Tiger, tiger, not burning so bright now, are you?

As if marrying most mens sexual fantasy (Blonde Swedish Au Pair) was not enough, it is now alleged that Tiger Woods was having "relations" with 2, yes that's right, 2 porn stars!!

Now granted I had not heard of these "stars" before hand (seriously, I hadn't, I really mean that), but I have since researched their work and yes, yes they are what they claim to be.

The first to be exposed in the media was Holly Sampson, a 36yo actress... As you can see from the picture below, she is an attractive lady, not a supermodel by any means, but still attractive.


The second of these actresses is a lady who goes by the name of Joslyn James. Yet again another attractive lady with some obvious charms..


Now I understand the thrill he can get from banging pornstars, but sweet jaysus man, you had your own Swedish Au Pair at home, and if I am being honest she is far better looking than either of the two ladies above!


On a seperate note, it has been a bad month for the stars of Gillettes adverts... First Henry shows just what sort of cheating bastard he is, then Tiger Woods shows the same!! What the hell is Federer going to do???

Part 4 on an ongoing series of shite cartoons…

Yeap, that’s right, another cartoon of mine!

Indian based Customer Service Centres..

I emailed 3 Ireland with regards to Google Anroid phones....

I got a call back from some bloke in Dehli explaining that I could use Google Search on all their phones... I tried to explain what I wanted, but to no avail. I then mentioned the iPhone to him and he went to off to get information on Windows Media compatible phones!!

Now I know that companies need to look after every little penny these days, but seriously, outsourcing your tech support / sales support to some room in India where the guy cannot understand what you want or what you are saying just frustrates the customer (me) more. In the end, I just gave up.

When my upgrade is due, I will seriously consider switching networks to which ever has an Irish based customer support service.

Another one of my cartoons…

Ahhh yeah, another one of my fabulous cartoons….

Thanks to Playboy for the original joke!

I went to NASA…

I visited Kennedy Space Center last week. Unfortunately the Space Shuttle launch (STS 129) was delayed till this week, so I did not get a chance to attend, but I did go on the tour of the center and it was pretty impressive.



The above ball is the 9 ton granite Constellation Sphere that floats on a film of water. It is surprisingly easy to move such a heavy object.



That is the Space Shuttle Atlantis, sitting on its launch pad, ready for Mission STS 129. It is hard to get a feel for the scale of the launch pad, but if you look carefully, you will see a red blob that is actually a 4x4 pickup truck!



The picture above is of the Crawler Transporter used to move the Space Shuttle from the large building in the background (Vehicle Assembly Building), to the launch pad, and moves at a speed of 1 mile per hour. It can take up to 5 hours to get the Space Shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad!!



Many people don’t realise this, but the island (Merritt Island) on which Kennedy Space Center is located, is actually a wildlife refuge. Only 10% of the island is actually used for NASA / USAF, the rest is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Along with alligators, one can find wild boar, buzzards, sea turtles, manatees and hundreds of other species.

This was my second time visiting NASA and for me it is a must see when I am in the area. It is a great day out for all the family and is not just for nerds and geeks!

I booked my trip through Gator Tours and was impressed with the service, in particular with the passion and knowledge for NASA that the coach driver displayed.

Moon Pics…

Truth be told, I am a bit of a nerd…. I like nerdy things, Computers, Gadgets, Sci Fi, Astronomy and other nerdy stuff.

As tonight was so clear, I decided to take out my telescope and take a look at the moon. I can spend ages looking at it. I get lost in time staring at the moon, it is quite an incredible site.

Anyway, I took some pics tonight. I have to use my digital camera to take the pics and unlike the real serious amateur astronomers, I have to hold it to the lense as I don’t have an adapter to attach my camera to the telescope.

Having said that, 4 of the 20 pics actually turned out ok, you can see them below.

Just some cartoons…

I am not the worlds greatest cartoonist, in fact I could actually be the worlds worst, but I don’t care!!!

These are just some cartoons I created from jokes I read..

Charity Muggers

Different types of sex….

A year in the life of an Formula 1 Team…

This is a very very brief history of the life of a F1 Team.

December 2008, Honda pulled out of Formula 1. Things looked decidedly bad for the team members. A last minute deal with Ross Brawn and his backers meant the team was saved. Brawn GP was born!

Roll on 10 months to October 18th 2009 and Jenson Button of Brawn GP is now Formula 1 World Champion and Brawn GP win the  Formula 1 Constructors Championship.

What a difference a year makes!

Free WiFi in Kildare Map…

This is just a little something I have been playing with… its a Google Map I am putting together indicating where one can get Free WiFi in Kildare. Actually it is just Naas at the moment, but hopefully it will expand to cover other areas.

View Free WiFi in Kildare in a larger map

What a long weekend…..

I had originally written a long sprawling post about this weekend. It dealt with the 4 day Wake / Funeral of the mother of some friends. Try as I might, whatever I wrote did not come out as I wanted.

So, Mrs White (for me, it was always Mrs White, never Teresa or Teta), you will be sadly missed, but fondly remembered. Your happiness was infectious, your train of thought often incredible and your obvious love of life inspiring.

We all miss you already.

Tum te tum….

7 years on the dry today…. 7 years and no itch! Mind you, the drugs I am taking for my throat are meant to cure “itches”..

You don't know what you got till it's gone..

Damn, it has been a while since I bothered to post anything on the blog… I have been rather busy though.

Anyway, for the last 2 months, my voice has been getting progressively worse, going from hoarse to scratchy to fucking almost no existent today.

Well I manned up today and finally went to the doctor. Now I thought it was most likely a touch of laryngitis, he seems to disagree though.

Just to be sure to rule it out, he is going to treat it as such for the next couple of weeks. If it clears up by then, great.

The doc thinks it is possibly scratched / damaged vocal chords from too much singing / screaming at gigs. The other thing he thought it may be are nodes on my vocal chords.. Now that is what we don’t want it to be as that means serious treatment!

Anyway, it means that I cannot speak for a while, to give my voice a break and that is really wrecking my head.

Right so, back to the match…

U2 360

I popped over to London last weekend (as you do) to see the U2 360 tour. Its the 6th time I have seen them live and whilst none compare to Croke Park in 1987, this was still a phenomenal gig.

I could harp on about the gig and how great it was and so on, actually I had, but then I deleted it!! All I am going to do is post an image or 2 of the stage setup, it was possibly the most incredible stage I have ever seen!

The image above was created using Microsoft Ice. you feed it multiple shots of a scene and it combines them to make one big panoramic view. Google the software, it is free and very very easy to use.

That’s a picture of the 360° screen that hangs above the middle of the stage. I think that was taken during Sunday Bloody Sunday and no, I have no idea what the writing means though!

Thats just a random shot of the screen and how it expands down over the stage. It reminded me of the Mother ship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I suppose I ought to put in one group shot… Unfortunately this one seems to miss out on Larry!

Anyhow, a great night was had by all (nothing strange there, after all, it was a U2 gig!)

Help!!!! Please help!!!!

Twitter has been offline for the last few hours!! Has bird flu finally caught up with Twitter?

What am I going to do, who am I going to talk to???

I feel all alone, isolated, insecure. How am I going to tell the world my inner most thoughts, feelings, wants, needs, depravities…

If only there was someway to talk to people, communicate with them, relate with them….

This is what the end of the world must feel like :(

Excuses excuses excuses….

I see that the Fina World Championships (swimming for those who don’t know) are on at the moment and that those who should be tops are not and they are not happy.

Seemingly there is a new swimming suit on the block. It is a 100% polyurethane swimsuit which means that it offers a lot more buoyancy than a normal suit and because of that, more of the swimmers energy is used for propulsion rather than staying afloat.

The winner of yesterdays 200m Freestyle Final, Paul Biedermann, wore the suit in the final. He bet Michael Phelps (first major loss in 4 years) after leading from the second turn and finished in one minute 42.00 seconds beating Phelps' World Record by 0.96. Oh, he also won the 400m earlier in the week!

Now many out there are upset about this suit, they claim it is unfair and Fina seem to agree. The suit will be banned from 2010. Phelps looked disgusted with his performances. He had this to say about Biedermann and also seems to be hinting that the suit helped… “He's come down a lot in the last year and I think it's going to be fun next year when swimming's back to swimming” though he claims fatigue actually cost him the race.

Sounds like sour grapes to me. Had his swimming suit sponsor developed the suit, chances are that Phelps would have worn it for the championships. Unfortunately they didn’t so he couldn’t.

As for the fatigue…. Any chance that the fatigue could be brought on by stupid behaviour like this?  http://tinyurl.com/cdkcnk

Oxegen 2009…

Well Oxegen is over for another year. Thank god for that! I honestly don’t think I could have stood another day of wind, rain and mud. Am I getting too old for this shit? Am I fuck! It would be nice though if we had one Oxegen where the weather was good. I’m not looking for anything unreasonable, just temperatures in the late teens early 20’s, no wind and certainly no rain! Is that too much to ask? Well obviously it is as the weather this year was a disaster!

I have read many reports in the papers about the atmosphere at this years festival. Some reporters have portrayed it as been an unfriendly festival, one marred by trouble. Well.. I don’t know what festival they attended, but that was not my experience and certainly was not the experience of those I know.

I lost count of the people I met… To the girl I met at the toilets and sang to/with, its rare to meet an attractive red head with a good personality, you were her! To the wee thing from Northern Ireland, seriously, you were hot, damn hot and that boyfriend doesn’t know what he has.To that crowd from Roscommon, what can I say?? To the cute girl in the pixie hat from Roscommon, as a friend of mine once said, if you have to add a 1/2 to your age, your just too young, sorry. You should have lied and said you were 18!! To that strange girl from Mullingar that I got dumped with (thanks lads…), don’t tell me “I’m different to all the other girls you will meet”. Being different is not always a bad thing, but in your case… To the guy in his mid 50’s up the front for Janes Addiction, thanks for feeling my pain when the battery died in my camera. You do know your camera had an optical zoom didn’t you???

Musically, this was probably one of the best Oxegens so far. Janes Addiction rocked, what a show that was. It was their Irish debut, hopefully they will be back soon.

The Fun Lovin Criminals reignited my love for them.. smooth, cool and effortless on stage. Therapy?, I waited a long long time to see these guys. I really wish I had not waited!! Great show and nice guys too, thanks for the photos!

In 2008 the Ting Tings came and conquered one of the tents. This year they were on the O2 stage, a big step up. Last year, their singer Katie White was a relatively shy and covered up young lady. This year she stepped out on stage in a shiny green skin tight cat suit… I guess she found her inner sex kitten! They put on another great show.

Speaking of cat suits… Miss Katy Perry arrived in another skin tight outfit and I think she surprised most of her audience by proving that she was not just a pretty face with big boobs and a nice bum. The girl can actually sign live and puts a hell of a lot in to her performances.

The Killers came home for the weekend (has there been an Oxegen without them??) and had me dancing / flailing around like a lunatic for nearly 2 hours!

Other great acts over the weekend were Nick Cave (god like), Jerry Fish (what a crooner), Eagles of Death Metal (Rock n’ roll baby, ROCK N’ ROLL!) and finally 2 Many DJ’s. Legend has it that I only ended up in the tent watching them as it was on the way to the loo and whilst that is true, I did wait over an hour before I gave in to the ache in my balls and went for a pee!

Oh and last but certainly not least, The Saturdays. If ever a band was out of place at a festival, it was these 5 girls! Due to the fact that they are hot and that it was pissing down outside, the Heineken Green Spheres Tent was crammed to capacity (8000???) for these girls. They stepped up to the mark and soon had all the crowd singing along to their poptastic hits. It is a very strange sight watching a skin head with head and neck tattoos singing along to Up! Well done those girls!

A quick note to The Kings of Leon… Lads, we know you are good, you know you are good, but a bit of interaction with the crowd goes a long way. Your set was boring. Have a talk with Perry Farrell about crowd interaction. Oh and Lady Gaga… less talk and more singing. If I want to be preached to at a gig, I will go to see U2 (actually I am in a few weeks time!) Trust me on this, no one was there to hear your views on world peace! They were there to check out your ass and maybe dance a bit.

 

A final word of thanks goes to the lovely Red Bull girls who managed to keep me wired to the moon over the course of the 3 days. Without you girls, I would have struggled!

A Strange Year….

Cad-Monkey.net is coming up to its first birthday. What a difference a year makes… This time last year, I was just back from a nice holiday in the south of Spain, tanned and relaxed and had made it through Oxegen with a smile on my face. I had a good job and not many worries.

Today, I am neither tanned nor relaxed but I made it through Oxegen alright, still with a smile, though the mud didn’t help!

I lost a good friend in the last year to an illness I never knew he had. How does a friend not know these things? I still am stunned by his death. Two friends got married, I tried my best to put a halt to the proceedings, but sure they were determined to go ahead! One is now a daddy. How long before the other succumbs?

The face of modern day Ireland has changed dramatically… The building industry in in terminal decline.  This rapid decline in fortunes culminated with me losing my job 10 weeks ago. Not exactly the summer I had planned!

I know as I write this that there are many people out there worse off than me, and my thoughts are with them, but sometimes, just sometimes it all gets on top of me. When it does, I try not to let it show, why worry other family members or friends, they have their own problems. It would be nice to have someone to bounce these things off though, apart from anonymous readers (do I even have any, who knows…)

A year of highs and lows… Too many lows and not enough highs. Here is to year 2 of Cad-Monkey.net, hopefully it will be better!

Some EU stupidity….

This is just stupid, downright stupid.

When Microsoft ships Windows 7 in October of this year, versions sold within the EU will not have Internet Explorer on them due to an EU ruling.

That’s all fine and dandy I hear you say, sure I’ll just download it or Firefox off the internet, no problem at all. And you would be right, no problem at all, for you or me…

But… (and its a big but, a Kim Kardashian size butt), well what if some home user decides to upgrade their PC or laptop but are unaware that they won’t have a browser on their PC after the upgrade?? How will they get one? They can’t logon to mozilla.com to get it… no browser. They can’t logon to Microsoft.com to get it… no browser. I guess they will either have to go buy a magazine and get it off a cover DVD or ask a friend nicely if they can download it for them.

Actually I want to correct myself there. EU users of Windows 7 cannot perform an upgrade from any version of Windows to Windows 7. You have to perform a full clean install!!  Go on, guess why?? Have a good guess…. Yes, that’s it, the EU will not allow it!

Now I am all for the EU making life easier for the consumer and for breaking up unfair monopolies, but in this case they have failed miserably to make life easier for the man in the street.

Not only do they have to make sure that they have a browser to hand when they go to install Windows 7, they also have to do a full clean install meaning that they then have to go to the trouble of reinstalling all their software, their printers, their ipods, their cameras…. basically anything they had installed on their PC is not worth a toss.

In fact, take it one step further. Imagine a business decides to upgrade its Vista PC’s to Windows 7, how much longer will it now take to complete one PC install now that a fresh install of the OS and all the software is needed. Oh and lets not forget configuring the network and email clients to…

Thanks EU, thanks a lot for another fucking stupid idea. Its right up there with regulating cucumber curvature!

So long MJ….

Well it appears that MJ is dead. Dead of a heart attack at the age of 50. That’s just sad news.

For many, Michael Jackson was the greatest pop performer ever, the self proclaimed King of Pop. For others he was a freak, a wierdo, a pervert.

For me, Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad (all in my CD collection) are three of the classic pop albums. Who out there has not tried to moonwalk at least once?? I remember as a bleary eyed kid staying up till 11pm to watch Channel 4 premiere the video for Thriller. I remember having black slip on shoes and white towelling socks. I remember buying the Bad album in Tower Records Piccadilly Circus back in the late 80’s…. As a musical legend, Michael Jackson is up there with Elvis, Lennon, Hendrix.

The other side of the coin was his eccentricity and the reports of alleged child abuse. He also underwent dramatic facial surgery, yet in an interview with Martin Bashir denied having any facial surgery.

In 1993 he was accused of child sexual abuse by Evan Chandler, father of 13yo Jordan Chandler. On 1st January 1994, Jackson settled out of court with the Chandlers and their legal team for the sum of $22million.

Again in 2005, Jackson faced more child sexual abuse charges involving another 13yo boy, Gavin Arvizo. On 13th June 2005, a jury found Jackson not guilty on all charges.

Even recently, Jackson was the centre of more controversy. Starting on 13th July 2009, he was scheduled to perform for 50 dates at the O2 in London. Jackson hit out at the plan for the gigs saying "I don't know how I'm going to do 50 shows," he said of the gigs, which kick off in July. "I'm not a big eater - I need to put some weight on."

The O2 gigs also were put in doubt when AllGood Entertainment claimed that Jackson must first perform in the US under a contract he signed with the New Jersey-based promoters before embarking on his 50-night stint at the 02 Arena, which was set to begin in July.

So, Michael Jackson, King of Pop is dead, never to moonwalk again. He certainly led a very strange life, a life full of highs and lows, a life full of controversy. I separate MJ the man from MJ the superstar. For me they are 2 different people. MJ the superstar will be sorely missed by all those who love music. MJ the man will always have questions asked about him and his private life.

Hmmm….. I had not intended this blog to be this long… Funny how you can lose track. To finish up, for one last time, I’ll pass you over to MJ. Moonwalk baby, moonwalk!

Will.I.Am versus Perez

So I see that Perez Hilton, the worlds worst celebrity blogger was assaulted at the weekend. I can't say I am surprised about that. I am surprised that it is the first time in 5 years though!

The man makes a living on being rude, ignorant, horrid and spiteful to rock stars, pop stars, movie stars and wannabes on his blog.. He started out 5 years ago commenting about these people and the lives they live and the alleged debauchery and now he has turned into what he hated originally. Frankly his treatment of Miley Cyrus (16 years old for gods sake) borders on bullying.

I see from his original tweets that he said Will.I.Am and his security assaulted him. Somehow after this "horrific" assault, he managed to twitter to his adoring public...

Strangely, some time later he changed his story and it is now alleged that Polo Molina (he manages Will.I.Am) assaulted Perez Hilton.

Anyway, Will.I.Am released a video statement refuting the first round of allegations, Perez then followed up with his own video, which is quite frankly hysterically funny.

Now I don't condone violence at all. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I wouldn't hurt a fly (and I'll fecking beat the shit out of anyone who says otherwise), but if you are going to deliberately try to wind up someone by calling them a  fag and a faggot to their face, then you should expect payback.

One final thing. Now I have had my fair share of punches to the eye, both deliberate and accidental. They generally involved copious amounts of swelling and bruising. Now bruising can be covered up by make up, but swelling? Well that is hard to hide, but Perez seems to have found the solution.

Disclosure:

Whilst it is quite obvious that I am not a fan of Perez Hilton, I feel it only fair to also point out that I am not a fan of Will.I.Am or the Black Eyed Peas. It should be noted however, that I definitely would do Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, and not just for celebrity value!

Windows 7 Install on Acer Aspire One

After reading many reports on the internet about installing Windows 7 on an 8GB Acer Aspire One, I decided to give it a go tonight. Reports on the web said that it would not work on an 8GB SSD without compressing the disk. This would take somewhere between 24 and 48 hours!!!

Anyway, I pressed ahead and managed to transfer my Windows 7 RC onto a bootbable USB drive without too much hassle, though it took over 30 minutes to do so.  Install took about 2.5 hours, give or take a few minutes. There was no need for disk compression at all. It would seem that the previous beta installs of Windows 7 are slightly larger than the current Release Candidate.

Once installed, I was left with just over 800MB. I uninstalled a few unnecessary a applications and free space grew to just under 1GB of space. Even though installation took quite a long time, I was impressed when finished as everything worked on first boot.

I put an 8GB SD card for more storage and installed portableapps versions of Firefox, VLC, and Sumatra PDF. I also installed Clamwin AV. Windows 7 had no problems connecting to my home network and browsing my home network was nice and quick.

Once I was happy with my setup, I decided to play around. I started up Firefox and browsed to some of my favourite sites. I also used VLC to browse my network and play back some media files. Video playback, whilst not choppy, slowed down on multiple occasions. As I plan on using my AA1 for watching movies on the go, I figured this would really annoy me!

Over all reaction times when starting applications in Windows 7 lagged noticeably behind their counterparts in Ubuntu. Startup and Shutdown times in Windows also lag dramatically behind Ubuntu.

My Acer Aspire One has the following specs:  1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 8GB SSD, 1GB Ram. It is entirely possible that an Aspire One with more Ram (I believe the limit is 1.5GB) could happily run Windows 7

So, to sum up:

The Curious Incident of the Train in the Election Poster

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the middle of an election campaign to be re-elected the President of Iran.

Nothing much strange in that, well there is but thats not what I want to talk about. The really strange things is this:



Whats strange about that you might ask? Well look at this train and then look even closer. Now compare that train with this train:



Spot the similarity?? Yeap, thats right, they are both Iarnród Éireann trains! Some how, from some where Roy Keane Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has got his hands on a retired Iarnród Éireann train!

Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny had this to say. "We fully expected Irish public transport, and our plans to develop the rail service, to feature in our own election campaign last week, but to feature in Iran was a bit of a surprise"

In case you are wondering, the Farsi script on the poster says "The country is advancing as rapidly as a train." Nice thought apart from the fact that the train is a General Motors 181 and was scrapped two years ago after a 41 year career, having entered service in 1966.

Oh and as for the Roy Keane quip, well I will let you decide....



It should be noted that parts of this post have been inspired by this article!

My new toy...

I got a good deal during the week on an Acer Aspire One. I picked up an 8GB SSD, 512MB Lnux version for 140euro. I had no particular reason for purchasing other than I fancied one and the price was right.

I figured I would install Windows 7 on it, but after reading up on the hassle involved on installing W7 on an 8GB SSD, I quickly discounted that idea. I thought about putting XP on it, but in the end, I went with the latest version of Ubuntu Notebook Remix. It installed relatively easily from a USB drive. Almost everything worked straight from the install. The only issue was when I installed Skype and found that the microphone did not work. I eventually found a walkthough on how to solve that problem and now everything is fine.



Ubuntu NBR comes with Open Office as part of the install, so that was one of my main packages looked after. I also needed a cad package, but as most cad users out there know, linux is not best served in that dept. On a whim, I installed Wine and then downloaded ProgeCAD 2008 Smart. Much to my surprise, it isntalled without issue and most surprisingly for me, worked first time! It does throw up this error though which I believe will stop ProgeCAD working after the trial period as it cannot be registered. I will have to see what I can do about that.



The final mod (so far), has been to totally dismantle the netbook to install an extra 512mb (kindly donated by a friend) to bring total installed ram to 1GB. Now normally if you want to upgrade the memory on a laptop, you undo a couple of screws, remove the panel and install the ram.... Well not so on the Acer Aspire One!!! You gotta take the whole thing apart to get at the spare slot! It truly is not for the faint of heart! I used this tutorial at crunchgear.com to guide me.

So, at the moment, all is good with the netbook and hopefully it will stay that way!

2 steps back???

So....

Walmart are the largest retail outlet in the US, but they have refused to stock Green Days latest album "21 Century Breakdown"

According to Billie-Joe Armstrong "They won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it." He also added "There's nothing dirty about our record. They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said 'No'. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

Walmart replied that that it is their policy to not carry any CD with a parental advisory sticker. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so (censor the album), so we unfortunately can not offer the CD," said spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien.

Walmart also sell movies and books amongst other things. I took a quick scan of their website and I noticed that they are stocking the latest Harold Robbins book (I know he is dead!!) and as we all know, Mr Robbins enjoyed putting erotic scenes in his books.

They also sell the Blueray of Closer. For those that have not seen it, Closer contains a hell of a lot of swearing, an incredible amount actually. If you are easily offended, don't watch the video.


Natalie Portman Closer - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

So.. if it is OK to sell erotic fiction and it is OK to sell expletive strewn movies, why is it not OK to sell a Green Day album or any other album with a parental advisory sticker?

Check out the offending lyrics here.

(It should be noted that this Monkey has enjoyed the writings of Mr. Robbins and really enjoyed the movie Closer. Oh and this little Monkey is not easily offended either.)

Ever felt like this???

The above cartoon is by Roger Penwill, you can check out his own very special view on the drawing office here.

Damn Engineers!!!

Seriously...

I really wish engineers would listen as we tell them time and time again how to use xrefs. Its very very simple. The xrefs go in one folder, the project drawings go in another.

Problem solved, I just bound the xrefs for the engineer... Not nice, not smart, not pretty, but at least he can print the drawings out!

For those confused (seems to be the vast majority of Engineers and Architects), read this:

It makes me smile :)

Y'know unemployment can be a hard, lonely and depressing time. Its not nice, not nice at all.

I have found a solution though, The Jeremy Kyle Show!! Seriously, this show is full of gobshites who want to air all their dirty little secrets on TV. I used to think that the people on the Jerry Springer Show were complete fucking tools, but the "guests" on Jeremy Kyles show take the biscuit, they are truly dirt!

Anyway, back to the TV!!

No need to shout.

Feck, I must be getting old. I went to the pub tonight to have a drink with a friend who lives out of town, actually out of country to be exact.

The recession is obviously biting hard as both pubs we visited were severely lacking in bodies. Anyway, we settled down to have a few drinks and just catch up, it had been several months since we last met. Behind us, three, what could only be described as bog boys, stood having a conversation. I say conversation, but what they were actually doing was shouting at each other. One would shout something, the other would shout louder and then the turd (yes yes, that is what I meant to type),well the third would out do both of his drinking mates and shout them both down.

Now I can understand if there was loud music playing, or if the pub was incredibly busy and noisy or if they were 20 feet apart, but there wasn't, it wasn't and they weren't. They were huddled together, practically hugging! It got so loud that I found it quite difficult to hear my friend speak and he was only a couple of feet from me!!

I don't know... It would be kind of acceptable if this was kids in hi spirits, who has not been loud and obnoxious as a kid drinking in a bar?? I know I have been, but these guys were at least in their 30's and one was in his 50's! Me thinks they need to grow up a little.

Anyway... right enough about that, I have to go pack! This monkey has to fly in the morning. Hopefully I will fair better than that other famous monkey who flew, Albert. Go on, google it, you know you want to.


P.S. Mr. S, if you found this blog, well done :)

Windows 7 Update...

Well I did a clean install of Windows 7 last night and so far so good. It certainly seems more responsive than Vista. My laptop actually seems speedy!

Strange that there is no email client with it, Thunderbird soon sorted that out. I also installed Firefox 3.01, Open Office 3 and CADopia Pro 8 without issues. I even got my old networked HP Laserjet 4MV working on windows 7 using the XP driver. It also picked up the driver for my Belkin Bluetooth adapter first time, something that Vista did not do.

AVG Free also installed without issue, however although it works fine, Windows 7 does seem to think i would be better off with the paid for version.

All in all, it looks and feels nice and sleek. It seems faster and so far I have not had any major issues. Only a year to go before i make up my mind to update to it full time or not!

MPAA v Real Networks

So Real Networks have software called RealDVD which allows people to make backup copies of their DVDs. The MPAA is the US is not impressed, no impressed at all. They claim it is illegal under the DMCA.

The MPAA seem to think that RealDVD will allow users to to rip DVDs and post them to the internet. Real hit back and say that any DVD's backed up with RealDVD are only playable on the PC they were ripped on.

First off, well people who rip DVDs and post them on the internet are not the type of people who go and pay for software to do the ripping. There are many many free alternatives on the web that make it quite easy to rip a DVD. The MPAA are fooling themselves if they think that banning RealDVD will achieve anything.

Speaking of fooling themselves, I happen to think that Real are fooling themselves also. Who wants to sit around a PC watching your ripped DVDs??? People rip their movies so they can watch them where they want and when they want. Be that on their PSP, iPod, PS3, Xbox, XBMC or PC / Mac. It has been shown time and time again that restricting users playback of media does not work.

But what about iTunes I hear you shout, they used DRM... Yes yes, iTunes was the successful exception to the rule for many years, but then it was possible to stream your iTunes library using various different extenders. It should also be noted that iTunes has now dropped DRM from its files.

It is no coincidence that the most popular media formats for users ( Xvid, Divx, MKV, Flac, MP3 and others ) are DRM free. People don't like being restricted. If they buy the CD or DVD, they feel, rightly or wrongly, that it is theirs to do with as they please.

Check out VideoHelp.com for more info on creating backup DVDs.

For more informaion on this case, take a look at:

BBC
The Register

Windows 7 RC

I see that Windows 7 Release Candidate is available for download from Microsoft.com

The RC will stay active till June 2010, so thats just about 13 months of using Win 7 for free.

I am currently downloading it and hope to install later on tonight.

Something is wrong....

I spent yesterday at Punchestown Races. It was ladies day and as expected, many many ladies arrived in their finery and looked spectacular. It made for a very pleasant day :)

But... well, there were far too many young teens with far too much skin revealed. Now, I am far from a prude and those who know me will tell you I am a lover of the fine female form in skimpy clothing, but seriously, when did it become fashionable for 13 and 14 year olds to wear outfits porn stars would wear?

I doubt many of the teens are doing it with the express intention of flaunting as much skin as possible and are only following fashion trends but the amount of arse, cleavage and leg on show by these youngsters was quite incredible. Many of the outfits were far more daring than their older counterparts. What really amazed me were those who turned up with their parents dressed in such a manner. I was stunned that a father would feel it is OK for his very young daughter to go out dressed in such a manner.

Some might think that I am just a killjoy and should relax and let them wear what they want, but life is not a Britney Spears video and someone should explain that teens don't need to dress like she does in her videos.

Rant over...

Domestic violence....

Jaysus, I am on a role today... 3 post!

Anyway, whilst blowsing around on the interweb, I saw this short for Womens Aid.. Seemingly it is banned from tv screens in the UK as it is too violent. Shocking decision in my view, what say you??

Here we go again....

In 2001 we faced Foot & Mouth Disaster.

In 2004 we faced Mad Cows Disease.

In 2006 we faced a Bird Flu epidemic.

This year we face the disaster that is Swine Flu!

Combine the human deaths of all these disasters. Go look them up, add them together then get the % of deaths caused by these diseases and compare them to the fact that every 3 seconds a child dies because of poverty.

In the length of time it took you to read this, 9 children have died because they could not afford to live...

I think we have worse things to worry about than Swine Flu, don't you?

Dublin Bus gobshites...

So, here we are, 2009 and Ireland is in the shits. 100's of people losing their jobs every day, people worrying about how they will feed their children, pay the mortgage and so on...

Then we have Dublin Bus, the public transport provider for Dublin. Note the words highlighted.

Dublin Bus is a State owned company, a subsidiary of CIE. Like all State jobs, it is heavily unionised, so that means getting something done takes a long time, if it gets done at all.

On Sunday, one driver at the Harristown depot decided he did not want to work a new schedule. The new schedule forms part of measures (agreed between workers unions and Dublin Bus) designed to cut costs by €31m. This one driver was then suspended for refusing to work. His colleagues at his depot then walked out in sympathy.

As if that is bad enough, workers in another depot in Clontarf have also walked in solidarity with their brothers!

Now forgive me for not feeling any sympathy here with the driver, but the deal was brokered by his union. If you or I, dear reader, decided that we did not want to do our job, refused to do our job, we would not be suspended, we would be sacked. Why should Dublin Bus be any different?? Sack those involved in this unofficial strike.

This morning, thousands of people, people who have jobs, people who are struggling to hold on to jobs, people going for job interviews are now stranded because of these few bus drivers who see fit to hold the city to ransom. These drivers should be viewed with disgust, with contempt. It is a disgraceful show of people power.

So will their unions come out against this unofficial strike?? Will they fuck. They are spineless.

Local Politicians..

I just had three local councillers walking round where I live... Now generally I can't be arsed talking to these self important fuckwits and what with my impending doom, I would rather flagilate myself with barb wire than change that stance.

I watched them stroll around the estate in a manner that reeked of their own sense of importance. Head tilted back, chest puffed out, straight legs when walking.. a sight for already sore eyes.

Oh and yes, they were indeed members of our beloved Fianna Fáil.

Time waits for no man, or in this case, woman...

This just makes me so sad :(

fuck it....

I was gonna write about how I am feeling old and blah blah blah, but out of nowhere, I just got a 2nd wind, so that post can wait!

Perhaps it is some residual red bull left in my system, perhaps not. I don't care!

There is always someone else worse off...

OK, so here I sit, just after finishing another 3 day week and facing impending redundancy. Don't get me wrong, I am not feeling sorry for myself. Yes I am annoyed, after all, I have never been made redundant before, but I am sure things will work out for the best.

I emailed a friend in England yesterday to inform him that tickets could be got for the Renault World Championship race being held at Silverstone this summer. The guy is a fan of motor sports and heads to Silverstone many times each year.

So there I was, having a little moan in my email about the budget and the work situation, asking how he was and so on, just a friendly touching base email.

What I got back, I was not prepared for. They guy collapsed 10 days ago. Turns out he has cancerous growths on his pancreas, liver and stomach. He starts chemo soon, he hopes it will add some months to his life span. Months... Even after explaining that to me in his mail, he then took the time to offer me some words of encouragement about my work situation. Amazing.......

It puts things in perspective. Sure times are hard here at the moment, but when compared to what this guy is facing up to, my problems pale in to insignificance.

Anyway...

For those who don't know....

The largest desert in the world is not the Sahara!! Granted it does measure a massive 3.5 million square miles, but it is dwarfed by Antarctica at 5.5 million square miles!

Antarctica??? I hear you say, "Theres no sand in Antarctica!!" Well no, no there is not, but then sand is not a prerequisite for a desert.

Deserts are defined as: Arid regions, generally receiving less than ten inches of precipitation a year, or regions where the potential evaporation rate is twice as great as the precipitation.

Now then, Polar regions, such as Antarctica, are also considered to be deserts because nearly all moisture in these areas is locked up in the form of ice.

So.... Mr "It makes no difference to me" quizmaster, you were, as I pointed out, WRONG!!

Click here, here and finally here.

Not quite, but nearly....

It was almost like the good old days last night.. going to the pub on a Wednesday night to watch the football is something I have not done in years, but for last nights match I made an exception.

So here I sit, tired and thinking that but for the shin of Robbie Keane, we could have won that game 2-1. Of course on the other hand, but for bad refereeing, we could have lost that game also...

Rather than me break it down in a play by play, watch some of the highlights (in German).



Anyway, onwards ond upwards. They now have to build on that performance and beat Bulgaria in Sofia on June 6th, "D Day".

Self Service Gobshites....

I was doing a bit of grocery shopping the night before last at the local store...

About 2 years ago, they installed some self service tills. They are very handy, you scan, pack and pay for your groceries at the one machine yourself. The queues generally move very quickly.

Anyway, in front of me were 2 ladies, one older than me and one younger than me. Neither were hotties. Both had issues using the self service tills and scanners. One in particular kept scanning the same item, perhaps she was deaf and did not hear the beep, perhaps she was blind and did not see it appear on the screen or perhaps she was just fucking stupid.

The same girl then could not work out why the till flashed up a note indicating that she had removed something from the bagging area, she looked perplexed at this, even though she was holding the damn box of Persil in her hands whilst calling for help!!! Perhaps not only is she deaf, blind, and stupid, she could also be illiterate!

It took her almost 10 minutes to scan, bag and pay for 4 items, 10 minutes!!!

People, if technology perplexes you so much that you have trouble using the self service till, please go to a normal check out, one where a member of staff will scan and bag your groceries. All you have to do then is pay! Surely you will be able to handle that little act!!

The case of the naked portraits and the Taoiseach

I can't for the life of me work out why Brian Cowan would be upset at these pictures... Do you not think he looks well?? He has a fine set of moobs!

Maybe its just my over active imagination, but I thought that the pictures accurately represent the last 12 months of the Irish economy...



First off, we were caught unawares... with our pants down...



and the second one then shows that we are in the shitter....

Superb political satirism! Well done the artist.

(credit to the original artist for the paintings, whoever they may be. Also, the pics are direct links to files on timesonline.co.uk)

Well its official....

Created by OnePlusYou

And more Irish Success..

Bernard Dunne is the WBA World Super Bantamweight World Champion!!!! He knocked out Ricardo Cordoba in the 11th.



Dunne got the first knockdown in the 3rd round, he floored Cordoba. Cordoba got back up and knocked Dunne to the floor twice in the 5th round. After that, the fight swung back and forth, perhaps in Dunnes favour.



On to the 10th and it started to look like Dunnes night and then in the 11th, Dunne had Cordoba on the canvas 3 times within seconds. After the 3rd, he didn't get up, couldn't get up... It took him 5 or 6 minutes to regain conciousness and left the ring on a stretcher.



Well.... what a weekend, 6 nations champions with a Grand Slam victory over Wales and Bernard Dunne, World Champion!



Its all Hunky Dory!!!!

61 years......

This is the moment that 61 years of waiting was finally over...

Ryanair v Aer Lingus

First things first, I don't care who I fly with for short hop flights. It all boils down to price with me. For 2hrs I will slum it in with the cattle if it is free!

Today I booked a flight to London. Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus have flights leaving Dublin within an hour of each other and likewise with the return from London Gatwick. Either of the times suited me, so it did not matter at all.

Anyway, the basic cost of the flights were as follows:

Ryanair:
Ex Dublin - 10euro
Ex London - 20euro

Aer Lingus:
Ex Dublin - 1.99euro
Ex London - 6.99euro

Now then, any reasonable person would look at that and think that Aer Lingus is the cheapest by roughly 21euro.

Well if you though that, you would be wrong. The Ryanair flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 54euro. The Aer Lingus flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 67euro.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, Aer Lingus manage to get more expensive than Ryanair. The swing went from being -21euro at the start to +13euro at the end.. a swing of 34euro. How??? Seriously. Do Ryanair have a better deal with Dublin and Gatwick??? Do Ryanair pay different taxes to Aer Lingus???

Anyway, once again, I booked with Ryanair and am more than happy to fly them.

Restaurant Issues....

This little monkey went out for dinner last night... good company, good craic, good food, but......

Well when a waiter causes an issue at the table that destroys 3 meals, covers guests in wine, water and wax, well... well I kinda feel that a serious apology is in order. 3 of us ended up eating our meal 30 minutes after the other 3, not exactly the perfect situation.

When the bill came, we at least thought there might be some sort discount for the hassles involved, boy were we wrong.

I asked to see a manager and had to deal with a young (and very attractive lady) who was on the defensive from the off. It took 15 minutes for her to make a token gesture.

In a situation like that, it should be a no brainer. The waiter was at fault for ruining 3 meals, we should have been looked after as a matter of course.

Good customer service costs nothing. Bad customer service costs you customers.

Tender Day......

Oh for the love of jaysus, please let today end quickly!!!!

Seriously, I hate tender day when it is only me looking after the tender. It is hard enough getting everything sorted on the Elec side, but then having to go running round and sorting out the Mech too???? Its wrecking my bleedin head!!!

Oh and sure lets not forget the old favourite of "changing drawings on the last day" or "No, my spec. is not ready yet"....

Hmmmm....... I think I am getting stressed.

New U2 Stage Design...

Well now, this looks interesting. I am looking forward to the gigs already!

What the fuck..

2 soldiers were shot dead last night in Northern Ireland. The first British Army members to be killed up there in 12 years.

Along with the 2 soldiers killed, 4 others have been seriously injured, including 2 civilians from a local pizza delivery company.

Unbelievable.. So much good work done up there in the last few years and now this.

Its a sad sad day.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0308/massereene.html

Possible new tax in Ireland...

There is talk that the Govt. are going to try and raise revenue by taxing text messages from phones.

According to ComReg (Irish Telecoms Regulator), 25million texts are sent everyday here in Ireland. 25million!!!!!

Talk is that the Govt. want to impose a 1 cent tax on each text. So.. lets do the sums..

25million x 365 x .01 = 91.25million Euro a year just from the tax on texts.. That excludes the extra texts sent on holiday periods. Vodafone say that their customers sent over 27million texts on Christmas Day and New Years eve alone... Lets not forget that other great day for texting too, St. Patricks Day.

In reality, it looks like the tax could bring in upwards of 100million Euro a year.

It would probably add about 1euro to 1.50 euro on to my bill every month.

Deal Or No Deal......

"Ooooo your playing a good game here"

"Oh well played"

"Smart decision there..."

Seriously, what the fuck???? Its a game of pure luck. There is no skill at all in it, no skill at all! And then the players thank each other and hug and kiss as if they were best friends. Whats with the fecking crying also????

Seriously, what a sad fucking excuse for a TV show.

Quake Live...

Play Quake online???? Wooohoooo!!!
Play Quake online for free????? even bigger Wooohoooo!!!

Sit and wait for 1/2 million people to get a game before I do? Fuck that...



I can't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, the people behind quakelive.com underestimated the popularity of the game.

EU and Microsoft...

Late in January, I emailed the EC with regards to Microsoft bundling a browser with Windows.

I asked why there is an issue with Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows when the EC seem to have no problem with Apple bundling Safari with OS X or with Ubuntu bundling Firefox with its OS.

Today, the EC, through Head of Unit Per Hellstrom, got back to me with an explanation.

Basically it boils down to this, Microsoft are successful. They say that because Microsoft are in a dominant position, they cannot use that position to push their browser on the public. Apple on the other hand, are less successful, and therefore have free reign (or so it seems), to bundle whatever they want with OS X.

So, Microsoft are being punished for being successful. Apple are being treated with kid gloves because OS X is a minority.

What a funny world we live in.

U2, how come...

they play free gigs all over the world apart from here in Ireland??

This week sees them play the BBC Live Lounge gig in London where 200 lucky fans can get to see them for free.

How come they sign up for Letterman and Johnathan Ross, but we don't get to see them on our screens here??

This sucks, it seems like U2 are taking us, the homegrown fans, for granted yet again.

Red Bull makes my....

Nose itch!!!

I spent Thursday and Friday of this week wallowing in self pity. I didn't even bother getting dressed on Thursday and only for the fact that I had arranged to meet an old friend for lunch on Friday, I probably would not have went out that day either. Hmm.... that's not good.

My 3 day week generally is Tuesday to Thursday with Monday and Friday off. That suits me to be honest as Friday is generally a day when some friends are around as they leave work early. Mondays are not too bad either because, well because you don't suffer from Monday morning blues!

My working week has temporarily changed to Monday to Wednesday leaving me with Thursday and Friday off instead. That sucks.. No one is around on a Thursday and therefore there is no incentive to do anything that day. I think had I not made lunch plans, the "can't be arsed doing anything" feeling could very well have followed over on to the Friday. I can understand how long term unemployed can get depressed. I think I will have to be careful this week...

Anyway, it is/was Saturday night and recession or not, I was going out. I arranged to meet "the lads" in our new favourite local for a few drinks. I don't drink booze anymore, I haven't done in a long time, so, depending on the night, I may have a few Red Bulls to liven me up, give me a bit of a buzz.

I had forgotten that Red Bull makes my nose itch... jaysus it was annoying. I seemed to spend all night scratching it.

By the way, when did Poker become a sport???? WTF was it doing on one of the sports channels???

One thing that annoyed me tonight was that we seemed to be ignored by the bar staff. Now this probably was not on purpose, it was just carelessness by the bar staff. When I finally got served, I politely mentioned the fact to the bar man and to be fair, from then on he regularly checked in on us.

On a side note, there was this girl in the bar tonight. She had a tattoo of a daisy chain i think, that rose from beneath her blouse and up and over one of her breasts. I have to say, I was intrigued, but as per usual, I pretty much kept myself to myself and said nothing to her. I did offer her a sausage though.... :)

Anyway... I will not succumb to some form of unemployment depression!! I work 3 days a week. That's 3 days more than many out there. I can still pay the bills and still go out every now and again with my friends. My life's not that bad when you really look at it :)

Right, it's late, it is time for bed!

I have a theory....

Its not based on any scientific fact or any significant data, but here we go anyway...

It has come to me attention that women who drive the new style Mini car are all hot!! Well maybe not all of them, but the vast majority of them are.

The next time you see a new Mini in the street, take a look in it, chances are there will be an atractive lady driving the car :)

For fucks sake....

Stop inventing work for me just because I am on my own in the office!! As if I don't have enough to be getting on with.

Shite like that really really really fucking annoys me.

22 Years...

22 long years I have been attending Irish International Soccer matches....

Lately it seems I am just going out of habit, going through the motions. Kinda like the team itself.

Every time I go, I go to cheer the team. I don't need any one to tell me to do it, least of all a player on the team. What I do need is the team to perform... at least perform with a bit of spirit, at least make it look like they want to be there. If I get that, I will cheer. I will not cheer when some fucker on the pitch asks me to do it.

Anyway, yet again, due to Traps great technical ability as a coach (sarcasm!!!), we scrapped by and won 2-1 over Georgia.

Hmmmm... a win is a win is a win, but....

It's good to talk....

Went out tonight with some friends that I had not seen in a few months. Ahhh it was a good night, lots of chat, stories of the old days, fun times, fun times indeed.

This is the end...... Almost

Well it is not looking good for this CAD Monkeys career...

Whilst U2 may have No Line on the Horizon, we have No Work on the Horizon, and that, as we all know, is not good news.

Oh well.

The life of an Irish Commuter....

I would like to say that the film below is all lies... I would like to, but I can't. It would be funny if it was not true!

Good news... Bad News....

Good news first... My mortgage is dropping again.

Bad news.... The 1% Govt. levy on all salaries has come in to effect...

I guess I need to tighten the belt even more!

419 Scam....

This is incredible... How stupid or greedy do you have to be to believe that someone you have never met wants to give you $12.8 million???

Seriously....

Click here for the full story....

The story of Outlook 2000 and the Magical Pixie Dust...

I do a bit of IT Consultancy for a local business (see, I am a monkey of many many talents).

Yesterday, there was a bit of an issue with one of their PCs and Outlook. The PST file was just under 2GB and as we all know, Outlook 2000 struggles with a file of that size.

Anyway, I scanned the pst file to see if there was any corruption to it, it turned out fine, but still would not load. It didn't matter how long it was left, it just would not work.

I thought, well maybe there is an issue with the AV software, it has happened before on other sites, so why not here. I disabled the AV, tried again, nada...

Right, if it is not the pst file and not the AV software, could Outlook system files have got corrupted somehow??? Uninstall, reinstall. Still a no go. My head was wrecked by this stage, 3 hours and no joy. I finally suggested the famous, why don't I just reformat and reinstall everything. It will take a couple of hours, you will lose nothing as it is backed up.

Fair enough, we scheduled a time to do it.

Somehow, somewhere, the pixies (no not the band!!!) got into the office last night and poured some of their magical pixie dust over the PC. When the PC was turned on this morning, lo and behold, Outlook worked!!!!

Since we could now get into Outlook, I decided it was best for them to trim down the size of the PST file. 3000 emails later and it is working like a dream, or so I thought.

I get a phone call later in the afternoon... "Ehhh... where is my send and receive button gone?? I can't send or receive any email." I log on remotely (the whole thing was done remotely) and yeap, sure enough there is no send receive button. Ahh sure I will just add it from the customised option... Eh no, no I won't because it is not there!!

Now, I don't have that much spare hair that I can pull it out when ever I get stressed (I'm not going bald you understand, but as I get older, I find I am more attached to what hair I have), but this had me tugging at the roots!!

Much googling later, I still had no solution. Then, for no other reason than checking the blindingly obvious, I took a look at the account settings. Y'know, it is hard to send and receive email when there is no email account set up!!!

As I don't have their account details, I did not set it up, but I did tell them that the account had to be created before they could access the mail (there is a guy on site who looks after the simple stuff). He forgot..... Oops.

Anyway, the moral of this story.... Pixies and their magical pixie dust rule!!!
Oh and secondly, check the blindingly obvious first!!

Dia duit Barack...

Well, thats it, Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States of America.

I have seen some great things in my 30 odd years... The first Space Shuttle mission, The fall of the Iron Curtain, relative peace in Northern Ireland, Nelson Mandela a free man, my niece, then my nephew.........

Where does this rank with them? Hmmm... Well it is certainly up there with the best of them. Depending on his term of office, this could rank as the greatest so far.

I read something interesting today. Jamie Foxx said "Now we don’t have an excuse. We can’t say it’s the man’s fault when you are the man.”

Looking back though.. It will probably never ever beat Ray Houghtons looping header of Peter Shilton at 15:36 on the 12th of June 1988 in the Neckarstadion in Stuttgart.

Bye bye Dell..

So Dell are moving their plant from Limerick to somewhere in Poland. It had to happen sooner or later, workers are just far cheaper to hire in Poland than they are here in Ireland. It is a sad fact of life that companies will go where labour is cheaper. In 10 years time, Dell will move on from Poland to the next cheap European country.

Obviously workers at the Dell plant won't take any comfort in the fact that we knew it would happen sooner rather than later. From where I am sitting though, their redundancy package looks a lot sweeter than the statutory one I will be receiving if things do not pick up.

According to the press, they are getting 6 weeks for each year they are there up to a maximum of 52 weeks pay. Me? I am facing 2 weeks pay for each year I am with the company... I think we can all agree that there is a massive difference between statutory payments and what Dell are giving.

I can't help but feel that Dell will lose a lot of good will purchases in this country. Many businesses bought Dell because they were made here in Ireland. By buying Dell, you were supporting job creation and the local economy.

For others, they stopped buying Dell when Dell decided to move its Customer Service & Tech support to India.

At the best of times, it is difficult enough to get Tech. Support to understand your problems. throw an obvious language and accent barrier in to the mix and it makes for mayhem. If I can't properly understand the Tech. Support Technician and he cannot understand me, then how are we going to fix the problem quickly?

It also seems many companies are using VOIP to transfer calls between Ireland and their Tech. Support base. This adds in a frustrating lag in the conversation and also makes it incredibly difficult to hear the agent.

Is it too difficult to ask that the Tech. Support / Customer Support agent have as their native language, the laguage for the country he or she is supporting??

Anyway, back to Dell. I find it hard to believe that Dell will not suffer from a drop of sales here in Ireland. There is a general feeling of ill will against them now. People generally do not believe that Dell only made the decision to quit Ireland withing the last few weeks. It is widely believed that the descision was taken at least 3 years ago when they started looking at sites in Poland.

Anyway.... back to the drawing board.

Windows 7 Beta...

1.5 hrs to download the beta... Not too bad for a 2.5GB download here in Ireland.

Just under 3 hrs for an upgrade from Vista to W7.

10 minutes to realise that it just would not connect to my wireless network regardless of what I did. It could see it, it just would not or could not connect to it.

1.5 hrs doing a fresh install of Vista.

2 hours of updates.

Time well spent??? Hmmmm....

To be fair, I did not give W7 a fair chance after I discovered it would not connect to the wireless network, but then, the whole point of having wifi and a laptop is so that networking would be wireless.

Maybe I'll try it on a different PC, one without wireless.

For the record, the laptop was a Sony Vaio VGN N38e.

Roll out the old and in with the... old

New year, same story. Still on a 3 day week. To be honest, I am getting used to it. Sure the lack of money hurts a bit, but it is somewhat manageable. Right, it is nearly the weekend for me, time to start relaxing!!