeting them, while tagging with the agreed #ffaf. The first picture I took, of Mark Coughlan in the media centre, has had over 1,000 views. Further photos I took while Lenihan et al were speaking live on television, received similar numbers. This one of Mary Coughlan got 888 views. This one of Lenihan got another 762 views. A picture of Suzy at her laptop got 633 views.
I am pretty amazed by those figures, I had no idea so many people were following the conversation.
I hope to get up to Citywest early tomorrow and spend the day at the FF Ard Fheis. Other bloggers will be in attendance, and the tag on Twitter will be #ffaf.
Two milestones this week.
Firstly the blog I started in mid 2005, originally named Irish Corruption and later renamed Public Inquiry, is a finalist in the Best Political Blog category at the Irish Blog awards. I blogged on there consistently for the first year or so before handing the reins over to my uncle Anthony. He has over the past 2 years stepped up his blogging and deserves full credit for getting on the shortlist. To say I am immensely proud of him is an understatement. He certainly deserves credit for the work he puts in.
Secondly, my own blog passed the 1.5 million visitor mark yesterday, a significant milestone for any blog. I obviously thank all of my readers over the years, those who drifted in and indeed drifted out, and those who for some reason have kept coming back over the years. Understandably I did not make the short list for the blog awards, probably mainly due to my consistent lack of writing over the past year. The lazy way out is always to post photos and videos!
But here is to the next 1.5 million!
Update: A big thank you to Steve Clemons for the shout out. If you are not subscribing to his excellent blog already then head on over there. It is one of the best.
I went with some colleagues to walk the Gap of Dunloe and Black Valley in Co Kerry last Saturday. I did tweet some of it, but we were soon out of coverage. I took my trusty 20D along too, here are some of the results:
More below the fold:
I just got my hands on a review copy of Jeff‘s new book. I am still in the middle of reading Cyburbia and Here Comes Everybody, so Jarvis comes after.
I have been reading Jeff regularly since 2001, so I’m looking forward to reading the book.
An hilarious listen. Mr Bale loses it on the set of Terminator Salvation. Not work safe though. Very well worth a listen if you want to hear an actor throwing a hissy fit.
I first started experimenting with Apture a few months back, and have since turned it off. While I loved it, it had a habit of chewing up memory on my server. To me it was a combination of ease-of-use, along with providing readers with quick links to rich content. Indeed, I would call it the most impressive plugin I have ever used in all the time I have blogged since 2002.
Rory O’Connor of HuffPo has gone a step further and called Apture Web 3.0. Says he:
Is Apture “a paradigm shift in publishing and online communication,” as Harris would have it? Decide for yourself – but there’s no doubt that it provides new tools to users that enhance their online experience, and allows bloggers such as yours truly to add true context to what I post. Sure, I could add the same content by copying and pasting code from, YouTube, but Apture makes it dead simple to add and share content on the Web. So what’s not to like?
If it wasn’t such a resource hog I would add it to all the blogs I host. As yet, I have not seen any other Irish bloggers try Apture, but I would encourage any bloggers out there to give it a go. Once you get the hang of inserting the extra content (wiki links, photos and videos), you will find yourself doing it to all of your posts.
Other plugins I have been playing with or plan to install are Open Calais by Thomson Reuters and Searchles.
Update: I’ve reactivated Apture for further testing. It is one of my favourite plugins, of all time. I must ask everyone if they like it too.
This is one of the best demonstrations of groundbreaking technology I have ever seen. Google need to start doing this yesterday. Or buy the guys who did this. Web 3.0.
I never got round to posting some photos from my very brief visit to Munich during the Oktoberfest. I had better share some. Eamonn was a true gent and did me the courtesy of showing me around and buying me beer. How bad, as we say in Cork.
I do rather like this platz, Odeonsplatz, it has some historical significance.
It was from here that war was proclaimed in 1914, and a now infamous pictureexists of one Adolf Hitler lurking in the crowd just in front of the lion’s head to the right of my photo.
War, it was thought, would be over quite quickly. Hitler would later serve in the German army. The Feldherrenhalle is also where Hitler’s putsch ended in 1923. You can read a little history here.
This is the rather impressive St. Cajetan’s Church just beside. It was designed by Italian Agostino Baralli and was finished in 1768.
I did have a quick look around inside, but there was a Mass on so photos were awkward. On to the equally impressive new town hall (Neues Rathaus):
Reminded me a bit of the Houses of Parliament in London, with that whole Gothic revival thing going on. Very nice indeed.
And finally, another impressive Church, Frauenkirche, completed in 1488. Interestingly:
Much of the interior was destroyed during WWII, and even the restored parts look still plain by comparison. However, two of the attractions still can be found are the Gothic nave and the Teufelstritt, or Devil’s Footstep, at the entrance. This is a black mark resembling a footprint with a small hooked tail at the heel, which, according to legend, was where the devil stood when he curiously regarded and ridiculed the windowless church that Halsbach had built.
And it had some very interesting markings and gravestones on the side too.
I also liked this rather Disney looking building:
I have ended my relationship with Bloglines today, after mucho problemos. Yesterday it decided to stop loading my subscribed-to list for several hours. It was the final straw in months of poor technical service. I never really liked Google Reader, but it’s most recent redesign has made it easier to read. Google Reader it is.
Happy Christmas to all of my very nice readers. Here’s to a joyful and IMF-laden… oh wait no doom and gloom (or reality). Things are grand Ted, sure everything will be just grand. :-)
On the bright side, it’s not raining.
Or lunch, depending on how you time it. I am looking forward to meeting the faces behind the blogs tomorrow, and having some wine and umm, food. Those attending (Hi everyone!):
Niall Harbison (Thanks for organising!)
Joe Scanlon
John Keyes
Suzy Byrne
Jenny
Conor Lynch
Sean Fee
Christine Coen
Frank
Lar Veale
Dee Murphy
Robin Blanford
Laura Daly
Andrew Deegan
John McA Williams
Joe Drumgoole
Mike Kelly
Jillian
Marcus Mc Innes
Niamh Redmond
Emilly Tully