Congrats Pats on 16-0,
Well done to the NE Patriots on making NFL history with 16 victories from 16 games. The Giants gave them more of a match than they expected (38-35). Great to see some quality American football, we’re enjoying the season this side of the pond!
Finding live games online
I’ve been looking for some sites to watch GAA (Irish football) when I’ve been away on business, I still haven’t found one (you can watch it live if you’re within Ireland but that doesn’t help me!). I did find a site which shows live soccer matches, might be useful especially with the Euros coming up.
Why Eddie Must Go
Eddie O’Sullivan, manager of the Ireland rugby team, must go.
I am absolutely ****ing livid that anyone could even consider anything else for Irish rugby right now.
The honourable thing would be to resign but for financial reasons he probably won’t do that and I understand his position on that front. The IRFU board members responsible for the contract extension should also resign on general principles.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about “not making emotional decisions”, “let the dust settle”, “wait until after the competition before the inquest begins” and lots in a similar vein. Read more
Win Two Tickets to the Rugby World Cup Final! (yes, really)
You can win 2 tickets to the Rugby World Cup final by filling out this (bloody awful PDF) form online - good luck!
RWC vs the media
Thought you guys might be interested in this - hot off the presses at the RWC. I’m registered as a media agency for the RWC (no - unfortunately they didn’t deem me big enough to send me free tickets).
Rugby World Cup 2007 Statement
It is regrettable that certain members of the media should have decided to suspend pre-tournament coverage. This unjustifiable move is being presented as the direct response to allegedly unreasonable constraints on reporting imposed by the organisers of the tournament. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Indie Bike review
Indie Bike asked me for a review of their website or products, so I’ll concentrate the website and what I think they’re doing right and on a couple of key things I think they could improve.
What’s right?
Most of the elements of a successful e-commerce site are there, from the shopping cart to deal of the day, to the category layout, privacy and shipping informational pages. All the building blocks are in place.
What’s wrong?
Ok, so here’s a couple of things that I feel could be looked at. It’s an e-commerce site - you live and die by what customers think about your site, and this is mostly influenced by appearance. It looks like you have put a lot of effort into your back end structure in getting the infrastructure sorted out.
Where’s the bike?
But you’re missing a striking front end to the site - the current look and feel is lacking. One notable point- there is no picture of a bike anywhere on the homepage! I also think you could review the entire look and feel fairly easily.
I strongly recommend spending a couple of thousand dollars with a good web design company to get your cart template looking snazzy. Remember - e-commerce site - your website is not where you try to save money. I recommend finding a designer locally that you can meet in person and who you’ve had recommended by your peers.
Go international
Indie Bike does not ship internationally. International shipping will be offered in the future, but is not currently available.
Get it set up as quickly as possible. US based e-commerce companies are often surprised at how much of their customer base is international. For many countries in Europe, US prices are still the cheaper than local alternatives, even with high shipping costs!
Best of luck with it - if you’d like me to go into more detail than this 5 minute review you can contact me here.
Update: this Indie Bike Review was in dispute after ReviewMe.com refused payment despite it meeting all of their review guidelines. If you use ReviewMe.com I strongly urge caution. Tom from Indie Bike contacted me about this review and I understand that refusal of payment was not the fault of Indie Bike.
Get in shape fast - month of pain
I recently wrote about fitness and work life and running a business. I also made a promise over on my search engine marketing blog that during the month of September I’m going to post one blogging tip per day as a “penance” for my lack of posting over there recently.
I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in my body fat and weight over the last 12 months and it’s past time I rectified matters. I measured a fantastic 110.8kg today — 244lbs or 17.5 stone in old money. Wow. I’m normally around 92kg or 14.5 stone. Time for a change :)
So similar to my blogging pledge, during the month of September I’m hoping to put a serious dent into that figure. Not by crash dieting or anything stupid like that, but just by healthy eating and a significant amount of exercise every day. I’ll report back here at months end and post up for the record how I got on.