Monday, May 25, 2009

I don't want to have to update my status several times

I have accounts on several different social networking sites (mainly just to try them out). As a result it is a major pain for me to keep an up to date status message on each of them. What I would really like is to be able to update my status on one site and have that updated status automatically propagate to all of the various sites which provide a status tracking service.

I haven't (yet) found an ideal solution, but I have at least found two different ways to update my Facebook status without ever having to directly launch Facebook.
  1. I installed the Twitter application on Facebook, by following these instructions. Now each time I update my twitter status I can have the status update automatically propogate to Facebook by simply appending #fc at the end of the status message
  2. I linked my Plaxo account to my Facebook account by logging into Plaxo and clicking on "edit my profile", selecting "websites" tab and then clicking on the Facebook icon and entering my credentials. Now any time I update my Plaxo status it automatically generates a Facebook status update with the same text and visa-versa.
Am I the only person who thinks it is a major pain to keep updating my status on all these sites? Does anyone know of a cool solution that they can point me to?

[Update 26/May] - It turns out that the Plaxo/Facebook connection is bi-directional and not one way as I originally stated (the Facebook to Plaxo update just happened very slowly so I thought it wasn't working)

[Update 4.June] - Robi Brummer pointed me to ping.fm which is a great site for updating several sites at once. The list of services that work with ping.fm is truly amazingLink

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Another epic voyage for Dixie Chick

Now that I am fairly comfortable with the trip from Shannon Harbour to Banagher and back again, I decided to try a slightly more adventurous trip to Shannon Bridge last weekend. The trip up was pretty smooth although it took me slightly longer than anticipated (1 hour and 33 minutes).

My SatNav said that we averages 7.1 km per hour which is probably fairly accurate (although it aslo said that my max speed was 22 km/hour which is probably a measurement glitch).


View Trip from Shannon Harbour to Shannon Bridge in a larger map

After stopping to refuel the crew, we decided to head back again at about 6pm. I was slightly worried that we might be leaving it a little late and the rain was coming down quite seriously. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we made better time on the return journey (56 minutes) mainly due to going with the flow of the river - although also partly helped by the fact that we decided to leave her outside the lock gate and so saved the time that would have been required to traverse the lock.

My average speed on the return leg was 11.4 km/hour which is an impressive speed for a boat like Dixie Chick.


View Return journey from Shannon Bridge to Shannon Harbour in a larger map

I don't think that St Brendan the navigator would be impressed by my boating skills, but I am quite proud of my progress so far and gradually gaining in confidence.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Nature within the City Limits

I sometimes cycle along the tow path of the Royal Canal on my way into town. It does not qualify as a short cut into town because it is a slightly longer journey, but it certainly is a much more pleasant environment to cycle through. It is amazing how rural and full of nature this environment is considering that it is only a few metres away from busy roads chocked with traffic.

Today as I was cycling along, I came across this pair of swans protecting their signets. They did not mind me getting close enough to take this picture because they were much more worried about a heron that was circling around.

I don't think they were concerned about the tailback of traffic on the N3.!!