Cool Sites

Butch Bakery - Manly Cupcakes

2010-07-21T09:27:24Z

Someone sent me the link to Butch Bakery this morning and I simply had to give them a mention.

What is it?

They're a bakery in New York

What makes them special?

Their product. Sure they're just selling "cup cakes", but they've managed to take a simple product and give it a new and interesting twist and that's what caught my attention

The graphical style and other elements on the site all reenforce the concept they're driving - making cupcakes more appealing to boys .. more macho basically

I love it!

Go play with their site

Answering A Simple Question - When Will It Be Released On DVD (or BluRay)

2010-02-17T20:45:45Z

If, like me, you love film, then you will probably find VideoETA to be incredibly useful.

No. It is not a beautiful website, but boy is it functional.

VideoETA's only purpose is to give you, the viewer, information on DVD and BluRay release dates.

While the dates it uses are US only it's still incredibly useful.

With more and more titles being released at almost the same time on both sides of the Atlantic and a growing number of studios offering "region free" BluRay discs, this sort of service is useful.

Personally I'm an addict!

So, for example, if you loved Avatar and want to know when it's going to be available to own, then VideoETA will be able to tell you that it is currently scheduled for a June release.

Their blog is also a pretty good source of film news, though it may not be on a par with some of the big movie news sites.

Outvesting - Supporting Business Development

2009-10-13T09:06:42Z

One of the problems that startups have is getting funds.

So a few people came up with the idea of "outvesting", which they describe as:

"The act of committing money to a business while expecting to get nothing in return, other than the satisfaction of giving a leg up to Irish entrepreneurs."

The idea is pretty simple - pledging €50 each towards startups. €50 isn't much, but when you multiply it by 40, 50 or 100 it becomes a "nice chunk of cash".

Further details on the site

Deal A Day

2009-07-30T12:03:38Z

Since everyone seems to be concerned about saving money and getting "deals" it's inevitable that I end up looking at more "deal" sites ...

One that has been around for several years is iBOOD (Internet's Best Online Offer Daily).

Every day they have a different offer on a single product.

What kind of products do they offer?

They all seem to be electronics of some kind and vary from digital cameras to 40" LCD tvs with huge discounts (most seem to be 50% off or more)

While I haven't bought anything from them as yet, anyone who has was happy with the delivery times etc., so it seems to work well

Bidding Can Be Fun

2009-07-22T13:04:14Z

The idea behind BidRivals isn't that complicated.

They sell electronics, such as Sony Playstation 3, at a fraction of their normal retail price. How? By making it into an auction.

When the clock stops whoever has the bid wins.

Not that complicated really.

You can get more details on how the process works on their site.

While obviously winning isn't that easy I'd view it as a good chance to get a high value item for a fraction of its retail price PLUS it's saner option than a normal betting site...

Tours of Dublin in Spanish

2009-05-23T12:01:14Z

All too often English speakers forget that they are not the only people on the face of the planet. It's all too easy to forget that there are other language groups out there and that they too have money to spend!

So when I came across Dublin en Español I was very impressed! This is the kind of service that we should see more of. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and providing services to Spanish speakers in their native tongue makes sense.

The company offers a variety of tours of Dublin city in Spanish (thence the name!)

More details on their site

KidareStreet - Bringing Access To Government A Step Further

2009-04-23T22:22:17Z

Image via Wikipedia

Successive Irish governments have talked about "initiatives" to encourage "egovernment". Some of the work they've done has been pretty good, but a lot of it wasn't exactly stellar.

So it's great to see that a totally independent, citizen volunteer project like Kildare Street has not only managed to give us, the people, access to Dail (parliament) transcripts, but also allows to pass comments, get alerts and so much more.

Kildare Street is the brainchild of John Handelaar and is based on similar project in the UK.

John's announcement explains it all:

Since 20th January 2004, the Dáil has been in session for 493 days (including today).

Up until this morning TDs made 249,489 speeches, and asked 160,503 questions which received written responses.

On average, TDs are producing 507 speeches and 326 written answers per sitting day.

And Handelaar's site has now made all of that content accessible and searchable.

Now that is cool!

Get Some Gift Inspiration

2009-04-13T13:52:44Z

The people behind People Love Presents sent me a captivating email a few weeks ago and I have to admit I found the site itself to be captivating in its own right.

The idea behind it isn't terribly original, but the presentation and execution is simple and stylish, which should make it a "winner" in many respects.

Basically the site editors trawl online shops for new, exciting and quirky goods and then recommend them to readers based on gender, age, price etc.,

One little detail impressed me - they clearly state whether an item is available for delivery to Ireland or not - that alone saves time!

MacHeist Combines Great Software With Philanthropy

2009-04-05T13:05:28Z

As a Mac user you get to hear about "cool software" for the Mac all the time. However not all software is as cool or as accessible as others.

What the guys at MacHeist have managed to do, however, is to combine software package deals with a philanthropy to make for a winning combination.

MacHeist run an offer a couple of times a year where you can get several hundred dollars worth of software for less than $50 (the latest bundle is $39).

What makes the deal even more interesting is that 25% of all sales revenue goes to a number of charities

The latest "heist" has so far sold over 43 thousand bundles and raised over $403 thousand for charity!

If you're a Mac user or know someone who is then this makes for a wonderful gift

Saving Words From Extinction

2009-02-08T13:05:00Z

Stephen Fry mentioned a site on Twitter that really caught my eye - savethewords.org

Language is constantly evolving, with words being added all the time, while other words "fade" into obscurity.

The "save the words" site highlights and promotes words that are falling out of use

Is it going to improve your life? Probably not.

Is it fun? Definitely

Cool Polystyrene Stuff

2009-02-07T11:37:13Z

If you'd told me a couple of weeks ago that I'd be a fan of polystyrene stuff I'd probably have laughed at you.

Seriously.

The nice people over in MadeinHollywood, however, have made me "see the light".

They did up a really nice set of horse's heads for us:

(see the comments and more here)

So now I'm a big fan.

If you want to see what kind of stuff they've done for other people, then head over to their site and peruse their portfolio.

I'd have never thought that polystyrene could be cool, but it is!

IGOPeople Putting A Slightly Different Spin On Social Networks

2009-01-18T20:08:22Z

I'm more than a little jaded by the plethora of "social" sites and services that have been springing up over the last couple of years.

Do we really need another one?

What can site X offer that isn't already available via sites A, B or C?

That was my state of mind when I first heard about IGO people.

I'll be honest. I didn't want to signup and I couldn't see any benefit in having "yet another bloody login".

However a good friend asked me to give it a try, so I did.

IGO People is a slightly different concept:

I - individuals
G - groups
O - organisations

And the entire site is structured around these three types of user (admittedly there is an overlap...)

I grabbed a quick screenshot of the homepage a few minutes ago:
It's a nice way to interact and discuss organisations (companies etc.,) groups and individuals. What makes it a small bit different is that a lot of the content isn't behind a "wall" (unlike so many of the social network sites)

It's still in beta and they are adding new features, but it could become a very useful platform for companies and their clients who seek a medium to interact. While facebook has its "groups" and "pages" the IGO platform would appear to be more open and flexible and hopefully will remain less cluttered (ie. no annoying apps )

One to watch!

OpenZap Collecting Links From Twitter

2009-01-11T12:21:11Z

Apart from chatter, one of the things you see a lot of on social networks like Twitter are links to other sites.

OpenZap collects a lot of these links and allows people to vote on them, a bit like Digg.

It's an interesting idea, though how useful is actually is remains to be seen

Quality Stock Images At Low Prices

2009-01-03T13:03:31Z

Using images in a website or blog can make a huge difference. A visualisation of a metaphor can be a lot more powerful than any words.

Unfortunately stock images can be very expensive, so a lot of people end up abusing other people's images and breach copyright, which isn't a very good idea!

IStockPhoto, however is an excellent solution to the problem.

With images priced from as low as $1 you can easily find a photo or graphic that fits your requirements and thus avoid painful legal battles.

I've been using their services for the last couple of years to help illustrate company websites and blogs and I'm always impressed with the quality of the images that they have to offer and at such a great price.

IrishBlogs.ie

2009-01-02T15:05:30Z

While it may not be the most visually attractive website, IrishBlogs.ie wins me over as it's so useful.

IrishBlogs.ie is a blog aggregator ie. it collects the blog posts from multiple blogs and bloggers, which in this instance are all Irish or related to Ireland.

As you explore the site you can see that it groups posts on particular subjects etc.,

A handy resource, especially if you want to find out what Irish bloggers are saying about you or your business

On a related note.. the Irish Blog Awards are now accepting nominations