Teknovis

Cloud Computing Data Centres in Ireland

Teknovis — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:29:31 +0000

I read an interesting article in The Irish Times recently about Microsoft’s view on cloud computing data centres in Ireland. The article covers comments by John Vassallo who is Microsoft’s Vice-President of EU Affairs, and it can be read online at Data centres may attract 20,000 firms.

It is a short (and slightly meaningless) article. However, one comment by John Vassallo really caught my attention:

Mr Vassallo added that Ireland was cited in a recent publication as “a beautiful place for a data centre” due to its climate.

It is difficult to interpret this comment! I am not even sure if this is serious! Perhaps the cloud analogy is being taken too far :D

Yoigo’s Backend Infrastructure

Teknovis — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:23:08 +0000

I attended a very interesting webinar recently about Cloud Computing. It featured a case study about a Spanish company called Yoigo. It was claimed that Yoigo used a Cloud Computing backend to become operational in 150 days!

This is actually quite funny, because according to Yoigo the company had the license for the previous six years during which it was not used!

Favourite iPhone Applications

Teknovis — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:30:33 +0000

The Irish Times has an interesting article about popular iPhone applications: App-solutely fabulous.

I do not use an iPhone, so I do not know how usefule these applications really are :)

MeeGo

Teknovis — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:48:50 +0000

There has been a lot of media coverage of Nokia’s MeeGo announcement this week. The best summary article I read was Nokia and Intel team up on Smartphone development.

I am quite surprised by this development! I would have thought that Nokia would have been better-off to adopt Android!

Google Buzz

Teknovis — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:41:57 +0000

Google announced its latest offering during the week. It is called Buzz, and it represents Google’s entry in social networking (again).

More opinions of Buzz are contained in Google takes on Facebook and Twitter with network site and Google Buzz - Gmail mod for the Tweetbook set.

I think that it looks like a good idea, and it should certainly appeal to people who already use Google’s other services.

Interesting GPS Article

Teknovis — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:38:54 +0000

Hacker pilfers browser GPS location via router attack

Even if it is a month late :)

Oh - and Happy New Year while I am posting :D

Gigapixel Photos

Teknovis — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:50:05 +0000

No - the term gigapixel is not a typing mistake!

I came across two interesting gigapixel photos this week:

Updated Vodafone Ireland Website

Teknovis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:07:14 +0000

Vodafone has updated its Irish website recently. The two changes that excite me the most are:

I can now send 600 free SMS messages every month! I send the majority of my SMS messages online!
I can now send SMS messages to mobile phones in other countries.

The timing of these changes is perfect for me to send all my Christmas greetings :)

Online Christmas Shopping 2009

Teknovis — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:23:45 +0000

I have almost completed my Christmas shopping for 2009. I did all of this online for the second year in a row! (Last year’s shopping is described in Online Christmas Shopping 2008.)

I did not buy a single item in Ireland this year, and this was mainly due to the ridiculously high costs. I understand that part of this is due to the higher VAT on items in Ireland (see Online Shopping just got Cheaper), but I also think that retailers are still ripping-off consumers. Indeed, the most expensive single item I bought was a piece of Japanese electronics. The Irish price was over 50% more expensive than the price I bought it for abroad!

While I am writing about shopping, I came across a very entertaining online shop - http://producten.hema.nl/ (You need sound, and a small amount of patience, for this :D )

Record Traffic For Irish Budget 2010 Announcement

Teknovis — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:15:17 +0000

I noticed that INEX had record traffic levels last Wednesday afternoon of approximately 8.7Gbits/s according to the INEX traffic statistics.

I assume that this record was due to people watching the Irish Minister for Finance announce the annual budget for 2010 online thanks to RTE.

Hourly Graph (aggregate/bits) (Copyright INEX)

I described the previous INEX records in Record Traffic For Irish Budget 2009 Announcement and Record Traffic For Second Irish Budget 2009.