TechWire

Emmet Ryan killing a laptop

This is good stuff from ENN -- a live laptop destruction demo. Kudos to Lenovo for being good sports about providing the kit.

Some notes about Vodafone's new fixed line broadband service

1. Its three free unlimited calls to Vodafone numbers are only free up to 59 minutes. According to Fionnuala Coburn, head of fixed line services in Eircom, you have to hang up and redial once an hour to derive the free call benefit.

2. You can't get just one bill for your mobile and fixed line Vodafone services, a deliberate move, according to Coburn: "we looked at our research and found that people regard their mobile phone service as a personal thing, separate from their fixed line". Hmmm…

3. What advantage does a Vodafone customer have in opting for a 2Mbs broadband product over a (putative) 3.6Mbs mobile broadband service? Coburn suggested that "heavy downloading" is better facilitated by fixed line broadband. When asked about the higher stated speeds for its own mobile broadband service, she said: "my understanding is that the mobile broadband experience does vary. I'm not sure what the average speed there is." That's code, really, for 'mobile broadband is not reliably close to 3Mbs'.

4. Am still a little baffled as to why Vodafone is going into this fixed line market. It can only be a long term strategic decision not to be excluded from the main infrastructure (as a stakeholder), if there's ever a massive carve-up of the network.

The 'free phone' era in Ireland has begun

And it's about time. Vodafone leads the way, with a whopping 18 mobiles 'from free' with a monthly contract (including Motorola's K1, left). 3 Ireland comes next with 11 phones 'from free' and then O2, with four 'from free models'. This has been the norm in Britain for years and is a sign that ordinary competition is arriving in Ireland.

Irish Army's software choice: Microsoft v Novell

Apparently, the Irish Defence Forces (army, navy, overseas peacekeeping missions) currently relies on a mix of Novell Netware and Microsoft Server 2003. But it wants to switch to one or the other for the entire force. As per today's tender:

"The Defence Forces now requires a single software reseller to supply all its standard software requirements and assist in managing its licencesing infrastructure. A framework contract with the successful bidder will be put in place for 3 years and should be comprehensive enough to cover all future software requirements."

More ancient state-funded websites

This one is fairly unfortunate: the Irish Council for Science, Technology & Innovation.

'Latest news' is from 18 May, 2005.

A state website not updated in nine years

Is this the oldest, most neglected state website still drawing taxpayer funds for hosting and other costs? As far as I can see, 'Employment Initiative' was last updated in 1999! (It also appears under the 'links' section in Irlgov.ie.)

Silly website disclaimers

I've seen some interesting disclaimers on websites before, but this one on Irishstatuebook.ie (put up by the Office Of The Attorney General) is up there with the silliest. Basically, it asks you to accept a disclaimer acknowledging that their content may be bogus or inaccurate:

"Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information/material contained on the web site, the State and Attorney General, its servants or agents assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided on the web site and do not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions."

Next from O2 Ireland: the 3G iPhone

The operator has finally followed its British counterpart (and other operators around Europe) in dropping the price of the 8GB model -- from €400 to €300 -- to make way for a 3G version, expected in June. Incidentally, a fairly senior Apple Ireland source indicated to me that it wasn't wild about O2 launching the old iPhone so close to the 3G debut.

PR firm's over-exuberance

There is one PR firm which seems to be unaccountably hyper in all correspondence. I think they must have a stash of this stuff in their canteen cupboards...