Growing Vegtables in my windows sill

I have often heard of people growing herbs like chives and parsley etc. in their window sill, but on a recent visit to my local supermarket I was surprised to see that they were selling kits to allow people grow vegetables in their window sill.

I decided to purchase a pot that supposedly allows me to grow Courgettes (the local name for Zucchini). I must admit that I am sceptical about the chances of growing a large vegetable like this in my kitchen window, but the kit was cheap and so I thought that there was no harm in trying.

The kit looks surprisingly similar to a pot noodle container and the clear instructions on the side are equally easy to follow. The only problem is that while pot noodles are ready to consume after 3 minutes, the vegetables will probably take more than 3 months to grow. I will let you know later in the year how I get on.

Cycling with Laurence Roche

Laurence Roche is a former participant in the Tour de France and a brother of the Stephen Roche who won the event. Currently Laurence runs a company that help administer the bike to work scheme whereby employees can purchase a bike in a tax efficient manner. As part of the service he provides, he hosts regular training cycles to help the employees in the companies that he works with can get a chance to make more use of their new bikes.

This morning I joined in one of these training cycles that covered a 40 km route starting and ending in Clonee. I must say that this was a really enjoyable event. Laurence was very friendly and helpful to us novices. We had a great cycle in the unusually pleasant weather and Laurence kept checking with all of us to see that the pace was not too fast.

I definitely intend to attend more of these training cycles. Hopefully we can recruit more people to take part and maybe even form a new cycling club.

Here is the route as recorded by the My Tracks application on my phone.

View Cycle With Laurence Roche in a larger map

Let there be light

Many years ago relative of mine used to complain that he suffered from Seasonally Affective Disorder (SAD) due to lack of access to natural sunlight during the dark short days that are a feature of the Irish summer. As a result he had a special light box which supplied him with a light spectrum that mimicked the frequency spectrum of natural light. I think we all  appreciate having plenty of access to natural light and so I briefly considered purchasing a similar device myself - but at the time the cost of the device was prohibitive and they consumed a huge amount of electricity.

NuLight beside an Old blub

Recently a friend of mine told me about a UK based company called Nulight which sells a modern energy efficient version of the same thing that they call the Daylight Bulb. It is essentially a replacement for a normal light bulb and it fits into a normal light fixture. I bought the 65 watt version which cost me just over £10stg (plus P&P). Although it is called a 65 watt bulb, my current cost meter tells me that it only consumes about 56 watts of power.

My home office has a north facing windows and although it is not really dark, it is noticeably less bright than the south facing rooms in the house. When I installed the new light in it I could immediately notice the difference even in the middle of the day. I would estimate that the amount of light coming from this new bulb is even stronger than a floodlight which I have installed out the back of the house - however the floodlight consumes about 250 watts of power.

Good luck to all participants in the Great ireland Run

For the past few years, I have run in the Great Ireland Run every year. Despite the fact that I entered this year, I won't able to take my place at the starting line for logistical reasons.

I would like to give best wishes to everyone taking part - I am sure it will be a great day. It looks like the weather will be very pleasant. In order to make up for missing the race, I ran my own 10km route in Galway. I was delighted that I managed to get the 10km run done in under the critical 1 hour barrier.

 
View Galway Run in a larger map

Hack the City

One of he most exciting events planned for the Dublin City of Science 2012 will be happening in June of this year when the Science Gallery will be hosting a series of 2-3 person teams who will be competing against each other to do the best job of "Hacking the City". I know that hacking  is a term that carries negative connotation, but this contest is all about the best form of hacking. To quote the web site:

The goal of the programme is to rethink our cities from the ground up through the spirit and philosophy of the hacker ethos - to bend, mash-up, tweak and cannibalise our city systems, to create possibilities, illustrate visionary thinking and demonstrate real-world examples for sustainable urban futures.

I know you might think that June is a long time away, but the call for registrations has just been released and if you would like to take part, you would be well advised to register your interest very soon because I expect that this event will be over-subscribed.

I am paying the Household Charge

There has been a lot of controversy in Ireland recently about the introduction of an annual household charge. It may prove quite difficult for the government to enforce collection of the tax because of the lack of a proper register. In addition, many high profile individuals have grabbed attention by declaring publicly that they have no intention of paying the charge because they feel it is inherently unjust and they have effectively challenge the authorities to pursue them for payment. It seems that this is the first instance where the Irish people are reacting to cutbacks in a manner more typical of the Greeks

In this environment I am almost embarrassed to admit that I have registered for the tax and made arrangement to have it automatically deducted from my bank account. It is not that I am simply afraid if getting into trouble. While, I tend to agree with the people that a flat charge for every household is inherently unfair the reality is that if the charge was adjusted based upon means I would probably end up paying more than the €100 flat rate. It seems to me that it would be weird for me to refuse to pay the tax on the basis that justice would demand that I pay a higher charge.

Is Dublin a hotbed of innovative startups?

After the dramatic implosion of the Celtic Tiger economy the Irish government set up an eminent task force to decide how Ireland could reposition itself for sustainable growth and prosperity in the future. One of the recommendations of this task force was that Ireland needs to become a much more attractive location for small innovative companies to establish themselves.

One of the initiatives which sprung up indirectly from this new government strategy was the establishment of a Startup Boot camp. Since IBM was one of the organisations involved in sponsoring this initiative I had a chance to visit the Boot Camp on Friday last and speak to some of the start-ups to discuss any possibilities of them establishing links with IBM. I must say that I was very impressed with what I saw.

Since the whole idea is to establish a culture and environment that encourages innovative start-ups, the whole ambiance of the area is critical. The building that they are located in is anything but plush: the building itself was completely derelict and was scheduled for demolition as part of a redevelopment project which has been put on indefinite hold until the property market recovers. A minimum amount of work has been done to make the building habitable (e.g. all the desks are made out of planks of plywood crudely nailed together), but this Spartan surroundings is probably a good reminder to the occupants that they can't afford to waste money on unnecessary extravagances. The enthusiasm of the start-up companies gives a cheerful air to the place which more than counteracts any gloom from the rough conditions. In fact the entire part of Dublin where they are located is a strange mixture of abandoned derelict buildings and  beautiful newly refurbished buildings as you can see from this picture. The amazingly plush Google HQ is almost directly across the road which is a contrast and acts as a goal for the start-ups to aim at.

I don't think that I can reveal the details of the various start-ups that I met with since many of them are not yet ready to launch. However, an interesting example  was a company which was founded by an American and a Chinese national. Due to the nature of their company they felt that there was not a big market in Europe and USA, but they felt that Dublin was the right place to come to start their company - partly because of the presence of the  Startup Boot Camp, but also because of the general environment which is friendly towards technical innovation. Actually I was able to validate their choice because although I don't see much chance for IBM to work with them in the short term, I was able to put them in touch with another Irish start-up (started by an ex_IBMer) that they hope to partner with.

"Dunboyne Fun Run" lives up to its name

Today I entered the Dunboyne Fun Run on a whim, because I was out in Dunboyne anyway dropping off my daughter who was participating in the junior run. I must say that the organisers did a splendid job - the last-minute registration process was very smooth, the large field of runners was well marshalled and everyone enjoyed a run in atypically glorious sunshine.

I was pleased with my time -37 minutes and 6 seconds for a 4 mile route.

After the race was over there was even a bonus of a magnificent free spread of cakes and tea for all participants in the local community centre. They even had a band playing live traditional music. Definitely a day to be happy I live in Ireland.

Gathering of amateur and professional weather fans shows Dublin City of Science 2012 at its best

Today I spent a really fun day attending a conference entitled "The Science of Weather Forecasting" which was organised by the Irish Met Society. The talks were very interesting and educational, but what was really enjoyable was that during the breaks I got to chat with several enthusiastic amateur weather fans. It was an added bonus that the event was held in the beautiful Botanic Gardens and the day was one of the few Irish days with unbroken sunshine.

I suppose that all Irish people are interested in collecting weather data. The most common conversation opener for phone conversations in Ireland is "what is the weather like where you are?". Now that professional quality weather monitoring equipment has become available and affordable, we can now turn these informal weather observations into proper scientific measurements which can be used to improve forecasting. I met several people who had their own weather stations in their back gardens like me. I also found out that there is even a site dedicated to collecting this data from Irish amateur weather monitoring stations. I plan to connect my existing monitoring station to this site within the next few days.

This is an excellent example of the type of event which is being organised as part of Dublin City of Science 2012. It encouraged my existing interest in meteorology and I promptly joined the Irish Met Society and I have every intention of being an active member.

Fingal Library Service add eBooks to their range of offerings

I was excited to see the new eBook lending service from Fingal Libraries service so I thought I would write a short review. I am a big reader and am normally in the middle of reading at least 2 or 3 books in a variety of different genres at any one time. Although I buy quite a few books, my reading habit would be unaffordable if I had to buy all of the books I read - therefore I am a big user of the Fingal Library service (in fact I am the long serving mayor of Blanchardstown Library on Foursquare).

The library is really great service and amazingly it is free. People who complain about the level of taxes we pay should at least ensure that they take advantage of the services that these taxes fund.  As well as providing a large selection of books available for loan, they also have a large selection of DVDs, Music CDs and audio-books to choose from. They even provide a facility to borrow paintings for a period of up to 3 months (although I have never availed of this service myself).

Some people dismiss the library as an institution from the past which is doomed to fade away in the internet age. I disagree very strongly with this view and I feel that the concept of a public lending library is an important one that we ought not to forget in the debate about the balance between the rights of creators and consumers of content. It is important that we maintain public lending libraries if we want to ensure that everyone in society has an affordable opportunity to access the educational materials they need. In fact the free internet access in the Library can be a vital service to people who might otherwise have  access.

Although I am a big fan of technology, many people are surprised to find that I have not yet embraced eBooks. I thought I would use an Android tablet that I received as a present for reading eBooks. Although I initially read a few eBooks on the device, I found myself in the situation where I could easily gain free access to paper books, but I had to pay substantial costs to have the slightly less convenient experience of reading the electronic version  those books.


Therefore I was very excited to learn a few weeks ago that Fingal library had added eBooks to their range of offerings. To access the eBook lending service you go to their eBook portal and sign in with your library card number and PIN number (this is the same PIN number you use to log into the regular library web page). If you don't have a PIN number then you can get one by calling in to your local library.

When you start using this service you could be initially a bit confused because this is not a web site run by Fingal Library service as such, instead you are accessing a global web site OverDrive but the cost of your access is being covered by Fingal county council. I am not sure exactly how the financial details work, but luckily I don't need to. I suspect that the books on offer to me are a selection bought by Fingal library service rather than a global selection because there seems to be an unusually large number of books with themes of Irish interest. The service is quite easy to use and any problems I did encounter were easily solved with assistance provided by the operators of the Fingal Library page on Facebook.

The eBooks in the library are available in two different formats. One format is compatible with Adobe Digital Editions which is usable on your computer. The other format is compatible with the OverDrive reader application which is available for a wide variety of mobile platforms. I used the OverDrive Android version on a miScroll tablet and found the reading experience to be very pleasant. I also installed the application on my phone - while the software worked perfectly, I can't imagine I would read an entire novel on the small screen of my phone.

There is a version of the OverDrive application which works on Amazon Kindle devices, but apparently the OverDrive site has placed restrictions which stop books borrowed from libraries outside the USA from being read on the Kindle. I can't see the logic behind this unfair regional restriction, but I guess I would get more worked up about it if I actually owned a Kindle.

When you borrow a book from the library you are free to read it on any compatible device you own, but you can't simply transfer the file from one device to another (which I initially tried to do). Instead you must download the book directly from the web site by selecting the "Get Books" option from within the application. I am not sure why this is necessary, but I assume it is something to do with ensuring you are not trying to bypass the usage limitations.

Each user is allowed to borrow up to three books at a time. When you borrow a book you can choose between a borrowing period of 14 days or 21 days. If you choose the OverDrive format you can return the book as soon as you are finished reading it, but with the Adobe format of the book you can't. This means that you would probably best to choose the shorter loan period because the book will be counting against your loan limit even though you have finished reading it. If one of your borrowed books has expired you can always download it again (unless someone else had borrowed it in the meantime). If you have not deleted the book from your library your stored bookmarks will be maintained.

What did I borrow:

	Decider by Dick Francis I picked this first because I expected the content to be undemanding. I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable I found the  experience of reading the book, both in terms of the physical experience of reading an eBook and the fact that Dick Frances is clearly a very skilled writer. I did not know what the ending was going to be until I reached it, but I knew from experience that it was going to be a happy ending.
	Breakfast with Anglo by Simon Kelly The second book I chose was an account of the recent Irish property bubble as told by a property developer who was personally involved in the centre of the action. It was different from the previous book in that I knew in advance what the ending was going to be and that it was not going to be happy. Nevertheless I found it educational to see how things looked from the point of view of someone who was personally involved. The last chapter was devoted to what lessons he learned from the experience. I know that hindsight is always 20:20 vision, but anyone considering getting involved in property speculation would be well advised to read this chapter.
	If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name News from Small-Town Alaska by Heather Lende The third book I chose was different again. It was an account of what it is like to live in a small isolated town in Alaska. The author worked as an obituary writer for the local paper and the stories in the book seemed to be mainly derived from the information she learned while researching these obituaries. Irish papers tend to only publish obituaries for prominent people, but it seems that in Alaska they publish obituaries for all people who die. This meant that the stories described an eclectic selection of people who lived very different lives.  It was ironic to be reading a modern format eBook about people leading an austere life with little access to modern technology, but overall I found it enjoyable.

In short, I really like this new eBook service. I don't think I will give up reading paper books yet, but I will definitely supplement my reading materials with regular borrowing from the eBook library.