Autonomy, the company which is to the forefront of Hewlett Packard’s (HP) recently announced $8.8 billion charge for accounting improprieties, was founded by Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary native Mr Mike Lynch.
Mr Lynch, whose hobbies have included breeding Koi carp and building model railways, and who studied engineering and mathematical computing at Cambridge University is presently resident in Britain. In 2009 his personal stake in Autonomy was reported as being in the area of $300 million.
Hewlett Packard, which purchased his company, Autonomy, last year, for a reported $10.3 billion, have now stated that it has launched an internal investigation into what they believed was “a wilful effort to mislead investors and potential buyers.” HP claim that a senior member of Autonomy’s leadership team came forward, following the departure of Mr Lynch, alleging that there had been a series of questionable accounting and business practices at Autonomy, prior to its acquisition by Hewlett Packard.
Mr Lynch, in a statement, has rejected these allegations, calling them false, while indicating that the company may have been mismanaged since it was acquired by its now owners Hewlett Packard.
Mr Lynch’s former company Autonomy, which once boasted that it had the capacity to take on Google, was originally conceived in 1996 and made him the first technology billionaire both in Britain and Ireland. His firm’s shares rose during the ‘Dot-com Bubble,‘ era between 1997 & 2000, often referred to as the era of ‘prefix investment.‘
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Serious Fraud Office may now decide this case should merit deeper investigation.
Parcel Motel have just set up a series of lockers at Ahern’s Petrol Station, Abbey Road, Thurles which will provide 24-hour access for shopping deliveries, 7 days a week! The secure lockers of varying sizes are in testing at the moment but it is hoped this local Parcel Motel will be fully operational within a week.
What Is Parcel Motel?
Parcel Motel is a great new way to manage your online shopping deliveries. Each Parcel Motel location throughout Ireland contains 80 secure lockers of varying sizes and located in convenient places; such as petrol station forecourts with 24-hour access, 7 days a week.
So, if you are fed up of missing deliveries at home, due to being away or at work, then Parcel Motel is a great way to get your deliveries when you want it and for a reasonable price of €3.50 per stay. We all know how bosses frown upon getting personal deliveries at work, don’t we? The Parcel Motel will hold your delivery for 2 days at the locker which is handy if you happen to be away, you can pick up your delivery at your leisure. As lockers are used it should be noted that you make sure your items are no larger than 41cm X 38cm X 64cm and no heavier than 10kgs.
Another BIG advantage of using Parcel Motel is the fact that you can use them to get items that qualify for free delivery in the UK sent to Ireland for just €3.50! Parcel Motel operate 2 main depots in Ireland, one in Dublin and one in Co. Antrim. This means to get the free UK delivery, if offered by a website such as Amazon, you simply enter the Co. Antrim depot address at the checkout stage and your item will be delivered there and then transferred to your local Parcel Motel depot. More info on this can be found here.
Here is a picture of the local Parcel Motel at Ahern’s Petrol Station, Abbey Road, Thurles.
Parcel Motel at Ahern’s Petrol Station, Abbey Road, Thurles
Parcel Motel – How It Works
To see how it all works please visit the Parcel Motel website or you can have a look at this video below;
Parcel Motel are so confident you will pleased with their service that they are offering you the first two drops, completely free!
The 7″ tablet computer is gaining great strides in the marketplace and are likely to be popular as Christmas gifts this year. There is great choice available now with several quality 7″ tablets available. With this mini-review we hope to sift through the jargon and help you to make an informed choice about with one would be the ideal for you.
The rise in popularity of the 7″ tablet this year is not surprising. Although smaller in screen area than the standard 10″ iPad-type device, the 7″ tablets offer a far more portable and convenient size for general purpose use. Indeed, the fact that these 7″ tablets can be held comfortably with one hand is a big factor in their success and their book-like dimensions make them popular as ebook readers.
So with value for money in mind, here is our list of the Top 5 7″ Tablet computers available right now;
Google Nexus 7
Galaxy Tab2
Kindle Fire HD
NatPC 7″ Tablet
iPad Mini
#1 Google Nexus 7
The Google Nexus 7″ tablet is a quality product built by ASUS. It features the latest Android 4.1 software and has a quad-core processor so everything is faster, web pages load quickly and game-play is smooth and responsive. A fully charged Nexus 7 is capable of 9 hours of HD video playback, 10 hours of web browsing or e-reading. The only down-side is that the Nexus’s memory is not upgradable as there is no MicroSD slot, but with the rise of cloud-based services such as DropBox this is less likely to be a big problem.
The Nexus 7 is easily the best 7″ tablet available at the moment and with the recent release of the new 32GB model, we are likely to see price drops on the existing 8GB and 16GB models. Prices are likely to drop to around €230 for the 16GB Nexus 7 and hopefully about €200 for the 8GB Nexus 7.
#2 Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ Tablet
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ tablet is another quality tablet featuring the latest Android 4.1 operating system. It features a dual-core CPU and come in 8GB and 16GB versions. The beauty of the Tab 2 is that it features a MicroSD card-slot for upgrading the internal memory. Also of note is that it has both front (VGA quality) and rear (3 MegaPixel) facing cameras which is great for voice calling with apps like Skype etc. The Tab 2 also boasts GPS, Bluetooth v3.0, USB 2.0 and full Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.
All in all this is a feature-packed and capable tablet. Prices are likely to be around €230 for the 8GB Galaxy Tab2 to about €250 for the 16GB Galaxy Tab2.
#3 Kindle Fire HD 7″ Tablet
The Kindle Fire HD 7″ tablet is the latest and greatest tablet by Amazon and it is likely to be very popular due to it’s quality HD screen display size of 1280 x 800 pixels. The Kindle Fire HD feature a dual-core CPU and is available in 16 GB or 32 GB models. The Fire HD also boasts long battery life, with over 11 hours of reading, surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos or listening to music on a single charge.
The name you may not have heard of but this NatPC 7″ tablet can be bought for only about €100 and you get a lot of bang for your buck with this tablet. It features an A10 1.2GHz CPU with a 400MHz dedicated graphics processor, a web camera and it comes in 8GB and 16GB versions. The latest android 4.0 is installed on this tablet and features a Capacitive 7″ screen offering smooth “pinch to zoom” operations. It also features a Micro SD slot so it is upgradeable.
I’ll be honest, the screen on this is never going to be as good as the Nexus 7 or any of the higher-priced ones mentioned above but the fact the tablet is very functional and affordable, the NatPC 7″ tablet is a worthy introduction to the tablet world.
#5 iPad Mini 7″ Tablet
Of course there is the new release from Apple to consider, the new 7″ iPad Mini. Undoubtedly this will be another success but with the availability of plenty of cheaper devices now, it’s tough to put this anywhere near #1 in the list. Although it has only just been released it looks like the 16GB iPad Mini is going to cost about €450! It’s certainly a lot of money but if you are fan of their iPods and iPhones then this certainly would be one to consider.
Sky watchers could be in for a very special treat tonight, when debris from Halley’s Comet attempts to bombard our atmosphere.
This debris from the comet enters earth’s atmosphere & will lights up the sky as shooting stars and the ‘Orionid Meteor Shower,’ is indeed one of the most beautiful meteor showers of the year.
The best time to see these ‘Orionids,’ will be just after midnight tonight, through until Monday morning (October 21st to 22nd), but they have already been visible in the past few days and possibly will continue visible after the aforementioned peak, once our sky remains clear and dark. Same are expected to appear at the rate of up to 25 per hour or more.
These ‘Orionid Meteors,’ can glow very brightly and can sometimes burn so brightly that they produce fireballs. With no great moonlight, like tonight, casting a glare in the night sky they should be easily visible.
These Orionid meteors will appear mainly to originate from the constellation Orion in our eastern sky’s, but may be visible anywhere in the firmament above & bright enough to be observed with the naked eye, so no telescopes or binoculars will be needed.
David Moore, Chairman of Astronomy Ireland explains: “Sometimes large pieces of debris enter the atmosphere and flare up extremely brightly as fireballs – these can often land on the ground.”
The Source Theatre & Arts Centre here in Thurles Co. Tipperary are pleased to announce their new website, which has now been fully launched.
The previous layout has been completely redesigned with simplicity and ease of use with customers in mind, as well as the option for all clients, for the first time, to choose their own seat On-line. When customers activate the ‘Buy Tickets,’ icon they are directed into an interactive seating plan.
Customers can now browse all upcoming events by clicking ‘What’s On.’ & by clicking through on the scrolling images or checking out the highlights on the home page.
Events and offers can also be found on the notice board twitter stream and there is now an option to Like or Share events on Facebook, thus increasing networking information.
Couple of pieces of understandable good business ‘housekeeping,’ information, worth noting on this ‘The Source Website.’ :-
All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges are allowed.
The maximum amount of tickets that can be purchased per transaction on-line is 10, so for larger group bookings, please do phone (0504) 90204.
Wheelchair users, do please phone The Source Box Office on (0504) 90204 to reserve your tickets, in the interests of public safety.
Concessions will apply to Students, Recipients of Unemployment Benefit, Assistance or Disability Allowance, Lone Parents and Pensioners. (Valid ID understandably will need to be produced in all such cases.)
One very tiny criticism – Why not display a digital drawing of this fine theatre’s numbered seating arrangements, to enabling those less daring & less IT literate, booking by phone, to choose their preferred seat, – just a thought.
Autonomy, the company which is to the forefront of Hewlett Packard’s (HP) recently announced $8.8 billion charge for accounting improprieties, was founded by Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary native Mr Mike Lynch.
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