… no actually that’s not right. If somebody wrongs you then you make a complaint and it should be dealt with, especially if they are a professional services company. Sadly this doesn’t appear to be the case for Damien Mulley. Damien’s baggage was lost recently on a flight and he made his complaint to the handling company and naturally, like most of us these days, he blogged his dissatisfaction which he was entirely justified in doing. Now it seems that Damien has had his e-mail details signed up to a number of “dating” sites some of which where allegedly subscribed to from an IP address belonging to the baggage handling company. Suspicious? I know I would be and Damien certainly is. Faeces may well hit the rotary device when this one comes to a head. Best of luck to Damien in his pursuit of justice. source: Damien Mulley

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Yesterday an agreement was finally reached between the Green Party and Fianna Fail regarding the establishment of a new government. Some good things have been outlined such as increased spending on education that hopefully won’t just go into teacher’s pockets, the department of the environment will be merged with another department with a focus on climate change issues, and Dáil approval for US military flights to land at Shannon (whatever difference that will make). On the down side there’s no talk of abolishing stupid and illegal taxes such as VRT which should be on the Green Party agenda if they want to introduce a carbon tax. No, wait, hang-on… What’s that? Oh my mistake they’ve gotten their carbon tax included in the 5-year draft plan also. Well done lads, further increasing the tax burden on ordinary decent Irish folk. I wonder that now they are in government will they push for small engined cars for ministers, etc? C’mon lads let’s be consistent now. Yes, this truly will be an interesting 5 years ahead with a government that is the most bipolar in, well in living history. Expect high inflation, more taxes, no reform of existing taxes, a shortfall in employment around the 4-year mark and a generally more unhappy Irish public. Also remember however that the Greens are a very small minority in this government. source: Irish Times

Note: Irish Times article may require login

Strange as it may sound, the idea of a robot parking your car is not all that bizarre. The basic idea is that you put your car onto a platform that moves horizontally and vertically around a multistorey carpark. The result is no more ignorant folk who like to bash their doors against yours when getting into their cars and increased car park security as there should never be anybody allowed into the area. It’s mad but I like it and what’s more is that this could soon be coming to Dublin. source: The Register

Recreating last Summer

Originally uploaded by jbwan.

Shot a photo almost identical to this one last year but the poor lily flower was covered in small flies. This year however, Rose Nymphe is shown in true splendour having opened for the first time on Sunday morning.

Damselfly III

Originally uploaded by jbwan.

Wandering around my garden again with a tripod and a zoom lens, what must the neighbours think?

So, here we are Summer in Ireland after a general election. Voting for change, shaking up the cabinet, so on so forth. Well none of it has happened, it’s the same old Ireland and the more I think about it the more I want to move to Provence and enjoy life with a community that still holds traditional values. Now that Fianna Fail are back at the helm and the election is over we’re starting to see the cracks opening publicly, in the press. I’ve been saying for ages, along with many others, that inflation was getting dangerous and now we hear that inflation is rising. Wow! There was no such thought in Bertie’s mind previously when he agreed to nurses demands prior to the election – me wonders… We also hear that controversial lands in Dublin may be set for rezoning. Well we wouldn’t have wanted to upset the D4 residents before an election now, would we? Stock markets are falling, interest rates are still climbing and the ordinary Irishman in the private sector is suddenly not that comfortable any more. Meanwhile five days of talks with the Green Party have still failed to produce a government with Fianna Fail. I wonder who’s failing to agree there? Remember, people of Ireland, this was your choice…

Note: Links used above are from the Irish Times 08-07-2007 and may require login to view the content

Tip of the hat to Damien Mulley for finding this interesting snippet. Looks like decent, hard working folk in Lithuania are to be rewarded with 1Gb fibre connections straight to their doors. Yes, rather than laying age-old copper lines and maintaining them, the country’s Telecoms have decided to go with a proper option. Eircom heads, take note… source: GigaOM

If like me you’ve run into the wonders of WordPress permalinks previously and hit brick walls such as 404 and 403 HTTP errors when you change from the default ?p=ID to the pretty /blog/2007/07/12/entry, then this post is for you and the many other people who have asked me this question previously. Not sure why considering the fact that I use MovableType as my blogging software but anyway!

Changing your permalink structure from the WordPress default to the pretty, year/month/day/entry-id or similar custom structure can cause problems for some people depending on the setup of their hosting infrastructure. [..]