This is the most ridiculous group on the whole of Facebook.

You *DO* have a choice whether or not you fly with them.

You, as a consumer, can decide to spend your money on an alternative that will get you from where you are, to where you want to go. The fact is that Ryanair has managed to connect so many far-flung destinations, and lock down those routes, that few other airlines are able to have such dominance on those weird routes that you take for granted. If it was not for Ryanair, it is unlikely that many regional airports would have even been built, let alone become important economic hubs.

As for the service, get real. You are paying absolute rock bottom prices (sometimes less than a bus fare) to travel hundreds of miles in fairly moderate comfort. Outside of the first class cabin on a Virgin Atlantic flight, air travel is a filthy process, physically and economically, whatever airline you decide to fly with. Extra charges are clearly marked - if you see a pre-selected option on a menu that annoys you for charging you "too much", and you don't bother to see if there are any other Free options, then you are an idiot. If you disagree me, the best thing that you, the consumer can do, is either stay at home, or fly with someone else Just don't think that joining a Facebook group is in any way going to combat basic Economics.

Oh, and to the creator of the group who says "Checked in luggage is only 15 kilos thats just enough room for a laptop 2 pairs of shoes, toiletries & hairdryer, so if your going for a weeks holiday you are basically screwed..." there is literally no combination of events on this Earth that will make you need 3 different sets of footwear within a 7 day window. 

Cheers.

Just found my old Nokia N95 and on it were some pics I took FOWA 2008 in London. Damn that was an awesome conference.

Yes that's Zuckerberg.

     

Click here to download:

PICDrunkenly_meeting_KevinRose.zip (1214 KB)

I was looking for 'to-do' list apps for my Mac this morning and was pretty non-plussed by the usual suspects; Things, EtreTask, CheckOff etc etc..

So I made my own.

   

Click here to download:

Make_an_awesome_to-do_list_app.zip (357 KB)

Neat huh?

I'm using an Agile development tool called AgileZen which lets you set up an online Kanban board pretty easily (for a single user it's totally free). I then used Fluid to turn my board into a native OSX app which I can fire up from my desktop an use independently of my web browser. (Instructions below)

This rocks because I now not only have quick access to the basic 'to-do' features the other apps can provide (task ordering, prioritisation, tags), but also some of the other productivity stuff the free version of AgileZen lets you play with..

- Better task visualisation (view backlog, 'ready' tasks, stuff you're currently working on, completed tasks and archived tasks)
- Task owners/creators
- Total work time
- Charts denoting different phases of work
- Efficiency metrics

Anyway, here's how to make your own awesome (and free) desktop to-do list..

1. Sign up for a free AgileZen account
http://www.agilezen.com/pricing

2. Have a play around, read some of the hints and tips, and create your first board. This board will be your to-do list, and you can rename it later.

3. Download and run Fluid - this will turn (almost) any URL you feed it into a native desktop app
http://fluidapp.com/

4. Configure Fluid by adding the URL of your AZ board and click 'Create'

5. Fire up your new app and go to Preferences/Advanced. Select the option to 'allow browsing to any URL'

6. You're done! Log in to AgileZen through your new app and feel smug.

Plug alert: this works well for an individual - if you have a few people working with you, check out Teambox, a really cool project management tool built in Barcelona

Hijacking the WiFi at your old university may make you feel smug at having blagged yourself some free workspace, but reality has to kick in sooner or later... 

Seriously - wtf? Do a twitter search right now for DanielBru and take a look at this humdinger of an affair. Daniel is a 17 year old Entrepreneur in the Valley who seems to run his own successful conference, Teens in Tech, and until recently was an intern at TechCrunch. Daniel, however, has just been ousted for soliciting a Macbook from one or more Startups looking for a favourable review on TC.

I think this was an idiotic thing to do from Daniel's point of view - TechCrunch's reputation is based on the integrity of its news and support for what is 'right' in Startup Land, and for an intern to abuse their link in such an organisation is pretty nasty. This particular case could be seen as bribery too.

But I am totally perplexed by how this situation is being massaged out of proportion. THIS IS A 17 YEAR OLD KID PEOPLE. Young. People. Make. Mistakes. Old people too.

Daniel's mistake is extremely serious, and now very public, but he should not deserve the hounding he is getting on Twitter at the moment from some individuals who are demanding he makes an extra-grovelling apology above and beyond this statement on his blog. He fucked up, and a culture of being able to fuck up, dust yourself off and start again is one of the things I'm envious of America for. He has been stripped of his internship and had all his content deleted. If his actions were illegal, I am sure he will be dealt with by the law. He has publicly said sorry on his blog. For a few entrepreneurs to carry on baying for some kind of  'Tech Justice' above that shows a lack of perspective.

I find it all a bit bonkers really.

If you fancy rocking some funky social media icons like I have to the right of my blog, you can download a full pack of icons for free from Inspired Mag, here. They were designed by Barcelona-based illustrator Xavier Gallego, who is so full of awesomeness that he went and founded a whole company out of these little pieces of art dubbed The Eyesores.

He has a Facebook app with over 152,000 active monthly users, which lets people send Eyesores to each other as virtual gifts. He doesn't know it yet but I'm going to a video interview with him when I go over to Barcelona in a month, so stay tuned for more on him and his creations!

A quick update on my earlier attempt to grow and consume some wheatgrass...

Today I got impatient and decided it was grinding day. Wheatgrass must be ground gently by hand to make sure it retains all its grassy goodness, and if you buy it in a juice bar, you'll notice their grinders are hand operated. So pure are the vitamins in a shot of wheatgrass, that subjecting them to a bashing in an electric grinder would be sacrilege. Apparently.

So, here's what we've got...

1. A Bunch of Wheatgrass, grown for just over 2 weeks (minus a few trimmings from my confused mother who thought I was growing a herb garden)

2. My friend's grinder

After cutting the grass and giving it a whirl in the grinder, lo and behold....

3. 6 drops of dark green juice

It tasted good : sweet, grassy, vitamin-y...

Verdict?  Worth it if you're bored and your kitchen is larger than 1 Acre.

And don't believe that stuff about it curing your gray hairs.

Starting a new business is tough, but with the advice and wisdom of those who have been through the process already, us young'uns can hopefully get better and more efficient at changing the world through our innovation. On top of founding my own tech startup, I am currently lending some brainpower and time to a couple of other bootstrapped startups who are looking to launch some great initiatives and products over the coming months. 

If you have 2 seconds, and in the past have successfully launched something, we'd love to know your response to the following question...

Thanks for answering, I'll do a follow up post if the feedback is interesting...

Twitter seems to be doing something really cool that will make it even more accessible. With most of its users based in the US, it's no wonder that English is the semi-official language of the Twittersphere. But with usage increasing right around the globe, how do you get around those pesky language barriers? Crowd source translation of course. I've recently noticed on one or two of my Spanish friends' profiles that they have a Translator badge - it turns out that Twitter is inviting users to translate their tweets using some specially developed tools, so they can enjoy Twitter in their local language.

How exactly this works remains to be seen, but this has interesting implications for Twitter's long term potential.

LINK:  http://twitter.com/translate