Archive for August, 2009

31 Aug 2009

mobile broadband for €9.99 / month

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A few weeks ago, i said that o2 would be continuing student mobile broadband this year, but at a reduced rate… i see o2 have now updated their site and formally announced a price tag of €9.99/month for a 12 month contract.

o2 student broadband

I have to drop in to college in the morning to register for the coming year so whilst i’m there, i’ll be dropping in to an o2 shop to avail of this offer as it’s just too good to ignore. Normally, you’d pay €20 for any sort of mobile broadband, so i’m effectively getting it for half price :smile:

One of the perks of being a student ;-)

So if all goes well, i’ll get it tomorrow and i’ll be posting pics and a review too.

30 Aug 2009

preparing for efficiency

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This week will be my last before i start a third year in college. It’s hard to believe this will be year 3, but i’m not one to reminisce. Once this year is finished up, i’ll have a degree in Computer Applications & Support and i’ll technically be finished college. The plan, as things stand, is to do an add on degree in IT management after that, but i’ll focus on getting this year over me first.

Energy Efficient
Creative Commons License photo credit: Mugofevil

Last year, it was a case of frustration for me in college. The course itself was relatively easy, but i lost a lot of time with wi-fi being down or not useable. I then came down with a really bad chest infection for about 4/5 weeks around Christmas and that drained me.

I started 2009 flying but as soon as i came back to college after Christmas break, my work rate dropped significantly. I bought a netbook which helped but it’s not much good without stable wi-fi.

This year, i’m well prepared. I’m getting myself mobile broadband next month for my netbook. I’ve also ordered a neverlate executive alarm clock to help get me out of bed in the mornings.

In terms of online work, i have way more on now than i did this time last year and whilst that can be seen as a negative, i actually enjoy being able to float between projects. Last year, for various reasons, my sleep patterns weren’t great either. I’d get maybe 5/6 hours a night but i’m hoping to get 7 minimum every night this year.

I’ve trained myself to make do without about 8 hours sleep every night over the summer so that once i start college, my sleep won’t be disrupted too much. Sleep at 3am, up at 11am is my summer schedule. Sleep at 12am, up at 7am will be my college schedule.

I’m a big fan of routine and efficiency so i’m hoping this year will be much more productive than last both inside and out of college.

29 Aug 2009

the real cost of college

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At a time when most people are complaining about fees, loans and grants, i’m more concerned with the time college is going to cost me…

Clock
Creative Commons License photo credit: CameliaTWU

I drive up and down daily to college. In total, i’m the car for about 2 hours per day, every day. That’s 10 hours per week instantly gone.

Class hours vary. If lecturers are all in (which you can’t take for granted), i have about 26 class hours per week. Sounds good, but in reality it’s not.

Having 2/3/4 hour gaps between those class hours is not good. Because ‘home’ is a 2 hour round trip for me, i have to stay on campus which would be fine if  i was guaranteed internet access, a table and a power socket. But again you can’t take that for granted.

So out of a typical week, i’d estimate i lose roughly 30 hours of productivity every week purely by attending college. Including those 26 class hours,  discounting weekends and allowing 35 hours for sleep (7 per day), that leaves me with about 29 hours for myself every week.

During summer, i get about 8 hours sleep (40 mon-fri) and have quite literally the rest of the time to do whatever i want… so i have 80 hours in total to work (if i absolutely wanted/needed to).

So when i go back to college, my free time will decrease by about 51 hours from Mon-Fri. Add in projects / study / college related work etc… and that free time decreases even further…

Having said all that, i am looking forward to going back and nobody is forcing me to go ;-)

28 Aug 2009

coolest remote control car EVER

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Yesterday, whilst on the hunt for an alarm clock, i came across ‘Rovio’ on firebox.com. This is hands down, the coolest gadget i’ve seen in a long time. I can definitely see this replacing security guards and cutting down on costs if used cleverly.

rovio

It’s basically a remote control car with a camera on it. However, it also has in built wi-fi which allows you to control the car online – from anywhere. So let’s say i’m away on holidays for a week…

Assuming i have my netbook with me (or even my phone), i can log on and control Rovio’s movements around the house. I can also take snapshots, video etc… and have them sent to me automatically by email.

A more practical use might be in a business environment… management could have a few of these little guys roaming around the office floor keeping an eye on staff and doubling up as security.

Or, these little guys could replace security guards – they have in built microphones and speakers so you can hear and see what’s going on from the comfort of your swivel chair and desk and talk to people if necessary. Rovio also has a built in LED light for night time roaming.

To cap it all off (and this is the genius bit) they can even charge themselves! They have a base station which is plugged in to a socket and that has a GPS – like system built in to it which enables Rovio to go back to base whenever it gets low on battery!

At £250, it’s not cheap, but it’s definitely an impressive piece of kit… watching children, video conferencing, seeing who’s at the door, seeing who’s in what room… the uses are endless!

27 Aug 2009

theleavingcert.com get’s pimped out

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Yesterday i spent a bit of time working on theleavingcert.com. It was actually the first site i ever built back in July 2006…

theleavingcert screenshot

Initially i just used dreamweaver and static html… i then switched to joomla and made it in to more of a community site and these days it’s running on wordpress as a blog. It’s no coincidence that once it was moved to wordpress, traffic started picking up from search engines.

Anyway, i said a couple of days ago it needed to be less generic and more niche. So i added a new theme and made a few changes. The theme is called ‘Bold’ and it’s produced by elegantthemes.com. I’m a member there and at $19.95 per year, it’s worth signing up.

A few months ago, i agreed to dilute my share in the site in return for an additional writer / content, so this year theleavingcert.com should start to dominate the whole ‘leaving cert’ niche. I’m not entirely happy with the current theme and set up, but i’ll continue to tweak it and add new features until i’m happy.

Big, chunky, bold, ‘idiot proof’ designs are very much in these days and that’s what i wanted for theleavingcert.com so i revamped the logo too, purely to compliment the theme. On a sidenote, it also struck me how easy it is these days to completely transform a website in a few minutes….

theleavingcert.com logo

One click installation of themes, plugins, controls panels etc… really makes the process smooth and quick. I’m no stranger to building websites, particularly wordpress based sites so not only has the software and interface improved drastically over the last few years, so too have my own skills and the speed at which i can do things.

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