TechWire

Samsung Jet S8000: 30 second review

Overall, this is, by far, Samsung's best effort to date. The operating system is much improved, with new shortcuts to find phone contacts, one-tap zoom-in controls on the phone's browser and a fast 800Mhz processor under the hood.

The 5-megapixel camera, although not Samsung's best, is impressive. There's a 3.5mm jack on board (thank Christ). And the quality of the Amoled screen is very high.

It has couple of new gimmicky features, such as a 'Find Music' function that can record a few seconds of background music, analyse it and tell you the song's name and singer (it doesn't work a lot of the time).

Despite the improvements, the touchscreen technology still lags the iPhone (I've photographed them together to give you a sense of the phones' size). You need a really firm press on the screen and it sometimes skips or breaks off. It's workable but still not optimal. Texting, too, still presents one or two niggling challenges.

Lots more on all of these issues this weekend in a substantial review in the paper.

O2 Ireland gets the Palm Pre: official

O2 Ireland confirmed this morning that it will carry Palm's hotly anticipated Palm Pre.

There are no pricing details available yet and the operator is only saying that it will be on sale before the end of the year. If it wants to catch the Christmas market, though, O2 will need to launch by late October.

Palm has set up a notification service as to when the mobile will become available.

UPC gets served with legal papers from big music labels

Wondering what was happening with big music/Irma and the ISPs? Last week, BT was served with legal papers by the four big music labels. Yesterday, it was the turn of UPC (Chorus NTL).

Here's a statement from UPC on the matter:

UPC can confirm that is has been served with a plenary summons by solicitors acting on behalf of the four Irish music labels (EMI, Warner, Universal and WEA).  It is regretful that the rightsholders have decided to pursue with their threat of legal action against UPC. The company is now preparing its defence and intends to vigorously defend its position in Court.

The plenary summons served follows a recent out-of-court settlement with Eircom and solicitors acting on behalf of the four Irish labels (EMI, Universal, Sony and WEA) whereby they wrote to a number of Irish Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in an attempt to impose a similar three strikes ruling on each ISP.

UPC has made its position clear from the outset -- it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided under existing legislation. There is no basis under Irish law requiring ISPs to control, access or block the internet content its users download. In addition, the rights holders' proposal gives rise to serious concerns for data privacy and consumer contract law.

Irish and European law maintains a careful balance between the rights and obligations of copyright owners, internet users and ISPs. The three strikes policy that was agreed in private with eircom as part of the settlement, and any attempt to impose in upon the industry generally, seriously undermines that balance.

It is unfortunate that the rightsholders did not take up UPC's suggestion that it convene a stakeholder forum in which their concerns could be addressed. UPC indicated that it would be willing to participate in such a forum provided all relevant parties that have a vested interest in this matter were included (eg ISPs, the Data Protection Commission, the National Consumer Agency and relevant Departments of the Government).

UPC has always taken a strong stance against illegal activity on its network. It takes all steps required by the law to combat specific infringements which are brought to its attention and will continue to co-operate with rightsholders where they have obtained the necessary Court Orders for alleged copyright infringements.

It is regretful that the rightsholders have decided to go down the legal route as both sides share a common goal which targets to eradicate piracy.

The snobbery against online journalism

When is a journalist not a journalist? When his/her work is published online. Or such seems to be the case on RTE's online news service.

Yes, this is one of the biggest news service in the country. Yes, it carries RTE's reputation with every piece published. But do the people who write the pieces get attributed? Nope. It's an absurd state of affairs.

"In Ireland, there has been resistance to viewing those working in online journalism as being journalists," says Michael Foley, a senior journalism lecturer in DIT.

"This has been encouraged by management who haven't had to pay them as much. The traditional journalist has been reluctant to debate what the impact of the internet is and what it might mean to journalism. Anything to do with this new tech world, they view it with suspicion and view it as a threat."

(I was talking to Foley for an upcoming piece this Sunday on the impact that Twitter has had on the media. However, we strayed onto this topic.)

"I think that one of the problems has been that the Irish media hasn’t adapted very much to the web, to be quite frank," says Foley. "When you look at the number of really good Irish media websites, it’s very few. We haven’t, as a country, been very quick to adapt. And those journalists who are are involved with websites have tended to be worse paid than traditional journalists."

Now, some might say: "but it's only breaking news. It doesn't take the same amount of work." This is rubbish.

Let's look again what an RTE online journalist does. In summary, he/she:

-- writes a news piece
-- ensures that is accurate, fair and balanced
-- sees it published and viewed by more Irish people than almost any other single newspaper piece

And they are not to be attributed as journalists? This is absolutely ridiculous.

(Note that I do not have any brief for anyone in RTE online, as I don't know anyone in there.)

What has the EU ever done for us?

Standardised our mobile chargers, for one thing.

This just in, via press release.

"The EU Commission and the mobile phone industry have agreed to create a common charger for all phones produced."

"From 2010 the Micro-USB will become the standard output design for; Apple, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, phones."

"The Commission and the main industry players have agreed to settle the problem through self-regulation. The agreement commits the manufacturers to produce a standard charge output and ensure compatibility of new data-enabled mobile phones."

Why (most of) Ireland has little interest in a 'smart' economy

When I was growing up, the word 'smart' had two meanings.

The literal one was 'clever'. The more common interpretation was 'cheeky'. Today, it means 'We Don't Have A Plan But We're Going To Imply That We Aspire To A High Tech Strategy'.

A task force was announced over the weekend to advise on the creation of a 'smart' economy. 'Smart' seems to mean 'digital' and 'high tech'.

"We need to think smart, work smart, and be smart in order to build our future," said the Taoiseach (in a press release) on the issue.

Let's ignore the tired, hackneyed language here: who agrees with the concept of a 'smart' economy? Farmers? Unions? Music companies? Election agents?

Let's look at some of the leading 'smart' issues on which Ireland has expressed its opinion in recent years.

Smart issue 1: electronic voting
This makes all the sense in the world: a quick, accurate return on who has been fairly elected into power. But this is Ireland. "We don't want this kind of thing. It's better to see the counting being done in front of you, even if it takes a week and even if there are small inaccuracies."

Smart issue 2: e-government
Ireland's attempt to create a comprehensive working e-government system for its citizens is nearing 10 years in the making. 10 years! And we still have only a handful of services that can truly replace the post, interaction over the phone or a visit to an office. (Sorry, endlessly citing motortax.ie is no longer a substitute.)

Smart issue 3: digital networking
One of the hallmarks of a country that clearly engages in digital innovation is a preponderance to tinker about online and engage with digital networking services. Like Twitter, discussion boards, forums and the like. Yet ask the quintessential Irish businessman/politician/civil servant what their attitude is to new, very useful, services such as Twitter. "No, no, I don't think that's appropriate for someone in my position," is the usual response. Smart? Or Luddite?

Smart issue 4: broadband
Let's say you're a normal Irish householder. You have a choice of two broadband products. One gives 1Mbs and costs €20 per month. The other one gives 5Mbs and costs €30 per month. Which one do you go for? The first one, of course. Because that's enough to "do email" and "update my Facebook". And that's the level that (most) Irish people are at.

So when the Taoiseach continues to spout the following hackneyed 'smart' mantra, surely it's time for someone to stand up and ask a few questions about whether Irish people, as a whole, are interested in such an economy. (If you're reading this blog, you are, like me, one of the minority who is interested.)

“The country will have smart, efficient and citizen-oriented public services," says the Taoiseach. "It will be energy independent and have high-quality living environments with smart transport solutions... The Ireland of the future will be a smart, high-value, export-led economy. It will have some of the world’s leading research-intensive multinationals, a number of which will be Irish-owned."

For the record, here is the composition of the 'smart economy' task force that has been set up by the Taoiseach. (I wish them well. There are some good people there.)

Dermot McCarthy, secretary general, Department of the Taoiseach (chairman)
Lionel Alexander, vice-president general manager of Hewlett Packard (Manufacturing) and chairman of the Government’s Enterprise Feedback Group
Prof Don Barry, president, University of Limerick
Dr Hugh Brady, president, University College Dublin
Damien Callaghan, investment director, Intel Capital
Michael Carmody, president, Institute of Technology Tralee
Dr Steven Collins, co-founder chief technical officer, Kore Virtual Machines
Ned Costello, chief executive, Irish Universities Association
Joe Harford, chairman of the Government’s High Level Action Group on Green Enterprise
Dr John Hegarty, provost, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Chris Horn, co-founder of Iona Technologies
Dr Brian Kelly, founder chief executive, Celtic Catalysts
Dr Buron Lee, director, European entrepreneurship programme, Stanford University; managing partner, Innovarium Ventures
John Lynch, chief executive, Merrion Pharmaceuticals
Tara MacMahon, IP lawyer
Dan MacSweeney, chief executive, Carbery Group
Bryan Mohally, vice-president of supply chain operations Europe, Johnson and Johnson
Mark O’Donovan, director, Raglan Capital
Barry O’Sullivan, senior vice-president, Cisco Systems
Dr Paul Roben, president, Celtic Consulting
Anna Scally, partner, KPMG

Steve Jobs does not have a right to medical privacy

Or not as long as he is chief executive of Apple, anyway.

If you missed this story, Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, had a secret liver transplant two months ago.

That's not what officially happened, though: he was supposed to have had a "hormone imbalance" which led to "more complex issues", according to Apple.

It's the latest fib that he and Apple have told concerning his health: the company didn't disclose that he had had pancreatic cancer in 2004.

But there is now a big legal question: did Apple break US stock market rules by not revealing that Jobs was deathly ill?

(That he was at death's door is hard to argue: the surgeon at the Tennessee hospital has been reported as saying that Jobs was prioritised for surgery because he was the sickest patient on the hospital's waiting list.)

The issue revolves around whether Jobs's illness was a "material questions" to be disclosed to the Securities Exchange. In the US, executives' medical records are not required to be disclosed.

But Jobs's case is different. How? Because Jobs represents most of Apple's value. Without his return in the mid-1990s, the company would have gone bust by 2000.

In a US TV interview yesterday, Warren Buffett described the situation in a nutshell.

"Certainly Steve Jobs is important to Apple," he said. "Whether he is facing serious surgery or not is a material fact."

Jobs is the guy who reinvented the iMac and brought the iPod and iTunes -- by far Apple's most important products -- to fruition. Now, he has driven an enormously successful product, the iPhone, together with its even more important side-product, the App Store.

So if Steve Jobs is about to die, Apple's investors have a right to know. Officially. On the record.

Officially, Apple is insisting that Jobs will return to work by the end of this month. But the average life expectancy of liver transplant survivors is five years.

In my view, Apple investors have already discounted Jobs's full time return. That is why the share price only dipped by two per cent when news of Jobs's liver transplant (broken by the Wall Street Journal last weekend) emerged. They've already moved on.

Tech marketing, Irish style

"Hi! I'm selling a new internet service! And oh! Look who I've found! It's Zumpty, the large mascot! And look! There's Rosanna, the pretty model! Hi guys!"

("Now to just sit back and watch the orders come in...")

How much is too much for journalists to blog and tweet?

How much freedom should a journalist have to blog and tweet?

In Ireland, it's a moot point at the moment. Few mainstream media outlets take blogging or Twitter seriously. Nevertheless, if a staff journalist blogged or tweeted something truly outrageous, or scooped their own newspaper, there is no doubt that it would have repercussions.

In the US, the Wall Street Journal (see quoted rules, below) and the Washington Post have led the way with stringent rules about how its journalists should behave on social networks. The New York times isn't far behind.

So just how much should I, and other journalists, be allowed to write or tweet? Should it just be promotional stuff? Does writing about things here and on Twitter lessen the value of what the newspaper has to offer? Or does it enhance it?

WALL STREET JOURNAL RULES FOR JOURNALISTS USING ONLINE MEDIA (courtesy of Editor and Publisher)

* Never misrepresent yourself using a false name when you're acting on behalf of your Dow Jones publication or service. When soliciting information from readers and interview subjects you must identify yourself as a reporter for the Journal, Newswires or MarketWatch and be tonally neutral in your questions.
* Base all comments posted in your role as a Dow Jones employee in the facts, drawing from and citing your reporting when appropriate. Sharing your personal opinions, as well as expressing partisan political views, whether on Dow Jones sites or on the larger Web, could open us to criticism that we have biases and could make a reporter ineligible to cover topics in the future for Dow Jones.
* Don't recruit friends or family to promote or defend your work.
* Consult your editor before "connecting" to or "friending" any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources. Openly "friending" sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex.
* Let our coverage speak for itself, and don't detail how an article was reported, written or edited.
* Don't discuss articles that haven't been published, meetings you've attended or plan to attend with staff or sources, or interviews that you've conducted.
* Don't disparage the work of colleagues or competitors or aggressively promote your coverage.
* Don't engage in any impolite dialogue with those who may challenge your work -- no matter how rude or provocative they may seem.
* Avoid giving highly-tailored, specific advice to any individual on Dow Jones sites. Phrases such as "Travel agents are saying the best deals are X and Y..." are acceptable while counseling a reader "You should choose X..." is not. Giving generalized advice is the best approach.
* All postings on Dow Jones sites that may be controversial or that deal with sensitive subjects need to be cleared with your editor before posting.
* Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending.

EDIT: The Irish Times' Genevieve Carbery has pointed out Bloomberg's rather more draconian rules for its journalists:

Why Nokia needs to jumpstart Ovi before it's all over

Nokia needs to take Ovi a lot more seriously.

At the launch of the Nokia N97 in London earlier this week, I had a long chat to a senior Nokia executive about the company's plans for Ovi. I was a little underwhelmed.

In a nutshell, his attitude was that Nokia was so big, developers would be mad not to go out of their way to make applications for it. If they don't, it's their loss, he said.

To me, this smacks of arrogance and foolish inaction. If I were a senior executive in Nokia, I would be making the case that the Ovi Store should be one of the company's top two priorities over the next 12 months. Quite frankly, this is where a huge section of the mobile phone market is heading.

What is happening with Apple's App Store now is a similar phenomenon to what happened with iTunes in the early part of this decade. Apple has stolen a march and is consolidating its position. In the blink of an eye, it could corner the market. Mighty Nokia, which once so dominated the mobile market (and which is still by far the largest handset manufacturer), will be left wondering why they didn't move more swiftly.

So here is what Nokia needs to do, in my view: it needs to pull out all of the stops to get developers making applications for Nokia handsets. It needs a massive campaign to make mobile-users -- and especially smartphone users -- aware of what the Ovi Store is and how it can enhance your handset. And it needs to do this right now.

Most people I know have little awareness of Ovi. That's not their problem: it's Nokia's.

Why Britain's broadband tax is worth considering here

The 'Digital Britain' plan just released calls for a 50p-per-month tax on all telephone lines to fund the roll-out of high speed broadband everywhere in the country. In my view, it's an idea worth considering.

Obviously, this is not a popular view. But the author of the Digital Britain report, Lord Carter, makes the point that without some form of public intervention, serious next-generation networks will never be made available to rural areas. He says that private companies will only ever be interested in populated, urban areas.

Basically, this is the same principle as any public utility. Which rural bus routes pay for themselves? Not many. They're subsidised by other routes. In fact, if you want to be brutally honest, few counties in Ireland actually support themselves financially: Dublin subsidises many of them.

In Japan, which invested in high speed networks, the average speed is 90Mbs. Without some form of public nudge, that's just not going to happen here.

Why the French Hadopi court decision will not affect Irma/Eircom deal

Yesterday, the French Constitutional Court struck down a new French law that introduced a 'three strikes' rule for suspected online file-sharers.

This has garnered huge attention worldwide. Some Irish media outlets are speculating that it could scupper Irma's 'three strikes' deal with Eircom.

In my view, they are wrong. What happened in France won't affect the Irma deal. At least, not legally. Here's why.

The proposed French law (called the Hadopi law) was new legislation, as opposed to an agreement between two companies/organisations (eg Irma and Eircom).

Under the law, an ISP had no choice but to cut off its customer (after three warnings), if that customer was suspected of illegal file-sharing. And no other ISP could take the affected customer on. So the person cut off was well and truly left without any online access (of their own).

The French court decided that this was draconian. It decided that such severity was an infringement of freedom of expression, as well as data privacy.

The scenario in Ireland involving the Eircom/Irma deal is completely different. There is no new law involved. There is no sanction against rival ISPs taking on the customer once he has been cut off from Eircom.

Irma sued Eircom for being liable for copyright infringers on its network. Eircom (advised by top lawyers) thought it might lose under Irish copyright law. So it settled out of court, rather than face a judgement against it. Thus was the 'three strikes' deal born.

That Irish copyright law hasn't changed. Neither has any other legal facet that convinced Eircom that it was on a loser against Irma. So nothing changes here, as far as I can see.

This is not to say that everything is full steam ahead with regard to Irma throttling Irish internet access in Ireland. On the contrary, Irma seems to have temporarily reneged on its warning to issue proceedings against ISPs who didn't agree to the same 'three strikes' deal as Eircom. None of the ISPs who were subject to solicitors' letters from the organisation have received any follow-up, as far as I can establish.

So is the strikedown of the French Hadopi law completely irrelevant to the situation in Ireland? In the short term, I think it is.

However, there is one longer-term issue that does arise: does a person have a right under freedom of expression to internet access?

In France, the constitutional court suggested as much. I can't see it arising anytime soon in Ireland. Nevertheless, imagine the following (unlikely) situation.

It is two years into the future. All ISPs have signed up to the Irma 'three strikes' deal. I, an ISP customer, have been warned by my ISP to stop sharing movies online three times, all of which I've ignored. I'm cut off. I sign up with a rival ISP. I do the same and am cut off. I keep going through all of the available ISPs and am cut off by every one. Eventually, there are no ISPs left that have not cut me off.

Now the question arises: do I have a right to internet access as a general right? Does an industry collectively have the right to deny me access to its firms' services? Is it merely the same as being a bad credit risk customer? Or is internet access considered to be a higher thing?

Perhaps legal guru and digital rights activist TJ McIntyre has a view on this...

Twitter's great vanishing act: political candidates

I think my Twitter-feed is broken. When I log on to the Twitter profiles of Proinsias De Rossa, Eoin Ryan and Deirdre de Burca, all I get is the feed right up to the election -- there are no updates since then. This must be some sort of technical error. There's no way that political candidates would have simply created Twitter accounts for the European election and then disappeared when they didn't need our votes anymore. Even I'm not that cynical.

Irish SMEs don't care about broadband speeds -- Comreg

Comreg's latest business survey makes for instructive reading.

The regulator commissioned Millward Brown IMS to survey 502 SMEs and 53 large companies during March and April.

Almost half of all the companies surveyed had no idea what broadband speed they were on. Furthermore, SMEs didn't care, citing "reliability" and "cost" as being the main issues.

Once again, this begs the question as to how high important broadband speeds are to the great Irish unwashed. (Personally, I want the fastest I can get. But I know my mother, my neighbours and my colleagues don't really give a damn.)

Here are some of the other points from the survey:

-- 92% of Irish businesses have internet access, with a notable increase among SMEs
-- No-one has a clue what their upload speeds are
-- Eircom continues to be the main business ISP in Ireland, with almost two thirds of the market
-- Telecommunication costs have decreased for 57% of corporates and 25% of SMEs
-- 70% of companies believe the telecoms market is more competitive now than last year

Avoid the Taste Of Dublin

Unless you're a southsider who wants a day out and has more money than sense.

In my experience, this is an almighty rip-off. I recall, last year, getting a small punnet of chips with a few bits of chicken in it for €7. And that was the cheapest item on offer. In addition to this, you have to pay €25 just to get in.

To sum up, you pay €25 to get into a field where you have the privilege to buy food (at way over the odds) from a bunch of stalls.

In fairness to the organisers, it's a brilliant earner.

O2 launches phone for OAPs

"Isn't the weather just dreadful? Ooh, the price of Kerr Pinks has just gone through the roof. What's that, dear?"

Good news for luddites and grumpy old men: O2 has brought out a mobile phone with no "fancy bits".

The Emporia Live V100 has no camera, no Bluetooth, no MP3 player and no internet. It has a monocolour screen. It has reassuringly big buttons. And it has several 'emergency' keys for whenever you slip in the bathroom.

It allegedly costs from €50 (contract) on O2, but all we could find is the €150 (prepay) version.

Should news be reported or explained?

Should a newspaper article be reported straight, with little interpretation, or should it be presented in an interpreted, 'explained' way? What do people think?

As an editor and a journalist, I'd be interested to know what you think.

The advantage to straight reporting is that it leaves it up to the reader to draw a conclusion. The advantage to interpretive reporting is that it is more digestible and more entertaining.

So which would you prefer to be prioritised by us in the media: reporting or explanation?.

I posed this question on Twitter and got many interesting replies. People were split almost 50-50 on the question.

Please leave your thoughts below.

PricewaterhouseJargon

PricewaterhouseCoopers has released its latest Techology Forecast report. Generally, this is pretty well respected. But it takes a lot of interpretation. Take the following excerpt (the last sentence in particular):

From a Semantic Web perspective, the ontology would be a conceptual framework specific to HR, an overarching structure that allows computers to make more sense of the data elements belonging to the domain.
Contrast this scenario with how data rationalization occurs in the relational data world. Each time, for each point of data integration, humans must figure out the semantics for the data element and verify through timeconsuming activities that a field with a specific label— which appears to be a relevant point of integration—is actually useful, maintained, and defined to mean what the label implies. Although an ontology-based approach requires more front-end effort than a traditional data integration program, ultimately the ontological approach to data classification is more scalable, as Figure 4 shows. It’s more scalable precisely because the semantics of any data being integrated is being managed in a collaborative, standard, reusable way.

"Is there anything else I can do for you today?" Grrrr...

What is the most annoying phrase that companies' telesales agents use? My vote goes to: "is there anything else I can do for you today?"

It is used by companies who want something from you, but then add this trite catchphrase at the end of their spiel to try and make out like it is they who have been doing you a favour all along (and not the other way around).

Viz:

Hello, is that Mr Weekler?
Yes.
Hello, I'm ringing to tell you that your ESB bill is now overdue.
Is it? When was it due?
It was due last week.
Oh. Okay, sorry. I'll sort it out this evening.
Fine, Mr Weekler. Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Er, no.

Hello, is that Mr Winkler?
Yes, this is Adrian Weckler.
Hello, I ringing about the collection of a Dell computer.
Yes.
Can I confirm collection tomorrow morning at 9am?
Yes.
Thank you Mr Winkler. Is there anything else I can do for you today?
No.

Hello, is that Mr Whackler?
Yes.
Hello, I'm answering your customer query regarding your domain name.
Oh yes.
What seems to be the problem?
I keep trying to log in but your site won't let me.
Ah. Have you tried the top of the page?
Yes.
And it doesn't work?
No.
Okay, we'll have a look for you.
But…
Is there anything else I can do for you today?
Hang on, I…
You're welcome. Bye.

Lionbridge's jargon

Emmet Ryan spotted this lovely service description from a Lionbridge press release. I like his comment at the end.

"Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIOX) is a provider of translation, interpretation, development and testing services. Lionbridge combines global resources with proven program management methodologies to serve as an outsource partner throughout a client's product and content lifecycle - from development to translation, testing and maintenance. Global organizations rely on Lionbridge services to increase international market share, speed adoption of global products and content, and enhance their return on enterprise applications and IT system investments. Based in Waltham, Mass., Lionbridge maintains solution centers in 26 countries and provides services under the Lionbridge and VeriTest brands."

"Personally I'd rather they just said: Lionbridge is a translation services company."

Time to scrap local and European elections

There is one incontrovertible conclusion that can be drawn from the local and European elections: nobody took the purpose of the elections seriously.

Not the candidates, not the parties, not the public, not the media.

Consider:

1. The public, who ignored local and European issues when voting
2. The candidates, who ignored local and European issues when campaigning
3. The media, who ignored local and European issues when reporting and analysing the campaigns
4. Party political leaders, who ignored the local and European issues when giving post-election analysis (Labour leader Eamon Gilmore described the elections as a "referendum on the government" and "nothing to do with local or planning issues" on Prime Time last night).

Some media commentators have suggested that these elections should be scrapped. They are right. In my view, we should:

(a) scrap county councils or have them selected by TDs. (After all, a TD is the only category of elected person that the public, the media and the political establishment cares about.) The only exception would be if we make them much stronger, such as giving them the power to raise significant taxes locally (which they do not want).

(b) scrap elections for MEPs and have them selected by the Dail, based on party strength. If independents want to have their day, run for the Dail.

The electorate, the media and the political establishment have passed their verdict on these elections: they neither want nor care about elections about councils or the European Parliament.

Why I don't trust Menupages.ie, Qype or any other restaurant review sites

They always either rant about how awful everything is or praise the features in suspiciously oily language.

This got me thinking: what motivates a member of the public to log on to one of these sites and post a review? Overwhelmingly, I think it's an urge to give out.

This leads me to suspect that the only people posting reviews on these sites are cranks and restaurant employees.

6 things I would do if I set up a PR company

I had a dream last night that I set up a PR company called 'Relevant PR'.

Bizarrely, I can remember the note I wrote (in the dream) to a colleague on how it would succeed as a company. Here it is...

MEMO ON PR FIRM SET-UP: RULES ON MAXIMISING EFFECT ON MEDIA

1. To be staffed by good organisers and ex-journalists.

2. Website to become essential resource for media. To contain:
(a) concise, up-to-date backgrounders on client companies in easily understandable English
(b) easy, digestible facts and figures
(c) case studies on client companies
(d) up-to-date, high resolution pictures of clients and their companies [This is crucial to boost client's chances of profile in newspapers, magazines and websites as picture editors budgets continue to be cut.]

3. PR execs to know exactly what clients do and what service/technology is about. That includes ability to answer questions about how it all works, without referring to client executives.

4. Golden rule: no media query to go unanswered for more than 30 minutes; no exceptions. This 30 also applies to resolving issues. If media request depends on client response, and client is not available, ring journalist to give full update.

5. Firm to regularly court media with simple, pressure-free events on behalf of clients; easy to build relationships that way.

6. Press releases to be written in clear, easily understandable English; facts and figures to be prioritised.

Creating the next Alan Sugar is not an economic plan, Mr Cowen

Yesterday, Brian Cowen attended an Intel event. He gave the same waffley, banal speech about "the genius of our people" and "entrepreneurship" that now passes as analysis of our economic future.

"Ireland's best asset is its people," he said. "We have a younger and better-educated population than most other countries – better even than the United States. It is the creativity and ingenuity of people and their ability to invent new products and services that will drive Ireland's future growth."

Yawn.

"Entrepreneurial activity in Ireland is well above the European average, with as many as 2,800 people setting up businesses every month. As a Government, we will do our utmost to create the best possible environment for these entrepreneurs."

2,800 setting up 'businesses'? And how many of these 'businesses' are service-sector jaunts? (I'd say it's most of them.)

But here's the worst bit...

"We need to develop an enterprise culture from school children upwards, and right through the universities and institutes and throughout our companies. It should be a reasonable aspiration of all children born in this country that they might, one day, start their own business."

This sums up everything that's ill-informed about our current thinking. The challenge isn't about becoming the next Apprentice or Dragon's Den winner. Nor is it about showing that you have the toughest neck, the most persistent sales tack or the ballsiest tactics. What good is a future generation of salesmen and SME chief executives?

The goal is to produce people who can -- from their own resources -- create top-class products that other people can't create. (Then let the salesmen sell away.)

That has nothing to do with "creating an enterprise culture in school". It has more to do with rejecting the short-cuts, flash aspirations and hard neck approach that "entrepreneurship" has become shorthand for in this country.

Cowen's approach is to create the next Alan Sugar. What we should be concentrating on is creating the next James Dyson.