I’m a relatively new owner of an Amazon Kindle. I’m not the only one. Since bricks-and-mortar shop PC World started stocking the Kindle, growing numbers of Irish people are carrying them about. Amazon don’t disclose sales figures, but they have announced that they sell more digital books than paper copies.

Many people who ask about it simply say they don’t see the point. In my experience over the last month or so, it’s a fantastic device which is not only contributing to a rediscovery of reading for pleasure, but helping me consume digital-only content in a whole new way.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Tech
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I made some updates to this site today.

It’s been almost two years since I set about building my own blog from scratch: partly because I wanted to get started blogging, and partly to teach myself CSS and modern HTML (having last built a site at 14 years old using frames, and then tables). I didn’t want an entire redesign from scratch, so I kept the basic paper-on-wood look, but cleaned it up a bit. The above image is the Photoshop draft of the last version.

I figured it was time for a lick of paint for two reasons: firstly, I’d like to blog more (though we’ll so how long that lasts); secondly, it’s been a long time since I’ve done any web design and the skills needed a workout before I forgot everything.

All in all, I enjoy this kind of work. Solving a niggling problem in CSS feels great, like figuring out the solution to a particularly tricky puzzle. I’m sure my code is full of hacks and inefficiencies (and likely redundant rules for the old version), but I view the effort of coding this site as an education in basic web design. Emphasis on basic.

Powered by ExpressionEngine, font replacement by Cufón using Glypha, and using the iPhone GUI of Leehan + Tax. Indebted to Envato’s From Photoshop to HTML for teaching me how.

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Tech
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Click for larger version. If you’ve been following the passage of the Finance bill through the Oireachtas this week, you may have noticed how much political posturing there is, and how little valid discussion of the issues there has been. for context’s sake, I’ve plotted the number of days this year’s bill has spent or is scheduled to spend being debated in the coming days against last year’s Bill. When you actually look at the number of days being spent like this, it suggests there will be enormous problems with the enacted bill. It might have been better for all involved to debate this bill at length.

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Politics
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Words are a lot of fun.

I was reading RTÉ news and spotted Eamon Gilmore criticising the government and making reference to the election, which it struck me he’s been doing a lot of lately. So I moseyed over to the fantastic KildareStreet.com to have a look at exactly how much he’s been saying it.

169 times this year, as it turns out.

As a matter of fact, he’s used the word election this year so much that it accounts for 48% of every use of the word by him since 2004. Compare that to Cowen, at 32% (and take into account he’s announced it and answered questions on it, so he hasn’t always been bringing the topic up) or Kenny at 34%, and it seems like Gilmore has his eyes on the prize.

Now, obviously there aren’t any earth-shattering conclusions to be drawn, but like I said, words can be fun.

Interesting nugget: none of the party leaders use the word “election” most. That honour goes to John Gormley (preying on his mind, perhaps?) followed closely by Micheál Martin.

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