Tom Doyle :: TALK

It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote about a new self proclaimed “web design company” called Ripe. My major irk with this company was the language they used on their website. They claimed to be “Ireland’s leading web design company” and they even included a client list of well known brand names that they had no involvement in developing their websites at all. On top of that, they went on to instigate that people were being ripped off by web development companies charging exhorbitant prices.

The services Ripe offer are quite simple, they purchase ready made templates from www.templatemonster.com and then customise it with content etc for their clients. There is definitely a market out there for this type of service so I don’t have any issue with someone providing this type of service. At the time of writing the original article, they were charging €595 for a website.

Now it seems though, that they have found that even providing this simple service is not as cost effective as they would have liked to have thought. They have obviously realised that even creating the most basic website takes time, so they have increased the price for this service to €995.

But it’s not only this fact that (yet again) made me want to blog about them, it’s this……

“working together with our marketing team to ensure that your new vibrant website is optimised to the highest standard on all the major search engines to maximize your ranking“

Great, so they offer SEO services now. Have they heard about the issues surrounding duplicate content yet in terms of SEO?

Have they even heard of copyright law?

Compare these…..
http://dwikristianto.homeunix.org/ 
http://www.ripe.ie/webdesign.html

OR

http://www.webquestions.hit.bg/planning.html
http://www.ripe.ie/webdesign.html

This certainly isn’t something a reputable web design or SEO company would do…….

As much as I have always thought that Joe O’Reilly was guilty of murdering his wife, Rachel O’Reilly, I can’t help but feel that the conviction was a little strange.

Every shred of evidence was circumstantial and there doesn’t seem to have been any physical evidence at all linking him to the crime. Is this setting a precendent for future cases? All the prosecutors need to do now is create a situation that will look as though the suspect was involved. How the jury found “beyond all resonable doubt” that Joe O’Reilly was guilty, is beyond me. The judge at one stage asked the jury at one stage, ”ask yourself how you would feel if you were found guilty on the evidence put before you”. He too obviously felt the evidence was a little too circumstantial for a conviction.

In saying all that, it seemed obvious to me that this guy was the killer and I’m glad the system was able to put him away.

I just got an email from Guinness, which directed me to the following page : http://www.guinness.com/ie_en/Enigma/

Guinness are using this interactive game to promote thier new beer tap - quite addictive in between the long loading times!

I’m sorry but I just hate VHI…. After all the recent nonsense about risk equalisation, they continue to show what a useless, money grabbing company they really are.

On the heels of last years 12.5% increase, they now plan an increase of 8.5% to come into effect this September. Even when they report a surplus of €70million in their last financial year, they insist this new increase is necessary to ensure members can access new treatments.

“There’s absolutely no point in saying we’ve kept your premiums low, but unfortunately that new cancer drug or that new cardiac prosthesis or that new diagnostic procedure isn’t available to you because we can’t afford it.” said CEO Vincent Sheridan.

I’m sorry, but for me, I can’t see how they can justify this. If they need more money, why not do what the other players in the market do… learn to be innovative, reduce costs and quite simply make their company and products more attractive and affordable. That way they could increase their subscriptions and not need to force an increase on their existing customers.

Anyone who is currently with VHI, I strongly suggest moving on to www.vivas.ie or www.quinn-healthcare.com as soon as possible!!

There was much talk on the airwaves this morning about a new website that shows you the locations of all speed cameras in Ireland. However… when I visited this morning, the site simply showed a “Service Unavailable” error. www.irishspeedtraps.com

I can’t to see this site and obviously either can anyone else! The site being down is most likely due to an unexpected level of traffic to the website.

A lot people see this site as a bad thing, but I personally think it will be a good thing. According to the Gardai, the locations of speed traps and cameras are chosen based on the number of accidents in that vicinity. So if that is true, it should make people slow down in these areas and hopefully as a knock on effect, reduce accidents too.

I’ll give a proper review of the site when it’s live again.

EDIT:
Just listening to the main guy behind the website on NewsTalk 106 right now and he is saying that the cameras are actually more focused on dual carraigeways and motorways, where in fact the accident rate is much lower…. more to come…

A few months ago, I wrote about these new Starview boxes that allow you to get access to all NTL digitals channels, with a basic NTL analogue connection (illegally of course). I did my own research at that stage and found that they worked a dream.

Since then, I’ve been keeping my eye on developments on this front, hoping that I am proven right that NTL will actually find a way to prevent this. So far, everything NTL do to counteract this has been simply a waste of time. The speed at which the developers of the software for these boxes can find a way around the changes is phenomenal, which causes a minimal distruption to service. I’m sure it would be a nightmare for most users of the box to find out ways to get round these changes, but for the technical savvy, it’s a simple task.

Anyway, a friend of mine purchased one of the new Starview box’s, now called TheBox or Starview 2. This guy is as technical as an apple and instead of trying to figure it out himself, took the easy option of calling on me. So, I went and had a look at TheBox for him.

Although it’s more expensive than the original Starview, it’s not much different at all. Specifications are exactly the same, even though it’s advertised as being an upgrade. Looking closely at the system, the only change really is the EPG (Electronic Programming Guide). In the past, when you scrolled thorough the channels to see what was on next, it would also change the channel. Very frustrating and quite useless! Now though, you can scroll through the channels to see what’s on, without changing channel. Another new addition is the time beside the info for each channel and it also shows what’s on next.

LEGAL NOTE:
It is illegal to receive subscription-based television airtime without paying for it. It is also illegal to connect this item to equipment that you do not own, without prior consent.

I have to admit I’m very much looking forward to reading the blog of the just launched Computers in Business Blog.

I’m a regular reader of the print, so it will be nice to see a more dynamic and interactive version of the publication!

Following on from the first release of Google Custom Search which we spoke about some time ago, Google have gone another step forward.

Today they release their new Custom Search Business Edition.  Aimed entirely at businesses who wish to utilise the power of Google’s search alogirithm without all the google branded ads and logos.

For a small fee of $100 per annum, anyone can use the CSBE to get XML search results from their own website to tailor and brand to their own requirements. Full article on Google Blogs…

I just caught the end of last night’s Panorama programme on BBC 1. When I saw John Sweeney’s head about to explode as he launched into Tommy Davis, a leader of Scientology. This was enough to get me hooked and I spent the night looking through the web to find information on this bizzare series of events.

I have to admit, that I don’t know much about scientology, other than the fact that Tom Cruise and John Travolta are believers. I also know it’s based on teachings by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.  But that’s as far as my interest goes. Well it was until I witnessed the Panorama programme last night.

The show dipicated the Church of Scientology as some religious cult that dictated to it’s followers and was extremeley over protective of any criticisms of it’s church. I guess that can be said about a lot of religions. However, how many religious bodies will set private investigators on you, follow you where ever you go, and turn up in any corner you decide to visit?? Some of the scenes were ridiculous. At one stage John Sweeney and his camera man went into a toilet to get away from the constant interruptions from Tommy Davis. Just as they were explaining this in the documentary, you could hear a call from outside the toilet “What are you guys doing in there?”, yes, it was Tommy Davis again….. To make things worse they claim physicatry is a “nazi pseudo science” and have used the halocaust as an example of how it was used…..

There’s a good summary of the story on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTDvfjcUJU&NR=1 - this is of course from John Sweeney’s perspective.

Now, I always believe there are two sides to any story and it’s too easy nowadays to edit footage to give a preferential bias to someones opinions in any documentary. So on that point - here is the Church of Scientology’s response to the whole debacle : http://www.bbcpanorama-exposed.org/watch-the-video-documentary.php. But seriously, are the leaders of the Church of Scientology extracting the urine? Mot of the footage includes “security camera” footage of John Sweeney and his team walking through public places. Whatever other reasons they have for claiming this documentary is biased, this is certainly not a normal situation for your typical religion.

Anyway, even if Scientology is a proper religion, it’s a religion I’d prefer to steer well clear of. In Ireland the church was in control for so long and we all know how great that was… don’t we?

For years now, spend on typical advertising mediums such as TV, Radio and Print has been dropping. As it continues to drop, annual spend on Online advertising continues to grow.
No great surprise there….

However, the latest figures released by Forrester suggests an even bigger figure than I would have imagined. It’s claimed that by 2012, online marketing spend in Europe alone, will be over €16 billion.

Some interesting statistics in this report:

• 52% of Europeans are regularly online while at home, and 36% of online Europeans say that they watch less TV because they’re online.
• On average, they spend three hours per week more online than watching TV.