Planet Marc

January 27, 2012

xkcd

January 26, 2012

Piaras Kelly

Irish Results of 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer

We announced the Irish findings of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer this morning. The deck is available to view below. Some interesting findings as usual this year, an overview of the key results can be found here.

by Piaras at January 26, 2012 09:29 AM

January 25, 2012

xkcd

January 23, 2012

Ryan Sherlock

A summary of the 2011 bad bits


It's always hard to write a summary when things didn't exactly go to plan. My 2011 season, my first where I concentrated on road cycling, was a real mixed bag. Sickness, health, national titles and missed targets – a bit of everything.
Things went well for me during the 2010/2011 winter. My job was busy but I was able to consistently get good training in in decent weather with enough recovery. I came into the end of February as strong as I had ever been and as lean/light as was reasonably possible.

My season ahead looked great – I would start racing with Giant/Kenda Pro Cycling (a UCI Continental team) in Asia at the start of March with a Criterium in Singapore, then the 6 day Jelajah Malaysia followed by the 10 day Tour de Taiwan – happy days.

The happy days were pretty short lived – the day before the start of Jelajah Malaysia, the worst road crash I have had left me covered in road rash and aching all over – exactly what you don't want the day before you start a stage race with 200km+ per day in the saddle in tropical heat/weather. I could hardly sleep at night, I stuck to the sheets and on reflection after the stages, my power meter said I was barely turning the pedals. Not so good.

Ouch - and yeah, I was lean
With a week between Jelajah and the Tour de Taiwan, I hoped most of my wounds would heal and the legs would come back – it didn't happen like that. I was fine on any of the mountain stages but the snap, the extra 10%, was never there – it frustrated me – I didn't know what was happening. I was as strong or stronger than a large part of the peleton – but that wasn't what I trained for – I trained to be faster than that.

I came home somewhat dejected from the experience and FOUR kilograms heavier! What the hell happened to me?!? Asian buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner is something to be feared was amongst my take home lessons – I have learnt from it and made adjustments.

I started racing at home and sometimes felt okay but most of the time felt drained. I couldn't train as hard as usual, I couldn't race as hard, and I felt I had to sleep in the middle of every day. Oh, and work was still busy. My next port of call was a trip to the doctor for full blood work and many many tests to investigate what was happening. The result – well, my blood values where 20% below what I would normally see – I was heavily anemic... Starts to explain some things. I went on iron supplements, but months later there was still no change – it was a very frustrating time. I couldn't race as hard I wanted, I couldn't even train hard.

Eventually, my doctor decided that iron injections may help my situation (4 months of normal supplementation didn't do anything for me) – 3 weeks later, bing, blood values shot back up, even before I found the results, I knew things were different – I felt healthier and was able to train harder – the probable reason for my issues: a viral infection picked up in Malaysia. Unfortunately, at this point I was most of the way through the season and I was not as race fit as I should be. A trip to Gran Canaria for 10 days of hard training and I returned feeling much more like myself and finished off my season strong winning a few races and retaining my MTB Marathon National Championship.

A lesson I learn't during the year was to really follow and trust my instincts in relation to my health. I knew when I was strong, and I knew when I was weak – I really should have gotten on top of my health issues as soon as I started to feel weak and really focused on fixing it rather than continuing at 70%. All the signs were there, the power to heart rate ratio changed dramatically, poor recovery, saddle sores, motivation issues. Was it over training? No – I seriously doubt that, considering how quickly I recovered once the iron issues were resolved (without taking a break from training) – it wouldn't make sense.

Defending my MTB Marathon Title

If you have been following my blog over the last while, you'll know that my season wasn't all bad, lots of great things happened (I won my first stage race while still being 'sick') and there were parts that I really enjoyed – it's just, I like to remain honest on the blog and level out the good things with the bad. When things are going well, it is easy to tap down a few words but to be more complete, sometimes you have to write about the tough times.

Next up, a post on my preparation for 2012 (hint – things are going well - I'm feeling good, lean and happy – but I still need a team!)




by Ryan Sherlock (noreply@blogger.com) at January 23, 2012 11:58 AM

xkcd

January 21, 2012

Piaras Kelly

Flipping The Tables

It’s not uncommon to hear complaints from companies after a prerecorded television interview airs. A company representative might be interviewed for up to an hour, but ultimately a couple of minutes airs and the rest of the footage ends up on the cutting room floor. The ensuing accusation goes along the lines that footage that aired is not a fair reflection of the overall interview, with the producers picking and choosing segments to make the interviewee come out in the worst light.

This is a similar complaint that the Ultimate Fighting Championship made after an ESPN feature on fighter pay aired recently. The UFC took an interesting position when responding to the piece. They had also recorded the full interview and retaliated by posting it online. The move reflects the company’s overall slick PR machine and leverages the UFC’s huge online audience.

I’ve embedded the full video response below, but I’ve also included a clip immediately underneath which shows how well prepared UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was for the interview. Fertitta flips the tables on the interviewer by pointing out how little some fighters on ESPN boxing bouts make, completely undermining their ‘expose’ on fighter pay.

Loreno Fertitta flips the tables on ESPN

Full UFC Response

From an issues management perspective, the incident follows a trend of organizations using the Internet as an unfiltered platform to respond to negative coverage, without the restriction of column inches or the length of the show.

Hats off to some slick PR by the UFC.

by Piaras at January 21, 2012 01:59 PM

January 20, 2012

xkcd

January 18, 2012

xkcd

January 16, 2012

xkcd

January 13, 2012

xkcd

Robert Synnott

Introspection

So, for the last couple of years I feel like I've been stuck in a rut. I'm not depressed, as such; been there, done that, it's a lot different. I'm just a bit, well, apathetic. Anyway, I just realised that in a bit over a year, it'll be ten years since I started college. Ten years! So I'd really better snap out of it, start doing stuff again. Hobbies, not dreading the long evenings, etc. Maybe even get back to writing this blog!

Well, that's it, really. I just wanted to get that out, so I told the Internet, which hopefully is too busy with popup ads and cat photos and The Twitter to judge me for it.

by Robert Synnott (noreply@blogger.com) at January 13, 2012 12:05 AM

January 11, 2012

xkcd

January 10, 2012

Mackers

Firefox Add-ons

Add-ons are small pieces of software that add new features or functionality to your installation of Firefox. Add-ons can augment Firefox with new features, foreign language dictionaries, or change its visual appearance. Through add-ons, you can customize Firefox to meet your needs and tastes.

For the last few years I have working with Mozilla and Briks to create some cool add-ons for developers and users. Here is a selection of the add-ons I helped develop:

  • The official Mozilla Add-on Collector allows you to discover more of the best add-ons and organize your favorites in easy-to-manage collections. Subscribe to see how the collections you admire grow, and fans follow when you manage and update your own collections.
  • The Mozilla Add-on Compatibility Reporter helps Mozilla make sure your favorite add-ons get updated for upcoming Firefox releases by using this extension to report whether they still work or are having some issues with alpha and beta releases. Note: Recommended for alpha and beta users only!
  • Seismic Shaker rattles your browser window whenever a strong earthquake occurs near you. This add-on won the “Most Creative New Add-on” prize at the Mozilla Summit 2010.
  • Facebook’s Toolbar for Firefox integrates your Facebook life into your browser.
  • Microsoft’s HTML5 Extension for Windows Media Player Firefox Plug-in is an add-on that enables Firefox users to play H.264-encoded videos on HTML5 pages by using the built-in capabilities found in Windows 7.
  • Frogger was one of my all time favorite arcade games. Froggr brings the fun to Firefox. Ideal for a sneaky game at lunchtime.
  • Xultris is a variant of the computer game classic Tetris.

 

by mackers at January 10, 2012 02:44 PM

Free and Open Source Software

‘Free software’ is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ‘free’ as in ‘free speech,’ not as in ‘free beer’.

-Richard M. Stallman

I try to publish all my work in the public domain under a MPL or GPL license. This includes personal projects, tools, art and professional work.

  • My Mozilla work goes out on AMO.
  • Anything else gets pushed out to GitHub.
  • Oh and I still have some stuff on CPAN.

 

by mackers at January 10, 2012 02:13 PM

Piaras Kelly

Stuff That Caught My Attention #19

Couple of things that caught my attention over the Christmas break.

This ad by Mercedes for its new E Class range caught my attention primarily because I never expected something like it from a brand like Mercedes. With car advertising becoming so serious these days, it’s nice to see a brand highlight its safety features in a more light hearted fashion.

Lovely ad by Kodak for its Inkjet printers, which not only nicely illustrates why people should print more images, but it also communicates its value proposition well.

There was a lovely feature in the Sunday Times about an initiative to mark the Queen’s diamond Jubilee in the UK. Face Britain is a national project that invites all young people in the UK to submit a self-portrait. The artwork will be part of a world record attempt and turned into a mosaic which will then be projected onto Buckingham Palace.

There’s a new feature on Twitter which allows you to embed tweets on your blog. Here’s a guide how to do it.

by Piaras at January 10, 2012 01:24 PM

January 09, 2012

xkcd

January 08, 2012

Robert Synnott

Come Censor with Me

I was watching Come Dine with Me with the subtitles on (as you do), when I noticed something vaguely interesting. One contestant was bemoaning her shriveled vegetables; the commentator's line was "Shriveled or not, the show must go on", but the subtitles said "Shriveled or not, the show must go on, as the actress said to the vicar". I assume this was considered a little racy for a respectable Channel 4 show about having horrible people over to your house, particularly as one of the guests was a vicar...

by Robert Synnott (noreply@blogger.com) at January 08, 2012 06:09 PM