Sitekreator (build your own website service - see here and here) have made some changes to their business model. Their previous one was too heavy on the Free side - the majority of the functionality was available without payment of any kind.

In the newer version the Free service is heavily restricted and to get anywhere close to what you require you will pay $7.95 a month. That is a good price point. However the inbuilt forms function is a level further up so I need to find a replacement.

In comes Wufoo. Fintan, my dbTwang partner, sent it to me ages ago and today is the first time I tried it. It allows you to relatively easily build a form with a variety of options and then either use html code, a full page integration or XML to incorporate it into your blog or website. 3 forms for free.

This is another tool/service to add to the ones I use for my training - the sort of ones that techies never get because “building forms is easy”! Wufoo bridges the gap between Techie World and the one where the rest of us live

Science fiction has always been my favourite book genre and within that the authors who take something current and build their plot around an extrapolation into the future hold a special place for me.

I read a handful of books most weeks so I consistently plough through hundreds of books every year. And most of them fade from my memory within days.

The odd one sticks. And gets me thinking. The Waking is one. It is set in the world of cryogenics - freezing people or their parts in the hope of future developments that will be able to revive them. It is tightly written with a great human interest and impressively is the authors first book.

Give it a try.

Michael Kelly loves his coffee. That comes across from chatting to him on Saturday mornings - and also from the consistent quality of each of his beans which can be sampled from his stall.

Yet somehow I have never tried the Achill expresso blend - always managing to pick something else on my infrequent visits to him (I live in Kilkenny). Happily I passed his details onto Padraic in the Gourmet Store in Kilkenny and he is now stocking a supply. From where I bought the Achill blend.

Gorgeous smell, yummy taste and consistent creme - these beans are one of the best I have used. The only thing bringing them down from a 5 to a 4 star rating is the lack of Fairtrade and Organic certification.

Michael does buy directly from growers so he pays a higher than market rate for the beans. And there are many small operations like him who are definitely fairtrade’ish - yet have not taken the bother or expense of obtaining certification.

He also does pre-ground packs for those of you without grinders.

keith

EcoBaby is a business that has been going for at least 9 years (we bought nappies from them for our son who is just over 9!) and their customer support has always been a joy to be at the receiving end of.

They are prompt and professional and I would completely recommend them to anyone with young children who is concerned about their environmental impact.

The barcamp held in Waterford on 20th January was really enjoyable - lovely settings, more fruit than any Irish Barcamp ever before and a line up of speakers to die for.

As with Cork it was behind by lunchtime and the organisers did not exercise sufficient control of speaker times. An open ceiling in one of the rooms did not help the sessions there either.

Looking forward to the next one.