Copacetic

HP has abandoned the online backup service. I recieved this email today,

Thank you for your interest in HP Upline.
HP continually evaluates product lines and has decided to discontinue the HP Upline service on March 31, 2009.
HP will no longer be backing up your files to the HP Upline servers as of Feb 26, 2009 at 8 am Pacific time. HP will keep the file restore feature of the Upline service operational through March 31, 2009 Pacific time in order for you to download any files you have backed up to Upline.
If you have a paid subscription to HP Upline, you will be refunded the full amount of the fees you paid for the service. That refund will be credited to the credit card account or PayPal account that you used to subscribe to the Upline service. If you do not receive the refund prior to March 31, 2009, please contact our customer service team at https://www.upline.com/support/email.aspx.
HP looks forward to offering you additional technology products and services in the future.
Thank you.
HP Upline team
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do I restore files that are missing from my computer?
Files that are missing from your computer appear within the Missing Files window of the Upline desktop application.
Click ‘Retrieve All’ to restore all missing files to your computer or select individual files to restore and click ‘Retrieve’.
How do I uninstall the Upline software from my computer?
Exit the Upline desktop application.
For Windows XP users: Uninstall the software using Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
For Windows Vista users: Uninstall the software using Uninstall a Program in the Control Panel.
How do I turn off the Backup Summary message which happens after each attempted backup?
Click the ‘Settings’ link within the Upline desktop application.
Uncheck the ‘Show Backup or Retrieval summary’ box that appears on the Schedule tab and click ‘OK’.
You will need to provide your password for the change to take effect if you are using the Upline feature to prompt for password when making changes to settings.

I guess they realised they weren’t in the consumer business.  If you need a replacement online backup service, do please try out PutPlace.com.  Use the invitation code “joe” to get three  months free service.

I did this presentation today at the offices of Mason Hayes Curran. This is complemented by an excellent presentation by Philip Nolan on the legal aspects of cloud computing, Philips is below mine.

I attended Damien Mulley’s Collision Course Event tonight at the Edelman offices (thanks Piaras). The  show kicked off with a talk from Emily Hughes about her hugely successful Wispa Fan Club page on Bebo. A slow start and pretty much no promotion ended with thousands of fans and was instrumental in actually persuading Cadbury’s to relaunch the Wispa brand. They were contacted by the Cadbury’s PR company (Murrays) to help relaunch the bar and also got a few Wispa bars into the bargain.

Emily was refreshingly open and somewhat in awe of what she had achieved.  She answered a bunch of questions afterwards. In short, she didn’t get paid, but was very happy with what she had achieved and it certainly helped with her post-graduate degree application.

Damien then had us divide into three groups, with each group containing bloggers and PR people. We then had three scenarios to work up a PR response for,

• Get the Public to vote yes to the Lisbon Treaty
• Get a team who is in dispute with the manager to get their message out
• Help a major financial institution who’s CEO has had to resign for financial skulduggery

We all had 20 minutes to come up with a plan. Each team had one representative who them presented the plan.

The team I was on got the financial institution. We had worked through several high end blog/social network scenarios but were brought down to earth with a bump when one team member reminded us that the most effective way to deal with queries was a Locall number and a call centre. Chalk one up to the old school

The general consensus from all groups was,

• Identify your audience(s)
• Identify an effective channel to reach them (print media, social network, website, blog, call centre etc.)
• Provide a way to collect feedback (both solicited and unsolicited)
• Provide an internal clearing house to keep the message and feedback consistent

The finally issue we recognised is that unless the users can see that the dialog is having an effect they will see through a PR whitewash whether its done through the Irish Times or Facebook.

A very useful evening. Thanks Damien.

Dear ISA Member,

The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Software Association will be held on Thursday, 5th March at 9.30am in the offices of William Fry Solicitors, Fitzwilton House, Wilton Place, Dublin 2.

William Fry have kindly offered to host the AGM following the first in the series of collaborative Breakfast Briefings, “Technology Funding” which commences at 7.30am that morning. Further details on this, and subsequent briefings can be found in the attachment below.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank ISA Chairman Pat Brazel for his enormous contribution to Association throughout the duration of his tenure. Pat, along with a number of his Executive Council colleagues will be stepping down this year. Many thanks to all outgoing members of the Executive Council for their tireless efforts in highlighting the importance of the software sector to the growth of Ireland’s knowledge economy.

Nominations are now open to all ISA members who wish to sit on the Executive Council. Persons seeking to be put themselves forward for election to the Council are required to notify ISA Director, Kathryn D’Arcy : kathryn.d’arcy@ibec.ie or ISA Executive, Anna Donegan: anna.donegan@ibec.ie

Candidates will also be required to provide information about themselves including:

· the identity of the members who nominated them
· a short biography
· a summary of the reasons why the candidate is putting himself/herself forward for election to the Executive Council
· contribution they will bring to the Executive Council

Nominations will close at 5pm on Wednesday, 25th February 2009. An election may take place at the AGM pending the number of nominations put forward. Should you require any further information on the work of the Council or the ISA working groups please contact me.

Anna Donegan

The Tallaght IT M50 Incubator program is soliciting for applications to its spring program.

Apply now and get that company started.

@walter turns his considerable programming talents to twitter to generate a super cool mosaic of your twitter friends. Then he pops on his business hat and sells you teeshirts and bags.

Walter is a double plus good superhero because he does it all in the programmer’s favourite masochist language Perl

Get your twitter mosaic here.

For Northern Ireland companies only, but looks very good.

Need Funding? Are you ready to pitch to a VC?

NISP CONNECT PRESENTS:
“ENTREPRENEUR ACADEMY; VC READINESS” CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

NISP CONNECT is seeking up to twelve qualified companies for the upcoming Entrepreneur Academy; VC Readiness, an intense 5 day bootcamp from 5th to 11th May, 2009 for early stage companies hoping to raise private investment in 2009.

Applications for the Entrepreneur Academy will be accepted from 1st February through 31st March.

Entrepreneur Academy graduate companies will be considered to pitch to venture capitalists and angel investors in a number of upcoming events.

To submit an application for the Entrepreneur Academy, Apply Here

About Entrepreneur Academy
The Entrepreneur Academy is all about cramming years of street smarts and real-world experience into a week!  It is not “instructor-led, student-listen” class, you will learn as much from working with, and presenting to, your fellow participants as you will from the leader.  It is intense and brutal, just like the business world out there, but when you graduate, you’ll have years of experience to give your business an edge and a kick-start.

About VC Readiness
An intensive 5-day programme to qualify, prepare and present Northern Irish start-ups and entrepreneurs for engagement with VCs and fundraising. The programme will end with ventures pitching to multiple investors at one of three Capital events.

The course will be delivered by Silicon Valley based David Kirk, one of Northern Ireland’s most successful Tech Exiles, and covers: The business of venture capital, A day in the life of a VC (what a VC looks for), the elevator pitch, data sheet, investment pitch and business plan; their roles and structure. Style, image, projection. What to expect from a “value” VC

Access to Capital
At the end of the programme selected teams will have the opportunity to pitch at one or more of the following investment events:
• Halo angel investor network: remodelled and reborn the halo angel network is now stronger than ever
• Venture Capital Roundtable: NISP CONNECT Venture Roundtables are exclusive, private, invitation-only showcases for promising emerging technologies and companies in the region. Select entrepreneurs and scientists will have the opportunity to present their technology to a group of premier capital providers. NISP CONNECT’s Venture Roundtable will take place on June 11, 2009
• ITLG: “Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland” a delegation of leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from the world greatest centre of venture.

Eligibility
To be eligible to enrol in the academy, applicants must:
• have a business plan or business model slide deck
• have a technology related product or service
• have an incorporated / registered company with at least one full time employee
• looking for funding in 3-6 months, not yesterday.
• be prepared to dedicate 8*16 hours during the week of the bootcamp
• be Northern Ireland-based

Cost
This programme is provided free of charge to entrepreneurs who are accepted on to the programme, but space is strictly limited to a maximum of twelve companies, and one representative per company.

For more information regarding the Entrepreneur Academy, please contact Roisin Clancy at 02890 737 920, roisin.clancy@nisp.co.uk

David Kirk Bio
A successful entrepreneur and investor, both private and institutional. During his career – over three decades of software, networking and telecommunications – he has held positions in engineering, marketing and sales, with startups and Fortune 10 companies. He has held executive level positions at American Online, where he led the world-wide launch of their online service, and managed the development and operations of their business systems, including billing, eCommerce, Internet advertising and fraud management. After AOL, David was Senior Vice President at Cisco Systems, where he managed their core software development, and was general manager of their enterprise business. David was born in Belfast, and now resides in California. He has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from DeMontfort University (previous Leicester Polytechnic) in Leicester, England.

A bus hit a tree this morning just past the Five Lamps. Looks like it clipped a tree (notice the damage on the tree just where the branches start to fan out) and it stripped the roof off. Don’t know if there were any injuries.

News report from RTE.

Another picture on pix.ie.