complaint to RTE!

Posted on 3/7/2010 by nils

I feel that that after working for 4 years (IT dept) on a project
that employed up to 400 people across Europe and further afield, I
can’t understand why a short film that took six months to make is
getting more headlines than a the first FEATURE film out of Ireland
since the Bluth studios.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Bluth_Studios

Again today RTE compound is ignorance but give a short film more of
the headlines:

Quote:
”
There is Irish interest in five categories. One of the nominees,
‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’, is in the running for the Best
Animated Short Film award.
Advertisement

Other Irish nominees include Tommie Moore, Director of ‘The Secret of
Kells’, Peter Devlin for sound on ‘Star Trek’, and Octagon Films for
the short film, ‘The Door’. ”

The Secret of Kells gets nominated for best animated feature film and
RTE adds this as a secondary note, I think as a news organisation
that can’t even get facts corrects should not be writing news.

If other news organisations can get it right, why can’t RTE ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/movies/awardsseason/03kells.html

Come one, please see some common sense!

Just and update: 15 March I have not received an email back about this, I suppose I should not expect one either!

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Irish Hospitials

Posted on 11/23/2009 by nils

I’ve had alot of experience of hospitals lately, my mother has been in and out of them for the last 4 months.

The one thing I take away from the experience is that using hospitals in Ireland are anything but fun. There are alot of people who work in the industry that do their job and do them well, but I do think that sometimes they don’t do enough.

My main complaint is lack of communication between the doctors/nurses and us, they never offer up any information, (blood from stone comes to mind).

Taking days off to meet the doctors who make an appointment and then never show up till 3 hours later is extremely annoying.

Another problem was administration, sometimes the they did not even know if my mother was even checked in, or what part of the hospital she was staying in, (at one stage is said I’ll ring my sister to find out which ward she is in).

I suppose the biggest problem is passing the buck, no one is really responsible for anything.
The doctors are too busy only come around once a day(unlike ER , they don’t do everything for their patients). Not getting assigned the same doctor is another problem, having a doctor that knows the history is common sense.

I do think there is a lack of upper management skill and compantance within the HSE(Health Service executive), Mary Harney is an ideal role model for such a messed up system.

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New Domain registered.

Posted on 10/14/2009 by nils

I registered a new domain bananarepublicofireland.eu and redirected it to the www.gov.ie website :D
I saw the documentary by David Mc Williams last night,its about the financial crisis.

It was nothing that the Irish people don’t already know, It nice to see the perspective that he gave it.

For example more people having less cosmetic surgery leads to job sheding in Ireland, or at least that’s what David Mc Williams said….

He is right the worse is yet to come, I think myself this is just the tip of the iceberg…

As very one knows china is trying spend its way out of recession, America is broke, Europe not far behind.

I think this might be the time to live in the middle of nowhere, like the Antarctic, its a bit cold but I’m sure it will be warm up soon.

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Switching Hosting Provider

Posted on 9/8/2009 by nils

I switched hosting provider within the last few months, I was running a VPS with unixshell in the states, but some of their transatlantic links dropped about ~20% of packets so it was slow for me.

Also for the resources I was given the cost was not worth it. My experience with plesk/virtuozzo is that it can be over subscribed. My new hosting company Byte mark give me a guaranteed amount of resources to my VPS a d so far the uptime has been good.

Bytemark uses linux KVM for their servers and have native IPv6 which is great, I also have twice the amount of ram and HD space.

Posted in linux | 1 Comment

Eflow again

Posted on 8/4/2009 by nils

This is a email that I send to the RSA in relation to eflow and their website.

Hi,
It seems that i cannot even register for an account with eflow tonight as the website is broken.

I want to make an official complaint against eflow

1. The website does not work correctly.

* I have tried unsuccessfully to fill out the form on the website and it keeps giving an error.

* Why should my tax money got to a service that does not operate correctly.

2. I cannot see if i have any penalties against me before I pay ( where do i check this)

I will have to pay a fine for not being able to pay the toll.

It seems that this service is suppose to be easy, from my experience of using it, it is anything but.

I am writing this strongly worded email to you so that I may voice my concerns and opinions of this so called value for service.

Regards,
Nils

I know this is not going to do anything about eflow and the crap over priced service that we (tax payers) have already paid for!
ARGH!!!!!!!

Posted in Personal, rant | Tagged | 2 Comments

Linux user groups

Posted on 6/9/2009 by nils

I was once active in a Linux group in Ireland, I tried to turn up to as many events as I could. But I have am not active in the Irish Linux user group for many years now, I suppose my frustration set in, in the fact that I was not based in Dublin. Promoting Linux became just too hard, maybe it was the way in which i tried to promote it, who knows ?

I look at the Ilug website every so often and I see the mailing list is getting less and less active all the time, why is this ?

Are people moving more towards IRC, instant messaging, has skype etc. taken over the role of having discussions online ?

I can take some responsibility, I suppose in the downfall of the Irish Linux user group. I don’t mean that in a bad way, myself as a loose member, never contributed an article, I did get involve in discussions every once in a while I was active in going to events. I found I gave up asking question on the mailing list, I just instead did all the research myself even though it took longer, in the long run it was better for my self-esteem doing it that way!. I think, correct me if I’m wrong, the I idea of a local lug for me anyway, would be learning and gaining knowledge from your peers. Why “reinvent the wheel” every time something needed to be learned. To be honest we would not have got passed the stone age then!

I think for new users of Linux having a good place to ask the “stupid questions” and get “good” answers is what a LUG is all about, when it ceases to a nice place, then new users turn away from trying to access this information, it almost becomes elite to be a member.

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Eflow

Posted on 3/11/2009 by nils

I gave a friend a lift to look at a new car recently, and I had to use the M50 toll road. Known that we where going to get changed 6 Euro for the journey my friend offered to pay the toll when we got back to Kilkenny.

We went on a Saturday, he but did not get a chance to pay the toll until Monday morning, the toll was paid and I forgot all about it. Then about a week later a letter came in the post from Eflow stating that I “unpaid toll”, thinking that it was already paid I ignored the letter(I should have checked). Then 2 weeks passed and I got another letter from Eflow saying that I have being fined €47.50…

I rang Eflow and it turns out that although the toll was paid, it was paid too late and the 1st letter was a fine notice of 6 Euro. So I rang the NRA (National Roads Authority) to complain against Eflow’s business practice that given people just until 8pm the next day to pay a fine was “a crazy business practice” and I argued my point for 15-20 Mins. Hey, I’m unemployed I have the time :)
In fairness he was nice on the phone and I sure was at the end of many phone calls like mine, He took my details and about a week later I got a phone call from Eflow, stating that they have accepted my argument(complaint) and the file is now close…

They never gave me a reason as to why they canceled the fine, I still think the policy of only giving people a day to pay the fine has to be against consumer rights in some way!

I think all the money put into Eflow could have being spend better and the toll road should be abolished, we pay enough in road tax already. If anything, given the current climate, they are more than likely to increase the toll charges.

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

IPv6 experiences

Posted on 2/23/2009 by nils

I have enabled and used ipv6 on a number of machines, I did have this website enabled at one stage but due to the ipv6 pop being down for several months now, I deleted the AAA record from my DNS . I have my account and all my ipv6 tunnels with SIXXS using Heanet and OCCAID Inc. I never had a problem with Heanet so far, but occaid reliability has left me wondering if ipv6 at its basic level (tunneling) is ever going to get better. I have had to apply for two tunnels so far as occaid first pop that I chose has being Offline now for 8+ months now and their second pop is off line for at least 4+months with no fix time allocated. I could switch ipv6 broker again :(

There is a big push in the networking community to get ipv6 up and running and to get as many users using ipv6 but what happens when a pop goes down and all the feed back that is given is: tunnel broker has been notified. Sorry for seem sarcastic but Wow that useful information, a fix date would be better! Also I have noted before, asking such question to sixxs support people get rude or not very informative replies.

I do know that sixxs are offering a free service and they do rely on the pop ISP to make the service avaialble, I suppose when you have to go through the process of applying for a new tunnel changing ipv6 DNS records, changing the tunnel information in /etc/network/interfaces. It can be a Inconvenience and frustrating experience.
I will as of today apply for my third tunnel through another broker in the US. Sigh!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 2 Comments

Christmas Blues!

Posted on 11/19/2008 by nils

It seems that the Christmas blues are around the corner, people spending more money than they have :( I would assume with the banks not giving cheap credit any more and it will become more and more difficult to spend over the Christmas period. I for one will not be buying any expensive presents, to be honest if I do, I will make sure that its a useful present or at least show that I have put some thought into it!

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Whaling

Posted on 10/14/2008 by nils

I’ve always had issues with whaling of any sort; NORWAY, JAPAN, ICELAND say they are doing it for scientific reasons, I say that’s bullshit! It’s a way around the Whaling ban!!
And everyone knows it! Anyway I recently read on the BBC news website that there was suppose to be an agreement supporting the statement that Whaling does not decreases fish stock…

Quote from BBC news site

“Japanese scientists have regularly argued that whales may be competing with humans for fish”

You know what the whales were here before us, and I think they have more of a right to eat fish than we do! And in any case it is because of us Humans that the fish are being over fished! So if anything we should stop fishing and leave the Whales alone.

NORWAY, JAPAN, ICELAND are until they stop whaling off my list of place to visit!

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Surfing Reports

Posted on 10/7/2008 by nils

Trying to pick a day when there are good waves, is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Thankfully there are some good websites to check and see what the local weather is like at the nearest surfing spot, which for me happens to be tramore, waterford.

Some site are:

http://www.windguru.com

http://www.magicseaweed.com

But I think for the best advice, it’s better to make friends with the local surf shop guru, ring ahead and ask the whats the story with surfing that day!

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Future proof Kilkenny

Posted on 10/5/2008 by nils

An organisation called Future Proof Kilkenny is holding a number of events from September to December.

It would be worth it for everyone of all ages to check out the events.There are kids and adult events,

from workshops to showing films on green and environmental issues.

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Galway Getaway

Posted on 9/9/2008 by nils

I was in Galway with a few friends… Well they were all girls :) which is fine by me.. We rang some Hostels around 7pm(not the best time to call), which were all booked out :( but we did manage to find accommodation for the night. Then hit the night clubs of Galway in a bit of a pub crawl….Sunday we did the sights of Galway, not much to see. And heading to the Coral beach, it wasn’t great as it was pretty windy and a tad cold, but its was a nice stop, Then we went of the visit some islands. Driving till we ran out of road….There is some spectacular views along the way.

Then we drove to Clifden to out next hostel, Nice place, Cooked dinner (1KG of pasta). drank some beer and went to a pub. Then back to our accommodation for the night.

Monday we went and did some stop around Connemara, and had a BBQ near Dan O’ Harra’s house, that was nice, but a little windy. Then on to the Connemara, National park, at this stage it was cold and windy and raining, we trekked to the Hill top(well half way), The wind and rain was too much, but the experience was GREAT!
The there was about 5 hours of driving ahead which I was not really looking forward too… we made it back, for me to tell the tail :)

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TEFL

Posted on 8/29/2008 by nils

I’m starting a course in TEFL( Teaching English as a foreign language).This will allow me to travel to a different country and work without all the hassle of trying to find a job in the IT area. For a long time I wanted to learn a foreign language, so I hope that this will allow me to achieve this goal!

I am doing the 100 hour course which involves a 20 hour weekend course, 40 hours on line, 20 hours cert in grammar, then 20 hours in 4 special certificates. I hope to complete this a soon as possible, then start looking for jobs.
My initial plan is only to spend about a year teaching English as a foreign language, I want to go to a mainland European city but I’m not sure which one yet!
Watch this space!

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All play no work

Posted on 7/29/2008 by nils

I’ve been unemployed now for 2 week! hooray!!! I really only just begun to look for further employment. I’m a little lazy, the weather has been so nice,But the party must end soon. :( I have made use of my free time, I went surfing for the last few weeks in Tramore, Waterford.

Surfing is good craic! and when there are good waves it’s “like” totally cool and great fun.
One or the nice thing about Kilkenny, is the Castle it has a really nice park. I think every city (medieval) should have something similar, its nice just to relax on the grass or read a book but also the good thing is I live about 2 minutes away from it.

Once again I have my driving Test :( Fingers Crossed I will pass it this time.

Posted in General | Leave a comment

3 broadband what a joke!

Posted on 6/28/2008 by nils

I recently needed to get broadband, so I went with 3 as the provider, 19.99 a month seemed reasonable.So far I’m unimpressed with the service, I’m in Kilkenny and according to the 3 website I am in good broadband coverage. I use linux on my laptop and configured it as per these instructions and i have it working as I’m typing this using it…

First impression was great, small modem and with some Velcro I could attach it to the back of my laptop screen(which would be cool). Using the service has been anything but cool in the 2 days I have used it I am not impressed. I get an average of 5-10KB/s, sometimes for the odd second or two I would get 40-50KB/s is this broadband ? I think I will just have to return it within the 14 days, I have already rang them in regards to this and I get some tech support person from India or what seems to be India, I’ve nothing against Indians but for its really hard to understand them and they just read from a script anyway, I told the guy I was using linux and fair enough there are few companies that support linux so I was not expecting any, but considering that I have the connection working, I just wanted to know why I have such a shite connection speed.I get a text book response, which is not helpful. I don’t even have a public IP address as I have a 10.x.x.x private IP address they must be using NAT or something similar, maybe 3 are trying to spare ipv4 address space.
That’s not my main problem! (I wouldn’t care if I have a good connection speed)

It seems that mobile 3G broadband is not ready for the masses, especially from 3 so if anyone reads this… Don’t buy into the bullshit or the service.

I’m going to see if I can get my money back next week. I wonder if clearwire is any good or the Broadband from O2, I wonder….


PING ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=268 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=182 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=5 ttl=53 time=171 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=6 ttl=53 time=182 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=7 ttl=53 time=172 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=8 ttl=53 time=193 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=9 ttl=53 time=123 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=10 ttl=53 time=433 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=11 ttl=53 time=142 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=13 ttl=53 time=159 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=14 ttl=53 time=267 ms
64 bytes from ftp.heanet.ie (193.1.193.64): icmp_seq=15 ttl=53 time=499 ms

--- ftp.heanet.ie ping statistics ---
15 packets transmitted, 12 received, 20% packet loss, time 14012ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 123.151/233.149/499.513/112.979 ms

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Lisbon Treaty.

Posted on 5/24/2008 by nils

Over the last few days as the time draws closer to the day when we have to vote on whether to accept the Lisbon treaty or reject it.The treaty consists of amendments to the treaty of Rome,Nice and the Maastricht treaty. To fully understand what the changes mean in the grander scope I have started to read the treaties.

I must say that i will never fully understand the text in the treaties, its written in a real business language that I would imagine few people understand or spend months trying to figure it out. From what I can gather, i.e reading the lisbon treaty, Instead of having a constuition (one treaty there will be 2 treaties and the charter of human rights. which will become law binding in each member country.

1. Treaty on the European union.
2. Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
3. Charter of fundamental rights

From what I can tell so far ( I have not read that many pages) is that its suppose to streamline the functioning of the EU and allows enlargment past the 27 countries already in the EU.
I have not got to the text which describes the roles or the European council, European Parliament, European Commission or the role of foreign policy etc.
Over the next few day I hope to be able to try and understand what new powers will be given to each group.

I think it’s better to at least try and get informed about the treaty as my first instinct is to vote no. If i don’t understand it its better to leave what is known in place.(IMHO)

So I hope that i will have the time to be able to read the text fully and be at least able to understand if in the greater scope it is either a good thing or a bad thing !

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It only took 8 years :(

Posted on 5/20/2008 by nils

See, I done proved it!

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Unemployment

Posted on 5/16/2008 by nils

Well, As of next months I’m going to be unemployed :( I’m not getting fired! but a due to a lack of cold hard cash within the company. Its a pain in the ass but I see its as a good thing, I’ve not been a happy camper here for a while but didn’t quite know what to do, so I stuck it out… I’m going to try and take my CCNA part 1 as soon as possible, within the next few weeks or the next available exam period, and hopefully part 2 soon after, I’m self studying for it and it is tough going to sit down and read/take notes etc. I’m doing about 1-2 chapters per night. so I should be through the 17 odd chapters quite fast(fingers crossed).

I’m going to use RouterSim to study the parts i need access to H/W. The $229 it costs seems like a reasonable price. Virtual Box comes in handy for running windows :)

Now to fix my CV up…

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Raku Pottery

Posted on 5/13/2008 by nils

Last weekend my sister, as part of her Art residency had to fire some “pinch pots” that were made by visitors. She spend all day out in a place called Thomastown at the Pottery Skills course Premises, Its run by a guy called Guss, who allows the used of the equipment free of charge.

About 15-20 people turned up to glaze their works of art. I never made a pinch pot put i did glaze one done by my sister :) I quite amazing the amount of work that goes into firing ceramics(pottery) The style of firing was called Raku which is quite impressive. Depending on the glaze chosen and the reaction to the sawdust it’s quite amazing the display of different colors that can be produced, alot of chemistry goes on.

In all about 8+ hours was spend preparing and firing the “pinch pots” and everyone that came out was impressed with the final result..
Can’t wait to do it again.

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