Ah it's grand.
Sure.

Just having a rant here so don’t pay too much attention. :) I’ve been catching up feeds today and there are three articles on breakingnews.ie that caught my eye as well as one other story I read last weekend. The first one strikes as nothing more harmless than banal, Just having a rant here so don’t pay too much attention. :) I’ve been catching up feeds today and there are three articles on breakingnews.ie that caught my eye as well as one other story I read last weekend. The first one strikes as nothing more harmless than banal, Seriously? This is standard practice in most countries, give them their security escort. Labour just don’t have any direction anymore and rather than substantive observation and commentary they’ll stick to this. The next one just made me think ‘snivelling little shit’ and concerns those charlatans, the Green Party. Green Party leader John Gormley has said he believes many voters feel they were conned by politicians at the last general election. No fucking kidding! I’m guessing though Gormley doesn’t feel himself, Lyin’ Ryan or Dan Boyle are included in that though. Never mind that they have abandoned all commitment to cleaning up politics and have completely failed to deliver on their respective portfolios, they have no shame in their new status as whores for power. It shocks me this week that I’m actually in a state of admiration for a member of Fianna Fail with Jim McDaid saying he would have voted against the Government in this week’s Dáil vote on the cervical cancer vaccination programme if such a move would have reversed Mary Harney’s decision to scrap the scheme. Personally, I think he should’ve voted against the government anyway but at least he abstained which is more character than most other politicians possess. Finally, it’s good old Mary Harney that finishes my rant. With news that the PDs are now disbanded I have to ask why she isn’t vacating here seat and seeking re-election? She’s no longer the candidate she was when elected and should seek the endorsement of her constituency for her change in position. Think it’ll happen?

I haven’t been participating in the Tuesday Push, not because I have anything against it but because I’m still feeling my way around to some extent and getting comfortable (yes, it’s taking a long time but that’s me). However there are two reasons to join in for LouderVoice which is this Tuesdays:

– It’s a great product for simple and quick reviews. The ‘business’ edition really opens up some interesting avenues for those businesses who will tale advantage

Fantastic win for Connacht having suffered the ignominy of defeat so often. Fantastic win for the fans who turn out for these games. An inspiring game that makes you stand and applaud what these players do for those of us who invest pride and emotion into the team that represents who we are and where we’re from. 

People on the pitch

Nice little penalty drifted over.

The Irish government move to guarantee deposits in Irish banks has generated a lot of commentary. In particular politicians have thrown their hands up in the air and waffled about the exposure of the Irish taxpayer to a vast financial risk. I’m going to start by saying that I’m not an expert on banking. I generally only have a passing casual interest due to having worked for around 7 years at a software company supplying solutions to banks (back office systems, internet banking, integration and middle office type stuff mainly). That is, I was involved in the software side and not core financial activities.

Another one of Sabrina Dent’s awesome designs: Circus Vegas. Wouldn’t you just love to be able to come up with designs like her?

This made me a laugh quite loudly: (not quite sure of the etiquette of ‘reblogging’, so you’ll have to follow the link for the whole thing :) )

Vidya: So what are you cooking?
Charles: Oh, spaghetti with this tomato-and-stuff sauce.
Vidya: No, what is it called?
Charles: I don’t know, I never really looked. I could go get the book if you really want.
Vidya: Go on, I want to know.
Charles: OK, it’s… er… spaghetti puttanesca.
Vidya: You realise what that means, right?

Read more...

Good ol’ Evert is at it again with another cool idea (following up on the excellent OCC BBQ is a tough one) with his latest idea for a Co-working/techhub/start-up center. It’s a cool idea and I could see it working for lots of different types of companies, particularly sole-traders and small office setups. The benefits of mingling in this sort of environment seem to be many from basic social interaction and business networking to perhaps shared purchasing power even for those who just use it as a day office, once or twice a week.

failwhale, originally uploaded by James (ciotog).

It’s funny to see how ‘failwhale’ has entered the lexicon of so many web users. I know it’s harsh to put the boot in like this but the reality is that Twitter has some major issues that need to be taken seriously by those behind it but also by a number of its users. I remember when there were lots of people being vocal about ditching Jaiku in favour of Twitter. Now it seems like it was a mere veil to move to Twitter because they preferred it and just didn’t know why! There’s nothing wrong with that per se, as long as you can admit that it’s personal bias. Anyway, the stability of Twitter has improved but there are still serious issues there and I can’t see how buying Summize was a bright idea other than in a extend, embrace, extinguish kind of way. Twitter has inspired some fantastic apps though – look at Twitterfone.com so it’s not a useless endeavour as there’s a sound requirement for a site like Twitter. However, microblogging in a Twitter sense needs to be nimble and having the ‘exchange’ go down frequently just doesn’t work.

09/08/2008, originally uploaded by James (ciotog).

That went surprisingly well which probably goes to show how idiot proof this cookie mix is. Brownies will be up next, though maybe not today as I think the sugar rush might be too much for me :) Heading over to http://www.spicendipity.com will get you a look at the various mixes.