9mmfilm

KitchenForce!

2007-03-01T16:10:00.000Z

My blog here at 9mmfilm.com is all but discontinued now, as I blog over at BifSniff.com and Aonach.com instead.

However, it does still have it's uses, and I would like to take this opportunity to link to KitchenForce.com, a domain which we at Aonach.com will be developing over the coming months.

KitchenForce right now is a blog about Kitchen design, but watch the KitchenForce blog for developments.

Funny Pictures

2006-10-20T01:15:00.000+01:00

Are cartoons funny pictures? At BifSniff.com we produce a weekly cartoon, Bif writes them and I draw them. I also do a lot of the site maintenance etc. I was looking at Funny Pictures as a possible search term recently and wondering if Cartoons fit the bill for that search.

I reckon they do. They're pictures and they're funny. To hell with it. Funny Pictures.

Any thoughts?

Poker T Shirts

2006-09-13T01:18:00.000+01:00

I have moved my poker blog to a new domain - poker-t-shirts.net.
I lashed it up there, but I hope to work on it in my spare time (which I have none of at the moment) and turn it into a thing of beauty.
I will also be creating waaaay more poker t shirts and hence the domain name I chose. My poker t shirts are available at poker.spreadshirt.net

Does Blogger Suck?

2006-08-29T12:24:00.000+01:00

Yes it does. This is a test.

Yoga in Cork

2006-08-12T00:59:00.001+01:00

Unity Yoga are setting up a Yoga centre in Cork, the people behind it, Aria and Daniela are friends of mine and I am helping them with their website, but I have also attended classes with Aria and can vouch for how good she is!

So if you want to practice Yoga in Cork visit their website for more details.

The website is undergoing work as they get up and running so information will be added as they progress - but there is a list of classes available as well as schedules and fees, so there's plenty to check out.

Their list of Yoga classes in Cork City Centre is as follows:
Dynamic Hatha (Beginners)
Dynamic Hatha (Improvers)
Ashtanga
Kundalini
Yoga for Relaxation
Yoga for Men
Yoga for pregnancy
Yoga Therapy
Mother & Baby
Meditation
Chanting
Belly Dance
Self Practice
Open friendly space for your personal practise (for yoga teachers and yoga lovers of any ability)

More details on the site.

Building a House - Animation

2006-07-27T02:15:00.000+01:00

Building a House is a short animated film directed by Emmet O'Neill and written by Brendan O'Connell... Emmet and Brendan both also worked on Crimescene, which you can watch on this site and it features the same main characters - John the Sheep and his sidekick, Fessington.

It's late here, and I'm off to bed, so I won't go into detail - but I'm proud to have been involved in the production of this amazing animation, be sure and watch the Building a House website for details of screenings - it's a great watch.

MSN Messenger Sucks

2006-07-16T17:20:00.000+01:00

I haven't used MSN Messenger in a long time. I tend to use Skype these days, but I suddenly thought of a friend of mine I used to chat to on MSN Messenger so I fired up messenger to see if they were about.

First thing to annoy me was the forced upgrade. I had to upgrade my messenger in order to use it... so I did.

Then I boot it up and I have no contacts, I'm starting again from scratch.

Am I missing something, or did messenger really just force me to upgrade and then not bother to import my contacts????

Ryder Cup

2006-07-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

Ryder Cup? What's Frank doing posting about the Ryder Cup? Isn't that a Sport? No why would Frank be posting about anything to do with Sport, least of all Golf??

Well, it's true, if it wasn't for the very existence of the blog I am about to tell you about I wouldn't even know about the existence of the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament. However, it seems that this big Golf thing is coming to Ireland in September (2006) and my brother and a friend of ours Joe have started blogging about it. They seem to know what they're on about - not that I'd know, but others have commented - and it seems to be full of information on the Ryder Cup.

They have posts on Ryder Cup Teams, travel details, and details on Ryder Cup ticket competitions as well as loads of other news and views on the Golf tournament.

So, if you're into Golf, please give a link (as I have done) to the RyderDiary.com, linking to it with the words 'Ryder Cup'. Many thanks!

Bendito Machine

2006-05-29T03:22:00.000+01:00

Bendito Machine

Thanks to TCAL for pointing this out - lovely and bizarre Flash animation!

Blog exchange ads?

2006-02-19T20:53:00.000Z

I noticed Damien Mulley talking about blog ad exchange ideas, where you display ads for blogs on your site in exchange for having your blog advertised on others blogs. He specifically pointed out Feedshare which does seem like a nice implementation of the idea.

We ran something like this (might have been blogsnob) for a while on BifSniff when we started... was good for starting out, got a couple of clicks here and there, but in the end it's just another ad on your blog and as our search engine traffic grew the amount of clicks coming in from the ad exchange just weren't worth it.

I think with the whole 'community' thing with blogs there would have to be an added dimension to make this idea take off...

For example imagine a scenario where you write a post and before publishing you 'search for ads', this search would take something similar to technorati tags from your post and find related posts - ones that look interesting you approve as ads which then appear at the bottom of your post (or wherever).

A credit system could be worked out so that you get credits for showing ads and blogs with more credits get higher placement on searches for ads...

In other words you link to actual posts that are in someway related to your own post, creating ads that are much more specific and targetted, contextual ads that have been author approved as it were... I imagine something like this would work quite well, although it would take a lot more work to develop I suppose.

Anyway, there's my idle thought for the day.

The MDI Air Car - the world's cleanest car.

2006-01-21T14:42:00.000Z

The MDI Air Car - the world's cleanest car.: "After twelve years of reserch and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to CAT vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas."

Any chance they'll actually take off?

I watched the video clip from the BBC but it was disappointing, they seem to have just taken a tiny clip from a full review. And I'm guessing they chose the positive bit...!

Still though, wouldn't it be great?

According to Wired the project is floundering a bit due to lack of investment... the prototypes in existence need work before they deliver on MDI's full promises, but investment is needed to do the work but investors want to see it working before investing and so on and so on...

God I hope somebody gives them money.

You can register your interest in owning an air car on the site, and when they go into production they'll contact you.

Bloggers could help out too by linking to the site if they think it's a good idea, get some buzz going about it.

X-Box Ad worth watching

2005-12-19T00:40:00.000Z

There's some guff about MicroSoft refusing to air it or something which is probably all PR hype, but I love this ad for the X-Box. I don't have an X-Box but I used to regularly play Halo with friends and two networked X-Boxes. This ad captures what I loved about that, the social aspect to it. Worth a watch. Good fun.

Do brand evangelists make us play nicer?

2005-12-14T11:03:00.000Z

I've been meaning to write something on this for ages and just haven't had the time. I don't have the time now either, but just very quickly...

Due in part to Mena Trott's speech, and what people took from it, there has been some renewed discussion on civility in blogs.

It does seem to me that a lot of Bloggers are less civil on their blogs than I believe they would be in a face to face. That's the nature of the medium though isn't it?

Some will argue that it's not less civility, it's more honesty.

Irregardless (as they say on the Sopranos) what is interesting me is the role of the brand evangelist. Say someone has a beef with a product or company, and they blog about that issue - a brand evangelist will probably spot that post (through their RSS search feeds - see here) and respond to it.

Having a person representing that product or company respond to a negative blog post certainly humanises and personalises the issue.

Does this soften the bloggers approach? I guess it depends on the relationship the brand evangelist can engender with the blogger.

It worked for me. Look at my post on Ning's content agreement. Gina Bianchini responded explaining they were hoping to rectify the situation. I have received several emails from Gina explaining there have been delays and the content agreement AFAIK remains the same. But I haven't posted about it since. I'm not saying Gina has intentionally strung me along - not at all. I'm just saying the effect of her contact has been that the only follow up I did to that post was to praise Ning for being on the ball and post about the positive aspects of Ning which I wouldn't have bothered doing otherwise.

Having personal contact with companies is great, and having immediate responses to questions or issues about companies or products is great. Humanising companies is fantastic.

So what's my point? Well right now I think most brand evangelists are actually genuinely reaching out, and that includes Gina from Ning, but I worry that if things move forward the way we're heading, everybody will jump on the bandwagon and most companies will have 'brand evagelists' out there for damage control and saying whatever needs to be said to reduce negative impact and keep people on side.

Maybe I'm being too negative, but once businesses really take to this whole blog thing I think we're going to see a huge dilution of the positive aspects of blogging/response.

I guess all we can do is continue to push for honest blogging and real responses and hope I'm wrong.

RSS feeds - full vs partial

2005-12-14T00:56:00.000Z

Yes, the full feeds vs partial feeds debate rages on. And on. And it gets boring and it gets heated. But it is quite an important debate to be having.

I personally think there is no 'one solution fits all' here.

Robert Scoble brought it up just recently, and for those who don't follow his blog religously here is the text of the comment I left on that particular full vs partial post:

So full vs partial rages on...

I publish full feeds, but only because I have nothing to lose. RSS is taking off, but it's still not largely understood by the average user. To be charging into 'full feeds are right all the time' at this point seems a bit strange to me.

Yes, I want to syndicate my content. But I respect the wishes of those that don't. Whether I subscribe to a partial feed will depend on the quality of the content.

If 'A List Apart' offered partial feeds, I would take them - gratefully (And not want to shoot them...).

Of course, I don't know who *this* post refers to and perhaps there is no reason for them not to have full feeds; but they obviously believe there is.

Are we talking Blogs only here or all RSS content...?

Most blogs at his point are either fluff or self promotional (at some level) - both these purposes have no reason not to publish full feeds...

The issue here, I guess is mostly monetisation.

I think an earlier commenter was fair to point out we need research and stats on full vs partial. I think it might show full feeds result in more subscribers and still get click throughs. I think it might also show that partial feeds, though resulting in less subscribers *might* have more targetted audiences and therefore yield greater results.

If users subscribe to partial feeds it may be because they know it's worth it. If they know it's worth it it may be because they trust the source. If they trust the source they may be more likely potential customers/consumers/whatever.

Maybe. We'll see.

Creative solutions for charity.

2005-12-01T02:30:00.000Z

I often get stopped by people working for charities who want me to set up a direct debit and give them X euro a month.

I am not very good at organising my personal finances and, as a result, I HATE direct debit.

I always say, 'look, I'll give you a lump sum...' but the answer is invariably:
'Sorry, we don't do that.'

'But I want to give you money'

'So set up a direct debit.'

Today was a little different, I had this conversation with a guy from Barnados, he made a compelling argument about Ireland being a rich country and yet we have 1 in 7 children in living in poverty.

He said all he wanted was a tenner a month. I said I'd give him €120 in a lump sum. No can do was the response. I explained why I really didn't like direct debit and he respected that. Then he said, look - make it €150 and I'll make it happen.

At this point, I should interject that I had already established the guy doesn't get commission on individual donations, he works for a flat salary plus bonuses for number of sign ups.

I agreed to donate €150 if he found a way to accept it. He made a call to his team leader to ask if I could set up a direct debit for €150 a month and then cancel after one month. He got a positive reply and that's what he did.

A simple solution, don't know why I never thought of it before and I don't know why none of the other charities that stopped me thought of it before!

That's the kind of simple but effective solution I really admire.

Now all I have to do is remember to cancel it before it bankrupts me!!!

Cork Blogging Dinner with Robert Scoble a great success.

2005-12-01T02:19:00.000Z

I knew the whole 'what to post where' issue would become a headache... I have posted about the blogging dinner on the BifSniff site, because I attended the dinner wearing, primarily, my BifSniff hat.

Here is my brief overview, and here is an interesting conversation I had about the impact of RSS feeds on visit lengths.

Is Blogger breaking your RSS feeds?

2005-11-28T16:44:00.000Z

More and more I am disenchanted with Blogger.

Quite often when I post, Blogger messes up my RSS feeds. I am not alone. This seems to be a bug in Blogger. I have taken to checking my feeds after almost every post. It's really annoying, but it happens that often, that it's necessary. And of course I don't always remember to do it, and people think I have changed my feed to partial feeds or headline only.

With, for example, Robert Scoble saying he only suscribes to full feeds now, this is something worth thinking about.

If Blogger keeps breaking your feeds will you lose potentially valuable readers like Mr. Scoble?

If you're using Blogger, a)Check your feeds and b)Scream at Google/Blogger about this - and blog about it. Please!

Meteor Awards: Vote John Spillane

2005-11-28T13:25:00.000Z

Step 1: Watch the animated video I created for John Spillane's We're Going Sailing

Step2. buy his latest album 'Hey Dreamer' - read my review of the album too if you like!

Step 3: Head over to the Meteor Awards site to vote for John Spillane as Best Irish Male!

Tom R, podcaster extraordinaire.

2005-11-23T11:16:00.000Z

Tom R, the man who got Robert Scoble lined up for the IT@Cork conference, has podcast interviews with both Robert Scoble and Shel Israel - the co-authors of Naked Conversations.

He has now lined up a pretty impressive list of interviewees for his future podcasts.

Be sure to check out Tom's podcast of the Robert Scoble interview and the Shel Israel interview.

I have to admit I haven't listened to them fully myself yet. I just haven't had time. I have a train journey coming up on Saturday and I intend to listen to them both then. They will be the first podcasts I could be bothered listening to!

RSS usability and feed links.

2005-11-22T01:26:00.000Z

Marketing studies have an article on their site about increasing RSS readership.

Most of it is in line with my own thoughts on RSS of late, however it did bring up one point I have been mulling over lately.

It's the issue of placing buttons for subscribing to RSS feeds via individual online RSS aggregators, such as Yahoo! or Bloglines and the like. The article advocates it. And I can understand why.

I agree that RSS should not be a geeky thing, and use of it should be seamless for the end user.

Placement of these kinds of buttons, in theory makes it easy for users of those services to subscribe to your feed.

However, where do you draw the line? If you are expected to place a button on your site for every online aggregator, that will end up being a lot of buttons.

All distracting, and their impact and usefulness diminishing with each addition, as the user searches through endless sidebar buttons for the button relating to the service they use.

Our 'real estate' on the pages of our sites is valuable. Every button and link is a distraction and is vying for attention, furthermore, you probably have other links which other people are telling you need to be top priority.

In addition, will the impetus to develop a truly useful standard for RSS usability exist while we pander to individual online aggregators?

So, I tend to think prioritising a standard type 'SUBSCRIBE' button (and help button) is healthier.

However, I will admit, this is bound to be a contentious issue, and I am open to listening to any reasonable argument for inclusion of all these buttons. But I will say this, it looks like Robert Scoble is on my side. :P

Robert Scoble Interview

2005-11-17T20:16:00.000Z

Tom R has interviewed Robert Scoble. Nice one Tom!

The interview is part of the run up to the IT@Cork conference, at which Robert Scoble is speaking. Charles Handy is speaking too. Congrats to it@Cork for putting together such great keynote speakers.

I have to admit that I haven't listened to the entire interview yet, because I have had a hectic schedule the last few days, but I'm listening to it in chunks!

Also, I'm not going to the IT@Cork conference, but if anyone wants to give me a Christmas present of a ticket do feel free. ;)

7 Secrets of the 80/20 Blogger - Jack of All Blogs

2005-11-17T03:59:00.000Z

7 Secrets of the 80/20 Blogger - Jack of All Blogs:

"4. Become a Google Wunderkind. Delete your archives.
Review all your posts. Clear out the ones that aren't popular. Google will like you even more than ever. If you have less content but more of it is linked. Guess what? You become an overnight google wunderkind. This is something they don't want you knowing. But it works."

Nice post. All worth a read, but I was particularly interested by this point. I don't know how tongue in cheek he may have been, but it makes sense, and is probably true, but, wow, how come a storm hasn't blown up about this... surely it's against all kinds of Blogger ethics and etiquette and god knows what!! :P

I'm not going to do it, by the way. And I wouldn't advocate it unless you give it a lot of thought first. It doesn't strike me as a good practice. But it is food for thought!

RSS feed links placement...

2005-11-17T02:22:00.000Z

Performancing.com have a good article on placing RSS feeds prominently.

When I wrote about increasing the usability of RSS feeds, I came up with a four step plan, but I didn't cover placement of the link:

Use a 'SUBSCRIBE' button.
Include a help button with help page.
Include a link to your feed in the head of your html.
Style your feed.

I always place my feed links prominently, but it didn't occur to me a the time to mention it. Perhaps it should have been a five step plan!

5. Place Subscribe and Help button prominently. :P

According to Yahoo!'s quite recent RSS white paper:

When asked to describe what they thought about RSS in their own words, 24% of "Aware RSS Users" mentioned "ease" or "convenience" as the leading benefit. In addition, 18% claim they value the ability to choose what they want to read. Intriguingly, only 7% mentioned the continuous updating of RSS feeds. These findings suggest that the primary benefit of RSS is efficient access to media sources.

However the report also says "Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users".

Prominent placement of RSS feed link with a help button brings RSS to the attention of your visitors, helps them understand it, and ultimately gives them what they want: easy and convenient access to media sources (that's you!).

Awareness of RSS is going to increase, usability will improve and adoption will take off. Now is the perfect time to help users get the convenience they are looking for: before it's available everywhere!

Blogger.com sucks

2005-11-16T18:31:00.000Z

I'm not a happy camper. I have been a staunch supporter of blogger, and have defended their service many times in blog discussions with Tom R, as he will testify.

I have supported and used Blogger because of the easy set up and user friendly interface.

All well and good if it works. Lately I have had frequent trouble posting and often my feeds decide to revert to partial instead of full, all of their own accord.

On top of that Blogger Support is very poor, standards support is still only halfway there and important blogging features like trackback don't seem to be on the agenda at all. Also, existing features can be changed with little or no warning to existing blogger users (see my post on image upload).

I thought I was on my own. I'm not. Search Google for 'Blogger sucks'. There's a lot of unhappy blogger bloggers out there. And it goes back to April. Blogger seems to periodically just start stumbling around like a druken three legged elephant.

Blogger is owned by Google. Are Google losing their grip? I've been hearing grumblings out there recently about Google and their various products. A lot of people seem to share the concern that Google are becoming just another faceless corporation. That's certainly becoming my view.

if you're starting a blog from scratch, try Wordpress.

Particletree - Dynamic Resolution Dependent Layouts

2005-11-16T15:32:00.000Z

Particletree - Dynamic Resolution Dependent Layouts

Definitely worth a look.