Archive for 'Uncategorized'
YouGetItBack – What a great idea
Posted on June 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Business, Uncategorized.
I know they have been around for a bit but I just found out recently about yougetitback.com. It’s one of those ideas that just makes you go “perfect!”. And it is so simple. Sign up with them and pay €9.99 for two stickers which you can attach to valuables like mobile phones. The sticker has a telephone number, code and message about a reward to the finder if it is lost. The chances of it being returned in the case of loss are now far far higher. Bloody brilliant. The €9.99 will give you cover for the items for three years. Bargain.
[tags]YouGetItBack[/tags]
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All our research gives us a gut intuition
Posted on June 27, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Humour, Uncategorized.
Another memorable quote from “The Apprentice, Martha Stewart”.
On a completely unrelated topic, Digg has gone to Version 3. Digg is a news site whose top stories are voted into position by the users. Up until now it was mainly tech but they have branched out in V3.
I’ve never used it much as it causes total information overload. But the Diggnation Podcast with Alex and Kevin is hysterically funny.
I had a quick look today just to see what had changed. There was an interesting story on Digg User stats – 94% male. Feign shock.
One commenter wondered what sites female internet users read instead. I am gobsmacked that the suggested one is not a live web-sites. I think they’d make a fortune:
http://pinkstuffandponiesandflowers.com
And now back to Martha.
[tags]The Apprentice, Martha Stewart, Digg, Diggnation[/tags]
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Bandon Show on this Saturday
Posted on June 15, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Uncategorized.
Bandon Show
Begins: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 at 1:00 PM
Ends: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 at 6:00 PM
Entry fee: A few Euro
Location:
Castlebernard Estate Bandon, Co Cork Ireland
The annual Bandon Agricultural show is on this Saturday having been delayed due to atrocious weather in May. This is a great day out for the family and covers far more than championship cattle! We had a giggle there last year and this year looks even better.
The flyer advertises the following:
Music by The Pot Belly Folk
Vintage Display of Machinery, Cars and Tractors
Bouncy Castle
Mobile Pet Farm
Puppet Show at 2.30
Best Dressed Family and Teenager Competition
Baby Show at 3.30
Driving Competitions (aka parking in the field 
)
Exhibition of Llamas
Heineken Cup courtesy of Niall O’Driscoll
Fun Dog Show at 3.30
Grand Parade of Champions
A free bus will go from Harte’s Pharmacy from 12.20 onwards.
As always, well done to the organising committee for putting together a great line-up and to Lady Jennifer for providing the venue.
This is also on Eventful.com.
Easiest way to get there is to head towards Clonakilty from Bandon, about 2 km out turn right at Blacksticks towards Dunmanway, take first small turn right again (heading back towards Bandon), and follow the signs.
[tags]Bandon Show, Castlebernard[/tags]
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Two blogs well worth a look
Posted on April 16, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Ireland, Uncategorized.
The biggest hole in the Irish Blogging scene is the lack of women bloggers. I have no real idea why so few women blog, particularly when examples like Dooce are there to show what is possible. It probably just boils down to the fact that, in general (and by “in general” I am in no way trying to invoke a stereotye or in any way label any sub-grouping of humanity. Please don’t hurt me), women don’t get a kick out of geeky gadgets and buzzwords and only start using technology when it becomes genuinely useful. For example, high temperature ceramics really only moved out of geeky labs and into mainstream usage with the invention of the GHD Straightener. He ducks, he runs.
So I am really happy to report that things are starting to change and I have to recommend two blogs to you.
The first has been around for several months and is called “That Friday Feeling“. It consists of the musings of a thirtysomething single woman living somewhere in rural Ireland. She talks about life, men, health, weight and living down the bog. Curly K has a great turn of phrase and is always a good read, not just for girlies.
The second I found out about because the author also has me on her blogroll. Her blog is called “The Arse End of Ireland” and only appears to have started very recently. I know it is early days but the signs are so good that I am going to pin my colours to the mast and offer the opinion that we may have finally found the female Twenty! And in this case it doesn’t look like a character but seems to be a real person. The Swearing Lady is very very funny with just the right level of exasperation, grumpiness and cynicism.
They are both in my Bloglines subscriptions and deserve to get much much bigger readerships. Check em out and let me know what you think.
[tags]That Friday Feeling, Curly K, Arse End of Ireland, Twenty Major, Women Bloggers,Dooce[/tags]
10 Comments
New Honda Civic ad on Channel 4
Posted on April 13, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Motor Cars, Uncategorized.
One of the best TV ads I have ever seen for a motor car. Must be a couple of minutes long and surely costs a fortune to broadcast. But worth it for them if they are ever to change the UK demographic from 55-85 to 25-35. They rightly have much younger buyers in Ireland. Just checked and they have some of the sound effects from the ad on their UK site too.
I had a look at the car in Kevin O’Leary’s the other day (whilst on my bike, strangely). Fabulous looking and much bigger than it appears in pictures. Not that I’ll ever get one (some day I want to test drive a Type-R), our next car is a VW Caravelle.
Finbarr Galvin up the road is selling a 1979 Roller. No price tag. Now that’s what you need for sitting in traffic jams. Could you imagine arriving into work driving one? Would I have to wear a suit and smoke a pipe before they’ll give me a drive in it? Or would the Civic be more comfortable?
[tags] Honda Civic, Rolls Royce, VW Caravelle[/tags]
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Slight colour blindness
Posted on April 2, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Politics, Uncategorized.
This would be funny if over 2000 people hadn’t been murdered by terrorists in the past thirty five years on this island.
I was just reading the latest edition of my local Bandon Opinion and saw an ad by Sinn Fein Bandon encouraging people to wear the Easter Lily.
Let me just quote the important bit: “combining the green, white and saffron of our national flag”. Green……White…..SAFFRON? Which national flag are these cretins referring to? That of Tuvalu maybe or Micronesia or maybe Latvia?
Obviously Sinn Fein is now run by middle class foodies who like nothing better than a delicate saffron flavoured risotto.
Just when you think they are getting a clue, you are reminded of what you are dealing with.
[tags]Sinn Fein, National Flag, Green, White, Orange, Saffron[/tags]
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Has Flickr always been free?
Posted on May 18, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
I thought it was pay-only the last time I checked. Excellent, I now have a hosting site for any piccies I want to link to. Just looking through the features – bloody hell, I can see why people are raving about it. Can upload pictures via email, so I can send direct from my camera phone to Flickr. Can get it to automatically post the pictures to my blog, so straight from camera phone to blog. I think we’ll be dumping the Canon Imagine site pretty soon for the Ixus photos if Flickr proves to be as good as it looks. I’d better check the upload limits I guess.
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This wouldn’t be Conor’s blog without
Posted on May 18, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Friends, Uncategorized.
Baby Announcements!!
We just found out that Maria and Maurice had a baby girl back on April 17th. Baby Ellen is an absolute cutie and either has dark red hair or bright red hair depending on whether you ask Claire or Ethna.
Oh, and the Pierce’s finally named 3 of 9: Rianna Gail Pierce. That’s a very cool name. I’d nick it only for the fact that our next one is a bloke. But then I did meet a bloke called Shelley last week.
Next up Kieran & Lou Walsh, followed by us.
We put Kartik (an American based in Sacramento) into shock when we were out for a pint last week in Framingham. He asked the three paddies at the table if they had kids. The count was Donagh 4, Denis 4, Conor 3 plus one on the way. And they say the Irish are having fewer babies…….
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Recording Streaming Audio for later listening
Posted on May 17, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to record streaming audio so I can listen to it later (and start/stop when I like). Actually it’s specifically for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Quandary Phase. I didn’t really enjoy the last radio series and the repeats of the TV series aren’t that great either. But it became a technical challenge that I wanted to get to the bottom of. I finally cracked it today. Note that the solution below will not work behind some corporate firewalls but seems to work fine on my NATed setup on a Linksys Wireless Router at home.
Download MPlayer for Windows and all the codecs.
http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32-beta/MPlayer-mingw32-1.0pre7.zip
http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/windows-all-20050412.zip
Unzip MPlayer and unzip the codecs.Copy the unzipped codecs to the codecs sub-dir of the mplayer dir.
Open a command prompt in the Mplayer dir and type:
mplayer -dumpfile hitchhikers.ra -dumpstream rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/hitchhikers.ra
It streams in realtime so it’ll take 30 mins to download.
Listen to ram file later at your leisure using realplayer (or the nifty stripped down, bloat-free Real Alternative)
Do that once a week to get each new episode.
Don’t try this with VLC. I spent ages trying to get it to work before I realised it doesn’t support realaudio!
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Mock-Tudor Edwardian Georgian Castle with Irish Bar
Posted on May 17, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Ah yes, those Sheraton folks in Massachusetts really know their architecture. Our hotel was only bettered by the one we drove under which straddled the Massachusetts Turnpike. I’ve always wanted a room with cars whizzing past 20 feet under my floor.
Shopping disaster – only had time for Toys R Us. Kids happy even if I’m still without a new keyboard and mouse.
On the other hand, we had some very successful meals. If you are ever in Framingham, check out “Legal Seafood” – great food, good buzz and grumpy waitresses; “are you finished with that or do you want to pick some more?” (that’s an exact quote). Arturo’s Italian was more downmarket but incredibly friendly and not bad food – better than 99.99% of Italian joints in Ireland. Having said that, my risotto is better. And finally “The Naked Fish” – another top class fish restaurant, really tasty food and impressive considering it seems to be a chain. How the hell did I not get a burger in the entire week?
Our “Summit” was a major success. It’s nice to know that the work you do, beavering away in Cork, is actually appreciated coast to coast in the US. Came away with tons to do which is always a good sign. And a week after I first heard the phrase, someone else said: “we suck less”. Amen brother.
Oh, and I gotta get me one of these for the Bandon-Ballincollig commute: Lincoln Navigator
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Greatest Failures in Engineering
Posted on May 16, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Seems to be mainly focussed on Civil. Interesting enough tho
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=95907&page=1
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Oh my god, they removed Kenny’s feeding tube
Posted on May 11, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Only if you are really, really bored.
The title of the post is related to a recent episode of South Park which I cannot wait to see.
http://mediavillage.com/jmentr/2005/04/05/jmer-04-05-05/
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So if you’re really bored
Posted on May 11, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Try this quiz.
Unsurprisingly I had a big score. This big:
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Not an April Fool
Posted on May 11, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
From yesterday’s ElectricNews:
—————-
Irish company Vordel, the XML web services security company, announced the appointment of German firm, SHE-IT as a reseller of its XML security software in the German marketplace. SHE-IT has a strong reputation for delivering security systems integration expertise to leading companies in the financial services, telecoms and industrial sectors in Germany, Vordel claimed.
————-
Anyone else have an image in their head of a southern US good old boy stubbing his toe, spitting out some chewing tobacco and swearing “she-it”, probably followed by “goddam”.
ElectricNews.net:News:For the record 10 May
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Why Dave Barry is God
Posted on May 10, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
From a 1992 Column in the Miami Herald Tribune:
———————-
Speaking of true quotations, please repeat the statement that Sonda Ward of Nashville, Tenn., swears she heard made by a man expressing concern to a woman who had been unable to get a ride to a church function.
He said: ”Estelle, if I’d a knowed you’d a want to went, I’d a seed you’d a got to get to go.”
———————-
Please un-retire Dave, please.
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Bawstan Bound
Posted on May 8, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
A week in Massachusetts from 9th-14th. Staying in Framingham, working in Hopkinton. I was in Boston once in 1996 whilst I was working in Silicon Valley and I met up with Catherine there. Great place. Felt small even tho it wasn’t. Brass Monkey weather in November. Looks like it isn’t too cold there now. I’ve already Google Mapped my way from the hotel to CompUSA, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Baby Gap. A couple of forays to Walgreens and maybe a sports store and I’ll be sated for another six months.
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Loo Blog
Posted on May 7, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Saw a funny cartoon in The New Yorker (courtesy of sis Fiona) yesterday about guy sitting in traffic, blogging his utterly banal whinges in real-time. Today, I read that Google have launched Blogging from your Mobile Phone. US only for now but hopefully I’ll be able to blog my musing from the lav some day soon.
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Tim Nice But Dim
Posted on May 7, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
Well it was obvious since Paul was fired but what a disappointment. Tim has not excelled once in the entire series of The Apprentice. Can you think of one thing he did where you went “wow”? The series for me consists of some great scenes involving Paul, James and Saira.
But maybe that’s what Sugar wants – an average MOR guy who won’t challenge him and will do what he is told. However that is not the sort of manager who replaces you when you retire. But I guess Sugar Jr will get that job.
I’ve noticed that with strong leaders I’ve worked with over the years. The sort of people they hate are people exactly like themselves. Fatal flaw.
Roll on Series 2. Hopefully they’ll find some women who have a clue and spend more than a fiver getting their hair coloured every month. Meow.
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Potential – Not everyone gets to be an Astronaut when they grow up
Posted on May 4, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
I’ll be reading this site all day.
Consulting – if you’re not a part of the solution, there is good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
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Nice Car Mate
Posted on May 4, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Uncategorized.
That Vauxhall Astra ad is an absolute stonker. I love it. Catches the concept of a petrol-head perfectly.
Oisín, my 3 year old, is already well on the road to being a car nut. But somethimes it’s just spooky. We were stuck in a traffic jam in Killeagh on Sunday and were stopped beside a new Bangle-era BMW 5-Series. Oisín looks out his window and says “that’s the same as grandad’s car”. How the hell could he suss that with only the side profile in view when his grandad drives an old-model 7-Series? Then he goes “the wheels are the same”. Holy crap, I love cars but I never notice the bleedin wheels. Oh I think we may have a future Schumacher on our hands (preferable to a future Irvine anyway).
This is the same child who shamed me at my latest niece’s christening on Saturday. We are sitting not-quietly in the church waiting for the gig to start and someone hands Oisín a missal. He “reads” it for a moment, looks at me and says “I’ll have burgers, chips and ketchup please”. Yes, we are a very religious family………
