Portugal Direction

Just about to head off to Dublin and from there to Castelo Branco for Bruce and Luisa's wedding so I'm out of the office for the next week and a half or so. So hopeful it'll be a nice relaxing holiday and celebration without having to worry to much about future holidays. A nice diagram on where interaction design can fit in product strategy. An apt one about designing within tight schedules. A nice reiteration of a looming worry in Limerick. A very nice idea if it worked for the next generation of wind turbines. A nasty advert which was actually a viral marketing campaign by Court TV.

Got a nice new podcast up by Diarmuid on the Census and Limerick, there are a lot of questions which the CSO need to answer and not just fob off like they did last week as the figures simply don't stack up.

It's offically holiday time for me now ! :-)

A real Irish sunset

A real Irish sunset
Originally uploaded by bluepelican.

I think I should head to Kilkee more often if this is the weather. Had dinner at Morrissey's in Doonbeg and I have to recommend it to anyone looking for a really nice meal but within reason.

Rock-et Man Of The IDC

Rock-et Man Of The IDC
Originally uploaded by bluepelican.

So even in sunny Kilkee it seems I'm to be reminded there is work to be done! Liam, the prof in my group got a great write up in today's Clare People. So I'm feeling guilty so I guess its time to hit some work related reading in the nice sunshine!

Sunny swimming in Kilkee

Sunny swimming in Kilkee
Originally uploaded by bluepelican.

One of my favorite swimming spots in Kilkee is Burns Cove and here is a nice shot of there this morning.

Kilkee Sunshine

Kilkee Sunshine
Originally uploaded by bluepelican.

A sunny view of Kilkee from Burns Cove.

Weather musing

Kilkee sounds good ....

US Budget Spend Visualisation

From the people at deviantArt, a very nice visualisation of the spending of the US government 2004 budget. It'd be interesting to compare this to with visualisations Ireland or the Nordic countries, given the near 50/50 spend in the US on defense versus everything else.

More links of interest from the ether

I was asked yesterday how I manage to find all those interesting links and articles that I add to my blog. It's simple really - I use Vienna as a newsreader which allows me to quickly check a large number of sites which offer their stories or articles via RSS or Atom feeds. The collection of feeds I'm currently subscribed for is available as a opml file. Speaking of nice Mac software, checkout Visor which offers a systemwide terminal window accessible via a hotkey.

Knockd, Knockd - who's there ?
A short article on using port knocking to connect from anywhere to a closed Linux firewall, still not sure if I'm full convinced about port knocking but whatever.

ITConversations have some really great talks online with Paula Le Dieu on the "Science Commons" (Creative Commons for scientific knowledge), how about "Future-Proofing Your Privacy". The best has got to be Al Gore's "The Earth in the Balance". Another good talk on the Long War (The Long War is a name describing the current view plus implications of the US's War on Terrorism). Also interesting is empowerment through technology over at The Coming Anarchy.

What is Charlie Stross thinking these days?

A new site providing designers with information about new materials. Looks very promising for prototypers out there.

On a more Irish-centric focus, there is going to be a Data Retention conference on Wednesday, 19 July 2006, from 2-6pm in the Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street. The current direction for Blogging and the next Irish General Election, sounds very interesting particular the OpenSpace idea.