Tom Doyle :: TALK

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As if times weren’t hard enough as it is, Mary Harney’s wonderful decision to put a €160 levy for every adult and €53 for every child availing of private health insurance, has lead to whopping increase in annual subscriptions from the major health insurers.

Quinn Healthcare admitted yesterday that their subscriptions will increase by 16% from January. Bravely enough, they admitted that they would be passing on the governments levy to it’s customers. This they say is the reason for at least 8% of the increase. The rest is due to rising costs.

We have however on the other hand, our state owned big old ship the VHI, continuing to fill us all with a load of bull. They claim that their 23% increase (yes I did say 23%) is due to rising costs and that they are in no way passing on the government levy.

Can you imagine VHI trying to survive in the private sector? They’re set to lose €60 million this year, due to bad investments and paying out more than they took for premiums.

We could give out about the VHI all day, but the reality is, the reason for this increase is due to Mary Harney’s out of touch decisions. While she can go off pampering herself with $400 hairdos on tax payers money, the rest of us have to pay a huge price for a below standard health care.

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Drogheda & District Chamber President Patricia Rooney has launched a “Drop the VAT” campaign. You can lend your support at www.dropthevat.com.

Ireland’s VAT rate is due to increase from 21% to 21.5% on the 1st of December 2008. With the UK due to drop theirs from 17.5% to 15%, that puts serious pressure on retailers close to the border.

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I absolutely hate spam, I have no problem with someone emailing me personally to tell me of a product or service they provide, that could in some way be of benefit to me. I much prefer this than a phone-call from them. They have a better chance of me reading it, than taking a call.

So when I get emails about spending Christmas at Dylans Hotel in Dublin, from a so called reputable firm in the shape of Avvio, that has obviously been sent to every business in Dublin, it really annoys me.

I don’t want to know about spending Christmas in a Dublin hotel, since I spend all of my Christmas’s at home with my family in ….. DUBLIN!! I have absolutely no intention of changing this situation because of a spam email you sent me.

I also hate being included on a database of a company that I have no relationship with and then being asked to visit their website to remove me from a list that I never asked to be part of. A huge waste of my valuable time.

If you ever thought I could be a potential customer, well now it’s extremely unlikely that I will ever be a customer. Rant over….

As Christmas approaches I like many others I am sure, are out looking for the best bargains we can get when buying Christmas presents for our loved ones.

Unfortunately, the best prices available to us are not in my beloved country that is Rip Off Ireland. For too long all of us in this country have been fleeced with exorbitant prices that all our retailers have been happy to dish out during the good times.

Now as we venture further into one of the worst economic climates in decades, politicians (our government, the same government who want us to shop around for health insurance) and others are suggesting that it is our patriotic duty to shop in Ireland only.

Well I’m sorry, I just don’t agree.

Why should we continue to pay southern Irish retailers above the odds for the same product that we can get much cheaper up North. Why should we continue to pay more for products produced in southern Ireland than those who live up North? In some cases as much as 50% more!

The retailers usual excuse is that the costs of running a business up North is a lot cheaper than in the South. They fail to see however, that they were part of cause of this rip off culture. It’s been a viscious roundabout that they were happy to jump on when the times were good and take huge margins on the products they sold.

Remember, we are a member of the European Union, which lives and breathes on the ideology of free trade between member states. So if we as a democratic country voted to be part of Europe, they we are being patriotic by purchasing goods in our member states.

To rub salt in the wounds, a report in today’s Irish Times suggest there have been massive increases in the price of products being sold by the large supermarket chains in Ireland. Yet, they still complain about us shopping over the border.

I remember the days where you would visit your local supermarket and be greeted with huge “Buy Irish” signs. In those days, it was worth it to buy Irish, nowadays however, it’s not.

Retailers should have seen the signs on the wall ages ago and done something “outside the box” to be prepared for this, but no, they were happy to continue ripping us off.

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Google have released a new service within their search results.

Google SearchWiki enables you to “promote” your selected search results to the top of the results list in your own personal searches.

Also added is the ability to make a public comment on any search result. So far, I’ve yet to see any third parties comments, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

The next question is…. will this have any effect on the search results as a whole in the future?

It seems like an age ago now since we went through the transition of designing websites for 640×400 to 800×600. For the last couple of years we’ve been in the transition from 800×600 to 1024×768.

To explain to those that don’t quite understand what I’m talking about, I’ll explain a little more. In recent times most web designers have been designing websites for computers with a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels.The reason for this was that if you designed your website for a higher resolution, you were likely to make the viewing and usability of your website quite difficult for users with a resolution of 800 x 600 (which was the standard).

With the advent of new more powerful graphics cards, huge resolutions has become the standard when purchasing a new PC or laptop. It would be rare to find a modern PC with a resolution less than 1024 x 768 nowadays. Nowadays statistics of people using 800×600 range from as little as 12% to 20%. For me personally, that’s a statistic that is too high to ignore these users.

Recently we’ve also had an upsurge in people using these so called Eee PC’s when on the road. The majority of these in the 7″ size range have a resolution of 800 pixels or less and what are these systems built for? Using the web.

Unless a client specifically requests that their site is built for a higher resolution, I’d recommend using a resolution of 800 pixel width.

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Hot off the press, I just got an email in from Typo3.org stating that their website has been accessed by an unauthorised person.

The unauthorised person had access to all the username and passwords of those that have an account with the Typo3.org website. Apparently this person has passed on this info to third parties and has also been gaining access to websites who stupidly use the same password.

So if you use the same password for everything and have an account at Typo3.org - I suggest you quickly change your password!

The full script of the email goes like this:

This is an important security warning. You are receiving it because your email address is registered on the TYPO3.org website.

We have to inform you that an unauthorized person has gained administrative access to the TYPO3.org website.

The offender had access to website user details including their passwords, and there have been reports of this data being used to access other websites.
It also has to be expected that the data may have been disclosed to third parties.

The attacker has been identified, and the TYPO3 Association has started to take legal action on the issue.

Important!
IF YOU HAVE USED THE SAME PASSWORD ON ANY OTHER SITE, PLEASE CHANGE IT IMMEDIATELY!

In a first step, all login accounts on TYPO3.org have been locked and will require a new password. We are currently working on an improved login procedure and will let you know when this is ready. Until then, you will not be able to log into the Community section of TYPO3.org.

We have set up an FAQ page at http://typo3.org/about/faq/t3org-issue/
The page may be updated with new questions from time to time, so make sure to check back before replying to this mail.

We apologize for the inconveniences and troubles that this might cause to you.

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A few weeks ago The Linux Foundation released a report disclosed the approximate cost of developing a typical linux distribution would be $10.8 billion. They reckon the Linux kernel alone would cost at least $1.4 billion to develop.

That got me thinking, as a company we use open source software quite a lot. The idea is that we can pass on the benefits of open source to our clients. It doesn’t always make sense to offer an open source solution to a client, but when it does, we have no issues recommending an “off-the-shelf” open source product. Using open source software gives us the ability to offer our clients high quality, powerful and robust solutions for a for low price.

So the question is, how much money is open source saving our clients?

Let’s take Typo3 Content Management System for example. A standard, 10 page website using Typo3, would cost anywhere from €4k to €10k depending on the company you decided to go with. But what if you were to purchase a similar bespoke option CMS, with all the features of Typo3?

Looking at the code from the basic installment of Typo3, outside the modules and add-ons of course, there’s quite a large amount of work to be done.

Nevermind the brainstorming that would have been involved to get it to where it is today, at a complete guesstimate, I would estimate that there’s at least 7-8 months work in it for not 1, but 2 developers. Design is limited in Typo3, but it would have definitely needed some input from a designer at some stage.

Let’s break that down into the current markpet prices with a rate of €500 per developer (cheap I know)…

2 x Web Developers x 160 days (8 months) = €80,000
1 x Web Designer x 3 days (being nice) = €1,200
Total = €81,200

Of course, VAT isn’t included here - but it’s clear to see that there is quite a saving for the customer by choosing the open source solution.

In most cases, the basic installation of Typo3 isn’t enough to get a decent website going, which means there would be more development required for additional add-ons and modules.

The bottom line is that Open source solutions tend to offer you a lot more than a bespoke solutions and quite frankly costs very little in comparison.

We’ve obviously only discussed Typo3 here, but what about other systems such as Joomla, Mambo, Zen Cart, osCommerce etc etc??? Can you imagine how much you are saving with these systems too?

So the next time you think of developing a website, you should seriously consider an open source solution before even discussing the bespoke option.

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As the race for the latest “greatest SEO“ hots up, I think it’s only fair to mention the site that I would love to see win it.

Cormac Moylan has completed his new site, in which he will attempt to appear No. 1 in Google by the end of November for the phrase “Geansai Gorm”.

It’s the first site for this competition to be created fully as Gaeilge.

For this great attempt, I think it’s only fair to give him a bit of link love - Geansaí Gorm | Suíomh Éadach

Best of luck to my preferred winner!

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Well well well, finally UPC are starting to deal with the Dodgy box situation that has been rife in this country for the last few years. Rather than try offer a better service, they have gone after the dealers.

One dealer of the notorious Starview and Eurovox dodgy boxes is to be sued by UPC and Nagravision for importing and selling devices that allow consumers to access subscription content for free.

You can read the full article here > http://www.independent.ie/national-news/tv-firms-sue-man-for-836492m-over-no-fee-cable-1520096.html

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