Ah it's grand.
Sure.

So I’m in Galway now for almost a month and I thought this was be a good time to do an update. As ever, I avoid mentioning employers on the blog but the details are on LinkedIn, if we’re connected. Anyway, it’s an experience to start in a company after being at the last one for seven years. You’re the newbie who’s getting settled in and finding your way. So far, I’ve mainly been reading product and project documentation so I can’t say it’s thrilling in that respect. However, that’s how it goes when you’re new. The future my job holds certainly seems bright as it’s in an interesting field and things in the company are very well organised. Some travel on the horizon but I’m hoping this will stay organised and there won’t be any rolling return dates on my trips away. So, I’m happy on the work front.

For anybody who fancies a laugh at my piss poor internet connection here are some statistics to take a look at. The graph is based on data collected using SpeedTest from Blacknight (thanks Blacknight for providing this utility!). I’m using the USB Modem from 3 Ireland for my internet connectivity. They refer to it as ‘broadband’ but I won’t be – because the product just isn’t broadband. To give you some background, I’m currently living at my parent’s place in Roscommon and although we’re about 5km from Strokestown (ADSL enabled exchange) the line length is apparantly 10km (10.25km is the Eircom measured distance I think) which means no ADSL. Also, the telephone line quality isn’t fantastic for dial-up and we’re the last house on the line. We’re surrounded by trees for the most part so we don’t have ‘Line of Sight’ for Lastmile – not that it’s easy to get a straight answer from them on what options we do have. This means internet connectivity is mobile. If you look at the ComReg site (Search for Scramoge in County Roscommon) you’ll see that there are very few 3g enabled masts nearby. So 3 is the only viable provider – O2 might be possible but I think we have too many hills and such between us and Longford or Roscommon where they have 3g enabled masts.

This must be a real kick in the teeth for the Jaiku folk (from the Google blog):

We’ve joined forces with Twitter to give you instant updates on Super Tuesday. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, you can send a simple text message about your voting experience.

I did intend to get this post up earlier but I’m not fully into the blogging thing that I get on with articles. Anyway, Thursday saw a trip to the Odessa Club in Dublin for the inaugural Techludd event (Update: There’s now a Techludd blog). By the afternoon of Thursday, over 100 had registered for the [non]event, a quick check from my phone showed. Having seen the numbers increase sharply in the couple of days before the event I was really looking forward to this.

For some reason, this has a very 80s feel to me …

[For some reason, this has a very 80s feel to me …

]1

[

Based on the latest gOS Rocket operating system, the ultra-mobile Everex PC comes with popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype, OpenOffice.org and more.]1

This isn’t surprising to most people but it does highlight the chronic wastage that is rampant today. We probably can’t lay all the blame at the politicians feet for this as I suspect a large dose of inefficiency in parts of the civil service hasn’t helped things.

Government efforts to make public services available online has run out of steam, a spending watchdog said today.

However the Comptroller and Auditor General said the state’s eGovernment roll-out was still on a par with other EU countries despite losing momentum since 2002.

Read more...

How can people make such critical security mistakes in this day and age?

The computer network in the Dreamliner’s passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane’s control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals.

This eWeek article seems like common sense but it’s surprising how many are ignored to the peril of the project:

A growing number of companies are implementing SOA projects to lower IT integration costs, while improving the time it takes to make changes to business units. However, according to Paul Callahan, manager of technical services at NetManage, of those companies that have begun deployment, many are held up in the early implementation phase.

Read more...

This is hardly something to be yelling about given that we’re not great at sorting out who should be allowed to say and who gets deported.

“Applications by asylum seekers to live in Ireland have dropped to the lowest level in ten years, the Government said today.

The

Minister for Justice and Equality, Brian Lenihan, branded the cut a

welcome result of official strategies to combat abuses of the system.”

 

Spinning the podcast off to another blog on this domain – Movable Type is neat for managing multiple blogs. Please do visit The Culchie Geek podcast