Eclipse...... The Twilight Saga!!

Excitement is brewing with the release of the 3rd installment of the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, due for release in June. Eclipse is my favourite of all the four books and revolves around a love triangele between Bella, Edward and Jake. The two previous films Twilight and New Moon that have been previously released have been brilliant but New Moon definately outshone Twilight as it stuck to the story line in the book unlike the first.

However, I am feeling slightly worried by how fast they were able to make Eclipse. I hope that they havent rushed it just to release the film. I am expecting great things from the film and hope that I am not disappointed. If it is made similar to the storyline in the book then they will be winning. Every page of the book kept me gripped and I coudn't put it down for one second. No doubt that the sight of Jake and Edward will put a smile on my face and make the film bearable even if they changed some of the story.

The success from both the books and the first two films has made the Twilight more of an obsession for most fans and I highly doubt that any girl would be scared of a vampire coming through their window to give them the kiss of death!!! =)

Eclipse Official Trailer

Mobile Commerce

The developments in the technology industry have been extensive over the last number of years and have had a direct impact on how people live their day to day life. Everything from mobile phones to the internet, have become an integral part of how people run everything from their social life to their businesses. The advances in this industry are continuously on going and people want to have the most up to date technology of whats available.

Mobile Phones have had the biggest impact on peoples lives. If anyone had said ten years ago that people would be dependent on a small handheld device that they could call and message people from, on the go, they would have been called crazy!! Mobile phones are now being designed to have everything from e-mail to GPS systems already installed. People want their phones to have more functions so that they have the option of doing almost anything on the go. Businesses are now using mobile phones as a way of marketing their products and services, by texting special offers for example directly to a possible customers handset. Businesses also use mobile phones for contact between employees and it allows them to check emails and other information on the go. The most recent developments in this area is the change to 3g and bluetooth enabled handsets. 3g allows more functions to be carried out across the network like calling, texting, e-mail and internet all being supported by the same connection. The possibilites for this sector is enddless and there is now talk of developing a 4g network.

The internet itself has become not only a necessity on a mobile phone but also in most homes in the country. The most recent development in this area is the introduction of WIFI. WIFI basically allows people to connect to an internet connect wirelessly, without the use of cables or wires. The cables and wires that were previously used to connect to the internet restricted where you could connect and also the speed of the connection was slow depending on the cables used. WIFI has overcome these problems by allowing people to connect where ever they want and the speed of the connection is improved also.

These developments have been basically designed to overcome the problems and restrictions that people faced with technology. No doubt there will be more technological advances for the future and in ten years time we will look back and think that the technology now was that of the stoneage.

Web Standards!

A set of web standards have been set to help in the development of websites. These standards have been brought about to make sure that all the information on the web is readily available and also makes web development more enjoyable. The standards have been put in place to ensure that this takes place and also makes it easier for people who have special needs to use the internet and its reources.

The World Wide Web Consortium(W3C) is led by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee. The consortium is made up of over 450 organisations. The aim of the consortium is to develop these standards to improve the operation of web related products. The consortium makes recommendations which are devloped by members and also experts in certain related fields. The Web Accessibility Initiative was developed in order to improve the accessibility of sites for people with special needs. It has now become a legal requirement for sites to make sure that they abide by these guidlines to avoid legal action. The guidelines and areas that need to be addressed are all available from the W3C site.

My time in D.K.I.T...... get d tissues ready!! =(

Becoming one of the many students at D.K.I.T, happened by pure chance.... I just accepted the first offer of an Event Management course and thought I would give it a whirl because one of my friends had just done first year and thought it was great. It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life. The four years that I have spent in the college has been made up of assignments, stress but mostly of great craic with all my friends and nights out that most of us dont remember!!

It makes me sad to think that it all has to come to an end. In three weeks, I will no longer be a student of D.K.I.T and will have to move out of 58. :( It can be guaranteed though that I will be emotionally unstable over the next few days and will probably have a little cry at our farewell party tomorrow with our lecturers.
I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by, but I dont for second regret a day that passed in college. I have made life long friends and created memories and some great stories with these people....

So now its time to grow up and get a proper job and be mature!! :( ugh..... I will never forget the 4years that I spent here, they were the best of my life!

Technology Fast...... I wimped out, kind of!!!!

So its day 2 of the technology fast and I am now sitting in the library... online and also texting. I wimped out and decided that I couldn't do without my phone or the internet today!! :( My phone is like an extension of my arm and I felt lost without it, even just to check the time. But I will try from 6pm to give it up until class tomorrow and that will be a massive effort!!! At least I tried though unlike some people in the class, like Michael for example, who prentends like he doesn't "need" his phone..... ha, yeah right, he's never off it. He's sitting in the library on his ghetto typing about how certain people gave in and he didnt even try!! LOOSER!

I have stuck to not going on facebook though, well except for 10mins yesterday which is an absolute miracle. So now I am really going to give it a go.... I am going to publish this post and get offline and give my phone to Jemma until class tomorrow!!!..... Fingers crossed I last!! I'll probably just go crazy!


So I ended up going a whole 18 hours without my phone, internet or e-mail. The worst one would have to be my phone, its mad how reliant I have become to all these new technologies. I felt as though I was out out of touch with everyone and that I had no way of contacting them. I dont know how anybody could be without any of these technologies now as they have become an essential part of everyday life for everyone.

Euro Disney, France Vs Disneyland, Florida

Recently returned from a holiday in Euro Disney Paris, I was kind of disappointed about how different it is to the one in Florida. I travelled there with two of my sisters,one of which I was in holidays with in Florida. It became obvious as the holiday went on that we were constantly comparing everything to Florida.

Obviously the one in Florida is about five times the size of the one in France but everything from the people to the atmosphere was completely different. Grown people were skipping children in the ques in France and the staff that worked there were completely ignorant and I have no idea how they even got their jobs. They were so impolite as soon as they heard that we spoke English and not French. In the current economic climate I think that they should appreciate tourists from other countries pumping money into their economy.

The cost of everything there ensured that we spent a fortune. I cant understand how Florida could afford to sell the merchandise for far less than that in France. A pen was about €5.00?..... and a pint was €6.00 and that was in the cheapest bar in the area. It cost €8 for chewing gum and a bottle of water in the airport..... It was such a rip off. Then to add to my disgust the staff at the airport were the most ignorant people I ever met in my life!!!!

So to save people wasting money going to France, I would advise you not to bother and spend a little extra going to Florida. The staff and even the people in the parks are so polite and would do anything to help you. There is no such thing as skipping the Que there and although the ques are longer it is still better value for money than Paris. Everything in Florida is probably half the price and the weather, atmosphere and friendly people make it a far nicer resort to visit. Click here to have a closer look at Disneyland Florida.

Search Engine Marketing.....

So... Search Engine Marketing(SEM), is basically using search engines such as google/yahoo for example, as a way of marketing your company. There are two ways in which you can use SEM to get a positive outcome. These are:-
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Paid or Sponsored Links

Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) is basically a method for ranking web pages based on their importatnce/ relevance to the search that has been entered into the search bar. There are ways in which companies can ensure that they fall into the top rankings on sites such as google and yahoo. These methods include putting key words or phrases on the page and include a title tag on every page of the site. This method of marketing is completely free and the ranks are based on the information provided on the websites,


The sponsored links are basically there to entice viewers away from the organic links(developed through SEO). The organisations that use this method have to pay for where there ad is placed on the page. They pay a certain amount to the search engine for every time that someone clicks on the link and is directed to the page, they pay per click. The only downside to this is that people may click on your link but you may not gain from this. For instance, if you didnt like someone you could just keep clicking on their link and cost them loads of money!!

Learning outcome:- Design a realy clever website to make sure that you rank top in google.... or spend a fortune on sponsored links and have people who dont like you click on them all day long!!!


Some tips from the experts.

What is NAMA???..........

NAMA has become a buzz word over the last year. Although it has been said hundreds of times on the news and in newspaper articles I still up until today never actually knew what it meant and what it was developed for. I was under the impression that NAMA was the governements answer to the recession and that by some sort of miracle it was going solve Irelands recession. This is probably the assumption that the government want people to make but for those of you who are as much in the dark as I was this blog is should help!

NAMA stands for the National Asset Management Agency. The government developed the asset management agency to deal with assets that have been transferred from banks. However, NAMA itself is not a bank, it will only be taking on bad(non performing loans) and good (performing loans). These loans are not necessarily in monetary terms, they are physical assets such as land and property.

So in effect NAMA is going to take over all of the six banks loans that could reach in the value between €80 to €90 billion. The government hope that by doing this that it will enable the banks to continue lending. But to date I don't see how NAMA has helped Ireland in the recession. The banks are still in debt even after these loans have been taken over by NAMA and its up to the tax payer to foot the bill.... again!!!

So basically the government introduced NAMA to solve all of Irelands problems and as usual it hasn't. The economy is still in the same state if not even worse than last year...