antoin@eire.com

Trouble in store from the banks. This story has emerged on boards.ie. Unlike other stories you hear, the facts of this one would appear to be readily verifiable. The boards.ie member writes:

I discovered that my signature had been forged on over £28,000 worth of cheques in the 3 month period. The forgeries were not very good. I called into the bank and spoke to the manager and asked him what was he going to do. He told me I would have to take it up with the banks legal department and he refused to give me any more of the back cheques that had been cashed … I took on a firm of solicitors and instructed them. 4 weeks later they withdrew as they had been threatened by the bank.

It goes on:

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Hugh McLeod who drives the online marketing efforts of successful tailor English Cut is planning to get the company into the shirt business, through a partnership with an existing firm. I think that’s a brilliant idea, but here’s how I think Hugh and Thomas should go a step further to really build a business they can change the world with.

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It’s a week ago, but Les Blogs (technorati“)was a conference with a difference in many ways, at least for me. Here were some of the interesting things about it.

- It’s hard for speakers and panelists to feel the audience is engaged when everyone is constantly checking their email and surfing IRC as you speak. Various tricks were employed by the people on the stage. One guy tried wearing a skirt while he presented his PowerPoint bullets to the passive audience. One lady ended up swearing at a member of the audience to drive her message home. Another lady had to resort to beauty, charm and wit (it was the only thing of the three that I think really worked).

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Robert Scoble has linked to the aspoke.com website. I’m really flattered! Anyway, if you’ve come from Robert’s link (or even if you haven’t, leave a comment with your email and I’ll be in touch when we launch fully with a really really good deal for you on a laptop skin. (And if you were at Les Blogs, please let me know and I will send you your free laptop skin.)

Tags: lesblogs

Mark has posted a picture of the sample aspoke.com laptop skin I sent him about a month ago in a follow-up to my offer to Les Blogs participants. We’ve changed a few things since that one; print quality is now sharper, and we have a matt laminate available as well as the gloss. Also, we’ve found it may work better not to shape the skin around the whole face of the laptop (although you can still do that if you wish).

Tags:lesblogs

Bernard Tyers writes an account of the launch of Digital Rights Ireland.

Is your individuality being stifled? Bored with that grey-looking laptop you bought? Want something different? Attending Les Blogs? Well, this is your lucky day. Basically, if you’d like a free laptop skin, in one of aspoke’s designs, or in a design of your own, just leave a comment below, send me an email (antoin@eire.com) or better still hand me a business card with the word ‘free’ written on it.

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There’s a talk here at Les Blogs about socializing in the year 2055. One of the terms used was ‘emotional bandwidth’. You just cannot fit as much into an email or a video as you can into a real live meeting.

Tags: lesblogs

I have to say, video blogs is something that never appealed to me. Seems like a lot of hassle and not worth the trouble. After hearing the panel of experts here, it sounds like I was right about it being a lot of hassle - there are a lot of format issues to contend with, but the situation is beginning to be straightening out. However, I am impressed with the idea. I think it’s an exciting thing to do and I have promised myself to try it sometime.

It’s good to come to a conference and be inspired to do something new!

Tags: lesblogs

Fergus Burns from Nooked based in Sligo, Ireland speaks at Les Blogs. Nooked builds software for managing and measuring RSS feeds. Go Nooked!

Tags: lesblogs