AntGalvin’s Blog

A Month of Run Days – Days 1 and 2.

Posted in Month of Run Days by antgalvin on February 2, 2010

66 days tweetless. I needed a break, I don’t think Twitter should be such an ever present in my life, so I took a break. I also had a load of crap going on, so it didn’t take much effort on my part to forget that twitter exists. And amazingly, I had all of 2 conversations about twitter with “real” people during that time. That was nice.

Also, prior to my departure, I found myself less and less interested in my tweet stream. So my next job is to cut, cut, cut. If I unfollow you, please take it personally.

So why come back. Cos I need you.

Well, I need something -I am training for a half marathon. Training has only been going ok, so I am hoping to shame myself into upping the ante through Twitter and my blog. (a la Soon-to-be-not-fat-Pat). So I am starting a Month of Run Days.

I started the year well, but the last week of January was a disaster with zero motivation. Managed to make it back into the Gym yesterday, February 1st and did a 30min 6K run which is fast-ish for me.  Followed it up today with a quick-ish 2.5m hilly run. I’ll be keeping you updated. And if not, pelt me with eggs.

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The French Agree

Posted in Ant's Rants by antgalvin on November 19, 2009

Going by this poll on the Le Monde website, it seems that the French agree that Ireland deserved to go through to the World Cup finals and that they have the Referee to thank for their success.

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2009/11/19/robbie-keane-la-fifa-ne-veut-absolument-pas-de-l-irlande-en-coupe-du-monde_1269061_3242.html

How have I never heard of Frank Harris?

Posted in Herodom by antgalvin on October 30, 2009

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other persons named Frank Harris, see Frank Harris (disambiguation).

 

Frank Harris by Alvin Langdon Coburn.

Frank Harris (February 14, 1856 – August 27, 1931) was an Irish author, editor, journalist and publisher who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Though he attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous, he is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir My Life and Loves, which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness.

And I would never have heard of him but from the quote on the front of “My Wicked Wicked Ways”, Errol Flynn’s autobiography (which is excellent).

“A major autobiography in the tradition of Cellini, Casanova and Frank Harris” – Guardian.

How could someone belonging to this list have originated in Galway and I have never heard of him?

Have you heard of him?

Dave Keune

Posted in Ant Wants by antgalvin on October 28, 2009

I’d love to be able to build this.

before you click through, can you figure out what it is?

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Be hard to tire for the hands!

Posted in Ant can be fun... by antgalvin on October 28, 2009

Berry Engrish!

Actually, I am on the look out for a good laptop holder. I use it ~10 hours per day and its beginning to mess with my back. Any pointers?

 

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Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

Posted in business by antgalvin on October 27, 2009

This is a wonderful piece of work.
1. Makes (much) sense of what the Internet means to consumers, producers and economics without having to fly to a conference or read through 10 dense pages of a wired article.
2. Is the best example of how a slide show can be a wonderful medium.

The second point is really relevant to me at the moment as I am reading Presentation Zen. (See http://www.presentationzen.com/).

What a great way to get across a message.

(BTW, originally saw this at http://evertb.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/digital-strangelove/)

I told the little monkey not to do it!

Posted in Herodom, small business by antgalvin on October 2, 2009

Months ago, (like last November), Joe Scanlon asked for my opinion on a web-based business idea. I was delighted to give my opinion, and told him it would never work. He’d never get the required number of users and it would never make money. My main problem with the idea was that it wasn’t different enough.

Several months later, and it turns out Joe has been busy.

LittleQuiz.com

LittleQuiz.com

Take a wander over to LittleQuiz.com – The fruit of his labours. Nice fruit eh?

Will it work? Not usually. But Joe has brought an amazing amount of energy and determination to bear on this problem. It is that energy will define the success or failure of the venture. Even “ok” ideas can be hugely successful in the right hands and good ideas reduced to muck by a lack of the right people.

The key becomes the person and not the idea.

Best of luck Joe.

(By the way, some background on the development of the gorgeous site is available here).#

Update: “Don’t worry if someone else is already working on your idea. I’m certain they are, but they are decidedly not you and it’s the you that makes your idea unique.” – Read this two hours after writing about Joe’s site. Its from the brilliant RandsInRepose blog.

I hate soccer.

Posted in Ant's Rants, Herodom by antgalvin on August 4, 2009

I really do. I literally had no idea what Soccer was until I was about 11 and thought as a youngster that “The Red Devils” sounded like something I should definitely be afraid of.

I hate Soccer.

But I love Kevin Coleman’s new project: http://backpagefootball.com/

Kevin is a 42 year old Web genius/millionaire who is the secret brains behind many of the greatest web brands we use every day. He divides his time between Silicon Vally, London and Dublin 4, but is only really at home on the web. For the last 15 years he has delivered success after success, selling many of the sites on, always looking for a bigger success. Determined and hard working and all the other usual flaws one finds in real achievers.

Look at his latest effort, its beautiful.

backpagefootball.com

Among those flaws I mentioned earlier, Kevin detests the spotlight and also has a flare for mis-direction. Hence his disguise as a Teenage Tipperary Student enjoying his summer holidays.

Kevin Coleman - Yeah, Right.

Weird, but hilarious. Typical Kevin. Although, I am not sure how he expects us to believe that a mere kid could get a really excellent team to commit to a years worth of writing and create such a beautiful looking product on F*** all resources. Gas.

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The downside to a new business.

Posted in Software for Small Businesses, small business by antgalvin on July 24, 2009

Anyone who has actually gone out and started a business will be well aware of the wonderful feeling of independence, the rush of doing something new for one’s self and the market, the hunger to do it all as fast as possible. Unfortunately it is the last point that can often lead to tears later on.

This morning I attended a presentation at the Cork OCC given by David Reilly, Solicitor, on some legal issues that face new businesses, especially those involved in software. It was illuminating and depressing simultaneously. And that is because starting a business, losing your entrepreneurial virginity, can be a harrowing exsperience.

It would be great to maintain the enthusiasm and avoid the boring work : finance, tax, compliance, legal and so on. But in so doing, you are only creating larger problems that will have to be dealt with later. As David put it so well, “I would prefer to get all the fights out of the way at the start, than have to deal with them later”.

A major point that David brought up was that of Copyright and Software. You may have a brilliant idea, and hire a contractor to express that idea through software – In which case, the copyright is with the Contractor. Try selling that amazing web app a few months down the line and see how far you get in Due Diligence without the appropriate agreements having been signed by the contractor. Messy!

Scales of Justice
Photo owned by Jesse Michael Nix (cc)

David has a load more good information on his site on Intellectual Property, Contracts etc… Good stuff.

Learn Something New!

Posted in Ant can be fun... by antgalvin on July 23, 2009

After another long day, where lots got done, but at the end of it I can’t say if I achieved much. So desperate not to let the day go without a fight, I set out to learn something new…

And that led me to this magical link. (Just click on the question mark… don’t be scared).

?

So where did you end up? Click it again, its different everytime.

(I feel like Willy Wonka all of a sudden).

I got…

  1. A french song from Glenn Medeiros.
  2. A Sydney based engineering company who specialised in railway locomotives.
  3. A Mexican singer from a Musical Reality Show (Does that consitute reality? West Side Story was a drama was it?)

Crikey, but Wikipedia does have a load of crap in it. But I love the randomness.

So what is the ratio of Crap to Useful information (The crufo quotient), I guess that will depend on who finds something interesting first. Be sure to let me know.

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