More From The Playlist Mix

I’ve hit podcast #32 in the Playlist Mix series and it’s been a while since I flagged it here on the blog.

If you’ve never heard of the Playlist Mix Podcast (possible if you’re a new reader!), it is a weekly podcast I release running 30 minutes or less and featuring six independent or podsafe acts from around the world.

I gather music from the Podsafe Music Network, Garageband, CD submissions from acts I work with in Ireland and through KilkennyMusic.com and ultimately, email submissions from listeners and bands alike. The mix is rather eclectic. My own listening habits are by no means genre specific. If you had stopped me in traffic this morning you’d catch me with some downtempo jazz on; into the office and I’m in rock mode; out and about and I’m fuelled by indie or reggae tunes.

To that extent, each week’s mix is often a reflection of what I’ve been listening to as well as a means to showcase new tracks and artists arriving in my inbox. I’m not much of a fan of day-time radio so when I’m on the road I like to have a short mix of tunes with me - a 30-minute weekly dose of the Playlist Mix tends to do the trick for me

The latest podcast was released yesterday with music from Plunkett, The Riot Before, Ghostface Killah and more… have a listen below, click here to subscribe via iTunes or check PlaylistMix.com for previous shows.

Playlist Mix #32 (Download @ 27mb, 128kbps)

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N95 8GB Dropped Calls

When it comes to the weekend, there’s just no stopping my phone from ringing. As soon as office hours are done with, it becomes open season for friends and family to call me, something which was more of an occurrance this weekend than ever before I reckon.

On Friday though, I had several phone calls with each of them dropped. Breaks in signal or reception, dropped audio, or calls failing to connect.

While I can understand this happening in the office (working a large building with questionable wifi and mobile signals in spots), I couldn’t understand it happening at home or out around the garden.

It dawned on me before leaving to Canada in 2006 that I’d had a similar problem with the Sony Ericsson K800i - 3G connectivity being the cause of the problems.

In the N95’s case, it was the factory default setting of UMTS as opposed to GSM - likely with a combination of not having changed my sim card to the one issued with the N95 from O2 (on advice from O2 customer care, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it kind of thing).

To remedy this

• Hit the menu key on the N95
• Go to Tools > Settings > Phone > Network
• Switch ‘Network Mode’ from UMTS to GSM

If you’re getting a UMTS / 3G sim you likely won’t have this issue / can switch it back. But if you’re like me and you’re happy to continue using the sim card you were issued YEARS ago, then this might remedy your call problems.

RoadDeaths.ie Looking For New Owner

John is closing the door on RoadDeaths.ie, a great mapping project which ran between 2006 and 2007 but hasn’t seen updates in the last nine months or so.

I had offered in the past to carry the ball but my time constraints are just as bad.

The site detailed fatal traffic collision reports for 2006 and into 2007, plotting each accident on a map of the country.

This would be a great project for someone interesting in road deaths in Ireland, mapping, or someone with a desire to improve the facilities already in place. If you’re interested in the project, see the Jaiku note here or visit John’s blog to contact him.

Keeping The XP Machine Rolling

It looks like HP and Dell are going to continue shipping XP machines well past the June 30 expiry date, both manufacturers making use of “downgrade rights” offered as part of the Windows Vista license agreement.

While new XP orders will phase out from mid-June this year, new customers will be able to pick up Vista machines, pre-downgraded to XP on request, a practice I’ve seen many people make use of since Vista was unleashed on the public.

Barring the look and feel of the Vista interface, I’ve still not spoken with someone thoroughly happy with XP’s successor as a choice of operating system.

However, come June this will apply only to those ordering machines in the Windows Vista Business or Ultimate Edition specs as standard home models can’t be downgraded. The upside is, if you do decide to upgrade to Vista at any point after your purchase, the upgrade is already catered and paid for.

I’ll be weening myself off XP before the end of the year as it is. I’ve no intention at all of upgrading to Vista and with the purchase of the N95 now out of the way, the next target on the list is a new iMac for the house. The Mac Pro is just a little too far out of budget for the moment…

PodPress Ain’t Dead Yet

Some late night trawling of Jaiku yesterday highlighted a stir around the popular podcasting plugin for WordPress, PodPress.

I use PodPress for delivery of both the Playlist Mix podcast and Sound System Podcast with KilkennyMusic.com and much to my surprise last night I had read online that development on the plugin had ceased and the site had been whipped down.

This, however, appeared due to a “domain registration snafu” as Jeff at Weblogs Tools Collection points out.

The plugin is, in fact, alive and well and the next version is almost set for release. The current version, 8.8, has been around for a while now but the plugin is working fine in Wordpress 2.5 so there was no major panic on when the next version would be out. But when the thought of it disappearing altogether arises, it puts many a podcaster into a spin.

But all is well in the world and users of both Joomla and Drupal will be happy to hear that there are ports in the pipeline for both CMS options.

It’s Been A Busy Week, And Weekend

Well it’s certainly been a busy week, and weekend. I’m judging that partly on the fact that for both Saturday and Sunday (today) I find myself up and about pre 7am. No such thing as a lie-in here I tell you.

It has been a week of revelations - one that has taught me interesting things about close friends, current and future clients as well as highlighting the notion that everything has the chance to surprise you when you least expect it.

I also spotted once again that the iSight does, in fact, rock when it comes to Online Meeting Rooms

It has also been a rather productive week. Despite knocking out 50 hours in the office, I also managed to squeeze some day time hours out of my week to plan a return trip to Canada towards the end of the summer, record some podcasts, assist two people in the setup of new podcasts, get involved in the running of two shows at the Rhythm & Roots Festival next weekend, sign a few cheques and contracts in relation to the performance of Trainspotting in June, meet and talk to all the cast and crew, finalise a PR strategy for an upcoming nationwide music tour in July (one Irish, one Australian act) and while I wait on the kettle to boil, I’m currently prepping for a 12 hour video shoot today in Kilkenny.

The video shoot should be fun.

But this trip to Canada - or anywhere else for that matter, can’t come soon enough!

Dressing For The 80s - Scottish Jerseys Wanted

This is more of an appeal than anything… following a hectic weekend of interviews, meetings, theatre and music activity alike, I’m on the lookout for some 80s football gear and if YOU could help, that’d be great!

Donning my theatre company hat for a second, I’ve been cast as Tommy in an upcoming production of ‘Trainspotting’ which runs in Kilkenny from June 24th to June 28th. While I’ll be spending time on the stage, I’m also producing the show and I’m looking for some items of clothing…

• Scottish (national team) soccer jersey, home or away, size mens medium or large, era 1978 - 1988
• Hibernian (hibs) soccer jersey, home or away, again with size mens medium or large, same era (mid 70s to late 80s)
• Iggy Pop tshirts - same fit and size

If you’ve got any of the above knocking around that you don’t wear, don’t wan’t or alternatively would be willing to loan them out between the start of May and the end of June, I’d love to hear from you.

You can leave a comment on this blog post or contact me here and I’ll get back to you.

A Peek Into My World…

Google alerts are a handy tool. I use them for a stack of things, but mainly tracking mentions of KilkennyMusic.com, Devious Theatre and my own name online.

An alert arriving this morning flags an update to Katharine Blake’s blog as she’s published an interview I did with the Kilkenny People recently. I say recently but it must be about two months ago at this stage.

The interview and subsequent photo hogged the entire back page of the ‘People (great personal advertisement I tell you). The article itself proved quite interesting. While a lot of money had been spent on regular print ads a few years ago, it garnered nothing close to the response of this article (on all fronts - web, music and theatre).

The idea behind it was to go right back to the very beginning… school talk, college talk, work talk, music talk, right up to present day.

Yes, I enjoyed my few minutes in the headlines. You can read the article in full here.

Kilkenny Business Award Winners

Back in 2006 I shared a table with some of the McDonalds, Pack Publishing and Kilkenny Active gang, myself and John (Aidan was away on holiday) tucking into a sizeable steak as we’d been nominated for and were attending the Kilkenny Business Awards (nominated in the best service provider category). Nominees had a 20 euro (I think) discount on ticket prices, bringing the cost to 100 a head for the night).

The awards were held in Kilkenny on Saturday night in the Lyrath Estate Hotel and Keith has the lowdown on the results. You’ll be able to catch Keith in conversation with some of the winners on The Bottom Line, KCLR96FM’s business show which airs later tonight.

Overall, there were six categories with 39 finalists, I’ve highlighted the winners below in bold.

Kilkenny Retailer of the Year Award (Sponsored by FBD Insurance)

• Lamber de Bie Flowers*
• Pat McDonnell Paint Sales
• Flowers by Lucy
• Superior Tiles
• Kilkenny Book Centre
• Field’s Jewellers

Kilkenny Service Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by Electro City)

• Kilkenny Borough Council Garden Crew
• Premier Recruitment Group,
• Blue Wall Technologies
• Springhill Court Hotel Leisure Club
• C&C Security
• Creative Catering
• Taxback.com*
• Gibbins Removals & Storage
• James Phelan Demonstration Farm

Best Small Business Award 2008 (Sponsored by Kilkenny Chamber)

• Vendemia Organic Wines
• Surf Box/Ormonde Technologies*
• Smart Placements
• Rothe House Trust Ltd
• Blueberry Larder
• Kilkenny Print & Graphic
• Hullaballoons
• Kompass Records
• The Reptile Village

Kilkenny Tourism Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by Kilkenny Local Authority)

• Team Dynamics
• Tullahought Community Group
• A Rural Experience
• Woodstock Gardens & Arboretum
• Springhill Court Hotel
• Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel*

Education & Training Provider of the Year Award (Sponsored by FÁS)

• Empower Training
• Sharon Roynane Kelly
• Kumon Kilkenny
• Busy Bees Early Learning Centres*

Manufacturing/Product of the Year (Sponsored by SEBIC)

• QEF Ltd
• Kelsey Horseboxes*
• Chesneau Leather
• Fineline Furniture
• Enviroclad Systems
• Moth to a Flame Ltd.

Taxback.com were also presented with the “overall winner” award on the night while Kilkenny’s Kieran Crotty was given a lifetime achievement award. For more background on the awards themselves, check out this article in the current edition (dated April 10th) of the Kilkenny Advertiser.

Biting The Bullet, Upgrading To N95 8GB

I’ve been waiting, and waiting, for the Nokia N95 8GB to hit O2. While Vodafone have recently announced the dramatic price drop in the N95 8GB model (moving to Vodafone could bag you for phone for under the €200 price mark), I’ve opted to stick with my mobile operator and take the N95 upgrade, available from today online.

Of course, my local O2 shop knew about this but won’t have any phones in stock until the end of the week at the earliest. Carphone Warehouse didn’t actually know anything, their response being “It’s only available on Vodafone, you know that?” until directed to the O2 website. There doesn’t seem to be any physical stock available in Kilkenny, Waterford or Carlow (trying all the numbers listed on the O2 website, yes, I was willing to make an early morning Saturday spin 40 minutes and back in one direction or another) so I’ve taken the opportunity to upgrade the phone online, saving €30 in the process and picking up 300 free texts to match.

When I caught wind of the phone in August I thought, excellent, there’s my Christmas present. When asked what the next gadget I would buy was I replied “Nokia N95 8GB” please.

I learned a valuable lesson in the purchase of a sim free iPaq early in 2006 which didn’t last me six months so I’ve held off again and again in switching to a pricey mobile phone. However, in terms of productivity, further ability to work on the move, as well as tie in some terrific online resources (e.g. Qik) into activities outside of the office (thinking KilkennyMusic.com and The Devious Theatre Company), I feel I’ve made the right move.

The next part of the plan is to pick up an O2 mobile broadband connection before the end of the month, allowing me a bit of freedom when I hit the road for Sligo or find myself driven in the direction of the studio (which doesn’t have any form of web connection) later in the year.

While Carphone Warehouse couldn’t offer any assistance (I wouldn’t have bought the phone there anyway given the grief I had to put up with in 2005), the 3G store in Carlow (Meteor dealers) did tell me that Meteor are also bringing the handset to the market for April 21st / 22nd, something of interest to you Meteor contract holders looking for an upgrade in handset.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to the phone arriving in the post mid-week.

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