Ah it's grand.
Sure.

While I continue to look for a Ruby on Rails based gallery solution, Picasa will have to for the time being.

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Have been watching a few programs fronted by economists of late here in Ireland. Bloody scary stuff, the average price of a house in Dublin is now Euro 425k. People are talking of holding mortgages running Euro 1700pm and upwards. It’s scary and just highlights the utter failure of the government to manage the economy. In this part of the country we’re seeing massive property developments based on Section 23 tax benefits which have occupancy rates of 30% in many places. The property to back it up is there but the infrastructure, both physical and social, just isn’t.

The trip into Cork airport was much less hassle than flying into Dublin airport, definitely going to try and travel through their anytime I need to fly. Baggage was out very quick, airport wasn’t crowded and the parking was easy. I was lucky to get picked up by Mum & Dad (they love retirement) who were pretty pleased with the ease of Cork. Nenagh was a good break on the way home for some dinner – I must look up the hotel details as I’d recommend it to anyone.

Well, I’ve had the phone for awhile now so it’s probably worth a quick write-up. The form factor is more comfortable than the E61 I had previously, although some reviews have complained that the phone is somewhat ugly. Personally I find it quite a comfortable size and would take the somewhat unusual look (the lugs on either side of the screen) considering that one can flip the keypad up to reveal the keyboard and switch the screen to landscape mode. For me, the keyboard is one of the most important and impressive features of the phone. The built-in WiFi comes a close second. Writing email and messages on this phone become so much more of a joy. Messaging functions work well; I use SMS and email most of the time. No surprises in SMS usage apart from the slightly odd issue of the way names gets displayed (Lastname, Firstname even when Contacts have been configured to use the Firstname Lastname display format). Email works in a similar fashion to previous phones. It supports POP3 and IMAP with options to easily configure common mail providers, for example Yahoo and Earthlink. As a phone it has what you expect, calls are clear although I sometimes find the volume a little low. Speakerphone works well. I’d recommend it to people who are looking for a good messaging phone and are looking for WiFi in there.

I’m off to Ireland tonight for the next month. Infrequent internet access and cold weather awaits but should all be good fun.

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BreakingNews.ie had a report yesterday on a case where a rapist was give a three-year suspended sentence. Added to that, the free-to-roam rapist returned home on the same train as the victim. The decisions of the judiciary often leave me baffled.

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Another story from BreakingNews.ie shows that Ireland tops European binge-drinking with

Just over one third of Irish respondents to the latest Eurobarometer survey on the issue say they usually consume five or more drinks in one session.

. We do have a heavy drinking culture and I realise that it has become something engrained in our mentality of a night out – I know I can count myself in that group. With that said, I haven’t done it for at least a month now so maybe it’s something you can grow out of (I’m 30 next month so it’s about time!).

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Daniel and I continued our boozy lunch sessions today at The Pump Room. Sadly Chris couldn’t make it, so we drank some extra beer on his behalf. This was the first visit to this pub/bar/bistro and I’m absolutely certain I’ll ba back again. Located in the ever more trendy Clarke Quay, The Pump Room is on Read Street beside Highlander (we assumed that both bars are part of the same group but I’m not sure about that) and so it’s easy to get to by taxi (alight at the taxi stand on River Valley Road that you would use when at the Ministry of Sound). It’s not quite as straightforward by public transport as Daniel found out.

Spotted this on Digg today, kind of interesting … (see for yourself at Imagini)

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I’d taken a look a look at Pandora Internet Radio before but it failed to load in the browser I use (Omniweb) so I hadn’t visited the site again until yesterday. This time it worked and I selected ‘The Prodigy’ as my starting group to see what music Pandora would come up with. Listened to the first track (which was by The Prodigy) and then paused it while I was doing something else. So I came back to it this morning and noticed some small text I hadn’t noticed before: Pandora is currently for US listening only. The link is to a blog FAQ which confirms that the music isn’t licensed for the listening pleasure of those outside the US. Wow, what a crock! Music is in a sad state these days and for once I’m not talking about the quality of the music.