Business – Page 10

Volkswagen v Nissan

05/07/2007

An ad by Volkswagen, and Nissan’s response. ;)

It’s rained every year I’ve been there, including the torrential rain and thunderstorms two years ago, but it was just too much this year. There were hours when it didn’t rain, in fact we had a full half day when it was really quite nice; but the mud had zero chance to harden so even when the weather wasn’t too bad, it was a major slog getting anywhere.

On top of that we plonked our tent on top of what became a puddle and while that shouldn’t have bee a problem, the youngfella didn’t take care of it like he was told, so we ended up getting a big soggy. Luckily Sista brought a spare, but even that leaked a little bit so we weren’t madly miffed when Stena texted to say that the Express was cancelled and could we make our way to Fishguard, pronto.

And let’s be honest, the line-up wasn’t great either. The Killers were good but way, way too quiet; and although we thought that was the wind, apparently it wasn’t, they really were quiet for some reason. The Manics were good fun, but I spent a good half an hour of it trudging through mud trying to get to a toilet. Shirley Bassey was fun, as were the Marley Brothers, but it wasn’t… Glastonbury, you know?

So no Glastonbury for me next year, I’m taking a fallow year to see if Sista’s theory that I’m a jinx is true. If it’s not, I’ll go back the year after. With a camper. It’s a cop-out, but I get to bring as many clothes as I want. And it’s dry.

We saw lots of interesting things over the weekend – notably the Browne-Clayton Column, which so intrigued us we had to go back to Wexford to figure out – but the things we saw most of were Nolan Transport lorries. We knew we were going the right way on the road to Rosslare because there they were; ditto Fishguard on the way back.

You know the ones: white tractor with Movin’ On on the sunscreen, red trailer with www.NolanTransport.com in massive letters on the curtain. You thought you were seeing the same one over and over again, right? No. See the key facts on their website: 420 tractors, 900 trailers. They’re no Eddie Stobart, but by god they’re not far off.

Well done to the lads and lasses in Nolans for building such and impressive fleet!

Google AdSense Optimisation Muppetry

18/06/2007

Google offered to optimise one of my sites a few days ago, for the second time. The first time my revenues took a dive so I was naturally sceptical, but they’re sinking all by themselves now anyway, so I said I’d give it a shot. The attached is a screenshot of the very first suggestion in their optimisation list. I haven’t included a thumbnail because you really need to see the full size image to appreciate the sheer stupidity of it. I can only imagine what my users would think or do if I tried to implement this idiocy.

I despair of what Google is becoming, I really do. In the past month I’ve had to threaten them with the Data Protection Act several times over multiple implicit refusals to delete an AdWords account; I’ve had a very frustrating conversation with them over a leak of someone else’s private data to my email account, that demonstrates carelessness and ignorance about privacy; and now they throw this shit at me. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to start dumping Gmail, Calendar, etc. They’re hardly leading the field in anything but search anymore anyway.

ConsumerConnect.ie

11/06/2007

ConsumerConnect.ie is a National Consumer Agency website I came across in a review on SiliconRepublic.com. Are all these new agencies and websites a precursor to a new era of customer-oriented business in Ireland? I’m not seeing it. Sure, companies say they’re more customer-focused, but in my opinion this is only happening because their services are getting worse. And the customer focus is pretty shoddy anyway, CS departments that talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. An ineffective CS department is worse than not having one at all. Ask UTV, who have the worst on the planet.

Bugbear of the week is An Post, who’ve lost mail sent to both my business and home addresses, and don’t seem to be able to correct the problem. Two parcels in the last two weeks to my home address, a vehicle licencing certificate and a cheque to my business address. That’s just the stuff I’ve spotted myself.

CANCELLED

10/06/2007

A clever city council. Bizarre.

Boing Boing, Evening Times: “The city council of Glasgow is fighting illegal handbills with science: they’re paying city workers to go around and stick “cancelled” stickers on all the illegal gig posters put up around town.”

Web-Advertised Houses Generate Higher Prices

09/06/2007

This is a US story so the differences might not be as stark in Ireland, but there’s no doubt in my mind that if a seller puts some time and imagination into the process, it will still be appreciable. In the example cited. using a realtor rate of 6%, that difference is a whopping $12,225.

(I don’t say “whopping” very often, but that really is whopping.)

Aodhan Cullen nominated for BusinessWeek award

09/06/2007

The founder of StatCounter has been nominated for a BusinessWeek Young Entrepreneur award, and in my opinion he deserves a vote. Aodhan started the service when he was 16, and the way he developed the service, both technically and professionally, is quite honestly mind-boggling for someone that young chipping away on his own.

The service itself – a remote web stats application – has consistently been the best available, and his attitude to customer service and communications has impressed me since I first bumped into him on Boards.ie some time ago. You can read a note from Aodhan on the StatCounter blog. You can tell he didn’t actually write the post himself. :)

Van running on quad Zeons

08/06/2007

This is my new van. It runs on quad Zeons. Seriously, click for bigger!

Bank of PayPal

29/05/2007

The FAQ is here, but in a nutshell they’re saying their transfer to Luxembourg won’t affect you. In reality probably will, although whether it’ll be good or bad remains to be seen.

VC sexy, graft not

13/05/2007

Matt from WordPress has an interesting post about the way the press view and deal with entrepreneurs, which I agree with 100%. Not least because of the reporter that recently contacted CIX about a piece that they might be able to work us into. Or not, because the piece is mostly about funded companies. My partner in CIX, Jerry, can deal with this with a lot more – deserved – scorn than me:

Is there something ironic about companies that get funding being more newsworthy than bootstrap companies? If we get outside funding we’re sexy but if we agree to roster night shifts and build the thing on a shoestring to save money we’re not as interesting! If publishers reflect the desires of their readers then readers want to hear about sexy startups that use other people’s money and don’t require hard work. This country became very lazy and I didn’t notice. When did it happen?

Verbo.se

Category: Business