Google Car on the N3
Posted by Stephen Downey in Google on September 16, 2009
On the way into work today I saw the google street car, used to record images for Google Street maps.
Google Car on the N3 in Dublin
UPDATE – 01-10-2010
I knew I saw the Google car that day!
Some great startup advice
Posted by Stephen Downey in entrepreneur, Law of attraction, tips on July 26, 2009
I just came across this already very successful blog tonight and can’t get over the amount of great advice on it. (Not sure how I have not seen it before.)
I have gone to many seminars and read many books on being successful and one thing they all advice is talk to someone that has already achieved what you desire.
So if your dream is to make the transition from a Software developer to software entrepreneur then start reading this blog by Rob Walling. In another example of the law of attraction, I started to read the E-myth Revisited about a week ago and Robs first tip is from Michael Gerber.
I really like the second realization in his post:
Realization #2: Market Comes First, Marketing Second, Aesthetic Third, and Functionality a Distant Fourth
I met up with a friend that works with the Hothouse program in DIT a few weeks back and he made this exact point to me. As I come from a development background, my first instinct is to get as many cool features into an application as possible. Big mistake!!! If you have no customers, your features are wasted and chances are that your customers will be able to tell you exactly what features they want anyway. Start by identifying your market and marking sure they know, who you are and what you can offer them.
I would highly recommend adding Rob’s blog to your RSS reader. On a Irish note, James Kennedy also has a great blog for peple that would like to generate some automated income from the Internet.
Problems using Mobile Broadband with O2 Ireland
Posted by Stephen Downey in Technology on June 18, 2009
I recently updated my laptop and decided to go for a laptop with GPRS capability, thinking that I could share the data plan I have on my phone with the laptop. Â Â I was looking for a copy of my SIM card that I could put in my laptop and share the data plan that I already have on my phone.
I was told by O2 that I could not do this as each SIM card needs to have a separate number and I would have to pay for separate data plan for the 2nd SIM card. This means that the 1GB data plan allowance that I pay for on my phone and never come close to using cannot be shared with my laptop. (I know that I can connect to the phones modem over Bluetooth and use the current data plan but that means that there is no point having GPRS on the laptop.)
I might be totally wrong here but does a SIM card not have a unique number that is mapped to the phone number that you dial. Would it not be possible to add two “SIM card ID’s” to one mobile account when one of the SIM cards is used for data only and not voice calls?
I had hope that our telecom companies had convergent networks that could correlate the data between the different services that they offer and take the data used from one data plan account.
If anyone knows of a way to do this or how a SIM card in a phone is mapped to a mobile number that you ring, let me know? I would be interested to know if this is theoretically possible.
I’m turning into an Inverse Paranoid
Posted by Stephen Downey in goals, motivation on January 28, 2009
I went along to a Jack Canfield seminar in Dublin last year and although I learned a lot at the time. The one lesson I didn’t pick up was how to take action. This is the only way that all of the ideas in my head are going to come to fruition. It was a great day full of great inspiration. Ever since, I keep finding myself referring back to things that happened that day.
At the time I bought the book that accompanied the seminar (The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to be
One of the goals that I set myself was to run a marathon. For those of you who have not met me, the idea of me running a marathon is a pretty tough reality.  Well, the laws of attraction were in play that day. When I arrived home, I got a phone call from a relative of my wife asking if I would be interested in a study on the effects of exercise. It involves working along side a personal trainer and a nutritionist for 6 months!
I now have a clear plan in place to loose the weight I need, in order to start the serious marathon training in June. I’m now registered for the Dublin marathon in October. My number is 3071 so look out for me.
One principle I love in the book, is the idea of an inverse paranoid. This is someone who instead of being paranoid that everyone is out to hurt them, is convinced that everyone is out to help them. You should try it some day. If someone annoys you in some way, stop yourself from getting annoyed and think “What is my opportunity here”, “what way does this person want to help me”.
If anything, you spend the day a lot happier.
TV3 apprentice website couldn’t handle the traffic?
Posted by Stephen Downey in Apprentice, TV3 on September 22, 2008
I was just watching the Tv3 version of The Apprentice and decided to hop over to the website, to look at the background of the contestants in the show, only to get the following error:
It looks like the mySQL db server that the site connects to, went down.
Looks like a good show so far and obviously very popular if the site is anything to go by.