A Lithuanian student will be sitting her Maths, Irish written followed by Irish oral and then finally Lithuanian exam because of a clash in the exam timetable.
Her teacher said:[...] the department had not considered that it would be possible for a Lithuanian student to take an Irish exam in the Leaving Cert, as most Lithuanians would have come to Ireland after 2004 and would have been exempted from having to sit it.
(Source: Irish Times)
Well, it's another delay due to a technical glitch. So according to the article, 6-8 weeks... *sigh
Just what we need, when cycling is getting popular, some hooligans assaulted a cyclist with a baseball bat as he was coming onto Victoria quays just after crossing James Joyce bridge. Read more...
(Source: Irish Times)
I really don't agree with reasons on why this attack on Youtube which affects younger viewers of Youtube by displaying porn soon after playing the video. Things like this appearing after music vids or mashups, or fun vids are annoying anyway, as you are not expecting it to happen... when it comes to kids vids being used in this type of attack, it's not fair on kids. It's going to make parents even more paranoid now. For shame.
Check out the beeb vid article on it.
Sara Wilson kindly asked me to mention the Fresh Air Fund, tis all for a good cause.
This past summer OneSight reached out to us and helped over 3000 Fresh Air children by making sure that every child who needed the gift of sight was screened. The Fresh Air Fund is so happy OneSight and their traveling optical clinic are able to help at Fresh Air camps.
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.
(Source: Irish Independent online)
About The Fresh Air Fund
THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2008, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.
With the #bludget causing a big dent for young and old when it was announced yesterday, and more financial burdens for everyone, and surprise, surprise... it seems the middle-class is targeted yet again. Oh, and the cost of a driving test has doubled, yup, it's now EUR75. Amidst all this, I manage to hear something good in the news, summer is here early with sightings of a number of swallows in the country.
Links:
I mentioned Girl Geek Day in one of my previous entries that's on Saturday.
Then it's OSS Bar Camp Dublin, erm, on Saturday.
After dropping into Forbidden Planet today, I saw a poster for IFI's Japanese Anime weekened, guess what, starts Saturday.
On a personal side of things, my conferring ceremony for my masters is on Saturday as well, I'm not going.
With all this, I'm just going to play hide and seek (there's no seek), and I'm hiding down in Limerick with all this going on. It's not the same without Mick around. >-<
This would be cool, the day after Paddy's day, the Google cars will be out and about taking 360 degrees snap shots of the streets. Fantastic, can't wait to see them up, Was very useful for Mick and I trying to see how far it was from our Mandarin Oriental hotel to Apple Store in San Fran. Wished we used it to check out Tokyo (although I think it may not have been available at the time) whilst we were on our honeymoon.
I just hope there aren't too many hungover people and tourists after Paddy's day, and the city councils are all out having the streets cleaned before the Google cars go around.
More info:
* Irish Times - Google takes to the streets to show the way to go in Ireland
* Irish Independent - Irish streets heading for cyberspace
For anyone who has been living in Dublin in the last few years and occasionally flown to London, know this anyway. Really don't need an article to tell us this.
Eatings in out in central London, or down by the Southbanks is cheaper than run-of-the-mill restaurants in Dublin city. You've just got to wonder, even with the exchange rate back then.
So retailers will have to clean footpath 50 metres on either side of their premises, and listen to this, "every one to two hours during opening times".
Retailers who serve take-away food are now also required to print their name and address on all packaging, and in the case of chains or franchises, specify the branch the packaging has come from.
Sure, if you can't teach the public to throw their own rubbish into the plathera of bins, put more pressure on retailers (i.e. pubs and places that sell takeaways). I think we should have a wall of bins along the footpath, because it's too much effort to walk a few feet to a bin... from what I observed of some ignorant people from all walks of life. *grumbles in much annoyance.
Source: RTE News Online - Litter bylaw 'nightmare' for Dublin retailers
Yes, in Ireland, of course. Mick, my father-in-law and I were queuing at Wagamama's for a quick evening snack, and a (probably) yummy-drummy was recounting the audacity of a Garda to stop and pull her over because she was on the phone. That's not all, embarrassingly in view of people driving past her, she doesn't think it's a big deal. Yes, she was on the phone to someone. Woman, it's the frigging law! I can picture Mick rolling his eyes.
You know the recession is bad for stores, just saw an ad for Harrod's sale. Now that's different. I'm not a big sales person anymore, all that pushing and shoving and buying things that won't be worn or used. At least that will help me save money.
So there is an ongoing war between them, legally, that is. Who would have thunk, ay? Bratz is to be withdrawn though in California in a ruling that the Bratz were drawn whilst Carter Bryant worked in Mattel. So no more Bratz, thank goodness, less shallowness on the market. I'm not a big fan of Barbie, mind you, even though many of my friends had them when I was young, and I felt left out with my Sindy. Ok, end of rant, hehe.
Source: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/young-bratz-feel-the-wrath-of-barbie-1565632.html
Well, duh, what do I mean by that, the "no frills" solution is now mentioned more frequently in the news, and this includes houses. Yes, houses! Okay, they maybe ugly looking and located 45 minutes away by train from Dublin city, but check out the prices...
With price tags set at 160,000 and 180,000 for 3- and 4-bed homes, they feel this is bringing prices back to 2002/2003 levels.
Oh, and these houses are based in Athy.
I was home in Limerick and was on the Dublin road heading towards PC World, and passed a garage that sells Audis, Beamers, etc., you know the business class cars. Well, it was unusual to see big flourescent signs saying that there is a sale on. Yes, there was more than one sign up. Maybe it is a good time to get a car, given that you get more bang for your buck since the car trade industry are having problems shifting new/used cars. Sure, my mom just bought a new Ford Fiesta Steel, two grand less than its retail value from two years ago. And plus since our uncle has been a long time customer, the sales guy knocked a few grand more off. The car has a sun-roof, built-in bluetooth for your phone, alloy wheels, even a small spoiler.
Recession has its ups and downs, I am one of the lucky ones who's waiting to pownce on the right price for a house. Mind you, the saving bit for years kind of helps as well.
By Irish author, Eoin Colfer. I've never read any of his Artemis Fowl books, more so because I'm a bit old for teenage fiction, so I'll assume he must be up to scratch to be given this chance to write the next HH's book. I just can't believe why people can't leave sleeping dogs lie?
According to the EU rules that they are not of quality to be sold to consumers even though they are perfectly okay. What a waste, especially when there are so many people who cannot afford fresh fruit and veg.
Yikes, people were injured and killed in a hit and stabbing incident in Akihabara.
Well, the Turkish "i" that is. After I read the article, all I could remember was when I was back in Sun doing localisation, especially new keyboard support for Solaris, and I have always wondered about the Turkish "i". It was confusing to test as I think the small Turkish "i" looks like the English capital "i", I can't remember, it's such a long time ago. Anyway, here's the article I'm referring to, A Cellphone's Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail.
Someone's being doing their research, Sky is promoting shared dish for your apartment block via flyers and letters. We got such promotions today, and they stated that if at least 4 people register their interest, that is enough to get a shared dish on the block. So my hubby registered straight away. We had enough of NTL's (or now know as UPC) crappy service, both their broadcast and customer service, and we are not the only ones. Can't wait, HD tv, oh yeah!
Yay, more family-friendly apartments in Dublin. This was voted by the city councillors to accept the new regulations :
Dublin City Council is to introduce new regulations compelling developers to increase apartment sizes by up to 25pc and make them "family-friendly".
The prices will still be a bit pricey, but given the slowdown of the whole property market here in Dublin, I hope the prices for these apartments will be priced as reasonably as it can. Are we on the next step to be more like other European cities that build larger apartments to cater for families instead of single professionals? Well, I hope so.
Well, well, the government cannot avoid this madness that is the property boom, ok, it's not a boom anymore. But they are admitting that many young people, many who are in their 30s are in deep trouble with their 30+ years mortgages that are as much as EUR500,000!
Such is the level of concern over how "stretched" so many young buyers have become, the Government will issue a "health warning"
Read article from Indo online: Thousands in 'serious trouble' on home loans
Heh, that's "Where the loo?" (or restroom in America). Shiny Shiny mentioned a website that tells girls where the nearest loos are by texting the service from your mobile. It even lets you know how clean they are. You see, people use to think I'm crazy to give "bogroll" (toilet roll) ratings for loos that I've been to when I'm out.
Read more:- Shiny Shiny - MizPee takes the mystery out of where you're going to wee (I just love the MizPee image on their site, heehee.)
Apart from crap music and extortional prices, it may seem that the distorted, loud music makes people feel naucious.
...record companies are using digital technology to turn the volume on CDs up to "11".
"The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just a buzz."
What about the commuters on buses and trains that have their music turned up to the max, that even people on the other end of the transportation can hear what they are listening to? It really hurts my ears, never mind the person who is listening to really loud music. What really gets me is, how on earth can you listen to heavy metal first thing in the morning? Sometimes it gives me a headache when I get off the bus or LUAS.
You just have to be careful near ATMs, don't get distracted by people waving magazines in front of you while getting money out. As in this case, a kid would press the full amount and grab the cash and before you know it, you are 200 yo-yos down. At least the culprits are caught, but the money was never recovered.
For all the grown-up kids, here are some memories of the days gone by of all the lego building instructions : http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/year/index.htm
It looks like a stout, yet it tastes like coffee! Yikes, imagine what you need now in the morning when you have a hangover, more coffee?!? If you can get any sleep after all that caffeine that is.
Really, really, really long exposure by this person to get this cool shot!
Ok, so from what I heard from Mick, that the recent PyPy Sprint was pretty much very, very, very quiet. Especially on the Friday night, when Mick brought them out for food and drinks.
Limerick is only buzzing when students are in town, unfortunately most of the younger people move up to Dublin and work. And now that colleges are back, so are the students.
Summer is just a bad time to come down to Limerick. Most folks just goes out of town around then.
Brian was nice enough to hand one of our Python Ireland tees to Guido, and a photo as proof as well.
Daft is using Google Maps to map out their properties for sale... Check it out: http://www.daft.ie/maps/
Some stuff I came across and did not get around to comment about it...
Well, that was stuck in my head when I read that Sun will be letting go 5,000 employees this year, and one of the offices (apart from the Menlo Park one) they are keeping is the ex-insane asylum.
Right, give a kid a corrugated cardboard bed, now there is something wrong there... the big one is, kids wet the bed, what happens then? That is one soggy bed. *lol
Check this out (got this from boingboing) : http://www.pimpmysnack.com/gallery.php
Here are all the google doodles for the winter olympics.
Due to mega amount of sp@m being received each day (clocking up between 10 and 100). I have temporarily diabled comments and trackback.
Apolagies, will try and have things up and running again.
Did not realise that MT Blacklist is history now!.
LED floodlights that lasts longer, and not end up as hot as normal bulbs. It costs alot, but since the life of these lights is 35 years, well, I do think it will pay itself off.
And a stapleless stapler, not bits of metal. Neater than tearing the paper and folding it over, and holds things tighter than a paperclip. But I think it just looks sooo cute!
From BoingBoing, can find the location of ISS.
NASA advised best viewing time in Dublin (no Limerick), and also more info from Heaven's Above for Limerick . And it's all in the wee hours of the morning!
Well, if you have an iPod Photo and if you are an "adult"... ahem, there was alot of news fluting around about iBod (Playboy feature pic downloads to your iPod photo ), otherwise you will have to just make do with this bunny.
Courtesy of Google. Interactive zeitgeist, if you are wondering what happened during the year of 2004 (Dec will be updated in Jan, they have holidays too.)
Recycling! Yup, Saturday just gone (wish I read it sooner) the Limerick Count Council availed of free recycling facilities to the public. (Still wished I read that sooner)
And when I go home this weekend, I can at least set aside old pcs for Dell's free recycle day on the 25th September. Following are accepted:
monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, computer mice and laptops
and the following are not:
televisions, stereo equipment, mobile phones and white goods, such as fridges, cookers and other appliances
.
Check out the new US army uniform from CNN's article, and my friend did a bit of searching (more close-up shots) and found this hilarious site of what you cannot do in the army.
Saw this in the news - Enthusiasts prepare for lunar eclipse... Some more info at astronomy.ie.
I cannot imagine that they actually have ads not shown there, considering the amount of laughable and cheesy ads they have on constantly every 2 minutes... here a list of 10 that won't be shown there.
Google results for related articles of Sun's troubles at the current climate
What I do not like are these analysts. Why are they so nasty? They are trying to start more and more rumours, making some companies like Sun look bad. I personally do not think that Sun will get taken over. I don't like the way companies can be just bought if the company is floated to the market, greed? I don't know, but I hear there are trends of companies to remain private. But of course, news on this are few and far between.
But will Sun pick up though, some places (such as osnews) that are talking about it (yes, troll-attracted places)
OsNews.com - After Sun Goes Out
OsNews.com - Sun a Takeover Target Without Drastic Action?
Continuing from my previous entry about MIT free courses, seems like the courses that Dublin's Media Labs Europe provides will also post their material for free. Got the news from ElectricNews.com's article on the roundups in the papers, check out the last paragraph.
Can't seem to find news on it on Dublin's Media Labs Europe site.
Imagine free course material. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Well, check out the article - Wired 11.09: MIT Everyware. It's good reference materials, and are all voluntarily contributed by lecturers at MIT.
Here is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT OpenCourseWare.
Um, not sure about this approache : CNN.com - Giant gerbils face eagle air force - Aug. 19, 2003.
But here's what they look like - Great Gerbil facts and pic.
I wish they don't blame it on The Matrix. Authorities would do anything to link it to violence in films, instead of focussing what was the root cause of all these problems...
Ananova - Matrix teenagers 'caught moments before rampage'
Blast... missed the Lunar Eclipse. Was out at Inaugural Agile Special Interest Group (SIG) hosted at Iona in Ballsbridge in Dublin. Very good talk, and great meeting up with the folks are Slattery's afterwards...
Finally, something that we have plenty of that can be recycled to crude oil. Anything into Oil shows that "turkey offal, tires, plastic bottles, harbor-dredged muck, old computers, municipal garbage, cornstalks, paper-pulp effluent, infectious medical waste, oil-refinery residues, even biological weapons such as anthrax spores" can be used to create "high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing". It's great! Can't wait till it gets a bit more affordable, which they are aiming in 3 to 5 years.
Yup, Ireland v England in the grand slam today. Check out latest results and other info on the teams in the 6 nations tournement - http://www.rugby.ie/
This is a big.. I mean really big ambitious project. An ultra modern see throough house built with the latest contemporary design. Yes, I quite like watching Channel 4's Grand Design. But this week's house brief overview can be seen here The guy who owns and manages this building site has no previous experience in building. You can see where this is going. The guy is actually quite down to earth, but a bit too ambitious. A very subtle sense of humour as well. :) I like the part where he screamed at a supplier, but when he was talking to the camera recounting his experience so far, he mentions that the person whom he was scream at might not have an eardrum at all. And he was still furious. But he also has his own website, which is good since his house is still being built! Started 2 years ago, and his online diary was only updated a few days ago. Here it is : Could 8 project.
Out of the many ridiculous house designs which do not suit its surroundings, or/and inappropriate investment of large amount of money, and luck! But this one house really was worth it, and it is beautiful: The wooden house in the woods (funnily enough).. It is environmently friendly, running water from spring and rainwater, solar power for electricity, and the guy who eventually lives in the really nice. unique house, did a lot of the work himself with volunteer workers. It is like a fairy-tale house.
Other houses (ok, the warehouse looks cool as well!), but the box shaped one is truly awful! - Rest of the houses.
Ooh, the guy who did Stargate is doing the Mech Warrior film - Devlin leads 'Mech' into movie battle
My BF was talking about this this morning, thing was I kept on thinking that he was talking about The Matrix Movie instead of The Matrix Phone!
Here is an article about it - Samsung Crafts 'Matrix' Phone from pcworld.com
Here is the actual teaser site - thematrixphone.com
Chat about it - The Matrix Reloaded on my message board
Generals computer game outrages China from ananova.com. It could have been worse...
Saddam was interviewed by Dan Rathar from CBS news (first in a decade), and it would be shown on CBS 60 Minutes. And excerpt from the CBS news article - Saddam Defiant On Missiles
On another front, Saddam had a surprising proposal for President Bush. He's challenging the president of the United States to join him in a live radio and television satellite linkup and debate the need for war before the entire world.
"I am ready," said the Iraqi president, "to conduct a direct dialogue with your president. I will say what I want and he will say what he wants."
"This will be an opportunity for him, if he's committed to war, this will be an opportunity to convince the world."
I would like to see this debate between Saddam and Bush. :-P
I have been complaining about the length of ads shown before a movie. OThers have complained about the ads shown before movies. So why wouldn't there be a reason to sue? Well, some lucky folks did - Pre-movie ads rip off theatergoers, suits claim (from Chicago Sun-Times)
.. and some geeks with free time to come out with a picture that tops others - Columbia Photo Taken with Simple Telescope and Computer (from http://www.space.com)
Yeah, some brill quotes from people who chat online. (WARNING: Some of it maybe offensive! )
http://bash.org/?72206
http://bash.org/?71913
http://bash.org/?71890
(All from http://bash.org)
Rumours and speculations finally coming to light - IDA looks to bring Google to Ireland (from http://www.electricnews.net) Everyone in a rush to get CVs up-to-date...? :)
Found this special from 2002 - The 100 Best Places to Work in IT Worldwide (from http://www.computerworld.com)
My BF mentioned to me last night... 20inch flat screen for $1200. Booya! Read more in this article - Apple cuts prices in bid to jog sales
And in other news... Ted Turner makes a quiet exit from AOL Time Warner
Check out blog - http://www.monstersfromtheid.com/2003/01/18.html Just referencing from this guy's blog. I know there is already a William Gibson blog...
Way cool! His books are great (check out his first few books like neuromancer...)
Here is the site URL - http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/index.asp
From the reg, a good article about an email spammer who got his just desserts by getting physical spam through his letterbox! :D - Spammer gets junk mailed
Au contraire to a red-faced vicar, who thought it was funny telling children (he thought was older) that Santa is dead. Here is Santa's reply in the following BBC article : Santa: 'I'm not a Superman, but I do exist'.
This is a funny read that the wrong person, a baby, was charged with a speeding fine! Fair enough that the name is the only one found in UK, but check the date of birth - Toddler attends court to deny speeding charge
Check this out - Google 2002 Timeline and its top searched keywords at the time for each month
And Google blog about their end of the year zeitgeist Check it out, it's pretty cool.
Finally, Oish has started putting content in his blog. :-p (No pressure whatsoever from me!)
I hear you say 'What?'... check it out here - Sheep are sprayed with words to create poetry from Ananova.com.
...I'm addicted to blogging. At work, I use wikis, and guess what, I am wiki-mad as well! All those links to create pages for...
The Octopus card is like an e-cash card type thing, where the only strings attached is loosing the card (which is just like loosing cash). No personal id, a/c's info are attached to the Octopus card. You can use it on nearly all public transport (the only one left is taxis, I think), but all mass transport take it. Oh, forgot to mention what this card is. It's a card you can buy at any station (or 7-11 shop) for $6 (as deposit). You can return the card and get re-imbursed with the deposit and whatever money is leftover. So what you do is just top up the card with some dough and just swipe to get through turnstiles at train stations (none of this entering card type thing! :) ), or swipe when you get on the bus (same comment I made earlier about entering cards!). And get this... you can swipe to pay for your groceries at your local convenience store. Oh, and fastfood restaurants take it and... so does StarBucks! (heeheehee) Public transport is already years ahead, as in efficiency, technology, how's poor ol' Ireland going to catch up? (Especially with our government determination to get the LUAS going! (Ha, that will be the day...)
Have a read, it's a good article: Cash cards rule, change is passé in Hong Kong From the Mercury News
Just want to scream at the top of lungs, but that would be no use whatsoever. Sh*t hits the fan, and they all come running to me and point fingers...
Need help...and no-one answers... WTF! What is wrong today..."ignore whykay in need day"?
...so I am heading off to bed now. Was trying to code. Wishful thinking. Thought I might be able to get some help earlier in the night but unfortunately, that was not the case. So I am left in the corner (literally) by myself. And a little frustrated. Afterall, managers at works were a pain today. I am right.... You are the weakest link, goodbye!
The online indo today mentioned that we can still exchange our punts! Yay... I still have a stack of pound coins to lodge into my account! Check article : "There's still £250m under the bed" (You'll need to register to read, but it's free)
Robbie coming to Phoneix Park in Aug 9 2002 But for Eur60!!! Ouch...
(Note: to read the online indo you will need to register..it's free)
So, continuation of "Bowling for Columbine". From my BF's blog, is there a build up of fear of US in Europe? It does not really help with Sky News is all I can say. Sky News is so bad in showing paparazzi news, replaying it over and over again. It's sister news that comes on late at night is no better (since this is a cut-down of US news, no US ads). Not to mention COPs being replayed to death, first on Sky One and now on TV3. The only news that keeps some people sane is EuroNews early in the morning (very late at night), they are not as biased., and show important news most of the time.