John Breslin's blog

On this day...

Posted Wed, 08/01/2007 - 14:46 by John Breslin

...August 1st, 1774: the British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered the chemical element oxygen, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

(Oxegene is one of my favourite albums, and 1774 was my old member ID in the World DX Club.)

Going to Edinburgh...

Posted Fri, 07/20/2007 - 14:16 by John Breslin

Off to Edinburgh for a week, will report on the trip when I get back! Hope to make it to a Harry Potter launch somewhere, there seems to be a lot going on there especially since it is where JK Rowling is based.

Sponsors wanted for BarCamp Galway!

Posted Thu, 07/12/2007 - 19:38 by John Breslin

If you are interested in sponsoring BarCamp Galway, do let us know!

This will go towards tea / coffee, lunch, t-shirts and anything else that is required for the event…

E-mail us at barcampgalway at gmail dot com or post a reply here.

BarCamp Galway postponed by one week...

Posted Thu, 07/12/2007 - 17:19 by John Breslin

...due to a clash of dates for yours truly. It seems bad that I have to reorganise the date for the people who have signed up so far, and I apologise, but it is probably worse than not being here to organise things on the date of the event.

So following discussion with Conor and Aidan, we have agreed to postpone BarCamp Galway until 22nd September 2007.

I will be e-mailing as many of the potential attendees as possible. Thanks for your understanding.

Schmap tourist guides

Posted Mon, 07/09/2007 - 16:28 by John Breslin

Just found out about the Schmap set of dynamic travel guides, since a Flickr photo of mine was selected as the image for King's Chapel in Boston. The site uses Google Maps for plotting and navigating through the various attractions.

Irish breakfast reviews

Posted Mon, 07/09/2007 - 13:34 by John Breslin

If you love your Irish breakfasts like me, check out the new Rashers and Eggs site for some big breakfast reviews by Andy.

Another Lord of the Rings link to NUI Galway

Posted Sat, 06/30/2007 - 20:32 by John Breslin

An interesting comment by NUI Galway President Iggy Ó Muircheartaigh at last week's graduation (in reference to Enya's music for the Lord of the Rings): he said that JRR Tolkien was an external examiner for the University in the 1950s.

"Paddy's Valley" Trip

Posted Sat, 06/30/2007 - 15:35 by John Breslin

A bunch of Irish people and others are travelling to Silicon Valley on 2nd December 2007 to try and build some long-term relationships and friendships with the people over there (so it's good for the Valley and good for the Paddys!). You can be a company, a sole trader or just a nosy person who wants to meet up with people over there... More information at paddysvalley.org.

At BarCamp Belfast...

Posted Sat, 06/30/2007 - 14:55 by John Breslin

...and everything is going to plan so far. There're about 20 people here already, with more on the way. Listening to Gráinne from InterTradeIreland talking about the Seedcorn business competition... I'll be talking about Semantic Web 2.0 later on, and also looking forward to talks from Paul Browne and Alastair McDermott.

Enya receives honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, Galway

Posted Fri, 06/29/2007 - 20:28 by John Breslin

Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (Enya) was among six recipients of honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland, Galway at a ceremony held at noon today.