I like to know things about gadgets, although saying that, I very rarely dip into the communion money to get something shiny and noisy (ok, bar the €70 mouse I got last week). But I decided to get the iPod nano. I forgot to actually read up on anything it does before purchasing, because I trust apple at this stage.

After ordering, I watched the video on apple, and the thing looked freakin' cool. You can shake it and it skips to a random song in your library. If you shake it like a polaroid picture, it will skip to a song by Outkast!

As I was saying I like to know things about Gadgets. Well, this "Genius" thing has really thrown me. Actually, it amazes me. This single invention is, in my opinion, the next step towards globally shared interests and "Cloud computing" (I guess...).

From what I can tell, apple takes a goo at your library and then compares it to everyone elses, giving you back your shared interests, so it can figure out what albums are alike and songs are usually owned by a number of people. It's kind of like the amazon, "If you like this ... you'll probably like these because other people also bought ...", except it so much more sublte and actually has produced really good playlists for me over the last few days.

The best thing about "Genius", is that it trasfers to my Nano, so I can create playlists on the fly. Just think, your in the car, you put on a song you like, hit Genius and boom (to quote mr. jobs) you've got 25 great songs you're in the mood for.

Will you?

Some of you may be aware of my history with eircom, and the wonderful services they provide. If you are not from Ireland, you may not be aware that everytime you need to connect to a DSL or phone service, you must (MUST) connect with eircom first, and then move services. Eircom have 100% control of all telecommunication switches in Ireland, and because of this, they feel they can treat their customers like shit.

I have just returned from travelling and have acquired an nice apartment in dublin city. I like the internet, so I've decided to get broadband from eircom. When I moved in, there was a phone, and eircom broadband router in the apartment, so I knew that it was going to be a straight forward process, and there would be no need to connect the line, so no upfront costs. Boy was I wrong.

I called eircom, and told the lady my address. After spelling it out (metropolitan is a tough word to understand), she informed me that there is no line on their accounts at that address and apartment number. I said, "I find that very unlikely, as there is a phone and broadband router in the apartment.". She said, "I may not have been active in the last eight months, you will have to pay €110, and wait 2 weeks for a technician to call out to connect". "If you want, you can try plugging in a phone, and if you get a dialtone, call 199000 to find out your number".

This left me peeved. But, it's not like I have experienced a smooth conversation ever with this company.

Last night I got a phone from conor, and plugged it in. DIALTONE. Dialed 199000, and boom, a phone number was called back to me.

Lesson: Never trust eircom. If I was a normal punter, I would have been duped and paid €110 to eircom for doing absolutely nothing.

Don't worry, this isn't over yet. I'll keep you posted.

I am a bit of a coffee addict. Who isn't in this day and age. And yes, after travelling the world and tasting good and bad, and really bad coffee, I have found myself to be a coffee snob too. So on hearing that an Irish man won the World Barista Championship, I have to find out where he works.

My plea goes out to you, my loyal readers. Where does Stephen Morrissey work? I want to taste this coffee that is the best in the world.

UPDATE: I should have done some googling before posting this. Stephen has a blog, and an personal website. He has a lot of entries, but I can't see any coffee shops mentioned. He has his email address on his site (Stephen Morrissey - World Barista Champion 2008). Should I just email him?

Looking forward to a dooleys when I get home. But this will have to do.

Zig. Zag. Elvis. Beastie Boys. You do the maths.