FON, New Job and Commuting!

I regularly read other Irish blogs to see whats happening and whats the latest tech thing amongst others. It seems that may have come to fruition, with FON, a community wifi project, sending me out a free router!! I am exicted about this, as I hope to convince all my neighbours eventually to get it, and maybe who knows, I may even achieve the biggest fon hotspot, if I take my campaign estate wide, to neighbours all around! I want to “eat my own dog food” as they say, so I will wait until I have recieved and used my router before I recommend it to non-technical people. I have read of long delays on FON’s forums, so I expect iot should be here within two to three weeks, maybe a little longer. Also it comes with a european plug, not a Irish/British one, which is a bit of a disappointment that I will have to root out the screwdriver to make it fit!!!

Also, I was recently employed by the Irish National Lottery contractors, GTECH Ireland Operations, part of GTECH Corporation (who trade as GTK on New York Stock Exchange). It was voted one of the fifty best places to work last year. I am very exicited at the prospect, as I will gain many insights on the life of working. They own a number of franchise lotterys around the world, including the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain. I also, as part of my new job, join the Dublin commute. Iarnrod Eireann, while after coming on in recent years is a fine company, I still believe it has a long way to go. The lack of a cheap, clean and friendly transport system does hurt Dublin in terms of tourism and business, of that I have no doubt. I was recently in Rome, which you get 75 minutes unlimited travel on the bus, plus one metro journey, all for, get this, €1! Yes you read that correctly €1! Why can’t we do this? I think we can, but we need an integrated transport system first. How come after all these years you still cannot get a ticket for Bus, Train and Luas in one? Thats what baffles me the most, and it could make a huge difference, one ticket!