Apple's market capitalisation matched Google's at around 160 BN dollars this week.

It is interesting to compare the performance of Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Google since Google's IPO on the 19th of August 2004.

Apple has by far outperformed the others and Microsoft has been particularly poor with a negative return. How long before Apple and Google both have a larger market capitalisation than Microsoft? If things continue as they are, I would say in around 3-5 years.

I just got back from San Francisco. It was cloudy in the city all the time but not in Marin County. I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I use Gmail and I just accidentally clicked on one of their sponsored links. These are the links which are positioned on the right hand side of the page. As I clicked on the link - Google launched the sponsoring company's website on a new page.

So what? you ask. Well having clicked on their add - the company that sponsored that link will now have to pay Google for my click as if I actually was interested in their service.

I searched for a simple mechanism to inform Google that I the click I made was accidental - but I didn't find one. Do you know of a way of doing this?

Maybe I should just contact the company who has paid for the click and tell them?

We had Japanese clients visit us at work last week. The discussion moved on to broadband quality and price in Japan. They told me that they pay around 8 Euro per month for a 100MB fibre connection to their homes.

I was slightly embarrassed to tell them that we pay 40 Euro per month for a 3MB connection.





I took the above pictures in Tokyo in 2003.

I took them to see Newgrange in Co. Meath on Saturday and they were very impressed.

I wish they could be as impressed with our broadband infrastructure as they were with our ancestors work of 5,000 years ago.

We have temporarily fostered Betty from the Ashtown pound in Dublin. She has a home in the UK to go to next week.








See Betty's page on dogsindistress.org

This was taken on my Nokia N95 camera phone to show you the view from my office window on this sunny Friday afternoon.

Claiming that you are the nominee because you won the popular vote is like losing the Wimbledon final

6-4 1-6 6-4 2-6 6-4

and claiming you should be the winner because you won more games (24 verses 21)!

I was surprised to hear that the Habitat stores in Ireland have been closed suddenly and without prior warning. The stores, located in Dublin and Galway, were closed on Friday and a note was posted on their doors. See the notice on their website here.

Rent issues?

Previously, the Dublin Habitat store moved from it's Stephens Green location to its College Green base because of high rental costs on Stephens Green. The rent they were / are paying must be astronomical.

Sometimes I wonder how businesses manage to survive at all in Dublin with the rental cost of retail space.