Ireland were a little bit predictable and out of their depth, but it’s hard to be critical of them when there wasn’t much more they were capable of doing. Trappatoni was never going to attack and that was the sensible approach at home. If both sides were to play offensively in an open game, Ireland would get hammered. Simple as that. The French are just too classy and pacey in the final third for our back 4 to cope with.

We need the back 4 protetced by our midfield which then alienates our 2 front men. So naturally, we play long balls up to them but neither Robbie Keane nor Kevin Doyle can hold on to a ball the way a Didier Drogba can (first player that springs to mind). Flick ons and attempts at clever killer balls never work and our cutting edge in the final third is non existant, unless it comes from the odd roaming midfielder picking up a lose ball.

But the tactics will have to change if we’re to beat France in Paris. We must attack and we must hope France have an off night. The chances of both of those two things happening are very slim.

On a more positive note, the atmosphere in Croke Park was by far and away the best yet since the move a couple of year ago. The irish examiner provided clap banners which were used to create a sea of green at the start of the match, but also used to create a lot of noise which added to the atmosphere…

The above pictures were shot with my new TZ7 so it was a perfect opportunity to test it out. Overall, the quality of pictures is a lot better than my old camera and the zoom is great as you can see from the last 2 shots above of the RTE panel in the studio / cabin. The studio is located underneath the big screen and almost unnoticebale in that second last picture. But at full zoom, i ended up with that last shot

I also took some HD video which i was very impressed with. I only took about 4 or 5 clips for a total of maybe 60 seconds just to test it out. I’ll try and get one or two uploaded tomorrow. You can expect plenty of pictures & video from Paris – last night i was just warming up my TZ7

I’ve a full day of college tomorrow and then i’m off to Paris for 3 days for the second leg of this tie. It’ll be a nice break away even if we don’t manage to pull off the miricle we need on the pitch. I’ll be back home early on Friday morning and then i’ll be heading in to college so i’ll be wrecked, but it has to be done.

I also don’t think i’ll be scheduling any posts to appear here when i’m away – i’m just too busy to be that prepared. I’ll be blogging tomorrow and then that’ll probably be it until Friday.

Related posts:

1. Beaten by Brazil
2. 2010 World Cup Play Offs
3. Ireland -v- France

photo credit: Lara604

Notice the word ‘try’ there. Here’s a typical day for me…

• Do some work on a college PC and email it to myself (college PC’s are infected with the autorun.inf virus, so that means it’s not worth the hassle of plugging them in).
• Do some work on my netbook and save it to my netbook.
• Get home with the intention of pooling everything in to one nice organised folder, but it’s too much hassle to plug in a usb stick, copy/paste data, then switch to my netbook, plug in usb stick. Copy data from netbook to usb stick, then from usb stick to desktop. Plus download the work i emailed to myself…

You laugh, but speed and ease of use is important to me. It has a huge impact on how i work. If something takes too much effort setting up, i won’t do it. I hate wasting time, particularly when it comes to technology because i know there’s always better ways of doing things – i just haven’t discovered them.

Let me explain using a better example…. in the morning, i get up  at about 7.05am. Mornings are not a time to be wasteful with your time. Usually, everyone’s morning routine will be timed to precision. Sleep in for 5 minutes, and you’re rushing. Wake up 5 minutes early, and you’ll stay in bed until your alarm goes off…

I’d love to be able to check my email in the morning, just before i leave the house. However, turning on my PC and getting it online would take 2/3 minutes. So i don’t bother. That time is too valuable to me – i can’t afford to lose it.

So i don’t check my emails in the morning. HOWEVER, if my PC was able to boot up in 1 second flat and auto-opened gmail for me, i’d look at it. And that’s the sort of difference just 2 or 3 minutes can make. It can change lifestyles and change the way we work and think about things.

So in my ongoing battle to save time and increase productivity, i sat down and tried to come up with a way of syncing my desktop & netbook using my local wifi network. Using my local network was very important – if i’m syncing gigabytes of stuff i want it to be as fast as possible and i don’t want to get billed for it. Transferring stuff from one PC to another, via a wifi router is of course free as you’re not using the internet, plus it’s much faster as data is transferred directly from one PC to another – it isn’t uploaded and downloaded seperately (like dropbox for example).

photo credit: Isacar Marín García

So for sending large amounts of data, it makes sense to use a local network rather than try to use web based solutions. Anyway, my research led me to windows live sync. And it does exactly what i want.

In a nutshell, this is how it works;

• Install software on PC 1.
• Install software on PC 2.
• Create a folder called ‘test’ on PC1.
• Create a folder called ‘test’ on PC2.
• Sync the two folders.
• Set them up to ‘autosync’ rather than ‘manual’.

Now, any new files you add to the ‘test’ folder on PC1, will automatically be added to the ‘test’ folder on PC2 and vice versa. That’s a simple example. But lets say you’re constantly downloading music. Albums. Of the legal and not so legal variety. Doesn’t matter. They’ll be maybe 200mb in size. You’re using your dektop PC to download them.

You’re like me – too lazy to copy them manually on to your netbook. So this is where windows live sync comes in…. 200mb will transfer very quikcly over any sort of decent local network. Mine transfers at about 1.5mb /second (and i’m using a 4 year old wireless router which isn’t that well looked after), so it would take just over two minutes to transfer that album.

But the best part is you don’t even have to lift a finger…. once you set things up to autosync, it works away in the background on both PC’s. So now you can download album A on PC1, album B on PC2 and as if by magic, you’ll be able to see Album B on PC1 and album A on PC2 – fast, efficient, no need for usb sticks or copying / pasting.

Generally speaking, if i go to the trouble of writing a post this length, it means i really really like something or feel very strongly about it. That’s exactly the case with windows live sync. I’d highly recommend you use it if you regularly find yourself copying data to and from multiple PCs that you use, or simply if you want to do things more efficiently and save yourself some time and energy in the long run

Related posts:

1. how to resize multiple images
2. honey, i’m home
3. art of organizing

Time

photo credit: Papagueno

It’s obvious. Articles don’t write themselves. Words don’t put themselves together and accurately describe what you’re feeling.  I spend at least 1 hour per day on this blog thinking of stuff to write, actually writing it and then reading comments, editing etc…

Most bloggers will run out of steam after a while and use time as an excuse for not blogging. Not enough time is a great excuse for not blogging – nobody can argue with it. It all depends on how highly you rank blogging on your list of things to do every day. For me, it’s at the top and that’s why i’ll always try to blog once a day.

Because this is something i’ve built in to my daily routine, it’s easy for me to sit down and write a post like i’m doing now… even when i’m under pressure (i had about 10 minutes to get this blog post started and published before midnight – i’ll continue to edit it and add more after midnight). It hasn’t always been that easy though. The more you blog, the easier it becomes… like everything else.

Upgrades

Upgrades don’t just take time, they take some degree of skill and planning. If i upgrade a plugin on this site and it crashes, i’m under pressure to fix it.

If i have no back up plan in place or don’t know what has happened or how to check what has happened, i’d have to pay somebody to fix it for me or i’d have to leave the site down for now and google solutions.

Wordpress is constantly evolving and if you fail to upgrade to newer versions, sooner or later you’ll be hacked or spammed in to upgrading. Upgrading can be as easy as clicking a button these days, but again, if you’re serious about your blog, you gotta be prepared for something bad happening. And lets face it, something bad ALWAYS happens when you’re dealing with computers and crossing your fingers everything will work.

Expenses

photo credit: Andres Rueda

Not every blog pays for itself. In fact they vast majority don’t. Yes it’s true that hosting & a domain name cost less than €50/year, but it’s still €50/year… if i spend a couple of hours ‘working’ on the blog  daily, you can start to rack up all the expenses and potential expenses you want. Custom themes, logos, graphics… they all cost something. Not necessarily cash if you’re a DIY designer / coder, but all require time and it’s debateable as to which is the more valuable currency.

No matter what sort of a blog you have, it’s probably costing you more (financially) than what you’re making from it. Most bloggers will realise that once the novelty wares off. They’ll quickly disappear if the blog doesn’t produce profit or get traffic.

My counter argument to that would be that if profit comes before blogging, then you really have to question whether you’re a blogger or a business person. You can be both, but a blogger won’t just quit blogging suddenly, even if the figures don’t add up.

Reputation

photo credit: mattedgar

One of the biggest reasons NOT to start a blog is to protect your reputation. If you put your name to a blog, you’re saying to potential employers – “stalk me”. That can be good and bad. Good if you’re looking for a job and show a huge range of skills and qualities on your blog which your employer is looking for. Bad for obvious reasons like bad mouthing previous employees or showing certain traits which an employer doesn’t want.

Blogs have gotten people hired & fired, so it’s something to be aware of. It’s the same with a facebook profile or twitter account. If i was hiring people i’d look at their social networking accounts or blogs before i’d look at their CV. You learn more. CV’s are sales pitches – blogs and social networking profiles are reality. Blogs in particular reveal a lot about somebody and are easy to navigate and search through.

Related posts:

1. how long does it take to blog
2. how to write blog posts
3. Blog to the future

photo credit: sifarat

I see wave’s potential, but i don’t think it will ever be fully realised any time soon. I do think it’ll pave the way for similar services though. Real time can only be a good thing on the web and that’s what wave offers.

It’s still too messy for my liking though. I’m surprised google rolled out a product which is appears to be pretty cluttered – not like them. Even if it is aimed at the more tech savvy user. Anyway, if some of you are looking for invites, contact me and i’ll do my best to send you one (i only have a few to giveaway though so no promises!).

Related posts:

1. google wave goes live
2. Let me google that for you
3. Scour.com – google alternative?

I’ve decided now that it needs another revamp. Logo will remain virtually intact, but everything else will change.

theleavingcert.com started out as a personal site. Just me giving my own thoughts on things. Because i’m no longer a leaving cert student, i made the decision a while ago to back down and leave the talking to current students, so right now the site is more of a community driven site rather than a personal site.

That back seat role suits me – i’ve more than enough on my plate as things stand so i’d much rather an admin/development role rather than a writing role

With the current theme however, i just don’t get that ‘community’ feeling. It looks decent and i know it’s about the leaving cert but i don’t really know what it’s all about and why i should read it or where it’s going to go…. (that’s me stepping outside the box for a minute).

So what i’ll try to do now is strip back as much clutter as possible and put more emphasis on the community element of the site. It will still remain a blog – that’s essential – but there needs to be a greater emphasis on ‘who’ the site is run by (the community).

I’ve taken the site from strength to strength over the past few years and i’m determined to hold on to it and keep it heading in the right direction. If i can get this revamp right & combine it with a social media push, i’m confident it can continue to grow and dominate this niche. I’ve said that many times before but i mean it.

At this stage, i know what has to be done to promote it and to establish it as no.1 – it’s just going to take a lot of work and time and they’re the only things holding me back. I’m my view, it’s all in the design… get it right and everything else seems to slot in to place. Get it wrong and it’s back to square one – revamping every few months.

Realistically, i’ll get nothing done on this however for another couple of weeks at least. I simply don’t have the time, but now that i’ve blogged about it, i’ll be thinking about it and i’ll know that i must deliver on my promises. So it will be done, but when is the question…

Related posts:

1. theleavingcert.com stats for 2008
2. theleavingcert.com
3. theleavingcert.com get’s pimped out