It doesn't feel like a new year. Not sure what a new year feels like. Bit too chilled at the moment to worry.
Tomorrow time for time out planning for the year ahead. Did this last year. Good idea in that everything on the list got done. Probably a better idea to put some bigger things on the list this year.
Anyway Happy New Year to one and all. One goal is 365 posts for 2009. And I won't get to post again for a few days.
Tomorrow time for time out planning for the year ahead. Did this last year. Good idea in that everything on the list got done. Probably a better idea to put some bigger things on the list this year.
Anyway Happy New Year to one and all. One goal is 365 posts for 2009. And I won't get to post again for a few days.
Took the boys to Santa on Sunday. Up to the event in picture below
The boys had a ball. You go in through the shop to queue. There is mulled wine and mice pies on the way in. There is a sleigh to sit in and and an elf giving out lollipops while we queued. Took about 20 mins to queue for Santa (over an hour for some friends). While queuing you get to see Santa's kitchen and a few other little displays and meet Mrs Claus. Then into the man himself. Take your own photos no additional charge. And the pressies come down a chimney - the boys thought this was magic. Then outside there are some animals in a small barn, a slide and two swings and a dozen or so sheds decorated for Christmas. So they spend another 45 mins just wandering around having fun there.
Only one day left this year and I wouldn't be surprised if they are booked out.
For the best view of Dublin, turn left when coming out of Kellys and drive up the hill for a mile or two.
Daily competitions by Santa Pat
Currently 3 Mobile Broadband items up for grabs (Irish Customers Only)
Currently 3 Mobile Broadband items up for grabs (Irish Customers Only)
Joseph E. Stiglitz in Vanity Fair
Writes a great article on the finance mess. In the middle he makes a point that is often forgotten
Writes a great article on the finance mess. In the middle he makes a point that is often forgotten
But innovation, like “change,” has no inherent value. It can be bad (the “liar” loans are a good example) as well as good.
For those who consider Ireland a post-catholic country
Similar to one of the things that came up during my MBA dissertation. Joe Lee references this in magnificant history of Ireland and Tom Garvin in his "Preventing the Future"They then rated each country on a scale of what they called "religiosity" - a measure of how religious each country was.
They found that countries where religious belief was strong, such as Ireland and Italy, tended to be the least accepting of nanotechnology, whereas those where religion was less significant such as Belgium or the Netherlands were more accepting of the technology
I'm not sure a computer can search for quality ... (unless someone can give it context)
Computer Search for Quality
A more fundamental criticism of this and other approachs was written almost 20 years ago by Christopher Locke on the Cyc project (which I still can see as having transformed the world in any sense). I think the work of Maturana and Varela (see The Tree of Knowledge), Fernando Flores (Understanding Computers and Congnition) and others (e.g. look at David Snowdens work on Complexity for example undermines some of this.
Language is by its nature vague and imprecise. Its what gives it its power.
Computer Search for Quality
You can collect statistics until the cows come home, but you cannot expect statistics to produce an effect beyond what they are good for.My comment. Precise but is it accurate, timely and in context (i.e. better to be vaguely right or precisely wrong)
The underlying idea behind semantic technology is to teach computers how the world operates. For example, when a computer encounters the word "bill", it would know that "bill" has 15 different meanings in English. When the computer encounters the phrase "killed the bill", it would deduce that "bill" can only be a proposed law submitted to a legislature, and that "kill" could mean only "stop".
By contrast, "kill bill" would only be the title of the movie by that name. At the end, a series of deductions like these would handle entire sentences and paragraphs to yield an accurate text-meaning representation.
But how would a semantic search engine solve the information quality problem? The answer is simple: precision. Once computers can handle natural languages with semantic precision, high-quality information will not need to become popular before it reaches the end user, unlike what is required by Web search today.
A more fundamental criticism of this and other approachs was written almost 20 years ago by Christopher Locke on the Cyc project (which I still can see as having transformed the world in any sense). I think the work of Maturana and Varela (see The Tree of Knowledge), Fernando Flores (Understanding Computers and Congnition) and others (e.g. look at David Snowdens work on Complexity for example undermines some of this.
Language is by its nature vague and imprecise. Its what gives it its power.
This is interesting
Airbus A380 operator Emirates has encountered an unexpected problem with the aircraft - it's "too quiet" for pilots to enjoy a quick kip in the crew rest area.
According to Flight International, the company's flyboys complain the lack of background engine noise means they can hear every wailing infant and flush of the vaccuum toilets from their sanctuary situated at the back of the cattle-class main deck. To add to pilots' woes, passengers also mistake the rest area for a toilet and continually pull on the door handle.
I recommend earplugs. I'd personally recommend Quies. Father of young children and when splitting parenting duties on a weekend they can be a godsend.
Does anyone know the number of linkedin users in Ireland?
I've asked LinkedIn and they say they have 32million members worldwide and approx half are outside the US. And that they don't disclose numbers in individual countries.
I've asked LinkedIn and they say they have 32million members worldwide and approx half are outside the US. And that they don't disclose numbers in individual countries.
social charity micropayments
http://www.ammado.com/
Interesting wonder how important peer pressure will be in driving this.
http://www.ammado.com/
Interesting wonder how important peer pressure will be in driving this.
IT says we're in the broadband slow lane.
STEVEN CARROLLAnd our aspirations aren't too high looking at the government approach. We aspire to be average as opposed to be world class. A real lack of vision.
THE MAJORITY of Irish web users are unable to take full advantage of online gaming and phone services as rates of broadband responsiveness are too slow,
that consumers with fixed lines are achieving, on average, just 60.2 per cent of the speeds advertised by Irish internet service providers.
Communications industry analyst John Strand, of Strand Consult, said that continued underinvestment in the broadband network was the root cause of these problems.
