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Bell X1 have long been considered one of Ireland's finest music groups. Reminiscent of Broken Social Scene for their often changing collection of contributors, the band's line up over the years has included Damien Rice (when they were known as Juniper). After sold-out tours around the world and invitations to David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and the White House, the band returned home to a country deeply wounded by its self-inflicted economic troubles and they set out to create an album that searches for answers while touching upon the nature of relationships in a world where technology, religion and politics intersect. The result is an unflinching new album, appropriately titled "Bloodless Coup."

Wednesday, November 2

Smithwicks presents: BELL X1

Favourite Sons

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell St

San Francisco CA

8 pm

$15

All Ages

http://www.rickshawstop.com/event/63099/

BELL X1

http://www.bellx1.com/

Former backing singer with Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan playing at the Independent this Tuesday. http://www.myspace.com/lisahannigan

http://www.theindependentsf.com/february2009.htm

After spending the Christmas and New Year in Ireland I'm prompted to bring a practice I've increasingly encountered in Ireland and indeed other EU countries when paying for services with my US credit card over the last 5 years.

Sometimes the person charging your card will ask you if you wish to be charged in Euro or US dollars. In other cases you will not be asked and automatically billed in dollars.

You always want to be billed in the local currency. Why? Because the retailer and indeed I'm sure others get additional fees or forex commissions for doing so.

Twice over the holidays I insisted that the retailer and a hotel reverse the original $US charges and re-do them in Euro.

The difference can be significant and from what I can see from my online charges it's in the region of $5-6 for charges under E70.

So beware of this practice and don't let them tell you that the machine is programmed that way and they can't do anything about it! They can and they did in my case.

We had a very successful Web 2.0 event!  Read about it here:

http://enterprise-ireland.blogspot.com/2008/11/web-20-in-action.html

The ITLG (www.itlg.org) is an independent organization comprised of a number of high-level technology leaders in Silicon Valley who are Irish or Irish-American. The Group includes senior executives from some of the Valley's leading corporations, each of whom are committed to helping Ireland address the challenges of embracing new technology opportunities. Here's a link to a Reuters article about their recent event: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS40398%2B28-Mar-2008%2BBW20080328.

Based in Palo Alto, it's members include John Hartnett, SVP of Palm, Inc. John Gilmore, COO of Sling Media, Rory McInerney, VP at Intel Corp, Barry O'Sullivan, SVP at Cisco, and Conrad Burke, President & CEO, Innovalight, Inc.