I have been amazed recently at the amount of people still using Internet Explorer version 6. Late last year I was delivering training programmes and out of 3 training locations, 2 were still using IE6 on some computers. This is madness, it went out with the ark, well not really but it is several years old and does not work properly. So why upgrade?

1. Web designers and developers do not support this version anymore
2. Some websites don’t displayed properly
3. There are security issues which can put your computer, your data and your privacy at risk. The latest versions are safer, easier to use and include a host of new features
4. Its OLD and OUTDATED – would you use a cassette player when you could easily upgrade to an iPod?

It’s FREE so upgrade to IE8 now, just visit http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/ie8ireland/ and download.

I heard this last week and could not believe it, Web 2.0, something I am always talking about has now become an official word in the english language and not just any word but the one millionth. Other words bidding for the position included coddies, chengguan, slumdog, fundoo and Jai Ho, but no, they picked Web 2.0. 

The Global Language Monitor (GLM), based in Austin made it official on 10th June  at 10:22 am GMT.  Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services.   Isn’t it funny to think that its only the one millionth, I would have thought that this would have been exceeded a long time ago.

Uncharacteristic quiet on the blogging front while assessing the state of the Irish dental industry (and drawing parallels to banks and economic woes) My English dentist retired last year,  so what I hear you say – so I had more years with this guy than with any other personal or business relationship to date!  25 to be precise.

With a raging abscess I could put it off no longer and called a  local dentist I used before.  Who could not see me for a week, and bless his cotton socks when he did see me wanted another week before he could put me out of my misery – and the princely sum of €1600 – or €75 for an extraction as a cheap alternative. Excuse me? Ok so sell me this!  No, I never saw the dentst after the x ray and a rather embarrassed receptionist attempted to make the sale and advised me on a price basis that the extraction might be better – ‘in the year thats in it’.

Picture me, howling in pain and  waiting another week for anything to happen at all – two weeks in, no meaningful advice or leadership, hurtling towards a decision that affects my ability to eat for the rest of my lfe. NOW does this remind you of the economy? Thought so.

End of part 1 , exited dumbly to car, wept a little, as you do.  Picked up the phone (resisting the temptation to order said UK dentist out of retirement)and called a client. Denteast  do dental work in Dublin and in Budapest and like a lot of people I thought this was just cosmetic stuff.  Far from it.  Lovely dentist showed me the x ray, presented the options and had me mostly sorted within 48 hours – a Sunday appointment (thats the carrot folks!) – and now has me contemplating a dental break in Budapest to get things back in order.  Apparently I can have a whole new mouth for just over twice the proposed root fee from my local….. and the Hungarian technology was miles ahead … and I can get my tax back just like it was Ireland.

After an exhausting 4 hour shop with my niece Katharine in the Kildare Outlet Centre I collapsed exhausted (and I have shopped for Ireland in my time) into L’Officina – with just about enough energy to croak ‘Green Tea please’. My appetite for green tea being the stuff of legends, the slightly stiff €2.50 does not phase me – oh no I probably saved 10 times that by skipping Molton Brown and substituting some minor brand for office handwashing.

Frantically texting Katharine to advise  of reaching front of queue a nice young thing with suitable Italian accent presents me majestically with a green teabag and a pot of off the boil water.  The teabag, dear readers, is Lidl. Yes honestly Lidl, I saved the envelope for posterity and have emailed a link to this post to every restaurant reviewer I know (3.5). Frankly I did substitute Lidl hand wash for the Molton Brown for the duration of the recession but…. is this my punishment??

Heard myself on Newstalk Down to Business this weekend and actually think I might be acquiring an Irish accent, which is a concern to me as a paid up Yorkshire Nationalist.  However this weeks post has to be about THE speech and Biffo.  Call me a bit soppy but I quite like a politician with faults who confronts them. Raised as I was with the first generation of Thatcherites anything is better than the handbag approach.

So he made the right speech to the wrong audience at the wrong time – do we not always risk that? I was so impressed I almost (but not quite) texted Newstalk with comments that morning. Sorry guys but the Yorkshire genes do not allow the expenditure of 30 cent on a text – and I was late for the meeting already. Anyway Biffo socked it to them and I for one am impressed.  Who reading this has not woken up 3 months into a job and realised that they did not need the PR people or the speech writers. And done what seems right at the time.  Anyway they will be toasting him in Clara this weekend , and we are after all an island of tribes….

And I have failed in my resolution not to tackle politics in this blog….

Does anyone else resent the dumping of large unsolicited office supplies brochures on their desk this week – we received two from AJ products who we have never heard of. Our office supplies people never send unsolicited brochures – we call or email them with our needs and they make recommendations, usually with a web link.  Quite apart from the sheer waste of money have these guys missed the eco plot altogether?

Doing business in the current environment is about building strong relationships not mammoth brochure drops! Get real guys and excuse me putting them right in the recycling bin (having taken off the nasty polythene).  While I prepare to play with our wonderful new CRM system from Adecsys – we referred these guys to clients like Professional Tradesmen and Irish Grasslands Association and finally commissioned our own system.  Beats ACT hands down….and most info exported trouble free. A much better investment that filling my recycle bin.

In the week where the battle for D4hotels.com reached the courts its worth a pause to see if in fact you do own your own domain.  In the Fáilte Ireland WebCheck scheme all five service providers are finding this a potential issue, especially for .com domains – as many as half of our own clients in this scheme may have issues as .com domains are registered in the names of web designers, some of whom have disappeared off the face of the earth and cannot be tracked down.

A simple check of whois data can reveal if there is a problem, its a no brainer to make sure that the admin contact is in your own name with a valid contact email.  Expiry dates can be checked too – the longer the period of registration the more likely it is you will forget to renew the domain or that the email is no longer in use so reminders are not received.

And yes folks I admit it.  www.sitestogo.biz expired for a whole  day last month… so the pot is definitely calling the kettle black here!

I confess I just returned from a shopping spree in the UK.  Wouldn’t go there just to shop but once over there the temptation to save tends to overpower patriotism. The spree included a vehicle from Van Monster – at about half the Irish price these guys are doing great trade over the water apparently, especially as their 6 month warranty applies in ireland and they will do the intra European VAT thing. It included filling the aforesaid van at Ikea (who have still to adjust their sterling prices) and Morrisons who have a great wine buyer at the moment – and then of course rather more clothes than anyone needs to buy in a week…

But meanwhile back in Ireland the first question of the New Year to the increasingly fascinating Enterprise Ireland forum sets the tone for the New Year – relating to an apparently genuine enquiry as to what gadgets people got for Christmas. This produced a riveting discussion on a failed two year old Sony Vaio and the perils of buying abroad. The theme is set folks!

Given that Ireland’s terrestrial broadband is second only to Greece and Mexico as the worst quality in the developed world, how will this be affected by the news that the preferred tenderer to replace the debacle that was the rural broadband scheme is a mobile provider 3. Looks like things can only get worse out here in the sticks… Much as we all love to blame Eircom for that farce which is our digital economy, at least they might provide an infrastructure based upon the type of speeds and consistency that the rest of Europe enjoys.

Broadband?  Sure you would have to go to Dublin for that….

For my weekend blog I needed to check on the winners of the aforesaid Golden Spiders so I googled Golden Spider Winners 2008 and was delighted to see John Breslin’s blog as the only available source of this info. Checked again today and yes the Golden spiders site has been updated…..but only a small text link to the results – according to the landing page you can still enter for 2008, according to the linked page they will be announcing the winners shortly. And the Google listing has been joined by John Breslin on Twitter.

Is this not just the antethisis of a dynamic web presence! Does anyone else think it rather odd that the venerable organisation making awards to the industry is not even able to keep its own website up to date.  A good argument guys for ditching it and blogging or twittering instead!