Conor's Bandon Blog

Running, Food and Local stuff from a blow-in

Diary of A Virgin Semi-Veggie, Part 2

So we’re what, maybe 4 weeks into the experiment? Overall it’s going great apart from the giant hole in the ozone layer that my methane is creating ;-) I’m still picking at the odd bit of ham/turkey and I’m still doing the Friday Chicken Curry but apart from that, it is all veggie. If I removed the milk from my tea I’d basically be vegan. But that ain’t happening. Foods I continue to love on this diet:

A free way for your kids to learn web/games programming in Cork City and County

A few months back I mentioned Coder Dojo which now covers the country and has recently gone international. It’s a free programming club where kids go with their parents and learn about things like web development, mobile development, games programming or other types of coding. The Cork City one is jammers every week from what I hear. I was thrilled to see that Kinsale has kicked one off too and they had 103 kids at their first one.

Diary of A Virgin Semi-Veggie, Part 1

A few weeks ago I had coffee with Haydn in Urru, Bandon and we spent a good while talking about food and health. He mentioned a book called The China Study which made a very strong scientific case for a plant based diet as a way of dealing with many ailments including heart disease. As I have been officially obese for the past few years, I was in my regular new year weight loss mode and wanted to do it in a healthy way.

The RTE Digital TV Switchover and a Xoro DTV-M5 Review

I recently wrote about our switch away from Sky and on to Freesat and Saorview using the Ariva 120 Combo box. After initial success I can no longer recommend that box to anyone. It crashes constantly, it loses channels and its recording features are worse than agricultural. Actually, I’ve come to the conclusion that it must be faulty it’s that bad, so I’m returning for repair and will report back.

Sean O'Sullivan on The Late Late Show. Just Watch it.

This is probably the first and last time I’ll ever post a clip from the Late Late Show. Despite Tubbs excruciating interviewing style, Sean O’Sullivan blew my socks off. From a family of 9 with a dead-beat Dad to huge success. He runs his current business, Avego, from Kinsale. We need more people like him talking about Engineering and Creativity together. If you want your children to create the future, nudge them in that direction.

Bandon Flood (FEWS) Open Data Now Available

I was thrilled to get such positive feedback about the @BandonFEWS Twitter account yesterday. Thanks again to Gordon for doing all the actual work whilst I basked in the glory :-) It was even better considering how sick I am with a nasty tummy bug. The bug means I can do little useful work for the past few days. But I can play with code. One fantastic outcome from yesterday’s blogpost was John Handelaar and others pointing out that I’d given up too easily on trying to extract the river level data from the Bandon FEWS web-site.

Announcing Bandon Flood Early Warning System on Twitter

I’m a big fan of the Bandon FEWS system which sends an SMS when the river at the bridge hits a certain level. It must be a life-saver for many businesses and people in the town. fews1 I have had a few thoughts on other things we could do with that live river-level data for the community. Web-apps, Twitter integration, Analytics, Trends etc etc. However, despite several communications, I have been unable to get any response from Cork County Council about getting access to the live data.

A Reminder from Top Chef that it's Masterchef Ireland, not Master Scallops


Getting Free Digital TV in West Cork on Rabbit Ears

Over on my tech blog recently, I mentioned dumping Sky TV and getting an Ariva 120 box. This is a combination satellite and digital terrestrial receiver. It costs an amazing €99 and you never have to pay another thing. You disconnect your Sky box, plug the satellite lead and aerial lead into the Ariva and you’re done. Until yesterday I had only used the satellite bit which gives you BBC etc.

Cork CoCo to Support Hot-Desking Setups in County Towns

I don’t know how I missed this when it was announced recently. A superb initiative from Cork County Council. They have put aside €300,000 to help with provision of enterprise centres / hot desk facilities in County Towns. This will include a contribution of up to €35,000 for tech and hot desk provision. The downside is that is doesn’t cover building rental but surely some joined-up thinker in the Council is already working on a deal with NAMA to get properties for rental at 10c on the Euro or less?