Think Big, Think Radical, Think Different

Incremental thinking is a problem at a time like this. A bit more of this, a bit more of that. I think a radical change of thinking is sometimes needed. That’s why I disagree with Daragh O’Brien’s assessment of Your Country Your Call. There are many problems with YCYC and you would have to wonder what evaluation of the plan was done before the government decided to throw 300,000 euros into the pot. It is just not easy to get that sort of support from government, even during a boom. But as a small, open economy, we cannot county-enterprise-board our way out of our situation. We need to come up with radical plans, and pretty big plans to boot.

(This incidentally, also applies to the Irish Government. It cannot hope to win back support through a series of small local campaigns, supported by politically driven local projects, or by intensive local campaigning and handing out Cabinet posts or Seanad seats. This worked before, but it will not work now. The govnernment has to put forward coherent, radical, large scale, national level change to make a difference to people’s situations and people’s perceptions. (And it has to start with the cabinet reshuffle.)

What’s the Big Idea at Your Country Your Call?

Your Country Your Call looks like a good idea, and it is, and a lot of effort is going into it. However, there are also clearly some big, serious problems with it. Read the rest of this entry »

What are we going to do about Bank of Ireland?

The reality of the Irish banking sector is beginning to hit home. Bed rest and tender loving care are not going to be enough to save it. The bank is not in a position to pay a dividend on the State’s investment in it. The banks need to be restructured to get them operating effectively again.

Most interesting are Michael Soden’s comments on RTE Radio’s News at one yesterday:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Pakistani Junknet

This story about how networks built by an ecosystem of small-scale local entrepreneurs can span a city is an interesting example of what can happen in an unregulated environment. It reminds me of a recent video of Eric Schmidt of Google. We should certainly consider whether our system of regulation is really helping develop broadband, or whether it is slowing it down.

parkingtag.ie and cashless parking

Parkingtag.ie launched a few weeks ago to allow you to pay for your kerbside parking in Dublin City. Basically, what happens is that you have a barcode (the ‘parking tag’) on your windscreen, which contains an account number. When you park, you ring a phone number to tell the system that you want to park for a certain amount of time. Then you’re done. When the warden comes around and checks your car, he’ll scan the barcode and get an immediate confirmation that you are fully paid up.

Read the rest of this entry »

Electronics project

I have a little project that I want to get together that involves modifying a Fonera to do various things. I need some help with the electronics part of it. Is there anybody around town who can help with this?

At least he didn’t slur his speech.

It’s always nice when the international press pays attention to you.

The hard truth about the Irish knowledge economy:

In a further blow to the ailing economy, Google has decided to abandon plans to locate up to 100 software engineering jobs in Ireland because it was unable to find enough qualified candidates here.

A little over-dramatized in the Evening Herald but a very serious issue. We are not turning out enough engineers and we are not attracting enough engineers from abroad.

The future of personal transport

Transport is a big problem, at the personal (how will I get to work?), economic (How much is it costing to move all these people around) and environmental levels (What damage is all this movement causing?). A few interesting links:

New suburbanism is a new way of solving the environmental crisis, an alternative to ‘new urbanism’ (which basically means creating more dense urban areas). The problem with the concept is that the underlying principles (which are really assumptions) are mainly wrong. You cannot support a global population of ten billion people on this planet if they are all spread all over the place, have an attachment to their living places, are not subsistence farmers and have to travel to congregate at work or school on a regular basis. Read the rest of this entry »

Aer Lingus needs to get real

David McWilliams thinks that the Irish public is being a little unrealistic in its assessment of the Ryanair bid. He is right. The comments give an indication of how unrealistic the public is. But the reality is that Aer Lingus is a minnow in a world of eagles and it has to be bought by somebody if it is to avoid the disastrous fate of Alitalia and many other flag carriers before it.

It is interesting to see the perception people have of Ireland’s biggest airline. There is an assumption that because Ryanair does one particular thing well, or a particular way, that it cannot do anything else.