Tom Doyle :: TALK

I was sitting down for a quick few mins checking email and doing a bit of browsing when I came across a website that simply annoys me.

The industry I work in gets a bad enough name already, exhorbitant prices, no return on investment, never hear from web designer again etc. etc. But yet, we still allow sharks like this to keep turning up on the scene. www.ripe.ie

A quick look at their homepage, gives the impression that they are a professional outfit with some big names on their books. However, a little more investigation and you will see that it is all a pack of lies.

Some of the companies listed don’t even exist and those that seem recognisable are either not the same website OR have the brand name slightly changed so as to appear the genuine article.

Now believe me I know how hard it is to get started in this game, but to come into this business undervaluing professionals work, with a quote of €595 and comparing it to a competitor is ridiculous.

All the designs they show are straight out of template monster, yet they think they can compare this to a bespoke web design.

It makes me sick, these guys should think about the long term effect it is having on our industry as opposed to making a quick buck….

Well two weeks ago we headed up north, to my brothers for a Christmas party. The whole idea of going up north was to coincide with the release of the much anticipated Nintendo Wii. My brother had pre-ordered one months before its release and we all just couldn’t wait to get ago.

After 10 minutes of boxing, even though I would class myself as being fairly fit, I was out of breath.  It was pure madness, to guys going hell for leather punching air, hoping the character on screen would actually mimic exactly what we were doing. An old man passwed by the window from outside the house and stopped and looked at us making complete twats of ourselves. God knows what he was thinking!!!!!

Eventually, I figured out that it didn’t need all that exserion to actually win a game of boxing. But we movd on to the next game, which was tennis. An absolute great game. As I sat down in between games and watched to grown men make stoopid looking movements at a television, it struck me that gaming has now changed forever.

The whole concept is brilliant, physical movement whilst playing console games - we’ve only just seen this type of thing in “toys for big boys” events or similar events.

Now it’s accessbile to everyone, through the Nintendo Wii - the next generation of gaming has arrived…. lets see if it will last!

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was finally taking the plunge at getting broadband at home. There were many packages to choose from, but I settled for BT’s great “Broadband & Total Talk” offer which is advertised for €45 per month for a 1MB line and free landline calls to Ireland and the UK (anytime of day).

I thought to myself at the time that this was too good to be true, but when the modem arrived within days I was a happy little camper.

That was until I received my first bill. Now I envisaged a connection fee of around €45 as stated on their website, but when a bill arrived for €220 in total, I really thought there was something wrong. I sent in a few queries by email that were never responded to and eventually I forgot about it.

Then today I received another bill from BT. This month they decided to charge me €126 on a bill that only had €3 worth of calls outside the boundaries of the total talk deal. So this time I couldn’t let it go. I rang them up and talk to a lovely guy, who basically tried to convince me it was the way they do the billing that made it look expensive….

I had to be firm and say, “sorry mate, but when I went to school, 45 + 45 was 90, if you add €3 - that becomes €93″. He eventually agreed…. so now it is in the hands of his bosses.

I really don’t like this dishonesty amoungst companies, so many people would have just agreed with him and let them away with it, sure I even let them away with it on my first bill. They’re making money out of confusing genuine people, who think that they did it for a reason and it had to be paid.

From here on in I’ll be keeping a close eye on the bills I receive from them anyway!

When will our government actually get some common sense. Bupa pullling out of Ireland was always going to happen ever since they lost their case against rick equalisation. Our government were stupid enough to think that this would be “good for out healthcare system”. Oh yes, thanks Mary Harney, we now no longer have 3 healthcare providers to choose from, but two.

One of them is an over priced, whinging and protected monopoly, the VHI. Vivas, is new but look just as exciting and competitive as Bupa. Both Bupa and Vivas made a concious effort to capture a younger audience, this was an obvious thing for any business minded company to do.
But VHI, with their aging customers, decided it’s easier for them to just demand the risk equalisation payout rather than becoming a competitive and cost worthy company.

How stupid are the government not to see that this would help to do one thing…. create a monopoly of the healthcare system.

For the CEO of Vivas to also come out and say that he is disappointed by what has happened shows that he is obviously concerned with these developments that the government think is a great idea….

Who will you vote for next year?

How the government think this helps create a good healthcare is beyond me. VHI can’t market themselves and their costs are over the top, but they always knew they could do this because of risk equalisation.

The much anticipated Nintendo Wii went on sale dublin today. It has been reported that over 500 people queued to get their hands on the console. One man queued from 6am yesterday morning!

The new console is revolutionary, being the first console to use a motion sensing controller. This means players can physically simulate movements they wish the console to perform. I’ll get my fist go of one tomorrow!

Well another one has popped up now, but this one seems a bit more interesting and has wonderful prizes to boot.

According the people behind the event they are “launching this competition with the intention of starting a new tradition within the Search Engine Optimization field.” The main objective of the competition is to highlight the advantages of search engine optimisation.

The challenge is a basic one, a website to appear as high as possible in the organic search results on 3 of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo & MSN).

The competition commences on the 15th of January. Find out more here - www.seoworldchampionship.com

Google has dropped its Google Answers service as and from today.

The service which offered answers to a diverse range of questions, for a fee, has “served it’s purpose” according to a Google spokesperson.