Eoghan O'Sullivan's Blog

Likening the influx of AI to shocking life into being using electrical current may sound tenuous but hear me out. AI may seem like it has feelings, it doesn’t Unlike the creation of Victor Frankenstein, AI does not have feelings. It tries to be polite, but it cannot put the concentrative effort described in Frankenstein into learning language and new words. However, AI must be trained and data, granted, but the feelings of compassion, envy and wonder described in the novel Frankenstein are not the same as the furnishes put on many AI-powered LLMs to resemble emotions, the need to pause for concentration etc.   What science fiction says about science In Frankenstein , there is a character made by Dr. Victor Frankenstein using dead body parts and electricity. A bit of a leap into the evolutionary dark, to say the least. The Creation at one point moves into exile from his creator (and the whole town of Ingolstadt, setting for the novel) and readers of it are taken on an adve...

  First up, let’s start from the top and define it. What is influencer marketing? Influencer marketing refers to swaying the buying decisions and loyalty of the broader population by a brand, using its biggest fans. This could be someone with a high-above-average social following that has an affinity with a brand that’s looking to leverage a social following to market a product or service, or a celebrity with a following receptive to the same. It was pervasive in media and marketing in recent years and has been around for a long time before in one shape or another. Relatively new rules though, in the social sphere, mean that endorsements of this nature must be properly labelled as such, and even newer ones mean it has to be declared for tax purposes in Ireland and abroad. What’s an example of influencer marketing? An example of influencer marketing can be seen, most likely, in your favourite social media feed. Here’s one example from Swedish (now retired) football superstar Zlatan ...

  I have a mantra I stick by; ‘Always be optimising’. This comes in quite handy (and by quite, I mean massively) when improving a website. When it comes to boosting conversion and conversion rate optimisation, even the smallest of changes can have a big effect. However, I am not going to discuss here a small change, rather a radical one, not often considered but with returns to rival the best tactics. That is, the optimisation of failure and success pages. How can I boost goal completion? A great way to boost goal completion is to add relevant links to often forgotten pages. The 404 error (failure) page and the thank you (success) page each present unique opportunities for retention and conversion. Taking 404 pages first, let’s recap on what it really is. 404: a standard HTTP response code that says to the user that the server could not find the requested file. In most cases, the page is alarmist or worse, unreadable. Failure pages can lead to success — follow 3 easy steps Some qui...

The recent sad death of Pope Francis is sure to lead to many reaching for their Amazon Prime subscriptions to watch   Conclave   from 2024. It centers on the succession of a new Pope. The cardinal brothers are charged with electing a new Pope in the midst of the death of the previous Pontiff. I know you guessed as much but for posterity… there is the plot. The Two Popes This is a thrilling political journey I’ve not seen since 2019’s  The Two Popes  which was a bit more interesting in the sense that I was more bought in to the story, it being based on actual events that happened. Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce star as Popes Benedict and Francis. Conclave  is interesting though, too, and Pope Francis taking over from another Pope is broadly the same situation, and the politically charged process and result in  Conclave  is the added sauce in this melting pot of a movie. Spoiler alert — the movie ends with a hermaphrodite as the incoming Pope. Who is...