Monthly Archives: July 2011

In social media, Facebook has been the leader everyone imitates for several years. Google (GOOG) tried a few times and came up short. But this month, that changed: Google+ is a formidable social media platform that matches Facebook in many ways and surpasses it in others, like realtime group video chat. Facebook quickly responded with its own video chat service, but couldn’t match Google’s. This back and forth is likely to continue for some time.

The question facing Google+ is whether the positive reception that beta users are having over the social service will cross over to a mainstream audience already familiar with Facebook. If better privacy is in fact a big factor for many people, then Google+ could easily become so popular enough that Facebook will be forced to improve its own privacy policies.

In the Google-Facebook race, privacy will determine the winner (CNN Money)

Joy Of Tech

Republic Of Ireland: Uilleann Bagpiper Patrick Martin, from Inniskeen at the Twelfth of July garden party, this evening at Aras an Uachtarain, on the theme ” Bridges Built” – attended by almost 400 guests from various traditions and parts of the island of Ireland.

Northern Ireland: Police have fired baton rounds at rioters as fresh trouble erupted in Belfast tonight. Petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and fireworks were hurled at officers during the stand-off in Ardoyne in north Belfast. A car was hijacked and set alight, while police deployed water cannon. Some officers were briefly set alight after being struck by a petrol bomb.

Northern Ireland Marching Season Ends With New Outbreak Of Violence (Guardian)

Northern Ireland Violence Triggered by Ideology And Mistrust Of Police (Henry McDonald, Guardian)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland/Reuters)
Miss Piggy, Muppets                               Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Fine Gael
Ming                                                              Ross                                                               Wallace

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjMgrz3mX-o&feature=player_embedded

Overheard in the Dail (go to 1.09)

Mick Wallace “…Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today.”

Shane Ross: “Who’s that?”

Wallace: “Ms Piggy has toned it down a bit…That Mary Mitchell O’Connor one.”

Ming Flanagan: “I couldn’t remember her name on Vincent Browne.”

Ross: “Was she on with you?”

Ming: “No (indecipherable)…the one who drove off the plinth. They’d want to ban her wearing pink.”

Wallace: “Ha Ha Ha.”

Ross: “Oh yeah, that’s right. She’s nothing sensational on [today], she normally wears the most garish colours (trails off)…”

And On The Muppet Show Tonight (Maman Poulet)

Previously: New TD Drives Down Plinth

(Photocall Ireland)



John on O’Connell Street bridge, above, with Barney and his dog Lilly. And, bottom pic, meeting Jim Collins, a Tipperary farmer who has offered John work.

John Byrne, the homeless man who jumped into the Liffey to save his pet rabbit, Barney. was honoured by animal rights group ARAN this afternoon on O’Connell Street.

Aran’s Jill Bourke (left) and John Carmody (right) and John Byrne.

Watch the rescue here

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)