July 16, 2009

Monkey Island Tweetup


Ooh, that's cool! Can't wait to get broadband in (if UPC get their fingers out) and download it for the 360.

Posted by whykay at 05:58 PM

July 15, 2009

Kids nowadays

Overheard while I was on the number 37 bus from town. Some kids (okay, they were in their early 20s, still kids to me) were discussing the finer points of helping the less well off. It was running up to the festival season, and the girl commented that the guy (whom she is talking to) can bring his old wellies to the venue and get in exchange a new pair of wellies... for free. The guy commented that it does not make sense, well, the way he says it "That's stupid, isn't it?". I was bracing for further cringey comment when he asked why do something like that, it's not benefiting the people giving away the wellies. Here comes the kicker, she replied that it provides the poor countries with jobs. Now you are thinking... "Huh?!?!?", right? She further goes on with her theory of being open and charitable that by donating old, stinky wellies, these wellies are processed by the people in the poorer countries to fix and clean the wellies up, thus providing them jobs. I nearly pissed myself laughing when I heard that. I was waiting for a sensible reply from the guy, come on, any decent normal person would think that is the most idealistic, rose-tinted glasses way of helping those less fortunate than us. He actually agreed it was a good idea. *shakes head Oh well, what can I say...? By the way, Mick was sitting with me that day.

Now about those emo kids... jaysus, would they ever eat something, but that's another whole rant altogether...

Posted by whykay at 10:12 AM

New twist to transportation

First of all, I heard about Air Bike on Newstalk this morning.

[...] offer a pre-booking service for alternative, quick, environmentally friendly transport in and around Dublin city and the greater Dublin area. We will be using large touring motorcycles driven by highly trained riders to take you as a pillion passenger from 'A' destination to 'B' location.

They also provide helmut and oversuit. IMHO, I'm not sure about people getting on the back of bikes with an oversuit over their suits (which has been worn by whomever). What next, a tuk tuk?

Next on the list (well, the last on the list really), an airline passenger jet in America has been transformed to carry pets. It's called Pet Airways (Read more...). This idea, I like better. People would pay to make their best friend's travels more comfortable. Be warned of some puns here and there though in the article.

Posted by whykay at 08:19 AM

Things that make me smile...

Ok, apart from my hubby, Mick. Had a crappy day yesterday and I saw this conversation between PVP and Gabe from Penny Arcade on Twitter which made my day.

pvponline:Holy crap! San Diego is just a week away. I can't wait to see all
you guys out there. We are going to have such a BLAST!!!! Who's going?(link)

cwgabriel:@pvponline I am! Maybe while we are there we can get matching tattoos! BFF! (link)

pvponline: @cwgabriel Dude, let's each get half of the superman symbol on our arms. Then when we stand back to back WE are Superman! (link)

cwgabriel: @pvponline no, that's stupid. (link)

Posted by whykay at 07:47 AM

July 13, 2009

Apple slowly taking over

So iPod Touch maybe getting video recording capabilities, the article points out that it may give Flip a run for its money. Although the iPod Touch or iPhone's primary use isn't for video capturing like the Flip. I have to say, we bought a Flip HD just 2 weeks ago after the EuroPython conference in Birmingham. From what I have seen and played with, it's rather cool and quality of footage was amazing, even in low light. Anyway, this is sidetracking. Mick noticed when we were in IKEA Belfast that alot of younger kids were playing games on iPod Touches, not Nintendo DSes. Now that's something to munge on... Cheap games, someone to pass old iTouches to, kids love music and small fun games. Nintendo, you better watch out!

Posted by whykay at 04:29 PM

Halifax Ireland retail banking moving back to UK

Good thing we did not get our mortgage through them (a bunch of muppets), although we got our life assurance through them, but they were selling it as broker for Irish Life (although I wished I dealt with them directly, Irish Life, I mean).

The article mentions that Halifax will be announcing it officially at the end of August.

Read more...

(Source: Irish Independent online)

Posted by whykay at 08:52 AM

July 10, 2009

links for 2009-07-09

Posted by whykay_delicious at 01:05 AM

July 08, 2009

July 02, 2009

Europython, weather and all things good

It's sweltering here in Birmingham, I'm here with Mick at the Europython conference. It's all going well, with keynotes from Corey Doctorow, Bruce Eckel, to name but a few. Saw the cool collectible Dutch €5 coin, an original Enigma machine, things that gives geeks the giggles, well, for me anyway. :D

It's utterly bizarre to find out that it's bucketing back at home (Indo's breaking news here and here, it's the complete opposite over here. I just hope it all goes away when I go home on Saturday.

So I'm taking it easy today, found a board game shop under the conference centre, gonna have to check that out at some point. All I need to remember now is attend the openspace about hosting EuroPython, it could be possible for Dublin, but I will need some help...

Posted by whykay at 10:09 AM