I’ve been playing with the early release of MaePad and it’s quite a lot of fun. Like a sketch pad / notepad / finger paint thing. The only thing it needs is the ability to print it out in it’s full glory. And that brings back to the point about the Nokia N900, it really is a computer with a phone app installed. And while you can live without a printer for your phone, having a computer without a printer is missing something....
I just realized what is missing in my everyday life. Theme Music Like the one from Stargate Atlantis. It’s what separates a mediocre movie/TV/video program, good Theme background. Ever since before the creation of ‘Talkies‘ sound accompanied the motion pictures. It’s what makes everyday boring, no personal Theme Song....
I was thinking, or rather having, a Fleeting Thought and decided that I had a great idea, so I sought to buy the domain fleetingthought.com, and didn’t realize I’d mistyped the name, so now I’m the proud owner of fleetingthoght.com, you can see now, how Fleeting my thoughts have been lately. It actually might work out anyway as the real domain owner of fleetingthought.com is little more than a squatter.
The substance of the Idea is sound, and I’m building out the Thought now as another project. It’ll be associated with the Twitter Client @fleetthoughts. And when I finally organize my thoughts properly, I’ll write more about......
I know there is a recession on, I really do. But there are things to do to cut costs, and there are things that you can do to cut your own throat, and you should never get them confused. I’ve seen a recent example of the later, under the guise of the former. Curry’s in the Ballincollig Shopping Center have chosen to close their shop on Tuesday and Wednesday’s of every week rather than pay salaries to idol staff!
In my past experience with the shop I have often observed 4 or more staff shuffling around their premises with little to occupy their time so cutting staff hours would make sense. But why not shift their hours so at least a fewer staff are on hand on Tuesday and Wednesday’s rather than close the store.
Closing the store is a permanent commitment to...
I have watched the management of Waterford Crystal over the past few years, and have been amazed at how clueless they are about their product. Like most bean counters, they have sought to reduce expenses by pushing production into Eastern Europe and any other place where they could drop the cost of production. They must be insane! It’s the only conclusion that makes sense. They have been behaving as if their product is a commodity item like an automobile, or a toaster.
Waterford Cystal and Wedgewood ARE the labors and works of Waterford Ireland and Wedgewood England! Anything else is a fake, even with a waterford/wedgewood label on it, they are FAKES! Waterford Crystal is a luxury item that speaks to Quality not quantity. It means workmanship that a slow and skilled workforce...
Well today was the busiest Monday in a long time at work. A lot of city schools were closed today so there was a large number of school kids getting presents around. Not a large farming contingent today I didn't think. You could spot farmers (well before anyway) long before they opened their mouths!Was very happy anyway as I wasn't snowed under at work and we were busy enough to make the day fly! Now to look forword to tomorrow a day off, which is also my...
Tomorrow is December 8th. This is a day I hate working in town. I did it last year and have to do it again this year. Do you want to know why?Well in Cork the 8th of December is known as farmers day out. This is because December 8th is The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary which is a holy day of obligation and it used to mean a day off school (but not anymore). This was the opportunity for the countryfolk to come to down and do their Christmas shopping. It is a manic day in Cork! I wonder how the "recession" will affect...
When companies die, they take many forms from mergers to bankruptcies. But there are none more ugly than those who have arrived at this juncture due to a lack of vision and direction. Management grasps and draws on every resource, from redundancies, part time labor and outsourcing to zero footprint office virtualization. But the ugly [...]...
So I'm back to give you an update since I've been practically gone for the last month and a bit. Besides that last post which lowered the tone of the blog completely.
Yes I sold out, but I do have a canned response to those emails that I get enquireing about advertising on here and what do you know someone took me up on the offer! Thanks to Mike for writing it, my first guest blogger (kinda)
Anyway, since I was on here last I finally got myself an iPhone and I'm loving it. Besides a slight problem at the start with the side of it and I promptly received a replacement from Apple so they are still my friends for the time being, and o2 haven't been as terrible as they make out (besides ripping me off with my contract.. but i'll live with it)
I've also had a bit of a Holiday when Lena...
I'm in the job hunting game these days and no better way to get my CV out there than to put it on my blog! After all, whoever is about to hire me will probably just Google my name and find it anyway!
So if you or someone you know has a job opening and looking to fill it, please take a look at or forward on my CV! I'm interested in anything in the Cork area or beyond and involving IT and/or Business.
My Curriculum Vitae in different formats:
Word Document - DOC
Portable Document Format - PDF
Google Document - HTML
I'm looking for this Job......
While I worked away this past week in an unexpected working from home situation I was proud of the job my MacBook did providing a Parallel’s Windows XP environment to connect to my office in Dublin. But the Mac did not come away unharmed as shown in the following photo.
This is the result of my use of the keyboard to rest my ham handed fists on it while typing on it. It is not the only damage I have inflicted on my MacBook as there is another crack in an exact mirrored position on the opposite palm rest, a crack I believe I committed by squeezing it too hard while picking it up one time some months ago. But it is apparent that this is a weak area of the MacBook, and the plastic is clearly too thin to support my hands let alone my grip, a definite design issue.
While on that...
Boss: “X piece of software needs to be updated on terminal server”
Me: “I’ve never troubleshooted or even used that software before”
Boss: “Ring programmer there and he’ll tell you what the story is”
Me: Hangs up & sighs loudly knowing full well it’s the start of yet another one of those conversations.
Me: “Eh, boss there said some software needs updating on terminal server. He doesn’t know if the version is up to date or not. User in other office cant login.”
Programmer: “Ah that was updated already. User in other office knows how to login but got error message and didn’t tell me what it was”
Me: “Ok, so I’ll talk to boss and see what the story is”
Me: Hangs up again, redials...
Apparently some fellow employee doesn't like my deskart, and has made a formal complaint to have it removed. I might like the Union Jack in the background taken outside and burned but you dont see me requesting that.I think I'll replace it with an ancient Indian religious symbol.But for now I'll just say goodbye to my Warlords Of Pez flag, that has been in pride of place for almost 2.5 years.Oh Mr Mulley - they took yours...
I have been in the market for an upgrade to my iPod and the question of a replacement has been this, should I upgrade my old Palm Vx to a Palm T/X or my first generation iPod (5GB). The candidates have been the Nokia N770 / N800 / N810 series, the iPod Touch and the Palm T/X. I have by this time determined that the Nokia systems, while the most versatile are not completely integrated systems, more hacker devices than finished products. So the choices are down to the Palm T/X, which is getting very long in the tooth, running an aging operating system, or the iPod touch with a revolutionary OS/GUI but no third party applications.
The requirements are relatively simple, WiFi, bluetooth, applications like email, browsing communicating. MultiMedia. And any other things would be optional like...
Recently I had a voicemail from someone who left their work number for me to call them back. Unfortunately they also used their work voice for this. It was like a switch was flicked at the end of the message and work mode was activated.I tried in vain to call the number that was left... but it turns out that one of what I thought was a 2 turns out to be a 3. But as the voice was in work mode and was rattled off as if it was known to everyone - not just the caller - it wasn’t as distinguishable you would think, even though it had been repeated during the message and I replayed it I still believe the number to be a 2.After calling my mate back on his mobile, the conversation led to my explaining the above. So Buddy McBud recorded himself on his own mobile and it turns out he also...
I’m going to come back shortly (given it’s now been almost a month since my last update) with a post summing up the year… But until then;
The company I work for is shortly going to be looking for a technical support rep to handle support calls in a helpdesk role. The position is based in Cork and is Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. What you’ll absolutely have to have;
Strong Windows experience
Fair Linux experience
Good networking (LAN & WAN)
Knowledge of backup software
Strong troubleshooting skills
Good command of the English language
What’d be good to have;
Knowledge of desktop & server hardware
Experience configuring and troubleshooting printers in a standalone and network environment
And about a thousand other things I can’t think of...
This one annoyed me. I was waiting for the perfect moment to post the picture like the one I took above, and last Thursday's announcement by Bulmers seemed like a perfect time. I rushed the post out, to keep it fresh and current... then almost immediately afterwards, the two public feed aggregators I use for this blog (irishblogs.ie and corkblogs.com) both went offline for the night. I was fuming! So I'm plugging the picture again. Well, not really... As I said in the post, there were a few loose ends to tie up, which didnt relate directly to the story. As noted, the picture above isn't the picture used but it came a close second. All it needed was a tiny bit of fill flash. I love the colour and reflections of on the Waterford' box.I don't use the term "ghetto" all that often, never in...
Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting For fear of redundency...Enjoy a beautiful boat ride along the river Suir, locally known as the river of death. Enjoy the views of a heap-of-shit cider brewry in Clonmel and a broken down Crystal factory in Waterford. This is Ireland, welcome to the best economy in the world!Waterford Crystal did the old "hack and slash" with 500 of their employees a while back, and now Bulmers are "smokin' the bitches" today, we can be sure that this year is going to be a "Merry Christmas" for Irish Industry. And what better way to enjoy the festive season than to slurp back the finest of Clonmel cider within a piece of Waterford Crystal.Go raibh maith agat, Do chara Bertie (buachaill deas le Eireann).[I was working on this post for the...
Went to see the two wind turbines recently installed in Portlaw Co. Waterford on Thursday last. The weather was excellent as you can see, cold and windy but very sunny. Thankfully I decided to bring my camera(s) with me (and had charged up the batteries a few days before). It's impossible to get a sense of scale when you get relatively close to them, they almost seem to shrink the closer you get. We didnt venture pasted the locked gates but I imagine standing beside them would let you realise how big they actually are. Its a pity I didnt bring my tripod with me because I would have loved to have seen what they blades looked like with a long exposure. Some thing to try the next time...
A cardboard box and a few clips are all you...
I’m reposting an email I received from MoveOn.org this morning (the contents of which I mostly agree with).
Dear MoveOn member,
To be honest, I don’t even like to think about the possibility of war with Iran. But here’s the unfortunate truth—plans for an aerial attack have been drawn up.1 There’s nothing stopping Bush from launching that attack any day. And right now the progressive movement’s main strategy for preventing it is simply to hope that it doesn’t happen.
To paraphrase my ninth-grade sex-ed teacher, “Hope is not a method.” We need to do something. There are increasing indications that war with Iran may be imminent. And experts agree it would be a catastrophe.
So today we’re proposing a major campaign to expose the danger...
Well on the 6th of October I twitted about this incident, but i think it deserves a blog post also, mixed in with a few other things.I was on delivery at work (Boots Patrick St, Shameless plug I know) but I noticed 3 people at the ATMs at BOI on Patrick St, not taking much notice as we had a huge delivery.But on my breakfast break (I started work at 6:45am!) I was hungry and didnt have money on me, so had to go to the ATM, now I am not a BOI customer (I'm Permanent TSB but they are at the other end of Patrick St), but I use that one out of conveninece, but I noticed something strange where the cards went it. It was slightly the wrong colour and there were prongs were tehre normally wasn't so I didn't use it. (Went to centra got brekkie using ATM in the shop) SO i said it to the girls...
In
Money,
crime,
tech,
skype,
Banks,
Sesame Street,
ATM,
S,
Warning,
Shamless Plug,
work
So here is my Blog Action Day post. As I am a lazy man and nearly totally forgot about signing up for this a good while ago this post will be quick. Plus I less than 30 minutes to publish it before it is no longer the 15th of October!A quick Google search for easiest way to save the world which came up with a nice article from the Guardian with 50 easy ways to make a difference. Here are some of the ones I liked:Let them carry you off in a biodegradable cardboard coffin, saving trees.Buy chocolates from proper chocolate stores, so they are not individually wrapped.Only flush toilets if really needed; follow the Australian maxim: "If it's yellow that's mellow, if it's brown flush it down."Avoid air travel; it produces three times more carbon dioxide per passenger than rail.Bring a mug to...
It must have been a slow day at...
With a shift change at work, my plan for getting up the mountain in the afternoon was interrupted. Instead I managed to take a load of pictures around the village and at work!Take a look here and leave a comment on which one I should submit to the group!www.flickr.comThis is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called 24 hours. Make your own badge...
The Whistler Chamber and American Express thanks all Whistlers Star Employees for their outstanding work for the season and invite them to a Service Recognition Awards Night with Dinner, Prizes, Awards and an After Party!I got nominated as Employee of the Year for Rogers Chocolates (Whistler)! This is what they had to say:Darran has remarkable ability to put in just a little extra for each and every customer, each and every time. He is also really SMART! He is willing to work extra shifts -even on a powder day. He sees what needs to be done and does it efficiently and with a smile. His warmth and patience with customers is beyond compare.As part of the award I got a letter as well as a really nice photo frame of Blackcomb Glacier. It is a great photo because you can make out all the areas...
I couldnt last one day working in a call centre and I'd just end up acting like this guy. It's a short clip from episode 4 of the second season of Masters of Horror, "Sounds Like". A fairly boring episode from a hit and miss...
What I've been up to lately:A bit of house keeping, replacing Gurr with Grrr! It turns out I was expressing the wrong emotion! Sorry Vanessa, hope I make more sense now! I'm trying to sort out my flights to return to Canada, but my USIT login isn't working. They updated the system to the 2007 programme! So I'm waiting for a reply from USIT. That could be some time... BASTARDS!I'm also waiting for Scouting Ireland to get back to me re: My application for Jiingijamborii, which I sent them 3 weeks ago, and still no results! international@scouts.ie seem to just gobble up emails.I have also added a small AdSense banner at the bottom of all pages on my blog. I'm noticing a difference with a few people clicking! It is only small, it blends in and most people won't notice it as it's at the bottom...
This Friday we were informed we were paying for Eircom Broadband, no modem had arrived, and there was no disruption in service from BT. I was expecting a cutoff of service as Eircom ’switched’ our service. It was expected as I was expecting them to transfer our ‘port’ from BT to Eircom before they started to charge us for it.
So on a lark, I reset my router to use the Eircom username password, and as easy as you please, the ip address of the router switched, and bingo, we were on Eircom. A quick change of DNS addresses and all was back to normal. Except that the domain was Eircom.
A check of the VPN connection, the primary reason for making the switch, and sure enough, a stable connection. Utilizing the same routers, wires and having made no changes to the router...
Yesterday I actually thought that the blog spam I had grown accustom to had vanished. But it’s back with a vengeance today, leading me to one conclusion, spammers, or spam zombies were on holiday during the American Presidents day. And that could only mean that the zombie machines are located in corporate America and were turned off for the holiday yesterday.
Interesting, and frightening, as that does not reflect well on corporate infrastructure, Or that spam is an American corporate business model....