antoin@eire.com

I don’t want to sound like I’m skype-bashing. I’m not. Skype is the star that has shown us the path while VoIP was astray in the desert. But as I told Bernie Skype just isn’t suitable for the corporate environment, for three reasons - no one will guarantee to fix it for you if it breaks; Skype won’t tell you how it works; you just can’t control it.
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Bernie talks a lot about SkypeOut for cheap phone calls. Myself, I use a service called Telestunt. Basically, the deal is you use your regular phone to make your international calls, but at a local rate.
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Irish public bodies now have some of the worst websites in Ireland. As I speak, most of the pages on the Department of Transport Site are broken. Dublin City Council’s Port Tunnel site hasn’t worked for months. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources site is designed rather strangely.
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Permanent TSB has launched a system for people who can’t get a credit card to buy stuff on-line. Basically, the deal is this: you go into a shop and buy a credit card voucher for a set amount. The voucher has a credit card number on it, and you receive security details by email or text message.
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Pundits and cardinals are both trying to figure out who the next pope will be. But it’s worth trying to figure out who the last pope really was. He was a lot of different things - a skier, a goalie, a quarry worker, a priest, a politician, a religious leader. He was a media player. He detested the absolutes of communism, but he also ran a tough shop. He fought for the dignity of human beings, but he ignored the plight of children who had been abused by religious.
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You can tell a lot about the current state of a country by looking at the population pyramid, which shows you how many people there are in each age group. This is the pyramid for Ireland.

(See a dynamic version.)

Basically, almost 40 percent of the population is between 15 and 34 and the peak is at 25-29. That makes a big difference to the economy and marketing.

In the UK by contrast, the peak is in the post-war forties age group:
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