Category Archives: Opinion

Living in Ireland I’ve always been struck by the fact that it seems that little bit more difficult sometimes to get the products and services that I’m looking for. This isn’t something new. Since I was a child and wanted to join the Lego club I found challenges based on the fact that I was…
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Much as I’m not into sports one of my favorite movies is the classic American football movie Any Given Sunday. If you haven’t had the chance, its one of those movies that might initially put some people off with the premise, a jaded coach trying to pull his team back together and get them over…
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Science fiction is full of stories of killer machines and the rise of the robots which often gives us this overblown idea that the technology of the future will be malicious and out to end the human race. We’ve even had people warning about the dangers of the rise of artificial intelligence and how this…
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While wearable haven’t had the impact on the public and even in the technology space that may were hoping for there is still hope for electronics that are on our person or even embedded within us. From chips under the skin to fitness bands there’s no shortage of different ideas that are being researched, but…
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We’re all increasingly living in isolation. It seems like such a contradiction given the perceived importance and focus on social media in our lives, but the last few years have made me reevaluate the actual interactions we have with people and the way in which we connect with others. I would regard myself as a…
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Much as I’m not a fan, I can’t help but be impressed at Mark Zuckerberg’s performance in his testimony in the US in the last couple of weeks. He’s remained calm and patient and explained and defended Facebook and technology companies in general well and effectively in the face of some tough challenges, not the…
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There’s something really interesting I’ve noticed when looking at online surveys and questionnaires in the last few weeks. If you read the questions out loud and really think about them, sometimes, and only sometimes, you can you guess what the answer is they are looking for, It’s one of those interesting things that I come…
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There are some industries that you don’t typically think of as being innovative, for example you may think that the only change in the dairy industry in the last 50 years is moving from glass bottles to paper cartons, and in truth you’d be forgiven for thinking this at times. Let’s begin though with what…
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Okay, maybe read a little bit, but you don’t have to read the whole thing. We’re all guilty of setting unrealistic goals for ourselves. We’ve all had ideas that we thought were going to be the best thing we’ve ever done, and yet, more often than not, we don’t follow through. Perhaps we keep saying…
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Over the last few weeks and months I’ve been asked by a lot of people about the content and layout of their CV, and, it’s still true that this couple of pages that describes your experience and skills is incredibly important, but it’s not the only way that potential employers and companies find out about…
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Some in the media in the US are hoping that the latest mass shooting in Florida might finally change the conversation on gun control from non-existent to at least something resembling common sense, and that this time around some sort of compromise can be reached where, for the most part, people are happy. With movements…
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This week saw yet another mass shooting in the United States, and like so many before, this one was committed in a school by someone who should have no business owning a gun, let alone an assault rifle capable of so much death and destruction, and yet this is the USA of today. Guns have…
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Elon Musk is planning on conquering the final frontier. It’s no secret that I’m fascinated by the SpaceX works as well as everything else he is working on, but recently none has captured the imagination more than the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket in the last few days. Musk, in his usual o.t.t antics,…
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It’s a strange thing for someone like me, who is very anti-paper and pro everything technology to find a strange fascination with all things cardboard. If this seems to you as the reader a massive contradiction, I have no choice but to put my hands up and agree. But, before you start laughing and asking…
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There’s been a certain amount of criticism directed at the film industry over the last few years. Setting aside some of the scandals and more unseemly things that seem to happen in show business, the films they are producing are also subject to discussion. On several occasions lately I’ve seen actors and celebrities state that…
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Social media is a double-edged sword for many people. The ability to connect with people from your past or over long distances is making the world smaller and more connected, but at the same time the pitfalls and potential challenges of being constantly online are ever-present and more and more public when things go wrong….
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There’s a long-held belief that people have that in their career the trajectory has to be always upward. It’s the assumption that a lot of us make when we enter the jobs market or begin working for the first time that if we work long enough, and hard enough of course, that we will progress…
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While I still have many years before my daughter starts school I couldn’t help thinking about the prospect the other day. Primarily as the need to enroll children up to the local or chosen school is needed earlier and earlier in their lives, so I found myself wandering in my mind back to when I…
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I have new-found respect and admiration for all parents in the last year. I always knew that becoming a parent was a tough job and that it no other job is like it and in truth its something I had wondered about how I would deal with if and when the situation arose for me….
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Another technology that we’re going to hear a lot about in 2018 is the gene therapy system CRISPR. Like many of the advances in science and tech that I have talked about previously, this one has been talked about and at times speculated in sci-fi television and movies for years. While many people hear about…
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It’s no secret that the cost of smartphones has gone up in the last few years, and the logical reason is because of all the bells and whistles that you now get from your handheld devices. The truth is that the internal hardware of your phone has come on leaps and bounds even in the…
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While I love the new gadgets and tech that comes on the market, I’ve definitely been fascinated lately by the number of retro consoles and boxes out there that emulate old Super Nintendo systems or Sega Mega Drives, or even old arcade games. There’s something really cool on top of the nostalgia to go back…
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Much of the technology I look into and implement in my own home tends to be smart home technology. Voice command systems, motion sensors and the like, and, even though at first it was a bit of a novelty, through repetitive use, I really have found them beneficial in day-to-day life. At the same time…
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There’s this old image of two guys digging a diamond mine and both look exhausted. Both are near to pockets of diamonds, but neither know this and one has decided to quit right before hitting the goal. It’s designed to teach people the importance of perseverance and that you should keep trying your best as…
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Okay, so the title of this post not only gives away the purpose, but is probably for many people a bit obvious, but I do want to put a little bit of a spin on it. Most good project managers and team leaders in any business will tell you that whenever you have a task…
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It used to be the case that when big companies decided to engage in rivalry on the public stage the consumer could reap the benefits. It was a great way of increasing competition, getting greater brand awareness, and it often lead to reduced prices or better value for the customer. Take the examples of Burger…
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I’ve always loved space exploration. Since I was a child I’ve looked up and marveled at just how big the universe above us really is and hoped one day to see a time when humanity set foot on another planet or made contact with something beyond ourselves. It may seem like a dream or science…
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Last Sunday market 25 years since the first SMS was sent and it’s fitting that the message sent from engineer Neil Papworth’s computer was to a then director of Vodafone Richard Jarvis was ‘Merry Christmas’ as it kicked off a huge new revenue stream for Vodafone and for telecoms companies as a whole. From those humble beginnings…
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It’s the same with everyone I suppose. As our lives progress and we get busy with everything else that comes along we lose touch with people. It’s the usual way of things, and no matter how close you are in school, college or whatever, things change. It’s not always possible to sustain the relationships and…
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I’ve heard a few people grumbling over the last few days that they don’t ‘get’ Black Friday. It’s one of those strange phenomena we have imported from the US and kind of just forgotten that fact. Although its been a huge deal in the States for years, particularly in retail, I’ve only really taken notice…
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You may or may not have heard conversations in the last few days around net neutrality and if you’re thinking it’s something tech related, or only effecting businesses and giants like Google or Facebook I’m going to be the barer of some bad news; this is a big deal for all of us. I’m picking…
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I’m a fan of Elon Musk, or at the very least I’m a fan of his vision for the future. Green energy, life on Mars and a truly self-sustaining way of living. That hasn’t stopped me from acknowledging that he is reportedly difficult to work with, demanding and even controversial. More than that his optimism…
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Back in 2012 I bought myself a Samsung Note 2, which, at the time was the answer to all my mobile concerns. It was a phone, a miniature tablet and a writing device all at once, and although the functionality is nothing like what you would expect today, this device packed a punch. Within a…
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Today with micro-transactions you are paying again for a game you already own. When I was a kid buying a new computer game was a big deal. I still remember vividly the day I saw the box for Monkey Island 2 and, it being about 6 weeks away, I starting dropping hints for my birthday…
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The day after Halloween the shops had already started to change their displays from the customary ghosts and witches to festive Christmas decorations, cut outs of Santa Claus and his reindeer and so on and so forth, which really frustrated me for some reason more this year than ever before. It almost seemed that when…
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Over the past few weeks the conversation about the TV licences has reared its head again in Ireland with different people from different sides making cases for and against the increasingly controversial levy that households are expected to pay. If you are reading this from outside Europe you might be a bit confused. Why a…
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About 10 years ago there was a big move by large companies in Ireland to follow the trends they were seeing coming from the US and in particular the blue chip and high value tech companies in terms of how they treat culture in the work place. Ireland, like much of the world still had…
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Twitter is one of those weird companies that I can never really get a handle on. They are global brand which has a recognition that would probably rival the likes of McDonald’s these days, and yet the platform still seems to be having difficulty actually making all that much money. Anyone who has looked into…
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The old adage goes that you should try to do at least one thing every day that scares you, and while, at this time of year that might mean putting on cheesy horror films or going through a scary show, what it really means is do something that pushes you outside your comfort zone. It’s…
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Like many people I’m sick of hearing the phrase ‘fake news’ thrown about by politicians, disgraced producers and anyone who generally disagrees with the tone or content that a certain broadcaster or news medium decides to put to the public. While the term isn’t necessarily new, it’s definitely been coined to maximum effect by the…
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Given that I’ve been watching a lot of science fiction movies over the past few weeks it’s no surprise that as an early adopter in technology feel slightly frustrated at times with the progress we’ve made toward certain ideas. I’m not for one second saying that we should all have flying cars or be able…
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Something that I’ve always been surprised at is that, although there are many different options and suppliers, prepaid credit cards, particularly in Ireland seem to not have ever achieved the traction that i would have expected. There’s the obvious benefit for those who do not have a normal credit card from a bank or financial…
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Full disclosure before you continue reading this post, I’m not a fan of Apple and I can’t say that I ever have been. I’ve long-held the belief that they are one of the best companies in the world when it comes to marketing their products as well as being brilliant at design, but although they…
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There are many things I would have liked to learn in school, and a lot of things I know that can’t be learned or taught in these environments, but today I was reflecting on the first time I really thought about mental health. I remember having a discussion in primary school about how, even surrounded…
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Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes, we’ve all heard the quote made famous by Steve Jobs during the Think Different campaign from Apple but who are today’s crazy ones and how are they making our world different? More importantly are they forcing us…
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