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  • Nessy on Tumblr

    Nessy on Tumblr

    So I started a Tumblr account to post odd links and stuff instead of clogging up here…

    What do you think I should do with it? Should I use it for the random or should I go with a theme of some sort?

  • Accidental Billionaires: Book Review

    Accidental Billionaires CoverI better give this it’s full title: Accidental Billionaires, Sex Money, Betrayal and the founding of Facebook.

    Written by Ben Mezrich, this does exactly as it says on the cover but unfortunately it only shows one side of the story. Mark Zuckerburg is a name that is rarely out of the headlines now thanks to the success of Facebook and its constant privacy issue wrangles. Along with business brain Eduardo Saverin and the guy who put up the money they launched TheFacebook as a college social site, which became so popular it crashed the university’s web server.

    The history of how Facebook came to be today is interesting as are the personnel involved, its just a pity Zuckerburg couldn’t man up and answer a few questions to be involved, so the story is told through the eyes of the other players, news reports and emails.

    Its an easy to read account of how Facebook took off but because Zuckerburg didn’t take part, there are a few questions here and there that we can only speculate the answers to. when the Winklevoss twins Tyler and Cameron came to him asking for his coding help for their website, did he rip off the idea? When working with Eduardo Saverin was it all Zuckerburg’s idea to get him out of Facebook or did Sean Parker, who had been involved in Napster have anything to do with it?

    There are questions to be answered but we are left feeling that Zuckerburg is a focused character who really doesn’t care about anyone else as long as his objectives are achieved. Maybe that’s why there are so many cock ups with Facebook’s privacy.. Zuckerburg just doesn’t care.

    Good read.

  • Online PR with Mulley Communications

    I’m a bad person I was supposed to write this ages ago.. flus and college assignments got in the way so – my apologies to Damien.

    Firstly, thank you so much, this first course was provide gratis and for nothing. This opened my eyes and mind to a different way of looking at Online PR, developing strategies and how to look at things instead of just plonking stuff into cyberspace.

    The day long course looked at

    The day also featured a chat with Darragh Doyle of Boards.ie who had first hand knowledge that week of how do deal with an online crisis.

    I found the day to be really enjoyable, as well as meeting some really nice people, I learned a lot. It all made so much sense but you have to look at everything is a certain way to see it, otherwise it would go straight over many people’s heads. I particularly love the Crisis Communications section and what’s the best way to get around these things are and how to combat negative attention online.

    Kudos to Mulley Communications, anyone who has online interaction would do worse than to attend of their courses. I would recommend this course and I would gladly pay for it.

    Edit: I’m such a clown sometimes.. I had this written at the beginning of February and never published it. Apologies to Damien, I’d do the course again, just might actually!

  • World Cup 2002 – Irish in London

    World Cup 2002 – Irish in London

    World Cup 2002 – Irish in London

    The Old Wheatsheaf

    The first World Cup on African soil started on Friday with a couple of draws.. Not exactly high tension but it always takes a while to settle down, but they’d want to hurry up.. it’s a tad on the dull side.

    2002 was the last time the Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup Finals. I was living in Enfield, Middlesex at the time, just on the outskirts of London. As I wasn’t from the area and didn’t really know anyone so I got a part time job a few evenings a week in the local pub. The Old Wheatsheaf was run by Wendy at the time. It really was a local’s local.

    I met some great people in The Old Wheatsheaf, people from all different backgrounds, Simon from Melbourne, Al the cricket score keeper and Brian the artist whose tiling expertise was more than helpful when all the tiles started falling off the bathroom. One day stands out in memory from The Old Wheatsheaf is when Spurs and Arsenal played… Where we were was pretty much between the two areas and there was a great friendly rivalry.. I wanted Spurs to win.

    When the World Cup was on, there was a buzz. Both Ireland and England got through to the second round and the games were played over the weekend of June 15/16 England beat Denmark 3-0 on the Saturday, while Ireland were playing Spain on the Sunday. For some reason the English fans decided to go nuts after their win on Saturday leading to the local constabulary to block of the town centre on Saturday evening.

    The Old WheatsheafI put my name on the roster to work on the Sunday, I thought it would be fun. I arrived into the pub wearing my Meath Gaelic jersey and a tricolour wrapped around me. What happened next shocked me and is something I will never forget.

    It was totally impractical to wear a tricolour pulling pints of real ale. So it was suggested that I put the tricolour up in the pub. I did, over the fireplace. The Irish tricolour was hanging in a English pub in all its glory. As proud as I was of that, the support that the local English fans gave Ireland that day will always stay with me. Every kick, every foul, every tackle they cheered for Ireland like it was their own nation.

    Ireland lost that game on penalties. The locals were more annoyed I think than I was. It was an amazing day and the memories will stay with me forever.