• 8GB for 399 Euro
• 16GB for 499 Euro

The prices above are about 100 Euro more expensive than the US equivalent. I got mine for about 300 Euro.

The tariffs are bloody expensive though!

Monthly charge	Euro 45	Euro 65	Euro 100	Units
Anytime minutes included*	175	350	700	Mins
Texts included*	100	150	250	Texts
Data included**	1GB	1GB	1GB	GB
Additional calls	20c	20c	20c	Per min
Additional texts	10c	10c	10c	Per texts
Voicemail***	15c	15c	15c	Per min

Remember, I am on a 30 GB Data Plan for 30 Euro per month and these plans only give 1 GB with the lowest being 45 Euro. I am on a shared business plan for voice and texts which for 3 phones works out at about 200 per month.

Anybody serious about getting an iPhone and not wanting to be hooked into an 18 month contract with O2 would be better off buying an iphone and unlocking it using the brilliant ziPhone which we used here to upgrade to 1.1.3 and works in 4 minutes. No bullshit. No Hassle. No Lock.

I have been inundated with emails regarding running an iphone in Ireland and I am more than happy to reply to these right away (Thanks to my iPhone ;-) )

Some things that may help people:

• EDGE works. Its basically GPRS and all you need is the VPN server, username and password.
• An unlocked iPhone is not crippled in any way. All the normal services of a locked phone is available on an unlocked phone.
  • EDGE
  • Google Maps
  • iTunes
  • Wifi
  • etc
• ziPhone works and is the bollox. 4 minutes and your free!
• There is always a way to fix a bricked iphone. Dont believe the scare mongering. Its basically a linux machine and can be restored / hacked / jailbroken.
• Once you go iPhone, you wont go to any other phone. People who say the N95 is better are full of shit and jealous cause the bought a rock while you play with your iphone.
• Safari is amazing. Fully featured (bar Flash but thats on the way). Better than Opera mobile.

So, if you have an iphone, thinking of getting an iphone or need some help on an unlocked iphone, dont be shy and post a comment! Remember. Its not illegal to own one in Ireland ;-)

Speculation on his death circles around a drug overdose but it is unkown whether it was accidental.

Heath Ledger was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the controversial film Broke Back Mountain and was brought to Hollywood fame by Mel Gibson as a supporting role in the The Patriot.

I first remember Heath Ledger from the film 10 Things I Hate About You, followed by A Knights Tale and The Brothers Grimm. Although I wasnt a major Heath Ledger fan, I was really looking forward to seeing him the new Batman film, The Dark Kight (more information here)

What a waste of talent. Heath Ledger was only 28 years old and already achieved so much. Unfortunately Heath Ledger is dead, and I dont want to sound like a dick, but I hope the new Batman film is not postponed....

Before I go on, I must admit I absolutely love Starbucks coffee. I actually drive right across the city to the Airport to pick one up sometimes. Second to Starbucks is Costa Coffee, infact Costa tastes nearly the same...

I was passing Penrose Wharf the other evening and had a peek in the window of the Siemens canteen to see if the rumour of a Starbucks coffee shop was true. It is. Picture below....

What I dont understand is why dont they open a dispensing window or let the public in? I park in the Euro Car park every morning and walk past Penrose Wharf every morning and every evening and instead of putting up with the diesel they serve in Le Cheile (The deli, not the bar) I would grab me a Venti Latte from Starbucks.

Can anyone confirm the rumour that a Starbucks is opening in UCC?

First reactions were Thats horrible!!

The more I thoght about it on the walk to the office, the more I felt my initial thought was correct. The branding is horrible and sparse and not a bit inviting. Virgin Megastore was nice and colourful and with a brand that was recognised.

I remember when Virgin Megastore opened in the Queens Old Castle and it was jointed from the word go. Over the years, I have seen the effects in decreased movie and music sales hitting HMV and Virgin Megastore. A usual sighting outside them now is a paper flip-board with special offers. A walk in there over Christmas showed that video games are now the top seller for them with movies moved to the centre of the store and music pushed down the back.

Of course, last year also we saw the closure of Golden Discs on Patrick Street. I heard rumours not so long ago that Virgin Megastore was being purchased by a group of employees. Is that what happened? Other rumours around town suggest that the HMV shop was sold 9not as a going concern) and will be shutting soon.

My prediction is that this new store Zavvi will not last too long. We may see a closure in less than 2 years. With increased competition online, decreasing DVD and music sales from bricks and mortar stores and the increase in shops such as Game and GameStop, and a terrible new and unproven brand, this last ditch effort will simply not be profitable.

Listening to Neil Prenderville makes my blood boil. What is his hard on for Pat Falvey. Gimps are ringing in looking to give him the freedom of the city, putting him on a postage stamp, collecting money for him etc

The are giving out about the American research base not giving them a meal or a shower when they arrived! Why should they? They didnt ask them to call down to them! They have nothing to do with Pat Falveys little trip. I was actually disappointed he actually made it to the south pole alive as I knew we would have to hear so much bollox about how great himself and his team are. They're not. It was their choice.

Next time I go on holidays, I hope Neil Prenderville gives me as much exposure. I hope people do a whip around for me to pay for it and I fancy being on a postage stamp. Freedom of the city would also be nice. Come on people. Make it happen!

Usually I would go to Blackpool and get a Dominos Pizza take-away but couldnt be arsed driving all the way out and getting reemed for something that should cost half the price. The staff out there (Mostly Polish) are the rudest you'll find.

I spotted Spar on McCurtain was open so decided to wander in and see what they had in the line of Pizza. Nothing much really except for one I wasnt familiar with. The Alternative Pizza Company - Spicy Pepperoni. Bingo. I like pepperoni!

Shit. Will this be some over priced organic muck? i'll chance it. Too hungry to think. Will I get 2? The box looks kind of small. Nah, thats being piggish.....

Got it home and heated the oven. Took ages to open the box. It was super glued shut or something. i was thinking it still looked kinda small for something that was 7 quid. 15 minutes later I was tukcing into it. And I must say....it was delicious! One of the nicest pizzas I have had in a while but it could be a tinchy winchy bit bigger....

I have to recommend this pizza. Damn tasty! I decided to find out more about the company but was disappointed to find just a bland, amateur and not entirely helpful website :-( They should give Digital Crew a call.....

It is why I love the show. It sparks something that really makes you think. What would I do in that scenario? Well, now you can get an inside view on what happens in the Dragons' Den.

Sanctioned by the BBC and penned by all the Dragons, Dragons' Den is a fantastic read! It goes through a short synopsis on each Dragon (Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meadon, Theo Paphetis, etc) and moves on to analysis of a good business pitch, investment options and most importantly, how people who got funded actually got on.

It details the people who got investment and failed, People who got investment and succeeded and also touches on People who didnt get investment and still went on to create a successfull business.

Highly recommended to anybody who has started a business, thinking of starting a business or is simply interested in entrepreneurism.

I have been waiting for O2 Ireland to release the Apple iPhone for absolutely ages now and it still hasnt been released. France has the iphone. Germany has the iphone. The UK has the iphone. Ireland doesnt. And I cant understand why! I am proof that the Irish networks are fully capable of running the iphone. Adam is running his on Meteor. Mike is running his on Vodafone. Jim is running his on 3. Peter and myself have our iphone's on O2. I badgered O2 Ireland for months but nobody knew anything. The local O2 shop on Oliver Plunkett Street said O2 lost the contract to Vodafone. Muppets!

In November, Ol and myself went to New York for our Yearly Trip (NYC is one of our favourite places) and the first thing that had to be done was to run down to the Apple Store and pick up a couple of iphones. I couldnt believe how busy the Apple store was. Queues out the door! I waited in line slightly nervous incase they would say no. Not at all! 2 iphones please. Yes sir. Credit Card? It was in his hand before he could finish his sentence. Off back to the hotel!

Ripped the package open and marvelled at the neat design. Apple made sure the wow factor started with the box! Since I had no intention of running on the AT&T network, all I could do was switch it on, slide the unlock key and watch the interface morph, slide and sparkle! I nearly used up all the battery turning it on and sliding for 10 days. I had to do it everyday! Some days about 10 times!

Got off the plane, drove from Shannon to home and went straight down to my room to unlock the phone! 15 minutes later I had it unlocked and installed all the necessary bits and bobs! I must have played with safari for nearly and hour! Checking all my sites and stuff and zooming in and zooming out!

Next thing. EDGE. I thought this would be the show stopper. EDGE is Enhanced Data, basically GPRS. I did a bit off googling and tried the Irish O2 GPRS settings of open.internet with username and password set to GPRS. Bingo! It worked!

All that was left was to ring O2 and get a decent data plan. I had a Blackberry Connect package for my old XDA II Mini S so I cancelled that and got a heafty 10 gigs a month for 30 Euro a month! Sorted! Always on email and browsing!

The EDGE is fast enough for browsing and email is a dream. Unlike Blackberry Connect, it is a pull rather than a push so at anytime I can check if there are new mails. Nice!

Over the next few weeks, apps from open source developers showed up on Installer (only on an unlocked iPhone) that fixed any gripes I had with the phone. such as Edge settings not being saved, numbers of callers not being recognised properly etc

The camera is decent. 2 mega pixels and open-source applications to send the photos stright to flicker.

My Top 6 iPhone apps (No particular order):

• BlockPuzzle
• Newsgator RSS Reader (syncs with my desktop FeedDemon Reader)
• Safari
• iPod
• Installer
• Quicktime Player (brilliant for podcasts, even on EDGE)
• YouTube

I find myself reading more now too. Every morning I go to Puccinos for a latte before work and catch up on all the days RSS feeds. I also have an ebook reader with a few books downloaded. With some custom apps (by myself) I can also check how many people are in AREA51 at any time!

I find myself not turning on the laptop that much anymore. It really is that good.

I have always been a fan of Batman and when I was younger really liked the original Batman films. The Tim Burton ones though, not the rather gay neon pointless films (Mr. Clooney et al) After Superman, Batman would be my next favourite super hero.

When they decided to revisit the brand with a spanking new take on the gritty character which is Batman / Bruce Wayne, I was over joyed when they cast one of my all time favourite actors - Christian Bale! Dark Knight is the next installment from the same creators/directors/cast and a full trailer can be viewed in hi-res here :

http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com/deathtrap/default.htm

Speaking of superheros, I see there is a new film featuring Batman, Superman and more DC Comic charaters called The Justice League of America. Details are sketchy but it is confirmed that neither Christian Bale nor Brandon Routh will reprise their roles as Batman or Superman respectively. The JLA (Justice League of America) will feature fresh faces for the roles of the top characters.

I never really got the JLA. The comics kind of ruined each heros background and muddled their futures. Were they ever actually meant to meet? Is Gotham not the same city as Metropolis? Well they're both modelled after the same cith (New York)

The production of JLA is due out late 2009 which means that Bryan Singers next Superman movie has now been pushed further away to 2010. The rumour is to seperate the releases so hero fans dont get too much at once.

Another thing I found while finding information on Batman : Dark Knight is that Brandon Routh actually played Batman in a TV series (The Batman) before taking the role of Superman in Superman Returns. Brandon is set to star in Superman : Man of Steel

The unit itself is a branded MyGuide 4200 GPS system. The vehicle mount was tidy and secure and the device has all the latest european maps preloaded. Coupled with Bluetooth connectivity with my iphone, it makes the best hands free system money can buy!

I have tried untis from TomTom and Garmin in the past and was always disappointed with the maps installed. Ears has a garmin and it sent him down a one way street!

I bought a Dell GPS device to connect to my Axim 2 years ago and used Mapopolis for the navigation software. Load of rubbish! Stay well clear of that GPS software!

While using the Satnav system, I found myself thinking of how handy it would be if every car around me had some kind of GPS vehicle tracking device which would also send a signal to other GPS devices in the area so you could see cars on your maps. Maybe we'll see this in the future!

While the Navteq 2007 Q2 maps are the closest maps I have seen for Ireland, there are some newer developments that have not yet been updated. Hopefully there will be a 2008 Q1 update shortly!

Like our gaming cafe of choice AREA51, many places run the Steam Cafe License Program (paying through the nose for the annual subscription it mind you - it aint cheap!!) which doesnt allow the locking of accounts to a Steam Community Profile.

I tried going to Console and typing name A51-Sarge but that didnt work. Hat tip to Sam for figuring it out.

All you need to do is :

• Open the console
• Type : setinfo name A51-Sarge

Cant wait for Tuesday now that we'll know who we're killing!

BTW, if you dont already know, Tuesday is the weekly gaming LAN night at AREA51, kicking off at 7pm and lasting till late. FREE cinema passes to be given away and everybody is welcome.

We play Day Of Defeat : Source, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike. We've also been known to scrap it out in Age of Empires 2 (The Daddy RTS) and Battlefield 2!

Sports goods of basketball can be now purchased online. A great variety of basketball shoes is available on shoe stores online. Among other ball sports, golf is very popular. Golf goods like golf clubs are now cheaper than earlier and easily available online for players. Other golf equipment like gloves, caps and trousers make your sport pleasing and you can enjoy your leisure time with a plan to go on golf vacations when ever you spare enough time for this.

I think the English team is appalling but I must admit, they are a team I would cheer on when Ireland aren't playing. I was delighted to see Australia knocked out (I dont like Australia, Australians or their stupid accent) but am shocked England beat them.

BTW, I popped into the Bodega to see the score while I was in town (12- 10 to England) and they had some setup for the game. A massive projection screen and all light blacked out....pity the only people in there were the bar staff.

Will definately cosider that place for the final!!

Now, looking forward to the All Blacks game at 8pm! See you later French Fuckers!!

Americans love basketball and they also know a lot about the sale and purchase of basketball equipment. Other ball sports they like are golf and an old but rough game of lacrosse which is a little bit softer now yet still rough. Americans train their boys for golf from their school golf clubs. They spend a great amount on golf equipment for the better training of their young players in schools and in private clubs.

Yesterday, Monday the 17th of September TF2 marked the release of TF2 to all Steam Café account holders. So you guessed it AREA51 is the place to go to play this great new game. 

Official Steam Cafe Account Holders are the only places you can play this game until October so get into AREA51 - North Main Street, Cork ASAP and see what all the hype is about!!

To mark the arrival of Team Fortress 2 AREA51 is going to be holding a huge LAN on the usual Tuesday LAN night. So instead of  great DOD it's going to be a new challenge for everyone. 

So if you think you will have the skillz to kick ass make sure your in AREA51 Tuesday the 18th at 7:30pm for a great Team Fortress 2 night.  Also we will have double Cinema Passes to the Gate Cinema and Douglas to give away to the gamers with the best kills and scores on the night. Plus there will be extra tasks on the night to complete to win a ticket.

In Team Fortress 2 you can choose between one of twelve roles, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. If you're looking for a straight-up fight, you'll choose Marine or Commando. Are you a sneeky player, do you prefer the shadows. If so you'll make a cunning Spy or Sniper. Medics and Engineers support their teammates through bravery and ingenuity. Focus the raw force of your team's talents through communication and strategizing. Make sure your there Tuesday night to find out what sort of Team mate will you be.

You'll also notice the token Echo guy that pisses me off every day but enough about him.

I was impressed to see the crepe guy here. It takes balls to vend on the street like that and as some of you know, Sam and myself dipped our hand into this with our hotdog cart on South Mall.

What is a real pity is this guy isnt going to last. Cork does not have any by-laws that allow street vending outside of Kyle Street and Cornmarket Street. You can not get a permit in a zone that fits in with your business idea.

Now, I know they re trying to stop an influx of vending and in some way protect existing shops (They have to pay rates etc) but come on, its 2007.

The city is dying as it is and if they wish to attract more people and a more continental feel to the city then they need to wake the fuck up and legislate and control street vending.

What really annoys me and the city counsil will do nothing about is:

• Buskers. There are too many and too many bad ones
• Chuggers - These are a fucking nuisance but we have a plan for them ;-)
• Romas - Fuck off out of the country if your not going to work but beg instead
• High Rent
• High Rates
• Lack of parking
• Clamping and towing

The list is endless but they are some on the top of my head. Its hard to start a business in Cork unless you have a franchise and alot of cash. We know this from experience.

Just had a look on Ebay and you can get a Commercial Crepe Machine for $349....maybe we should look into one for Sam & Dans

The plan is to drive to Baltimore and take the ferry past Sherkin Island into Cape Island port.

Using the brilliant Google Maps, I have outlined a quick and dirty POA

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103998789261270887262.0004348b3d965c9d11509&z=12&om=1

Expect lots of photos on Flickr come Monday,

Over and out. Dan.

There is a tonne of decent freeware or donateware out there for the picking and two of my favourite apps well worth more exposure are:

• Task Bar Shuffle by Jay - Download Here
• Unlocker by Cedric - Download here

Task Bar Shuffle
http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm

No hotkey, no extra steps, drag and drop the programs on your Windows taskbar by simply... well, dragging and dropping them!  Neat concept, huh?

No need to get all nervous when a program crashes or if you wanna reboot; you can reorder the programs/buttons on your taskbar exactly how you like.

Unlocker
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Ever get the annoying message "File locked and cant be deleted"? Well this is the app for you. It finds the current process holding an exclusive lock on the file and kills that process freeing up the file. Perfect for those annoying times a file is locked and you need to get access to it. Best of all it can be run as a command line app if you need it run as a script.

Again though, it doesnt come without a certain amount of pain. The initial release had a 70 meg patch requirement and there are still some crippling bugs. The main problems:

• Common dropped games. The connection to EAs servers is unreliable at the moment and the game tends to freeze and drop from the server.
  
• Crash To Desktop (CTD) is very common and happens about 5 mins into starting a round. We tracked this down to a problem with the VOIP module in the game. If you disable VOIP the problem is solved. The annoying thing about this is that the settings are per account so you have to keep an eye on this setting before playing.
  
• Account Locking - This was the biggest pain in the arse and is not documented anywhere. If you buy your CD copy and register an EA account, that account is locked to the CD serial. You can create up to 4 soldiers off this account but in a shared environment it means every player needs to own a copy of the game (Like World Of Warcraft).

In a shared environment, you can use any account you have registered on any machine. It still requires the DVD in the drive though which is pointless if you have just shelled out 50 euro for the game!

The only positive thing in the whole account bullshit is that people can buy a serial online from EA and register the serial to an account all online.

At AREA51 we are selling the game for about 10 euro cheaper than the shops and of course, we have it a week earlier than the shops too ;-)

As for the game, its good. The graphics are way more polished than the demo and beta but I am having a slight problem getting used to the whole soldier speed. I am so used to Day Of Defeat speed that going back to Battlefield takes alot of adjusting.

Overall its a more stable first version than Battlefield 2 was but the whole account per person issue kinda ruins it and will relegate it to the die hard fans while locking out people who might otherwise really enjoy it. Beware also that this is the first major game with geo-targeted in game adverts!!

We have installed 28 house-accounts in AREA51 so people can play on the LAN or Online giving them the option to try before they buy. The only limitation of this is that your upgrades etc are tied to each specific house account.

Some nice features included so download it from here:

http://www.cfdan.com/posts/Pandoras_Box_Updated_-_Pandora_API_2_Supported.cfm

The following is a list of what I achieved today and will be in the next version:

• Proper station handling - Changing stations now no longer requires the whole music player to reload.
• Renaming, deleting, adding of stations is now reflected in the right-click menu
• Right-click menu now also tracks which station is currently playing
• Pandoralicious shared station browser. This allows you to listen to other peoples shared stations
• Logging of songs you mark as "I Like It" This is for my Software Q & A friend in England who requested it.
• Send currently playing song via a valid Form Post to an arbituary url. If you look on www.cfdan.com on the right hand side, you will see what I am currently listening to. This is data sent to my blog from Pandoras Box. Pretty cool :-)
• Numerous rewrites of core code makes the whole application better

People are probably wondering when the next update will be released and I would love to release it right now but the new settings window has to be written before I can package up and release.

If anyone would like a preview copy and dont mind editing settings manually you can drop me an email to request the beast. If you have donated, you are more likely to get a reply email :-)

Well, tonight after 5 cigarettes and a bottle of beer later, I have proper station changing working. The other nice thing about this is that it loads the station without reloading the music player. Also I have it detecting your username automatically so no more fiddling around with the settings. The new (proper) way of loading stations also lets me indicate using a checkbox on the context menu which station your currently listening to.

Well, thats it. Off to bed and a full-days work ahead of me tomorrow on real work programming. Look out for update V1.3.1 on http://www.cfdan.com in the next couple of days. There are some nice features in the next version :-)

Oh yeah, tonight I also managed to see Children Of Men. Not a bad film. Some spectacular scenes, good acting, great effects and superb sound. Story a little iffy though but well worth your money!

Any Other news? Yeah. Got to play Company Of Heros in AREA51 yesterday! Fucking hell - ITS AMAZING!! This is the new WW2 RTS from the guys who developed Dawn Of War. The Omaha Beach scenario on level 1 is like being in the middle of Saving Private Ryan!!